Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Delicious Sip
Tea Description:
This is a fresh and smooth green Sencha tea with excellent body and depth. The bright cherry and subtle rose flavors give this tea a wildly exotic character unique in its own right.
The tea used in this savory blend is grown only from March to April and the quality is clearly tasted in every cup. The Hunan Province is renowned for producing excellent Japanese style green teas and our Organic Kyoto Cherry Rose tea is a prime example. We invite you to brew a cup and taste the difference.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s that time of year again! Spring just doesn’t seem like spring until I’ve had at least one cherry sencha tea! With the first sip, I start daydreaming … reminiscing of walking in Washington D.C. in the spring, along the Potomac River where it’s lined with gorgeous cherry blossom trees in full bloom.
And then my mind jumps to memories of walking along the streets in Southern California where the beautiful Jacaranda trees line the streets. I’m not sure why cherry blossom trees make me think of jacaranda trees, except that they are both gorgeous, blossoming trees, and living in Southern California as long as I did … I had the opportunity to enjoy them more than I did the cherry blossom trees along the Potomac. Of course, I do see cherry blossom trees up here (and no jacaranda trees!) but there’s something about the way the cherry blossom trees lined the river (and the way the jacaranda trees lined the streets) that make me think of spring.
Jumping off that tangent and into this teacup … this is a lovely cherry flavored Sencha. The green tea tastes fresh and vegetal with hints of creamy butter and just a hint of a savory quality in the distance. It’s a lovely contrast for the sweet cherry notes. And even though those cherry notes are sweet, the hint of flower in the cup seems to keep the taste away from toeing the line of medicinal (cherry cough syrup) and keep the flavor on this side of pleasant tea flavor. A bonus!
The rose notes are floral without tasting soapy. The cherry adds just the right touch of sweetness to the cup without tasting too medicinal. The green tea has a lush flavor to it – it’s soft and creamy without being too heavy on the palate.
A really refreshing tea – one of my favorites to sip on this time of year! And I love that this version from Delicious Sip is organic (as it would appear all the teas from this company are!) This one is great iced too!
A lovely tea from a company that is new to me … but one from which I’m excited to taste more!
Cranberry Breeze Herbal Tisane from Simple Loose Leaf
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
This perfectly balanced blend of subtly sweet cherry and rose hips with tart cranberry and hibiscus make this herbal tea refreshingly delicious and reminiscent of a fun fruit punch drink. Perfect for children and others watching sugar and caffeine; Cranberry Breeze is wonderful hot or iced and is the perfect alternative to sweet caffeinated drinks.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club subscription program here.
Taster’s Review:
This Cranberry Breeze Herbal Tisane is not one I would have selected for myself. I am sipping on it only because it was one of the five teas in this month’s Simple Loose Leaf Selection Club and I opted for the five samplers instead of choosing an ounce or two of two of the teas. But you know what? I’m glad that I received this because I am enjoying it.
Yeah, normally, I’m not a big fan of hibiscus, and this is hibiscus-y! Really hibiscus-y. When I drink a hibiscus-based tisane, I want it to either be light on the hibiscus, or have ingredients that work well with the hibiscus. Well, this tisane isn’t light on the hibiscus, but the cranberry and hibiscus work very well together.
Yes, it’s tart. There are times when I’d even go so far as to say it’s sour! But, cranberries are like that, and as I said, the hibiscus and cranberry work really well together in this tisane.
I taste notes of sour cherry too, and the cherry and cranberry together give this a very juicy, fruity, party punch flavor only healthier, because even though I am not a fan of hibiscus, it is does bring a lot of health benefits to this party in a teacup.
I like this better iced than hot because the fruity punch flavor just tastes better iced. Not my favorite tisane, but it is something that I’d drink now and then when I want something a little bit different to give my taste buds a jump start. Try brewing up a pitcher of this, chilling it, and then serving it to the kids the next time they want something to drink – it’s a great naturally caffeine free alternative to those sugary sodas!
Oh, and don’t forget about Simple Loose Leaf’s special April promotion! You can get your first month of the Selection Club for just one dollar! Yes, you read that correctly! Use this code: 1DOLLARMONTH and enjoy up to five different teas next month for just one dollar! Wow! That’s amazing! Be sure to check it out and tell ’em that I sent you!
