Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Roiboos
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
What makes this extra good? One, it’s organic. Two, the coconut is subtle, rather than being the main note. Three… is that banana I taste? How unusual, but very pleasant. Together with the green rooibos, this is a fantastic combo. Soft, sweet and creamy. You can try it hot or iced.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rooibos blends just aren’t my favorite. They just aren’t. But I do enjoy green rooibos more than I do red rooibos – I find that light, fruity note of the green rooibos to be appealing, especially when it’s part of a fruit flavored blend like this Perles de Antilles Rooibos Blend from Camellia Sinensis.
I think that the above description from Amoda Tea to be pretty spot on: the coconut notes are soft and unassuming, and the banana adds a pleasant flavor to this delightful tropical fruit flavored tisane. The overall flavor is indeed “soft, sweet and creamy.”
The creaminess is kind of a surprise for me, because I haven’t had a lot of green rooibos blends that have been what I’d categorize as “creamy.” Usually, they’re light and crisp and have almost a ‘bubbly’ type of character to them. I suspect the coconut and banana flavors brings a bit of creaminess to the party.
The pineapple adds a little bit of brightness to the cup. The apple is not particularly distinguishable, but I do note a little bit of apple-like sweetness that enhances the overall cup.
I really like this: it’s a soothing, gentle kind of flavor, the kind of tisane you want to curl up to late at night. And because it’s naturally caffeine-free, you can do just that. It’s sweet and it’s fruity without tasting like a cloying fruit punch concoction. It’s quite tasty, really.
Raspberry Truffle Matcha Green Tea from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Raspberry Truffle Matcha is the perfectly designed treat that literally melts in the mouth with its mix of sweetness and Matcha undertones. This treat can make the perfect in-between meals treat that is perfect for enticing the taste buds to want much more. It can also make the perfect desert when people want to sample the different alternatives that are available for the palate to partake. For children, this exceptional treat can be one of many favorite offerings on their special occasions.
Raspberry Truffle Matcha is not for the faint hearted because of its deep rich taste sensation on the palate. It is a good alternative for other normal sweet choices such as chocolate or other candies. It also forms a great accompaniment to many foods and drinks with its sweetly inviting appeal and unforgettable flavor. This is a good treat for making a lifeless day unforgettable with its hints of pure pleasure and understated appeal.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Firstly, for those not familiar with Red Leaf Tea’s amazing and varied selection of flavoured matcha, this company offers probably the widest selection of flavours I’ve ever seen in addition to offering a choice on the level of flavouring (starting at delicate and going up to robust) and grade of matcha. If you want to get especially fancy, you can also get different tea types for your matcha as well, such as white or black tea.
The specifications for THIS matcha are the basic grade of green matcha and a robust flavouring level. It is important to note that my preparation was also not the traditional way even though I used a traditional chawan and chawask. This was prepared in cold milk, instead of hot water. That’s my personal preference when it comes to almost all matcha flavours as well as straight matcha.
You can definitely tell, just from the smell, that this is robust flavouring; if you focus hard enough you can actually pick up on the scent of the raspberry before even opening the resealable bag it comes in. And once it has been opened, you’re going to be flooded with the sweet smell of a confectionery-like raspberry with a dark chocolate backdrop – it’s 100% Raspberry Truffle in scent.
As I was whisking this one, it frothed up a great deal more than the average matcha and that thicker, frothy texture didn’t let up easily; for the first half of the chawan I probably could have consumed it with a spoon. It was that frothy! Considering how strong the smell is before being prepared, the flavour is actually surprisingly light – but there are some things about it that tip me off that it’s robust flavouring. I’ve noticed with other robustly flavoured matcha that some flavours tend to get a sort of chalky note; one that reminds me of children’s chewable vitamins or Tums. It seems particularly bad with flavours with fruit in them. This certainly isn’t the worst offender I’ve encountered (I think Orange probably wins that spot, or Boysenberry) but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed it at all.
Otherwise, the flavour is pretty good. I’m a touch surprised that the raspberry is coming off a lot stronger than the chocolate though; when I think of truffles I absolutely picture the over the top, dark, rich, fudgey chocolate notes with the ‘extra’ flavour kind of infused in as more of an aftertaste or undercurrent. You could say the opposite is true here! The raspberry doesn’t have any tartness or tang to it; more so it’s a bit of a sweet and confectionery type of raspberry; like what you’d have in a raspberry danish for example. The chocolate is obviously creamy from the milk but has a distinct ‘dark chocolate’ taste to it. It’s maybe a touch fudgey. The notes from the matcha itself are still present, though quite lightly. But that’s to be expected given the flavour level.
