Austin, TX Sweet Tea

Firehouse Subs

2008-02-12T13:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry party people, it's been awhile since I've found a new place that serves sweet tea here in Austin. So yesterday, my friend Billy took me to this place called Firehouse Subs. Tea was the absolute bomb! Just the perfect balance of sugar and tea and good clean water. Very impressive! The food there is awesome, but I didn't realize that all the subs are hot.
I found it funny that all the sub places in town have see through glass so you can see what the worker bees are doing. Not here Jack. Their secretive work is protected by the Berlin wall accompanied by a huge fire axe. It is handy at all moments for them use at will if you attempt to see them creating your sandwich. All and in all, it's a great place and it's next to Sportsman's Warehouse in case you need any chainsaw bears, fishing poles or firearms!

Whataburger

2008-01-05T16:39:00.000-06:00

Hmm, fast food sweet tea... It's a bit hard to describe fast food attempts at the art of sweet tea making. Aftertaste. That's it, the aftertaste. I've waited a while to write my review on Whataburger (pronounced water burger for you yanks) but I have waited long enough. No good tea here my friends, it's best to skip it all together or you will be pouring it down the fountain machine drain and rinsing your cup with the free water and starting over. I assume all the fast food places use the same exact method of brewing their tea and end up tasting like Pal Molive mixed with week old tea. My hat goes off to Chick Fila for making some great nectar in a fast food environment but can't say the same for Whataburger.

For a good food review of Whataburger and how to pronounce it in Texas, check out Walking Tall's entry.

Mighty Fine

2007-12-07T12:33:00.000-06:00

Why am I so excited? Because Mighty Fine is here! What's the big dealio Coolio? We have another sweet tea place in town, that's why! Not only that but it's the same sweet tea recipe as Rudy's BBQ. The same people who run Rudy's started this place and most of the employees from Rudy's now work here. If you are fan of the Rudy's BBQ tea, but are in the mood for a burger, then you have come to right place. Oh, I almost forgot, they have the Hand Sanitizer 3000 there! It's a newer model then the 2000 series at Rudy's. Also, they have the ice maker 5000 series which allows you choose between chipped or cube ice!

The place is also used for police line-ups after hours since it houses a huge mirror that you can see through from the other side. The owners just ask the cops to move the tables back after they are done identifying their suspects. I wonder if the suspects get a gift certificate for a free shake afterwards?
Chipped ice, hand sanitizer, thick burger, sweet tea, and a police branch office, a win win situation!

Texas Roadhouse

2007-11-13T19:30:00.000-06:00

My words can't express the sweet tea goodness that comes out of this place! I've been eating at the Texas Roadhizzle for about a year now and the tea is so good, Melissa calls it nectar. During the year of ordering the drink of drinks, I noticed there is a slight consistency issue. For example, sometimes it is slightly watered down, then other times like tonight, the tea is right on the money. So far, I'm rating this numero uno. Good color, great taste, and plenty of sugar! This is the closest thing to South Carolina sweet tea I have encountered in Austin yet.

If you have never been to one of Willie Nelson's promoted roadhouses (He is not the owner, but their official spokesman) before, they are super cool. You get a bucket of peanuts and you are encouraged to throw the shells on the floor. The atmosphere is anything but quite, which is kind of nice for change since all other places in Austin are anything but exciting. I especially love the place because they root for Dale Earnhardt Jr. there. Don't worry, if you are a Gordon fan they support you as well, but if you say anything negative about Earnhardt, your drink size is reduced to a small plastic cup and your free bucket of peanuts and fresh baked rolls are quickly removed from the table.

Rudy's

2007-11-08T13:47:00.000-06:00

Billy's Blog says it all today! Nothing new to report except the Hand Sanitizer 2000... This contraption traveled from the future!

Chick-fil-A (Braker location)

2007-11-06T14:02:00.000-06:00

I have to crack up when I report on Chick-fil-A because it gives me an excuse to draw up a funny diagram. Well the last one was done on where to stand to get a free refill but today's is a
Google Map of the place. Yes, the sweet tea still rules the mother land like Stallin ruled Russia.

The service today was out of the park. A lady came by and offered to give us free refills without standing in the secret location. That was a relief! She even took our trash away so leaving was 100% trouble free, that is until Mark and I got to the parking lot...

This location is right off 183 and Braker and is housed under a high voltage power tower. This will be last place you will see me in a Texas thunderstorm. It seems a bit out of place, and the parking lot seems a bit sci-fi to me with all the power shizzle going on. The parking lot is similar to leaving a NASCAR event, as in you aren't leaving in a hurry! There is even parking staff there and they will take your order and call it in over a cell phone. Hope this helps navigate you.

Culver's

2007-11-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

I love this place for the same reason I liked it when it first opened, the customer service. The weekday manager there is really nice, same with the staff. If you just got your leg bit by an alligator, come here after your hospital visit and you won't be disappointed. Oh yeah, they have awesome frozen custard and all kinds of sugary goodies!

Sweet tea comes in Med and Large. They have unsweet and sweet on opposite sides of the ice machine, so if you go to the wrong side, don't think they don't have it. The blend is good, also good color. The taste is close to the top dogs. I love the tea here, and this place is a 2 minute drive from my office!

