Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium Organic green tea with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about how to subscribe to Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
This Apple Cider Iced Green Tea from SBT is really tasty! The flavor is distinctly apple cider. Lovely notes of apple and cinnamon!
The green tea is light, sweet and buttery. It has a very fresh taste without tasting grassy or overly vegetative. I really love the light taste of it … it’s very refreshing on these hot summer days!
I also like that the apple cider flavors do not overpower the lighter green tea base. I can taste the apple, the warm spice and the green tea, and my palate isn’t overwhelmed with any one flavor. All the flavors are present but my taste buds aren’t burdened with heavy flavors.
With these “new” green teas from Southern Boy Teas, I’m discovering that the best way to get the most out of the teas is to hot brew the sachet in 1 quart of 170°F water for 1 1/2 minutes, and then resteep the sachet in another quart of water (same temperature) for 2 minutes to fill my half gallon iced tea pitcher.
And here’s the best part, with the green teas, you can resteep the sachet for another half gallon of iced tea! Simply stash the sachet in a airtight container and store in the refrigerator, and then when you’re ready to start steeping again, using the same temperature water, steep for 2 1/2 minutes for the first quart and 3 minutes for the second quart. The second pitcher of iced is almost nearly as flavorful as the first.
When I received my order with this tea in it, I hadn’t realized that I actually ordered 2 pouches of this tea (I had meant to only order 1 pouch), but now I’m glad that I have two of this one, because I really like it!
With the second pouch, I decided to experiment a little bit and try it as a cold-brew! I tossed the pouch into my iced tea pitcher and then filled it with freshly drawn and filtered water and put the lid on it. Then I stashed it in my refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I removed the pouch and put it in an airtight container and put it in the fridge (to resteep again later) and I enjoyed the cold-brewed Apple Cider iced tea!
The verdict: this is even better cold-brewed! The apple notes are crisper and better defined with the cold-steep process.
Oh yeah, I’ll be getting more of this!
Pick Me Up Peach White Tea Blend from Inca Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Inca Tea
Tea Description:
Being our first caffeinated blend we wanted it to embody a refreshing yet clean taste. Its a rejuvenating combination of white tea, lush peaches and sweet herbs.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Ah! Peaches! As soon as I tore into the pouch holding the pyramid sachet of this Pick Me Up Peach White Tea, the aroma of peach filled the room! The fragrance is very abundantly PEACH!
And the taste is also very abundantly peach. Sweet, luscious peach – which is perfect for this time of year when the peaches are in season. YUM! The peach flavor is sweet and true to the fruit. It doesn’t taste like an artificial or even a candied peach flavor.
But this blend also has hibiscus and rose hips in it, and it should come as no surprise to those of you who read this blog regularly that hibiscus is not my favorite herbal. I’m wishing that the hibiscus just wasn’t there. Yeah, it adds a hint of tartness which is a nice contrast to the sweet peach notes, and because of the hibiscus the brewed tea is a beautiful ruby color. And as long as it’s not steeped too long, it doesn’t have a syrupy consistency. (I steeped this for 4 minutes at 170°F.)
However, I do feel like the hibiscus and rose hips do interfere a bit with the delivery of the white tea flavor. It seems a little masked by everything else that’s going on in this blend. White tea is delicate, and these strong herbal flavors really shouldn’t be in a white tea blend.
I don’t taste much of the white tea. I taste a slight airy, earthy quality that is distinctly white tea, but because of the hibiscus, I’m missing some of the softer textures that I enjoy with a white tea. I’m also missing some of those sweet fruit notes that I believe would meld beautifully with the peach flavors.
The purple corn adds a slight “warm grain” sort of flavor that is quite appealing, and I am enjoying. The apple is not a strong note here, and I suspect it is part of this blend for it’s sweetness rather than to provide a strong apple-y flavor. And that’s what I’m getting from it.
Overall, this IS tasty, but I think it could be so much better without the hibiscus. I feel like the hibiscus overpowers the white tea. But I love the peach notes, and I like the purple corn. It’s a different kind of flavor that I’m not used to tasting in tea and I like it. It’s not an invasive flavor and I like how it complements the other flavors of this cup.
Berry Patch Black Tea Blend from Tea of Life
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Learn more about Tea of Life and Amazon Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of the dry leaf of this Berry Patch Black Tea Blend from Tea of Life smells quite yummy with its notes of strawberry and cherry. It’s a fruity scent, obviously, but, it isn’t an overpowering fragrance. It doesn’t smell artificial or candy-like. It smells lightly of fruit, reminiscent of a farmer’s produce market in the summertime when the strawberries are fresh and ripe and perfuming the air with their delicious goodness.
I’m happy to report that what I smell translates to the flavor. The fruit notes are delicate and do not overwhelm the black tea notes. The black tea is a mellower tasting black tea, and I’d categorize it as a medium-bodied black tea base. Smooth and nicely round, this is probably a Ceylon, although Tea of Life does not clarify that on the packaging. It just says “Black Tea.” I like that it’s a flavorful tea, but not too aggressive, especially when considering the delicate fruit notes of this tea. A stronger tea base would mean that I would miss out on the lovely strawberry and cherry flavors.
The cherry is less potent than the strawberry. The strawberry starts out rather subtle but as I continue to sip, the flavor of sweet-tart berries builds on my palate. The cherry is a soft flavor and it’s quite pleasant. It isn’t too sweet nor does it taste medicinal.
Overall, a nice cuppa from Tea of Life.