There’s something supremely fun about unusual seasonal blends that only come out at the most festive times of year. When I heard about the blend, Candied Yams from Bluebird Tea, I had to get a taste.
So, Candied Yams? I’ve had my fair share of mashed sweet potatoes (yams) and squash with butter and brown sugar, and the sweet, earthy, orange mash is a delicious side to any holiday dinner. (We’ve even forgotten to put the sweet potatoes out during dinner one year, and ate it with spice cookies during dessert, and they were still a winner). No wonder I like the cinnamon and nutmeg alongside the yams in this tea blend.
This tea blend is going for an even sweeter version of sweet potatoes; the kind that were baked in a casserole and topped with marshmallows. Cooking with marshmallows seems like the most nostalgic, American ideal, like putting marshmallows in ambrosia salad. All you need to know is that this tea also has mini marshmallows, and plenty of them to make the tea leaves look festive and the blend taste sugary-sweet.
Beyond the carrot-like yam sweetness, this brew also has a fair bit of tartness, like red cranberry, which comes from the small dash of hibiscus in the blend. This red-berry flavor adds a touch of mulled wine flavor alongside the sweet earthiness and light spice. I figure that if my family can put orange flavored dried cranberries in their Thanksgiving stuffing then this flavor profile makes some sense in this tea.
Don’t worry if you’re more excited about the yams than the cranberries, the yams are the driving force of this blend, most noticeable in the scent and aftertaste. After each sip, I get the sweet and starchy potato flavors, reminding me a bit of carrot cake with walnuts. As the initial sweetness fades on my tongue, the brew has a great, mellow, nutty, taste.
If you’re a fan of weird holiday brews, I’d recommend you pick up a sample of Candied Yams before the sweet-potato-yam season passes. And if you get super inspired, you can even bake a marshmallow-yam casserole to accompany your cup of tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Bluebird Tea Co.
Description:
Always looking forward to those sweet candied yams at Thanksgiving? Wish you had an excuse to enjoy ’em all year round? We hear you! Now you can get into the festive spirit with this Limited Edition holiday tea – it’s Thanksgiving in a cup!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Indian Spice Green Tea Infused Sipping Broth from Millie’s Savory Teas
Product Information:
Leaf Type: Green
About This Product:
A snappy blend of curry, spices and green tea. Tastes like your eating at your favorite Indian curry restaurant.
To Learn more about this Millie’s Savory Teas, click here.
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Taster’s Review:
In my September Love with Food box, I received not one but two new-to-me savory teas from Millie’s Savory Teas to try, including this Indian Spice Green Tea Infused Sipping Broth. Even though I was a little disappointed with the Tomato Basil variety of Millie’s Savory Teas, I still found myself excited at the prospect of trying a couple more of these tea infused sipping broths.
And much to my surprise, I like this Indian Spice flavor much better than I liked the Tomato Basil. I love Tomato, so I expected that to be the one I liked best, but I think that the Indian spices work much better in this tea infused sipping broth concept.
The aroma of the dry “bag” is that of curry, but I also taste the smell of “bouillon” too. You know the smell of the bouillon cubes? Yeah, I smell that salty/savory scent of bouillon. And this broth … is a little on the salty side (don’t salt it before you taste it!) but it isn’t too salty for my taste. I taste a hint of carrot and onion to this too.
It still tastes more like broth than it does green tea … but I can taste more of the green tea here than I did in the Tomato Basil. What’s more, I’m finding this broth to be so soothing and comforting. I think this would make an ideal light meal … perhaps with a piece of fruit.
This sipping broth gets a thumbs up from me. This is one I might buy again!
Kiwi Cherry Bonanza Fruit Tisane from Tiesta Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tisane Description:
Kiwi lovers rejoice, your tea is here. Non-kiwi lovers rejoice, you’ll love it too. This tea smells sweet and tastes sweet (not a huge surprise since it’s a blend of different fruits).
There’s a hint of spice courtesy of the ginger bits that gets ya mostly in the delightful cherry ginger finish.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Learn how to subscribe to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, I didn’t have my hopes too high for this Kiwi Cherry Bonanza from Tiesta Tea – the third of the three teas in this month’s Tea Tasting Box from Amoda Tea. I enjoy fruit tisanes on occasion, but generally, I find them to be pretty weakly flavored infusions, and kind of boring, really.
Not so with this tisane! This tisane has a lot of flavor to it! It is definitely one of the better FRUIT tisanes I’ve had (that is, a tisane that is primarily fruit and not so much herbs, hibiscus and other stuff). The only non-fruit ingredients this tisane has is carrot, which is my favorite vegetable so I’m all for the carrot being in there; and ginger, which adds a pleasant hint of spice to the cup … a really nice contrast to the sweet and tangy flavors of kiwi and cherry.
