Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Red Rooibos/Mate
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
Warm and fuzzy or strong and bold? Either way Chewy always has your back.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
So lets start this off with saying I am a huge science fiction/fantasy/horror nerd. The horror genre is my favorite but after having kids you learn that watching a good ol fashioned movie like Halloween or Aliens doesn’t fit into your schedule. I learned to adjust and started watching more science fiction movies with my kids. My boys love Star Wars. Especially my nine year old. It does a mama proud when you hear your son arguing Star Wars with another adult. Telling them that the best three are 4,5,6 and naming them correctly. Heart Swells. . .Sigh.
Anyway. . .Today is May the 4th. So let me say to all “May the 4th Be With You”. I had this idea to do a Star Wars inspired tea and ran it by liberteas. Thought it might be fun. So I picked up a tea that I had in my stash for today. One of my favorite characters is Chewbacca. I mean, how can you not just fall in love with him? He is just awesome from the very first time you see him on screen. From the noises and the amazing job done by Peter Mayhew, this character steals the show.
The tea I picked for this awesome day was Chew-Brew by Adagio Teas. I am going 100% outside my comfort zone with this one. The artwork is just awesome so I couldn’t resist. This has the dreaded red rooibos in it. Ugh. But I knew that. Again, the artwork gets me every time with these fandom blends. Brewed this one up at work so I just used the water spout on the coffee, threw the tea in my teapot, brewed for 5 minutes and poured the brew over ice.
While this was brewing, you could smell the hazelnut and almond flavors. It was an almost overwhelming smell. Not bad, but just a bit much for me this morning. As I took my first sip, cringing and waiting for that first hint of red rooibos to overtake the cup, I was 100% surprised. I do not taste the red rooibos at all in this blend!!! How can that be?? I almost did a little dance at work but thought better of it.
As I continued to drink my iced tea, I picked up all of the nutty flavors listed. The almond, the hazelnut, and the mocha nut flavors. I do really enjoy Adagio’s Mocha Nut Mate. It has this rich roasted nutty flavor that I adore and I can pick it up in this and it is amazing iced. The honeybush hazelnut provides a creamy touch. This would be a nut lovers dream tea. The whole tea has a flavor profile of rich nuttiness that I can’t say I’ve had too many other times.
I can’t say that I would drink this one again even though I really enjoyed it. I am just not a huge hazelnut fan. The red rooibos almond must be a very small percentage of this blend. So for people like me that really don’t like it, there is still hope for us.
There really is only one way to end this review. . . . . May the 4th be with you. . . . . .
Raspberry Truffle Matcha Green Tea from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Raspberry Truffle Matcha is the perfectly designed treat that literally melts in the mouth with its mix of sweetness and Matcha undertones. This treat can make the perfect in-between meals treat that is perfect for enticing the taste buds to want much more. It can also make the perfect desert when people want to sample the different alternatives that are available for the palate to partake. For children, this exceptional treat can be one of many favorite offerings on their special occasions.
Raspberry Truffle Matcha is not for the faint hearted because of its deep rich taste sensation on the palate. It is a good alternative for other normal sweet choices such as chocolate or other candies. It also forms a great accompaniment to many foods and drinks with its sweetly inviting appeal and unforgettable flavor. This is a good treat for making a lifeless day unforgettable with its hints of pure pleasure and understated appeal.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Firstly, for those not familiar with Red Leaf Tea’s amazing and varied selection of flavoured matcha, this company offers probably the widest selection of flavours I’ve ever seen in addition to offering a choice on the level of flavouring (starting at delicate and going up to robust) and grade of matcha. If you want to get especially fancy, you can also get different tea types for your matcha as well, such as white or black tea.
The specifications for THIS matcha are the basic grade of green matcha and a robust flavouring level. It is important to note that my preparation was also not the traditional way even though I used a traditional chawan and chawask. This was prepared in cold milk, instead of hot water. That’s my personal preference when it comes to almost all matcha flavours as well as straight matcha.
