Most summers growing up were spent helping my mom tend to our vegetable garden. Beaming proudly at my over-run chives, measuring my height by the sunflowers, plucking tomatoes from the vine and popping them into bowls with a hefty sprinkle of salt, warm from the sun. But nothing was more ubiquitous than our zucchini plants. Come late summer, we were literally swimming in zucchini. Try as she might, my mom could hardly keep up with our producing plants, and was finding every possible way to work them into our daily repertoire. Who knew all she needed to do was turn them into tea??
This chocolate zucchini bread tea from A Quarter to Tea perfectly captures the flavors of one of my favorite iterations of our garden spoils– a warm, gooey, chocolatey loaf that was just as healthy as it was tasty (okay, maybe not the abundant chocolate chips sprinkled on top. But you gotta live a little, right?). Somehow, this blend manages to make the zucchini flavors prominent while keeping them from being gross– balanced with the cocoa, it’s almost reminiscent of a hot chocolate (and with a splash of maple syrup and coconut milk, it’s nearly a dead ringer). The walnuts bring a warmth and roundness of flavor that are simply delightful, and the malty, bread-y-ness impressively captures the pasty-like quality of such a dessert without feeling heavy or overwrought. If you have nostalgic garden dreams from childhood like I do, this is a great blend to pick up for your afternoon cuppa. Particularly when paired with a snack of some zucchini bread.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: A Quarter To Tea
Description
This tea was part of the limited monthly subscription. Click below to learn more.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Pick Me Up Oolong from Plum Deluxe. . .
A delicious blend of oolong tea with Vermont maple syrup, orange peel, and almond essence. I was immediately excited to try this! It sounds more like a fall blend because of the maple, but that’s okay. It’s funny because my favorite season are fall and winter and that rings true in the flavors I prefer.
I like pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple, almond flavors and those tend to come out more in the fall and winter. But because I love them so much, i’ll drink them anytime if they’re available!
I’ve really been happy with all my tea blends that I received in my Plum Deluxe order and I am going to be ordering again. This blend, in particular, exceeded my expectations. My first sip was unsweetened, but I decided to add some agave for effect and it definitely brought out all the flavors more. The oolong base here is very smooth and subtle and is the perfect stage for this myriad of comfort-flavors.
The first flavor I could taste was the maple, which was almost creamy. The nutty and sweet almond came out towards the end of the sip and left a nutty almond taste in my mouth. The orange was undetected by me, but I did not have a problem with that as I am not always fond of citrus. This blend both smelled and tasted like pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with almond slices. I definitely recommend it, anytime of the year!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Description
Sometimes, we just need a pick-me-up — the kind of tea that gives us a gentle hug, a firm pat on the back and says, keep going. That’s what inspired us to create our Pick Me Up blend tea — it’ll put a spring in your step and give your creative spirit a boost.
We start with an earthy Formosa Oolong tea from Taiwan. We add a pinch of orange peel and rooibos tea as well as natural almond extract and real Vermont maple syrup (yes, really!). The result is a smooth, balanced tea that is both rich and sweet while at the same time being crisp and earthy. With the lower caffeine levels, it is wonderful any time of day you need a pick-me-up — from getting out of bed on the right foot to an afternoon emotional reset.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Pomme Blossom White Tea from Plum Deluxe. . .
Do yourself a favor and visit the website for this company. I betcha you’ll be drooling before you read half of the descriptions. Have someone hide your credit card first and change your Paypal account password if you are weak or you’ll be broke tomorrow.
Plum Deluxe has a monthly tea subscription available, a blender’s choice special so you can try a surprise tea at a special price, and of course, teas to order as you wish.
