Gwynedd Stuart
The first time I had a Surfside was at a bar right on the marina in Redondo Beach, which all felt very appropriate given the name and also produced a permanent positive association (I really love Redondo Beach). That was a couple of years ago, when it seemed like you could only find their non-carbonated vodka and tea beverages—maybe a half tea/half lemonade situation, too—but the brand is booming and it now offers sixteen flavors of non-carbonated, vodka-spiked teas and lemonades and combos of the two. They’re low sugar at just 2 or 3 grams a can, low calorie (100), and are 4.5% alcohol by volume, which is about the same as a light beer—but these suckers won’t fill you up and make you burp.
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Just in time for spring picnics and other warmer-weather day-drinking activities, we taste tested the entire line of drinks and found the ten best. Most of these come in variety packs so you can’t be that choosy when you’re buying, but now you know which ones to snag out of the cooler before other people get to them.
Top 10 Best Surfside Flavors, Ranked
- Surfside Lemonade + Vodka
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If you like Crystal Light lemonade mixed with vodka (I do!), you’ll like this. In fact, Crystal Light lemonade and vodka is one of my go-to middle aged lady drinks when I’m at home, so I appreciate the convenience factor here.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Strawberry Lemonade + Vodka
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This was our second fave of Surfside’s straight-up lemonade-fruit flavor blends (grab these if you don’t like hard tea). It tastes like Pez and I mean that in the best way possible—bright and fruity and fun.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Green Tea & Lemonade + Vodka
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I am, admittedly, not a huge green tea fan, but this is the best of Surfside’s green teas by far. If you like that toasty-roasty green tea flavor over black tea flavor. This has just the right amount of citrusy brightness to lighten things up. It’s really lovely and light and a pleasure to sip.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Raspberry Tea + Vodka
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Spoiler: Surfside’s Raspberry Half & Half + Vodka is the best Surfside flavor of them all—the addition of lemonade really brightens things up. Without the lemonade, there’s a tad too much faux raspberry flavor for my taste, but if you’re nostalgic for Snapple Raspberry tea you’ll like this.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Blackberry Half & Half + Vodka
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This new Surfside flavor has a really mild, pleasant blackberry flavor with lots of tea and just a litttttle bit of lemon for brightness. The smell reminds me of an old Strawberry Shortcake Doll and I like that. This is a great tasting hard half & half.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Black Cherry Lemonade + Vodka
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If you like a Cherry Lime Rickey, you’ll like this Surfside flavor. It has a nice, juicy black cherry flavor with a wonderful tang from the lemonade, which tastes a little more generically citrussy in this format. It’s great.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Iced Tea & Lemonade + Vodka
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This is Surfside’s take on a boozy Arnold Palmer. The lemonade definitely dominates the tea, but it’s still a good mix. This tastes much better than Twisted Tea, I’ll tell ya that—Surfside just has a much more convincing black tea flavor. Twisted Tea should take notes from Surfside, honestly.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Peach Tea + Vodka
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This Surfside flavor is a great boozy translation of Snapple Peach Iced Tea, but not nearly as sweet. But don’t get me wrong: These are all artificially sweetened, so they ARE sweet, but it’s nice that you don’t have to worry that you’re suddenly consuming hundreds of grams of sugar in one fell swoop. Just 3g per can! Totally reasonable!
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Iced Tea + Vodka
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Like I said, we really like the genuine and delicious black tea flavor in these canned drinks. This is probably my favorite hard tea and I’ve tried a lot of these suckers! It really tastes like a nice, mellow iced tea with just a tinge of bitterness from the vodka in the mix. It’s totally pleasant and really gulpable.
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
- Surfside Raspberry Half & Half + Vodka
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This is a darkhorse winner. It’s not as tangy as the lemonades, but it has a brightness that the raspberry tea doesn’t have. I could truly drink this Surfside flavor all day!
Credit: Liv Averett / Surfside
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