Product Information:
Leaf Type: Green
About Millie’s Savory Teas:
Our first-of-its-kind sipping broth is a blend of savory herbs and spices infused with loose leaf green tea. Excellent as an alternative to coffee or plain tea. Each tin comes with 15 tea bags that make 8 oz cups each. Just boil water, pour into a cup then add a tea bag and let steep for 2 minutes, stir and enjoy. Let the bag steep longer for a more intense flavor.
To Learn more about this Millie’s Savory Teas, click here.
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Taster’s Review:
I received this product – a tea bag of this Tomato Basil Green Tea Infused Sipping Broth from Millie’s Savory Teas – in my February Love with Food Box. I subscribe to these boxes and review many of the samples of food that I receive from them on my foodie blog, which you can read here.
I was very curious about this “tea” because, as many of you know, I’m a HUGE fan of 52Teas and after months of bugging Frank of 52Teas, he finally relented and created a blend for me: LiberTEAS Tomato, Basil, and Black Pepper Tea. And I loved the stuff! And to be honest, when I had originally suggested the tomato, basil, and black pepper blend, I had a green tea base in mind rather than a black tea base. Frank thought that a black tea base with a hint of Lapsang Souchong in it would be better, and I do think that the black tea base was a good choice. However, I remained curious about the green tea base, so when I received this Tomato Basil green tea infused sipping broth, I was excited to finally try a green tea with the flavors of tomato and basil.
The aroma of the bag when I opened the pouch was similar to the smell that I get when I open a tin of dried basil from my pantry. The aroma had a very strong herbaceous scent to it. The bag was kind of … hard. that is to say that it didn’t really seem very “loose” or “leafy” inside the tea bag, it seemed to be more like a bit of bouillon that was dried in the bag. Since this was called a “sipping broth” I didn’t find this objectionable, but, I can see how tea purists might find it a bit off.
Let me say that the “infused” part of the Tomato Basil Green Tea Infused Sipping Broth is the key word to the name of this product. Because the green tea flavor is nearly indistinguishable. I taste hints of an earthy, vegetative greenness to this “tea” which turns out to be more like broth than tea, and the hints are not really enough for me. I found myself wishing that this was more like a tea and less like a broth. That said, I do like that this is not quite as salty as I find the typical commercially produced broth or bouillon would be.
As a broth, it’s tasty. As a tea … it leaves quite a bit to be desired. Not bad, and it would be nice to maybe have on hand for when you might be feeling a tad under the weather and want a cup of broth to soothe and comfort you. Especially nice if you’re at the office. And that’s what I’d recommend it as: a soothing, comfort food for when you’re away from home. If you’re looking for a tea with the flavors of tomato and basil … I’d suggest looking somewhere else.
PRODUCT REVIEW: Citrus Earl Grey Caramels from Bad Girl Chocolates
About Bad Girl Chocolates:
Learn about Bad Girl Chocolates on their Facebook Page.
Product Description:
These little beauties are our latest creation – Citrus Earl Grey Tea Caramels. We made them for our newest friend Amoda Tea.
Bad Girl won’t be selling these delicious caramels ourselves, so the only way to get them is to hop on over to Amoda Tea and subscribe to their subscription tea service this month.
(Note: these were in the May Tea Tasting Box from Amoda Tea)
Taster’s Review:
As I mentioned in my Rooibos Chocolate Tisane from Forsman Tea company review, May’s tea tasting box from Amoda Tea is my favorite box that I’ve received from them thus far. But really, I’ve enjoyed just about every box I’ve gotten from them. It’s a lot of fun to receive the subscription box, too! To learn more about subscribing, click here.
One of the reasons why I enjoyed this box so much is that in addition to three really great teas/tisanes, there were four tasty caramels from Bad Girl Chocolates. These caramels were infused with the Citrus Earl Grey tea from Naked Teas Galore – which was featured in Amoda’s April Tea Tasting Box. And I have a sweet tooth, so, one of the easiest ways for a tea company to make me happy is to add sweets to the box when they ship something to me.
These caramels are smooth and creamy and caramel-y delicious. The Citrus Earl Grey tea notes are subtle at first, but as I continue to allow the flavors of the chewy caramel to develop on my palate, I notice more of the citrus-y, bergamot-y flavor, with notes of black tea in the background. The tea adds a nice depth of flavor to the caramel.
Absolutely YUMMY! Thank you, Amoda Tea, for this lovely Mother’s Day “gift” inclusion in my May box! I wouldn’t be sad if there were more in my June box, because I want more!
PRODUCT REVIEW: French Plum Indian Black Tea Cold-Brewed Concentrate from Kickstand
Product Information:
Where to Buy: Kickstand
Product Description:
The Organic French Plum Indian Black Tea is a scented-blended tea. This type of black tea is scented with the essence of French plums plucked at their peak.
About Kickstand Tea Concentrate:
You can serve it Hot or Cold, mixed with milk, sugar, alcohol or even adding it to a ice cream or cake mix. Prepare it to your taste, the possibilities are endless.
Taster’s Review:
Before I get started on the product review for this French Plum Indian Black Tea Cold-Brewed Concentrate from Kickstand, I have about how I had heard about this product. I occasionally buy from Fab and as a result I get their emails all the time, and Kickstand cold-brew tea and coffee concentrates were being offered on Fab this week, and I was thinking about ordering some of this tea concentrate to give it a try. That SAME day, I go to the post office, and in my PO Box, waiting for me, is a sample bottle of this tea concentrate, their new “for summer” scented tea to review. Wow! Talk about being in-sync with a tea company!
