Heyhey, it’s #TicTacTuesday!! The 154th variety added to the collection: Estathé Limone. I just got this beautiful pack in from Italy and couldn’t wait to dig in.
For those of us in the US who aren’t familiar with Estathé, it’s a brand of iced tea sold in Italy and happens to be a fellow subsidiary of Tic Tac under Ferrero. Interestingly, it’s the third largest Ferrero brand, after Nutella and Kinder. Bringing these two popular brands together seems like an instant win to me.
Estathé Limone is a ready-to-drink iced tea and lemon juice beverage, and feels to me to be very similar to what we call an “Arnold Palmer” here in the US, but not a 50/50 a mix as the Arnold Palmer has.
The label is bright, featuring the same logo as seen on the Estathé bottles, with a simplified depiction of a red & blue awning, often seen on cafes, beach kiosks, and summer pop-up stands.
So how does it taste? I really love these little delights. I’ve been a huge fan of iced tea/lemon/Arnold Palmers for a very long time and these candies truly are a wonderful re-creation of that taste. When you first pop them into your mouth, they don’t taste like much, then lemon starts to come through, then you start to get a bit of the bitterness and astringency from the tea. If you bite into them, it releases the tea flavor further, but it’s not overpowering and the lemon still doesn’t dominate.
The aftertaste lingers but is pleasant and doesn’t really change from the main flavor. They’re refreshing, bright, and not overly sweet. It’s pretty easy to forget these are candies, as the sweetness is so balanced with the other flavors.
I’m happy to see there are no artificial sweeteners or colors in this pack. They use curcumin and beta carotene for color and some lemon juice concentrate for flavoring. The tea flavor isn’t listed in the ingredients but I assume it’s what they mean when it says “aromi” (flavorings).
Since the US market isn’t familiar with the Estathé brand, I’m not sure how popular these would be here, but I do wish I could get them year-round since they’re just so tasty.
Rating: 5/5
