I first had this at a child’s birthday party and totally wasn’t paying attention. I was like “I’m gonna TAKE NOTES in my SKETCHBOOK and write an ELOQUENT POST UPON MY RETURN.” But then I got sucked into pizza! cake! balloons! reading children’s books aloud! putting outfits on toys! The only thing I vaguely remembered was the thought that I wanted MORE HONEY from the tea.
So this time I made it again, carefully, at home, with zero distractions* and a tiny half-spoonful of honey.
*Except for my dog trying to jump on the couch and falling off. I laughed.
This is a really tasty sweet mix. There’s the honey in the tea, plus the honey I added, plus this roasty, mellow, underlying mate.
A good mate is like hardwood floors. They’re a classy base for whatever you’re putting on top. Are you going to get some classic furniture? Some showy furniture? Everything looks good on hardwood floors.
If I were to continue this metaphor (and there’s nothing I love more), the honey in this tea is the big puffy couch with lots of pillows that rests on that floor. It’s straight-up hygge.*
* That’s the Scandanavian word for sitting around drinking tea in a blanket, enjoying the comforts of winter.
So take it easy, Internet. Drink some honey with your honey tea and just devote the afternoon to enjoyment.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Mate
Where to Buy: East Indies Coffee & Tea
Description
- honey taste with teddy bear sprinkles and flavoring
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Chocolate Coconut Latte from East Indies Tea Company
Some Mondays you want to get kicked violently into gear; other weeks need a gentler approach. Today I decided coconut & white chocolate would be a gradual entry into another 6-day workweek. I wanted the caress of subtle flavors and a bit of black tea.
This tea totally delivered on that. The flavors are sweet and subtle. The green tea mellows the black tea, and the coconut sweetens the deal.
This is not a combat-boot-to-the-teeth tea. This is the Good Cop of teas. I would absolutely make a confession to this tea.
“Yeah,” I’d say, “I accept the plea bargain. I’ll sign the confession. Mostly because I really like you, but also because I committed the crime. I stole those 8 puppies from the pet store and cuddled with them in a giant nest chair for 3 days, with regular potty breaks and snacks, of course. It was me. I was caught puppy-handed.”
Please ship this to me in jail, Sisters.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: East Indies Tea & Coffee
No Longer on the site, but these are the flavors they offer!
Whoopie Pie from East Indies Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The East Indies Tea Company
Tea Description:
Black tea, whoopie pie taste with chocolate bits, white chocolate bits, cocoa powder and sparkling sugars
Taster’s Review:
A while back, there was a group buy to East Indies Tea Company, a company that seems to be a distributor for a lot of smaller tea companies. Since we had quite a group of us, we were able to purchase some of the teas that would not necessarily be available to us otherwise.
This one intrigued me for some reason. I normally do not enjoy a chocolate tea and do try to stay away from them. In general, I am just not a fan of chocolate. Weird, right?
Whoopie Pie is made up of white chocolate and milk chocolate. The tea itself smells like a cookie. Incredibly sweet. I brewed this up as a black tea-212F-3 min for my steeping parameters.
I shared this one with the upstairs dwelling twin teenagers so I’m curious to see what they think. I took my first sip and yes, this tea is right up a chocolate fans alley. The chocolate is sweet and silk like. I don’t pick up any artificial notes and am enjoying the cuppa I have. But I can say that this is not a tea that I would want any more of and keep looking at my cup wishing that the tea would magically disappear. I can see this tea as being a great tea to drink while trying to stay away from a chocolate snack at 2pm when those cravings start to hit.
For chocolate fans and chocolate tea fans, if you have the chance check this out one. As for me, this tea will be finding a new home.
Miss Figgy Black from The East Indies Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The East Indies Tea Company
Tea Description:
Fig taste with dried figs and pink pig sprinkles.
Learn more about this on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
Despite being pretty much over my ‘sprinkles in tea’ phase, this tea drew me in with the combination of pig sprinkles in the blend and the fun, whimsical name and the promise of fig flavour. In my humble opinion, there aren’t nearly enough fig blends and any chance I have to try a new one is one I’m going to take!
However, when I cracked open my sealed 2 oz. package of this blend I was hit with something I hadn’t been prepared for; the strong, piercing aroma of lavender! The lack of comprehensive ingredients lists on East Indie’s website it definitely a valid criticism; while a super generic blurb has worked out in my favor in the past in this case I feel like I was failed – I cannot stand lavender, and had I known this blend had so much of it I’m sure I would’ve been persuaded against this tea despite wanting to try ‘all the fig’.
Regardless, I cold brewed myself up a mason jar worth of tea because you never really know how a tea is going to taste for sure until you try it, so despite major reservations there was still a chance this could be alright. Sadly, I just couldn’t get over that concentrated lavender flavour. It was floral in a soapy, artificial way that made me feel like I’d licked all of the counters and shelves in a Bath & Body Works store. Any fig that was in this blend, and I know there was because I could see the dried out pieces in the leaf along with the adorable pig sprinkles, was completely masked. I was not impressed.
My overall opinion is that personally I found this blend as irksome as the puppet it’s playfully named for – and if you’re looking for fig look elsewhere. However, if you’re a fan of lavender and want to try a strong lavender blend over a black base you’re in luck.
Persimmon Gelato Rooibos from The East Indies Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: The East Indies Tea Company
Tea Description:
There is nothing better than sitting on the porch on a warm Spring day with a cup of creamy gelato. Imagine the taste of fresh, ripe persimmons in the gelato, just dancing around your taste buds!
Learn more about this tea on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
…Persimmon Gelato?
…Persimmon Gelato!
That’s such a unique and fascinating flavour idea, and the minute I saw it on East Indie’s website I knew that I had to try it. For anyone who isn’t aware of East Indies Tea Company, they’ve got some really interesting and well executed flavoured blends. Their ‘specialty’ is probably dessert blends. Also, for people not aware they seem to be the supplier for most of, if not all of, Della Terra Tea’s blends – a company pretty well known for having wonderful flavoured dessert blends.
When I cracked open my sealed up package of this the smell was really overwhelming; I honestly have only had persimmons once or twice and I found that they tasted like a very sweet tomato, almost with an orange-y flavour. The aroma of the dry leaf certainly causes me to relive that experience; it’s intensely sweet and fruity with a strong citrusy scent that makes me think of really ripe mandarin oranges or perhaps very ripe mangoes. Visually, there’s lots of dried fruit (Persimmon? I wish there was an ingredients list for this blend) in the leaf as well as a multitude of little yogurt drop type things. All of this in conjunction had me very, very pumped to get this tea steeped up!
I gave this a nice, long steep to make sure I drew out as much flavor as I could and to also give the many yogurt drops time to fully melt. I was somewhat worried that when they did melt the liquor would either get a little oily or I’d get “yogurt scum” similar to what happens with melted chocolate chips but neither really happened and the liquor was very smooth and thick. The flavour was quite wonderful too; while I ultimately think the gelato aspect of the blend could have come across better, as it was basically just added creaminess from the yogurt drops, the persimmon was very well executed! Persimmons, simplified, are basically just very sweet tomatoes and that came through. I got that wonderful umami flavor that a tomato has that manages to linger all over your mouth, but also fruity notes that made me think of very, very ripe mango or either naval oranges or really ripe, in season mandarin oranges.
Anti-rooibos tea drinkers be warned though, while the flavor is strong and lively it doesn’t completely mask that rooibos base so expect to taste it alongside the lovely persimmon/citrus notes. But overall this is just a really wonderful, unique flavored rooibos and I’m extremely happy with it and definitely recommend trying it if you find yourself with the chance to.