Product Information:
Product: Ready-to-Drink Black Tea Beverage
Where to Buy: Cheribundi
Product Description:
We made our name with juices that pack 45 tart cherries into each bottle. Though we love these products, one gets the urge to spread their all-natural-juice-loving wings once in a while. This time, our juice makers looked east. To the far east, to be exact.
To the source of fine black tea. The range of benefits in black tea have been touted for centuries. It’s the perfect partner for the nutrients in our cherries.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love summertime. I love the longer days, the hot weather, the chance to dip my toes in the ocean, and the visits to the Farmer’s Market. Going to my local Farmer’s Market might be my favorite thing, especially when the cherries arrive. For a few short, wonderful weeks there is a plethora of lovely bright red cherries at many of the stalls, and I buy several bags of them for my family to enjoy. In my opinion they are one of the perfect summer fruits. Unfortunately, cherry season is very short here, so I’m often left looking for something with a real cherry taste that I can continue to enjoy throughout the summer. Thanks to Cheribundi I’ve found not only a great cherry drink, but a great cherry tea. Win!
Cheribundi’s Tart Cherry Black Tea Refresh is made from fresh pressed cherries and fresh brewed black tea. The flavor is simply amazing. The cherry juice and tea are well balanced. The tea is brisk while having some depth. There’s a bit of a malt flavor that pairs well with the cherry. The cherry juice gives the tea some sweetness, but since tart cherries are used it’s not an overly sweet flavor. I enjoyed the balance that Cheribundi managed to achieve with this drink. I like that I was drinking a high quality black tea with a super fruity cherry kick. This is so much better than many of the cherry teas I’ve tried that either ended up tasting like cough syrup (yuck.) or highly artificial and candy-like. Having real cherry juice in my iced tea is an absolute yes for me. Now that I’ve tried it I can’t believe I haven’t been drinking this for years!
If you are a fan of cherries then I highly recommend trying this drink. The quality of the tea is top notch, and the added cherry juice adds a refreshing twist on an already tasty beverage. Well done, Cheribundi!
Wu Yi Oolong from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Wu Yi Oolong is from China’s Fujian province and is known for its light sweet cup with a fragrant orchid finish. When steeped, the mature semi-fermented leaves expand to a full lively cup with more body than a green tea but less body than a black tea
Learn more about their month subscription box here.
Taster’s Review:
I am a newbie when it comes to some oolongs. I’ve had a few here and there but I have mainly spent my time with either flavored oolongs or really any other tea. Straight oolongs I’ve had on occasion but I seem to not pick them up as often as I would a green or black tea. No real reason. I have been wanting to educate myself on oolongs for some time. So when my last box from Simple Loose Leaf arrived, I was happy to see this in the box. I was so excited I grabbed my new bottle from Simply Good Tea and promptly poured the contents of the package into the bottle. Put the bottle in the fridge and twenty minutes later I took my first sip.
Oh mama. That is the good stuff. I can’t believe that I haven’t dug more into oolongs. This tea was heaven to my taste buds. I literally have been drinking this tea for 24 hours and I think I have finally exhausted the leaves. I loved watching them dance around in the water while they produced a beautiful cold brewed oolong tea for me to enjoy.
This tea was bright and crisp. I could pick up different aspects that reminded me of black teas and green teas both. The first infusion, I really picked up more of a dark roasted black tea quality. Towards the end, I was greeted with a nice bright silky like almost green tea flavor. There was a sweetness and well rounded note throughout the entire time I spent with this beauty. The dry leaves themselves had a nice roasted like fragrance.
Love it. Love it. Love it. For more first experience with this type of oolong, I’m very pleased. This was fantastic. I’m excited now to dive into more oolongs and really take some time with them. Great job Simple Loose Leaf.
Chamomile Rose Petal Organic Herbal Tea from BeauTea Studio
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: BeauTea Studio
Tea Description:
Chamomile Rose Tea ~ Always Organic ~ Herbal Goodness…Organic Whole Chamomile Flowers hand blended with Organic French Rose Petals to create a fragrant and ultra calming tea. Delicious with just a bit of honey.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Today was one of those days where I needed a bit of a relaxing tea. Catching up from being off on vacation for a week and some change wasn’t too bad, but I still had a few stressful moments here and there.
