Eight Oasis Blend from Praise Tea

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green, White & Pu-erh Teas

Where to Buy:  Praise Tea

Tea Description:

Our combination of Sencha, Gunpowder, Mini Tuo, Chun Mee, Pai Mu Tan, Lung Ching, Snow Bud, Pi Lo Chun, candied pineapple and strawberry takes you to an oasis of delight. Delectable both hot and cold. Try some with white crystal sugar. Indulge your taste buds.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

After a quick glance at this tea’s ingredient list, I thought that this tea may just have a little too much going on.  It smelled intriguing, though, with its delicious notes of strawberry and pineapple, so I decided to give it a try.

And somehow, this massive list of ingredients works together very well!  While it is next to impossible to pick out each individual tea’s characteristics, I can taste the fresh, vegetative flavor of green tea, a light earthy quality from the tuocha, and I can even taste notes that are very much like white tea – notes of hay and that crisp, airy quality that is often noted in white tea.

The strawberry and pineapple notes are less distinctive than the flavors of the tea, but, that’s alright.  In fact, I find it to be quite refreshing to have the tea as the center focus in this cup, and have the fruit flavors to serve as accent notes to enliven the overall flavor.  The place where the fruit really stands out is in the aftertaste, where I can taste the flavors of both the pineapple and the strawberry.

This tea does have a natural sweetness to it, so I would recommend tasting before you sweeten.  I did end up adding just a pinch of sugar which helped to enhance the fruit notes more than sweeten the cup.  Without the sugar, the fruit notes fall a little flat … they’re still present, but, just not as lively as with a pinch of sugar.

This one makes a nice iced tea too.  I recommend steeping it at least twice, as it is even tastier with the second infusion.

Harmony from Praise Tea

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Praise Tea

Tea Description:

Organic and Fair Trade China Green tea infused with the taste of ripe pears. A smooth, full-bodied yet highly aromatic and healthy blend that’s delicious.

Origin: China

Ingredients: Chun Mee Green Tea, Pear

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I tend to find myself a bit skeptical when it comes to pear flavored teas, especially pear flavored green teas.  That’s because back in my tea flavoring/blending days, I created what I felt was the very best pear flavored green tea, and I still have yet to find one that is as good.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying this pear flavored green tea.  Quite the opposite, actually.  It’s really tasty!

The Chun Mee base is an interesting choice but it works surprisingly well with the delicate flavor of the pear.  I say surprising because its been my experience that Chun Mee (also known as “Precious Eyebrow”) tends to have a strong “green tea” flavor – that is to say it tends to be a bit on the grassy side.  With this stronger flavor, could the delicate sweetness of the pear shine through?

The answer is yes.  I can taste the sweet, delicious flavor of pear, as well as the full-flavored Chun Mee.  The Chun Mee is sweet, grassy with hints of seaweed.  There are lovely hints of plum in there too, and these are very complementary to the notes of pear.  The Chun Mee is more assertive than the pear flavor here, but, it doesn’t overwhelm it entirely.

A delicious pear flavored green with a very enticing composition of flavors.

Pineapple Bamboo Green Tea from Praise Tea

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Praise Tea

Product Description:

Our Pineapple Bamboo Green Tea is an exotically fruity, pineapple and mango infused green tea. A smooth and juicy blend that provides a way to escape in your day. Delectable both hot and cold. Try some with white crystal sugar. Indulge your taste buds.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

This is a really good!  I often approach tropical teas with a somewhat pallid attitude.  Don’t get me wrong, I really like tropical flavored teas; but sometimes it seems like every tea company out there has a tropical tea, and they all end up tasting pretty much the same.  So, I like it when I find one that is different from the rest.  And this one definitely qualifies as DIFFERENT!

The pineapple flavor is prominent, but I don’t find it to be an overwhelming taste.  I think that is due to the fact that this tea really does have a lot going on.  There’s pineapple, mango, papaya, bamboo, cardamom, ginger, coconut, raspberry and rose in this, not to mention three different kinds of green tea:  Chinese Sencha, Bancha and Genmaicha.

