.jpg)
I think I've had some Jack Daniels-infused beverages before, and I have certainly had Jack Daniels before, but this is the first I saw of their foray into hard tea. I'm not sure if this is really going to be their bailiwick, but I thought it would be Lipton, and we all saw how that worked out. Well, even if you're starting with a generic kind of tea from a restaurant, I think the proper balance of a heavy alcohol beverage like whiskey is where the magic is going to lie.
Well, there's no carbonation. That is step one of making a good hard iced tea. It's a shame that not adding a thing that shouldn't be in tea is the low bar at this point, but this is what we're dealing with. It pours the color of dark tea. I'm not sure why all of these iced teas have such a dark color, but I suspect it's to cover up the taste of the alcohol. After all, tea is a quite enjoyable flavor, but it's not a particularly overpowering one. Jack Daniels, as a whiskey, it's fairly overpowering in itself. I suppose that's why this is only 5% ABV, much like almost all of the other hard ice teas that I've had.
First sip seems like it's going to be good at first, but then it becomes a little tart as the whiskey shines through. So, the beginning is pretty good, although not great, and then the end is a little off-putting. I'm not sure I know where to go with this from here, other than a full swing. The sip has not been great, but the fact is that more sipping might make it seem considerably better. Nevertheless, I have a process, and I'm going to follow it.
Tip-in is pretty solid tea. It's a little sweeter than I would like, but it's not over the top like many of the others. The tea is very forward, and any alcohol underneath is overshadowed fairly easily. The middle starts to ease the idea of whiskey in it, but it is very understated, and the tea handles it nicely to make this a very refreshing beverage on a particularly warm day. The finish is where that strange wood from the whiskey flavor seems incongruent with the tea leaves, but it's just for a bit, and then it leaves tea alone for the trail off.
Bottom Line: Not a terrible tea, but it could be more refined.
2.75/5
