Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea for All Reasons
Tea Description:
Inspired by Van Gogh’s painting, our version of “Starry Night” is a lovely combination of wild blackberry tea with splashes of blue in the form of cornflower blossoms, and candy blue sprinkles, as well as edible yellow and gold stars.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
A tea with three different kinds of sprinkles. . . I’m in! This tea is pretty adorable with the blue and star sprinkles and the gold balls just add to the cuteness. Tea for All Reasons always has a few fandom style teas. This particular one is based off of Van Gough’s painting, Starry Night. But I digress. . .now to the tea.
I added the tea to my Breville, set it up for the black tea setting (212F-3 minutes-4 tbsp-3 cups water) and away I go. The tea definitely smells like berries . I picked that up from the dry leaves as well. As I start to enjoy this tea, I’m not picking up the bright berry flavor that I was hoping for. It definitely has an astringent factor to it. The more I drink and the tea cools, it just seems to be more of a muddled flavor. Definitely drinkable but its like the blackberry flavor is trying to pop but its just not quite there.
For my second cup, I used my Breville Milk Frother and made myself a latte with regular milk. Oh the flavors popped with this addition! Can you say Blackberries and Cream! Yum!! The sprinkles that looked to be there for show before the addition of the milk are now lending themselves to a sweet and subtle addition to the latte. I think I might just have to go for one more cup! I think adding the milk is the way to go with this one.
Cantaloupe & Berries Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
This super refreshing and delicious iced tea will definitely get you in the mood for spring. We’ve blended our sweet organic Chinese sencha fannings green tea with organic cantaloupe, strawberry, blackberry and blueberry flavors. Be warned, this will disappear out of your fridge really fast!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I love cantaloupe. At family gatherings, my mom and I fight over the last piece on the fruit plate. My sons will yell at me if I come home from the grocery store without one. Thank goodness my grandpa is a farmer. He supplies us with the most amazing fresh cantaloupe (and other fruits and vegetables) throughout the summer months. He is 80 years old and still goes out in the fields and hand picks everything while drinking his coffee from the thermos. Even in the crazy hot days of summer!
This tea reminds me of him and hanging out with him in the fields during summer break. Brings back so many fantastic memories of my childhood. I love it when a tea gives you what I call “Warm Fuzzies” and takes you back to happy times.
I didn’t brew this up per the packaging. Since I am the only one that drinks tea in my house, I break the larger pouch into smaller tea bags so I can enjoy them on the go or at my office. I’ve tried to brew up a pitcher all at once, but I wasn’t able to drink the tea fast enough. This way works for me and from what I can tell, it doesn’t affect the outcome of the tea at all.
This is a perfect spring/summer tea. The cantaloupe flavor is the first that hits your taste buds. The green tea gives the tea a rich buttery feel. You can taste it more after you’ve had a sip or two, adding in a slight grassy note. Very slight. Its more of an after thought. I’m not picking up any of the berries or even a hint of them. Which is fine with me. I’m good with an iced cantaloupe green tea. Overall, I really dig this one. I wish I could taste more of the berries and I’m hoping additional steeps will bring those flavors out.
Cranberry Salad Green Tea from 52Teas
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Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
I got some top-shelf organic green tea from China and I was having a hard time deciding what to do with it until I happened across a recipe for cranberry salad with pineapple and marshmallows. It looked so good I had to try my hand at creating it as a tea. So here we have organic Chinese green pekoe tea blended with freeze-dried cranberries and pineapple, organic marshmallow root and organic flavors. This is going to be hard to beat. And it makes a great iced tea too.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As soon as I read the name Cranberry Salad Green Tea I knew that this was going to be a big hit with my oldest daughter, Amethyst. (She’s also going to be the one who is heading up 52Teas when we take over!) She loves cranberries. So I was sure to put aside some of the tea for her to try (the classic “kissing up to the boss” move).
I’m really enjoying this blend too. The cranberry is very tart and offers a nice contrast to the sweet, fluffy marshmallow-y notes.
The sip starts out very fruity with notes of cranberry and pineapple. Then I pick up on notes of sweet, smooth green tea. It’s a little grassy. It’s sweet and not bitter or astringent. I love the smoothness of this tea – it’s smooth from beginning to finish.
Towards mid-sip, I start to notice the sweetness of the marshmallow. It’s not a strong, apparent marshmallow flavor. It’s more like a sweet hint of it, as if I were eating an ambrosia salad but instead of those mini marshmallows in the salad, some marshmallow fluff was stirred into the whipped topping.
I used to really like that non-dairy whipped topping until one day it dawned on me that the non-dairy part meant NON DAIRY. And I found myself rather confused by that. Because if it’s not dairy, then what it it? And then I decided that I didn’t want to know what it was, but whatever it was, I didn’t want to eat it either. So, now, it’s not so much that I dislike the non-dairy whipped topping as I’m so befuddled by it that I no longer wish to consume it. Of course, that’s all irrelevant to this tea. Because this tea contains absolutely no non-dairy whipped topping.
This tea is really nice – it’s a little sweet, a little tart and a whole lot yummy. The texture is soft and silky. It’s a tasty cuppa – one that makes me glad that I decided to brew it up today! It’s good hot or chilled!