You can definitely tell, just from the smell, that this is robust flavouring; if you focus hard enough you can actually pick up on the scent of the raspberry before even opening the resealable bag it comes in. And once it has been opened, you’re going to be flooded with the sweet smell of a confectionery-like raspberry with a dark chocolate backdrop – it’s 100% Raspberry Truffle in scent.
As I was whisking this one, it frothed up a great deal more than the average matcha and that thicker, frothy texture didn’t let up easily; for the first half of the chawan I probably could have consumed it with a spoon. It was that frothy! Considering how strong the smell is before being prepared, the flavour is actually surprisingly light – but there are some things about it that tip me off that it’s robust flavouring. I’ve noticed with other robustly flavoured matcha that some flavours tend to get a sort of chalky note; one that reminds me of children’s chewable vitamins or Tums. It seems particularly bad with flavours with fruit in them. This certainly isn’t the worst offender I’ve encountered (I think Orange probably wins that spot, or Boysenberry) but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed it at all.
Otherwise, the flavour is pretty good. I’m a touch surprised that the raspberry is coming off a lot stronger than the chocolate though; when I think of truffles I absolutely picture the over the top, dark, rich, fudgey chocolate notes with the ‘extra’ flavour kind of infused in as more of an aftertaste or undercurrent. You could say the opposite is true here! The raspberry doesn’t have any tartness or tang to it; more so it’s a bit of a sweet and confectionery type of raspberry; like what you’d have in a raspberry danish for example. The chocolate is obviously creamy from the milk but has a distinct ‘dark chocolate’ taste to it. It’s maybe a touch fudgey. The notes from the matcha itself are still present, though quite lightly. But that’s to be expected given the flavour level.
Overall; I’m quite happy with this one! It’s gonna do wonders for satisfying those late night sugar cravings and I’m already picturing how well this would taste lightly sprinkled over top cereal or popcorn. If I had to really emphasize anything to potential buyers though it’d probably just be to expect that the raspberry is going to taste stronger than the chocolate.
Passion Fruit Cheesecake Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Passion fruit and cheesecake? Does it get more decadent than that? Well, yes, actually it does, when we combine the organic flavors of passion fruit and cheesecake with our premium organic Iyerpadi black tea to make an iced tea from heaven!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I made a half-gallon pitcher full of this Passion Fruit Cheesecake Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas last night, and now (less than 24 hours later and I’ve only been drinking this for about 3 of those 24 hours!) the pitcher is nearly empty. I think I have one glass of this tea left in the fridge!
In other words: this stuff is so tasty that I don’t want to stop drinking it!
The black tea base is a very harmonious flavor with the added flavors of passion fruit and cheesecake. The natural fruity notes of the Iyerpadi single estate black tea marries well with these flavors, allowing the flavors to come alive in my glass of iced tea while still managing to maintain its own presence there. It tastes brisk and refreshing. It’s strong without being aggressive or overwhelming. It’s not astringent or bitter. Just really, really lovely.
The passion fruit is a very well-defined flavor here. The cheesecake is less pronounced but it adds a really lusciously smooth and creamy taste to the sip. The tangy note of the cheesecake is there too, it’s a subtle little note that hits about mid-sip. A slight contrast from the sweet and creamy that is quite welcome and keeps the tea from becoming cloying.
Every once in a while, I also pick up on light buttery/pastry type of notes. This buttery/pastry flavor seem to mostly be hidden within the ubiquitous cheesecake note, not really standing on it’s own so much as being part of the collective ‘cheesecake’ but every once in a while, I taste a little more of that flavor, as if it is trying to stand up and shout: “Hello, I’m here too!”
So I guess if I were to offer any sort of criticism at all about this tea, that would be it. I might like just a tad more of that buttery/pastry flavor here. But as I mentioned at the start, I’ve nearly polished off an entire half-gallon of this magical liquid in fewer than four hours.
I think I’m going to be needing more of this.
Date Nut Bread Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Organic honeybush is the perfect compliment to this melding of delicious and aromatic organic flavors, including date, orange, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and pecan. This might seem like a strange thing to flavor an iced tea like, but just wait til you try it!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I just ate some Spicy Sriracha Cosmos and let me tell you, my mouth is on fire! Acha-cha! Spicy!
