Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Local Coffee & Tea
Tisane Description:
Selby Select Rooibos Loose Leaf Tea is our custom blended Rooibos with orange peel and dried yogurt pieces. Created to celebrate the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, this is our perennial best seller. Each sip releases the aroma of sweet ripe oranges, followed by creamy notes on your tongue. You will think you are drinking Florida sunshine in a magnificently serene garden. Savor and enjoy!
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had an interesting relationship with this tisane. The very first time I tried it, I didn’t really care for it. But the second time I tasted it, I questioned whether or not it was, in fact, the same tea that I had tried the first time around (I received the first sampling of this tea from a friend, the second I received as a sample direct from Local Coffee & Tea) because I was enjoying it. It wasn’t knocking my socks off or anything, but, it was pleasant, and nothing at all like that first cup I had.
Since then, I’ve come to really like this tisane. It reminds me very much of a creamsicle!
The orange flavor is bright and sweet, with just a hint of citrus tartness. It is a very vibrant flavor and it is contrasted with the creamy taste of vanilla yogurt. I think that yogurt was a perfect choice here (rather than using vanilla flavoring), because the yogurt is creamy without being too sweet. The rooibos is sweet, as is the flavor of the orange, and I think that adding a vanilla flavoring would have resulted in a very cloying beverage. As it is, though, everything tastes well balanced: just enough tart, sweet, and tang to please the taste buds.
The rooibos doesn’t lend too much of its woody flavor to this cup, and that suits me just fine. The rooibos does offer a warm nutty note to the cup that is especially apparent in the finish and aftertaste, and it melds nicely with the orange flavor.
This would make a remarkable iced tea in the summer – very refreshing and naturally sweet. I guess I like this one after all!
McNulty’s Special Mixed Blend from McNulty’s Tea & Coffee
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Oolong & Green Teas
Where to Buy: McNulty’s Tea & Coffee
Tea Description:
Our Special Mixed Tea is a blend of Formosa Oolong, Japanese Sencha, and China Black. This formula has been with the store since the 1940’s.
Taster’s Review:
When I first received this tea, I was a bit unsure about its contents. The tea looked black, but it smelled a bit like Oolong and green tea. So, I wrote to McNulty’s to find out more about this blend, which is categorized on their website as only a black tea blend, hoping to gain a little more insight about this tasty tea. They wrote back promptly, and the above description is their response.
This is indeed a tasty blend. The black tea tastes a bit lighter than a typical China black tea, and I suspect that has a lot to do with the fact that it was sharing the brewing space with an Oolong and Sencha.
I taste a toasty flavor to this – nutty – which could be from the Sencha, or it could be from the Oolong. There is some earthiness to the cup as well as some light fruit tones. Light peachy tones, and hints of flower.
Overall, a very pleasant tea. I brewed this before knowing what teas were inside, and again, I brewed it thinking it was a black blend. So I used boiling water for 2 1/2 minutes in my Breville. However, the high temperature did not seem to scorch the Sencha, as I did not taste a hint of bitterness nor an indication of scorching. Just delicious tea with a pleasant sweetness all its own; no need to sweeten! This is really quite delightful!
Coffee Almond Tea from Tea Addiction
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea Addiction
Product Description:
Ingredients: Black tea, roasted chicory root, almond, coffee beans, flavoring.
Are you a fan of both tea and coffee, or are you looking to transition from coffee to tea? If so, you’ll love this new blend of black tea, coffee beans, toasted almonds, and roasted chicory root.
This black tea satisfies like coffee but gives the health benefits of tea. The liquor produced by Coffee Almond Tea has a rich black tea base with a hint of coffee and almond and is great hot or iced.
Taster’s Review:
I wouldn’t consider myself to be a fan of both tea and coffee – although I guess I used to be. I used to drink coffee every morning, until I realized that it was coffee that was causing my mid-day nausea. I have since become a somewhat disgruntled ex-coffee drinker. Truth be told, I do occasionally miss the flavor and aroma of coffee, but I love tea much more than I ever liked coffee.
This tea gives you a little bit of both worlds.
The dry leaf is very attractive, with big slivers of almond and whole coffee beans tossed amongst the black tea leaves and pieces of roasted chicory root. It smells a little bit like coffee, a little like tea, and a little like almond.
This tastes much better than I thought it would. Because of my disenchantment with coffee, I expected to really dislike this. But, it’s actually quite lovely.
The flavor is deep and rich. The tea flavors are stronger than the coffee, but both beverages can be tasted here. It has a little bit of bitterness from the coffee, but, it isn’t an unappetizing bitterness. There is a nice balance between coffee bean and chicory root (which is often used as a coffee substitute because it has a similar flavor) so that the flavor does not become overwhelming. It doesn’t overpower the tea notes.
