Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Red Clover Tea and Herbs
Tea Description:
A hibiscus base tea infused with citrus, berries and spices all known for their Vitamin C content is formulated to provide you with an extra does of Vitamin C while the Wood Betony and Lemon Balm are known to support the nerves leaving you feeling calm and relaxed. The blend is a beautiful light pink color and produces an exotic aroma of spices and berries. A sweet and warm flavor gently soothes the body and warms the belly giving you a sense of comfort and ease. It’s great warm or cold as a spritzer.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Have you ever looked at a tea and just thought this tea is going to be amazing? The smell was fabulous and you could tell that this tea was going to have the wow factor?
I had never heard of Red Clover Tea and Herbs until the other day when I was on Twitter. I checked out their site and couldn’t believe the amount of teas they offered. I was excited when my nicely packaged box arrived with a few teas to sample.
High-C has this amazing delicious fragrance to it. It has that smell that reminds me of apple butter but with quite a bit of cinnamon thrown in for good measure. Such a nice jelly/jammy flavor. I steeped this up according to the packaging on the tin, enjoying watching the color of the water turn to a lovely pink color.
Took my first sip, all the while still enjoying the beautiful fragrant notes of apple butter. Wow. This has to be one of the best herbal teas I’ve ever had. Their is hibiscus in the blend but not an overwhelming amount. Just enough to provide a bit of a tart flavor. Like what you would get from a green apple. The cinnamon is lovely and gives that hibiscus apple note something to contrast with. The two flavors together really taste fantastic. The cloves are there but are not dominating like a lot of other clove teas I’ve had in the past seem to be. Wood Betony is also listed as an ingredient. I wasn’t sure what flavor it was bringing to the table. From what I’m seeing from Wikipedia, this herb was considered one of those herbs that would cure what ails you. Another herbal that is in this mix that I’m not 100% familiar with is red clover. Another herb I’ll need to research more.
This organic herbal tea is simply amazing. The taste is perfect and matches the fall weather that is coming soon for us here in the Mid-West. I would love to try this tea in muffin mix, as a tea pop, as an iced tea. . .The notes of the apple cinnamon jammy sort really play well with experimenting.
Nakazen: Hibiscus Tea Herbal Tisane from Yunomi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Yunomi
Tea Description:
Hibiscus tea bags are made with high quality roselle (a kind of Hibiscus) grown in the tropical region. Enjoy hot or as iced tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Hello tea friends, I do hope you are all well.
Recently I received an order from Yunomi of which they were kind to include this tisane as a free gift. While admittedly hibiscus is not something I would usually order it is nice to try something different. Plus I feel tisanes are something I should drink more of, going caffeine free every now and then sounds like a good idea.
They do offer this as two versions on their website: loose leaf and teabag. This is the teabag version.
The bags are a good quality thin polystyrene (very typical Japanese tea bag design). They are white and a little bit see through with 1/5 filled with small, chopped petals. As I sniff the bag I am met with a dry, sweet, tangy and herbal scent. Very hibiscus strong and herbal but also not overly thick.
Steeping: Popping one bag into boiling water for three minutes.
Colour is deep, deep red. Scent is floral, sweet yet sour and overall rather soft.
Flavour is stronger than the smell though it’s not as thick as I expected (or feared). The hibiscus is sweet with sour after tones and a touch of dryness, this leads to a herbal after taste. The sourness is actually rather minimal considering, likening this to sherbet. ie. More sweet than sour.
Half way down my mug I’m finding this to remain consistent with the first sip. The dryness is not increasing and nor is the herbal tang that tisanes tend to have.
Overall I thought this was nice, more pleasant tasting than I had imagined being generally a non hibiscus fan. This was of fair quality and strength which complimented the hibiscus. A simple tisane but a nice companion on this warm night.
Floral Herb Tisane from Chi Whole Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Chi Whole Leaf
Tea Description:
A beautiful blend of Indian Rose Petals, Egyptian Hibiscus and Jasmine.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I keep wanting to call this matcha…
Honestly; I was a tiny bit scared to try this one. Hibiscus is one of three ingredients in this one, but frankly the entire thing looks like ground up, powdered hibiscus and unless you’re really into hibiscus in the first place that sounds pretty horrible.
That said, after the hot water hit the powder in the bottom of the mug and I had this all whisked up all of that fear melted away. The aroma is very floral and feminine but maintains a wonderful delicateness. How often do you get to call a blend with hibiscus delicate!? Not often – that’s for sure. More so than anything else I thought the rose was the most flavourful component of this tea but it’s not even close to the intensity necisarry for this blend to come off tasting chemical, artificial, or even perfumey. As a whole, it’s actually delightfully mellow.
