Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Aka Teas
Tea Description:
Need some energy and focus? Yerba Maté has been shown to help the body digest carbohydrates (more energy!), burn calories from fat, and delay the buildup of lactic acid after a workout.
Stimulating to the mind, body, and taste buds, Mint Yerba Maté can’t be beat. With it’s healthy concentration of polyphenols and antioxidants, Yerba Maté has been touted as the most nutritious and balanced energy-giver, when compared to coffee, black tea, green tea, guarana, or kola nut
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Aka Teas is one of my newest love affairs when it comes to tea shops. I love their hand blended teas and the flavors each tea yields. When I saw this one, I knew it would be instant love. And it was.
I’m a sucker for mint teas. I have digestive issues so I find mint so refreshing and cooling. Almost relaxing because of the cooling effect it seems to have on my body. Pair that up with another love of mine, Yerba Mate and you have yourself a match made in heaven. And that is exactly how I see this tea.
I dumped the sample of this tea into my One Touch Breville and hit the Herbal setting for 5 minutes @212F. I wanted for that lovely beeping noise to alert me that my tea was ready.
I let this cool for a moment and dove right in. The mint hit me first. Such a lovely spearmint. Clean and refreshing. The Yerba Mate had a solid roasted flavor and that is the second flavor that hit my taste buds. The two combined was a unique flavor but one I really enjoyed. A mint refreshing cooling invigorating roasted tea. Simple but full of flavor. Each flavor played off the other and one flavor didn’t dominate the other. If you are a mint fan and an yerba mate fan, I think you’ll like this one too.
White Sage and Wild Mint Tea from Juniper Ridge
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Juniper Ridge
Tea Description:
Our Sage and Mint tea has the rich, earthy, minty flavor that made it a favorite tea for many of the Native American tribes and early settlers of the Southwest. Made from all-natural ingredients wildharvested in the bright, sunbaked, giant-boulder desert country of California.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a very unique tea. I picked this up from one of my fellow SororiTea Sisters- thelastdodo a while ago. It is such a interesting sounding tea I just had to try it.
So I steeped this up per the instructions on the bag, 195F-3-5 minutes and threw in a few tea bags. I let it steep and then dumped in some ice for an iced tea. Took a sip. . .Wow, this is oddly refreshing!
When I opened the bag, I noticed that there was a sweet savory smell to the tea. There are only two ingredients to this one. . . sage and mint. Both flavors stand out strong and mingle together in an intriguing way. You pick up the savory aspects from the sage and the sweetness from the mint. Very nice and like I said, refreshing. This would be great if you are camping outdoors or just enjoying nature. Makes me want to plan a spur of the moment trip!
Can’t say this is a favorite or one that I will grab again and again. But I can say I am enjoying this. I know of a few tea friends that would probably enjoy this more than myself so I will share this with them.
Casablanca Twist by Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
An interesting twist on classic Moroccan Mint tea, which traditionally combines Gunpowder green tea from China with fresh mint. We kept the latter, and replaced the smoky notes of Gunpowder with the muscatel highlights of a Darjeeling from India. The result is very a refreshing cup, with bold, cool minty notes, smooth and relaxing texture and flavor. Very intriguing cup.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is a mint lovers dream! It screams mint from the moment you open the package until you take your last sip. I love mint teas. I especially love green tea with mint, but this tea takes the award for being the tea with the most mint flavor that I have ever had.
I picked this one up at the Chicago store when I was there for work a couple months ago. I had never had it but with it being a Darjeeling with mint, I knew I would love it. So I went with the 2 oz package. Glad I did.
I prepped this one up per the instructions on the bag, throwing a few more tsps in since I knew I wanted to try this one iced. (I’ve been in a huge iced tea sort of mood lately). So refreshing! I just shared a bacon breakfast with my boyfriend so this was the perfect tea to try right after that heavy meal.
