Product Information:
Leaf Type: Green
About This Product:
A zesty blend of chipotle pepper, spices and green tea. The flavor and spice of a Mexican Sopa.
To Learn more about this Millie’s Savory Teas, click here.
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Taster’s Review:
I was excited to try this savory “tea” because I’ve enjoyed the other green tea infused sipping broths that I’ve tried from Millie’s Savory Teas. I felt confident that I’d also enjoy this Spicy Tortilla.
I could smell the spices of this tea the moment I opened the package! It smells like Mexican Food! YUM!
Oh, this is tasty! As I’ve mentioned in the first paragraph, I’ve tried a couple of other tea infused sipping broths from Millie’s – you can read my review for the Indian Spice sipping broth here, and for the Tomato Basil sipping broth here. If you were to ask me before tasting them which of these three I think I’d prefer, without a moment’s hesitation, I would have said the Tomato Basil. But as it turns out, the Tomato Basil is my least favorite of the three. This one might just be my favorite thus far.
It has a nice amount of spice to it, but this isn’t so spicy that it has me running to the kitchen for a glass of water to cool my tongue. It’s zesty, warm and delicious, much like a tortilla soup that I might order at my favorite Mexican Food restaurant. I can taste notes of chipotle, garlic, tomato and onion. All that’s missing, really, is strips of tortilla chips!
Oh … and the green tea is missing, too. As I’ve mentioned in my reviews of the other savory teas, the green tea is difficult to detect in these sipping broths. Of the three, I think I tasted more green tea in the Indian Spice. There isn’t a whole lot of green tea flavor to this.
That is my one big complaint about these blends. I find myself wishing there was more green tea so that I can actually think of it as a “tea.” It’s a bit like adding a little bit of tea to my soup … I’m still eating soup, not drinking tea. That’s what’s happening here too. I’m sipping broth, not tea.
It’s still really tasty, though, and something I’d sip again.
Product Review: Cardamom Spice Teadrops
About Teadrops:
Elaborate tea ceremonies have a time and place. However, if you desire high quality tea and are short on time and tea props, then meet Teadrops.
Each Teadrop is a portable morsel comprised of finely sourced tea from India, natural sugar, and aromatic spices creating a blissful tea blend that can be enjoyed any time, any place, with just hot water. No special tools, no steeping time, no tea expertise necessary.
About Cardamom Spice Teadrops:
An invigorating blend of fresh cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and fine Black Tea from the tea estates of India.
Learn more about Teadrops here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been told on more than one occasion that I am a tea snob. And I guess I am. There are certainly different “levels” of tea: there is exceptional tea, there is excellent tea, there is good tea, and then there is tea that isn’t good at all. There is tea that doesn’t deserve to call itself tea for to call itself tea is an insult to the good tea of the world. So, when I first encountered this product, I wasn’t sure what to think about it. Tea that has been pressed into a “tablet” that is the size of a quarter that you put into your teacup, add hot water, and stir … and then presto! You have tea? I could feel the tea snob in me emerging.
But I was determined to enter into this tea experience with an open mind. Maybe – just maybe! – this could be something exciting. What the heck, I’ll give it a try.
Let me first tell you about the packaging. I LOVE the box. The wood box offers a beautiful presentation. My one comment about the box, though, would be this: I think that this company should also offer their tea drops as “refills” to their repeat customers at a slightly lower price so that the customer can keep reusing the box. This would not only be better for the environment, but, also better for the pocketbook.
The top of the box slides open and there are eight individually wrapped tea drops of different designs: stars, flowers, hearts … cute! The tea “drop” or tablet had a nice aroma – I could smell the cardamom. I poured boiling water over the tablet and stirred, and it did dissolve quickly.
The fragrance wafting from my teacup is amazing. I love the smell of the tea and cardamom. It’s so warm and inviting. And this is actually really tasty. The tea is rich and satisfying. There is a nice amount of cardamom to this – it’s pleasantly spiced without being overdone. It has a comforting, warm taste to it with a zesty flavor. Hints of citrus too.
It tastes like a fine quality tea. It doesn’t taste to me like “tea dust” or “fannings” that you’d find in a grocery store teabag. I can taste the rich, malty flavor of the tea, and I am enjoying the cardamom.
My biggest complaint about these would be that they’re sweetened. But, even so, there isn’t TOO much sugar to this. I like that they aren’t too sweet, but I think I’d rather choose how much sweetener goes into my tea and not have that decision made for me already. It does make it more convenient for those who usually take sugar in their tea to have the sugar in there already, but, for those of us who don’t always add sugar to our tea, this can be the deal breaker. That said, this isn’t too sweet.
There is also some undissolved leaf sediment that sits at the bottom of the cup too. That isn’t something I was terribly happy about, because I’m not one who likes floaters in my tea. For those of you who are of similar thinking, I’d advise to stop drinking when there is about 1/2 an inch of tea left at the bottom of your cup … I didn’t get any sediment/tea leaf in my sip until I tried to drink beyond that 1/2 an inch mark.
