Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Our awesome premium organic Iyerpadi black tea blended with organic pumpkin and cheesecake flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! This is really yummy.
I’ve tried 52Teas version of Pumpkin Cheesecake tea previously and it was yummy too. Rather than being a blend of black teas, though, this appears to be a single type of tea blended with the flavors. I like the black tea base, it’s smooth and rich and provides an enjoyable and solid background of flavor for the flavors of pumpkin and cheesecake.
I like the combination of pumpkin and cheesecake especially because the creaminess of the cheesecake flavor really enhances the pumpkin. I’m a fan of squash and I think that it just tastes better when there is a creamy element added to a winter squash dish, even if it’s a bit of browned butter that has been added to the squash mash. That little bit of creamy really elevates the dish.
And the creaminess of the cheesecake flavors elevates the pumpkin here too.
This is sweet and there are hints of spice. I taste subtle notes of cinnamon in the background. Not a strong flavor – it doesn’t intrude and become a focus of the tea, but it’s enough to add just a little warmth to this autumnal iced tea. The black tea is a rich, robust flavor that doesn’t get overwhelmed by the flavors. The cheesecake is sweet, creamy and tangy. The pumpkin is sweet, rich and savory. It’s a really delicious combination of flavors that is very well rounded on the palate.
Really good!
To prepare: I used the hot brew method for this, heating 1 quart of water to 212°F and then steeping the teabag for 2 minutes and pouring the tea into my glass iced tea pitcher (temper it first so that it doesn’t break from the shock of the heat). Then I repeated the steeping process, resteeping the teabag for 2 1/2 minutes in a quart of 212°F water and adding that quart to the pitcher to make a half gallon of iced tea. Delicious!
Birthday Cake Batter Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Birthday Cake Batter flavored … iced tea? Wow! OK, I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. The idea of cake batter flavoring and tea sounded just a little weird. OK, it sounds a lot weird! Am I right?
But it didn’t sound so weird that I wasn’t going to try it. I had to try it. I love cake batter. (That’s the best part of making a cake!) And I love cake batter flavored things. Specifically, I’m a huge fan of Cold Stone’s cake batter flavored ice cream. I don’t go to Cold Stone often, but on the occasions that I do go, I do try other flavors but none that I’ve tried have managed to lure me away from that cake batter flavored ice cream. It’s just too good.
But iced tea? Hmm. I hoped for the best as I brewed it. I went with the hot brew method, bringing 1 quart of freshly filtered water to a boil and then I dropped the tea bag into the water and let it steep for 2 minutes. Then I poured the tea into my iced tea pitcher and started the process again, this time steeping the bag for 2 1/2 minutes. Then I let the pitcher come to almost room temperature before I stashed it in the ice box. Today, I have a pitcher full of cold, refreshing iced tea that tastes like … well, it tasted like cake batter!
Imagine that! This really does taste like cake batter. I’m amazed at how well Southern Boy Teas NAILED this flavor. I taste the sweet, creamy, lightly buttery flavor of cake batter. All that’s missing is the texture!
And I do still taste the tea. And together with the cake batter flavor, it’s a really smooth and well rounded flavor that is rich and sweet and decadent. It tastes a little bit like I’m sipping on dessert rather than iced tea! And I’m not opposed to that at all!
This might be my favorite flavor yet. I’m glad I have another pouch of this flavor because I want to try cold brewing it next time!
Cherry Chocolate Flavored Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Occasionally – perhaps more often than ‘occasionally’ – Southern Boy Teas introduces a flavor that I’m not too sure about. I find myself wondering how well those flavors will meld with iced tea.
I’ve tried 52Teas (Southern Boy Teas parent company) Cherry Cordial Black Tea as well as their tribute to one of my all time favorite ice creams: Cherry Garcia. I enjoyed both of those. So I didn’t have a problem thinking that the flavors of chocolate and cherry would work with black tea. But how would this taste as an iced tea?
Well, it tastes like what the name of the tea suggests: It tastes like a chocolate cherry flavored iced tea!
To brew this, I used the hot brew method, heating 1 quart of water to 212°F and let the “jumbo tea bag” steep for 2 minutes. Then I repeated the process, letting the second quart steep for 2 1/2 minutes.
With my first few sips, I found myself looking for the chocolate flavors. You know me, I’m all about the chocolate! By the time I was finished with my second glass of the tea, I realized that even though the chocolate flavors are a bit lighter here than I would like them to be, the balance works. It works so well that I didn’t want to stop drinking it!
