Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Fusion Teas
Tea Description:
A rich floral Chinese Oolong combined with the amazing fruity flavor of the acai berry.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I took my first sniff of the dry leaf of this tea, I did not expect to be blown away – but I was! This smells phenomenal! Very berry-fruity, with hints of floral notes that compliment the berry tones. Once brewed, the tea maintains much of the fragrance that I experienced with the dry leaf, but I notice a bit more of the floral tones from the Oolong along with the aroma of the acai berry.
But what really took me by surprise is how good it tasted. I wouldn’t normally be so excited about an acai berry flavored tea – as I’ve mentioned before, it’s one of those ingredients that often earns a cringe reaction from me because of its tendency to be a bit more tart than it is sweet. But with this tea, there is the perfect balance between tart and sweet, with less tartness really revealing itself during the sip. It is in the aftertaste where I experience most of the tartness with that tingly sensation that tickles the tip of the tongue. That might almost be a tongue twister!
Anyway, I don’t know if it’s because the Oolong is so naturally sweet and smooth that the flavor of the acai berry seems softer and sweeter during the sip, but, whatever is the reason – I like it like this! The sip starts with a very pleasing sweetness as well as a creamy buttery kind of taste and feel. The sweet fruit and creamy butter taste and texture continue throughout the sip, with mere hints of tartness peeking throughout the sip. The finish is barely astringent, it is as though the creaminess of the tea has washed over some of the astringency to make for a smoother finish. Then, in the aftertaste, the tartness emerges … but only just slightly stronger than it was throughout the sip. This never becomes overtly tart.
This is a very enjoyable tea. I think that if this tea was my first experience with the acai berry, I wouldn’t cringe at all! This is absolutely wonderful!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Muscle Pump by Green Tea HP (Sold by Green Tea Pros)
Product Description:
Muscle Pump is another wonderful addition in a line of Green Tea HP products that is a health supplement hat helps with, muscle maintenance, blood flow, & muscle recovery. Healthy blood flow is the key to delivering important nutrients throughout the body. Muscle Pump promotes and Facilitates this objective.
To Learn more about Muscle Pump, click here.
To Learn more about Green Tea HP and Green Tea Pros, click here.
Taster’s Review:
I always find myself slightly cringing at the thought of trying these teas from Green Tea HP. And, the fact of the matter is, the cringe is unfounded, because every single one of the products that I’ve tried from Green Tea HP has tasted really good!
These are instant tea powders that come in little “pixies,” and they mix up quick and easy into a glass of water (filtered please!) … OR for the individual on the go, just pour the pixie into a bottle of water and shake it up. It dissolves instantly, and there’s no undissolved sediment at the bottom of the glass … it all gets evenly incorporated.
This Muscle Pump has a sweet, berry-like taste that tastes a bit more like a berry punch than it does a tea. And I think that this is where I think I tend to “cringe.” It’s because it doesn’t really taste a whole lot like tea. It tastes more like an energy drink or one of those drinks you mix from a powder (think Crystal Light), and part of me worries that it might be sweetened with aspartame – and I’m really REALLY allergic to aspartame. But, it isn’t sweetened with sugar OR aspartame and it is diabetic friendly. I’m not a diabetic, but, when it comes to sugar I like to control how much I put into my body and I like that this doesn’t have any sugar in it. And I really appreciate that there is no aspartame!
And even though it doesn’t taste a whole lot like green tea (I’ve said before that these are more geared toward those who don’t drink a lot of green tea but want to enjoy the health benefits of green tea), I still enjoy the flavor. It is sweet and pleasant, and I think of all the different Green Tea HP flavors I’ve tried thus far, this one might be my favorite. And to think I was so afraid to try it! I’m liking this!
And I now feel like I have enough energy to go and clean the kitchen floor!
Wintergreen Woods from David’s Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: David’s Tea
Tisane Description:
Looking to get in touch with nature? Try this outdoorsy blend of wild herbs and plants handpicked in the Canadian wilderness. We swear it’s like drinking a fresh forest breeze. It has wintergreen leaves for a lightly minty taste, cedar and pine for a bright, evergreen aroma, and sumac berries to add tartness and a pretty pink colour. Overall, it’s delicately sweet and totally refreshing. Now that’s a breath of fresh air.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of the most unusual looking tisanes I’ve yet to come across. It looks a bit more like something that might be blanketing the woods in the summertime: large, whole leaves, pine needles, and berries all tossed together. It smells a bit like the woods too: leafy, evergreen-ish, hints of mint. The aroma is very fresh and lively.
