Beets were a contentious part of my family dinners. Every Easter my grandmother would make a cold beet salad and our seating arrangements had to be coordinated to put certain beet-haters at the other end of the table from the beet salad. I was firmly on the side of the beets, and couldn’t get enough of grandma’s beet salad. Needless to say, I was excited to try a beet tea.
Up Beet from Teapigs is a green tea blend with hibiscus, beetroot, ginger, and carrot. The green tea is really just a base to carry the bolder vegetable and herb flavors. I didn’t think any flavor could hold up against powerful hibiscus, but beetroot is a formidable ally in this blend. The sharp hibiscus is balanced out by the iron-sweet earthiness of the beets. Carrots bring their own natural sweetness alongside the beets, and the ginger adds a hint spice to give more texture to the flavor palette. The longer I let the tea brew, the more ginger heat and mineral beet flavors came to the forefront.
Punchy, strong, and sweet, this is truly a unique blend. If you enjoy fruit and veggie juice blends, you should try this tea. It is a sweet and savory blend, with the umami-earthiness of the beets, the lightly sweet carrots, and the fruit-punch hibiscus, all coming together for a bold, full-flavored cup of tea. As a beet-lover, I’m happy to have this tea on my shelf anytime I’m craving their bold, earthy flavors and I don’t have grandma’s beet salad at hand.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teapigs
Description:
This blend will give you the kick you need to jump into your lycra, tie up your trainers, skip to the gym and throw that scary giant kettle bell way over your shoulder. This blend of beets, spice and hibiscus which helps give you extra energy, is fruity and punchy (enjoy with or without lycra!).
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Carve off a Slice of Frosted Carrot Cake from A Quarter to Tea. . . . . .
In my experience I’ve found that people either love or hate carrot cake. As for me, with my enormous sweet tooth, I’ll enjoy a slice of carrot cake any day, but that’s not always the case for others. What? Carrots? Cake? Who’s sneaking vegetables into my dessert? I can understand the dichotomy.
Whether you love carrot cake or not, it’s hard to resist trying a tea flavor as bold and unusual as Frosted Carrot Cake from A Quarter to Tea. From the beginning, these tea leaves have a lot going on. This is a genmai cha-based blend, so sencha green tea and gold puffs of toasted rice are available in abundance. Beside the rice there are actual carrot pieces in the blend, as well as raisins, and dried pineapple. Ginger and cinnamon balance out this ingredients list and bring their usual baked-good-charms to the flavor palette.
The most impressive part of this blend is the vanilla frosting element, which actually tastes a bit tart and tangy like real cream cheese. This isn’t just plain-old vanilla flavoring, the specific carrot-cake cream cheese frosting is alive and well in this cup of tea.
This is a green tea, so mind your temperatures and steeps times, no matter how delicious the cake aspects smell, take out the teabag after a few minutes to avoid any bitter undertones. The frosting notes get more prominent as the tea cools.
Believe it or not, this tea does taste like carrot cake, even without sugar or milk, the fruits and veggies in the tea leaves bring enough natural starchiness and sweetness to make this blend feel full and decadent.
If you love carrot cake, you’ll love this tea. If carrot cake isn’t your style, give this brew a chance in the name of good fun, you might be surprised by how tasty carrot cake and tea can be.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: A Quarter to Tea
Description:
A cup of well-spiced carrot cake accented with raisins and pineapple for sweetness and a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Chilli Rooibos from Eteaket
Tea Type: Rooibos
Where To Buy: eTeaket
Product Description:
Chilli Tea
Chilli Rooibos Tea
Handle our Chilli Rooibos with care! The chilli highlights are built on a base of classic Rooibos tea and vivid wild cherries, rosebuds, safflower petals, peony petals and carrot flakes. This tea has serious attitude.To Enjoy: Use 1 tsp per cup, add freshly boiled water and brew for 3-4 mins. We recommend holding off on the milk, but whatever floats your boat.
Tasters Review:
I tried this one mostly for the uniqueness of it. I guess it intrigued me.
This smells like cherries and chilli! And orange-ish brown color is pretty neat, indeed! I under infused…on purpose because I was a little worried about the Chili. I have had Chili Teas before BUT haven’t had the best luck with them. This one surprised me!
My first impression was that I could taste carrots first with a little bit of chili followed by a lingering cherry. WOW…this one is VERY unusual but oddly pleasant. As it cools I could taste more floral notes at the beginning of the sip and then it morphs into a carrot and cherry combo – not so much chili – but like I said I under infused. I am thinking the chili will get stronger as you infuse but I kind of like it under infused.
