Summer in A Cup/CuppaGeek Teas -Ashmanra-

The tea blend I bought last year to use to make iced tea while the weather was still hot has turned out to be one of our favorite evening hot teas this winter. Technically it is not tea, as it contains no camellia sinensis, but you know what I mean!

Quite often we want a tea to wind down with, and we reach for Draught of Peace or Parker’s Evening Blend. Spiced Fall Evenings and Baked Apple Pie (With A Dash of Rum) are other wind-down favorites to carry to the rocking chairs before heading off to bed.

But sometimes we want a caffeine free cup to go with a snack and a tv show or game. We want something that tastes good with food, is a little bit lively, doesn’t scream BEDTIME!!! but still has no caffeine. Lately Summer In A Cup has been our go-to.

It took me by surprise that we like it so much hot. The ingredients are all about sweet summer fruit – green rooibos with mini marshmallows, freeze dried peaches, freeze dried strawberries, orange, marigold flowers, and natural peach, strawberry and orange flavoring.

Summer, right?

But something about the green rooibos base makes it so darn drinkable. I have an intense dislike for red rooibos. But green rooibos is delightful, and it carries these flavors so well. I have had it by itself and paired with cheese and crackers or chips and dip or toast and jam. When we drink it hot, we add nothing at all – no sugar and no milk. Delish!

I have made it as iced sweet tea, too, as I originally intended. My pitcher holds 48 ounces. Here is what I do – I use four teaspoons of the blend, steep it three times in a small teapot and pour it into the pitcher. Add 1/3 cup sugar and stir. Adjust to your taste. Depending on the size of your steeping vessel and your teapot you may need to add additional water. Chill and enjoy!

I first started with just three teaspoons of dry blend and resteeped three times and it was fine for me, but my husband said he would like for it to be just a little stronger. Naturally, adjust the leaf and sugar or your choice of sweetener to your taste.

Get some now to treat yourself to a peek at summer to come, and to have on hand for those first spring picnics! This would also be a lovely caffeine-free option for a children’s or adults’ tea party that should appeal to most anyone’s taste!


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane/Herbal

Where to Buy: CuppaGeek Teas

Description

Summer In A Cup- A delightful way to honor summer all year round! Delicious green rooibos mixed with summer flavors like strawberries and peaches and a few mini marshmallows thrown in for fun!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Bonita Peach Rooibos Herbal Tea from The Spice & Tea Exchange. . . .

I bought this tea because it allegedly contained strawberry flavoring in addition to peach. Strawberry peach? OH MY GAWD RIGHT? Unfortunately, I can’t really taste strawberry. The peach flavor is Batman, with orange/citrus notes as Robin.* The strawberry is, I guess, Alfred, back at the mansion? Poor Alfred never goes anywhere.

* (Robin is not as large or important as Batman, but still factors in the plot.)

Despite strawberry’s mysterious absence, I still tend to reach for this as an iced choice on days I’m trying to avoid soda/caffeine. It’s very sweet. The peach/orange, as previously mentioned, are the main players. The green rooibos adds a light, woodsy, sweet background. There’s something slightly astringent about the mix, but I don’t mind that.

There’s nothing about this blend that I’d clamor for you to try. I probably won’t re-buy it. However, it’s a solid, dependable workhorse for decaf iced tea, and I appreciate its presence in my cupboard.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Rooibos/Herbal
Where to Buy:  The Spice & Tea Exchange
Description

Green rooibos redbush plant is flavored with summer fruits and flowers, to produce a refreshing caffeine-free blend. Delicious served either hot or iced.

 

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Limoncello from The NecessiTeas. . . . .#desserttea

I am so impressed with this tea that I immediately visited the website and ordered more. First of all, it smells DIVINE! I usually like to add sweeteners to my tea, but this tea is perfect just the way it is.

Limoncello is a refreshing pick-me-up in the evening. I can also see it as a go-to on an under-the-weather day as a soothing drink for a sore throat. I also tried it as an iced tea.

WOW! I will definitely be serving and drinking a lot of Limoncello iced tea this summer (possibly with some fresh mint leaves).

The NecessiTEAS website lists an intriguing variety of creative flavors. If a customer is looking for only one or two items, they have very reasonable flat-rate shipping. I was excited to try more of the fun flavors offered, so I received free shipping with my order.

I can’t wait to try and review more of their fantastic flavors!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Green Rooibos/Herbal
Where to Buy:  The NecessiTeas
Description

The Italian dessert drink has made its way into a tea. Imagine lemon meringue teasing your taste buds, while sweetly melting in your mouth with a blend of vanilla and brown sugars. The lemony brightness shines through with lemongrass and a sprinkling of golden marigold petals, all topping a green rooibos tea.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

A Cookie Tea With A Green Rooibos Base from Simpson and Vail. . . .

I only recently found out about Simpson and Vail. I have really loved each tea ive tried from them. I’m not usually a huge fan a rooibos though. For me, it is almost always a little too “woody” tasting. However, I couldn’t resist getting a little bit of the Caramel Walnut Shortbread Rooibos. Doesn’t it sound divine? Like, I am now debating making a caramel walnut shortbread cookie because the combination just sounds so yummy!