Overall; I’m quite happy with this one! It’s gonna do wonders for satisfying those late night sugar cravings and I’m already picturing how well this would taste lightly sprinkled over top cereal or popcorn. If I had to really emphasize anything to potential buyers though it’d probably just be to expect that the raspberry is going to taste stronger than the chocolate.
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.
Windy City Blend from TeaGschwendner
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Green & Oolong
Where to Buy: TeaGschwendner
Tea Description:
What a gentle treat for the body and soul! A delicious whirlwind of flavor composed of seven sweet teas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Thanks to my tea friend Sil for sending some of this my way!
I cold brewed my sample; it’s been absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous here in Saskatchewan lately (Spring has arrived!) so I’m not making hot tea for my commute to work anymore – which means I’ve had to be a little bit creative with what I’m picking out for cold brews. It’s resulted in some surprisingly great brews though! Since this tea is a jumble of different types, part of me was also relieved about not having to figure out what temperature to brew this one at hot.
This was a very weird tea; there’s certainly a lot going on with it. I tried it semi blindly; I hadn’t looked it up before hand to see what the ingredients were but I had seen reviews on it so I knew to somewhat expect strawberry and caramel notes. Otherwise, I had no prior knowledge going in.
My experience was that the oolong stood out the most of all the teas mixed in here; and then the black tea – didn’t really pick up anything particularly like green tea. Perhaps the little bit of nuttyness at the front of the sip? But that note could be attributed to the other base teas as well; it’s all very open ended. In addition to some nuttyness, I noticed a fair bit of toastier notes and mineral notes at the start of the sip; this is partially what made the oolong stick out a little more for me.
This transitioned into the body of the tea, which had a sort of ‘medium’ sweetness and richness to it; definitely the caramel. While this flavour was strongest in the middle of the sip, it was still present all throughout. The finish is where the strawberry kicked in for me; though I found it more of a soft, generic red berry sort of flavour and a lot less distinctly like strawberry.
Now that I’ve looked up the tea I see there are also some floral ingredients. I don’t recall pinpointing anything distinctly floral at all – but it is possible (though perhaps a bit of a stretch) that the presence of these flavours, if there at all, were just kind of smooshed in with the flavour of the oolong for me. With all that was going on with this tea I think it’d be perfectly reasonable for me to have missed them again.
I would totally drink this again; the impression I got is that this is definitely one of those teas that gets better the more you drink it. Depending on the outcome of trying it a few more times and seeing what flavours are more consistent, I think it could be a unique addition to a person’s tea stash!
Ananas et Curry Green Tea from Jardin du Thé
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Jardin du Thé (However it isn’t currently listed)
Tea Description:
The vert parfumé à l’ananas accompagné de curry, de gui, de fleurs de tournesol, d’osmanthus et de souci. Un mélange fleuri des plus originaux.
Green tea flavored with curry accompanied by pineapple, mistletoe, sunflower flowers, osmanthus and concern/worry/care. A floral blend of the most original.
Learn more about this tea on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
First, a nod to MissB – this is another tea passed along to me by her while she’s off abroad. Tea friends may very well literally be the best!
This is actually one of the teas she sent that I was most excited to try. As is pretty well known, I love pineapple but don’t actually like spices too much. However, I have had pineapple curry before and I really enjoyed it so I was super open minded about this one.
The smell of this one is lightly pineapple, and steeped up it’s very supple with a soft sweetness to it. It’s a little bit candy like – but not over the top or overly artificial tasting. The osmanthus in this was nice; even though I don’t recall seeing any in the measured out leaf I felt like I was tasting the slightly sweet, whispy floral notes that I associate with it. I’m a big fan of pineapple and floral pairings – as far as I can recall everyone I’ve had has been well executed. I’m personally not very familiar with mistletoe so I don’t know if I can accurately weigh in on how that ingredient presented itself in the blend. I did try looking it up, but the one relatively reliable site I found said it has a very bitter taste – and that’s certainly not something I observed with this blend, so either that’s not an accurate description of mistletoe’s flavour or it doesn’t come through in the tea.
Sadly, neither did anything remotely ‘curry’ like – not even a little bit. That’s definitely disappointing especially since the curry aspect is in the name of the tea. If you can’t deliver on what your tea is named after, you definitely lose a few points in my book. The green base was nice; it was light and just a touch sweet and grassy. It definitely complimented the floral notes and pineapple well.
So overall I thought this was a nice tea and I certainly enjoyed it – but it’s nothing like what I expected and the name isn’t accurate at all so if you’re going to try it keep a very open mind and don’t expect the curry to come through too much, if at all.