Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Good Earth online or Wherever Good Earth Teas are sold.
Tea Description:
Sure we all have responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean we have to settle into a routine. Break things up with the tingling intensity of Pomegranate Burst™. Blended with the goodness of green tea and the unexpected tart flavors of pomegranate and cherry, one sip will be enough to shake up an ordinary day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I brewed this Pomegranate Burst™ Green Tea from Good Earth without knowing the ingredients in the tea – only knowing it’s a flavored green tea. So, I brewed it the way I’d brew any other bagged green tea: using 8 ounces of hot water (170°F) and steeping for 2 minutes.
After I finished steeping the tea, I noticed the color – it’s a vivid ruby color, just like the color of a pomegranate aril. This communicated “hibiscus” to me. And after my first sip, yep … there’s hibiscus in this. Ugh. That first sip told me something else: there’s stevia in this too. Double Ugh. And it’s not even the natural leaf from the herb “stevia” it’s steviol glycosides which is the chemical compound of stevia. And I can taste that chemical taste from it too. Triple UGH!
Served hot, this just isn’t my cup of tea. I taste to much hibiscus and stevia and a syrupy cherry flavor (read: cherry flavored cough syrup) for me to derive much enjoyment out of drinking it. I do taste pomegranate and hints of raspberry. Those flavors might be nice if my palate wasn’t overwhelmed by the flavor of hibiscus, chemical tasting stevia and cough syrup.
No green tea flavor to speak of here. Just none.
Not one to want to give up on a tea so quickly, I decided to cold-brew a few bags in my half gallon pitcher, hoping that the cold brew might soften the overpowering flavors that I experienced with the hot steep. I used 5 tea bags for 2 quarts of water and stashed it in the fridge for about 8 hours.
As an iced tea, this is a little bit better but not much. The cherry flavor is not quite as cough syrupy as when it’s brewed hot but it still has that cough medicine taste. The chemical stevia notes are a little less apparent although I can still taste it. To offset the flavor of the stevia somewhat and try to make the sweet taste more natural, I added some agave to it and this addition helped make the drink more palatable.
On the positive side: I do like that I taste the pomegranate and the raspberry and these two fruits have a pleasant fruity flavor. The hibiscus is also less apparent as an iced tea. This tastes a lot more like a fruit drink than a tea though.
I think it’s fair to say that this was not a win for me. It wasn’t horrible but I find it difficult to move past that artificial taste of the stevia. It really ruins this drink for me.
Burst from Teaquilibrium
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Maté
Where to Buy: Teaquilibrium
Product Description:
Yerba Mate bursting with apples and cinnamon.
Energizing Sport Tea contains yerba mate, a South American herb known for its plethora of health benefits. A study of yerba mate at The Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific society in 1964 concluded that mate contains “practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life.” Mate is also a natural source of caffeine, theobromine (dark chocolate’s euphoric stimulant) and theophylline (tea’s soothing stimulant) which stimulate the central nervous system to create calm energy and mental clarity.
Yerba Mate fuels your muscles and nourishes your body with 15 amino acids, 24 vitamins and minerals including Vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, Niacin (B3), B5, B Complex. Natural phytochemicals stimulate your immune system and boost your metabolism.
ingredients: yerba mate, apple, cinnamon, natural apple & cinnamon flavors.
Taster’s Review:
This is a very delicious blend. I was a little scared to try it, to be honest. Teaquilibrium calls this their “Energizing Sports Tea” and that translated to me as “health food” which… translates to me as “yuck.”
But, so much for that! This is really good!
The apple and cinnamon are very fragrant, and I can smell them as the cup sits in front of me and the aroma wafts from the cup. It smells like apple pie! Not a smell that you think of when you think “Energizing Sports Tea”!
And the flavor is just as abundant as the scent. The apple and cinnamon are in good balance. The cinnamon is not that hot, spicy cinnamon, it is a sweeter tasting cinnamon that accents the apple very nicely. The apple tastes sweet and smooth. It’s a bit like a lightly spiced apple cider!
This is the first Yerba Maté blend that I can recall tasting and not immediately identifying as Yerba Maté based only on the taste. It does not possess that rather pungent, earthy taste that is so synonymous with Yerba Maté (at least, for me). That is not to say that I cannot taste the Yerba Maté base, because it’s there, it’s just not that bracingly apparent Yerba Maté taste.
I really like this. It is one that would work nicely as a iced tea as well as a hot one, and it has a certain autumnal charm to it which makes it very lovely for this time of year.
This is the first tea that I’ve had the opportunity to try from Teaquilibrium, and based upon this very positive experience, it shall not be my last!