I really love this tea. It is one of my favorite rooibos offerings and I was heartbroken when I ran out, especially because I accidentally forgot to boil the water and wasted the remainder of the leaf by steeping it in cold water. Granted this tea is sold by a Toronto company with a website and a storefront so I had access but I never made it to the store and didn’t have interest in enough teas to hit free shipping. I lucked out though because I came across the Tealish booth at the One of a Kind show which meant I got to replenish my stash of this blend.
At the booth, I noticed this was being marketed as an iced tea. I have only had it as a hot tea, which has a crisp strawberry flavored that is tamed by smooth kiwi flavor. The green rooibos is so mellow that the fruity flavors just shine. It is a great caffeine free option for all seasons when hot but if Tealish recommends icing it, who am I to say no? Plus, it is a summery tea that I imagine would be nice for icing when the weather heats up.
Drinking it now, I would say the iced cup is still refreshing and fruity, but I think I still prefer this tea hot. The flavors are flatter iced, with the strawberry not being as sharp and the kiwi fading into the background. The base is more present which isn’t necessarily bad but the true stars here are the fruit flavors and the overpowering presence of the base is dampening their fruity contribution.
Ultimately I still love this tea and I might ice it if I really want something to cool down with in the summertime but at the end of the day, this excels as a hot cup and I will probably continue to prep it that way in the future.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Tealish
Description
Drink this tea and you’ll feel like you’ve just been sprinkled with fairy dust, it’s so good. With notes of strawberry and kiwi, this blend of green rooibos, apple, strawberry, kiwi, orange blossoms, elderflower, and mistletoe, is our favourite way to escape to never never land once (or twice) a day.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Southern Belle from Tealish. . . . . .
Tealish is a loose leaf tea store operating out of Toronto, Canada. They have a great variety of blends inspired by everything from desserts to the many flavors Canada has offer (maple, prairie berry, etc.). Personally I absolutely adore their caffeine free selection; awesome fruit teas and some of the best rooibos teas I have come ever come across (I am looking at you, Fairy Dust Rooibos!).
This blend is one of the many fruit teas by Tealish I like to keep around, especially in the summer. This tea has a focus on stonefruit and unlike others that have tried and failed, it is not overly sweet/cloying. I think there is a tendency to go the peaches-and-cream route when making teas like this and incorporating that cream element often means adding sweeter ingredients and throwing the flavors out of balance. Tealish instead uses a variety of fruits to get that peachy/apricot sweetness while maintaining balance with hibiscus.
With that said, the hibby tartness does take over a bit in the hot brew, as tends to be the case with so many other fruit teas. As a result, this may not be for everyone. One other issue I have noticed with the hot tea is, at times, the fruits can come off a bit waxy. Consequently I enjoy this best iced or as a teapop but the hot cup is still a welcome alternative to the monotonous fruit options offered by so many other companies.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Tealish
Description
The taste of sweet Georgia peaches and juicy apricots combine for an herbal tea that’s just peachy! Real pieces of apricot, peach, apple, pineapple, and elderberries mixed with lemon zest, hibiscus flower, and marigold blossoms.
Southern Belle herbal tea makes an amazing iced tea!
BREWING INSTRUCTIONS: Fruit tea can be steeped for as long as you like. We recommend steeping Southern Belle for 4-6 minutes in boiling water. Use 1 tsp loose leaf tea per 6-8oz of water.
INGREDIENTS: hibiscus blossoms, apple bits, raisins, apricot bits (apricot, rice flour), candied pineapple bits (pineapple, sugar), lemon peels, peach bits (peach, rice flour), marigold petals, flavourings
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Lemon Meringue from Tealish
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green & Red Rooibos
Where to Buy: Tealish
Tea Description:
A colourful blend of green and red rooibos with a smooth lemon taste reminiscent of freshly baked lemon meringue pie. With a delicious zesty lemon flavour and a perfect creamy finish, this red tea infusion is a sweet and healthy treat!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love my green rooibos. Red rooibos- can’t stand the stuff. But green rooibos I simply love and adore.
So the other day when I was going thru my oh so neglected tea stash I stumbled upon this delight. This is one example of why I love Steepster so much. I’m sure this tea came from one of my Steepster friends who wanted to share their tea love with me. Without that person sending me a lovely care package, I’m not sure I would have ever had this tea and that would have been a shame!
First off, the dry leaves smell so sweet and have a lovely lemon baked dessert fragrance. I brewed this up like an herbal-212F-5 minutes and allowed it to cool for a moment.
Wow, does this taste good! This tea tastes like a lemon tart! You can really taste the lemon but it tastes more like a lemon pie filling. Sweet and lush. There is also a tart like flavor that gives the tea more of a dessert quality. This may not taste like a lemon meringue pie but it still tastes amazing! I even had enough left over to try this tea iced and I ended up with the same amazing results. The only flavor I was really missing was the pie like flavor. The rest of them are spot on. I was even able to get a couple infusions out of this tea. I drank this tea to curve my sweet tooth craving that hits me somewhere between 2pm-3pm. It worked too!
I’m pretty impressed with this tea and I’m excited to see that I have more Tealish to try in the future.
