Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Tea Description:
What do you think of when you taste a Key Lime? Waves breaking along the coastline of southern Florida? Lazy summer days? Bright sunshine? The limes grown in the Florida Keys are one of the world’s best loved, and sweetest citrus fruits. When used as a garnish the juice of the Key Lime will brighten any dish or dessert. It goes without saying that this is a truly great dessert tea. Brew a pot, sit back and think sunshine. Or, brew a pitcher for iced tea and be in the sunshine!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a really delightful tea to be drinking on a day like this. The weather is cold and drizzly outside but inside, I’m sitting here, curled up with a hot cup of this Key Lime Tea from Culinary Teas and it’s like a taste of summertime in my teacup. The flavor of the lime is bright and refreshing.
The black tea base is a Ceylon tea. It’s very much what I’d expect from a good quality Ceylon tea: smooth, mild tasting, even tempered. It isn’t an overly aggressive tasting tea and it isn’t too astringent. It’s pleasant and medium-bodied.
It’s a good base for the tart flavor of lime. I like that the lime is strong here without being overwhelming. And I also appreciate that it’s not abundantly tart. It’s tart enough to tell you that this is a lime flavored tea, but not so tart that I’m puckering as I sip.
Served hot, this tea makes a really nice afternoon tea. But this tea really shines as it cools, I found that the Key Lime notes really popped once it cooled. This would make a stunning iced tea!
Whole Leaf Green Tea with Essence of Key Lime from Eden Grove
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Amazon Trading
Ingredients:
Green Tea with natural Key Lime Flavor
Learn more about Amazon Trading here.
Taster’s Review:
This Whole Leaf Green Tea with Essence of Key Lime from Eden Grove is one of the nicer lime flavored green teas I’ve encountered. What I’m enjoying most is that the lime is gentle – it isn’t too tart or sour tasting lime flavor, and it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the green tea.
The lime adds a bright lift to the cup. It’s not a strong flavor – just enough to enhance the cup without becoming too obnoxious about it. And this is something that I’ve noticed with the other teas from Eden Grove. The teas with “essence” tend to take a rather subtle approach to the flavoring of these teas. Eden Grove allows the tea to be the real star of the cup while allowing the “essence” to boost the flavor level without overwhelming the tea. I like that a lot!
The green tea is soft and has a lightly vegetative taste. It isn’t grassy nor does it have an overpowering vegetal note. It’s a sweet, fresh “leafy” sort of taste, reminiscent of lightly buttered, steamed spinach. It’s mild and has a very pleasant, creamy buttery note. There is a nice contrast between the sweet of the green tea and the sunny tartness of the lime.
A really pleasant cuppa – good served hot … but I think that this one gets even better as it cools. It makes a great iced tea.
Key Lime Coconut Black Tea Blend from Herbal Infusions
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Herbal Infusions
Tea Description:
If you can’t escape from the day to day grind this season then we’ve got the perfect blend for you! Dan has crafted a refreshing and full bodied tea that blends the best of the islands (key limes and coconuts to be specific) with the exotic flavour of a full high altitude premium Ceylon tea.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
As I type this, it’s snowing outside. In this part of the Pacific Northwest, we don’t get a lot of snow. We get rain, but, snow we get maybe once a year, and usually, a big snowstorm like this one … we get maybe every other year or every third year. I guess it’s pretty much what most of the rest of the country is experiencing, right? Lots and lots of snow.
So, as it’s snowing outside, I thought I’d enjoy something warm and tropical inside to get my mind off of that cold weather. This Key Lime Coconut Black Tea Blend from Herbal Infusions seemed to be just what I was looking for! It’s a tasty blend of a classic flavor combination: Lime and coconut – with lots of black tea flavor to remind you that you’re drinking tea and not a tropical cocktail!
The black tea flavor is the strongest note of the cup, and that’s the way I usually want it to be. When I drink tea, I want to taste the tea. Here, I do! The tea used in this blend is a Ceylon, and it’s a medium-bodied, brisk tasting tea. Even tempered and pleasant to taste. There is a dry, tangy astringency toward the tail that I’d categorize as moderate or medium.
