The Spiked Iced Tea Brand That You Should Avoid At All Costs

Iced tea is a refreshing drink that plays a major role in American culture, with countless brands lining the refrigerated drink section of your local grocery store, not to mention the plethora of iced tea drinks at Starbucks. Iced tea comes in many flavors, encompassing fruity, herbal, and even savory profiles that make it an ideal mixer. To that effect, alcoholic beverage companies and even classic iced tea producers now offer a line of spiked iced teas. We sampled 13 spiked tea brands to find the best options based on flavor and smooth sipping. While we found many tasty, sippable brands, the spiked iced tea brand that you should avoid at all costs is VooDoo Ranger Hardcharged tea.

VooDoo Ranger is a subdivision of New Belgium Brewing known for cranking out critically-acclaimed high ABV IPAs. Unfortunately, their spiked iced tea did not live up to their tasty legacy of beers. Spiked tea should, in our opinion, taste like tea above anything else. But VooDoo Ranger's Lemon Hardcharged iced tea might as well have been a spiked lemonade. Not only was the lemon flavor overwhelming, but it didn't taste like the citrus fruit at all. We wanted a smooth sip of iced tea with a bright citrus finish, but instead, our taste buds were assaulted with the taste of artificial lemon candy. The sweet, super fake lemon flavor lingered on our tongues, making it hard to take a second sip.

Fans of Voodoo Ranger were excited to taste the newest line of Hardcharged tea, but reviews have expressed disappointment. A YouTube review of every flavor of VooDoo Ranger's hard iced teas echoed our sentiments in terms of a lack of tea flavor; the customers were underwhelmed by the lemon flavor, overall, and said that the tea was essentially imperceptible. Reviews on Total Wine and Kroger likewise said that the tea flavor was absent, but also said that the artificial flavor was unpleasant and medicine-like. Another review on YouTube said that neither the lemon nor the sweetness was there, and even the tea flavor was offset by a malty bitterness.

The alcoholic component in VooDoo Ranger is malt liquor, so it's similar to a hard seltzer. Our favorite spiked tea that doubles as a seltzer is Twisted Tea, a brand that we also raved about in our ranking of hard seltzers. If you're looking for another booze-infused tea, Arizona spikes their hard tea with vodka while still staying true to the beloved taste of their many conventional tea flavors.