Maybe it’s because hibiscus is so often paired with berries, but in addition to the sweet and supple floral notes I feel like there’s a hint of watered down berry flavour. The jasmine is the hardest part of this for me to taste; it’s blending in with the rose very well. I really enjoy this blend a lot. My only word of caution would be for people who dislike overly floral teas; but even they might like this because it’s been tastefully done. Even people who are generally turned off by hibiscus would likely like this. Bonus points for being quite affordable; $10.00 for 100g, and it really doesn’t take much at all to make a mug – approximately 1/2 tsp.
Also, many thanks to Will at Chi Whole Leaf tea for sending me the full range of teas currently offered on their site for reviewing! He was very quick to ship things, and in addition to the tea itself he included a very informative pamphlet that broke down the ingredients of each tea. I look forward to trying the rest of the set!
Pocketful of Posies Herbal Tea by Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
A relaxing, naturally caffeine-free herbal tea blended from blackberry leaves, chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, lavender flowers, and rose petals.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is an herbal tea from Adagio’s Sunlit Blooms collection. It’s a floral blend, containing whole chamomile flowers, lavender and rose petals. It also contains peppermint, hibiscus, and blackberry leaves. Judging by the dry leaf, the main constituent is blackberry leaves, which are green and fluffy, rather like raspberry leaves. The other ingredients seem rather sparse.
I used 1.5tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is yellow-green, which is doubtless testament to how little hibiscus is actually in this blend. The scent is deeply herbal – predominantly chamomile and lavender as far as I can discern.
To taste, this is a mild, lightly floral blend. Rose is clearly there, and lavender, although both are less pungent than might be expected, and don’t make the cup taste “perfumey” in the way they sometimes can. Half of me appreciates this, as teas with heavy perfume-like flavours can be rather cloying. The other half is wishing for a bit more flavour, as the overall effect is rather thin-tasting. The chamomile emerges a little towards the end of the sip, adding a honey-like sweetness that works well with the floral flavours. It’s a pleasant enough cup, if a little bland and weak. It’s like this tea is lacking in personality.
I’m really not sure what the blackberry leaves are adding to this blend, other than bulk. I appreciate that they have reputed health benefits, but I would have liked to have seen the other ingredients in greater quantity, as they impart the flavour this blend is sadly lacking. This one would make a pleasant pre-bedtime cup, if you’re after a caffeine-free blend with mild, relaxing flavours, but it’s not really one I’d purposefully seek out at other times of the day.
Strawberry Colada Tisane from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
Picture it. You’re sitting poolside, basking in the sunshine and sipping something cool and refreshing out of a coconut. Okay, so maybe the pool is a bit of a stretch. But with this sweet and fruity, retro cocktail-inspired tea, at least we’ve got that exotic drink covered. With strawberries, pineapple and coconut, it’s like a perfect summer getaway in a cup. Try it over crushed ice with a splash of rum. The only thing missing is the little paper umbrella.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is part four of a five part review of the DAVIDsTEA Summer Collection.
I think this was secretly the one I was most looking forward to, despite the abundance of hibiscus in it. I just can’t get enough pineapple in my life, and Pina Colada is one of the best flavor pairings to ever be thought up, in my not so humble opinion. It’s better than Peanut Butter and Jelly! I think the only thing that could rival it is Ham & Pineapple; and I’m going on scent alone (because I don’t eat meat and haven’t actually tried the pairing) there…
I actually don’t know how DT managed to pull off a collection with only one hibiscus inclusive blend. Well, now that I think about it maybe I do; they stuck coconut in everything. As a company, they’re definitely guilty of over using those two ingredients. Mmm, the dry leaf smells exactly like promised; rich Pina Colada with fresh strawberries. It’s got a faint tartness to it because of the hibiscus. I’m preparing this one as a cold brew; I’m worried that if I make this one hot than the hibiscus will take over too much.
The taste is… It’s amazing.
There’s nothing overly fancy about this blend, if I’m being honest. But it’s exactly as advertised and that’s a pretty rare thing; it’s Pina Colada with semi-tart strawberry juice, and the hibiscus actually blends really naturally into the strawberry. When you get past bold, vibrant strawberry top notes there’s a really solid, fresh coconut foundation and sweet, candied pineapple notes that are taking me back to DT’s Tropicalia Blend – which is one of my all time favourite blends from them. This is definitely my favourite of the five Summer Collection teas; and I don’t know if that’s really predictable, because of how I feel about Pina Colada, or surprisingly given how I feel about hibiscus.
I’ll certainly be picking up more, though.