I was looking thru my tea stash and stumbled upon this delightful little tea. A simple Chamomile Rose Tea. Sometimes I feel like some teas have too many inclusions and sometimes you want something simple. This fit the bill perfectly. Chamomile and Rose Petals. The dry leaf had that old familiar loving smell of relaxing chamomile and the rose petals added a hint of floral aroma.
I decided I wanted to cold brew this beauty instead of enjoying it as a hot brew. I threw the sample into my cold brew bottle that was filled with cold water and let it steep on my desk while I continued to plug along.
A few hours later, I took my first sip. On yeah. . .that was exactly what I needed. The sweetness of the rose and the mix of the chamomile baked flavor just hit my taste buds right. I’m sure this tea is nice when brewed hot, but brewed cold I feel like the flavors come out even more. The rose petals really sang and the chamomile was fresh and bright. You couldn’t ask more for this herbal.
Simple and done right.
Makaibari Estate Autumn Flush Organic Darjeeling Black Tea From Golden Tips Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Golden Tips Tea
Tea Description:
Our maiden autumnal offering from the bio-organic and fair-trade Makaibari plantations. Floral, zesty and and stimulating, the tea is a classic pre-winter Darjeeling. The coruscating liquor shimmers your tea experience and brings in scintillating fruity aromas. Characteristic of a typical combination of black-brown and light green leaves, the flavor is an alluring melody of accentuated briskness and sharp astringent notes which make for a unique delightful cuppa. An excellent tea for all Autumn tea lovers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I like to know everything I can about my tea. Where it was grown? When was it picked and processed? What did it do in its free time? All important questions.
So when I see the exact estate/region and date of picking, it just makes me feel better knowing. I think that influences my tea purchases greatly. So, on the sample package of Makaibari’s Autumn Flush Darjeeling, seeing basic details is a comfort. Golden Tips even goes so far as to put the exact day when the tea was plucked. (November 28th, 2014 to be exact.)
Opening the package, I see the usually tricolor leaves; dark brown, sliver-tipped, and the occasional green. The leaves give off little to no aroma, very light bread and fruity notes.
I steeped my tea loose in my elephant teapot, letting the tea evolve on it’s own in the pot. The first couple steeps were light and had prominent bread and malt qualities. The more I got down into the pot, the more fruity and acidic the tea became. It was a very good experience, even down to the last sips. The astringency never got too much to handle, and the muscatel notes were very nice and noticeable thought the body of the liquor. An excellent and simple Darjeeling, great for when I want a black tea, but still crave something on the lighter side of the genre!
Lemon Elation Yerba Mate from Guayaki
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Guayaki
Tea Description:
Lemon Elation has a brisk lemony mate flavor. It’s easy drinking and clean tasting, and not too sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Well, this is the third and final canned Guayaki Yerba Mate drink I picked up.
I was excited about this one; one of my favourite mate blends is a citrus based one so out of the three flavours I thought that this was the one that would be my favourite. Obviously I should have read the ingredients though; had I I’m sure I would have had much different preconceptions. Instead I got to taste the ingredients first – and it was definitely a shock.
Apparently this uses roasted mate and, of all things, ginger. Now, ginger and lemon is a pretty common pairing so I know I’m in the minority for disliking it – ultimately that boils down to my own personal distaste for anything with a strong ginger flavour. And man was it strong; arguably stronger than the lemon for which the drink was named after! As well, I don’t like the pairing of roasted mate with lemon; for me a green pairing with a brighter grassier earth tone is more preferable. The lemon also tasted kind of like furniture cleaner to me – I was very turned off.
That said, I shared the portion of the can which I could not finish with a friend who, while never having tried yerba mate before, absolutely loves lemon and ginger and she really enjoyed the whole thing; which again goes to point out that it’s not that this is a bad tea it’s just that it’s composed of ingredients that I personally do not really like at all.
As a whole (out of the three flavors I purchased), I think that Revel Berry was my favourite and the one that would most widely appeal to people. I’m happy I took the time to explore these tisanes though, and I hope that if these become more widely available that will lead to a more mainstream knowledge of yerba mate. Because let’s face it, as a ‘hardcore’ tea nerd there’s never enough people to talk tea with.
