Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Crazy? Or genius? You’ll have to be the judge. I’ve taken some smoky gunpowder green tea and blended it with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and freeze-dried pineapple to make a chai-napple gunpowder. Get it? Chai-napple? I kill me.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn how to subscribe to 52Teas’ Tea of the Week program here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh, yum, nom, nom!
I generally brew ‘chai’ blends using either a teapot or my Kati tumbler because I find that the spices of a typical chai seem to attach themselves to my Breville tea maker and the scent (and the flavor) stays with the tea maker until I give it a good soak brew in baking soda. I learned this fairly early on with my first tea maker (about four years ago!) and so I changed my approach to brewing chai teas as a result.
For this “Chai-napple” tea, I used my Kati tumbler. I added a heaping bamboo scoop of tea to the basket of the Kati system and then filled the tumbler with 175°F water and let the tea steep for 2 minutes. I generally add a little bit of turbinado (raw) sugar to a chai to bring out the spice, but I found that the pineapple lent a certain sweetness to the cup and it really didn’t need additional sweetener. I guess if you want to add it, it wouldn’t hurt … but try it first!
For the record, the spices do cling to the basket of the Kati too, and I find to rid the tumbler and basket of the spices, I simply sprinkle some baking soda into the cup and basket, and then fill the tumbler with boiling water and let it sit for a while. This does the job!
When I took my first sip of this tea while it was freshly brewed and still rather hot, I could taste the pineapple and the green tea notes very distinctly. I wasn’t tasting a lot of the spices, but the pineapple and green tea flavors were quite strong.
After allowing the tea to cool to a more drinkable temperature, I began to pick up on more of the warm notes of spice. I find that the three spices – cinnamon, cardamom and ginger – are blended in such a way to provide a deliciously warm medley of spiced flavor without tasting too spicy.
The pineapple is the real star of this cup, though. It is sweet and juicy tasting, and I like the way it melds with the spices as well as the sweet, slightly nutty, softly smoky note of the Chinese gunpowder green tea.
And I noticed that the leaves had not yet completely unfurled with the first infusion and they were begging for another infusion. Who am I to refuse? I infused the leaves again, adding an additional 30 seconds of steep time.
With the second infusion, I could really taste the cardamom! The cinnamon and ginger were a little more forward with this infusion as well. I still got a good flavor from both the green tea and the pineapple too. This is a blend you really SHOULD infuse a minimum of two times to get the true “chai-napple” experience!
The pineapple was a little softer in flavor with the second infusion, but I like the balance of flavors better this time around. I can taste each of the components and it becomes a really tasty alternative to the “usual” masala chai! I taste a little bit of ginger’s bite, a cozy, sweet cinnamon flavor and the warm, comforting flavor of cardamom along with the juicy, delicious flavor of pineapple.
The gunpowder green tea is a delightful base because it’s gentle earthiness and understated smoky note offers a compelling contrast to the sweet burst of flavor of the pineapple and the warm notes of spice.
This truly is a unique chai. If you’re one who wants your chai blends to be hot and spicy, this blend might not be for you, because the spices are pretty mellow when compared to some of the spicy chai blends I’ve sampled. But if you’re one who likes something with a mild level of spice and something just a little different (like pineapple!), I recommend giving this blend a try.
Matcha to Go Stick-Packs from Aiya
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Aiya
Tea Description:
Similar to Aiya’s flagship Ceremonial Matcha, Matcha to Go is intended to be used with water exclusively so as to enjoy the pure, smooth tea flavor. Either cold or hot, simply open the single-serve stick, add directly to water and quickly stir – there is no need to sift first or even whisk!
Matcha to Go Sticks are designed to make Matcha drinks as quickly and easily as possible. By blending Matcha with dietary fiber, we have eliminated Matcha clumping, making it easier to mix into hot water with just a spoon. For an Iced-Matcha on the go, just pour the stick into a bottle of water, shake and enjoy!
All of our Matcha is grown and produced in Nishio city in Aichi prefecture, known the world over as the cradle of the finest Matcha for more than 800 years.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have enjoyed many different teas from Aiya, so when they approached me to sample their new Matcha-To-Go sticks, I was excited. They have some of the VERY BEST Matcha that I’ve ever tried so if this new product was anything like the Matcha teas that I’ve sampled in the past, I knew it was going to be really good.
And it is!
The product label states that this Matcha can be enjoyed both hot or cold, and for the purposes of this review, I decided to try this tea both ways. First, I tried it cold. I grabbed my 16.9 ounce water bottle that was chilling in the fridge. Then I added one of the “pixie” stick packs of the Matcha into the bottle, screwed on the cap and gave it a vigorous shake or two.
