A tea mix sweetened with Stevia

For someone who doesn't usually sweeten her tea, I am awfully curious about any new form of tea sweetener I see out there. The other day at Walmart, I saw this new Wyler's iced tea mix sweetened with Stevia and had to give it a try.

"Natural tea flavor with other natural flavors," it says. Okay.

Now I am, as I have said before, not afraid to try lowbrow tea mixes and can happily sip a fresh cup of Darjeeling and, in the very same week, a powdered iced tea mix from the dollar store. (In my defense, I do *enjoy* the Darjeeling more, so there's that.) But may I just say I'm not sold on this tea? Here is what this tasted like: You know how you're at the family reunion, you're sipping sweet tea out of a big ol' red plastic Solo cup, and about the time you take that last bite of banana pudding, you've got about a half inch of watery tea left in the cup? It's not bad, and you drink it, but it's certainly not the vibrant cup of tea you started out with. That's what this tasted like. I did detect a tiny bit of "natural" sweetness, and it wasn't necessarily bad tea, just weak-tasting tea. I saw on the package that if I want a stronger tasting tea, I should use a 16.9-ounce bottle of water instead of a 20-ounce one next time. I'll give it a try when I'm on a road trip soon, and  and this can be my "travel tea."

And since we're kind of slumming it today here on the tea blog, it seems an appropriate time to share a photo of what my husband eagerly called his snack of "tea sandwiches" yesterday: saltines, peanut butter, and fall-colored M&Ms. (If any of you need his recipe, by all means, let me know…) Clearly, I have more work to do in the area of cultivating his tea-sandwich-preparation skills!