Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Spritely notes of raspberry come to the fore with light overtones of rooibos. A perfect raspberry jam finish.
Taster’s Review:
If you like raspberry, you’ve GOT to try this tisane! It’s amazing how much this tastes just like the real thing! If I didn’t brew it myself, I’d might have thought I was sipping on a warmed cup of raspberry juice. I kid you not.
The flavor of the raspberry is very true to the fruit with it’s sweet, delicious flavor. It even has that berry tingle toward the tail of the sip, a tartness that lingers a bit into the aftertaste, just as if I had popped a fresh raspberry in my mouth. The only thing this rooibos blend hasn’t got is the raspberry seeds that usually get stuck in between my teeth … and I can’t really say that I’m missing that aspect of the raspberry.
The flavor of the rooibos is so faint that it is difficult to distinguish at times. I can taste mere hints of the sweet, nutty flavor of the rooibos, and even less of the woody tones that I often taste in rooibos blends. The woody tones do develop as I continue to sip: as I am nearing the end of the cup, I notice them more now than I did with the first few sips. There is none of that weird rooibos aftertaste from this either (another good thing!)
I recommend this to the raspberry fans out there. This one’s a keeper!
Vanilla Chai from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
A traditional chai tea with the addition of creamy vanilla.
Taster’s Review:
YUM! I know I’ve said it often, but I do love a good chai. I fell in love with Chai well before I really discovered loose leaf tea, as it was my favorite beverage at the cafe in Borders Bookstore (I miss Borders!) Shortly after that, I started discovering loose leaf tea, and the rest is history … but my love of chai continues even though I’ve fallen in love with other teas too. (I hope chai isn’t the jealous type!)
What is nice about this particular Chai blend is the addition of vanilla, which gives it a chai latte taste even without the addition of milk (although, I’m sure a splash of steamed milk wouldn’t hurt). It tastes creamy, rich and sweet – DELICIOUS!
The black tea base is a blend – I suspect there is some Assam in there, although I don’t know that it is an all Assam base. Perhaps a blend of Ceylon and Assam? It has a bold taste to it and hints of malt in the background. Very rich and solid background of flavor from this black tea blend.
The blend of spices used in this blend includes ginger, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. It is very well balanced. No one spice overpowers the others – it is a very cohesive combination of flavors that creates an overall flavor of warm spice rather than strong individual spice notes.
It is the vanilla in this particular blend that offers a stand-out performance, and I think that’s appropriate. This chai delivers what it promises. Smooth, creamy vanilla and deliciously warm chai – and it is a perfect cuppa for this chilly autumn afternoon.
Queen Mary Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
Product Description:
Queen Mary is a perfect breakfast tea. Good body but not overpowering. Coppery bright and excellent flavor. A traditional favorite.
Tasters Review:
Queen Mary is a black tea I would enjoy any morning! You, see, I try and start every morning with at least 1 black tea and then move on to other teas from there!
This is quite strong and I like it very much! It has a pleasing astringency to it, too!
As always, I drink this straight up! No additives…I have seen others who have enjoyed this drink with additions such as cream and/or sugar, but for me…the strength – stand alone is awesome for my morning brew!
RAWK ON Queen Mary! RAWK ON!
Cherry Almond Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Deep cherry flavor with almond notes. A dash of sugar enhances the flavor and offers a smooth silky character to this tea.
Taster’s Review:
Ahh… this is one of those teas that I think of as “luxurious.” It is silky smooth in flavor and texture. I mentioned on Steepster that this tea makes me think of something I might sip at a spa. It has a flavor like that. Sweet, luxurious, and a little indulgent. It is like being pampered, only in tea form.
The black tea base is mellow. It has a mild manner and even-tone to it, so I didn’t even have to visit the webpage to know that this must be a Ceylon. But it is a good match for the other flavors of this tea, as it doesn’t attempt to intrude on the other flavors territory. It is content to provide a smooth background of flavor without drawing too much attention to itself.
The cherry flavor is deep in the sense that it is consistent throughout the sip. It is always there. There is no mistaking that I’m sipping a cherry flavored tea. But it is also delicate. It doesn’t overwhelm the cup, it is a sweet cherry flavor, but there are hints of tartness there too.
The almond is sweet and nutty in flavor, and it develops as I continue to sip. With my first couple of sips, the almond was there, but more like a whisper of a flavor. But now as I’m nearly finished with the cup, it is very almond-ish. And I like it!
But this is not simply a tea that is about cherry and almond. This tea has some other interesting dimension to it that is worthy of notice. For example, the ingredient list states that there is dried cranberries in the tea. While I suspect that they are primarily for appearance sake, they do contribute an ever-so-slight hint of flavor that enhances the flavor of the cherry more than it contributes its own cranberry taste.
The rose petals add a mere insinuation of floral falvor, while the blackberry and lime leaves add their own hints of tart and sweet to the cup. Most of these ingredients primary role is to enhance the aesthetic value of the tea, but they do impart their own hints of flavor to the cup as well.
A very enjoyable tea that at first glance may seem somewhat ordinary, but when I stop and really get to know the tea, becomes a rather extraordinary cup. An excellent afternoon tea for those afternoons when you want to take a moment to pamper yourself.
Canadian Ice Wine Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Our Canadian Ice Wine tea has a unique flavor. Grapes are left to fully ripen and then freeze before they are picked to make ice wine. Add a dash of sugar and have an organoleptic journey to the winter vineyards of Niagara. A delicious fresh and piquant white grape flavor with hints of exotic fruit that pleasantly lingers on the tongue. Made with all natural flavorings.
Taster’s Review:
I know that I’ve written about my gramma and her yard full of fruit. One fruit that she grew that I don’t think I’ve written about, though, is her grape vine. It wasn’t as prolific as her lemon tree or her apricot tree, but, the limited amount of fruit she did manage to harvest from it was very memorable. Those grapes were considered a great treat when they were harvested because there weren’t quite so many of them as the other fruit.
These weren’t the ordinary, store-bought variety of grapes. They had seeds in them, and the fruit was crisp and juicy with just a hint of sweetness to them. They were more tart than sweet. It was almost a pucker-y kind of tart, but just as I was about to pucker, the sweetness would arrive. They were very refreshing, bursting with grape flavor.
This Canadian Ice Wine Tea brings me back to those days and the flavor of those grapes. It has a crisp, bright flavor that is tart with just a hint of sweetness. It is a true grape flavor – not some cloyingly sweet, artificial grape taste that you might find in purple ice pops.
The black tea base is a brisk, black Ceylon tea. Mellow and smooth; it is not particularly strong. It does its job: providing a delicious background flavor. It has some astringency to it which plays well with the wine-like flavor.
I really have enjoyed this tea; it is a nice change from the typical sweet-fruit flavored teas out there. It’s remarkably refreshing – and it has this crisp, fresh taste to it that has really taken me by surprise. I like this! It makes a nice afternoon tea or, for a real treat – try it iced! When chilled this tea becomes much more wine-like in flavor. The grape flavor really emerges powerfully. Awesome!