Mmm! Tasty! I’ve tried quite a few of these convenient “pixie stick” Matcha packs at this point and some are better than others. This one is one of the very best that I’ve tried. I can taste the quality of the Matcha here. This is a really top quality Matcha! It is sweet and it has that silky texture that you expect from a high quality Matcha. No bitterness whatsoever!
This is sweet and buttery. It has a vegetal flavor, of course, with a creamy texture and a buttery flavor to complement the texture.
This is the kind of “instant” tea that I can enthusiastically recommend to those who are looking for the ideal tea while on the go. It is everything that you would expect from a top notch Matcha, but prepared in a water bottle so that you can take it with you.
Then I decided to prepare it hot. After I had prepared it the way I would normally prepare a chawan of Matcha, I wished I had instead gone a less traditional route and tried stirring it in a tea mug or something, like someone who didn’t have the “proper tools” to enjoy Matcha would. But, I didn’t think about that when I started preparing this. I thought: Matcha? OK, I need my chawan. But really, you don’t need a chawan. You can prepare Matcha in a cereal bowl … or as I eluded to above, you could prepare one of these pixies of Matcha in a tea mug or other drinking vessel.
When it came to stirring, I grabbed my chasen (bamboo whisk) and again, I wish I would have thought to grab a spoon instead and tried to stir it the way someone who was less familiar with Matcha might approach their first experience with this tea. Oh well! A spoon would work just fine, although you won’t get very much froth with a spoon.
Then again, with this particular Matcha product, I didn’t get a lot of froth anyway. It does froth up a little bit, but not nearly as much as a traditional ceremonial Matcha would. And the froth disappears really quickly.
But the flavor that I expect from a ceremonial Matcha is there! It tastes great! Sweet with absolutely no bitterness. Smooth and creamy. Buttery notes and hints of cacao that are more noticeable in this hot version than they were in the cold bottle. I don’t notice anything from the fiber except for the possibility of a somewhat thicker texture. It’s barely noticeable and I only noticed it because I was trying to focus on whether or not I was noticing anything from the dietary fiber. So … it could have all been in my head.
Anyway … this is a superb to-go instant tea! One of the best products of it’s kind, if you’re a Matcha lover or just someone who appreciates good tea and wants something of high quality to-go, this product is for you.
Cotton Candy Iced Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Premium Organic green tea with organic flavors. Each 14g teabag will make one 2-quart pitcher of DELICIOUS iced tea. Re-steep the teabag and you can get a full gallon out of each one.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! OK, it was pretty much a given that I’d LOVE this flavor of iced tea from Southern Boy Teas. I love the original 52Teas version of Cotton Candy, I loved the Cotton Candy with the White Tea Base. And of course, I loved the Cotton Candy Black Iced Tea from SBT which was part of their original series of iced tea pouches. So, I was really confident before I even poured the first glass of tea that I’d love this too.
And I do.
It is sweet and refreshing. The lighter base of green tea is perfect for the Cotton Candy flavors which tend to be on the delicate side. The Cotton Candy notes are able to shine through nicely. And the buttery notes of the green tea work really well with these flavors.
I find myself emptying the glass of iced tea almost as quickly as I can refill it! It just tastes so good, but even though it’s crafted as an homage to one of my favorite carnival treats, it doesn’t taste sickeningly, sticky sweet. It’s sweet, certainly, and those of you who don’t like sweet beverages might find this to be a bit cloying, but for those of you with a sweet tooth, this cold drink might be right up your alley.
To brew this, I hot brewed the sachet in 1 quart of freshly filtered water that was brought to 170°F. I steeped the sachet for 1 1/2 minutes, and then I poured the brewed tea into my iced tea pitcher. Then I repeated the process – same amount of water and the same temperature, but this time I steeped the sachet for 2 minutes. And what I LOVE about the green teas from Southern Boy Teas is that you can resteep it for another half gallon of tea! I just stash the sachet in the fridge in an airtight container, and then I resteep the sachet at the same temperature (170°F), 2 1/2 minutes for the first quart and 3 minutes for the second. I get a full gallon of delicious iced tea out of this.
It tastes fresh and light and it’s a very invigorating glass of refreshment. This one is definitely one I’ll be reordering in the future. With the next one I buy, I want to try cold-brewing the sachet to see how it fairs!
I like it a lot!
Cinnamon Orange Flavored Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Before I start this review, I wanted to update you with some news about 52Teas/Zoomdweebies/Southern Boy Teas!
