Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
A cup of Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong Chinese Red Black Tea will not only attract you by its taste, but also by its appearance: so dark and strong with tight and long tips. This tempting appearance is produced in Yunnan. While if you want to describe its taste, you can use the word elegant. It can serve you a cup of elegant gongfu tea or afternoon tea.
High mountains and proper environment produces good tea. Chinese Red has a price of high value. Its special tea tree and superb making skills make this tea carrying a unique fragrance as rich as perfumes. The top notes make you delighted; the middle notes fresh your mind; the base note of strong floral fragrance make you intoxicated.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Ahhh-ma-ZING! This tea is truly remarkable. Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong Chinese Red Black Tea from Teavivre is one of those memorable black teas that I believe all tea lovers should try!
The tea brews up dark and has a thick, silky mouthfeel that seems to coat the palate with it’s full-flavored goodness. I taste notes of deep, dark bittersweet chocolate and an undertone of rich, creamy caramel. It has that “baked” quality to it, the kind of taste that evokes thoughts of freshly baked bread.
There are notes of malt and there is very little – as in next to NO – astringency to this tea. In fact, I mention the astringency only because just now I took a sip and really focused on what I was experiencing to see if I could notice any astringency. And when I’m very focused on it, I can detect a slight dry sensation toward the tail. It’s ever-so-slight and those who tend to be astringent-sensitive shouldn’t worry about this tea.
For those of you who remember Dawn from Simple Leaf and miss it (and let’s face it, if you remember the tea, you miss it!) this tea would make a really good substitute for that tea. It reminds me a lot of that tea. It is rich with notes of cocoa, sweet, caramel-y undertones and notes of stone fruit (plum-ish) mid-sip.
A really memorable, delicious tea – and it’s just as flavorful with the second infusion, too!
Pina Colada Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
After my last iced tea review (not from Southern Boy Teas), I was really looking forward to getting back to some GOOD iced tea blends from Southern Boy Teas! This Pina Colada Flavored Iced Tea has been calling out to me for a while, so I finally decided to give in to the calls and give it a try. Mmm!
This is pretty tasty. The pineapple and coconut notes are pretty evenly matched here. I taste a good amount of both pineapple and coconut, with maybe just a wee bit more pineapple than coconut. I especially enjoy that juicy, sweet-tangy note of pineapple that comes in at the aftertaste.
I also taste notes of rum in this, but the rum is a little more subdued than the fruit notes. It doesn’t have a really strong alcohol taste, but I can taste the subtle presence of rum.
And I can taste the black tea. I find myself really appreciating the FLAVOR of the black tea today. The black tea blend that 52Teas aka Southern Boy Teas uses for their iced tea is of good quality. It tastes good. It has a smooth yet brisk flavor. It’s very refreshing and quenches the thirst.
I’m very happy with this Pina Colada iced tea. It’s not my favorite of the SBT collection, but, it’s tasty and one I wouldn’t mind drinking again!
Iced Black Tea from Tazo
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Learn more about Tazo on their website.
Tea Description:
Certain feats, like executing a reverse swan dive into a shimmering pool while wearing a pair of Euro-cut trunks and a captain’s hat, out only be attempted by a select few. This blend of black teas has the kind of cool, smooth sophistication to pull off a move like that, should it choose to do so.
Taster’s Review:
I received a box of this Iced Black Tea from Tazo from a friend, and while I certainly appreciated her generosity and thoughtfulness, I also appreciated that I didn’t actually buy this tea myself. I would have been sorely disappointed had I done so.
That’s because this is one of the most mediocre teas I’ve tasted in a long time. The thing that I appreciated most about this tea is that it helped me realize just how good the other iced teas that I’ve been drinking lately really are.
I tried brewing this many different ways. I first tried cold brewing the tea, and this produced a rather flat and boring tasting tea. Then I tried resteeping those tea bags – hot brewing the tea this time – and the results were much the same: boring tea. Not much flavor to them at all. And I wasn’t even looking for “flavoring” type of flavor, I was just looking for a good, brisk, refreshing black tea flavor. But I didn’t get that.
Then I tried hot brewing new (previously unsteeped) teabags. Again … just sort of lackluster. This is the kind of flavor I’d expect from the tea in the yellow, white and red box, but not from a tea that is supposed to be at least one notch above that brand. But after trying to brew this tea several different ways, there was nothing I could do to make this tea taste good. The problem wasn’t with the brewing method, but the tea itself.
A really sad tea. It’s tea like this that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those that claim not to like tea. I wouldn’t like tea either if this is all that I had to drink.
Cucumber Melon Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I really enjoyed the Cucumber Melon Green tea that 52Teas created back in 2010 (wow! Has it really been that long?) so I was excited to try the black Iced Tea version from Southern Boy Teas.
And this is alright. I really think this flavor combination is better as a green tea (Hey, Frank, I think that you should start adding green teas to the Southern Boy Teas line!) because the lighter, buttery flavor of the Chinese Sencha just seemed to work better than the blend of black teas that is used for the SBT tea line.
I think that the stronger black tea base seems to mask some of the cucumber and melon notes. I taste some cucumber notes and the melon notes are a little more distinct than the cucumber. It’s a very refreshing taste, don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying it.
But, if I were to sit down and drink this blindly, without knowing that this was supposed to be a Cucumber Melon flavored iced tea, I don’t know that I would have guessed that was what it was. I would have probably guessed it was some sort of melon, but I don’t know that I would have guessed that this flavor is Cucumber Melon.
It’s a tasty, refreshing iced tea. I just think that these flavors work better with a lighter base, and the vegetative notes of the green tea seemed to elevate the cucumber a little bit to better define the flavor.
Very Big Hill Dew Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
After trying the Very Big Hill Dew Honeybush from 52Teas, I was very interested in how the black iced tea version from the Southern Boy Teas line differed from the aforementioned tisane. I really enjoyed the honeybush, so I was anxious to try this flavor in a black tea!
And it is really tasty. I do think that with these particular flavors, they work better with a lighter base like the honeybush, but it’s still a really tasty, refreshing black iced tea. The sweet, lemon-y, lime-ish taste shines through in this glass of iced tea, but, I don’t notice quite as much of the effervescent soda-ish taste that I experienced with the honeybush. I do still get some of that soda-like flavor, but, here, it’s less apparent.
The black tea is brisk but not overpowering. I like the way the bright, lemony flavors add a really uplifting flavor to the iced tea. It’s a very refreshing drink, and it’s one that I will probably be ordering again, especially with summertime coming up – this is one that I’ll want to drink on a hot, summer day.
A really good tea from the Southern Boy Teas line.