Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Herbal Alchemy Teahouse
Tea Description:
This black tea has everything in which to woo an unsuspecting pallet – roses, chocolate, damiana and rich spices, but like every vampire’s kiss this tea is blood red and has a tiny bite…of cayenne red pepper.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about the MidWest Tea Fest here.
Taster’s Review:
This Vampire’s Kiss Tea from Herbal Alchemy Teahouse is the third of the teas that were sent to me by the organizers of the MidWest Tea Fest: Herbal Alchemy Teahouse is one of the featured vendors at the festival! After a quick glance at the list of scheduled vendors at the festival, it makes me wish that I was able to attend! It looks like it’s going to be an awesome tea fest!!!
This blend is a combination of black tea, rose, chocolate and spices. The tea brews up to be a dark, burgundy red – like a blood red color which makes me wonder if there’s hibiscus in this? I didn’t see a full ingredient list, so I’m not sure, but if I were to wager a guess, I’d say that there’s either hibiscus or something ‘beet’ in this blend because of the color.
It doesn’t taste strongly of hibiscus, but I do get a slightly thick texture that I would normally experience from hibiscus. That could also be from beet. And because of the spicy notes, I’m not detecting anything that’s obviously tart from hibiscus or obviously sweet from the beet, so I’m not really sure what’s supplying the strong color, but I’m suspecting hibiscus because the flavor tastes more like hibiscus to me than it does beet.
So what do I taste? I taste chocolate. But it doesn’t taste like a creamy, rich kind of chocolate flavor, it tastes more like cocoa powder that’s been added to a spiced herbal tisane. Or like cacao nibs/shells that have been added to a spiced herbal tisane.
I taste the spice! The spices build gradually, staring out rather delicate, but after a few sips, I’m getting a warm burning sensation toward the back of my palate.
I also taste an odd, herb-y sort of flavor that I can’t really describe except to say it tastes sort of medicinal, but not in an unpleasant way. It tastes like an herbal tea and as I continue to sip, I’m tasting more hibiscus-like flavors too.
But, I’m not complaining because the cocoa and the spice play with these hibiscus-like notes in such a way that it tastes more ‘berry like’ than it does the tart, syrupy flavor that I usually dislike from hibiscus. It’s odd, it’s different, but somehow, it works!
My biggest complaint about this tea? I don’t taste much black tea flavor. I’m getting a strong presence of the other flavors here, but the black tea seems almost non-existent. I like that the chocolate is strong, I like that I taste notes of rose and even that hint of spicy cayenne pepper that builds on the palate. I like that warmth from the spices. I’m just wishing I had more black tea flavor here.
This seems a lot more like an herbal tisane to me than a black tea. It’s good, though. If you’re one who enjoys spicy drinks, this is something worth exploring!
And don’t forget about the Midwest Tea Fest! If you’re going to be in the Kansas City, Missouri area on June 6th – you should definitely visit! And if you can make the trip, GO! It’s a great opportunity for tea lovers to get more information about the beverage they adore and an excellent way for those who are new to tea to learn more!
Raspberry Matcha from 3 Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: 3 Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Vegan, Gluten Free
Ingredients: Matcha, natural flavors
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a fairly new company, and one I actually wanted to order from since they’ve got a pretty diverse selection of flavoured matcha and I was interested in seeing how it differed from what Red Leaf Tea offers. Unfortunately they don’t yet ship to Canada, so it was great that my fellow SororiTea Sister TheLastDodo was able to send some for me to try!
Instead of my usual matcha in milk I prepped this cold shaken in a DAVIDsTEA timolino with plain old water. Since this is a new company to me and I’m not familiar with their base matcha I wanted as much of a “plain” taste as I could get.
Visually the matcha is a really bright green colour – exactly what I want to be seeing! It smells really intense, and maybe a little bit artificial? That’s something I don’t want to be getting from this one. Hmm; I kept my expectations really neutral going into this.
I actually liked it a lot; I thought the raspberry was very sweet and natural tasting with just a tease of natural tang to it. It also didn’t seem to eclipse the flavour of the matcha itself which tasted subtly grassy and very, very floral. It had me thinking loosely of both orchids and peonies. The artificial smell I was picking up didn’t cross over into the flavour – hooray! Plus, the flavour and base together worked very well – the floral components absolutely complimented the natural tasting raspberry.
It definitely makes me wish I could try more flavors from this company – in particular I’m curious about the pineapple matcha and the apple matcha. I love the pairing of pineapple and floral flavours like orchid so I can see that working really, really well. Basically, I’m saying people should give this company a little bit more love because hopefully then they’ll be able to expand their shipping into Canada!
Product Review: Cranberry Blood Orange Instant Matcha Green Tea Mix from Jade Monk
Product Information:
Where to Buy: Jade Monk
Description:
A wake-up call in every cup. Before the first drop hits your lips, the bright aroma of our Cranberry Blood Orange powdered green tea will have you amped.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Browsing my local grocery store’s funky drink isle is one of my favorite pastimes. I came across this little green packet and tossed it in my cart for giggles. I am intrigued by the flavor, the illustrations on the front and back, and well, you had me at matcha! I love the packaging of this tea, it really grabs you. The artwork is really fun, the intense eyes of the fierce ogre is powerful, and according to it’s claims, it’s ready to bestow all it’s power to you!
