1. ACL 2010 – 3 days of music, fun, tea slinging, dancing, delicious food, and balloon  launching. I’ve been to ACL for the past 4 years, but it was never as fun as it was working with Sweet Leaf.

Me Rockin' Out at ACL 2010

2. Making SweetLeafTV – For the past year, I’ve been running all over Austin filming, taking photos, and having fun – for my job! It’s too good to be true. My most memorable experience is when myself and the other two interns from last semester (@In_A_Pinch and @SlashSarah) were driving the Sweet Leaf van to Zilker Park, and decided to let granny ride shotgun. We got some funny looks from that one. Check out my most recent endeavor, a stop-motion flavor video for Original.

3. SXSW 2011 – Okay, I know two of these are music festivals. But hey, that’s what Sweet Leaf does best! Again, I’ve been going to SXSW for years, but it’s never been as fun as it was working with Sweet Leaf. @SweetLeafDanny and I ran all over town throughout the week dropping off loads of tea for all of our awesome parties. It was hard work, but really fun and it totally paid off – those parties were awesome!

The Sweet Leaf Tea'm - SXSW 2011

So as I bid thee farewell, I’d like to thank everyone here at Sweet Leaf for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the Tea’m. It’s been a life changing experience, and I’ve had a lot of good times, they will be missed.

-@TEddingston

We’ve got lots of good stuff in the works for all of our Sweet Leaf Fans out there, and I’m pumped to be a part of bringing it to you. One thing I REALLY can’t wait for is SXSW this year. It’s going to be the best week ever… it includes my birthday, some awesome music and films, and of course, copious amounts of Sweet Leaf Tea consumption. Be on the look out for the Sweet Leaf Tea-m doing some blitzing during the festival as well as some awesome follow up videos.

Also, this semester I’m undertaking a very exciting project: Flavor Videos. I’m going to be making a video for each flavor of our Homemade Goodness, and sharing them here for you to see! Lots of great ideas in the works.

That’s all for now, -Ty

Like every year, we saw some killer bands, had delish food and drank  A TON of Sweet Leaf Tea! In the style of High Fidelity, here are the standout Top 5 moments that made this one extra special:

Right from the start, people were so receptive of our picture frame!

1. SLT FANS!

We knew how great the tea was, but it was so sweet seeing how many of y’all love it too! Turns out, sweet leaf fans are just as sweet as our tea (aww shucks!).

We made this polaroid frame to capture the goodness of the festival, and these ladies jumped right in it! The hashtags on the bottom are for our Sweet Leaf Sweet Spot promo- fans tweet a pic from the festival with those tags and can win this Epiphone geetar!

This arts-and-crafts project was ours from start to finish, so it was nice to see you guys enjoying it.

2. BEAR RIDING

We heard The Flaming Lips were really good live, but we were not prepared for what we saw: Wayne Coyne, lead singer, rode a bear. Yup, a bear.

Ok, more like a dude in a bear costume, but it was still really amusing. That dude is tall, so was the bear/person. We were impressed. I mean… its a bear.

3. FOOD: OLIVIA’S FRIED CHICKEN

We’ve written a lot about our fave places in ATX to grab some grub, but this one was new, at least for me (Aviva). This chicken was AH-MAY-ZING! Perfectly crunchy on the outside, juicy and moist on the inside… all that chicken should be. I heard they serve it room temp in the restaurant too, which sounds like the pinnacle of comfort food.

Thanks for keeping me from starving, Olivia (whoever you may be) and bonus points for being soooooo grood (great + good).

4. TATS IN SPECIAL PLACES

Found this via @JoeMcCall1 on Twitter

We spent around an hour every day passing out SLT tattoos to lucky fans. Most folks just wanted a nice guitar, classically displayed on their arm. A few, however, got super creative, like this gent on the right. I’m not sure we actually did this for him, but you gotta admire the dedication.

Also topping the list of most creative places: the lower leg, which saw a huge resurgence on Sunday, and the neck. At ACL, people go big on their tats.

5. OUR FAVE CONCERTS

Alright, since it is all about the music, we thought we’d each share our favorite show from the weekend:

Aviva: MUSE. I was looking forward to it coming in to the weekend, and these guys did NOT disappoint. I don’t know what makes their concerts so incredible, but this is the second I’ve been to and it was really impressive. There’s something about the energy of the show and the music, plus of course the great memories of seeing them when I was a wee high schooler and even more clueless about music than I am now.

Ty: I was tied between a few, but I guess I’ll have to say Deadmau5. Not even my favorite band there but damn that was a cool show. I’m just positive he was having more fun than anyone in the world during that moment. Atop his glowing cube, wearing a badass hat, Deadmau5 was SWEEEETT.

Sarah: Like Ty, I am also tied between a few. Deadmau5 was for sure one of my faves, BUT Vampire Weekend came out ahead for me because you can never beat a band that you are able to belt at the top of your lungs along to. I loved being with all the other fans, enjoying their music and singing along to all the kick ass songs they have.

So that’s our weekend, in a nutshell. Of course, there’s a lot of greatness that didn’t make it into the top 5 list, so feel free to let us know what we missed! In the meantime, here are some of our sweetest pics from the weekend to help fill in the gaps.

Sweet Beats!

Top on my list for must-sees is Vampire Weekend. I listened to them a little in high school and thought they were pretty sweet but then, I was able to hear them live ACL 2008 and really got hooked! If you haven’t been lucky enough to see these guys live, I highly recommend you to during the festival. They play with such enthusiasm that it just sort of transcends into the crowd and it turns into one big dance party throughout their entire show! Either way, I’ll for sure be there. Maybe you might just spot me. I’ll be that chick who can’t dance…dancing anyway and having one helluva time doing it.

Hipster-licious

Another band, more like trio, I am dying to see is Miike Snow. To be honest, I had never even heard of this guy until I was trolling the ACL lineup this summer (don’t pretend you don’t make your own custom line-up for the weekend months in advance, I know you do). His song, Animal, is the greatest thing to listen to to get your day started and you blood pumping; it’s another awesome song to dance around to by the way.

Sweet Eats!

One of my fav places to eat here in Austin is Guero’s Taco Bar. This place is delicious. The tacos are so awesome I refuse to get them anywhere else. And besides, who doesn’t love a good taco? The BEST part about Guero’s is that they have a booth in the festival this year. So you don’t even have to worry about missing a killer show to go to them!

YUMMY!!!

Sweet Beats

Click the pic to link to the GIVERS blog!

I’m super excited to see GIVERS this year at ACL. I first saw these guys (and girl!) in Beaumont, TX with JEFF The Brotherhood, and they were awesome! Hailing from Lafayette, Louisiana, the quintet is really fun to watch. Tiffany “Teddy” Lamson, the leading lady, never holds back, and well.. is just generally awesome to be in the presence of (as well as the rest of the band). Check out a video of them from this year’s SXSW.

GIVERS @ SXSW 2010

Another band that I’m really looking forward to seeing is Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Unlike GIVERS, I’ve never been able to see these guys live, although I almost got to back in my high school days.

Ted Leo and the Gang

According to friends who have seen Ted Leo and the Pharmacists live, they are “ridiculously energetic”, so that should be fun. Have a listen to one of my favorite songs by ‘em.

Ted+Leo+The+Pharmacists+-+Biomusicology

Sweet Eats

I think we can all agree that no ACL experience is complete without eating incredible food every day. And if you’re visiting, it can get pretty hectic trying to lock down a delicious, quick place to grab some food before your next show. One of my favorite places to bike (or walk) to and grab a bite is Sandy’s Hamburgers. The burgers are delicious and super well priced.

mmmmmmm