Cherry Limeade Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I was really excited when Southern Boy Teas/52Teas announced this new flavor (as part of their kickstarter incentive program) because although I very rarely drink soda, one soda type drink that I do like to indulge in now and again are Cherry Limeade drinks (like you might get at Sonic), but the one thing I don’t like about those soft drinks is how sugary they are. This Cherry Limeade Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas seems to be a perfect solution to that – I get the flavor of the Cherry Limeade but I can control how much sweetener goes into the pitcher. I don’t like a sweet iced tea … or any drink that’s too sweet for that matter.
And this is pretty good. I’m a little disappointed, because the cherry and lime flavors are not quite as sharp as I’d like them to be. 52Teas usually offers masterful “soda” type drinks that taste effervescent, and I guess I was kind of hoping for some of that effervescence here. But while I do taste cherry and lime, neither of these flavors are really as strong as I’d like them to be, and I don’t taste much of a soda-ish type quality here either.
It’s still really good though. The cherry and lime flavors are there. This tastes more like … a limeade that’s been flavored with some cherry juice … rather than a Cherry Limeade drink that I might order from that drive-in soda shop. The cherry is sweet, the lime adds a bright tartness to the cup, and I like that I can taste the black tea flavor too. It’s a very refreshing glass of iced tea. Not my favorite from SBT, but it’s still tasty.
Cherry Buds Green Tea from Kally Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
Sencha Green teas, Rose Petals, Natural Flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s cold outside! I’m sure that some of you probably are experiencing even colder temperatures than we are here in the Pacific Northwest, but, when I go outside and I can feel the chill in my nostrils and I can see my breath turn into white mists in front of me – that’s cold.
But what is in my teacup right now is taking my mind off the freezing winter weather outside and is inspiring thoughts of spring. This Cherry Buds Green Tea from Kally Tea evokes memories of spring, when the trees begin to show signs of life and this is especially true of the cherry blossom trees with their beautiful pink foliage.
That’s what I think of every time I sip on a cherry flavored Sencha tea like this one. The sweet, lush flavor of the Sencha tea melds in such a delicious way with the sweet-tart notes of cherry and the sweet floral notes of rose that dance around in the background.
It tastes mildly sweet, fruity and it has an invigorating quality that helps me shake the winter blues. A lovely tea served hot that is also quite good iced too.
One Tart Queen of Hearts Custom Blend from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
From the Wonderland series, this is One Tart Queen of Hearts! The flavor isn’t as tart as the name would lead you to believe. A fun medley of cherry green (40 percent), raspberry green (40 percent) and pomegranate green (20 percent) teas make up this ode to one of childhood’s favorite characters. If you don’t like too tart teas, try with sweetener (sugar or Splenda).
A Carolynne Keenan Custom Blend.
Learn more about this custom blend here.
Find more of Carolynne Keenan blends here.
Taster’s Review:
This is really tasty. Despite the name of the tea – One Tart Queen of Hearts – a custom blend from Adagio Teas as created by Carolynne Keenan, it isn’t as tart as I thought it would be. It is tart, but it’s not pucker-y or sour.
I’m learning that I prefer the green teas from Adagio versus the black teas, which tend to be just a bit on the harsh side. With this green tea blend, though, I’m not experiencing any of the usual brash taste that I get from many of Adagio’s black teas. This green tea base is light and slightly buttery and adds a hint of sweet, vegetal flavor to this fruity blend.
The fruit flavors come together in a very harmonious way. I taste mostly raspberry and cherry, with only hints of pomegranate, but, I like the way these three fruit notes unite. It’s a little more tart than sweet, however, I kind of expected that from the name of the blend, you know?
But it’s not TOO tart. I tend to have kind of a sensitive palate when it comes to tarty, sour flavors, and I don’t really care for teas (or anything, really) that are too tart. I’m talking that it’s so sour that I pucker when I take a sip. Not into that. I know that there are lots of people out there who dig on that, but I’m not one of them. So, I’m happy that while this blend created by Carolynne Keenan is tart, it’s not overwhelmingly so.
A really tasty blend. I’d definitely drink it again!