There’s something magical that happens whenever I get a new tea from Plum Deluxe. It’s like Andy and his fantastic tea blenders just have a wire straight to my brain and know JUST what kind of tea I’m craving at any given moment. (Seriously, you guys. How do you do it. HOW.)
When this fruity, fragrant tea of the month showed up at my doorstep, I was a tiny bit cranky from this random week dreary getting close to spring time kind of days — and little did I know, a fresh cup of fruity iced tea was just what the doctor ordered to cure me of my let’s get winter over -crankyness.
This delicious oolong & black blend brews up with mild, fruity sweetness in the brewed cup, and is a perfect combination with a splash of lemonade (my favorite way to serve it) or paired with a hint of sparkling water. But you guys, if we’re being honest? I’ve been hoarding the dry leaf to sniff instead of brewing it because it smells OH SO VERY GOOD. Do you remember the sweet and delicious tang of strawberry fruit snacks as a kiddo? This tea is a DEAD RINGER for that delightful flavor-memory, but sans any of the chemical-ick.
Frankly, it’s the only cure I’ve found to remedy the crankiness that is born of cold dreary days. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go pour a cup and stick my nose in the dry leaf and enjoy.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong & Black
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Thunder from The Love Tea Company. . . . .
What a bold and dramatic name for a white tea: White Thunder. So many white teas get paired with desserts, like ice cream flavors or berries, so I was intrigued to try out this flavor just from the brash name alone. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that this tea is from Love Tea, one of our ChariTea companies. Learn more here.
The White Thunder blend features white tea, peony, spearmint, and peppermint. I brewed it both hot and iced, and preferred the flavors chilled. There’s something about drinking an iced mint tea, like Moroccan Mint, that just feels best suited over ice on a hot day.
Back to White Thunder, for a tea without any fruit ingredients, there is a delectable peachy flavor mingling with all the mint. This is a well-balance blend, despite mint making up half of the ingredients list. The white tea and peony really get a chance to shine and be tasted, and bring forward that bright stone-fruit taste. The white tea adds a sweet, mild, earthiness, and the peony compliments those tones with floral, blossoming notes of its own.
The spearmint and peppermint add a touch of frost to even out all the flowers and fruit. The balance of sweet and crisp feel like sitting on fresh green grass that has been cooled by the shade. White Thunder might be my new favorite summer iced blend, bringing just the right balance of cool mint and breezy florals.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description:
Bai Mudan, also known as White Peony is a type of white tea made from pluckings of one leaf shoot and two immediate young leaves. Bai Mudan is sometimes preferred by white tea drinkers for its fuller flavor and greater potency than other major types of white tea. For an extra kick, peppermint and spearmint are added to this blend. Boom, crack, that’s the sound of your taste buds loving this blend.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Blood Orange Punch from A Quarter To Tea. . . .
I’ll be honest, friends– green tea and I have a storied history. And the story mostly goes like this: Mary brews green tea, with visions of health and wellness floating in her head. Timer beeps, tea strains, Mary takes a sip and then makes an ‘ick’ face, forgets about tea, lets it get cold, dumps out. THE END.
Needless to say, traditional grassy, herbaceous green teas haven’t been my jam in years past. Now, as the years have gone, I’ve grown my palette for teas a bit wider, and I’ll eagerly at least try greens with something interesting or fun about them (to varying success). Combine that with a post-holiday need to lay off the jittery caffeine and let my body reset itself, I’ve been looking towards teas with lighter caffeine, like some of my oft-overlooked greens and whites.
When this tea showed up in my monthly box from AQTT, I was psyched. Fruity greens in particular are almost always a hit in my book, and Blood Orange Punch (besides just sounding super punk-y and cool) just sounded so delightfully refreshing.
Steeped at below-boiling water for two and a half minutes, this tea brews up beautifully peachy-red-orange, just the colors of blood oranges. The scent is to die for– crisp, citrusy, but still light and smooth. I don’t get too much of the “brandy, rum and cream” that the descriptions heralded, but regardless, I find myself sipping cup after cup of this one. Hot, of course, as it’s been negative eleven billion degrees outside– but with it’s strong, fruity notes, I bet this one would be absolutely to die for as an iced tea come warmer months. A Quarter to Tea, you’ll make a green tea drinker of me yet!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
A deep orange flavor with hints of brandy, rum, and cream.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry Rush from The Love Tea Company. . . .
Welcome to summer this tea screams as it tumbles down your throat. . .
The hot weather sensations begin with the liquid. Clear rose in color with hints of a sunset orange.
This tea has hibiscus in it so one must be mindful of the steeping time. In order to full appreciate the summery strawberry flavors steep 2 – 2.5 minutes.
Sensations of fresh strawberries intertwine nicely with the crisp grassy green tea notes.
Once you hit the three minute mark the hibiscus takes over like Japanese beetles on a bean plant. . . . .so this tea is for those who love a tart strawberry tea with a grassy note. Definitely one that needs to be enjoyed in the summer or to brighten up ones palate since winter time is typically a heavy spiced tea season.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description
It’s hard to keep this one in stock, teens and tweens love it, and it’s so much better than soda. It’s a Brilliant Blend of herbal and fruit that evokes strawberry fields. It is an organic green tea that is a simple pleasure with complex ingredients – green tea, with papaya, apple, orange and strawberry pieces, rosehip, calendula petals and natural strawberry flavors. This blend is great hot or cold, but our preference is cold. Blend several pots, keep it refridgerated and serve over ice with a fresh strawberry on the side. The kids can take part in the mission on this one. Make sure they #sharethelove with their friends.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Berry from Naked Teas Galore. . .
I keep calling this tea Berry White, perhaps because I think it should be named for the singer or just a fun pun. However, its White Berry which is more descriptive than anything given this is a tea made up of White Peony, Silver Needles, rosehips, blue cornflowers, flavoring.
I had just enough in my sample pulled from a traveling teabox to try this both hot and iced. Both methods were steeped for 4 minutes in 175F water, as per the company’s recommendation.
I started with the hot tea since that is the more standard brewing method and thus my control for flavor. Though it is a pretty smooth, summery tea, it lacks the berry flavor I hoped for. Instead this, to me at least, tastes vaguely floral.
Iced, this is even more floral and that I attribute to the white peony base. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I would have thought I was drinking a glass of iced white peony tea as opposed to a flavored white tea. Though that might not seem like a bad thing for those who enjoy this type of tea, it is not what I have been promised and so I find myself disappointed.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Naked Teas Galore
Description
Smooth, light & refreshing berry tea!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
