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!
Cucumber Mojito Green Tea from Inspired Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Inspired Leaf
Tea Description:
Crisp, refreshing mint and lime mojo. Amazing on the rocks! Inspiration No. 26: Tea makes your eyes twinkle.
Ingredients: Organic green tea, peppermint, cucumber, lime pieces, lime leaves, lime juice, stevia, natural flavors.
Caffeine level-low.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is very refreshing! Perfect for this time of year, when the weather is warm and you’re in search of a bright-tasting, cooling, vibrant cup of tea! This tea is definitely all that!
I am sipping a small cup of this hot at the moment (mostly because I couldn’t wait for it to cool!) and saving the rest to let it cool so that I can enjoy it iced. I don’t like to add ice to my tea, because even if I brew it at double or triple strength, I find that the ice just waters it down too much for my liking, and I suppose I could go through all the trouble to make tea ice cubes, but, that seems like more trouble than it’s worth in this household, since I’m the only one who drinks tea on a regular basis, and there are other people who are using the ice cube trays!
Instead, I prefer to brew the tea at normal strength and let it cool to room temperature before refrigerating, and then serving it chilled, straight, no ice. Sometimes, I might add a thin slice of citrus, but with this tea – no need. The lime is already in there!
And the lime is zesty without being too tart. It isn’t overly assertive, and neither is the peppermint. The mint IS the strongest flavor here, but, I like that it’s been tempered with the other ingredients, and it isn’t overthrowing the whole balance. I can even taste the cucumber here! I had, of course, hoped to taste the cucumber, but, I wasn’t so sure that the delicate, refreshing taste of cucumber would shine through the strong notes of lime and peppermint. It certainly doesn’t overpower them, but, its there, and it adds a very lovely element to the overall cup.
And, let us not forget about the tea! This IS a tea, after all, and I expect to taste it. The green tea adds a fresh, slightly vegetal taste to the cup. It is somewhat buttery and sweet, the mouthfeel is soft, and I like the way that the green tea seems to complete the cup in a very enjoyable way.
One thing I would like to point out here though, is that I wish that they did not add stevia to this blend. In fact, I wish that other tea companies would stop doing this too. It seems to be a growing trend, adding stevia to enhance the sweetness. I like to decide on my own how sweet I want the tea to be, and then I like to add the sweetener of my choice. I find that most stevia leaves a funky, somewhat metallic aftertaste that I’m not crazy about, and while the aftertaste here is not badly affected, I do taste the stevia, and I wish I didn’t.
While this cup is delicious served hot, it is best enjoyed iced, in my opinion, served as I indicated above: brewing at normal strength, bringing to room temperature and chilling in the fridge. It is a perfectly refreshing drink for these warm summer months that await us!
Watermelon Lime Green Tea from Inspired Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Inspired Leaf
Tea Description:
A little sip of summer…sans seeds!
Inspiration No. 11: The next time it rains, jump in a puddle, just because.
Ingredients: Apples, rosehips, organic green tea, hibiscus, pomegranate, carrots, lime leaves, lime pieces, lime juice, watermelon seeds
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first opened this sample pouch, I had to double check to see if it was, in fact, a green tea. It had so many fruit and herb chunks in it that I thought it was a fruit tisane rather than a green tea … but, it is a green tea … with lots and lots of chunky bits!
One might think that with so many fruit bits, that the green tea flavor would be lost – and it is a little lost. Beneath the strong fruity tones is the sweet, refreshing flavor of the green tea – it is not a strong flavor, and the tea lover in me wishes it were stronger, but the way the two fruit flavors play together in this cup tastes so incredible that it’s hard to complain!
I do recommend using extra leaf with this one, however. If you’d usually use 1 teaspoon of tea per cup, use at least 2 teaspoons of this blend.
But, it’s worth that extra effort, because it really tastes delicious! The lime is the strongest note, and it is tangy … almost to the point of being a bit sour, but then the sweetness of the watermelon comes through and softens the tart lime. The hibiscus seems to accent the lime flavor without making the tea too tart or syrupy. It also gives the cup a pretty, rosy “watermelon” colored hue. The other fruits listed in the ingredients (apple and pomegranate) do not offer strong, individual flavors. That is, I don’t taste “apple” or “pomegranate” distinctly, but I do think that these two fruits enhance the overall fruity flavor of the cup.
