Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Our awesome organic Iyerpadi black tea blended with organic bergamot and blueberry flavors. This is sure to wow your guests.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I know that I’ve mentioned on this blog at least once before in a review of one of Zoomdweebie’s Earl Grey/Bergamot teas that I’m not particularly crazy about the bergamot flavoring that Zoomdweebies uses. Maybe I’m a bit of a bergamot snob or something but Earl Grey tea is something I take very seriously and it should be right. So, when this Earl Blue Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas was announced as a recent tea of the week for SBT, I wasn’t all that excited about it.
But this isn’t too bad. It’s actually pretty tasty. As an Earl Grey tea or more accurately as a ‘twist’ to the classic Earl Grey -well, it doesn’t really cut it as an Earl Grey, I’m afraid. But, as a flavored iced tea, it’s really pleasant. The blueberry is strong and yummy. The bergamot – well, it doesn’t taste as bergamot-y as I’d like it to. But when I just drink it and I don’t think “bergamot” and instead, I think “citrus” it works for me.
It has a really enjoyable, sweet-tart fruity flavor to it. And the black tea base is smooth and brisk. No bitterness, no astringency – just really tasty black tea and fruity flavors.
This is something that I could see myself putting in my shopping cart again the next time I’m shopping at Zoomdweebies dot com. It’s very refreshing and it’ll be really nice to have it chilling in the fridge on those warm summer days that lie ahead.
Blueberry and Banana Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebie’s
Tea Description:
Premium Organic black tea with organic flavors. Each 14g teabag will make one 2-quart pitcher of DELICIOUS iced tea. Re-steep the teabag and you can get a full gallon out of each one. Steep in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. (3 minutes MAX.) Then combine with ice and water to make a 2-quart pitcher. It couldn’t be simpler–OR more delicious!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love me a Banana flavored tea. They are hard to find, especially ones that are not red rooibos flavored. So when I saw this one during one of the recent sales, I had to grab it.
SBT’s teas are pretty convenient. Fill a pitcher with water, throw the tea pouch in, and a few hours later you have yourself some iced tea. Pretty tasty iced tea too. They make 2 quarts to share or not to share with others. I chose the not to share route with this one.
The banana sadly in this one is more of a hint or a slight aftertaste. The black tea base shows through the most with the blueberry falling into second place. If I hadn’t know there was supposed to be banana flavoring in this, I would have just thought it was a blueberry tea. I was really hoping for more banana. But even with that, I can see this one being a purchase here and there. The blueberry flavor that is used I really enjoy.
I’ll have to pick more of this up in the summer months for get together and family time at my parents’ pool. I can see this one going over really well!
Cantaloupe & Berries Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
This super refreshing and delicious iced tea will definitely get you in the mood for spring. We’ve blended our sweet organic Chinese sencha fannings green tea with organic cantaloupe, strawberry, blackberry and blueberry flavors. Be warned, this will disappear out of your fridge really fast!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
If you’re a frequent reader of our site, then you’ve probably already read a review of this Cantaloupe & Berries Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas! A few of the sisters are fans of Southern Boy Teas!
I recently acquired a new iced tea jar. I’ve been looking for either a half gallon or gallon sized glass jar (not a pitcher but a jar) and I’ve finally found one. This search started several years ago when I was still yearning to make sun tea – before I discovered the joy of cold-brewing tea.
Note: sun brewing tea is essentially the same thing as cold brewing tea. The big difference is that with cold-brewing tea, you don’t leave the jar out in the sun, you stash it in the fridge. This bestows one obvious benefit onto the brewed tea: it’s COLD when it’s finished brewing. I don’t think the sun actually ‘brews’ the tea. The steep in the water brews the tea. I don’t know that the sun actually does anything to the flavor. But, I don’t think you could have convinced me of that a few years ago before I actually tried cold-brewing tea.
So I don’t know why it was still important for me to have a jar. I have an awesome iced tea pitcher that works great for cold-brewing tea. And to be honest, I prefer my awesome iced tea pitcher over the new tea jar, primarily because this jar has a very annoying lid. It screws on, the way most jar lids screw on, but the threads don’t line up as easily/nicely as I’d like them to, making it more of a chore to screw on/unscrew the lid than it needs to be. It’s a minor annoyance, certainly, but, because my awesome tea pitcher doesn’t have this annoyance, it makes it the preferred iced tea vessel.
But one advantage that the new tea jar has over my awesome iced tea pitcher is that the tea jar has a 1 gallon capacity. Therefore, I could hot-brew a whole GALLON of this tea all at once and didn’t have to stash the tea bag in the fridge to resteep. I got my full gallon during one brewing session. (Well, technically, it took four infusions to fill the gallon tea jar.) Plus, it freed up my iced tea pitcher for another tea so I can have 1 1/2 gallons of iced tea in the fridge for the warm weather ahead.
So, yes, I brewed a gallon of this tea. I steeped it one quart at a time, bringing the water to 170°F and then allowing the bag to first steep for 1 1/2 minute and adding 30 seconds to each subsequent infusion.
Refreshing! I like the combination of cantaloupe and berries. The berries offer the strongest flavor – with strawberry and blackberry dominating, but not by much. I also get a nice amount of blueberry flavor. The berries are sweet with that familiar berry tart note. The cantaloupe offers a sweet, delightful melon note that contrasts nicely with the tart and tangy berries.
The green tea is a little lost in this – but I do get a hint of buttery flavor as well as a hint of that buttery mouthfeel. I also get just a hint of a fresh, grassy taste. These notes are subtle and even though I think I’d like the green tea flavors to be a little more distinct, I found this tea very enjoyable overall.
