With the Los Angeles summer heat taking over, what better way to stay refreshed and energized throughout the workday than with freshly brewed, homemade iced tea? Bring on the 2016 Summer Iced Tea Competition (and some awesome team building opportunities)…Cheers!

As with our Salsa Competition, the rules are loose, allowing for us to be creative in what we make. We have a diverse group at The Creative Pack – from Great Britain to Brazil, our pack members are from all over the globe. This inspired a variety of surpisingly delicious iced teas, and in turn delighted our taste buds. The downside? It made the judging process a lot more complicated. Ugh!

Let’s meet the Competitors:

Paola – A traditional Japanese Barley Iced Tea

Emma – A tropical Peach Iced Tea

Heather – A Mint Green Iced Tea

Fern – A Hibiscus Mint Iced Tea

Danielle – A traditional Peach Iced Tea

Corey – A Vegan Chocolate Thai Iced Tea

In a blind tasting, we sipped everyone’s iced tea one at a time. With each refreshing sip, we all became more and more excited! All of the iced teas were tasty in their individual way – natural, sweet, refreshing, even creamy. We are a competitive crew, with high standards for everything we do – even iced tea making!

Needless to say, when it came time to pick our favorite, it was sort of impossible to agree with each other let alone ourselves. Not one of us could pick just one to say was the “best” because we liked everyone’s iced teas for different reasons. Who knew The Creative Pack had so many beverage connoisseurs!?!

The iced teas we agreed were the standouts are Corey’s Thai Iced Tea (#6) because of its creamy, Horchata-like flavor, Heather’s Mint Green Iced Tea (#3) for it’s super refreshing taste experience, and my own Tropical Peach Iced Tea (#1) for it’s sweet and fruity flavor.

Whose tea sounds the best to you? Let us know. Iced tea recipes available upon request!