Heads up for you lemon-lovers out there, this tea is definitely for you!
The namesake of this tea, Limoncello, is an Italian liqueur made from the zest of lemons. It’s known to be a sweet drink, despite the yellow citrus fruit’s sour reputation. This tea definitely tastes like distilled lemons and keeps the perfect sweet-tart flavor balance of citrus and cream, very much like tart lemon dessert bars with powdered sugar.
In the dry leaf, this tea smells strongly of citrus, but the lemon myrtle in the blend keeps the flavors natural and herbal, rather than smelling too much like lemon cleaning products. Along with all the zesty fruit flavors, there is something creamy and dessert-like in blend as well. Sweetness comes in the form of almost-caramel, brown sugar notes. This tea reminds me of the classic lemon drop candies or even luscious lemon meringue pie.
Despite being a green rooibos tea, this blend still brews up potent and flavorful. This would be a great iced tea lemonade companion, or a great surprise sweetness in an unconventional cocktail. I had to pucker up and kiss this tea goodbye after I blew through my sample size. Order a good size package of this sweet tea, you won’t regret it!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Rooibos
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description:
The Italian dessert drink has made its way into a tea. Imagine lemon meringue teasing your taste buds, while sweetly melting in your mouth with a blend of vanilla and brown sugars. The lemony brightness shines through with lemongrass and a sprinkling of golden marigold petals, all topping a green rooibos tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Lemonade from Shanti Tea
I remember LiberTeas reviewed Lemonade from Shanti Tea a few years ago but I figured it would be a good time for me to add my two cents worth before I’m faced with colder weather in the upcoming winter months.
Lemonade from Shanti Tea is a Green Rooibos based herbal tisane that I am quite fond of. Along side the Green Rooibos there are Lemon Peel, Lemon Myrtle, and floral specs of joy throughout the dry and loose blend.
It infuses to a lemon-lime color with a light brown hue to it. It’s very lemony and I like that. Lemonade from Shanti Tea makes a lovely hot cup and an even lovelier cold cup. It’s sweet enough on it’s own but I’m sure if you were to add a sweetener of your choice it wouldn’t hurt the overall flavor.
This is a pure delight! Lemonade from Shanti Tea is a wonderfully flavored Green Rooibos that I would call a WINNER any day!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Rooibos/Herbal
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Description:
Bright, citrusy and zingy, caffeine-free tea, providing you with refreshment and amazing health benefits too! *RECIPE RECENTLY CHANGED*
Ingredients: Organic Green Rooibos, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Lemon Myrtle, Organic Calendula, Natural Essences
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Strawberry Lemonade Flavored Honeybush Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this iced tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to SBT’s tea of the week here.
Taster’s Review:
I could really smell the strawberry lemonade-ish-ness of this blend the moment that I tore open the pouch! It smelled like a pitcher of yummy strawberry lemonade!
When I first saw this blend on the website, though, I wasn’t as confident about it. Oh sure, I love strawberry lemonade. But I wasn’t really sure how I’d like these flavors combined with the natural nutty flavor of honeybush. It just didn’t seem like something that would work well.
Well, I was wrong. Please don’t tell my husband I admitted that. It’s much better that he operate under the notion that I’m always right.
This is really tasty. The strawberry and lemonade notes are strong and forward, while the nutty, sweet notes of the honeybush are a little off to the background and don’t really obstruct the flavors of the sweet-tart lemonade and strawberry.
The lemonade is the prominent flavor. It’s tart, but not pucker-y tart. There is some sweetness to it thanks to the strawberry. The tartness comes through strongest at the finish, when I taste both the sour notes of the lemon as well as the tingly berry tart. There is some sweetness from the honeyed notes of the honeybush base.
Something else that I found interesting: as I neared the bottom of the glass, I started to pick up on this creamy taste. I don’t usually get a strong “creaminess” from honeybush. Occasionally the nutty flavors translate into a slight creaminess but this time, the creaminess was strong enough that I really took notice of it. Nice! “Cream” is not a flavor that I would normally associate with Strawberry Lemonade but I like it here.
It’s a really tasty and refreshing iced tea. I’d recommend keeping a couple of packages of this on hand for when you’re having guests over – this is the kind of tisane that everyone will enjoy. It’s a funky twist on the Arnold Palmer!
A ‘Vampire Lemonade’ Custom Blend Tea from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Tea & Herbals
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
Blood orange tisane outshines white tangerine (20 percent) and lemon grass (20 percent) in this delicious, refreshing blend. Try it iced for a homage to summer, or drink it hot to reminisce on winter days.
A Carolynne Keenan Custom Blend.
Learn more about this custom blend here.
Find more Carolynne Keenan blends here.
Taster’s Review:
I steeped this tea at 190°F for 5 minutes and even with that short a steep time, the liquid looks super dark ruby red (like hibiscus) and the texture is thicker than I hoped for. Too much hibiscus in this!
So I decided to let it cool for a while and see how it would fair as an iced drink because as a hot tea, I found the hibiscus to be too overpowering for me to enjoy it. As the tea cools, I can pick up on some of the blood orange, tangerine and lemon-y notes from the lemongrass. The hibiscus enhances the tartness of these fruit flavors which is nice. I’m not usually a big fan of tart-y beverages but when it’s “lemonade” a bit of tart is OK.
I don’t taste a lot of white tea. This tastes more like a citrus-y punch than it does a tea. Which is OK I suppose but I’m more of a tea drinker than a citrus punch drinker.
Overall, this isn’t my favorite tea from Carolynne Keenan’s collection of custom tea blends with Adagio Teas. I think that if there was a little less hibiscus and more of the fruity flavors, this would be better. I would also prefer it if it tasted more like tea than like hibiscus. Then again, you know how I feel about hibiscus. Not a bad drink, just not my favorite.
PRODUCT REVIEW: White Tea Acai Squeeze from Argo Tea
Product Description:
Ready to Drink Tisane from Argo Tea.
Argo Tea’s White Tea Açai Squeeze® is youthful white tea from the Fujian province of China, vitamin-rich açai from Amazon rainforests of Brazil and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
Learn more about this product here.
Taster’s Review:
This White Tea Acai Squeeze from Argo Tea is actually pretty tasty. As some of you might be aware, I’m not always crazy about ready-to-drink teas because they usually taste more like sugar/sweetener than they do tea. But, I can taste tea here.
Yeah, it’s still sweet, but this is actually more tart than it is sweet! The lemonade notes are especially profound in this tea. The white tea adds a crisp, airy sort of background note with a hint of vegetative flavor. The acai berry is also a strong flavor, but it unites with the lemon-y notes quite nicely.
I guess if I were to offer any complaint about this, it would be that I wished there was a little less lemonade and acai berry and a little more tea, but I still found this beverage refreshing and not too sweet and it didn’t leave behind that syrupy feel on my tongue after I finished drinking it – you know, that sort of cloying, sickeningly sweet sensation that seems to coat the palate when one drinks those overly sweetened RTD beverages that they call tea? I didn’t get that with this, and I’m glad. This is not too sweet and I can taste the tea – these get big PLUS points from me when it comes to RTD teas.
Argo is currently promoting their Scratch and Win promotion on Facebook – you can win a free bottle of their tea from their website! Good luck!