I am definitely going to need more of this tea for summer – it’s AWESOME iced!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Mojitea from Argo Tea
Product Description:
Ready to Drink Tisane from Argo Tea.
Ingredients: fresh brewed mint tea (water, peppermint), pure cane sugar, lime juice concentrate, natural mint flavor.
Contains 7% juice.
Learn more about this product here.
Taster’s Review:
As I’ve said before, I don’t purchase many ready-to-drink teas. In fact, according to my husband, I point my nose up at them, inferring that I’m a tea snob. And while I accept this label, I don’t really think this particular action has earned it. Most ready-to-drink teas are over-sugared and overly saturated with flavorings to hide the flavor of the tea. Why would anyone do that to a tea? It seems as though it should be a criminal act.
And while this ready-to-drink “tea” has done very little to assuage my opinion of most ready-to-drink tea products (here is an exception), the fault really isn’t with this particular product but with me, as I didn’t take the time to read the label properly. This is actually an herbal tisane, and not a tea (as it contains no Camellia Sinensis leaves), so there is no tea to actually be tasted.
That being said, this is actually quite a tasty tisane. I am not finding it to be overly sweet … sweet, yes, perhaps a bit sweeter than I would have liked, but, not so sweet that I’m put off by it. And I like that what I taste is peppermint and lime over the sweetness. I like that it is made with pure cane sugar, and not some syrup. Yeah, yeah, I saw the commercial and I know that “sugar is sugar,” and the body doesn’t know the difference between cane sugar and corn syrup, but, I’d like to think that my palate does.
Truth be told, what lead me to this purchase was the pretty glass bottle. Yeah, I’m a sucker for neat packaging. But it was enjoyable enough for me to pick up another bottle of it if I happen to be out and about and in need of hydration. Not something that I’ll keep stocked in my fridge, but I am now interested to try the other flavors that Argo Tea offers, and that fact alone makes this a better product than most of the ready-to-drink tea offerings out there.
Lemon-Lime Meringue Flavored Kukicha from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Product Description:
This is an extremely limited edition blend. We have enough for twenty 2oz. pouches of this blend, then it’s gone. This is a Kukicha green tea blended with lemon myrtle and natural flavors.
We’ve managed to capture the essence of a slice of lemon-lime meringue pie, with a light touch of pastry-like crust, lemon and lime and of course, the meringue. Those of you who have the opportunity to try this are going to be blown away by it. Don’t delay, it’s not going to last long.
Taster’s Review:
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten lemon-lime meringue pie before … but my dear gramma made the best lemon meringue pie ever. The meringue was light, fluffy, creamy and sweet … the way you might imagine a cloud tasting in those dreamy moments when you’re cloud-watching. The lemon filling was slightly tart, but more sweet than tart. It was smooth and rich and creamy. And while I have known some people to just eat the filling out of a pie, with my gramma’s pie, you want to eat the crust, because it was always so perfect … she had a knack for pie baking.
And Frank from 52Teas has a knack for making unusual yet amazingly delicious flavored tea blends.
This particular flavored green Kukicha blend was not one of his “teas of the week” but, rather, a limited-edition V.I.T. (Very Important Tea) and what an important tea it is. This tea has managed to take me back to the memories of my gramma’s lemon meringue pies. It is smooth and creamy and fluffy … tasting like a bite of lemon custard (with just a hint of lime in there too), sweet meringue and buttery pie crust. It even imparts such a sublime texture on the palate, that I feel like I just ate a bite of pie! It is silky smooth and sumptuous.
This is DEFINITELY one of Frank’s best teas to date (I know I’ve said that more than once about teas prior to this review), and it just goes to show why you should subscribe to his newsletter (the subscription sign up is on the right side of the screen), as it will send you an email whenever a new tea like this one is introduced, so that you might avoid missing out on any of his Very Important Teas … this tea may have sold out, but maybe you can get in on his next amazing blend.