I love vanilla in teas. I feel like if I was a tea-blender, i’d probably add a dash of vanilla to just about everything. I feel like it just gives this yummy warmth and sweetness to the blends and it also goes well with just about everything else! There is a difference between regular old “vanilla” and “vanilla bean”. Vanilla bean, in my experience, tends to be just a tad bit stronger and richer. When I saw this one in my little sample box I immediately scanned the ingredient list. I was wondering whether this would just be plain vanilla flavored tea or if maybe they added a little something-something to it. Well, I saw rose petals on there and I immediately thought to myself “okay, okay this is probably going to be good.”
And yes, it was good. I was right! Definite yum. I liked this blend so much that i transferred it from my tea-tasting cup to my good cup immediately! (it’s all about the mugs, people) I could smell the vanilla bean filling my kitchen and it smelled like cupcakes. The black tea was really mellow and smooth, not overpowering or astringent. The rose petals were not too floral or in-your-face, they were also very mellow and just added a little something on the aftertaste.
This blend was creamy, and I didn’t even add milk or cream to my cup. I did, however, add a spoonful of agave, and that just made it all the more better. I feel like this was cake in a mug. Vanilla cake speckled with rose and calendula petals. So, so, good. I will for sure be finishing my sample and buying some more. This is a perfect tea for mornings and afternoon tea time. I really suggest trying it if you like vanilla.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Storehouse Teas
Description
Our exquisite blend of rich black tea and world class organic orchid grown vanilla bean is smooth, naturally sweet, aromatic and comforting. Wonderful at Breakfast or any time of day to satisfy your sweet tooth, best served hot or chilled as an iced tea latte. Black teas may be helpful in reducing cholesterol and blood pressure levels.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Jump Start from Adagio Teas. . . . . .
I’m a caffeine lunatic that’s a little hesitant about maté (it sometimes tastes dry/musty to me). So I was holding off on this until a Day of Great Urgency.
Today was such a day. I spaced out in the shower and was late to a meeting with wet hair. The files I needed for a bunch of projects were unavailable to me. The Internet was down. I considered turning to my nemesis, coffee, for a much needed jolt.
But then I remembered My Backup Plan, the Jump Start.
I’m pretty sure this tea hooked up some wires directly to my heart and zapped it alive again. I went from “mehhhhhh on liiiiiife” to dancing at my desk.
The taste itself is okay — I still don’t love maté — so I recommend adding a bit of honey and vanilla almond milk to it. Boom. Yum.
You’re good to go… TO INFINITY… AND BEYOND!
(Yes. I am VERY hype right now.)
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Mate, Kola, and Black tea make up this well-caffeinated blend to make your mornings deliciously efficient.
blended with toasted mate tea, black tea, cocoa nibs, cinnamon bark, kola nuts & safflower
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
On the 2nd Day of Christmas 52Teas Sent To Me (Spoilers!). . . .
Today is the 2nd day of Christmas if you are following along with your own 12 Days of Christmas. I’m quite excited to see what tea we have in store for us today after yesterday’s delicious flavored green tea. So as I’m typing this I’m scratching off the label and today’s tea is. . .
Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos
I’m sorry but I feel that we need to announce that in a bigger way. For the 2nd Day of Christmas promotion in the 52Teas holiday pack. . .the tea of the day is
Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos!!!
So as you can probably tell, I’m exited about this tea. I’m a huge fan of green rooibos even tho its relative red rooibos are arch enemies. Green Rooibos just adds a gorgeous honey flavor that I’ve come to adore and love. So when I see a flavored one, I get a bit giddy.
This tea was again stunning. Gorgeous pops of green and red (or maybe a cranberry color-ha!) throughout the dry leaf. The dry leaf aroma was amazingly sweet and I couldn’t wait for my water to prep and the tea to finish brewing. Like the tea from yesterday, I ended up devouring this entire pouch in no time at all.
This tea had notes of a creaminess that I fell in love with right away. The creaminess reminded you of a cream soda, which is where I’m thinking the inspiration for this tea came from. The lovely cranberry tartness really mingled well with the honey flavors of the green rooibos. That underlying creaminess really drove this tea to something special. I could and did drink this tea for hours and hours. I infuse the tea leaves until they couldn’t give any more.
Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos is one of those tea that I will also crave more of and will never be able to get enough. Hopefully this will be a re blended because I need tons of this tea. This would be a perfect after dinner tea or I’m sure an dynamite cold brew. I could even see this tea being mixed with maybe a touch of an adult beverage and you’ve got yourself the makings of an fabulous cocktail.
What I’m really trying to say is this tea was tasty and I would like more.
Please see below for the official description of this tea. Click here to read all of 52Teas Mad Tea Musings!
Here it is, the 2nd day of our Christmas tea countdown! Today’s tea is a new tea that I crafted especially for this box. I wanted to have at least a couple of caffeine free teas for our advent box, so I decided to create a green rooibos based tea with a flavor that’s inspired by the sodas that find their way onto supermarket shelves this time of year . . .
Crisp Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos!
Tea Description: My inspiration behind this tea was the cranberry flavored lemon-lime soft drinks that come out around Thanksgiving. I thought that the best base for such a tea would be a green rooibos because it has a light, sparkling kind of taste to it naturally, and the light fruitiness of the rooibos would enhance the fruity flavors that I’d be adding to it.
Then I added lots of cranberries to the blend and some natural flavors to create a soda like taste.
Really nice! Light and crisp and refreshing!
organic ingredients: green rooibos, cranberries and natural flavors.
