So let me just start by saying I am not the biggest oolong fan. Often times, I find the base takes over and if you aren’t a lover of that type of tea, it can be hard to overcome that. With that said, I am happy to report that is not a problem here. The oolong is present but subtle, providing a slightly floral foundation on which the other flavors are shining.
The star here is the peppermint. This did not come as a surprise in light of the tea being named Oo’ Peppermint. That plus the dry leaf had a whole lot of of mint leaves. It’s bright and fresh and provides a crisp yet smooth flavor.
However, this is more than just your typical peppermint tea. The dry leaf had almond pieces, tulsi leaves, and vanilla beans as well. The tulsi adds a hint of clove flavor to add a touch of spice while the almond counters that with a slight sweetness lingering beneath the mint. I am not getting as much vanilla as I hoped, especially since vanilla-mint, is a favorite combination of mine, but there is a bit of a creaminess to this tea that could be attributed to the vanilla beans. I just wish there was more vanilla flavor.
This is a lovely introduction to Harlow Tea Co., a new company for me, and though I wanted a little bit more from this tea it is still making for a pleasant evening treat. If you are a peppermint fan, this is a great tea for you because it will give you that peppermint flavor and then some.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Harlow Tea Co
Description
Do you love peppermint, well I hope so! This tea gives a kick of peppermint that lingers long after that last sip is taken! Oolong has long, pun intended, been known as an all around pleasing tea for those who may find green tea too bitter and black tea too strong. Love both, then oolong is a perfect combination of the two!
Oo’ Peppermint offers hints of almond and is balanced with pieces of vanilla bean. You may even see some vanilla bean seeds in your tea!
Ingredients:
Oolong tea, peppermint leaf, almond pieces, tulsi leaf, and vanilla bean.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
It’s a Halloween Tea Party Time Giveaway! #SunshineCottage #Nandy’sNook #BlueCrabb
Happy October to all of our readers! It’s time for all things pumpkin, fall like, and spooky! We at SororiTea Sisters have teamed up with three amazing Etsy stores to give you a chance to win a Halloween Tea Party gift pack!
Included in this prize pack is a delicious flavored tea from Sunshine Cottage, a gorgeous stamped teaspoon from Blue Crabb and to top off the Halloween theme, a mug cozy from Nandy’s Nook. There is’t a better way to welcome in the holiday so enter today!
Happy Witch Tea Blend: Make your inner witch happy with this wonderful flavored black tea. Hand blended it’s full of sweet apples, cinnamon and spices, with a touch of vanilla for smoothness – It’s magical!
Halloween Mug Cozy from Nandy’s Nook– Crocheted with 100% cotton yarn, this cozy is sized to fit most standard size coffee mugs with a circumference of 10 to 10.5 inches.
Beautiful Vintage Hand Stamped Silverplate Spoon from BlueCrabb
What a wonderful way to enjoy the season! Good luck to all our readers! This is one great prize pack!
It’s a Halloween Tea Party Time Giveaway! #SunshineCottage #Nandy’sNook #BlueCrabb
All The Lemon from Tea Dude
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Tea Dude
Tea Description:
Brilliant blend of honeybush, rose hips, and lemon flavors. Non caffeinated, with an after taste that reminds me of lemon PEZ. Great if you like lemon!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Tonight was just one of those nights were I was craving an herbal tea. I looked thru my tea stash and stumbled upon this beauty. I have been wanting to try tea from the Tea Dude in a long time and it was finally time!
This particular tea is an herbal with a lemon flair. First whiff of the dry leaves you definitely get that familiar herbal aroma but with a fresh kiss of a citrus touch. Gentle yet there. I couldn’t wait to steep this up. Scooped out a few scoops into my tea pot and boiled water. About 8 minutes later, I was ready to try my first sip.
The description nails this one. This tea does have a candy sweetness that reminds you of PEZ. I love candy so this was perfect for me. Sweet with a lemon twist in every sip. There isn’t an earthy or grassy like flavor that you can get from herbals. This is just straight delicious lemon flavored herbal tea. This tea is a perfect tea to just sit down with a good book and snuggle in. Or with a good show and binge all 5 seasons in one day. I can see myself getting lost with a cuppa of this in a horror movie. I can also see this being an incredibly soothing tea to enjoy after a long stressful day or even if you have sinus issues like I do. Calming, relaxing, soothing and great tasting. . .I’m so impressed with this delight!
