Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tea Leaf Co.
Tea Description:
A perfect cup of all natural apple cider to warm you up this autumn and winter.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The last couple of weeks have been crazy and the next week is going to be even more so – so it’s nice to have a tea like this Soul Good Organic Oolong from Tea Leaf Co. to help me collect myself and find a sense of calm. Tea is delightful like that – I love how I can sip it and it helps to de-stress me.
And what a delightful tea this is!
Even though it’s not autumn or winter – I am enjoying this cup of “apple cider” tea. It’s pleasantly sweet with a nice essence of apple and warm spices. And even though these flavors are prominent, they don’t overwhelm the sweet Oolong tea which appears to be a Tie Guan Yin based on the little green pellets of tea that I saw when I was measuring out the tea.
And the flavor and texture suggests a Tie Guan Yin tea to me. It’s sweet and has a soft, slightly creamy mouthfeel. There’s a light, buttery flavor to the tea that melds quite beautifully with the notes of apple and the spices.
The ginger is really nice – it’s warm and peppery without being too spicy. Generally when I think “apple cider,” I think of cinnamon flavor but I like that ginger is the star of this show – I’m really enjoying how nicely the apple and ginger taste together.
And the apple is wonderful here – it’s a strong flavor. My own experience with tea blending has taught me that apple can be a difficult flavor to nail but Tea Leaf Co. has nailed it here! It’s sweet and apple-y and authentic! This tastes very true-to-the-fruit!
A really lovely tea – and while it does have a very autumnal flavor to it, this is something I can see myself enjoying year round!
Organic Teatox Tea from Fit Life Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Fit Life Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Say goodbye to weight gain, bloating and digestive stress. Two daily cups of Organic Teatox can help burn fat, stimulate weight loss, boost your immune system and cleanse your digestive system.
Our pyramid tea bag extracts maximum flavor to infuse more essential oils and flavor into your cup. Steeping releases purifying dynamic ingredients that can ease bloating and, together with proper diet and exercise, help promote weight loss.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve never been one to go for the whole ‘detox’ or weight loss tea fads that are going around because I basically don’t buy it. I’ve been drinking tea for years and I simply do not believe that simply drinking tea (or a specially crafted tea blend) will cause significant weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you need to change your overall diet and you need to exercise. Drinking tea isn’t going to be your miracle weight loss cure. If it was, after drinking all the tea I’ve consumed over the last ten years, I’d have a body like Jennifer Aniston. I don’t.
But, that doesn’t mean that drinking tea doesn’t offer you some great health benefits because I believe that there are health benefits to tea. I just don’t think it’s the cure-all that some tea companies try to suggest in an effort to sell their product. But as long as you find a tea that also tastes great, there’s nothing wrong with adding tea to your diet to enjoy some health benefits.
But you’re not going to know if it tastes great until you try it – .so I decided that I’d give this Organic Teatox Tea from Fit Life Tea Company a try
To steep this tea, I placed 1 sachet in an 8 ounce teacup and heated freshly filtered water to 195°F. Then I poured the heated water over the sachet and let it steep for 6 minutes. Then I let it cool completely before I poured it into the Fit Life BPA-Free Plastic Bottle (I’ll review that in a few days!) and refrigerated it to get it nice and cold.
Before I let it cool, I did take a sip of the hot tea to determine if I liked it better hot or cold. (Since they did send me the bottle, I decided that I needed to try it iced!) And so I’ll start by saying that this tisane is definitely better iced. The hibiscus loses some of its biting tartness. Oh, it’s still tart, but, it’s not quite as tart as what I experienced from the hot tea.
Fortunately, the apple in this softens the tartness of the hibiscus just a bit. And the allspice gives it a nice little hint of spice. I think hibiscus is much better when it’s in the midst of some spice like it is here. The contrast between the warm spice and the tart hibiscus works nicely.
Overall, this is actually quite tasty. The combination of the tart hibiscus, the sweet apple and the warmth of the allspice creates a very palatable taste. I would recommend to not oversteep this, at 6 minutes, there is a pleasant texture to the drink, but I think if I had steeped it longer, it might have been a tad too syrupy. If you like that kind of texture from your hibiscus beverages – then go for it!
It surprises me to say this, but I’d drink this again. That’s not something I’d say often about a tea with hibiscus as the main ingredient, so kudos to Fit Life Tea!
Fit Life Tea Company has this Teatox in two different sizes, a 14 day detox and a 28 day detox.
Ginger Apple Swirl Tea from Pooki’s Mahi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Rooibos.
Where to Buy: Pooki’s Mahi
Tea Description:
The latest craze in cocktails inspired the infusion of real fruit, herbs, and flowers with tea. Pooki’s Mahi Ginger Apple Swirl martini is a light and delicious tea cocktail. The novo martea’ni is fresh on the palate blending green rooibos, cinnamon, ginger, and Yunwu into a sweet “bomb.” Apple bits contribute a zesty tart green apple flavor while cornflowers eases sweetness without losing the crisp finish. Pooki’s Mahi Ginger Apple Swirl is one libation no one should miss after a hard day at the office.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Since starting with the SororiTea Sisters, I have been trying to make myself try teas that I normally wouldn’t. Ginger and I have not always been friends and it is in so many teas. It limits what I have tried in the past. I think my tastes are starting to change though. I have been finding teas with ginger that I’m finding myself starting to crave. This is one of them.