The Darjeeling takes a step aside while the mint (which is peppermint) dominates this tea. I like it, just wish you could taste more of the base tea. But saying that, I think this would be a great base tea to mix with some herbal teas to bring out a brighter flavor or to spruce up a tea that you might not have liked the first go around. I have a few of those sitting around. This would also be a good one to have with some honey for a tea to drink while you aren’t feeling your best.
I can’t say that I would drink this tea by itself again, but I’m eyeing a package of Blood Orange herbal from Adagio that is right next to my computer and my brain is starting to create some other blends I could throw a tsp of this into to make a few new concoctions of my own.
Rooibos Spice Tisane from Mint Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Tea Purchased from Mint Tea
Product Available Online at Strand Tea
Tisane Description:
Rooibos Spice Caffeine Free Herbal Tea. Organic Red Rooibos blended with Natural Cacao Bits, Ginger Pieces, Cinnamon Bark, Chicory Root, Barley Malt, Cardamom Pods, and Black Peppercorns. What a great winter tea! Rich & flavorful, sure to be a favorite treat any time of year.
Taster’s Review:
I bought this tisane when I visited the Mint Tea Shop in Vancouver, Washington some time ago. I knew that they obtained some of their teas from Strand Tea, including this one.
While some of the ingredients in this Rooibos Spice Tisane from Mint Tea appear to be chai-like, and the flavor of the tisane is somewhat chai-esque, there’s some other flavors going on here that I don’t usually find in a chai.
Like chicory and barley malt, for example. The chicory gives the drink a coffee-ish background note, a deep, roasted sort of flavor that accentuates the spices in a really interesting way. I also enjoy the way the chicory and the cacao work together. I also taste the malty tones from the barley malt, giving the cup a “grainy” flavor that adds an intriguing depth.
The spices are well-defined here. I taste the cinnamon throughout the sip, and there is a backdrop of pepper and ginger. The cardamom adds some exotic warmth to this beverage.
This is really tasty, winter-y kind of tisane, something that I can see myself drinking whenever I want something warm and soothing, but something that won’t stimulate me the way a caffeinated tea would.
Buddha’s Delight from Mint Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Tea Purchased from Mint Tea
Product Available Online at Strand Tea
Tea Description:
Premium Ceylon Black Tea with all Natural Apple Bits, Orange Peel, Currants, Cinnamon, Almond Flakes, Cloves and Safflowers.
This tea fills the room with enticing scents and brews a delightful rich cup of tea.
Taster’s Review:
A few weeks ago, I visited Mint Tea in Vancouver, Washington with my oldest daughter. We had a lovely lunch, and this is the tea I enjoyed with my delicious salad. When we left, I couldn’t help but pick up a pouch of this tea to enjoy at home. While there, the friendly cashier told me that their teas were procured from Strand Tea, and this is where this tea can be purchased online, if you don’t happen to be visiting Vancouver any time soon.
This is a delicious black tea blend. It has quite a bit going on, but somehow it all seems to work together. The dry leaf is very visually appealing, with big chunks of apple and orange peel, whole currants, slivers of almond and cinnamon chips, and whole cloves. It smells delightful, warm and spicy with a yummy fruit undertone.
Once brewed, the aroma becomes much more muted, but it is very flavorful. The black tea sometimes seems a little lost amid all these fruits, nuts and spices, however, I do taste it. Its there, in the background, but sometimes it does seem that the other flavors – especially the spices – overwhelm it.
The cinnamon and cloves present the strongest flavors here, followed by a lovely orange note and a hint of almond. The currant and apple are much softer, but if I really focus on the sip, I taste them.
Even though the spices and orange are the strongest notes, I wouldn’t consider this to be a typical orange spice tea, because it isn’t. The flavors of an orange spice are indeed there, but, it is much mellower than the standard orange spice tea.
This is a very enjoyable cup of tea, and makes a nice tea to sip with lunch or in the afternoon, when you want a lighter cup. It would also make a very refreshing iced tea!