Now, I am not a fan of selling tea as a health product, the camellia sinensis plant is so much more than a diet aid. Sure, it was used as such during the first cultivation of the wild tea trees growing in China, but we have stepped up in our appreciation and cultivation of the lovely little plant. Yes, I do make my own functional herbal blends, but I don’t expect to be cured of cancer, or to have my waistline shrink like plastic wrap in an oven, either.
I chose this matcha green tea drink mix because of it’s convenience. I needed something that would give me that boost without waiting for water to boil and tea to steep. I was in a hurry this morning and whipped this up on a whim. I found the first fault to this mix when I took way to long to shake up all the little clumps of matcha. Mixes instantly? Not quite. Maybe my water was too cold?
The color of this match is an encouraging shade of key lime green. The smell is really quite nice, fruity, citrus, and refreshing. I take a sip and the first thing to hit my taste buds is sugar. Oh. Well. The first ingredients in this is sugar. While it is much, much too sweet for me, my ravenous thirst assists me in finishing my 24oz. bottle in no time.
The smell of the powder in the packet smells very matcha, but the finished product is lacking somewhat. The flavorings were very much there, in all their juicy citrusy glory. For me, If I wanted a flavored instant matcha, I’d like for the first or even second ingredient to be matcha. but of course if I was completely new to matcha, or didn’t like the taste, I would be all over this concept like brine flies to a can of soda.
Green Coconut from TeaGschwendner
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: TeaGschwendner
Tea Description:
The creamy richness of coconut milk on a dazzling and brisk Japanese Sencha base. A true customer favorite.
Ingredients: Green tea from Japan, shredded coconut and flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love coconut, I love green tea, I love this particular blend from TeaGschwendner!
I had high hopes when I saw this one and another tea friend asked if I wanted anything during their latest sale. I said yes instantly. I have been wanting to try this one for a while now.
This is yet another tea that I shared with my dad and my boyfriend during our Mother’s Day festivities with my family. Even my mom came sniffing around the tea pot while this was brewing and she rarely shows interest in anything but her Lipton Decaf tea bags.
Brewed this up one per the instructions but added in just a bit more tea leaf.
This was a huge hit with everyone (well except my mom- who still doesn’t like anything but her Lipton Decaf tea bags). We all said the same thing. Rich green creamy tea base with this amazing coconut flavor that really screams coconut. Creamy delicious coconut. This tea is for the coconut lovers for sure. Smelling this tea, you instantly think of suntan lotion. But the taste is just amazing. My dad even asked for seconds with this one. Next time around, I want to try and add in some fruit or herbs to kick the flavor up a notch or two.
If you love green tea and enjoy coconut, you have to try this one. I even have 100g of this and I’m wondering if that will be enough. So good!
Organic Metabolic Energy Tea from Fit Life Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea & Yerba Maté
Where to Buy: Fit Life Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Ready for liftoff? Increase muscle energy and boost mental agility with an invigorating cup of Organic Metabolic Energy Tea. It’s packed with potent antioxidants and natural caffeine from sustainably grown whole green tea leaves blended with traditional rainforest energy tonic.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ll be honest and say that I really wasn’t looking forward to trying this Organic Metabolic Energy Tea from Fit Life Tea Company after I read the ingredient list:
Ingredients: Organic Green Tea, Organic Yerba Mate, Organic Eleuthero Root Ginseng, Natural Flavoring and Organic Stevia Leaf.
First of all: Mate and ginseng in one blend? That sounds TOO earthy to me. Then there’s the stevia. I really don’t like it when a tea company feels the need to sweeten a tea for me. I like to decide whether or not the tea should be sweetened and if it does, I like to decide how much and what type of sweetener will sweeten it.
But, I decided to give it a try anyway.
Wow! This is actually really tasty. It’s sweet but not too sweet and even though I was worried about the earthiness, it’s not so earthy at all. It has a very refreshing taste to it. It’s citrus-y and very drinkable. It reminds me a little bit of a very watered down Tang. Yes, the drink the astronauts took to the moon. It doesn’t have the same gritty texture of tang, though. (Fortunately!)
It’s pleasantly sweet with a really enjoyable, fruity flavor. That said, I don’t taste much green tea in this. I also don’t taste much Yerba Mate. Since I love tea, the fact that I found these flavors lacking in this is a little disturbing to me. But not disturbing is that I don’t taste the ginseng either.
To brew this, I hot-brewed the sachet in 8 ounces of 185°F water for 3 minutes. Then I let the tea cool completely before I poured it into my BPA-free drinking bottle from Fit Life Tea and refrigerated it overnight. Before I let it cool, I did take a sip of it to find out if I’d like it better hot or iced.
Just like the Teatox tea from Fit Life, I prefer this tea cold. It has a refreshing taste and the texture is light and smooth. And I even feel like it’s elevated my energy level too!
I don’t know that I’d actually drink this as an actual “tea” because it simply doesn’t taste like tea. But I would drink it as an energy drink which is what seems to be it’s purpose. And since it’s an energy drink that doesn’t rely upon troublesome amounts of sugar to enhance the drinker’s energy, I’d say Energy from Fit Life deserves a thumbs up!