Blueberry Zinger Fruit Tisane from Tea & All It’s Splendor
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit & Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Tea & All It’s Splendor
Tea Description:
Blueberries, meet apple, ginger and lemongrass. These fruits and herbs along with a small bouquet of other herbals are blended together to make a caffeine free blend, that will have you wishing blueberry season was here.
The blackberry leaf mixed with dried blueberries and apples provide a bold, naturally sweet blueberry flavour that reminds us of pie. The verbena, lemon grass and ginger give us the “zing”, making this the best herbal blend we’ve tried this year.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I didn’t look at the ingredient list before I brewed this Blueberry Zinger Fruit Tisane from Tea & All It’s Splendor, but based on the name of it I figured that it had hibiscus in it. So when I measured 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of the tisane into the basket of my Kati Tumbler, I was a little surprised to not see hibiscus in the blend. It was a pleasant surprise, to be sure and I could hear a little voice in my head say, “just because you don’t see the hibiscus doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
I poured 12 ounces of 195°F into the tumbler and let the tea steep for just six minutes, thinking that there had to be hibiscus in the blend. But when I lifted up the strainer basket and saw that the tisane was a golden amber color and not a ruby color – there wasn’t even a hint of pink hue to the liquid! It was then that I thought, “Huh! Maybe, just maybe someone knows how to make a tisane without hibiscus in it!”
Then I went to the Tea & All It’s Splendor website to check out the ingredient list:
Apple and ginger pieces, blackberry leaves, blueberries, heather blossoms, melissa and verbena leaves, lemongrass, natural flavouring, blue cornflower blossoms.
Did you see that? Or perhaps, do you NOT see that! Because I’m looking at an ingredient list for a fruit and herbal tisane that doesn’t have hibiscus in it.
Oh joyful day – I knew it could be done! Other tea blenders out there, take note – you CAN make a fruit and herbal tisane without hibiscus. It can be done!
This is really quite a tasty tisane. I think that the name might be a tad misleading, only because I’m tasting more apple, ginger and lemony notes than I am blueberry. But don’t let that deter you from trying this blend because it’s really good – and I DO taste the blueberry.
As I said in the previous paragraph, the apple, lemon and ginger are the three strongest notes that I taste. The apple tastes sweet and is a nice contrast to the zesty ginger flavor. The lemon-y note is not particularly tart, but I do get a hint of tartness here and there. These three flavors come through right at the start of the sip.
Just before mid-sip, I taste a flavor that I’ll describe as herbaceous. It isn’t a distinct herbal flavor. It just tastes lightly herb-y. Just after mid-sip, I notice the blueberry starting to come through and by the finish, I do taste a clear blueberry note. It’s a sweet blueberry note and I like that this tastes authentic. I’m not getting a fake berry flavor.
I’m very pleased with this tisane. I’m very happy that there isn’t any hibiscus in this – and perhaps most surprising about the lack of hibiscus is that in just about every berry fruit/herbal tisane like this, hibiscus is used because hibiscus has a tart flavor that is often mistaken for a berry taste. I’m so happy that Tea & All It’s Splendor didn’t take the ‘easy way out’ with this blend and add hibiscus to it. And I’m even happier that Postal Teas decided to include it in this month’s box!
Acerola Cherry Fig Black Tea Blend from Tea & All It’s Splendor
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea & All It’s Splendor
Tea Description:
THIS. TEA. IS. RICH! It’s full of flavour, body and mouth feel. It’s like drinking a great red wine. We were blown away by just the smell of this well made blend. It was so amazing we had to check to make sure that it was all natural. Raelene assures us it is (along with all their other teas).
The rich sour cherry flavour, is sweet and fruity. The fig, adds a sweet and mellow brown sugar finish. This paired with a high quality black tea means you’re left with a warm cuppa that is perfect for novice and advanced tea drinkers.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
My eleventh edition box from Postal Teas has finally arrived! Happy day! This eleventh edition focuses on a new-to-me tea purveyor: Tea & All It’s Splendor and this Acerola Cherry Fig Black Tea Blend is the first that I’ve tried from this collection of teas.
I mean, how could I resist? They had me at the word fig! And as I’ve confessed previously, I’ve noticed a trend in my tea drinking. When I’m given a selection of different teas, the type of tea that I’ll reach for more often than the others is black tea. Don’t get me wrong, I love other tea types. I’m crazy about Oolong teas and Yellow tea is my favorite, but there is just something so comforting about black tea. It appeals to an almost instinctual need for me. That need for tea and it’s caffeine.
And this tea is quite lovely! There is a tasty balance here between tart and sweet. The fig is sweet – almost sugary sweet and it’s a pleasing contrast to the jarring tartness of the acerola cherries. Beneath the cherry top note I taste the smooth black tea that’s not bitter nor overly astringent. I’m really glad about the lack of astringency here, I think that astringency would kill this blend for me because the cherry flavor is quite tart and a tangy, dry sensation would be a bit much for my taste, I think.
But even though the tart is very strong here, I’m not finding it off putting the way I tend to find tart flavors. I think this has more to do with the fact that the cherry flavor tastes so authentic. This is not your average cherry flavoring that ends up tasting like cough syrup. NO! This is a really tasty, true-to-the-fruit cherry flavor that tastes as though I’ve just bitten into a tart cherry. Except that thanks to the fig notes, I’m not puckering.
This. This is good tea. And as fantastic as it is served hot, it’s even better iced. Wow! What a great way to get back into the swing of things with Postal Teas!