Last night I was up until 4 a.m with my little one. I have an (almost) 8 month old daughter and I don’t know if it’s maybe the whole daylight savings thing or what, but she has been up at all hours of the night and refusing to sleep. Because of my lack of sleep I was dying for a nap, but of course I needed to make a cup of tea first. This was the perfect time to try out a yummy new rooibos blend, as rooibos is naturally caffeine free!

The smell of the dry blend is totally cookies. Caramel cookies with a hint of nuttiness! Even my boyfriend was like “WOW that smells good.” He could smell it from across the kitchen soon as I opened the tin! Super yum. I brewed this tea for about 7 minutes with near boiling water and added just a pinch of agave to bring out the flavors and sweeten it up just a bit.

The smell of the brewed liquid is definitely still caramel and cookies with undertones of nuts and the woody rooibos. However, upon tasting this tea I was surprised that it was pleasantly smooth and did not have that wood-taste that usually comes with rooibos. The rooibos was mellow and just in the background. Caramel cookies and nuttiness was definitely in the forefront. This was a great after-dinner/dessert blend. It evokes the sense of comfort and makes me want to curl up on the couch with a fuzzy blanket and a good book. Definitely worth trying!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Green Rooibos
Where to Buy:  Simpson & Vail
Description

Featuring another delicious caffeine-free addition to our Dessert Tea line. This new blend was easy for us to agree on. This Green Rooibos blend brews to an amber cup with a nutty, buttery taste and deep caramel overtones. A delectable brew that needs no sweeteners.

When I asked Jim for his feedback on this blend he gave it to me along with this “4 out of 4 people recommend this. I know usually it’s 4 out 5 but we didn’t like the 5th person’s comments so we threw his results out and him in the quarry”. I think this caffeine free blend might be just what Jim needs this afternoon!

Ingredients: Organic Green Rooibos, flavoring, safflower blossoms, and orange blossoms.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Cocteau from August Uncommon. . . . .

Tea swaps are a thing of beauty. They really and truly are. Switching out your unwanted teas for hard-to-find favorites or samples of new blends…what’s not to love? And sometimes if you are lucky, tea swaps can lead to making tea friends. You know…the people who you meet up with to exchange teas and talk about your lives. Now, if you are REALLY lucky, you might even find a tea twin. For me that person is the wonderful Roswell Strange, a former Sororitea Sister. Her and I started our tea journey at the same time and quickly learned we liked the same flavors. We began to swap teas constantly since we knew the other would love everything we sent (or at least appreciate the opportunity to try it). Swaps grew to gifts and now, even as our tastes have grown apart, we have maintained our tea twin love and continue to share our tea stashes.

More than just tea, we have realized we share other interests as well and as Roswell Strange decided to make her tea drinking an experience by adding song pairings, she graciously gave me the opportunity to partake as well. My awesome tea twin took the time to not only pack up a bunch of tea samples but she provided me a song pairing for each, creating a mix tape of sorts. Now for those wondering what I mean by this, Roswell Strange picks a song that she thinks matches the tea in some way, thus making for a heightened and more focused tea drinking experience as you combine your tea sipping with a complimentary song.

For this particular blend, she picked the song Electric Feel by MGMT. Now, while most other songs she picked were new to me, this is an old favorite of mine (it might even be my ringtone). Knowing the song, I definitely expected some whimsy from this tea and the dry scent with its creamy citrus and light vanilla showed promise. So I got my song ready to go and my tea brewed up and began.

The first thing I noticed was the smoothness of the tea. With strong flavors like grapefruit, mint, and vanilla, it seemed like there should be more of a disconnect but everything blends into one harmonious taste. This to me reflects the song since there is also a lot of different components that come together to make up one awesome whole. Yet, if you focus, you can detect each distinct flavor hiding in the mix or lingering in the aftertaste. The slight tang of the grapefruit starts the sip, and just like the intro of the song amps you up for whats coming. The vanilla slides in and levels everything off, just like the vocals of the music coming in and taking over the music. Well the mint lingers underneath it all, like the base note, adding depth and keeping the beat going under the vocals. And even though this tea should be harsher, it is calming, which is what has always been my thoughts on this particular song. I mean just listen to the lyrics about being “shocked like an electric eel” and yet the melody is almost poetic in how relaxing it can be. In my mind, like the song, this is not something that should work but it does. It definitely does!

Thank you tea twin!! And for those who don’t know the song, check it out here.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Flavored Rooibos/Honeybush Blend
Where to Buy:  August Uncommon
Description

A dazzling synesthetic experience where sound is like temperature and color has flavor. Warm and cool sensations move in textured rhythms. The myriad of tastes and scents wind and twist like shifting colors of an opal. With each sip there is a distinct, dreamy dominant note. One moment, it’s pale yellow vanilla, then another, electric pink grapefruit. Yet another time it’s bluish green mint, then brick-red earthy rooibos. Beauty is not always linear.

Ingredients: south african green rooibos, south african honeybush, grapefruit peel, peppermint, flavoring

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!