So, I needed something cold and refreshing and easy to drink (read: gulp!) to help cool my palate. Since I brewed this Date Nut Bread Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas last night so it could chill in the fridge overnight, I figured it was the perfect thing to help me cool down my mouth.
And not only did it do just that, but I was happy to say that the flavors came through LOUD and CLEAR even though my palate might have been somewhat impaired after eating those spicy nuggets of fluffy goodness. (It’s the very good kind of burn!) After a tall glass of the tea, my mouth was feeling back to normal, but I wanted to wait a while before I finished the review so that my palate was back to a functioning level.
So now that my taste buds are refreshed and ready to taste things again – I’m really amazed at how much this actually tastes like date nut bread! I taste the dates – this is a strong flavor. The nutty flavor comes from a hint of pecan flavoring as well as the natural nutty flavor from the honeybush. I taste notes of a cake-y/bread-y type flavor, as well as notes of brown sugar and butter and just a dash of cinnamon.
There is a bright note to this that didn’t taste immediately like “orange” to me until I got to the aftertaste. The aftertaste has a sunny orange flavor. I like that while I can taste the orange and cinnamon here, these flavors were added carefully and offer more of a gentle note rather than overpower the tea.
It’s a surprisingly refreshing iced tea. Not flavors that I would normally think of when I think “Iced Tea” but it works and works very nicely!
Serenity Now Herbal from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal/Tisane
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
So maybe you burned dinner. Maybe the dishwasher broke. Again. Maybe you just forgot to hit “save.” Life is full of stressful surprises. But lucky for us, life is also full of tea. And this oh-so-soothing blend is a guaranteed one-way ticket to your happy place. It’s got serene strawberries, harmonious hibiscus and restful rosehips, all in a base of low-key lavender. So get that kettle started and brace yourself for the rush of calm. Bring it on, life. We got this.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Serenity Now is the April ‘Tea of the Month’ from DAVIDsTEA.
Despite really liking the tea’s description (except for the part that called hibiscus ‘harmonious’ – that part is a total fib) I was very skeptical about this blend; I don’t much care for lavender myself, and I couldn’t see it going well with the strawberry, blueberry or other fruity things in the blend either. However, the quince was certainly an intriguing aspect; I’ve only had one other Quince tea but I really, really enjoyed it. As well, I do quite like the pairing of strawberry and spearmint! So despite reservations, it was worth a go.
I purchased this one in store as a Tea To Go; I decided on iced because the associate I asked said that hot was better for relaxing to/brought out the lavender more and iced was more refreshing and fruity. I actually initially didn’t really taste the lavender at all; my first few sips were almost entirely strawberry with a bit of a crisper spearmint backdrop. Hints of blueberry were present as well. The rosehips/hibiscus in this are pretty toned down; I think they just contributed a very slight tartness that blended in near seamlessly with the natural tang of the strawberry. Sadly, I didn’t pick up on the quince at all which is probably what I was most excited about.
About half way through drinking this one I sort of couldn’t help but burp a little bit? Something wasn’t sitting quite right with me and it resulted in this weird hiccup/reflux sort of cross. And that’s when I started to taste the lavender. Every time I’d ‘hiccup’ I get this flood of gnarly lavender flavour in my mouth. Very strong; borderline perfume-y. So, I’d take another sip to get my the taste out of my mouth – and then like thirty seconds later it’d hit me again and I’d get that nasty lavender breath. Repeated the cycle until the tea was gone – and then a few minutes later I was fine again.
Overall; this was better than anticipated for sure – I thought that the strawberry in particular was well executed, and the spearmint pairing definitely made for a light, fun fruity treat. It wasn’t “in your face” juicy – just a nice, softer and very refreshing drink like the associate I spoke to had described. I’d be interested in trying this one again to see if the same reflux type thing happened again – if it’s something caused by the lavender and going to be a regular occurrence when I drink this tea, then that definitely negatively impacts how I view this one (that lavender breath was NASTY), but if it was a one time deal then I think I could maybe get behind this one a bit better because the floral aspects were pretty in check, hiccups aside.