The flavor of this tea is really quite lovely! So light and crisp, with the cranberry notes weaving their way in and out and lingering in the aftertaste. It reminds me very much of it’s inspiration – the cranberry flavored lemon-lime soft drink – because if you taste one of those, you’ll find that the cranberry tartness doesn’t slap you upside the head. It’s a light, sweet yet pleasantly tart flavor – just like the soda itself. This is really nice – bright and uplifting. And it’s naturally caffeine-free so it’s something you can enjoy any time of day!
It’s sweet but not too sweet – with a really nice level of tartness to it (at least for me as I’m not a big fan of tart). The first few sips were light in flavor but now that I’ve taken a few sips, I pick up on more of the lemon-lime notes as well as a really lovely cranberry note.
I’m pleased with how this turned out!
To brew: use about 1 1/2 teaspoons to 12 ounces of hot water (because this is green rooibos, I set my thermostat on my Breville to 190°F) and let it steep for 8 minutes. Because this is rooibos, you can let it steep longer without worry of bitterness – very few tannins in rooibos! So you can let this steep for 10 minutes or beyond!
After finished steeping, strain and let cool for 5 – 10 minutes and enjoy! A teensy bit of sugar will help enhance the ‘soda’ experience of this tea, but it’s also quite delicious without the sugar!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Flavored Herbal/Green Rooibos Blend
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea will be available in very limited quantities beginning December 28th at 52Teas!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Inner Fire from Urbal Tea
Sometimes a tea aroma stumps my nose and today that tea is Inner Fire from Urbal Tea. This flavored Oolong/Green Rooibos/Yerba Mate blended base smells like cinnamon apple sauce with a hint of blueberry. The funny thing is I can’t see that it has ANY apple in the blend!
Inner Fire from Urbal Tea contains Dandelion leaf, Chickweed, Bilberry, Horsetail, Fennel, Yarrow, Eleuthero, Burdock root, Green Rooibos, Cinnamon, Rhodiola root, Dandelion root, Wuyi Wulong Oolong, Ginkgo, Yerba Mate, Green Mate, Licorice Root, Red Clover, Tulsi, Hibiscus, Blueberries, Cinnamon, Calendula flower, Corn Flower, and natural flavors.
I was feeling pretty confident that there were enough other ingredients to combat the hibiscus that was in there and I was right! I could taste a pleasant combination of herbs in my first sip followed by various berries. I was able to pick up on the fennel, green rooibos, Yerba Mate, and Tulsi in follow-up sips.
I appreciate the blends I have tried so far from Urbal Tea because of the massive amounts of herbs that go in them. They all seems to play together nicely. I think that is harder to do the more herbs you throw in the mix but Urbal Tea does it right! They also use just the right amount of hibiscus – when they do use hibiscus. When it comes to Inner Fire from Urbal Teas I’m thrilled they used a blended base of Oolong, Green Rooibos, and Yerba Mate…I’m not sure if I have had a trio based combo using these three before – let alone one that incorporates so many awesome herbs! 2 thumps up on this one!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong/Green Rooibos/Yerba Mate Blend
Where to Buy: Urbal Tea
Description
This blueberry cinnamon blend helps you burn fat and promotes weight loss by boosting your body’s ability to metabolize.
Contains: Dandelion leaf, Chickweed, Bilberry, Horsetail, Fennel, Yarrow, Eleuthero, Burdock root, Green Rooibos, Cinnamon, Rhodiola root, Dandelion root, Wuyi Wulong Oolong, Ginkgo, Yerba Mate, Green Mate, Licorice Root, Red Clover, Tulsi, Hibiscus, Blueberries, Cinnamon, Calendula flower, Corn Flower, and natural flavors.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Tea/Green Tea Blend
Where to Buy: The Tea Spot
Tea Description:
Blender’s Notes:
Our beloved blend of pure Chinese white tea, rosebuds and jasmine pearls creates an experience of aromatherapy that sharpens the mind and arouses the senses. The exotic floral scent of night–blooming Jasmine is uplifting and soothing, and is used as an anti-depressant in herbal medicine. Rosebuds are used to ease nervous tension and stress, and have a calming effect on the mind. This combination works together to enhance the light, subtle flavor of the white tea leaves. This tea brews into a golden liquor with a very soothing fragrance, and is perfect before, during, or after a stressful day.
Features:
- Sample = 5 8-oz Servings
- Tins = 28 8-oz Servings
- AND leaves can be re-infused 2-3 times!
- 1 LB Bulk = $0.28 / Serving
- White tea is loaded with antioxidants
- Jasmine & rosebuds help with relaxation
- Gluten-free & Sugar-free
Ingredients: white tea, jasmine green tea, rosebud & petals
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot. Let me say/write that 3 times…Meditative Mind, Meditative Mind, Meditative Mind….Ahhhhhh! This is a wonderful name for a wonderful tea! Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot is a white tea with jasmine green tea, rosebuds, and petals. This is white and green tea blend.
The first thing I have to make a special note of here are the jasmine notes. I’ve had teas where the jasmine tends to taste stale. That is NOT the case here! It’s incredible fresh and floral yet semi-sweet! The Jasmine and Rose flavors dominate this as far as flavors go but the white and green teas are pretty flavorful, too!
This is a comforting tea you can unwind to. Relax to. Enjoy by yourself or with others. This is delightful both hot and cold. I believe Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot to be a crowd pleaser yet to impress those who have more specific taste buds as well. It’s well rounded. The flavors are not over done or over the top nor are too loud or too quiet. The flavor, ingredients, and emotions prove this tea is rightfully named.