But the rest of the cup was quite enjoyable. I would drink this again, and it would be very convenient for traveling , and it tastes a whole lot better than most hotel and/or restaurant bagged teas. The next time I’m traveling, I’m definitely ordering more of these!
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!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Giant Peach Green Tea & Peach Flavored Juice Blend from Tazo
Product Information:
Peach is such a happy-go-lucky fruit, brimming with golden possibilites. When it’s mixed with ripe apple and the easy smoothness of green tea, you can’t help but run barefoot through the tall grass.
To Learn more about Tazo Tea, visit their website.
Taster’s Review:
While shopping this evening at my local grocery store, I picked up a bottle of this ready-to-drink Giant Peach Green Tea & Peach flavored Juice Blend from Tazo. I don’t usually even bother to stop and browse through the supermarket’s selection of RTD teas, because it’s been my experience that these convenient beverages are more sweetener than they are tea. And I like tea. I like the taste of it. I find myself put off a bit when the flavor is overpowered by sweetener. It’s not just disappointing … it’s almost an insult!
But something about this particular bottle of tea caught my eye. I think it was because there wasn’t any sediment that had built up at the bottom of the bottle. This was clear. I don’t know if that really means anything to any of you. I just don’t like it when I buy a bottle of anything and all the flavor seems to be settled at the bottom of it, and I have to shake to distribute this “sediment.”
As far as a Peach flavored Juice blend, this is … well, this is sweet. It tastes like peach. It’s sweet. I taste notes of apple. It is very fruity. It’s sweet. Did I mention that already? Well, that’s because it’s really sweet. Too sweet for my liking, but, I guess I can see how some might find this appealing. Someone who likes sweet drinks might really like this.
As far as a “tea” goes … this isn’t doing anything for me. I taste next to no tea flavor in this. And that’s really a very generous statement to suggest that there might be some tea flavor to this. If I slurp it as I sip, I can pick up hints of green tea-ish taste. But, it’s very faint. It’s barely there. It’s so barely there that it’s not even worth trying to taste it.
This was not a tea drink that was crafted for someone who actually likes tea. Perhaps I should say that this was not a tea drink that was crafted for me. You might like it. If you’re looking for a peach juice cocktail type drink, I think you’ll enjoy this. If you’re looking for a tea drink with peach notes, I believe that this is going to leave you feeling at least a little disappointed.
PRODUCT REVIEW: Rooibos Vanilla Virgin Chocolate Bar from Raaka Chocolate
About This Product:
Raaka Virgin Chocolate bars, hand made in Brooklyn, New York. The Vanilla Rooibos bar combines unroasted cocoa beans with vanilla rooibos tea, stone ground to perfection in small batches. Tasting notes: Cherry and toasted marshmallow.
To Learn more about Raaka Chocolate, click here.
To Subscribe to Knoshbox, click here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this chocolate bar in my April Knoshbox (yes, it has been a while, I tend to horde my gourmet chocolates for times when I really need chocolate. Like now!) and because this Virgin Chocolate Bar from Raaka Chocolate is also made with vanilla rooibos, I thought that I’d offer a product review on this confection right here on SororiTea Sisters, rather than my foodie blog.
The first thing I noticed about this is the packaging … I love the zentangle-ish wrapper! Very cool! The chocolate itself is a dark chocolate and it has a crisp “snap” to it when I break the bar.
Now, I’ve got to say that I’m not as fond of raw chocolate as I am of the “roasted” chocolate. The roasting of the cacao beans seems to add a depth to the chocolate that I just don’t experience in the raw chocolate. But that’s not to say I dislike the raw chocolate, I just prefer it to be made from roasted cacao. Here the chocolate is dark (67%) and it has a bold, rich flavor that is both bitter and sweet.
I can taste the rooibos, and the rooibos offers a slightly fruity tone to the chocolate. The tasting notes on the Raaka website suggest a “cherry” flavor, and I don’t know if I’m getting cherry, exactly. I definitely taste the vanilla, and it enhances the overall “creaminess” to the bar, which I really like. I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, but, there is something to that creaminess of a milk chocolate bar that I do enjoy, and the vanilla notes here add that element without the milk.
When I allow the chocolate to melt over my palate, I notice more of the aforementioned cherry notes, as well as the toasted marshmallow notes as described on the website, so, I highly recommend savoring this bar like this: breaking the bar into small, bite-size bits, and then putting the small piece on your tongue and allowing the warmth of your mouth to soften the chocolate. That’s when you’ll really enjoy the fullness of flavor from this chocolate bar.
Overall, a really delightful chocolate experience. Then again, when is chocolate NOT a delightful experience? If you’re looking for a good raw chocolate bar … I think that this one from Raaka is my favorite of the raw chocolate bars that I’ve tasted thus far.