Hemp Iced Tea Energy Drink now legal the US

This fantastic tea is a rare but amazing find here in the US. Not because it is illegal in this country, but a horrible package which completely ruins the ability to sell this drink.  Like Cocaine and Blow, this drink is a hard one to market - and all could be fixed just by designing a new can.  Hemp is used everywhere and can be found in everything from your natural foods market to your favorite clothing store.  This drink should have a mass appeal, but the big pot leaf on the front makes this a super-hard sell for a European country.  And that is a real shame, as this is one of the best Iced Tea drinks I have had in a long while! Reardless if you are a recreational pot smoker or a conservative republican politician, this drink has amazing health benifits, amazing taste and is completely legal.

The product was launched in Switzerland in 2003 and is already available in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.. This energy tea is sold under the label "C-Ice Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea. the beverage contains five percent of hemp flower syrup and a tiny (0.0015 percent) quantity of THC, the active ingredient of marijuana. This means, boys and girls, that you would need to consume a case or more to feel anything - and while It is super easy to down one of these small cans, 24 of them might present a challenge.  I heard a rumor that a palette of these is sitting in New York customs for some lucky distributor to just pick up if they can pay the import fee. 

If you ever find these around you, buy all that you can (and send one to me for telling you about them). It looks like they are pushing for a launch with someone, as their website is looking 75% done with a coming soon badge on it.   For now, I wanted to give a big thanks to Drake at beverage boutique for turning me on to these little Swiss treats.

Taste:10
This tea is a blend of black and green tea with hemp seed extract syrup mixed in. Now I am not really familiar with hemp Iced Teas, but I really wish I had before. This has got to be one of the best iced teas I have had. This stuff is far more tasty than anything by Xing or Arizona, and sould even give Who's Your Daddy a real run for it's money. It tastes very rich and complex, very earthy but not at all sour or chalky. I completely expected a novelty product, something with a slight twinge of marajuana flavor to it, but this has the real deal and lots of it. Like mixing french fries and ice cream, this is one combination which sounds like a disaster on paper, but is a stroke of genuis on the tongue. My only problem with this drink is that I drank my small can up and don't know where to turn for more.... I know I can get a case of it here, but 45$ seems a little steep - and a 24 case seems a bit overmuch...

Nutrition/Buzz:9
There is nothing here that you would not want in your body. Everything is natural and delicious, and the caffeine rush from the black tea is strong and natural. This is non-carbonated, using hemp bloom syrup (5 %), plain old sugar, lemon juice, black tea extract and hemp bloom extract (0.0015 %)". And the little tiny thc extract goes a long long way. This really has the flavor of pot - but completely adds to the flavor of the tea. Everything in this tastes natural, delicious and unique. In terms of energy, I would expect about 80-100mg in the small can - about as much as you would find in 8oz of strong black tea.  There is 90 calories in here - from plain sugar.  Dont let the package fool you, the liquid inside is not one to pass up.

Packaging:2

This is the big letdown. There are sooo many things wrong with this can. First, the can is way too tiny. I could have finished 3 of these little 8oz cans in one sitting! Maybe it is the American in me but Oversize this puppy! I like my teas too big to hold easily, like Arizona's - or at least in the slightly larger 16oz glass Honest-tea sized containers.  The flavor is way too good not to have it in something bigger than this.

Also, lose the goofy pot plant in a cube of ice thing on the front. This drink tastes way too good for being a novelty. You can't market drinks with pot leaves in many places - as liquore stores wont carry it and headshops are forbidden to sell them. With such a fantastic product such as this - don't shoot yourself in the foot by losing diestribution because you look bad.  Cocaine could get away with it because they are located here in the US, so it is much easier to get a foothold.  I pity the poor distributor stuck with this unsellable drink.  For the average sonsumer to try this would take a real laep of faith to be rewarded.

While C-swiss is bering built for us english speakers, the site is alive and well for the swiss variety at http://www.c-ice.com/de.