If I were to change anything about this particular tea, it would be to increase the almond flavor. It almost gets lost with the other strong flavors in the cup. It is a detectable flavor – sweet and nutty – but, I think the tea would be even better with a little more almond taste.
As it is, though, I quite enjoyed it. I drank it hot with a little bit of turbinado sugar (I have never been a black coffee drinker!) I also had a cup with a splash of milk to see how it tasted and I think I prefer this one as a latte. It seems to bring out the almond flavor while lending a creamy texture to the cup! YUMMY!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Coffee Blend Bhakti Chai Concentrate from Bhakti Chai
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: For more information about this product including how to purchase, visit: Bhakti Chai
Product Description:
Original Blend with a splash of cold-pressed organic coffee.
Taster’s Review:
I realize that I run the risk of sounding redundant here… but I love Bhakti Chai! So far, I have tried their original concentrate and their unsweetened concentrate and I enjoyed both of them… and now I am tasting their “Coffee Blend” – which is essentially their original blend with a little bit of coffee in it.
This is vibrant and full of flavor. The ginger is not quite as peppery tasting as it is in the other blends, perhaps the coffee mutes some of the strong spice. That is not to say that the spices are gone, they’re just a little bit softer than I remember them from the previous tastings. It is still very gingery, and very delicious.
Now, I am not a big fan of coffee. As I’ve said before, I used to drink it regularly, but, I realized that it was upsetting my stomach so I stopped drinking coffee and switched to tea. I’m happier now that I’ve switched… but, this chai offers me a little opportunity to enjoy that coffee flavor that I miss sometimes… only time will tell if this particular blend will upset my stomach the way that drinking coffee did… I’ll have to report back in a few hours with the verdict!
Revisiting one day later: I sit here with another cup of this chai in hand, and I must say that yesterday I did not notice any ill-effects from my first cup. I suspect that this might have something to do with the ginger in the tea (which has a soothing effect on the tummy), and perhaps it might also have something to do with the polyphenols in the tea and it also regulated the caffeine in the coffee. I will also say that I didn’t notice a jolt or spike in energy levels after I drink this, so perhaps it is the polyphenols at work here.
Either way, this is an excellent variation on chai. I am quite enjoying the addition of coffee in this blend, it adds a very pleasant flavor! I do believe I’m developing an addiction to Bhakti Chai!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Vintage China Clipart Set from Zboooh Design Studio & MyGrafico
Product:
Romantic old fashion vintage china clip art set available in JPEG, PNG, and EPS Format.
Designer:
Where To Buy:
Direct Link to this product in their shop is located HERE
Product Description:
Romantic old fashion vintage china clip art set, ideal for crative paper craft for invitation cards or any other card designs. Retro pots ant teacups with original retro stylish decoration.
Format: EPS (editable with Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw)
300dpi JPEG and 300dpi transparent PNG
Product Review from TeaEqualsBliss:
Anne and I are not only into tea and writing we are both into arts and crafts. A couple of weeks ago we were chatting about a few new features to SororiTEA Sisters and we decided to include Tea Related Art and Crafting Supplies and Outlets within our Product Reviews!
We felt there was a lack of joining the two interests – Tea and Arts/Crafts – online and on other Tea Review Sites so we decided since we try and include anything and everything TEA here at SororiTEA Sisters we would incorporate them here from time to time.
I have been a fan of the designers over at MyGraficO for quite some time! I have been and are on a few design teams and can’t get enough of their Digital Stamps, Clip Art, Digital Papers, etc. Lately I have noticed that MyGraficO has one of the better selections of Tea Related Digital Arts & Craft Components online. This made me VERY HAPPY!
As you can see from the images above I decided to make a card from this set! I make at least 3 Handmade Cards a week and I’m always looking for Tea Clipart and Digital Stamps to incorporate in my projects! I have been getting into some hybrid and altered paper projects as well and I’m sure I will blog about that down the road. There are some really neat things you can do with these sets! I have made Tea Swap Envelopes, Packages, Storage Containers, Album Title Pages, Altered Boxes and Tins, the list goes on and on!
Anyways, I hope you like my first card. And I hope you take a moment to visit MyGraficO! There are TONS of things on that site! The Designers are great and the shop owner is even a TEA FAN herself!
If you would like to read more about Digital Stamps – what they are – and how to use them – take a look at this article!
Stay tuned to SororiTEA Sisters for more Tea Related Arts and Crafts along with more Tea Product Reviews!
