I ordered these samples such a long time ago that I’ve been ripping them open without quite remembering their contents. This morning I ripped open “strawberry blonde” hoping it’d be some kind of strawberry-vanilla black tea, but it’s a strawberry green. Even though I prefer black tea in the morning, I was committed.
This is an adorable number! What a light, sweet blend! The green is a tingling non-vegetal one, which allows the sweet strawberry to hop into the limelight. This flavor is so rich that it tastes like this tea should have calories.
(Speaking of which, why does anyone drink apple or orange juice when they could just drink flavored tea? Or herbal tea? Don’t they know how easy tea is on calories? Straight tea without sugar/honey/whatever is ZERO WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS, guys.)
This is supposed to taste like a strawberry crumble, but I’m not getting anything that tastes like a graham cracker or granola. That said, I don’t particularly care about it being a crumble. I think this stands on its own as just a nice strawberry experience. I suspect that it’d be pretty good iced, too.
I’m a brunette, but I feel pretty included in this blend!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Perkse Tea
Description
❤ A deliciously light green tea with smooth traces of strawberry delight! We source our strawberries from Niagara Region in the province of Ontario.
Our luxury loose leaf teas are carefully blended & packaged by hand within 24 hours prior to shipping. We source directly from farmers/cultivators/tea merchants. Our teas are packaged in an air tight resealable pouch to ensure freshness.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Chocolate Covered Banana from DAVIDs Tea. . .
One of my coworkers ordered Caramel Corn from David’s Tea and accidentally received this instead. (WHOOPS! Seems like somebody over there had a case of the Mondays.) Caffeine of any sort makes her face explode in treacherous boils of acne (she alleges; she’s perfect, so I doubt it). She got a refund. I got the tea.
The ingredients for this tea include “Banana, Blackberry Leaves, Chocolate Chip, Cocoa Bean Shells, Coconut, Currant, Green Yerba Mate, Natural Coconut Flavor, Pineapple.”
Though the tea isn’t currently available, there is a nice blog post about preparing a latté it here.
I didn’t prepare it that way. I can’t even begin to even. That sounds nice, though. If you have a tea on hand that has a similar flavor profile, please try that and report back.
The primary thing I taste in this blend is the cocoa shells, which is like slightly watery hot chocolate from a packet. There’s also a slight inkling of the freeze-dried banana/pineapple, which adds a little bit of a tartness/sassiness to the blend.
Would Elvis approve of this? I’m not sure.
This tea reminds me of one of those tropical-themed parties that happens in the winter. “We’re going to have a boardwalk treat!” the party-owner says, wearing a parrot-head hat and pretending to lean on a plastic, inflatable palm tree. The crowd is wearing leis over their sweaters. They are not sure they can handle the Jimmy Buffett/hula/reggae playlist forever. The basement they are in is not fully heated.
I’m not sure I love this mix, but if anyone ever wants to engage me in a Tea Trade, I will happily send it along!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: DAVIDs Tea
Description
This tea is not currently available but click below for teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
On Wisconsin from A Quarter To Tea. . . .
There’s a classic scene in Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise’s love interest says “You had me at hello.”
Well, this tea had me at “cow sprinkles.”
My coworker is besotted with it! She had some with almond milk and thinks it’s the bee’s knees. She has made off with my sample. She describes it as “delightful.”
On the other hand, I’m not sure this hit the mark for me. I think this might have been better as a black tea rather than an oolong. The vegetal notes in the oolong are kind of distracting with regards to the “sweet” concept. I tried it both with and without almond milk and couldn’t love it while it was in my mouth.
The aftertaste of this tea is lovely, though. It’s a sweet-splosion.
So while it might not have been for me, through-and-through, it was still a novel flavor, and a molasses-infused treat for the morning.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
A sweet and creamy jade oolong with sweet honey and cheesecake flavors and cow sprinkles straight from the dairy state.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Wild Style Black Tea from Old Ways Tea. . . .
A telltale nagging in my throat tells me a cold is underway. So I needed the toughest, most bracing tea out there.
Enter: WILD STYLE BLACK TEA.
You know, a RUGGED, BUTCH, RICH tea that’ll sharply inform my immune system HOW IT IS DONE. No mix-ins. Just the STRAIGHT-UP REAL DEAL. The sort of situation that calls for the CAPS LOCK BUTTON
This tea has a thick and smooth flavor. It’s manly, but in a calming, non-smoky way. It tastes like berries, and growth, and getting a tan. It tastes like soil in softening in preparation for spring. It tastes like a cute man in leather winking at you. It tastes like a winding car ride on perfectly paved road.
It tastes like a glorious warrior defeating a sniveling cold.
I hope.
Fingers crossed.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Old Ways Tea
Description
This wild style black tea is from high mountains above Tongmu village located in the Wuyishan Biodiversity Protection area. A strong but clean floral fragrance is present. The tea is described as wild style due to the conditions in which the trees are allowed to grow. The trees are by no means wild, they are still intentionally grown from known cultivars, but are spaced more widely and allowed to grow more how they please. They are not forced into the neat rows that make cutting more efficient.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Tropical Flip from 52Teas. . . .
HELLO FROM THE TROPICS, MY LOVELIES!
I type to you from my cabana, where a fella with a GIANT leaf is fanning me in addition to the Bahama winds. My skin is tanning, not burning. I have a floppy hat. My hubs and friends are frolicking on the shore, leaving me alone with a novel, some tea, and the giant-leaf-guy. I feel their joy, but do not have to stand up. Ahhhhh.
Oh wait. That isn’t happening at all. I just FELT that way because of this tea. Only the tea is real.
Today’s sipping buddy is Tropical Flip Green Tea by 52Teas, which they sent me in a special sneak-peak-for-reviews package. (They do not, at this time, send out island vacations.) I will not allow the free nature of this tea to sway me; I genuinely love this tea. (Though, for the record, if someone sends me a vacation package, I will say literally anything you want about your teas. I’m open to a cruise, with a meet-a-dolphin excursion and unlimited alcohol.)
Tropical Flip tastes like a pineapple, coconut, and banana smoothie. Sweet and bright. Usually I think that bananas belong on their own, or in breads, not as a flavoring for something else. But here it works. It adds a little bit of a tang that counters the pineapple’s.
I think that the difference between banana-candy (ick!) and this tea (yeah!) is the ingredients. There’s nothing artificial about the flavor at all. I suspect that it’s because there are freeze-dried actual bananas in there instead of some kind of chemical that Mr So-And-So cooked up in his pharmaceutical company’s basement.
So if you want to briefly dip your toes in the sand without actually paying money or shaving your legs, give this a sip. You might be surprised at how transported you’ll be!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.