Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
If this tea doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, you might just be the Grinch. With premium shou mei white tea, almonds, ginger, orange peel, cinnamon chips, a few cloves, marshmallow root and organic flavors, combine this tea with a nice crackling fire in the fireplace and someone to snuggle up to on the couch, and you’ll be in holiday heaven.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn how to subscribe to 52Teas’ Tea of the Week program here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! It’s no big surprise to me that this tea is already sold out! With a name like “Christmas Cookie” – who could resist, right? And it’s oh so tasty!
The aroma of the dry leaf was a little off for me. I could smell the spices and those were very pleasant to the nose, but I also picked up on a slight chemical-y note to the dry leaf fragrance. I hoped that this would disappear after brewing (usually, that flavor oil smell does dissipate in the brewing process).
To brew this, I used my Kati tumbler and added 1 heaping bamboo scoop to the basket and 12 ounces of hot water (heated to 170°F) and let the tea steep for 3 minutes.
The brewed tea smells warm and gently spiced. I’m not picking up on any of the aforementioned chemical-y notes – a good thing! It smells like gramma’s kitchen at Christmastime when she’s baking all those magical cookies that she used to bake. I smell spice cookies and almond cookies. I smell hints of orange. My mouth is watering and wishing it was eating cookies right about now!
And the flavor is delightful. I don’t know that I’m actually tasting cookies as much as I’m smelling them from this tea. I think that there should be more of the buttery, cake-y, pastry flavors that 52Teas does so well here. Maybe a tad more marshmallow root to emphasize the cookie aspect rather than the spiced aspect of this tea. As it is, it tastes like a mild chai made with a white tea base rather than a cookie.
I find that as it cools, the flavor improves a bit and the baked goods flavor seems to develop a little. However, it never becomes fully realized. I find myself wanting to taste something more “bake-y” – brown sugar? Buttery cookie? Pastry/cake flavors? Even a hint of icing might help bring the “Christmas Cookie” to life just a little more.
The white tea has a smooth and silky texture. It’s not bitter or overly astringent. It’s sweet and has a delicate flavor that is lightly vegetal (more like hay than grass or steamed veggies). I appreciate that I distinctly taste TEA here and those flavors have not been overpowered by the presence of the strong spice and other flavors.
Since this is a white tea, I decided to resteep it and see how it turns out. YES! There it is! That cookie flavor! This tea MUST be resteeped to get to that yummy cookie flavor. I even taste a hint of frosting!
As I said before, it’s clear to me why this flavor has sold out – not only is the name of the tea tempting but the taste is delightful!
Vanilla Almond Black Tea Blend from The Secret Garden Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Secret Garden Tea Co.
Tea Description:
One of our staff favourites! Pair with desserts such as marzipan pear tarts, lavender shortbread, and chocolate bon-bons for a decadent treat.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
This Vanilla Almond Tea from Secret Garden is so smooth!
By the time I started writing this review, I was more than halfway finished with my first cup! It is just so tasty and so unbelievably smooth and easy to drink that it began to disappear quickly.
The dry leaf is quite appealing to the eye with lots of almond slivers and bright orange-yellow petals (calendula and sunflower) mixed in with the dark brown tea leaves. To brew this tea, I used my Breville One-Touch and added 2 bamboo scoops to the basket and poured 500ml of water into the jug. I set the temperature to 212°F and the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and I let the machine do it’s thing.
The tea brews up dark and sweet smelling. I can pick up on delicate notes of almond and vanilla but mostly what I’m smelling is the black tea. It’s not an overly fragrant brewed tea but I still find the aroma quite pleasant. It reminds me a bit of freshly baked cookies!
But the real treat is in the sip. As I mentioned above, it is one of the smoothest teas I’ve tasted lately. There is very little astringency, especially the first few sips. Now that I’m nearly finished with my first cup, I am picking up on more astringency than I experienced at the beginning of the cup. It’s a slightly dry sensation that I’m experiencing but it’s quite slight especially in comparison to other black teas that I’ve consumed.
This is so smooth from start to finish. It starts out smooth and creamy, I pick up on the vanilla immediately. As the sip progresses, I notice the almond and the sweet, nutty flavor accentuates the creamy, sweet vanilla tones beautifully. These two flavors were made for one another!
The black tea is a smooth, even-tasting black tea. It’s probably a Ceylon. It isn’t an aggressive, astringent, bitter or overly robust black tea. It is smooth. It melds amazingly well with the flavors of almond and vanilla. There is a slight caramel-y undertone to the black tea that further highlights the sweetness of this blend. I like that it is a sweet drink but not cloying.
Because it isn’t an overly sweet or cloying tea, I think it would make the perfect tea to serve along with dessert. You really wouldn’t want something too sweet paired with dessert because the dessert is already sweet. This is smooth, not too robust nor is it bitter or overly astringent. It wouldn’t detract from the delightful confection that you’re enjoying for dessert.
It would also make a lovely afternoon tea. A great tea to choose for a tea party or perhaps something to serve to guests after dinner. I find it to be a very “welcoming” sort of tea. When I sip it, I feel like it’s communicating to me: “Welcome home.”
Organic Vanilla Almond Black Tea from Boston Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Boston Tea Co.
