When you look up herbal tea in the dictionary you should see a picture of Soothing blend from Balcony Tea. It is so herbal and so picturesque. There are yellow orbs of chamomile blossoms, curls of pink rose petals, vibrant red rose hips, and purple lavender.
Brewed, the tea is sweetly fragrant, floral and full of outdoor goodness. The lemony chamomile is the primary flavor, followed by the juicy rose hip. The lavender and rose are still present but more relaxed, which is just the way you want it. Too much rose and a blend becomes like perfume, too much lavender and it reminds you of grandma’s closet. This tea is blended just right, and hits the flowery sweet spot.
This tea is soothing, its scent makes you imagine a garden. The chamomile is relaxing, honey sweet with a hint of lemon. Breathe deep in the soothing flower scent and relax.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Balcony Teas
Description:
Feel transported to a beautiful evening in the Mediterranean. All is calm and you can smell wild flowers. Perfect for a moment to yourself or to wind down after a busy day.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Peony from Swallowtail Tea. . . .
Whenever a tea company offers a sample pack, it’s a great chance to try out teas that you aren’t sure you’ll like. Recently I tried a sample pack of several different teas from Swallowtail Tea company and White Peony tea was a lovely new find.
I’m not always in the mood for white teas. They have a unique smooth, earthiness that is different than pu erh, black, or green teas. In the right blend, this is a winning flavor, in the wrong blend it ends up tasting strange. White Peony from Swallowtail tea was absolutely a winning white tea.
This tea is lightly flavored, mainly allowing the white tea itself to fill out the flavor profile. The tea brews up deep and golden with the buttery and earthy tones I expect from white tea. The floral peony is gentle but present, not at all like perfume, but instead much more natural like crushed dried flowers, or getting a whiff of blooming flowers from a garden as you walk past.
White Peony is a great spring and summertime tea. It is refreshing without being too vegetal or too sweet, and bright and floral without giving you hayfever. A perfect balance of butter and blossoms, suitable for a hot or iced mug on a sunny day.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Swallowtail Tea
Description:
This least processed of all our teas has a shimmering golden liquor with a delicate floral fragrance.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Layla Teapot and Jasmine Flowering Tea from Primula
I was lucky to receive a Primula Layla Teapot and flowering tea set from a friend The Primula teapot features all-glass construction, even the brewing basket is clear. It has an impressive capacity, making it perfect for sharing a blooming tea session with a few friends.
The flowering tea set came with blooming tea balls, which make good use of the transparent, glass-bodied teapot. I’m not sure which flavor of blooming tea was included, as it lacked a label, but I suspect it is their house blend jasmine bloom.
This is the first blooming tea I’ve actually conducted myself. Previously I’ve always been viewing at someone else’s tea party. Now that I have a teapot so suited for blooming teas, I’ll have to try this type of tea more often.
On an afternoon where I needed some zen, I brewed up a pot of hot water and dropped in the tea ball. As the water soaked into the leaves, they slowly peeled back, like a hand opening its fingers. The process did take a few minutes and I found myself impatient at first. As I relaxed, I found I was surprised how much the bloom was changing in each moment, until we finally reached the unfurling of the pink, center blossoms.
I poured a small cup of the tea to sip on while the bloom continued to relax its leaves. The tea brewed up a golden color, clear and bright, making the blossom look sunlit from every angle. The tea tasted mainly of jasmine, but had a surprisingly earthy undertone almost like the sweet-floral notes of cacao or dark chocolate. I like jasmine pearls, but it was nice to have a deeper flavor balance to the light, flowery notes.
I sipped on the tea all afternoon and watched the leaves continue to soak until they were saturated with tea. It was a lovely experience and the Primula flowering tea set would make a great gift. I can’t wait to brew more tea in this lovely teapot!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green tea/TeaPot
Where to Buy: Primula
Description:
Create an unforgettable and extraordinary tea experience with this crystal clear glass teapot and accompanying flowering tea blossoms. The Layla glass teapot and tea set offers a generous 36 oz capacity. Serve up to 9 cups of tea in this stunning clear glass tea set, which offers the perfect window from which to watch the included tea flowers begin to bloom in colorful profusion as they steep. After tea, cleanup is easy because this BPA free borosilicate glass teapot is both microwave and dishwasher safe.
