Best Sweet Tea Around?

April and I were just talking about sweet tea at lunch today... and since it has been a topic around the office as well... I just thought that I would go ahead and blog about it.

I had a meeting the other day at Wall House cafe (In Sugarcreek). If you haven't been yet... go tomorrow for lunch. Seriously! Great food... great atmosphere... great people... they've got whole package.

Well... they had just introduced their new sweet tea... and I mentioned to the owner that I happened to be a "sweet tea connoisseur" and that opened up a whole big conversation about "really great sweet tea". They let me taste their new sweet tea... and then they asked me what I thought of it. I told them that it was a really good "northern sweet tea" (Evidently that was not the answer that they were looking for). You see... they were going for a true SOUTHERN sweet tea taste. Well... I am a southern boy... and trust me... I know my sweet tea. This was no southern sweet tea. I told them that if they wanted to know what real southern sweet tea tasted like... they could either go next door... to McDonald's... OR... for the very best sweet tea in the world they had to go to Chick-fil-A (Once again... not the answer that they were looking for). Apparently... they had already done the comparison with McDonald's tea... and thought that theirs was comparable.

NOPE... not even close.

They asked me what their tea needed.
I told them that it needed to be sweeter.
They said that "not everyone likes their tea that sweet".
I told them that if they were going for southern sweet tea... it was a miss. If they were making a "satisfy everybody" sweet tea (on the other hand)... they didn't need to change a thing. It was a great sweet tea... just the way it was.

Well... I had to get back to the office. So that was the end of our conversation.

Later that same day... Kevin West came back to the church from a lunch meeting at Wall House. He said that they were still talking about our morning sweet tea conversation. In the meantime... someone from Wall House had made a trip all the way to Canton (40 minutes away) just to buy a Chick-fil-A sweet tea (Is that wild or what???). So while Kevin was there for lunch... they told him about the bald NewPointe staff guy who was in earlier critiquing their sweet tea. This time... they had Kevin "taste test" their new sweet tea... against Chick-fil-A's tea.

Kevin picked the Chick-fil-A tea without hesitation. There was no comparison. He agreed that theirs needed to be... sweeter.

Well... I was back at Wall house yesterday morning with John Bunn for our weekly creative brainstorm meeting... and while I was there...I bought a large glass of their sweet tea. It was much sweeter than before. It was actually one of the best glasses of sweet tea that I have had. It still wasn't the best I've ever had... but it did make my top 5 list.

OK... so here are my top 5 picks:

#5 - Fazoli's (If you can still find the sweet tea. Not every store has it anymore. Great tea though!)
#4 - Wall House (Now serving a mighty fine glass of sweet tea)
#3 - My Wife's Sweet Tea (The girl can "bring it"... when it comes to real southern tea)
#2 - McDonalds (Believe it or not... they've got it goin' on! A big 'ol cup for a buck too!)
#1 - Chick-fil-A (will forever remain... the best sweet tea on the planet!)

Honorable mentions: Famous Dave's and Ci Ci's Pizza.

So there you go... since I know that you were wondering.

Later!