For anybody that hasn’t stopped by the rest of the blog before or recently, I came back to the UK after spending nearly five years in the US not too long ago.

There isn’t a huge amount of food or drink that I will miss (apart from Sour Patch Kids for sure because the EU makes them too lacking in badness to pack the essential punch) but I seen a variety of Arizona bottles in my local Lidl this weekend and was lured like a moth to the light to grab one. I had Arizona in the UK before I went to the US; In fact back when I was 19/20 I would go out of my way to visit a store that had the Green Tea with Honey one imported because the EU one just was a bit meh by comparison and I remember trying a can of a grape flavour one (I still wonder if this is why I mildly detest grape flavoured things).

In the US an Arizona that is a half and half of tea and lemonade is more commonly labelled as an Arnold Palmer (yes because of the golfer) but in the EU it is just outright a half and half. Makes sense given people in the EU are of course into golf but Palmer isn’t quite a household name in the same way. Ask most people in the EU, that aren’t into golf, to name a golfer and they will probably be able to fumble out Tiger Woods or one specific to their own country. But is that where the difference ends? Of course not.

The US one is *drumroll* more sweet. Even the Lite version. What is going on there Arizona? Okay, whether it is actually sweeter might not be quite such an accurate debate. It is more that it feels like a different kind of lemonade. If you have ever experienced US vs UK vs EU lemonade you will know exactly what I mean here and as a result this Arizona feels more… wet. It feels less sugar syrup and more like an actual fluid or regular drink entering your body. It feels like flavoured water instead of goop and it doesn’t leave that sort of film feeling on the teeth or tongue. But it also feels like it has less… tea-ness to it. Overall it is just more subtle which is something that I really enjoy because when I consume a beverage I usually want a thirst quencher not to just throw flavour and energy and calories into my body when I could do that in other much more nutritional and healthy ways!

Most Americans would raise an eyebrow if they tried this when they are so accustomed to their own version but if you haven’t had that version and want an on the go mixed up medley of tea and lemonade then these ones are good (and cheaper than a bottle of most other branded beverages because the price of the not imported Arizona’s works out at a similar price point to the US ones).

Kind of wish I had picked up more than one because who knows if they will have them in there again the next time I stop by and if we think I am going down there to get a bundle to walk up the hill with a bunch of bottles you are very mistaken. It is good but it isn’t that good.