You know that episode of Friends where Rachel accidentally combines two recipes and makes a trifle with ladyfingers, jam, and beef sautéed with peas and onions? My favorite part comes shortly thereafter when Joey takes a bite and loves it. With his mouth full, he proclaims “Custard: good. Jam: goooood. Meat: good!”
I promise you, this tea tastes nothing like a custard-y jam trifle with a layer of beef and peas. HOWEVER. I was totally inspired by Joey when coming up with my review. Apple cider? Good. Tea? Goood. Green Rooibos? Good!
This one is a delightful apple cider tea– all that you’d expect to be there is present: cinnamon-y spices, apple, light green rooibos notes. There’s not too much unexpected about this tea, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a solid herbal with great flavors that are exactly what you’d expect from a tea named as such. Or as Joey would say? It’s goooood.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Design A Tea
Description
This tea was created on the Design A Tea site.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Coconut Green Tea Anyone? #PacificTea
Whenever Pacific Tea Company is located, I can with pretty good authority say it’s probably not close to me, you guys. This blend (dubbed “Local Hideaway”), had it been a hideaway local to ME– would probably taste like a snow-covered forest floor. Or a tundra-infused Great Lake. Needless to say, all of the hideaways local to my current home are not exactly flavors you’d want steeping in your cup.
But luckily, wherever is local to Pacific Tea tastes far, far better than here. This green blend is strong on the vegetal green notes at the front of the sip, with delightfully fresh coconut-and-vanilla lingering at the end. I’m still coming around on grassy green teas, so at first sip, I wasn’t too sure if this would be the brew for me.
But it’s absolutely redeemed and made all the more interesting by those sweetly lingering tropical notes at the end of each sip.
Pacific Tea, wherever you are, I’m comin’ for ya. If this is what your local hideaways taste like, I want to go to there.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Pacific Tea
Description
Take me back to the summer of enveloping coconut trees on roads less travelled. Lingering notes of coconut, carob, liquorice and vanilla remind of days better spent.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
An Elevated Herbal from High Garden Tea
This is another one I picked up on my trip to the motherland (aka High Garden Tea in Nashville) recently. From the few I’ve tried thus far, I’ve been super impressed by High Garden’s blends, particularly their herbals.
This one, a blend of chamomile, rose petals, hibiscus, schisandra berries, orange peel and lemongrass, is a spot-on match between flavors and the name. It evokes that warm, mulled tea goodness that I’d associate with a cozy apple blend in the autumn (with surprisingly no apple to speak of in the mix), but a bit more sophisticated.
There’s something… elevated about this mix. Like apple pie with a top hat. Or strolling through orchards in a fur coat.
It resteeps beautifully, and goes down just as well hot as it does iced. Now let’s go bobbing for apples covered in diamonds and really long, fancy gloves.
Elevated, you guys. I’m telling you.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: High Garden Tea
Description
Click below for teas you can find online.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Mary chats about Francesca from Sicilian Tea Company. . . .
I’ve been hit by the mini-plague that’s been circling my world for a few weeks, you guys. I say mini-plague because truly– it’s not all that bad compared to the stomach virus/insane flu that many close to me have had lately, but still– this cold I’m rocking? I’m not a fan of it.
And to manage it as best I can, I’ve been hopped up on vitamin C, broth-y soups, and triple the amount of tea I’m usually sipping (which is… a lot). I felt it first coming on at work the other day, so I immediately dug deep into my desk tea drawer and procured this beaut. Chamomile, cinnamon, licorice? GIMME.
This isn’t my first sip from Sicilian Tea Co., and I have to say, I can definitely see a delicious thread woven between all the blends that I’ve tried. Strong herbal presence with hearty flavors and sweet lingering licorice at the end of the sip describes well all the blends I’ve tried this far, and this one is no different.
Even with the abundant chamomile in the dry leaf, I’m getting mostly licorice with a hint of cinnamon. Which isn’t a bad thing, don’t get me wrong! I loved the naturally-sweet-hint-of-spice flavors that came through, the perfect remedy for my sniffles and sore throat. I wish I would’ve been able to detect just a touch more of the lavender and chamomile, but even then, this is definitely a blend I’ll be picking up again.
Especially if this plague sticks around any longer. Drowning sniffles in endless cups of tea is a tried-and-true home remedy, right?
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Sicilian Tea Company
Description
Don’t go to bed alone. Take this cup of chamomile with you.
Naturally caffeine free, this chamomile blend won’t keep you up all night like some other sleepy time treats.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
In Love With My Teapot #Redbird Glass Teapot #AmericanGongfu . . . . .
I’m in love, you guys.
With a teapot. (Okay, also my fiancé. But we’re not talking about him today.)
Let me give you a little background on how I usually brew my tea. Wayyy back in the day when I began to understand that loose tea is generally preferable to pre-bagged (though I’m no purist– especially in a pinch!), I started brewing my loose tea by filling my own bags, or using a mesh tea ball infuser. This went on for a while, but really, I wasn’t getting much more out of my cuppa than from my already-bagged teas. I’d occasionally brew in a teapot, but usually only if I was making a brew for my aforementioned dude and I to drink together, as my teapot made more than I could feasibly drink on my own. Fast forward to the gravity steeper days– better, and oooh, so pretty whilst brewing– but my gravity steeper is plastic, and I generally try to shy away from hot things + plastic. Strike two.
Enter: this pretty little contraption. All glass + stainless steel? Check! (My hippie heart is super happy about this one.) Cute, vintage appeal with its swoopy, rounded base and little bubble-topped lid? Check. The perfect size to brew two small cups (hello, perfect for tea-time-with-fiancé)? CHECK. Alternatively– the perfect size to brew one giant, Mary-sized cup? CHECK AND CHECK.
More bonuses? It’s easy to clean– even my giant-handled scrub brush fits inside– and doesn’t hold the color of the tea after cleaning (which other teaware of mine has a tendency to do), and for a glass teapot, actually holds the heat of the tea well enough that if I come back for a second cup, I don’t have to reheat. Woo hoo!
“If you love it so much, Mary, why don’t you marry it?” Good question, tea-friends. I still plan to marry that dude of mine (and not this teapot, unfortunately), however– I forsee the three of us having many a happy tea-sipping years together to come. One happy, tea-loving family!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Teaware
Where to Buy: American Gongfu
Description
DURABLE BOROSILICATE LAB GLASS is transparent and crystal clear; safe for use on glass-top and ceramic-top ranges and all newer electric ranges; great for viewing tea color of brewing loose tea, herbal teas and tisanes, and blooming and flower teas. It’s cute but still sturdy enough for daily use and is more heat and shatter resistant than pyrex. You can use it as a small kettle to boil water, or you can pour hot tea over ice for iced tea. Use it on the gas burner, over a flame or candle.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!