Right about here is where I’d say something like more chocolate = better. However, even though the chocolate notes here are not quite as chocolate-y as I would normally like, I find that as an iced tea, the lighter chocolate flavor works. If this was a hot tea, I’d want more chocolate, definitely.
But I’m enjoying this as it is! I think that a stronger chocolate flavor – while it would be awesomely delicious – it wouldn’t be as “refreshing” and “thirst quenching”. I think that a stronger chocolate note would be heavier on the palate. Here, the chocolate is strong enough to be tasted and enjoyed, but still light enough to be an iced drink that refreshes me.
The cherry is a sweeter cherry note. Because it melds with the black tea and chocolate notes in a harmonious way, it doesn’t come off as tasting cough syrupy to me. It is just a light, sweet, fruity note that accentuates the chocolate and black tea.
The black tea is a brisk, invigorating tea that doesn’t overpower the chocolate notes. Instead, I think that the chocolate and black tea play together very well, creating a slightly creamy, decadent, bittersweet chocolate flavor that melds with the black tea notes seamlessly.
A really tasty iced tea.
Apple Cider Flavored Iced Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium Organic green tea with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about how to subscribe to Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
This Apple Cider Iced Green Tea from SBT is really tasty! The flavor is distinctly apple cider. Lovely notes of apple and cinnamon!
The green tea is light, sweet and buttery. It has a very fresh taste without tasting grassy or overly vegetative. I really love the light taste of it … it’s very refreshing on these hot summer days!
I also like that the apple cider flavors do not overpower the lighter green tea base. I can taste the apple, the warm spice and the green tea, and my palate isn’t overwhelmed with any one flavor. All the flavors are present but my taste buds aren’t burdened with heavy flavors.
With these “new” green teas from Southern Boy Teas, I’m discovering that the best way to get the most out of the teas is to hot brew the sachet in 1 quart of 170°F water for 1 1/2 minutes, and then resteep the sachet in another quart of water (same temperature) for 2 minutes to fill my half gallon iced tea pitcher.
And here’s the best part, with the green teas, you can resteep the sachet for another half gallon of iced tea! Simply stash the sachet in a airtight container and store in the refrigerator, and then when you’re ready to start steeping again, using the same temperature water, steep for 2 1/2 minutes for the first quart and 3 minutes for the second quart. The second pitcher of iced is almost nearly as flavorful as the first.
When I received my order with this tea in it, I hadn’t realized that I actually ordered 2 pouches of this tea (I had meant to only order 1 pouch), but now I’m glad that I have two of this one, because I really like it!
With the second pouch, I decided to experiment a little bit and try it as a cold-brew! I tossed the pouch into my iced tea pitcher and then filled it with freshly drawn and filtered water and put the lid on it. Then I stashed it in my refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I removed the pouch and put it in an airtight container and put it in the fridge (to resteep again later) and I enjoyed the cold-brewed Apple Cider iced tea!
The verdict: this is even better cold-brewed! The apple notes are crisper and better defined with the cold-steep process.
Oh yeah, I’ll be getting more of this!
Caramel Peanut Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, I have to admit that I was just a little bit weirded out by this flavor before I tried it. It’s been a difficult road to get me to embrace the idea of peanut and peanut butter flavored teas. I don’t know why it sounds so weird to me given all the weird flavors that I’ve tried up to this point but something about tea and peanut butter just didn’t sound all that appealing to me. And while I have come around from that way of thinking and I have enjoyed quite a few peanut and peanut butter flavored teas, the idea of a caramel peanut flavored ICED tea sounded weird. The peanut … worked OK as a hot tea but I was less convinced of an iced tea actually tasting good.
But this is really good. The caramel and peanut flavors work very well together, both accentuating each other in a really pleasant way, and the honeybush seems to elevate these flavors in a very tasty way. The natural nutty tones of the honeybush lend some depth to the peanut flavor while the sweet honey notes highlight the caramel notes.
To brew this, I used the “hot brew” method, bringing 1 quart of freshly filtered water to 195°F and steeping the sachet for 9 minutes. Then I repeated the process for the second quart, resteeping the sachet for 12 minutes. Then I chilled it overnight and now I have a pitcher full of ice-cold, naturally caffeine-free honeybush tea!
I’ve tried a few of the honeybush iced teas from SBT at this point and I think that this one is my favorite so far, which really surprises me because as I said in the first paragraph, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this blend. But this one definitely gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.