The brewed tisane has a stronger minty kind of fragrance, with mere hints of the woodsy/leafy kind of notes I was experiencing with the dry leaf. The above description suggests a “pretty pink colour” but, my cup has a golden hue, no pink-ish tones to be seen. It’s still quite beautiful though.
The flavor is almost as interesting as the presentation. It is very crisp and exhilarating with its wintergreen minty tones. I like that the wintergreen is not overwhelming here, the way mint can sometimes be. It doesn’t overpower the cup, and if I were to compare it to other minty tisanes, this is actually quite light. Distinctly mint, but, light.
However, the overall cup is on the light side. With no hibiscus to thicken the cup, the leaves, needles and berries create a somewhat softer tasting tisane … but that is NOT a bad thing! In fact, I think David’s Tea should be commended for not jumping on the “hibiscus in every tisane” wagon here, and letting these more delicate herbs speak for themselves rather than being bullied by the often aggressive hibiscus.
The sumac berries are said to offer some tartness to the cup, and they do, but again, the berry-ish flavor is soft … but its soft in keeping with the overall profile of the cup, where it is pretty evenly matched with the other ingredients. The same is true for the cedar and pine, they offer a slight woodsy tone to the overall cup but these flavors marry well with the others, and help to provide a pleasantly balanced tisane that is both refreshing and soothing.
Quite unusual, yes, but also quite enjoyable!
Vanilla Berry Truffle from The Persimmon Tree
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Product Description:
A rooibos base infused with succulent black currants, organic hibiscus and creamy white chocolate blossoms.
Taster’s Review:
The fragrance of the dry leaf is really nice, it isn’t TOO powerful, but, it has a delicious combination of berry and vanilla notes with a somewhat nutty background. It smells like dessert!
I was about to steep this the way I normally would rooibos – that is, in boiling water for ten minutes. Because the tannins are very low in rooibos, the flavor will intensify from the long steep time without becoming bitter. However, upon closer examination of this tisane, I noticed the hibiscus. And while rooibos blends can benefit from a long steep time, the longer hibiscus is steeped the more tart and syrupy it becomes. And… I don’t like that.
So… I set the timer for six minutes instead. And this resulted in a really lovely cuppa. It is tart, but it isn’t too tart. The tartness accents the berry flavor of the black currant well, while the white chocolate in the blend gives the cup a deliciously creamy, sweet note that helps to offset the hibiscus tartness so that it doesn’t become too overpowering. The rooibos base is nutty and sweet, but, I am not getting that aftertaste that sometimes accompanies rooibos (a good thing!)
This is a skillfully blended tisane: the flavors are well-balanced, and while it is sweet enough to serve as a dessert tea, it isn’t cloyingly so. A very fun cup of tea any time of the day.
PRODUCT REVIEW: Pink Sparkle from GreenTeaHP/Green Tea Pros
Buy From: Green Tea Pros
Product Description:
Pink Sparkle is a pixie powdered GreenTeaHP beverage that is designed to enhance your lifestyle by providing key nutrients to promote physical activity.
Pink Sparkle is a proprietary blend of highly concentrated green tea antioxidants, acai, L-arginine, glutamine, CLA, L-carnatine and a full compilation of berries and pomegranates. Pink Sparkle delivers 90 mg of EGCG, the antioxidant only found in green tea, which is equivalent to 20 cups of green tea and 15 mg of caffeine.
Taster’s Review:
Today I’ve been very yawn-ish. That is to say, I haven’t been able to shake the yawns since I woke up this morning. I’ve been very sluggish – what I need is an energy boost.
And, while I was skeptical, I decided that I would give one of these pixies from Green Tea Pros a try. You know what? This stuff works! I haven’t yawned since I started sipping on this glass of prepared Pink Sparkle. And I feel more energetic.
It’s tasty too. I’ve said before when reviewing the Green Tea HP/Green Tea Pros products that I think they are designed more for the people who don’t like (or don’t think they like) green tea, but still want the health benefits of green tea. And I think that is true of the Pink Sparkle too.
That’s because this tastes more like a berry and pomegranate flavored soft drink than it does green tea. It has a pleasant sweet-tart taste from the berries and pomegranate that lingers in the finish. There is a slight “artificial sweetener” aftertaste to this that worried me just a little, as I am allergic to aspartame. But I checked the ingredients and there is no aspartame in this.
I would definitely drink this again – especially on days like this when I feel myself dragging but I can’t go back to bed because I’ve a busy day ahead. I love the burst of energy that I’m getting from it, it’s loaded with health benefits and most importantly it tastes pretty darned good.