Naughty or Anise/Tiesta Tea

I had a nice, big sample pack of this one, full of juicy chunks of fruit and whole spices. The thing is, I am not a big fan of dried fruit teas. I drink mostly real TEA so I have put off trying this. But today was abnormally warm and it seemed like a good time to try it.

The reason I don’t like fruit tea usually is that it either has almost no flavor, like someone whispered the name of a fruit at the water, or they add hibiscus for color and flavor and it all ends up just being a variation on hibiscus – tart and sassy.

This one came out SO DIFFERENT.

I used the whole pouch and steeped it twice, because I wanted a large pitcher to drink with our evening meal. I did sweeten it lightly with cane sugar. I added chilled water and ice and oh my goodness, it was great!

It had FLAVOR! You could really taste the fruit and the spices were so well matched to bring out the best in it. I like anise, and it was just the right amount for me with beautiful whole stars in the blend. The cinnamon brought out the apple pie vibe they talk about. This is from the “Relaxer” tea line, and who could be tense with an apple pie?

Bottom line – I loved it and would definitely love to have it again.


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type:  Fruit Tisane

Where to Buy:  Tiesta Tea

Description

Star anise, cinnamon and almond blend together for a spunky twist on apple pie. Being naughty has never tasted so nice.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

 **by purchasing this product via the pic/link below, you will be supporting the SororiTea Sisters in their mission to support tea companies, big and small with the Amazon Affiliate Program.  All monies collected from this program will be used to purchase teas for the SororiTea Sisters to review or to assist with shipping costs**

Goldenberry Banana Cinnamon from Voce Fruit Tea. . .

Last week I reviewed another tea from Voce Fruit Tea, their Lemon Ginger.  I was instantly impressed with how delicious, fresh, natural, and amazing the tea.  Today I wanted to try their banana offering. I’m sort of a banana freak and am always on the search for a banana flavored tea.  You find them here and there but typically the banana flavor comes off light or chemical tasting.  After having the Voce Fruit Tea’s Lemon Ginger, I knew that this banana flavor was going to be on point since they do not use anything but dried fruit in their blends.

For this blend I brewed the tea with freshly boiled water and allowed the tea to steep for 7 minutes and just left the tea bag in the mug while I enjoyed the brew.  I did this with the Lemon Ginger offering and the tea just seemed to get better and better the longer the tea brewed and the Goldenberry Banana Cinnamon is no different.

First off you are greeted with fresh notes of banana and cinnamon.  And that is exactly what you get in taste as well.  The banana flavor reminds me of a quality dried banana chip instead of a fresh banana.  Regardless, the banana flavor is delicious and doesn’t have that artificial feel like I’ve had in the past.  The cinnamon adds its own charm playing well with the banana flavor.  For the goldenberry piece, I can’t really say I taste much berry like flavor.  I am getting a sweetness here and there that I can’t identify so I’m wondering if that is the goldenberry.  The description of this tea indicated the tea should taste like banana bread and I have to say, they are pretty close to nailing that flavor profile.

Over all, this tea is downright delicious.  After having a few cuppas of this hot, I’m excited to try this as a cold brew like I did with the Lemon Ginger. I was able to drink off of one serving of the Lemon Ginger for almost tea days- brewed both hot and cold and I have a feeling this serving of Goldenberry Banana Cinnamon will be the same.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Fruit
Where to Buy:  Voce Fruit Tea
Description

You might not be familiar with goldenberries, but they are widely considered to be a superfruit, with a bright flavor that is similar to apricots. Our blend of organic goldenberries, organic bananas, and organic cinnamon is an unexpected treat that is reminiscent of warm banana bread, right out of the oven. It has a smooth and subtle flavor that goes down nice and easy.

Ingredients: organic dried bananas, organic dried, goldenberries, organic cinnamon chips.  Packaged in the same facility as peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and milk products.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Wild Jujube from Teasenz . . . . .

This is the tisane I was most excited for in my review box! As a child I LOVED those Jujyfruit candies, big win for nostagia. But also a health win since instead of processed candies, these are the Cure-All “Red date” fruit that’s popular in Eastern medicine, purported to help with anemia (perhaps vitamin c to help iron absorb?) and insomnia (hmm the scientist in me thinks any nice warm drink should help your body sleep, but we’ll see.)

The dry tisane smells like kettle corn and looks like baby bagel chips about the size of a dime! They feel spongy to the touch, the only other thing I’ve consumed with this texture was… ha well a candy, man my sweet tooth is getting outed in this post, BUT this is a plus for my “less added sugar” new year’s resolution.

So I left in the dry fruits in my cup to brew, trying a very eastern approach, not at all because I was traveling and my filter was to small… They were big enough pieces that it was easy to filter out while I drank, without the fear of tiny pieces getting stuck in my teeth, only to be discovered after smiling a lot at someone important (cringe).

The infusion is a wonderful cider color and it smells of caramels like a distant campfire. It tastes like streusel, a sweet buttery goodness, even though I didn’t add any sweetener… or butter (not a trend for me). Welp, one sip and I’m done for, might as well just order more now. There’s also a hint of Asian pear flavor this medium bodied drink. This would taste so, so great with shortbread cookies, pity there’s no oven in this hotel.

Insomnia verdict: I’m sleepy afterwards but I’m not sure if it’s correlation from binge watching SYFY’s Magicians in the wee hours or causation from the tea. Another experiment is called for, woohoo!

 


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Dried fruit
Where to Buy: Teasenz

China’s most popular herbal tea made from wild jujube fruits from Ning Xia. The jujubes are dried while fresh and afterwards cut in slices with an optimal thickness for a perfect & healthy infusion.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!