The lime notes are tart, a little bit sweet, and even a tad bitter. The bitterness here reminds me a bit of a grapefruit. The lime really elevates the cup – it perks up the flavors of the cup. The aftertaste has a very bright, citrus-y taste.
The coconut is more of a background note. It’s not a really strong, well-defined coconut taste. This doesn’t have that slick, creamy coconut flavor that many coconut teas have. It’s a softer coconut taste: sweet and reminding me a bit of toasted coconut rather than fresh coconut. Toasted coconut has sort of a dry flavor, not quite as creamy and that’s what I taste here. A sweet, sort of toasty, nutty flavor, rather than the sweet, creamy, slick and almost milky sort of coconut taste.
It’s a tasty tea and the flavor gets better as the tea cools. This would make a really nice iced tea.
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Southern Boy Teas Edition!
One thing that I like … that’s different about the 52Teas and now the Southern Boy Teas 12 Teas of Christmas countdown packages is how the teas are packaged. Previously, the labels for the tea were stashed in the package with the teas so that you wouldn’t know what the tea was until you opened it and could remove the label to put on the sample package. However, Frank seems to have implemented a “scratcher” type of reveal system now, sort of like the scratcher lotto tickets. You scratch off the silver coating from the label, and it reveals to you what the tea of the day is. Pretty cool!
Key Lime Cheesecake Iced Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
Given the success that I’ve had with the previous “Lime” flavored iced teas from the SBT collection – Lime Jello and Lime Cola – I was pretty confident that I’d enjoy this Key Lime Cheesecake iced tea too.
And I am enjoying this Key Lime Cheesecake from Southern Boy Teas quite a bit. The flavor is very bright with the flavor of lime: tart but not so tart that I’m puckering when I take a drink. I can also taste the creamy, tangy note of the cream cheese peaking out beneath the lime flavor. The black tea is not completely hidden behind the flavors, and I appreciate that. It has a brisk flavor that refreshes and invigorates.
Just as I have been doing with the other iced tea pouches, I cold-brewed this pouch, and I’m very satisfied with the flavor. In every sip, I get lime, I get cheesecake (although I don’t really taste a lot of pastry or crust here, I do get a hint of a buttery note every once in a while if I really focus on what I’m tasting), and I get black tea.
After I finished my pitcher of cold-brewed iced tea, I resteeped the pouch by hot-brewing it. I found this second pitcher of iced tea much more flavorful. The key lime was slightly softer, but there were still plenty of sweet-tart notes from the citrus fruit, and I could taste more of the tangy cream cheese and even more of the crust notes. The black tea was slightly less apparent in the second pitcher, but it was still discernible.
Overall, I enjoyed the Key Lime Cheesecake iced tea, although I think the Lime Cola and Lime Jello flavors are much tastier.
Key Lime Ceylon from Fusion Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Fusion Teas
Tea Description:
Transport yourself to warm, summer days with the next best thing to a slice of key lime pie. This is a pleasing and healthful black tea blend of lime leaves, lime juice, lime pieces, and sweet candied pineapple. Delicious hot or cold.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have to say that I’m very impressed with this tea. I really am not sure what I expected – perhaps just a basic tea with some citrus-y notes. But, this exceeded any expectations I may have had. It really is deliciously refreshing!
My first few sips of the hot tea were very enjoyable – smooth, mellow black tea with lovely lime notes and a hint of pineapple in the background. But, those first few sips told me that this was a tea that should be served iced! So, I allowed it to cool, and then took a taste! YUM!
The Ceylon base is not extraordinarily strong, but it’s not supposed to be, either. It offers a delicious flavor, though, and it has that light, brisk taste that works so well with the tangy lime notes which are tart but not to the point of causing me to pucker after taking a sip. (Bonus points to Fusion for that!) And my favorite part might just be the pineapple in this, it adds a distinct sweetness and flavor that melds so wonderfully with the flavor of the lime.
Overall, it’s very refreshing and tastes very bright and has its own invigorating quality to it. A nice tea to enjoy on these long, hot afternoons!