For me, what really makes this tea extra special is the touch of Genmaicha.  It isn’t an overwhelmingly strong note – the Genmaicha – but it adds that little something to this.  The sweet flavor of the roasted rice accents the flavor of the cardamom and ginger so well, giving this a warm, exotic kind of feel without it coming off as too hot or spicy.  And if you’re one who does not care for spicy teas, you can rest assured that this is NOT a spicy tea, instead, I’d describe it as a very mild spice that serves as an accent rather than the main focus of the tea.

The coconut is a gentle flavor, adding just a hint of creaminess to the cup, while the mango and papaya add a nice sweetness to the background.  The bamboo is also a gentle flavor, there is just enough there to make the taste buds sit up and say “hey, what was that?” Just enough to add some interest to the flavor without it becoming all about the bamboo.

In fact, that would probably be the theme for every ingredient of this tea.  There is just enough of each ingredient to add an interesting note to the cup without it overpowering it or throwing off the balance of flavors.

I really like this offering from Praise Tea!

Summer Fruit Symphony from Praise Tea

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green & White Blend

Where to Buy:  Praise Tea

Product Description:

Our special blend of white and green teas are fused together to make the delicate flavor the perfect summer drink. This amazing blend of summer fruits of mango, pineapple, papaya, strawberry, sour cherry, and apricot bits produces a refreshing, naturally sweet tea.

Tea Information:

Summer is over, but this tea offers the very best of summer in one teacup.  (And truth be told, we are still experiencing some very summer-like weather lately!)

There are a lot of different fruit flavors in this tea, but I like that even though the fruit flavors are strong, they do not completely overwhelm the delicate base of green and white teas.  The tea base tastes lightly grassy, sweet, and fresh.  It is a very smooth tasting tea.

The fruit flavors are sweet, but they don’t taste cloying or sugary-sweet.  There are notes from each of the fruits present:  I can taste the tropical notes of the mango, pineapple and papaya, I can taste an almost nectar-like note that is very apricot-ish, and the aftertaste has a berry taste that is very strawberry.  There is an ever so slight tart note, which I attribute to the sour cherry.  This tart note is not present in the first couple of sips, but as I continue to sip, I notice it hit just before the tail.

The finish is sweet and there is next to no astringency to this blend.  The aftertaste is sweet with a berry tingle that lingers a while.  This is a really delicious fruit flavored tea.  Enjoyable hot or iced, but I think I find it most refreshing as an iced tea.

While browsing through Praise Tea’s incredible selection of teas, I had some trouble finding this particular tea on the website.  I contacted the sales department of Praise Tea and learned that this tea is a seasonal blend that is currently sold out.  (Their sales staff is very courteous!)  Watch for this tea to return when the weather turns warm – you’ll want to keep it on hand for an iced tea that your whole family will LOVE!

Caramel Delight from Praise Tea

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Praise Tea

Product Description:

Our Caramel Delight is a full leaf black tea with real pieces of velvety caramel so divine, it begs your indulgence. Try some with brown crystal sugar. Indulge your taste buds.

Taster’s Review:

I do love caramel!  Next to chocolate, I would say that its my favorite sweet indulgence.  So I was eager to try this tea.

And this is an incredibly sweet, yummy tea.  The black tea base is brisk and pleasant.  It has some astringency to it.  It provides a smooth, solid background of flavor for the caramel, and it even offers just a hint of savory bitterness to help offset the sweetness of the caramel.

It took a few sips for the caramel to really develop for me.  With the first few sips, I could taste hints of caramel, but it really tasted a bit more like burnt sugar to me than creamy caramel.  By the time I got to the half-way point (my cup is half full), the caramel flavor had developed nicely.  It tastes sweet and yummy, although it’s a little on the thin side.  This caramel is not quite as creamy tasting as I had expected it.  It tastes somewhere in between burnt-sugar caramel and creamy caramel.

Overall, this is a pleasant cup of tea.  I do wish that there was more caramel flavor.  As it is, it is black tea with a touch of caramel, and it’s good that way, but my sweet tooth craves just a little more caramel, I think.