Review: Twisted Tea Half & Half

I joked to myself a few years ago that I should write a review of Twisted Tea because whenever I go to a social, wedding or just a place that a tub of beer, it's guaranteed it'll be exclusively Labatt products.. I don't know how but it just is. I always end up with a bottle or can of Twisted Tea in my hand because almost all of these events seem to have Twisted Tea available as well, so I'd rather drink something sugary than a Bud Light any day. So since I seem to be sampling Twisted Tea a lot over the years, I'll check out their Half & Half (iced tea with lemonade flavour) as I tend to usually only get their classic variety.

In Canada there's two kinds of Twisted Tea now, the classic malt-based Twisted Tea that we all knew since way back when, and Twisted Tea made with vodka. The changes only happened in the last year or so but the taste is noticeable - in bottles you still get the malt-based version while in cans it's the vodka version. I very much prefer the malt-based version as the burn of vodka is very noticeable.

Appearance: Looks like any high end iced tea I've gotten at the grocery store, maybe Black tea? Has a hint of film on top, so yeah, looks like iced tea. No noticeable carbonation in the body.

Aroma: Very sugary with a heavy tea profile (thinking Black again), lots of lemon notes to it and a very noticeable malt profile to it - fairly grainy with a toastiness to it. To most people, you likely wouldn't be able to differentiate this from the vodka version, so far.

Taste: Quite a sweet iced tea with a hefty amount of sugar to it, a noticeable amount of lemon, lots of tea and a bit of a graininess at the end. I can't really describe the malt except for having a toasted malt vibe to it, so if I were drinking the vodka version.. I'd notice the vodka immediately as both the malt and vodka are fairly sharp to me, but surprisingly not to lots.

Overall Thoughts: Needs more lemonade to it but solid alcoholic malt-based cooler nonetheless. I noticed that they're coming out with a 5L bag in a box of their regular Twisted Tea. If I was on vacation and didn't need to lose weight, I'd have one in a bucket of ice to enjoy on a beach somewheres warm.. but I'm stuck in cold ol' Manitoba for the rest of my life.