Heads up for you lemon-lovers out there, this tea is definitely for you!
The namesake of this tea, Limoncello, is an Italian liqueur made from the zest of lemons. It’s known to be a sweet drink, despite the yellow citrus fruit’s sour reputation. This tea definitely tastes like distilled lemons and keeps the perfect sweet-tart flavor balance of citrus and cream, very much like tart lemon dessert bars with powdered sugar.
In the dry leaf, this tea smells strongly of citrus, but the lemon myrtle in the blend keeps the flavors natural and herbal, rather than smelling too much like lemon cleaning products. Along with all the zesty fruit flavors, there is something creamy and dessert-like in blend as well. Sweetness comes in the form of almost-caramel, brown sugar notes. This tea reminds me of the classic lemon drop candies or even luscious lemon meringue pie.
Despite being a green rooibos tea, this blend still brews up potent and flavorful. This would be a great iced tea lemonade companion, or a great surprise sweetness in an unconventional cocktail. I had to pucker up and kiss this tea goodbye after I blew through my sample size. Order a good size package of this sweet tea, you won’t regret it!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Rooibos
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description:
The Italian dessert drink has made its way into a tea. Imagine lemon meringue teasing your taste buds, while sweetly melting in your mouth with a blend of vanilla and brown sugars. The lemony brightness shines through with lemongrass and a sprinkling of golden marigold petals, all topping a green rooibos tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
It is Macaroon Season: Try Coconut Almond Macaroon from the NecessiTeas
I feel like I’ve see a lot of macaroon-themed teas popping up this spring so it felt like time to try a tea I was saving in my collection, Coconut Almond Macaroon from the NecessiTeas.
It’s a little known fact that I like coconut in my baked goods and sweets. Almond Joy bars or Coconut Cluster Girl Scout cookies are the way to go! And don’t even get me started on Hostess Sno-Balls…
The dry leaf of this blend smelled strongly of almond, almost like amaretto liqueur or almond extract. Almond was definitely the dominant tone, but there was some coconut cream hiding beneath the marzipan fragrance. This tea has a green tea base, so I kept the water temperatures a little lower and let it steep. I could hardly keep my nose out of the mug while I waited. The brew smelled so delicious, sweet and nutty, with much more coconut coming forward as time went on.
This tea is true to its name: coconut macaroon. There’s the smooth, almond-cookie, sweet chocolate, and plenty of buttery coconut. Using green tea beneath all these flavors was a great choice by The Necessiteas. The coconut is toasted and warm, and almost makes the green tea taste like a roasted hojicha. The green tea also makes this blend light enough that the coconut and chocolate don’t need to compete for prominence, and it allows the cookie flavors to really shine. After a long day, this was the perfect dessert tea to brew up as a treat!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description:
The perfect blend for Macaroon lovers. The aroma of slightly toasted almonds will greet you at first sip followed by the creamy, sweetness of coconut. This is our guilt-free version of the bake sale classic.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Glazed Donut from 52Teas
I’ve hear about the 52Teas company for its unique and varying tea flavors (flavors like banana pudding, pumpkin cheesecake, and cotton candy), but this is my first time trying tea from 52Teas. With a name like Glazed Donut, how could you not give this blend a try?
Glazed Donut is a black tea with organic flavors added to create the dessert-flavor of its namesake. I brewed this tea in a variety of ways. First, I went for my preferred style: hot tea without any sugar or milk. With this method, the strongest glazed donut experience I had was the smell in my mug from the hot brew. The fragrance had the sugary, frosted notes of a sweet and buttery donut. When drinking the tea, the sweetness is much more mild, mostly tasting like quality, loose leaf black tea with the expected tart tannin flavors.
I also tried this tea as a twelve-hour cold brew. The blend is much smoother with this method, though I didn’t find the glazed donut flavor to be any stronger. It’s still the most noticeable in the scent and the first sip of the tea. The later notes are all traditional black tea.
Finally, I went out on a bit of a limb for me, and I tried this tea hot, with a hefty teaspoon of sugar. I also made sure to follow the recommended steeping instructions: brewing for 3 minutes and then letting sit to cool for 10 minutes. Overall, I think this was the best brewing style. Adding real sweetness to the glazed donut fragrance helped complete the flavor profile, and letting the brew cool a bit before drinking brought out more donut notes.