The apple plays a big role in this cup, which is often true of fruit tisanes like this … and that’s one of the reasons that I typically am not a big fan of fruit tisanes. The apple is often all that I can taste in fruit tisanes, and it ends up tasting not like apple juice or apple cider, but a washed out, weak apple water. But, again, this tisane is NOT like fruit tisanes I’ve tasted in the past. The apple here is strong, but, it doesn’t leave the cup tasting like a weak apple water. It enhances the overall cup, adding a little bit of body to the cup as well as sweetness to amplify the flavor of the cherry and especially the kiwi.
I love the cherry here. It is a little bit tart and a little bit sweet, and it is the star of this cup. I like the role that it plays. The cherry steals the show with it’s flavor, brightening the cup with tangy notes and a sweet, juicy cherry taste that is not at all medicinal the way many cherry flavors can taste in teas and tisanes.
The kiwi flavor is what I was most excited to experience though, because there really are very few kiwi teas and tisanes out there. And I love the kiwi! Here, the kiwi flavor is sweet and tastes a little subdued in the midst of the stronger cherry and apple notes, but I find that the kiwi comes through especially well toward mid-to-end of sip, I notice that sweet, distinct kiwi note. YUM!
This is really much, much better than I anticipated it to be, and I’m really glad I got to try it. Despite my woes with having too many tisanes in these tea tasting boxes from Amoda Tea that I mentioned in my Amoda Tea Box post, I really quite enjoyed both tisanes that were included in this month’s box. Sure, I would like very much to have more teas than tisanes in these boxes, BUT if Amoda keeps picking winners like they did this month with tisanes, I would still say that I’m a very satisfied Amoda Tea subscriber.
Fruity Sangria from Utopia Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Utopia Tea
Tisane Description:
Inspired by the traditional red-wine Sangria, our Fruity Sangria consists of elderberries, citrus, and lemongrass creating a flavorful cup. Fruity Sangria has large amounts of antioxidants and prevents cell damage. This beverage is great to drink anytime of the day and is wonderful over ice!
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Yikes! Hibiscus!
Actually, the hibiscus isn’t too bad here. It mostly affects the color of the brewed liquid, which is a deep, ruby red color. As long as you don’t steep it too long, the hibiscus doesn’t become syrupy … I steeped this for six minutes, and I wouldn’t recommend steeping it any longer than that. Now, it isn’t syrupy or too tart, but, I can sense from the texture and the taste that if it had gone much longer, this would have been a syrupy, tarty cup.
Overall, the cup is sweet – tart with an emphasis on the tart. There is an pleasant fruity flavor to this – I taste the elderberries and there is a fermented grape/wine-y kind of taste to it, with hints of citrus and berry throughout the sip. As it cools, I get more of the sangria kind of taste, and the flavor of the hibiscus seems to soften somewhat. This is much better as a cold drink than as a hot beverage.
It’s tasty, and I like alright. It’s not bad, but it’s not great, either.
However, I am aware that there are many out there that like the flavor (and health benefits!) of hibiscus, and I think that they’d really enjoy the bright citrus and berry flavor of this tisane. This may be right up their alley.
Carrot Cake Cupcake Green Rooibos from Simpson & Vail
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tisane Description:
The latest addition to our popular dessert teas are these cupcake teas! Available in Red Velvet Cupcake, Carrot Cake Cupcake and Strawberry Cupcake.
I love carrot cake, whether it’s in a loaf or in cupcake form. What I don’t like is that “some” people always feel the need to add raisins to what is already perfection. Don’t mess with success people! And what I do like about this rooibos tea version, is that you get all that lovely carrot cake goodness with none of the calories (and no wrinkled little grapes!). The dry leaf has a delicate aroma of carrot cake spices. The brewed cup is full flavored and fabulous with the smell of just baked carrot cake.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Simpson & Vail has an all-new line of cupcake inspired teas that they’ve added to their dessert tea collection, and I’m so excited to be able to try some of them, because I not only love tea, but I adore cupcakes, too. These cupcake teas let me enjoy them both without all the calories!
But I have to admit I was a little skeptical about the idea of this carrot cake cupcake rooibos. I have tasted some cupcake flavored teas in the past, and even a couple of carrot cake flavored teas … but, I still find myself a bit leery about them … carrot taste … in tea? That might be a little too weird, even for me.
However, this is really tasty! I taste notes of cinnamon along with a hint of fruit as well as the carrot taste. The carrot is sweet, and melds really nicely with the green rooibos which has a lighter, fruitier taste versus the red (oxidized) rooibos. I think the green rooibos was the right choice to use as a base here, because the fruity notes seem to tie in with the carrot-cake-like flavors.
The sweetness of this cup seems to lend a sort of cake and frosting kind of taste to the overall taste. I don’t know that I’m tasting a definitive “carrot cake” kind of flavor here – but, then again, I don’t know that I’m not. I just know that as I sip and I taste the medley of flavors and how they work together, my taste buds get a sense that I’m drinking liquified carrot cake.
This is really yummy, and it’s an ideal way to enjoy carrot cake without indulging in the calories!