Tea Description:
As you open the envelope of this certified organic tea, the luscious scents of vanilla will surround you. A silken sachet filled with our premium organic blend of Chinese and Inidan black teas, slices of organic almonds and vanilla. This tea will soothe your soul with every sip.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Organic Vanilla Almond Black Tea from Boston Tea Co. is certainly fragrant! The scent of vanilla and almond is getting my taste buds happy! I steeped one of the pyramid sachets in 8 ounces of boiling water for three minutes, and this produced a flavorful, aromatic cup.
The black tea base is a blend of teas and it’s a rich, full-bodied cup that not only supports the strong flavors of almond and vanilla well, but is able to stand out and be tasted in the presence of the flavors. There is some astringency to the cup, I’d categorize it as a moderate, dry astringency.
The vanilla and almond are well matched. It’s sweet, nutty, and warm, evoking thoughts of autumn – and at this point with all this way too warm weather, I’m wondering when autumn will finally get here! I’m ready for it and this tea is reminding me of how much I miss it.
The flavor combination of almond and vanilla give this an almost “cookie” like flavor, and the smooth, delicious flavor of the tea complements that profile. This is a tea that is strong enough to serve as the first cup of the day and would take the additions of milk and honey well if you want to add them (I liked it just fine served straight up though!) It would also make a nice afternoon cup or a tea to serve to guests. It’s a warm, welcoming type of flavor.
This tea tastes alright iced, but I think I prefer it hot. Especially since the taste is so cookie-like! I like my cookies when they’re still warm, and I prefer this tea when it’s still warm too.
Winter Forest Green Tea Blend from ArtfulTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: ArtfulTea or ArtfulTea on Etsy
Tea Description:
A festive blend of almond and orange with a strong pine-like flavor. Chinese sencha and Japanese bancha combine beautifully with refreshing orange and nutty almonds for a lift in any season!
Ingredients: green tea, orange slices, almonds, pink peppercorns, safflower and natural flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yeah, I know that it’s the middle of summer right now and we shouldn’t be thinking about winter right now, but, when I read the description of this tea, I just couldn’t resist ordering it as part of my ArtfulTea Sampler. The idea of almond and orange in a green tea was definitely enough to spark my interest, but then when I read “pine” in the description, I was sold! I needed to try it!
And this is totally yum! I’m so glad I decided to give this one a try.
The green tea base is a combination of Japanese Bancha and Chinese Sencha, and these two teas impart a sweet, slightly grassy, slightly buttery taste to the cup. The mouthfeel is thick and soft, evoking thoughts of a rich broth, but it tastes more sweet than a savory broth would. There is no bitterness to the cup and very little astringency. The astringency is something that I pick up on when I focus on the sip. Just after the sip is finished, I start to notice a slight dryness. It’s very slight – so slight that those who are sensitive to astringency would most likely not even notice it unless they’re actually trying to find it.
The buttery notes of the tea seem to marry well with the almond notes. I suspect that the green tea has some nutty tones to it that accentuate the almond flavors, elevating them into a strong focal point of the sip.
The orange is a little less dominate than the almond. The orange is nice though, because it brightens the cup, adding just the right zesty flavor where it’s needed.
And I do taste a subtle pine note to this too. I’m not sure where it comes from, unless it’s part of the “natural flavors.” It’s not an overwhelming note, but it is there. I like it, it adds a certain crispness to the cup, like the sensation of the cool, invigorating air in winter just after the snow has fallen.
If I had to describe this in a couple of words, I would say that this tastes like a winter dessert. Like an almond cake or pastry with a drizzle of orange icing, eaten on a winter evening just after the holiday tree (a fresh, real tree!) has been decorated. It’s quite nice!
Almond Milk Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
You can also learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I recently ordered a few of the newer iced tea flavors that Southern Boy Teas has added to their line, and I’m excited for that order to arrive. This Almond Milk Flavored Iced Tea is the last of the “new-to-me” iced tea flavors that I have in my cupboard right now. Don’t take that as my way of saying that I’m running out of tea (nothing could be further from the truth), but I have run out of new to me iced teas … at least until that order arrives.
And to be honest, I wasn’t sure how I’d like this tea. I mean, I like almond milk alright, I guess. I’m not a big drinker of milk (almond or otherwise), and really, milk’s only purpose as far as I’m concerned is to pour over cereal or to add to tea when I’m feeling like I want a latte. The latte doesn’t happen very often, because I really would rather drink a tea straight up. Every once in a while, though, I’d like that creaminess of a latte, so on those occasions, I do add a splash of milk to my tea. But they are rare occasions. I’m just not all that into milk.
But I am in to tea! So, I figured hey, I like tea and the black tea base that 52Teas/SBT uses for thier Southern Boy Teas iced teas is quite a lovely black tea. Rich and flavorful, not overly astringent, and not bitter. And since I don’t hate almond milk, I thought that this tea had a pretty good chance of success.
And I am actually liking this a whole lot more than I thought I would. In fact, after I poured my first glass of this tea to sit down and write this review, I had to stop writing and go and refill my glass because I was enjoying it so much. At this rate, I might very well have the half gallon pitcher of tea nearly empty by the time I finish writing the review.
I can really taste the almond here, and there is a lovely creamy element to the cup as well. It tastes sweet and nutty and it’s a very refreshing drink. The black tea base is tasty and melds in a pleasant way with the almond milk flavor. It reminds me a lot of a lighter version of Thai iced tea, and I suspect that is why I’m liking it so much. Thai iced tea – serious yum. This … is also serious yum!
Now I’m thinking I wish I would have tried this tea before I placed that order, because I want more of this! This is great!