T-Shirt Reviews Blog

Posted: 13 Jul 2010 04:10 AM PDT

I’m a Brit and so you’d expect me to know all about tea even if I am drinking coffee right now. On a couple of visits to Morocco I got hooked on Mint Tea, when I’m ill I will drink green tea, and if anyone in England needs cheering up someone will usually say they need “a nice cup of tea.” But sweet tea is a new one on me, it’s a traditional drink that harks from the earliest history of the deep South, first produced commercially in South Carolina in 1792 by a French botanist/explorer, and looks basically like its iced tea with a whole lot of sugar in it. All you need to know is that Graphic/Web Designer Michael Dorman is a fanatic for the stuff, what’s more he’s even dedicated his label Sweet Tea Junkie to the beverage.

First things first, Michael was kind enough to offer Buy Tees a discount for all you lucky readers – just type in buytees at the checkout for a very generous 15% off - it’s permanent and is featured in our T-Shirt Discounts section so you’ll never miss out in case you need a quick fix of his refreshing brew of street fashion. I’m definitely a fan of some of STJ’s tees, I do like the fact that he’s printed the inside of his shirts with a recipe for Sweet Tea which must come in handy for anyone with a less than perfect memory. However recipe or not this is a very novel idea, perhaps a lesson for all the t-shirt companies out there struggling with their branding, most brands will make a big fuss when they produce the odd reversible fashion item but the truth is Michael is doing it as standard. Outstanding.

All Sweet Tea Junkie’s shirts are printed on comfortable 100% cotton 4.3 oz Combed Ringspun shirts which means super-soft, lightweight, and slim-fitting tees, all preshrunk to minimize shrinkage and side-seamed for a tailored cut. STJ offers a very wide range of sizes too, from kids sizes (cut for boys and girls) all the way to 3XL, and every t-shirt is available for a reasonably priced $17.50 which seems something of a bargain when you consider the quality.

Fancy a brew? I’ll be mother…

Bloom Tee

I’d never thought about it before but it makes sense that if you grow tea the plants will bloom in the Spring. I really like this design, it’s definitely STJ’s strongest. As mentioned before this and all Sweet Tea’s tees are printed with a sweet tea recipe on the inside. The flower motif reminds me a lot of a Tudor rose, right down to the woodcut style of the illustration. It’d obvious why this shirt has been reprinted time after time, a big seller for tea fans.

Collage Tee

Now, I’m not quite sure what this one has to do with sweet tea, or tea in general, perhaps it’s inspired by a special breed of Peyote-based tea, or maybe the sweet tea experience is a lot more psychedelic than I had imagined. What I do know is that whatever the hell else is happening in this design, there are definitely some critters in there of some description chuggin’ away at pitchers of the stuff. A cool design but it needs more tea :o

1879 Tee

This shirt marks the year of the first published Sweet Tea recipe emblazoned with all manner of tea-related sayings and vintage typographies. A nice example of a type tee with a message, and that message is… Michael is totally obsessed with sweet tea! Lol. Seriously though I do wonder how many more ideas he can garner from this highly specific addiction, maybe it’s time to come to the dark side and try a few unsweetened teas. Or is that tantamount to heresy?

I have to admit I’m more of a tea addict than a sweet tea aficionado, however if I ran a tea-inspired t-shirt company the first thing I’d do is print an enormous tea bag on the front of my very first shirt, we’ve have all had our fill of polka-dot designs, but a tea bag design would be a real twist. Yes I’m sticking my oar in but the fact is big is better and I know that, at the very least, that the British hoi-poloi would go nuts for a truly trendy tea-inspired design. One to consider for the future I suppose…

If your thirst isn’t quite quenched then stroll over to www.SweetTeaJunkie.com for even more tea-inspired tees!

Lifestyle World

Tuesday, 13 July 2010