To get your leg out of an alligator's mouth, use the diagram show here.

Rudy's

2007-10-31T13:33:00.001-05:00

Happy halloween! Today's escape from work was extra cool because Melissa, Jeff and Amanda met me at Rudy's. Rudy's pulled a good sinister stunt today, although I'm sure it was an accident, someone poured several cups of salt in the sweet tea canister instead of sugar! They shut down the sweet tea facility like it was Chernobyl. The ready alert 5 Rudy's Ranger team (which Jeff and I trained) was onsite instantly to rectify the problem. The team roped down from black-hawks to the contaminated canisters. It reminded me off watching Black-hawk Down, it was something to see. They guarded the area like it was ground zero from a rocket attack. If you got to close to the area, they would scream at you like they do when you aren't paying attention in line. "NEXT IN LINE!"

Even though I was bummed about drinking Dr. Pepper for lunch, my luck turned around. Once the special forces left, the masses swarmed. I managed to get out of there with a fresh blend of goodness. I haven't had it that fresh before so I was impressed once again. Highly recommend sweet tea!

Mann's BBQ

2007-10-23T12:59:00.000-05:00

Mann's BBQ was today's scouting adventure of that sweet nectar. This place has the friendliest staff in town. Ordering there is a real delight, so if you are having a bad day at work or just got stung by a scorpion, just go to Mann's and order up some Texas BBQ or a chicken fried steak, (Mark's recommendation) and your day will be better than it started. Today's free meal was given to anyone who showed the staff a $100 bill with the letter Y on the serial number. I could count on my hands how many times I actually had a $100 bill, so needless to say, I wasn't even in the running.

Let's get down to business. Sweet tea is very good! Mark and I agreed it was slightly a little watered down but still very good. The tea had good color and flavor as well. Like Poke-e-Joe's, it comes only in one size, grande. Styrofoam cups are given out for a trouble free refill for the road which is absolutely de-vine.

Chick-fil-A

2007-10-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

Chick-fil-A, also known as "Jesus Chicken or JC Chicken" by my cynical friends, was the choice of this evening's tea adventure. Man, 2 doses in a single day, good times! So you might be wondering the story behind the name... In a nutshell, what started this was everyone at lunch one day was admiring how delicious the food was, and the tea of course, so the discussion moved to how awesome the breakfast chicken biscuit is. Out of nowhere, Ben unleashes the furry about how you can't get one on Sunday because they are closed. The pain train then continued to the station and the phrase was coined like a newly stamped quarter from the mint.

Enough useless history, what about the tea? I would rate this above Jersey Mike's Sub's tea only because it is a fraction better on the sweet content. Just a bit sweeter. Tonight's was also a bit watery, just slightly below Mike's. I need to eat at the Parmer and Braker location's to get a consistency check. Tonight's drinking was at the North Austin 620 location.

Here is another well kept secret that my friend Mark pointed out to me. Refills are free! You stand to the right of the ordering counter, (see diagram A) and put your cup in the secret position, which is removing the lid half off the top. You just stand there like a statue, then give them "the nod" and boom, somebody comes over and asks what you are drinking. All these years, I felt cheated, only taking a drink when I absolutely needed one, trying to make it last. When I witnessed Mark getting a refill I couldn't believe it. I assumed he had some kind of inside connection! I was quite confused and stood there like a deer in headlamps witnessing the holy grail being refilled...
(Diagram A)

Jersey Mike's Subs

2007-10-19T12:09:00.000-05:00

Well kids, today's sweet tea adventure brings us to Jersey Mike's Subs. They just happen to make most awesome sandwich in the world, the #13. I'm not here to talk about the #13, Walking Tall's blog already does a good job convincing the world that it rules Castle Grayskull. The tea you moron! Get to it! Ok ok ok, the tea, it is pretty good, but a bit watered down. The tea itself has a great flavor and is very fresh but if they could put a couple additional cups of that delicious thing we call sugar, it would be right on top. Sizes come in medium and large. They don't push the large on you so medium is what you get if you don't ask. It is nice to see a business that isn't trying to put the screws to you.

So this is my 2nd blog entry and already issuing yet another cryrogenic warning. Mike's is not as cold as Poke-e-Joe's, but enough to freeze Boris's body in the movie Golden Eye(James Bond). Remember now? At the end of the movie when Boris was trying to crack Natalya's computer code and the liquid nitrogen exploded and spilled on him? You getting the picture on the temperature now? Wear a US bomber jacket and a Russian fur hat!

Poke-e-Joes

2007-10-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

Today's brew of that sugary nectar we call sweet tea was brought to you by Poke-e-Joes. Poke-e-Joes is a BBQ place here in Austin that has pretty good BBQ and de-vine sweat tea. The drink sizes are all large so forget about cheeping out. The thing that sets Poke-e-Joe's tea apart from many others is getting a styrofoam cup so you can get an Exxon Valdez refill to take with you.

Before coming to Poke-e-Joes off Parmer, I highly suggest you bring a sub-arctic survival suit that allows you to walk in a liquid helium cryogenic facility or can survive Everest! I had to go out to my snow-cat and get mine. As I was walking in, this chick goes, "Dude, right on! I had to get out of there it was so cold!"

For a "Walking Tall" review of the place, check out Billy's entry found here.