The quest for the best Texas Iced Tea

We all know the Lone Star State is famous for Texas tea, and I'm not talking about the stuff that comes out of the ground. I'm talking about sweet iced tea; the kind Texans enjoy on a hot afternoon.

I just have one problem with iced tea: I don't like it.

It's either too sweet, tastes like tea-flavored Kool-Aid, or it's so bitter, it leaves your tongue wrinkled. So when I heard that the Austin-based Sweet Leaf Tea Company not only had the best bottled sweet tea in the state, but it tasted like the kind Grandma used to make, I decided to check them out.

Now, I know that driving to Austin is a little crazy, but as your KHOU Girl About Town, I make it my mandate to try whatever Texas has to offer, and this week, it's the quest for great tasting sweet tea.

And believe me, the tea had better be good in order for me to like it.

DOES THE CUTE GRANDMA ON THE BOTTLE REALLY EXIST?
But before I get to my actual taste test, let me tell you that 'yes', the grandma you see on their logo really does exist. And Clayton Christopher (one of the two founders of the company) tells me she's still alive and completely "tickled" that he based the company on her sweet tea recipe.

"She's always coming up with crazy flavors like strawberry tea or pineapple tea," said Christopher. "I'm not saying we're going to make pineapple tea, but she is the company's inspiration."

It's also true that Christopher came up with the idea for the company when he was only 25 and living off a sailboat in the Florida Keys. And it's true that when he and his best-friend David Smith started making the tea back in 1998, they used to brew it in their kitchen in Beaumont, and filter it with pillow cases.

"We're still best friends," said Christopher. "People are always surprised that we haven't screwed that up by working together."

SO WHAT'S THEIR SECRET?
So these guys sound kind of cool, right? That's that I thought. And I think their coolness comes from the fact that they run their company like true Texans. The entire company, from Christopher and Smith, down to the large, fluffy dog that walks around the office, has that same friendly, maverick spirit I've come to recognize in the people I meet here in the Lone Star State. They also take pride in their work.

"We take work seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously," said Christopher. "We don't try to be anything that we aren't."

This basically sums up the company. Think about it....Sweet Leaf Tea goes out of their way to make tea that uses organic tea leaves from China and not powders, and they use real cane sugar instead of cheap sugar cane. Plus, they actually boil up the tea in filtered water for five minutes just like you would in your kitchen. I mean, there is some serious tea making going on in their facilities, yet when you think of them, it's the smiling grandma comes to mind.

I haven't met the actual Sweet Tea grandma, but I love her. How can you not? Check out her outfits on the bottles. She changes the color of her dresses based on the flavors, and on the diet one, she's wearing a little headband.

"Yeah, we thought it would be fun to put her in a workout outfit," said Christopher.

IS THE GIRL ABOUT TOWN NOW A TEA DRINKER?
Okay, so the grandma has style, but can she convert the KHOU Girl About Town into an iced tea drinker? It was time to put the tea to the test.

Sweet Leaf Tea has 11 flavors of tea and 3 lemonades, but for my taste test, I wanted the "real" thing; the flavor that Christopher craved that day when sitting on his boat in the Keys. So I choose the original sweet tea.

I twisted open the bottle and...let me just tell you, it's a little stressful drinking tea when the owner of the company is watching for your reaction...then I took my first sip, all the while preparing for the worst.

Surprisingly, it wasn't bad. So I took another sip and let my taste buds relax. The tea was actually good. It was sweet, but not too sweet (Christopher told me later that their tea actually has 25% less sugar than most bottled iced teas). It was smooth, not bitter. And it didn't leave that weird coating in your month that you get when drinking some iced teas.

In the car, I opened another bottle. This time I tried their new Mango Green Tea flavor. It was good too, and with only 60 calories a serving, I think I may be taking up the Texan tradition of drinking sweet tea in the afternoons.

And the good news is I won't have to go to Austin to get it. You can find the tea in Whole Foods, Kroger, HEB and other places right here in Houston. Bonus!

JUST ONE MORE THING
By the way...in addition to finding the best bottled sweet tea in Texas, I also learned I've been saying it wrong for years. Instead of calling it "iced" tea, I've been saying" ice" tea, which I think is rapper. Figures.