Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tea Description:
Immerse yourself into a cup of this dreamy tropical infusion! With its light body and smooth creamy texture, it’s no wonder this tea is a favorite of many Art of Tea customers! Delivers a sweet and soothing balance of coconut and is great hot, iced or as a dessert tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum!
I figured I’d like this tea. I mean, I like coconut and the lighter flavor of the white tea base would really allow those coconut flavors to shine through nicely. And this is a really tasty tea!
To brew it, I grabbed my reliable Kati tumbler and put 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket (when it comes to brewing white teas, I usually use a little extra leaf) and heated the water to 180°F. That was an absent minded mistake, actually. I usually use a lower temperature for white teas, but, I was thinking “green tea” when I started brewing this tea. I’m not sure why, exactly. I steeped the tea for 3 minutes.
Fortunately, my absent minded mistake while setting the temperature for the kettle didn’t upset the tea!
The coconut is really strong and flavorful. And it tastes like genuine coconut. It doesn’t have a fake or artificial flavor. It’s smooth and it has that slick “coconut” flavor.
The white tea base is sweet and light in flavor. It’s a delicate tea. The Art of Tea website doesn’t reveal what type of white tea this is – or at least, I couldn’t find the identification of the white tea anywhere on the website. But to this tea drinker’s eye, I would say that it is either a White Peony or a Shou Mei. The sampling that I had of this tea appeared to look more like a Shou Mei or at the very least like a combination of both White Peony and Shou Mei.
I like that while the coconut is a strong taste in this cup, it doesn’t overpower the hay-like notes of the white tea. It has a sweet crispness to it. The white tea is tasted but it still allows the blend to serve as a celebration of the sweet, creamy joyful taste that is coconut!
This tea would make a really delightful dessert tea, and it tastes great hot or cold. (Note: the tea actually seems to get “creamier” as it cools! Mmm!) I found the tea to be really enjoyable and I’d recommend this tea to anyone looking for a delicious coconut tea!
Cool Coconut Rooibos Chai from Big Tea House
Chai Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Big Tea House
Chai Description:
Enjoy the fun and spiced infusion of chai gourmet loose leaf tea infused with the exotic flavor of coconut!
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! The name of this tea led me to believe that I’d be enjoying a somewhat tame version of a masala spice chai but this tisane has got some kick to it! Sure, it’s got the sweet, creamy coconut notes to soften the flavors a little but I’m still getting a lot of zesty flavor from this chai blend.
I love the coconut’s role in this blend. It’s a creamy note and together with the spices, it evokes thoughts of a chai latte without the addition of dairy. The coconut adds a pleasant sweetness too and I like the way the sweetness contrasts with the spices.
The spices are lively. The ginger and pepper are the most prominent of the spices and the heat seems to bring out the spicy side of the cinnamon, making it more of a ‘hot’ cinnamon than a sweet cinnamon. The cloves and cardamom add depth to the flavor.
The flavor of the rooibos is not easy to discern here, but I’m alright with that. I do taste a very delicate earthiness from the rooibos and this complements the earthiness of the spices.
To steep: I used 195°F water and steeped the leaves for 10 minutes. I usually use a little extra leaf with a chai, so I used a scoop and a half for a 12 ounce cup. A warm and flavorful chai. If you want to go latte, use a little more leaf and a little less water so that the infusion is strong and doesn’t become to diluted by the addition of milk or cream. But I found that with the coconut flavor, this doesn’t really need milk or cream to taste latte-ish! A little bit of raw sugar does enhance the flavor of the spices nicely though, so I recommend adding just a half teaspoon of sugar to your cup!
Banana Coconut Tisane from The Persimmon Tree
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Herbal Tisane
Where To Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tisane Description:
Our Banana Coconut herbal tea is a smooth and scrumptious herbal blend of rooibos, chamomile and lemongrass with notes of ripe banana, sweet coconut, graham cracker and a hint of caramel. This caffeine-free tropical blend will put a smile on anyone’s face. Try it iced and lightly sweetened for an extra refreshing summer beverage.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
I don’t always say “yummy” when I’m tasting a chamomile blend. I don’t always say “yummy” when I’m tasting a blend made with rooibos. So to have a blend with both these herbals in front of me and to have me say “yummy” after taking a sip seems pretty remarkable to me. But this is indeed yummy!
And that yumminess factor has less to do with the rooibos and chamomile and more to do with the other flavors going on in this cup: banana, coconut, caramel and even a little bit of graham cracker.
This is an interesting cup because there is a lot going on but it works. When I read the description and saw the flavors of banana, coconut, graham cracker and caramel” I thought … oh, ok, that sounds like a yummy pie. But then you see ingredients like lemongrass and chamomile and you think … what? Why are those ingredients in there?
But somehow, it all works together in a very flavorful way, and without any one flavor or ingredient becoming overwhelmed by any of the others. I taste each component of the tisane and it all tastes really good together.
The chamomile offers a very light apple-y flavor. The chamomile works harmoniously with the honey notes of the rooibos, because I taste a hint of pollen-ish flavor from the chamomile and this melds with the rooibos to bring out the nutty, honey sweet flavor of the South African herb. And the lemongrass is subtle here, offering a smooth, buttery note with a hint of citrus-y brightness.
Each component seems to unite with other components of the cup to bring out the best in each ingredient. And really, that’s what you want from a tea blend – that’s the thing that makes blends so appealing is the way that each ingredient adds to the combination so that the sum is greater than the individual parts. And this blend really succeeded in that quest!