For best results, I recommend drinking this blend alongside a morning indulgence of your choice: cinnamon roll, danish, or glazed donut.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description:
I originally blended this tea as part of the Breakfast Inspired Sampler Add-On for the start-up Kickstarter campaign, but I do have a few packages of this tea remaining.
This tea was crafted with a very special tea base (a Thyolo OP1 from the Satemwa estate in Malawi). It’s a fair-trade and rainforest alliance tea – and it’s seriously good stuff!
I used this tea as the base for flavors to create a Glazed Donut like experiencece – and all I can say about this is YUM! So good!
Ingredients: single estate black tea, organic calendula petals, organic all-natural flavors.
This tea is no longer available but click below for the unique flavors that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Bake a Valentine’s Cake to Go With Your Tea
Valentine’s Day. A time for everything pink and rosy. Strawberries and chocolate galore. If you are looking to recreate that sweet, romantic, dessert feeling I would recommend brewing up a cup of Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Shuswap Infusions. This black and oolong blend has dark chocolate and strawberry notes, and it even has flower petals in the dry leaf.
Whether you’re celebrating yourself or being cute with a sweetheart, it’s hard to go wrong with chocolate. So I recommend making an old family recipe (that we clearly just took from the King Arthur Flour cookbook) for a super-easy, super-tasty, one-pan vegan mocha cake. Trust me, even those of you who are baking-impaired can make this one. We call it the Stir-Crazy Cake.
For best results, mix the ingredients in the pan from which you will serve the cake. This won’t be a problem if you use a cute heart-shaped pie dish or cake pan for the occasion.
Mix directly in your pan:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Mix dry ingredients with a whisk or fork.
Make three wells (three divots or holes) in the dry ingredients.
Pour the wet ingredients into the wells, only one ingredient into each well:
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Pour 1 cup cold coffee over all ingredients. If you don’t want a mocha cake, just use cold water instead. [For those kitchen-oriented mad scientists out there, maybe adding a cold cup of your favorite dessert or strawberry tea could be a nice substitute as well. I haven’t experimented myself, but now I’m curious to try it… ]
Stir all the ingredients together until well blended. Really make sure you mix the cake (hence the “Stir-Crazy” name). Get all the dry ingredients mixed in from the bottom and edges of the pan.
Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350 degrees, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, without any crumbs.
Serve straight from the pan to your plate. If you’re getting overloaded from chocolate, brew up something sweet and fruity to go with the cake, maybe a classic like Raspberry Zinger from Celestial Seasonings to help balance out the dark chocolate decadence.
Happy baking!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black/Oolong
Where to Buy: Shuswap Infusions
Description:
Just in time for Valentines Day! The name of this tea is just as delicious as it sounds. For a real treat, serve it as a latte garnished with shaved chocolate
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Irish Whiskey Cream from Tea & Absinthe – The Other Irish Breakfast
As the weather gets colder, I get a craving for sweeter, more dessert-like teas. So when it was the first real, cold and blustery day of the season, I was excited to taste Irish Whiskey Cream from Tea & Absinthe. The dry leaf smells mild but sweet, like black tea with a hint of caramel. When brewed, this blend smells amazing, as rich and decadent as crème brûlée. I take my tea without milk or sugar, and the dessert flavors were still very forward and enjoyable.
While there is “cream” in the name, the sweetness in this tea is less like vanilla frosting and much more like salted caramel or burnt brown sugar, with just a bit of vanilla underneath. Cocoa bits are listed in the ingredients, but any chocolate flavor gets buried under the more caramel and toffee notes. I’m sure the “whiskey” in the name is a recommended brewing partner for this tea on those evenings when you need a little bit more warmth and merriment. The tea itself doesn’t have any overtly whiskey tones, nothing smoky, but the roasted-sugar flavors do remind me of certain amber libations.
I was careful not to over steep this blend, as the Irish breakfast Assam black tea base could get strong very fast. Keeping an eye on my brew times, I’ve had no bitterness and all creaminess. I could definitely see myself brewing up a cup of Irish Whiskey Cream from Tea & Absinthe and topping it with whipped cream on a snowy day.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea & Absinthe
Description:
“The Other Irish Breakfast” – Black tea Assam, cocoa bits, flavor.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!