I stumbled upon this company on Amazon the other day. I had never even heard of them. From what I’m learning, this company is mainly into coffee or that is the first reaction you get when you check out their home page. They have quite a nice line up of single serve coffee blends that I will probably pick up for my boyfriend (who is addicted to our Keurig).
After gandering the coffee selection a bit, I hopped over to the tea selection. Wow, they have quite a selection. It looks like they even have some award winning teas. Unfortunately a lot of these teas have red rooibos in them. So I was happy when I found the Ginger Apple Swirl that had green rooibos in it. (We seriously need a green rooibos revolution!) This instantly went into my cart.
Upon opening the package, the tea smells just like apple cider. Like the kind you get at our local orchard. I steeped up the tea per the instructions on the package but I did put in an 2 extra tsps. I knew I wanted this iced. After the tea finished steeping for 3 minutes, I dumped the tea into a big cup of ice. The smell of this tea steeping just screamed Apple Cider.
Took my first sip, yep. Apple Cider tasting as well! Very good. All of the flavors play together nicely and create the taste you would want after smelling the tea. The apple flavoring is the main flavor with the ginger following suit. A tea that tastes exactly like it smells and the name. I was very pleased. I know this is more of a fall flavor, but the flavors are so bright and crisp, I’ll be drinking this one all the time. The only down side is that it is pricey if you go through the website. Amazon seemed to have cheaper prices so I’ll have to stock up here and there when I see a sale.
After looking at the site some more, I noticed that this is a tea you are supposed to use to make a cocktail. This would be amazing made up like a martini or add in some flavored vodka.
I know what I’ll be drinking later tonight.
Perles de Antilles Rooibos Blend from Camellia Sinensis
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Roiboos
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
What makes this extra good? One, it’s organic. Two, the coconut is subtle, rather than being the main note. Three… is that banana I taste? How unusual, but very pleasant. Together with the green rooibos, this is a fantastic combo. Soft, sweet and creamy. You can try it hot or iced.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rooibos blends just aren’t my favorite. They just aren’t. But I do enjoy green rooibos more than I do red rooibos – I find that light, fruity note of the green rooibos to be appealing, especially when it’s part of a fruit flavored blend like this Perles de Antilles Rooibos Blend from Camellia Sinensis.
I think that the above description from Amoda Tea to be pretty spot on: the coconut notes are soft and unassuming, and the banana adds a pleasant flavor to this delightful tropical fruit flavored tisane. The overall flavor is indeed “soft, sweet and creamy.”
The creaminess is kind of a surprise for me, because I haven’t had a lot of green rooibos blends that have been what I’d categorize as “creamy.” Usually, they’re light and crisp and have almost a ‘bubbly’ type of character to them. I suspect the coconut and banana flavors brings a bit of creaminess to the party.
The pineapple adds a little bit of brightness to the cup. The apple is not particularly distinguishable, but I do note a little bit of apple-like sweetness that enhances the overall cup.
I really like this: it’s a soothing, gentle kind of flavor, the kind of tisane you want to curl up to late at night. And because it’s naturally caffeine-free, you can do just that. It’s sweet and it’s fruity without tasting like a cloying fruit punch concoction. It’s quite tasty, really.
Rooibush Panna Cotta Rhubarb Cream from TeaGschwendner
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: TeaGschwendner
Tea Description:
Dessert in a teacup! The dazzling combination of Italian Panna Cotta, tart rhubarb and sweet cream combine for a flavor as delicious as the aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rooibush Panna Cotta Rhubarb Cream is probably the longest tea blend name ever…
Well, not really. It is pretty lengthy, though. And tacking on the “TeaGshwendner” certainly doesn’t help.
Ok; starting off with a confession: Not only have I never had Panna Cotta, but prior to trying this tea I didn’t know what it was either. I most certainly had to do an internet search, but now that I do know what it is I’m actually kind of embarrassed I didn’t. What originally caught my attention with this one was absolutely the rhubarb; I’ve been on a bit of a personal rhubarb kick lately: beer, pie, jam, yogurt and of course tea.
Dry, there isn’t a whole lot to this tea. It has a very, very mildly fruity scent but nothing super characteristic of rooibos and apart from one small little piece of cube shaped rhubarb my measured out leaf is all fine pieces of rooibos. As the tea was steeping, it started to smell a little bit stronger but still mostly maintained a predominantly rooibos only sort of scent.
The taste thankfully delivers some flavour although not nearly as much as I’m wanting. The whole front end of the sip is straight rooibos – albeit a pretty good one without any medicinal or woodchip kind of notes present. That said, people who dislike the taste of rooibos, good or bad, will want to steer clear of this one: trust me, you’re going to taste a lot of it. The other flavour kicks in the end of the sip and the aftertaste. And it’s pretty subtle; a bit of sweetness and a little bit of tang similar to the natural tartness of rhubarb. It’s also a little bit apple-y. I’m struggling a little bit to pick up the cream/custard of the ‘Panna Cotta’ but there is something about the tartness of the rhubarb that reminds me a little bit of Greek Yogurt, so perhaps that’s more derived from the panna cotta.
I don’t sweeten my teas, but I could possibly be inclined to add the tiniest pinch of sugar to this one because I just have that gut feeling that it’d make a world of difference. However, without the sugar the flavour of this one is definitely lacking. However, this could be a winner for someone who doesn’t mind rooibos and who is looking for something subtly flavoured.
