Let me take you on a little adventuring in brewing this tea, friends. Imagine: a normal office environment. One woman… her desk, full of tea. Her morning: slow and in need of a pick-me-up. Everyone else around her: hacking up a lung from the winter-sick that sets in every year around this time. She’s desiring something that feels a little medicinal, but also tastes good (obviously). Skeptically, she picks up this tea from her stash– “Ooh, ginger!” she thinks. “Oh… green tea?” This isn’t looking good for one such green tea skeptic.
Regardless, she pours some hot water from the tap, giving it a second to cool down, and hesitantly scoops the dry leaf into her cup. Two and half minutes later…
She takes a whiff. “Ooh, grassy– not my favorite,” she ponders. But she persists. A quick sip– “where’d that grassiness go?” she wonders. It’s gone! It’s replaced with spicy, warming, peppery ginger, a light hint of floral and her favorite: sweet and mellow licorice root. Sure, there’s a hint of green-ery (if you will) in the background. But it’s not overwhelmingly herbaceous, as her first sip would’ve had you believing. It’s sweet and warm and unusual, and surprisingly addictive– within a few minutes, she’s downed the whole cup. Who’s a green tea skeptic? Not her, anymore. Another cup? Don’t mind if she does…
And scene.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: BlendBee
Description
You start off with nice and sweet Green Tea, Rose Hips, Licorice Root, Orange Peel and Stevia Leaf. Then your taste buds go for a spin with Ginger and Black Pepper. You’re welcome.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Chocolate Ginger Turmeric from Tiesta Tea. . .
I’ll be honest, tea friends– rooibos still gives me pause. Every time a red rooibos tea shows up at my front door, I’m skeptical– will it taste woodsy? Will it have that distinct rooibos… tang (?) that I’m just so very not-fond of? I’m not a total anti-rooibos crusader, but I am exceptionally picky about the red teas that I’ll let into my cuppa.
When this one showed up in a recent sample package, I was… skeptical, to say the least. But lo! Chocolate? Ginger? Turmeric? Those are three of my favorite things! Would they be enough to place this offering solidly in the “win” category? The answer, I’m so pleased to say– is YES.
This herbal is perfect for turmeric lovers– both the flavor AND that omnipresent, don’t-spill-on-your-cheap-apartment-countertops-for-fear-they-will-be-yellowed-forever signature color are here in spades. Balanced by a tiny hint of ginger and cinnamon spice lingering in the background and rounded out not necessarily by saccharine sweet chocolate, but rather nutty, dark notes from the cocoa shell– this blend is a winner. I’ve been particularly loving it with just a touch of frothed coconut milk on top, no sweetner needed– in a season that is often punctuated by stress, it’s been the perfect, caffeine-free treat for both slow mornings and nightly wind-downs alike. Fellow rooibos skeptics, give this one a try!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Tiesta Tea
Description
The perfect trifecta. When an ache or ailment comes creeping in, ginger and turmeric team up to kick it to the curb while chocolate follows closely behind to smooth everything over. With this unrivaled trio on your side, you’ll be invincible.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
D’s Teas– Pancake Breakfast, Marshmallow Treat, Graveyard Mist from 52Teas . . . ..
If you missed the announcement in my previous post, our beloved and super-talented tea-blending friends at 52 Teas have recently launched a permanent line (yes friends, you heard me correctly) of teas! D’s Teas features all of the ultimate fan favorites from 52 Teas over the years: Pancake Breakfast black tea, Marshmallow Treat genmaicha, and Graveyard Mist green tea. If you’re curious about the history behind these beloved blends, check out my previous post. If you’re ready to hear the low-down on their delightful sip-ability, you’ve come to the right place! Let’s chat about each one individually:
Pancake Breakfast: is where we start. A robust black tea with calendula petals offering a lovely, maple-syrup-y variance in color, this tea smells like straight-up starchy, delicious pancakes. When my samples of these three arrived, this was the one that I could smell through the package. THIS was the one that my dark-and-malty-tea-loving fiance was ready to tear into at a moment’s notice. It brews up beautifully strong, almost like an English Breakfast, with syrupy maple notes perfectly balanced alongside the starchy, bread-y flavors of cooked breakfast cake. There’s something magical about 52 Teas’ flavors: a maple tea is never just a one-note maple tea. Sure, you can add maple to a black tea and call it a day, but this blend harnesses all the nuance of a true pancake (sweet, bready, starchy, slightly savory, fully syrupy, a little buttery) and packs it all into one cuppa. This one, I’m happy to say, makes an incredible tea latte, sweetened with a hint of– you guessed it– maple syrup.
Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha: As a fairly new fan of genmaichas– roasty, toasty, popped-rice greens– I was eager to dive into this one. How would the flavors vary from the few standards genmaichas I’ve begun to dip my toes into? First things first– this one boasts the addition of marshmallow root, my favorite creamy-herbal addition to tea, kicking the flavors to next-level sweet n’ creamy. Still harnessing the traditional toasty-green that I’ve come to love from genmaichas, this one uses a matcha-infused genmaicha (as Anne explained in our interview) that gives this green the perfect vegetal kick to round out the sweetness of the marshmallow-y notes. I drank this one straight, but I’d love to see what a touch of foam on top does for that already-present creamy factor. Yet again, D’s Teas knocks it out of the park!
Graveyard Mist: Oh, this tea. This delicious, magical tea. I’d been lucky enough to give this one a try before, when Sororitea Sister Nichole aka CuppaGeek- shared a sampling from her precious stash. I’d heard Nichole rave about this one– minty, creamy, green, fresh– so frequently that she practically had me salivating. This tea truly lives up to the sense of place set by its slightly spooky name– picture a foggy, chilly morning, mist rolling in across a centuries-old stone graveyard– yup. If that mist had a flavor, it’d be green tea-meets-marshmallow-with-some-spearmint-for-fun, yah? Yeah. This tea is crisp and bright, with a pillow-y vanilla mouthfeel that is unmatched by any green I’ve ever had. It’s minty, sure, but it’s a more delicate, fresh, and vanilla-y mint than say, a traditional peppermint. Think those green star mint candies as opposed to the red. But better. This one is as spectacular on ice as it is hot, and defies all logic to be perfectly appropriate morning or night, any season, in any mood. It’s one of those tea, you guys– simply magical.
It’s clear why these three are the teas that Anne and her team chose to bring back permanently. 52 Teas devotees and newbies alike can now stock up on some of the blends that make this brand such a crowd favorite! And if these three are any indication, I’d recommend you stock up on as much as you can find. Even permanently-stocked, these are bound to be snapped up quickly.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black/Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
Every once in a while, we craft a very special tea – well, we think all our teas are pretty special! But sometimes, one is so special that it’s beloved by our customers and requested for reblends on a regular basis.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Cucumber Berry Lemonade from A Quarter To Tea. . . .
I can pretty much always count on A Quarter to Tea for incredible blends. For real– I belong to another tea of the month club that I just adore, but AQTT’s is the one that I pick up when I REALLY want to treat myself and have some super quirky and fun blends that I wouldn’t normally try out– enter this Cucumber Berry Lemonade white tea blend!
First things first: this blend came with REAL, DRIED CUCUMBER in it. You guys. I just can’t get over how cool it was to see a legit slice of cuke in my tea. The freeze-dried berries were slightly less plentiful, but the lemongrass was abundant. And was it ever noticeable in this blend! Of course I iced this one, and it was absolutely delightful. The brew was reminiscent of that ubiquitous “spa water”– you know, served in fancy glass dispensers with slices of lemon and cucumber floating around like they own the place– that stuff. It’s crisp and clean and fresh, from the cucumber. It’s lemony and bright, from the lemongrass. It’s tart and fruity, from the berries. It’s everything I dreamed it’d be by name alone, and more! It’s delicious enough cold-brewed with nothing added, but a tiny splash of lemonade to finish takes it over the top.
Again, AQTT knocks it out of the park!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
Tart lemonade with sweet berries and cooling cucumber. Definitely one to try iced!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Hot Cinnamon Spice from Harney & Sons. . .
A very palpable shift happens to me around the end of August. Whereas starting in early spring, I’m drinking iced teas like they’re literal manna from heaven, suddenly when autumn starts to peek its head around the corner, I abandon all my cold beverages. Jars upon jars of iced tea sit in the fridge, un-sipped (the horror!)– I’m just not FEELING it anymore, friends.
Alternatively, suddenly, all of my spiciest chais, warmest and more comforting flavors of black tea are suddenly getting all the air time. I’ve been blowing through my current stash of black teas like they’re going out of style, doctoring them up into tasty lattes, sipped as I drive to work in that brisk, summer’s-almost-gone morning air. So you can imagine, when sifting through my tea samples to find more autumnal, latte-ify-able teas, this one was just begging to be brewed. So potent is the scent that I’ve literally had to stash this one away from any other teas lest it impart its warm, spicy flavor on my delicate greens, it’s a perfect fall cuppa. The robust black tea is balanced well by the cinnamon spice– and it’s spice, indeed. Think Red Hots candy, minus the chemically, fake candy flavor. This tea packs a PUNCH, and it is not only incredible sniff-able, but takes milk and sweet quite well, making for the perfect latte to sip while you watch the leaves begin to change and fill your home with cinnamon-y candles and adorable pumpkin décor. This tea is for fall, for sure. And autumn is indeed right around the corner– I’ll drink to that!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Description
Our most popular flavored tea worldwide, Hot Cinnamon Spice is an assertive blend of black teas, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves. No sugar added. Kosher. (n.b. Hot Cinnamon Spice & Hot Cinnamon Sunset are the same tea; the name varies only in certain packaging).
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!