Blendbee has some of the most amazing smelling teas! Focus from BlendBee is one of those teas! Upon opening the package I could smell lemon-orange-chocolate! The second sniff is when I noticed the gently roasted, savory, and floral notes. Usually I would think all of these conflicting aromas would be weird together but they seemed to fit here. I could get over the amazing aroma!
The original reason I reached for this tea today was because I was having a hard time focusing. I’m not going to make any claims or anything here BUT once I smelled this tea I know I couldn’t FOCUS on anything other that how awesome it smelled! I knew I had to take the next step, tho! I added the water and waited 3 or 4 minutes before sipping. Once the tea was infused it was harder to identify each of those ingredients with a single sniff but it still smelled YUMMY.
Focus from BlendBee ‘brewed’ dark brown and I could taste a combo of Yerba Mate, Black Tea, Lemon, and Orange, mostly. In follow up sips I could taste the chicory and it was done perfectly! It was hanging out in the background and wasn’t over powering! The rose and chocolaty notes were more on the end sip and aftertaste and were lovely, too! This is a Yerba Mate/Black Tea blend I could see myself drinking often! YUM!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black/Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: BlendBee
Description
Sharpen your mind & stay focused.
This invigorating black tea & yerba mate blend was specifically designed for a tea lover whose favorite tea was discontinued. We recreated it for her, and to our delight, we loved this blend and decided to whole world should have it. It definitely helps you to stay focused and has a great energy. Enjoy!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Focus Green Tea from NudiTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: NudiTea
Tea Description:
Clear your cloudy mind with our steamy FOCUS blend. Rare and ancient Japanese Sencha is blended with a sprinkling of passionfruit flowers and marigolds creating an intoxicating and flavoursome cup. With a delectable blend of natural caffeine extracts, it’s a better alternative to coffee and energy drinks. FOCUS won’t give you wings but it will help you fly through the day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf of this Focus Green Tea from NudiTea is extraordinarily fragrant! It smells amazing! Like wow, can I get this scent in a bar of soap or perhaps a wax tart that you melt to make the whole room smell like that! It’s strongly floral without smelling like a flower shop, because there are lovely notes of pineapple that balance the flowery notes. Lovely!
The brewed tea has a softer aroma but otherwise smells quite similar – beautiful floral notes with notes of pineapple.
To brew this tea, I used my Breville One-Touch. I measured two bamboo scoops of the loose leaf tea into the basket of the tea maker, and 500ml of freshly filtered water into the kettle. Then I set the parameters: 175°F for 2 minutes.
It’s a really tasty blend! The green tea is sweet and has a nice creamy texture to it. I like that the texture is light but there is a soft creamy feel to it. It doesn’t taste sharp or bitter, it’s sweet, lightly buttery with some grassy notes.
I taste passion fruit. The way the description is worded, it seems that it’s passion fruit flowers … but I’m tasting passion fruit. Sweet, luscious passion fruit! Yum! I also get a hint of pineapple from this. Just a hint.
As far as the floral notes go, I taste the sweetness of the rose and mallow flowers, and I taste the sharp sunflower notes.
The fruit and the floral notes are pretty evenly paired – neither is really stronger than the other. The fruit is sweet and with just a whisper of tangy flavor while the floral notes add a hint of exotic flavor to it and a touch of distinct flower sweetness.
Overall, this is a pleasant cuppa – it’s sweet but not in a cloying way. It’s got a nice layered flavor: layers of flower are the top notes with the middle notes of juicy passion fruit and the undertone of Sencha.
My one criticism – if you want to call it that – would be the addition of the chamomile to this blend. Why chamomile? Chamomile tends to be a relaxing herb, not one that I associate with being focused and alert. I don’t really taste a lot of chamomile in this, maybe once in a while I might pick up on a honey-like flavor that’s quite chamomile-ish but it still is an ‘odd’ ingredient in a tea that is to support a sense of “Focus.”
Floral Focus Oolong Blend from Bird’s Eye Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Bird’s Eye Tea
Tea Description:
Ingredients: jade oolong, osmanthus flowers, and codonopsis
This is a really special tea and I am really excited to give it to you. Osmanthus flowers have a scent and flavor unlike any other that perfectly compliments the slightly floral nature of jade oolong. This jade oolong comes from the Nantou region of Taiwan, the farm is high up in the mountains. It was harvested in the spring and after light oxidation leaves were dried and rolled by hand. Codonopsis (dang shen) is referred to as “poor man’s ginseng” in many parts of China. It’s effects are milder than ginseng and it is much less expensive. This is a great herb for folks with mental fatigue, slow digestion, and poor immune function. It also increases milk production in nursing mothers. As with most adaptogens, it reduces stress, is anti-inflammatory, and also boosts mental and physical energy.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Bird’s Eye Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
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Wowza! I’m really liking this Floral Focus Oolong Blend from Bird’s Eye Tea. I don’t always fancy flowers added to my Oolong teas only because Oolong teas tend to already have a very floral attitude to them. Then again, I do like Oolong teas that have been scented with magnolia and jasmine … and even osmanthus as this one has been. I guess what I wasn’t so sure about was the Codonopsis.
But, I like the way everything comes together in this cup. The natural floral qualities of the Oolong are accented nicely by the osmanthus and the codonopsis, but the other characteristics of the Oolong are not overwhelmed. I can taste the lovely creamy notes of the Jade Oolong. It tastes sweet and feels really soft and smooth to the palate.
The Oolong also has a slight vegetative note that seems to meld seamlessly with the floral tones … like they were made for one another. The osmanthus also brings out some of the natural peach-like tones of the Oolong. The overall taste is strongly floral … it tastes sharp without tasting soap-ish or perfume-y, with sweet fruit notes and a creamy overtone.
Another very enjoyable – and unique! – blend form Bird’s Eye Teas.
PRODUCT REVIEW: Ginger Pear (Regroup) Minteas from Tea Forté
Where to Buy: Tea Forté
Product Description:
Gingko with the lush flavor of juicy pear will have you revisting your purpose, bringing focus to your mind.
Ingredients: sorbitol, xylitol, natural flavors, Fair Trade Certified™ organic white tea, organic ginkgo, calcium stearate
Taster’s Review:
Hmm… I like these. I wasn’t really sure about them at first … I’ve tried tea mints, some I’ve liked, and some … not so much. But these are quite nice. Not too sweet, and I like that even though they’ve only 1 calorie, they’ve not been sweetened using aspartame – to which I’m allergic. I also like that they’re only 1 calorie because they’re quite tasty and I found myself wanting another after the first… and another after that.
The flavor is intense. The ginger is the strongest note, and the pear comes through nicely. I don’t get much gingko flavor (which I’m not crazy about anyway, so that’s a good thing), but I also don’t get a lot of white tea flavor. I can taste hints of both of these flavors, but nothing as strong or pervasive as the ginger.
It has a very zesty taste that leaves the mouth feeling clean and fresh. It doesn’t taste sweet or like I’ve been eating candy, it just feels clean. Exhilarating. The freshness remains a while after the mint has dissolved.
As for the “Regroup” or focus aspect of the mint, it is hard to report on something like that … perhaps because I didn’t feel unfocused before I popped the mint into my mouth. But, what I can say is that the flavor is zesty enough to really grab my attention. So perhaps it is doing its job and I just didn’t notice because I was enjoying the flavor.
A tasty alternative to the typical breath mint.