Even though I am a huge tea drinker, I do love my coffee as well. I actually start each day with coffee. Being not a morning person, I’ve bumbled tea steepings one too many times and it seems like coffee is just an easier choice for me- plus coffee is just an alluring smell for thing in the morning.
Recently I tried a coffee tea blend where there was actual coffee in the tea blend itself (not coffee flavorings) and I fell in love with this unique blend. Around the same time, Rave Coffee reached out to the SororiTea Sisters to see if we would be interested in checking out their coffee and it was like it was meant to be. When the coffee arrived- I was floored. The coffee smelled amazing, fresh, and vibrant. Along with the coffee was this really lovely education pack. I’ve never seen such a cool education guide to help you learn and explore your coffee. There is so much info on how to brew your coffee, how to taste it, they even included a coffee tea tasting log. Very very cool and slick in style.
Before I started experimenting with the tea and coffee blend, I decided I wanted to try the coffee on its own and it was amazing. My particular palette I feel is more set up to tastes the unique properties of tea more than coffee but what I can say is that this tea was divine. Rich, smooth, without any bitterness and addicting! I found myself eagerly drinking cup after cup as regular coffee, lattes, cold brews, you name it- I tried it- and always with success. Just plain delicious and highly recommended.
When it was time to start brewing the coffee up with tea- I decided to go with an blend of Assam to get that right taste. I also added a few cocoa nibs just to give the coffee and tea a bit more flavor to play off of. Brewed up the tea with 212F prepped water for right around 2 minutes. The result- Delicious mix of the two worlds that I adore- coffee and tea. Each flavor is allowed its own time in the spotlight- you can literally tell the familiar notes of coffee with the familiar notes of tea. I was assuming there might be a mixing of flavors but there really isn’t. Which sounds a bit odd, but I’m actually enjoying this and my own little experiment tastes a lot like the coffee tea blend I had not too long ago. I’m excited to really explore this idea more with different coffee and tea blends.
I’ve had several different coffee subscriptions from a lot of different places but Rave is one I’m really excited to get going to really take a deeper dive into all things coffee and possibly even blend up a puerh coffee blend on my own. Rave Coffee has so much to learn on their website just in general but it will be fun to really take the time to enjoy their coffee like I do some of my favorite teas and to take the time to really learn about that cup of joe I enjoy so much in the mornings.
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Where to Buy: Rave
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I Dream of Macchiato Dream from Steeped Tea
I don’t discriminate when it comes to tea and coffee, I like them both, hot and iced, and I often find myself drinking one or the other depending on my mood. I was very intrigued to try a rooibos tea with real coffee beans mixed in the dry leaf. Visually, this blend is intriguing, with the fine red grains of rooibos mixed in with dark, roasted coffee beans and chunky cocoa shells.
The smell of this tea is amazing right from the start: there is the sharp, earthy, depth of roasted coffee beans, the sweet decadence of cocoa, and the bright vanilla nuttiness of the red rooibos. Without even brewing a cup, this tea smells like a mocha dessert or java ice cream.
Brewed hot, the cocoa and coffee take over, completely masking the rooibos. This can be a benefit– I’m not always in the mood for the particular taste of red rooibos, though its caffeine-free status is hard to beat. The brewed tea has a smooth mouthfeel, warming and coating my throat, and the sweet flavors almost trick my tongue into thinking we’re having dessert instead of tea.
Even with the coffee beans, there’s not as much caffeine in this blend as other black teas or full-on coffee, so there is more flexibility as to when you can indulge in Macchiato Dream. I’m not as ambitious as some SororiTea Sisters when it comes to building lattes, but I can already tell that this tea will be a winner when mixed with milk and sweetener.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Steeped Tea
Description:
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Spiced Coffee from Handmade Tea. . . . .
This sample is a SURPRISE SAMPLE from Handmade Tea, a tea-subscription company! I love blind-box subscription companies. What’s going to come? NO ONE KNOWS. It’s like Christmas EVERY. MONTH.
Handmade Tea is run by a fella named Caleb, who I think I’d like in person. He looks like a very intelligent lumberjack. In addition to mixing, he hires artists he thinks would go well with the blends. A self-professed foodie, he thinks society’s “only a few short years away from tea pairing becoming very common.”
This blurb made me realize — I would love to be a tea sommelier. I kind of already do this with my coworkers. “How are you feeling? Would you like a cup of tea? What are you in the mood for? Fruity? Flowery? Spicy? Sweet? Caffeinated? Let’s narrow it down. Here. I’ll steep it for you. I know how much to use and how long to steep it.” Yes, I realize this makes me sound like a know-it-all, but isn’t that PRECISELY what a sommelier is?
This Spiced Coffee tea is great for the mornings. It’s black and, by what I can tell from taste and how hard my heart’s pounding, a little bit of maté. (ZING, FAM.) There are also some spices and real coffee beans.
“Oh yes,” I whispered when I looked at the bag in which the Sororitea Sisters shipped this to me. “I am going to have a HEART ATTACK.”
There is nothing like a cardiovascular incident to begin a morning.
Despite the ingredients, this is a pretty mellow taste. Swishing the tea around in my mouth yielded a mellow maté flavor. (I pray maté is in this. If it’s not, I’m going to die of humiliation.) Swallowing yielded up the spices and coffee.
It’s a good brew. It’s the kind of brew an intelligent lumberjack like Caleb would make. Thanks for the morning kick, pal!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Handmade Tea
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below to learn more about Handmade Tea’s monthly plans.
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