Recently, they launched a whole new website and along with the new website came some exciting changes to the way they sell teas! They are now offering their teas in .5 ounce size pouches rather than the 1 – 2 ounce size pouches and what this means to those of us who subscribe is this:
- No longer will I be receiving 1 – 2 ounces of tea per week to add to my overwhelming stash. This is a good thing. I’m a taster. I like this small size because if I find a tea that I really like enough to add it to my stash, then I can buy more of the smaller size. This means the tea stays sealed and fresh until I want to use it!
- Savings! I am now able to subscribe not just to the 52Teas/Zoomdweebies “hot tea” blend but also the Southern Boy Teas weekly blend for about the same price as I was paying for just the hot tea blend from 52Teas. I am getting more flavor for a lower price. OK, sign me up! Here’s where you can subscribe!
Now … on to the review!
When I first read the name of this tea – Cinnamon Orange Iced Honeybush Tea – I thought it would be what I consider a “typical” cinnamon orange type of tea. That is, one of those red-hot, spicy-sweet cinnamon-y teas with notes of orange in the background. They are usually sold as “hot cinnamon” or “holiday” blends. But this iced tea doesn’t taste at all like I expected it to!
And that’s a good thing!
Oh sure, I enjoy those red-hot, spicy-sweet, candy-like teas. They’re one of those guilty pleasures of mine. But I was not too sure about that spicy-sweet flavor for an iced tea. Iced tea should be something very refreshing and cooling for the palate, and while I do enjoy those spicy-sweet teas, they aren’t really very cooling for the palate. I think it’s because of the spicy thing.
But this isn’t spicy-sweet. The cinnamon tastes sweet and it’s gently spiced and smoothly flavored. It doesn’t impart a warm flavor on my palate. It’s sweet and a little savory, but it isn’t hot or spicy. The orange is bright and juicy tasting. And it is a very refreshing taste.
The honeybush is a little sweet and nutty, and the earthiness of the honeybush brings out the earthier, sweeter flavors of the cinnamon without emphasizing it’s spicier side. The orange is sweet and vibrant.
A really tasty iced tea. I wouldn’t call it my favorite iced tea selection from Southern Boy Teas, but, I am really enjoying it and will have no problem finishing the pitcher. I might even buy another pouch or two in the future. It’s a good one.
Product Review: Organic Lime Pomegranate Lightly Sweetened Iced Green Tea from steaz
Product Information:
It starts with certified organic and fair trade green tea sourced from around the world – we then brew our tea with the most flavorful fruits that are rich in antioxidants and finished with a hint of organic cane sugar for a healthy and delicious refreshment that will enhance your senses. And becuase our farms are Fair Trade Certified™, we ensure equal pay, better health care and equal opportunities for our farmers – so they too can reach new heights as well.
Learn more about this product here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve said before that I’m not the biggest fan of RTD (Ready to Drink) teas that are available in just about any convenience store or grocery store. Most of them are crafted primarily of sugar or other sweeteners. They tend to be so full of sweetener and flavoring that the drinker can’t even taste the tea!
Occasionally, I come across one that’s different or at least, I come across one that seems to promise to be different. This can of Organic Lime Pomegranate iced green tea from steaz says “Lightly Sweetened” on it, and that’s what immediately caught my attention about it. Other eye catching features: “Organic” and “Fair Trade.” Two other things that I appreciated.
So, I’ll give it a try.
The description above states that there is a “hint of organic cane sugar.” However, the ingredient list tells a slightly different tale:
INGREDIENTS: Filtered water, organic evaporated cane juice, natural pomegranate & lime flavors, organic lemon juice, fair trade certified™ organic green tea.
When the ingredient is second on a list five ingredients, that suggests to me that maybe there’s a little more than just a “hint” of sugar in this. Also, after reading the ingredient list, I’m a little disturbed by the fact that the green tea is the LAST ingredient on the list! What?!?
And unfortunately, with this tea, you can taste the ingredients as they’re listed. I taste more sweetener and flavoring than I do green tea.
That said, this drink does have some redeeming qualities. It is a tasty drink. The lime is the strongest of the flavors, but I taste a sweet-tart pomegranate note in there too. While I do taste more sugar than I do tea, it isn’t TOO sweet or cloyingly so. This isn’t as sweet as say … the typical soda pop would be. My teeth don’t feel as though they’ve been coated with sugar as I drink this beverage.
It’s a tasty, refreshing beverage. I do wish I could taste more tea than sugar or pomegranate and lime. I feel like this has been marketed as a tea product and as an organic product for the health appeal without any real focus on the tea. Those who are trying to make “healthier” choices while shopping would probably buy this. This isn’t a drink for tea drinkers, it’s a drink for those who probably have never really tried green tea and think that this is what green tea is supposed to taste like.