Before I say anymore about Tejava, let me preface by saying, I have never received any money or free products from this company (I would be open to it though). Update: I recently received ten 1$ off coupons when I sent Tejava an email inquiring about the antioxidant content of their tea. Click here for email. It should make sense why I needed to disclose that after you read my full review.  For starters Tejava is the only bottled tea I found worthy of its very own page to review.

For about a two year period, Tejava was my daily iced tea. I have always found the taste really good, but at that time it was the most convenient, cheapest and best tasting way to get my daily iced tea fix.

Now I will always choose a fresh brewed iced tea over a bottled one, but Tejava is the only bottled tea that even comes close to competing with a good fresh brewed tea. It by far has most “fresh brewed taste” of any bottled tea I have come across, and also doesn’t have the acidic taste that many other bottled iced teas seem to have.  The reason for this is because, unlike other bottled teas, Tejava doesn’t have any added preservatives to taint it’s flavor.  Like most bottled iced teas it is very consistent in flavor from one bottle to the next.  Even after opening, Tejava keeps its taste for many days if left at room temperature (however it does say to refrigerate after opening).  Many other bottled iced teas I have found start to get overly bitter if left out for even a short amount of time.

I did reach out to Tejava’s customer service asking a few questions one of which was if there was a way to tell when a bottle of Tejava was brewed or bottled. I found their response useful and interesting (I have adjusted the numbers in the example to fit my picture):

“Every bottle of Tejava Premium Iced Tea always includes a date code which indicates the date and time the Tea was bottled. The production code is located on the label above the ingredients and sometimes stamped on the neck of the bottle itself. For example, our code:

5BT 295 0822

 indicates that the bottle was filled on October 22nd, 2015 at 8:22 am. The first number represents the year – 2015. All bottling in 2016 will start with a 6 (2014= 4). The second set of numbers represents a Julian calendar date, which is the 295th day of the year – October 22nd. A letter and number represent the batch and the last set of numbers represents the time of production using a 24 hour clock – 8:22 am.

We believe that our Tejava Premium Iced Tea tastes best within two years of bottling. Therefore, Tejava bottled on October 22nd, 2015, would not “expire” until October 22nd, in the year 2017.”

As far as the ingredients in Tejava. I am not an overly obsessive person when it comes to ingredients, but having said that, if I am going to be drinking something ever single day, I want to feel good about the ingredients. The ingredients in Tejava are about as simple as you can get: tea leafs and water, which makes me feel pretty comfortable.

In the same email mentioned before I also asked how Tejava got away without using any preservatives like so many other bottled teas. Here was their response to that:

“I would like to assure you that our Tejava® Premium Iced Tea is fully pasteurized under very carefully controlled conditions at our bottling facility. We do not use preservatives. Our facility is in fact a licensed cannery and each batch of Tejava that we bottle is examined by an inspector from the State of California Department of Health Services, Food and Drug Branch. This inspection is performed to ensure that the pasteurization process operates under optimal conditions, and it is the same type of inspection performed at other food processing plants that prepare canned vegetables, canned meats and other food items.”

Where to buy:

Now I have spent a good amount of time looking into the best place to buy Tejava.  As far as online options, there are not many good ones.  You can buy it on Amazon, but you are going to pay considerably more than you would at even an expensive grocery store.

The place where I buy Tejava most often is probably Trader Joe’s. In my area they have the lowest non-sale price that I have found, at $1.49 a liter bottle.  Target isn’t a bad option either at $1.69 per bottle.

The normal grocery stores (Safeway, Savemart or Vons) in my area don’t have as low of an everyday price as the stores I mentioned above, but the sale prices tend to be pretty good.  The normal sale price in these stores is 4 bottles for $5 ($1.25 for those of you that are bad at math). When I come across these sales I tend to buy 4 to 8 bottles. They also usually give you a handy 4 bottle cloth carrier for free (everybody likes free stuff no matter how small, right?)  But on occasion, these stores do have sales of 10 bottles for $10.  When I come across these sales I usually load up and get 1 to 2 cases of 12 bottles.  This is pretty nice because the cardboard case keeps the bottles upright wherever you happen to be storing them. In a car trunk or back seat it will also keep the bottles from constantly rolling around.

Awards:

Tejava won first place at the North American Tea Championship from 2011-2014, which goes to show I am not the only one to think this tea is great.