To me this is the perfect herbal tea. Sweet yet not overly so with a hint of that honeybush flavor I do so enjoy. Lemon Candy Pez. . . I’m in!
Tropical Sunshine Green from A Quarter to Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: A Quarter to Tea
Tea Description:
Summer winding to a close, getting you down? Don’t fret — just let yourself get whisked off to the beach. Tangerine, mango, raspberry and coconut make a fruity tropical cocktail that will have you hearing waves and feeling the sand underfoot.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
We’re a long way from summer now, so a tropical themed tea feels a little out of place but just because this might not be the ideal season to drink it doesn’t mean it’s not going to be super tasty! So, when I cold brewed this tea I did my absolute best to be open minded about it. And honestly, it wasn’t hard: the coconut in the blend smells super fresh and yummy and I could see lots of goji berries which are a fruit I’ve really tried to learn more about this year. Both are things for me to get excited about.
Like I said, this was cold brewed because Lauren from A Quarter to Tea specifically said on the tea’s page that it’s great iced. I don’t normally ice teas, but I do cold brew them! I find, if a company is going to specifically point out a way to try their tea I want to take that into consideration.
Mostly; I thought this was just a really nice smooth, vegetal and grassy cold brewed green tea that demonstrated characteristics of both the Chinese and Japanese style greens in the blend. On top of the really enjoyable base, the coconut was quite a dominant flavour. It tastes insanely fresh! It’s a nice balance between tropical “Pina Colada” type coconut and a more confectionery type coconut. It reminds me of DT’s Coconut Grove which is something I haven’t gotten to say in a LONG time since that delightful blend has been discontinued for a while now.
Sadly, none of the fruit really seems to contribute much flavour. I certainly don’t taste the goji and I just barely taste the faintest citrus flavour on the finish of the cup. I’d never be able to identify it as tangerine is I wasn’t reading an ingredients list. I don’t mind the absence of fruit because I get to enjoy the coconut, but I doubt that’s entirely what was intended and if you’re looking for fruit flavour you may be disappointed with this blend.
Regardless, it was a good experience for me.
Sangria White from A Quarter to Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: A Quarter to Tea
Tea Description:
Hold on to your summer year round, with this cuppa. Combines the flavors of cherry, apple and blueberries with a hint of rum and wine to make the perfect sangria year round.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is my second sample from A Quarter to Tea! I chose it for a couple reasons; the big one was that the other two samples I picked out were oolongs and I wanted to get to taste at least one of Lauren’s other tea types. However, I was also interested by the fairly unique ingredients. I’ve never seen Sangria with blueberry, for starters. Finally, I wanted to find a Sangria tea that was an improvement on the other two I’ve tried. DAVIDsTEA had a seasonal Sangria blend which I didn’t mind but didn’t love, and Red Leaf Tea has a Sangria flavour of matcha I currently own but don’t particularly like. And the idea of Sangria with a white base sounds awesome, too!
It was hard to form much of an impression of the tea dry: I could see several chunks of the dry ingredients in the blend, but there wasn’t a distinct aroma. Part of that, I feel, is that in the package Lauren mailed to me the Cherry Chocolate Latte was really a dominant flavour and I think possibly may have contaminated the other teas it was packaged with or, at least, “cancelled out” their aromas – which weren’t as potent/strong. Since Lauren suggests on her Etsy page to ice this and since Sangria really is a drink best consumed cold I decided to go with a cold method of preparation. However, instead of icing I went with cold brewing because that style of preparation is a favourite of mine.
I do find this tea to be very mildly/delicately flavoured overall, with softer and less prominent notes of apple and blueberry and a jammy stonefruit quality which I suppose is the cherry. I want to point out that mild and subtle isn’t actually a bad thing, however Sangria doesn’t have a ‘delicate’ flavour to begin with so it’s not reading as the most accurate flavour profile. Plus it’s a little odd for me to neither taste “orange”/citrus which is such a common Sangria flavour or the wine/rum. As such, while I really like the flavour that I do taste, I find it very hard to drink this and think of it as ‘Sangria’ flavoured. The name just doesn’t seem to match, you know?
I’d be interested to see this tea rebranded as another flavour, maybe even some kind of ‘punch’? This is a refreshing, light, fruity cuppa but in my ‘quest’ for the perfect Sangria tea my expectations just haven’t been met.