When I was younger, I used to love Coca Cola. Regular coke. I would easily drink a can a day. Then I was talking to a nutritionist who recommended I cut back to one can a week. However, once I stopped drinking coke so often, it started to taste weird when I started drinking it again so I mostly stuck to water. With that said, sometimes it is nice to have something bubbly and sweet and that’s when tea pops make for a great choice.
Personally I like using fruity teas for tea pops. NecessiTeas makes some awesome fruit teas that make for some tasty tea pops. Tropical Twist is among some of their delicious options.
Tropical Twist is a tropical fruit tisane made with apples, dried cherries, shredded coconut, freeze dried kiwi, coconut chips, freeze dried cherries, freeze dried cranberries, and natural flavors. It tastes just like a delicious jolly rancher!
As a tea pop, Tropical Twist is bright, juicy and tropical. Shocking, I know. It has a bright candy-like flavor that’s a little tart/sour and a whole lot of sweet. It is creamy from the coconut but not in a lotion-y way, as some coconut teas tend to be. For an extra little boost of sweet, I like to add a splash of grenadine to really play on the cherry and cranberry flavors. Yum!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Tisane
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for more teas.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry Orange Mint/Voće Tea
Out of all the teas I’ve had recently, I keep coming back to one: a very nice fruity/herbal tea with huge pieces of orange (for a tea at least!). I’m not typically a fan of fruity teas—strawberry is my one weird exception.
Voće’s Strawberry Orange Mint is just that. No additives or sweeteners, just orange and strawberry pieces with a little bit of spearmint. It’s simple and tastes really nice on its own. There’s no shortage of flavor and you don’t get the odd taste that sometimes comes from similar teas, which are often unnaturally sweet.
And while I’m still not sold on citrus forward teas, this one is enjoyable, especially over ice. It’s well-balanced and the stronger orange and spearmint flavors don’t cover up the lighter strawberry flavor. I still prefer my teas with a bit of bitterness and astringency, but this is definitely something I’d go for seconds of.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type:b Herbal
Where to Buy: Voće Tea
Description
For all you mint lovers out there, this is your tea—a refreshing blend of organic strawberries, organic orange slices, and organic spearmint. It has just the right balance between fruit and mint. Delicious to the last drop!
Ingredients: organic dried strawberries, organic dried orange slices, organic dried spearmint. Packaged in the same facility as peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and milk products.
Each box contains 8 biodegradable tea bags. When you order a box of our teas, you have several options for packaging. If you can do without any external packaging, we strongly encourage you to select that option when you’re placing items in your cart. We also offer a recycled/recyclable cardboard box (97% post consumer). In addition, you have the option of having your tea delivered in a clear recyclable PET gift box for an additional $1 charge.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry Rose Champagne/The NecessiTeas. . . .
A while back I won an Instagram giveaway which made me the proud new owner of a Sacred Lotus Love tea tumbler and the recipient of three NecessiTeas blends: Orange Fluff, Pineapple Mimosa, and this tea, Strawberry Rose Champagne. However, the giveaway was for people living in the U.S. and since I live in Canada, I provided my father’s address, which is in California. I have used my Dad as a tea mule many times before so I knew this would be fine with him.
Normally, my dad mails me anything I send to him but this time around he personally delivered the goods since he came to Toronto for my brother’s college graduation. This personal delivery was of course accompanied by my Dad’s typical comments like “tea is for sick people” and “tea has no flavor” and “why do you keep buying tea?” In fact, this time around he told me he had no interest in tea and even if I offered him tea, he would not try it. This was particularly entertaining because later that same night, I brewed this tea as a teapop and he all of a sudden was intrigued. After confirming that the tea was cold, he even asked to try it!
He sniffed it first and said it smelled interesting and then at first sip looked at me and our conversation went as follows:
Him: “I thought this was tea?!” Me: “it is” Him: “no, it’s soda” Me: “no, it’s a teapop”
He then told me that this was “ingenius” and then proceeded to drink two glasses of this tea. He was amazed that it was actually flavorful and carbonated and delicious, all without added sugar (which is especially important to him as he is diabetic).
When I finally got to try it, I enjoyed it quite a bit too. It was a touch too floral at times but it had a nice berry flavor. I hope that was because of the tea and not the strawberry perrier I used to make this a teapop. It also had an effervescence that was very reminiscent of champagne and a touch of that familiar alcohol dryness.
