Snapple, Made from the Best Stuff on ... WHAAAAT??!

When you're in New York, you notice many things.  One of the things you notice most is that Snapple is everywhere.  Every store, deli, lunch counter, Snapple is the iced tea of choice.  As a tea drinker, this presents a problem, because Snapple is crap.  It claims to be made from "the best stuff on Earth".  This, as they say, is a lie.

Let's take a look at the ingredients listed on the most common Snapple beverage, Iced Tea with Lemon:

Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Tea, Natural Flavors

Alright, water is a good ingredient.  I'll give you that one, Snapple.  But, high fructose corn syrup?  Please.  That's the main flavor in Snapple- cheap sugar.  Call me crazy, but I'd like the main flavor in my ice tea to be tea.  But tea is listed second to last, meaning, there's not a lot of tea in Snapple.  There's more sugar than tea in my iced tea. There's more citric acid than tea!  

Citric acid is added to make Iced Tea with Lemon seem...lemony.  Why did they do that?  Well, the did that because there is no lemon in the iced tea with LEMON!  Oh boy.  Doesn't seem "best" to me.  The "lemon" comes from citric acid and natural flavors.  I don't have a problem with that, per se, but, come on, when rating best stuffs, I'd say actual lemon ranks above chemicals made to seem like lemon.

Sadly, most of Snapple's beverages are no better.  Various tea and fruit drinks are made of mostly sugar water and flavors, with a teensy bit of tea thrown in to make you feel good.  There are a few rare exceptions- the "classic" line, with 3 varieties, are decent.  Still too much sugar for me, but only by a wee bit, and the sugar is actually sugar, not HFCS.  

Maybe Snapple should change the motto to : "Snapple, Made from a Bunch of Crap and a Little Bit of (Probably Not Very High Quality) Tea".  Just a suggestion.