Today I tried their Pomme Blossom White Tea, a delightful and flavorful blend featuring white tea, rose hips, jasmine, apple pieces, hibiscus, safflower, ginger, cinnamon, orange peel, rose petals, and pomegranate essence. CALM DOWN HIBISCUS HATERS. There isn’t enough hibiscus to change the color of this tea to pink, so you know there is hardly any here. I could smell the rose hips and hibiscus but the tea was not tart. It WAS full of delicious, fresh flavor and was fantastic both hot and iced. Even the cinnamon is quite muted, just adding a sparkle to the cup.
What impressed me about this tea blend is that there is SO MUCH in it, but it is very well balanced and the end result is a really refreshing tea.
Sadly, this blend is not available at present, but no matter. Looking at their site, I’d say there a number of teas to fall in love with here.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Christmas Night from Tea Taxi. . . .
Christmas Night. What do you expect? Pine and orange and clove, right? Wrong. This is a black tea with chocolate and ice cream bits and strawberry pieces and it smells ah-may-zing. Like a strawberry milkshake and since I love strawberry milkshakes, this is alright in my book.
To be honest I was saving this and then forgot about it so this sample is old but still smelled great so I had high hopes and since I had about 25 grams to work with, I decided to make this a variety of ways: plain, latte, and a smoothie.
My fear was the ice cream and chocolate would make the plain cup oily. I am pleased to say that is not the case. Unfortunately, in addition to the lack of oil there is also a lack of taste. I wonder if age is the culprit here because as I drink it, there is a faint memory of that strawberry milkshake, one that is far off in the distance and only slightly hanging on.
The latte suffers from the same issue as the plain cup, lack of flavor. This is creamier, obviously thanks to the milk and that is either tricking me into getting more of a slight strawberry ice cream flavor (or that flavor is actually there and the milk brought it out). It also has a little more of a plain black base flavor which doesn’t add anything so I am not too impressed with that either.
Finally, the tea smoothie. Prepped with chocolate pudding, skim milk, frozen strawberries and bananas, and a strawberries and chocolate jam. So, this certainly does not lack flavor. I think the tea is adding a candy/syrup-like quality to the overall flavor. The other strawberry components are more true-to-the-fruit but this smoothie has more of a syrupy sweet strawberry note than others I have had in the past.
I wish I got to this sooner because I feel like it has potential. Alas, despite proper storage (vacuum-sealed bag in a tea tin in a drawer in a dark room), the flavor deteriorated (or there was never flavor at all). That seems to be the case though with these eccentrically flavored teas.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea Taxi
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Peach Black Blend from Zen Tea Bar. . . .
In my recent July tea box from Zen TeaBar, there were four main teas to enjoy. One particular blend caught my eye instantly, Peach Black Blend, a blend from Zen TeaBar themselves. So far from what I’ve experienced from Zen TeaBar, they cultivate a tea box for you, allowing you the chance to check out teas from companies you may have never heard of or just haven’t taken the plunge and made an order from.
Peach Black Blend is a brilliant Sri Lankan black tea, dried fruit like papaya and peach, blackberry leaves, and calendula petals. When I first opened up the pouch of tea, rich peachy notes instantly filled the air. Team that up with a malty black tea and papaya, you have yourself a wonderful treat.
Brewed with fresh boiled water and allowed to steep for a 3 minutes and allowed to cool for about 5, this tea is a peach lover’s dream. First sip in and you are greeted with this sweet definite peach flavor with a wonderfully seductive malty black tea background. Really nice and a great balance between the added in flavor components and the black tea itself.
As an iced tea, I greedily gobbled this tea down. Still those same black tea malty notes but the peach notes are amped up and really are the driving force yielding such a sweet flavor that makes you want to enjoy the last few days of summer we have in style.
I’m super excited about this tea blend and am sad to say, this pouch didn’t last very long. But I am quite excited to see if my September box will also feature a Zen TeaBar blend. . .I sure hope so!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zen TeaBar
Description
Chill out with this beautiful blend of premium Sri Lankan black tea, dried papaya, dried peach, blackberry leaves, sunflower and calendula peals. It’s wonderful when iced and elegant when hot.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
