About that tea-and-Sprite trend …

Longtime readers will recall that one of our longtime mottoes here at Tea With Friends is this: "We try all those dorky teas so you don't have to!" And this may be the dorkiest one yet, but as soon as I read about the global trend of steeping Lipton tea bags in bottles of cold Sprite, I knew I had to try it. It didn't sound like it would be good, mind you, but it didn't sound particularly disgusting either. Just weird.

My first challenge was figuring out how to open the box of Lipton tea bags, which, coincidentally, I had just bought for my husband, who sometimes likes a plain black no-frills decaf tea at bedtime. I didn't realize these "everyday" tea bags are all lined up in a row in a box in a foil pouch in another box. I was exhausted by the time I got the thing opened. So then I did as I'd read one is supposed to do and added two plain black tea bags to the bottle of Sprite (pouring out a little of the Sprite so it has room to fizz), turned it upside down in the fridge (I sat mine in a Tervis tumbler), and let it steep. They say 10-20 minutes is sufficient, but I was between tasks and let mine steep a little longer. 

Then the moment of truth arrived. What would it taste like? Tentatively, I took a sip and discovered that it tastes like … Sprite. I detected only a very, very faint bit of tea flavor, but if you handed me this beverage alongside regular Sprite and blindfolded me for a taste test, I'm not at all sure I could tell the difference. So there you go. I've read that people are cold-steeping all kinds of teas in Sprite now, but I rarely drink soft drinks anymore and have had my fun with this new trend, and that, my friends, is that. (Feel free not to try this at home!)