Wild Woman Black Tea from Tay Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tay Tea
Tea Description:
An organic high-grown Ceylon tea with wild blueberries, black currants, hibiscus, elderberries and corn flower petals. One heavenly sip of this organic tea is enough to make you go wild! A perfect tea to wake up to.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a tea I was looking forward to a fair bit; despite the hibiscus in the blend which I personally think it completely unnecessary to include in most blends but especially in berry ones.
When I first started drinking teas I was actually rather hesitant about trying blueberry teas because I don’t actually like the fruit a whole lot, and I definitely don’t like the taste of anything artificially blueberry flavoured but when I finally did try out a couple blueberry blends I learned that it’s a flavour I surprisingly quite enjoy – especially when paired with a black base like this one is. In fact, my most logged tea on Steepster happens to currently be DT’s Blueberry Jam tea – it makes a great everyday sort of tea and brews up very consistently, so when I tried this one I was kind of internally measuring it against that blend.
Dry, the leaf smells mildly of blueberries and black currants with the faintest scent of something sweet and almost black licorice like – which is odd given that none of the listed ingredients are ones I’d associate with that sort of flavour or scent. Visually, I don’t see much (if any, really) hibiscus in the leaf I’ve measured out. I’m slightly relieved about that, though I wonder if it’s going to make for a skewed sampling.
Taste wise, the blueberry is definitely the first flavour here though it’s quickly followed by a little bit of elderberry and the sweeter side of black currant. I don’t actually know how much black currant is blended in here, but for people who dislike the medicinal taste black currant sometimes has I don’t really see that ever being a problem with this blend; it’s all sweet and jammy, and faint in contrast to the blueberry anyway. I will say that compared to Blueberry Jam, this has the same level of berry flavour with the same accuracy when it comes to how realistic it is.
The downside is the base. This had a recommended steep time of three to five minutes and I steeped on the lower end of the spectrum – three and a half minutes in total. Even with a steep on the low end of Tay Tea’s suggested spectrum it brewed up quite bitter, and sadly that bitterness is the finishing note which lingers well after you’ve finished the sip. It greatly detracts from what would otherwise be a very well done blueberry tea.
For that reason, I don’t think I’d order it for myself though I do think it’d be worthwhile to try it again with a steep time closer to two and a half minutes to see if the bitterness could be lessened without losing out on the robust blueberry notes.
Blueberry Zinger Fruit Tisane from Tea & All It’s Splendor
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit & Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Tea & All It’s Splendor
Tea Description:
Blueberries, meet apple, ginger and lemongrass. These fruits and herbs along with a small bouquet of other herbals are blended together to make a caffeine free blend, that will have you wishing blueberry season was here.
The blackberry leaf mixed with dried blueberries and apples provide a bold, naturally sweet blueberry flavour that reminds us of pie. The verbena, lemon grass and ginger give us the “zing”, making this the best herbal blend we’ve tried this year.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I didn’t look at the ingredient list before I brewed this Blueberry Zinger Fruit Tisane from Tea & All It’s Splendor, but based on the name of it I figured that it had hibiscus in it. So when I measured 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of the tisane into the basket of my Kati Tumbler, I was a little surprised to not see hibiscus in the blend. It was a pleasant surprise, to be sure and I could hear a little voice in my head say, “just because you don’t see the hibiscus doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
I poured 12 ounces of 195°F into the tumbler and let the tea steep for just six minutes, thinking that there had to be hibiscus in the blend. But when I lifted up the strainer basket and saw that the tisane was a golden amber color and not a ruby color – there wasn’t even a hint of pink hue to the liquid! It was then that I thought, “Huh! Maybe, just maybe someone knows how to make a tisane without hibiscus in it!”
Then I went to the Tea & All It’s Splendor website to check out the ingredient list:
Apple and ginger pieces, blackberry leaves, blueberries, heather blossoms, melissa and verbena leaves, lemongrass, natural flavouring, blue cornflower blossoms.
Did you see that? Or perhaps, do you NOT see that! Because I’m looking at an ingredient list for a fruit and herbal tisane that doesn’t have hibiscus in it.
Oh joyful day – I knew it could be done! Other tea blenders out there, take note – you CAN make a fruit and herbal tisane without hibiscus. It can be done!
This is really quite a tasty tisane. I think that the name might be a tad misleading, only because I’m tasting more apple, ginger and lemony notes than I am blueberry. But don’t let that deter you from trying this blend because it’s really good – and I DO taste the blueberry.
As I said in the previous paragraph, the apple, lemon and ginger are the three strongest notes that I taste. The apple tastes sweet and is a nice contrast to the zesty ginger flavor. The lemon-y note is not particularly tart, but I do get a hint of tartness here and there. These three flavors come through right at the start of the sip.
Just before mid-sip, I taste a flavor that I’ll describe as herbaceous. It isn’t a distinct herbal flavor. It just tastes lightly herb-y. Just after mid-sip, I notice the blueberry starting to come through and by the finish, I do taste a clear blueberry note. It’s a sweet blueberry note and I like that this tastes authentic. I’m not getting a fake berry flavor.
I’m very pleased with this tisane. I’m very happy that there isn’t any hibiscus in this – and perhaps most surprising about the lack of hibiscus is that in just about every berry fruit/herbal tisane like this, hibiscus is used because hibiscus has a tart flavor that is often mistaken for a berry taste. I’m so happy that Tea & All It’s Splendor didn’t take the ‘easy way out’ with this blend and add hibiscus to it. And I’m even happier that Postal Teas decided to include it in this month’s box!