This is a naturally caffeine-free (and guilt free!) treat that makes a perfect bedtime treat for those nights when you’re craving something sweet before you tuck in to bed. Served warm, it’s so soothing, comforting and a delightful sweet-tooth indulgence. It’s also tasty iced!
Ginger’s Island Fruit and Herb Tea from Good Life Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Good Life Tea
Tisane Description:
Ginger spices up this tropical blend of dried apples, coconut, rose hip, hibiscus and lemongrass. Step aboard for your 3 hour tour and loose yourself in your own island bliss.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
More hibiscus. Well, since this is another tisane from Good Life Tea and I had pretty good luck with the C of Tranquilitea tisane I hoped as I steeped this tea that my experience with this tisane would be as favorable as my experience with the C of Tranquilitea was.
This blend has a bit too much hibiscus for my liking, and that’s most of what I’m tasting. If I can get past the tart, pungent taste of the hibiscus, I can taste subtle notes of ginger and lemon grass.
It is a rare occasion when I find ginger in a tea and it’s presented as a subtle spice, but here, the hibiscus is so strong that it obscures the flavor of the ginger unless I slurp the sip. The aftertaste is tangy and there is some ginger heat to the aftertaste. This warmth from the ginger gradually intensifies as I continue to sip the cup, but it never really becomes a strong flavor in the cup.
The same is true of the lemon grass and the other ingredients in this tisane. I can taste them – very faintly – but most of their flavors are hidden behind the strong hibiscus notes.
Normally, I might blame this on over-steeping. But I steeped this tisane for just five minutes in 195°F. Usually, with a hibiscus blend, I steep for six minutes, but when I saw how robust the ruby color of the liquid was after five minutes, I decided to stop the steep process at five minutes.
In the note that I received from Good Life Tea, they indicate that this tisane is
…a fruit and herbal Tisane with Hibiscus, Rosehips, Coconut and Pineapple. The tropical flavors are tempered and enhanced by ginger and lemongrass.
I’m not getting much pineapple flavor from this tisane, nor am I getting much coconut. Now that I am more than halfway finished with my cup and the cup has had some time to cool, I am starting to pick up more coconut and pineapple-y flavors (and I’m tasting more ginger now too), leading me to believe that this tisane is probably much tastier as an iced tea rather than a hot tea.
That said, I can’t help but think that this would be infinitely better without so much hibiscus in it. If you’re a fan of hibiscus, you would probably find this tisane very much to your liking.
Not my favorite cup, but they can’t all be my favorite. This one is better as it cools. When it’s served hot, the tisane tastes strongly of hibiscus, but once it cools, the tropical flavors that are promised in the above description begin to shine through.
Watermelon Splash Tea Blend from Bluebird Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green & White Teas
Where to Buy: Bluebird Tea Co.
Tisane Description:
A refreshing blend of green and white tea bursting with juicy melon and fruit flavours. A truly spring time tea, fresh and fruity and totally mouth-watering over ice. Watermelon Splash is the perfect tea blend for sipping in the sunshine.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
This Watermelon Splash Tea from Bluebird Tea Co. isn’t just a “spring time” tea but it’s a wonderful summer time tea too!
I admit that I was a little dismayed to see that hibiscus is one of the ingredients, and even more dismayed to see the hibiscus in the blend as I measured it into my tea maker, but, really, the hibiscus adds very little to this blend except for a slight pinkish hue that embraces the whole ‘watermelon-y’ sort of theme of the tea. The texture is light – not at all syrupy the way hibiscus can be in a blend – and the flavor is not overly tart.
There is some tartness to this though, and not just from the hibiscus, but also from the lemon peel. But I think I like these tart notes, because they contrast in a pleasant way with the sweetness and add an uplifting brightness to the cup.
To brew this blend, I used a lower temperature (it’s a blend of both white and green teas, and in blends like this, I generally yield to the lowest temperature, in this case, I’m yielding to the white tea brewing requirements) of 170°F. I know that a lot of people will tell you that 160°F is the way to go with white teas, but, I have found that adjusting that temperature by 10 degrees will provide a much more flavorful cup of white tea without any bitterness or sign of scorched tea leaves.
I steeped this for 3 minutes and the result is a flavorful cup that is lightly pink in color, looking a bit like the liquid at the bottom of a bowl of cut-up watermelon. In other words, it looks like watermelon juice.
The tea smells like a medley of fruits. I can smell watermelon, coconut, pineapple and citrus. The first few sips were more lemon-y than they were watermelon-ish. After about two sips, I could start to pick up on the coconut and pineapple flavors. It wasn’t until I reached mid-cup that I started to note the watermelon flavor.
The base of white and green teas is light and crisp and buttery smooth. I don’t get a strong “grassy” note, but I do taste the fresh “leafy” taste that is distinctly green tea.
The tea notes are best described as background notes. They aren’t very prominent flavors amid the fruit flavors. I can barely taste the white tea, but it lightens the cup in a way that benefits the overall beverage. It adds this refreshing, cool taste that is just as distinctly white as the aforementioned fresh leafy taste is distinctly green, even though the cup does not scream out “white tea” or even “green tea.” While these flavors are not abundantly ~clear~ in the cup, this blend would not be the same without either of these two teas in it. They add something flavorful to the cup, it is just not as distinguished as the fruit notes.
I found myself enjoying this cup. I do wish there was a stronger, more obvious watermelon note to it, but I really do like the combination of flavors. It’s a great way to quench the thirst. Good hot but much better iced!