Each tea flower has been exceptionally crafted by artisans in China to create the hand-sewn green tea with all natural tea flowers. The green tea is blended five times with jasmine to emanate an ambrosial floral fragrance. Each package contains 12 different flowering teas along with an illustrated picture and health benefit guide. Choose a pot of Floral Passion, Noble Madam, Oriental Beauty or Camellia Joy. Or watch your cup erupt with Wild Flowers, Gilded Lotus, Lover’s Blossom or Juliet’s Kiss. Other popular flavors like London Fog, Butterfly Floret, Fairy Lily and Summer Bouquet complete your choices in the taste sensation. Try all twelve green tea blends and be amazed at how each bud delivers a delectable cup of tea and an optical sensation. Each tea blend is packed with healthy anti-oxidants and can be steeped three times giving you over 250 cups in each canister. These tea flowers make an excellent gift for special occasions and are something any tea lover would enjoy.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Just Elderflower from Plum Deluxe
The elderflower flowers look like micro chamomile blossoms, yellow and spherical. Though the elderflowers are so tiny, it almost like a bag of pollen. The small blossoms are a golden color and very fine in texture. When brewing this tea, be sure to use your infuser with the finest mesh or smallest holes.
Brewed, this tea is surprisingly earthy and savory, and not very floral. The tea has a woodsy fragrance like crushed dried flowers or cut hay. Some of the flavor notes remind me of the brighter pu erh teas I’ve tried, so if you aren’t a floral tea fan, this blend might just be your favorite exception.
The taste of the brew continues to support the earthy, dried grass tones, but coupled with a new, buttery flavor. The taste is a bit more vegetal than the scent, with a crisp, celery note. As the brew cools, and the more I drink, the more I detect a sweeter, brown sugar undertone. Plum Deluxe recommends the brew with a bit of sweetener, which helps bring forward the toasted sugar or brown butter flavors even further.
Just Elderflower is a unique blend in appearance and taste, making for a thoughtful and flavorful one-ingredient brewing experience.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Description:
Just Elderflower is part of our “just” line of thoughtfully-source, single ingredient herbal teas. Elderflower is a curious, floral, and fragrant tea ingredient. Despite its delicate nature, it steeps up for a wonderful, calming, curing beverage.
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Go to Wonderland with a cup of Lewis Carroll tea from Simpson and Vail.. . .
Springtime feels like the time for Alice in Wonderland: flowers blooming, spending more time outside, feeling a little more whimsy after the winter blues. I’ve seen a few new teas popping up this time of year, themed for just such an occasion.
I recently tried the Lewis Carroll blend of black tea from Simpson and Vail. In case you don’t know, Lewis Carroll is the author of Alice in Wonderland, among other works. Alice in Wonderland tends to be a favorite among tea fans for the famous tea party scene featuring the Mad Hatter, not to mention all the cute tea cakes that wreak fantastical havoc for Alice’s adventures.
This Lewis Carroll tea blend features an Indian black tea base, combined with Chinese Rose Congou black tea, highlighted by added violet fragrance and flavoring. All these flowers are meant to put us in a fantasy world, whether in the queen’s roses, or in the garden beside the tea party. There are lots of blossoms in the dry leaves, and the brewed cup smells as sweet as a blooming garden.
I enjoy the fragrance of this tea, but strong floral blends aren’t my personal favorite when it comes to taste. I found I enjoyed the tea more with a touch of milk and sugar, which helped mellow out the strong floral flavors and made the brew more like a flower-scented dessert.
This is a great tea to put you in a springtime mood, perhaps sipped while out-of-doors after a dreary winter. If you’re one for having fancy tea parties, this may also be a great choice, whether it fits your Alice in Wonderland theme, or just because it feels fancy and ladylike, and makes the flowers on your teacup smell like they are alive and fresh!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simpson and Vail
Description:
A tea party plays a memorable role in Carroll’s most celebrated novel as the setting for Alice’s nonsensical meeting with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. “A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden” where, as the Mad Hatter told Alice earlier, “it’s always tea time.” To make our Lewis Carroll blend, we added our fragrant violet flavor to an Indian Black tea and Rose Congou tea, a China black that has been scented with rose petals during the drying process, to create a deep amber cup with an incomparable bouquet and a flavor that is absolutely heavenly.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!