It’s a nice tea and definitely does well as a teapop. I like that it is different than so many other fruit blends that rely heavily on hibiscus/rose hips to create a flavor. I wish there was less rose, but that is more my personal preference than a criticism of the tea. With that said, given it converted my ever-critical father into a believer, I am definitely delighted I got a chance to give it a try and I am pleased I have a whole lot more leave left to experiment with.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description
Inspired by the delicate floral and fruity notes in a glass of sweet champagne, this tea blends the voluptuous scent of blooming roses with the sweet flavor of fresh-picked strawberries. Steep up this bubbly concoction with friends before your next GNO or for your better half after a romantic dinner for two. Cheers!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Goldenberry Banana Cinnamon from Voce Fruit Tea. . .
Last week I reviewed another tea from Voce Fruit Tea, their Lemon Ginger. I was instantly impressed with how delicious, fresh, natural, and amazing the tea. Today I wanted to try their banana offering. I’m sort of a banana freak and am always on the search for a banana flavored tea. You find them here and there but typically the banana flavor comes off light or chemical tasting. After having the Voce Fruit Tea’s Lemon Ginger, I knew that this banana flavor was going to be on point since they do not use anything but dried fruit in their blends.
For this blend I brewed the tea with freshly boiled water and allowed the tea to steep for 7 minutes and just left the tea bag in the mug while I enjoyed the brew. I did this with the Lemon Ginger offering and the tea just seemed to get better and better the longer the tea brewed and the Goldenberry Banana Cinnamon is no different.
First off you are greeted with fresh notes of banana and cinnamon. And that is exactly what you get in taste as well. The banana flavor reminds me of a quality dried banana chip instead of a fresh banana. Regardless, the banana flavor is delicious and doesn’t have that artificial feel like I’ve had in the past. The cinnamon adds its own charm playing well with the banana flavor. For the goldenberry piece, I can’t really say I taste much berry like flavor. I am getting a sweetness here and there that I can’t identify so I’m wondering if that is the goldenberry. The description of this tea indicated the tea should taste like banana bread and I have to say, they are pretty close to nailing that flavor profile.
Over all, this tea is downright delicious. After having a few cuppas of this hot, I’m excited to try this as a cold brew like I did with the Lemon Ginger. I was able to drink off of one serving of the Lemon Ginger for almost tea days- brewed both hot and cold and I have a feeling this serving of Goldenberry Banana Cinnamon will be the same.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Fruit
Where to Buy: Voce Fruit Tea
Description
You might not be familiar with goldenberries, but they are widely considered to be a superfruit, with a bright flavor that is similar to apricots. Our blend of organic goldenberries, organic bananas, and organic cinnamon is an unexpected treat that is reminiscent of warm banana bread, right out of the oven. It has a smooth and subtle flavor that goes down nice and easy.
Ingredients: organic dried bananas, organic dried, goldenberries, organic cinnamon chips. Packaged in the same facility as peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and milk products.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Apero Spritz from Davids Tea. . . .
Every year Davids Tea releases a Cocktail Collection with teas designed to be mixed with spirits in summertime party drinks. I love the idea of these teas! If you are like me and don’t drink spirits these teas are equally as fun made with sparkling water or simply served over ice.
One of the teas being offered this summer is Apero Spritz, a fruit infusion featuring bitter orange rind. The smell of this tea is amazing, the vibrant orange and passionfruit really stand out. I steeped this at 212 degrees for 5 minutes and served it over ice. It steeps up a beautiful deep reddish-orange color, talk about a pretty tea for a party! The first sip is faintly familiar to me, similar to a passionfruit juice drink I have had in the past. This tea is sweet and tropical tasting, the passionfruit is very rich and flavorful. The back end of the taste has a lovely bitterness, much like the bitterness one encounters when drinking grapefruit juice. I would not steep this longer than 5 minutes as I feel that the bitterness could become magnified with longer steep times.
Davids Tea released a You Tube video showing how to make several mixed drinks with this tea. They all look good but this tea is equally tasty prepared simply as an iced tea.
Overall I love this tea! I think that the bitter note really adds a unique depth making this tea stand out from the normal summer tropical teas soon to be released in a few months.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Fruit
Where to Buy: Davids Tea
Description
What to do when you’re lounging in the late afternoon sun? Sip this refreshing apéritif-inspired fruit infusion – a sweet and vibrant sunset-coloured blend with grown-up notes of bitter orange rind. It’s light, juicy and will leave you feeling bubbly all over. For an elegant treat, serve it chilled in champagne flutes with a delicious assortment of cheese and fresh fruits. Cheers!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