The bottles of this tea concentrate are very attractive – they’re packaged in dark amber bottles that are reminiscent of “medicine man” type of bottles. They hold 32 ounces of cold-brewed tea concentrate which is to be diluted with a ratio of one part water to one part tea concentrate, and then poured over ice. So, you can make one glass of iced tea, or a whole pitcher if you want.
Since I had a pitcher handy, I decided to just go ahead and prepare the whole bottle of concentrate (that way, I don’t have everyone asking me, “hey, mom, what’s in that bottle in the fridge?”) And the 32 ounce bottle dilutes into a half-gallon pitcher just perfectly (duh, right?). However, this produces a rather strong glass of iced tea if you don’t pour it over ice … so I recommend doing so. And if you prefer not to add ice (or if your iced tea is cold from being in the fridge) you might want to add a little more water to dilute it further, because it’s rather strong.
Since I had just diluted the tea, I went ahead and poured the iced tea over ice, and while my first couple of sips (before the ice started to melt) was strong, now that the ice has melted, I find this to be just right. Strong … but not unappealingly so. The tea is robust. It’s very refreshing and brisk! It has a sweetness to it and a hint of malty undertones. Very flavorful! The concentrate has a citric acid added to it … which I am guessing is meant to help preserve the tea, and this adds a pleasing citrus tone to the tea (like someone squeezed a lemon wedge in my iced tea).
And then there is the very appealing plum note. It is tangy and sweet. It isn’t quite like the flavor of plum that I’m used to (like the plums that I usually purchase in the produce section of my grocery store), instead, it’s more of a savory plum note with a certain sweet-tart taste that I find very enjoyable.
On a side note, I noticed that after pouring the whole bottle of tea concentrate into my pitcher, there were “floaters” that looked a lot like citrus pulp. I don’t know if that’s what it is. I strained the tea into my glass so that I would avoid getting the floaters in my tea, but I didn’t examine these floaters further.
I really like this product! I especially like that the concentrate is NOT sweetened … so often concentrates like this are so overly sweet that you just can’t taste the tea. I like that this product allows me to decide whether or not I want sweetener. I also like that it’s organic! I’m really glad I got a chance to try it.
PRODUCT REVIEW: Tiger Spice Chai Mix from David Rio
Product Information:
Where to Buy: David Rio
Product Description:
David Rio’s signature and award winning chai is a rich and creamy mixture of black tea and premium spices including cinnamon, cardamom and clove. A percentage of profits from the sale of ALL David Rio Tiger Spice Chai® will be donated to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (www.ifaw.org). For more info, visit ourAnimal Welfare page.
Learn more about this instant chai mix here.
I received a packet of this instant chai mix in my January Love with Food box.
Taster’s Review:
In addition to my tea addiction … I also consider myself a bit of a foodie, and I enjoy receiving a couple of “food tasting boxes” every month. I subscribe to a couple of them, including Love with Food. Love with Food is a great company that every month, sends out boxes that are filled with little samples of food items. And for every box sent, Love with Food donates a meal to a hungry child. I like that.
In January, I received a package of this Tiger Spice Chai Mix from David Rio. Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve tried the Tiger Spice Chai Mix from David Rio … I had the opportunity to try their products years ago, after being introduced to them through a hot beverage convention that I attended back when I was still self-employed as a tea vendor. I enjoyed it back then, and I’m enjoying it now.
It has a creamy, sweet-spiced taste. It is … in my opinion, too sweet. I’d rather be able to sweeten it myself than to have all that sugar added to my chai, but, as a once in a while treat for myself, I think I can handle the occasional sweet drink. And since this is the first time I’ve had this chai in … probably six or seven years, I’d say that’s once in quite a while!
And since that last time that I tried this chai … I can say that my taste buds have really come a long way. I used to really LOVE this stuff. It’s still … OK … but, it’s not all that I thought it once was. The black tea is quite obscured by the sugar and the creamer used in the mix. The spices are not very spicy … they’re pretty mellow in comparison to other chai blends I’ve had recently, and a bit more mellow than I would like it to be.
It’s drinkable, certainly, but not something that I would want to drink on a regular basis, and as it is pumped up with a lot of sugar and corn syrup solids, it’s probably better that way. I enjoyed it, but, certainly not as much as I would have enjoyed a chai that I had more control over – that I could decide how much sweetener (if any) I would add, and how much milk/cream/creamer I would add, if any.
That said, I think it’s commendable that David Rio is committed to Animal Welfare. You can read more about that here.
Traditional Marsala Chai from Blue Lotus Chai
Chai Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Blue Lotus Chai
Chai Description:
With its deep and truly authentic flavor and amazing ease of preparation, our flagship product has become part of the daily rhythm of many homes. Tasting is believing!
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
I am totally and completely in LOVE with this chai! There have been a few chai products that I’ve felt this way for, but, I think that this one may just replace them as my favorite, or at the very least, be a contender for that spot.
This is amazing. I love it not just because it tastes amazing, but also because it’s a local product and I love supporting my local community. But, I think I’d be head over heels for this even if it wasn’t local. Because it is really good.
It is a concentrated spiced powder, so, it’s very much like some of the instant chai products that are out there. But this differs in a couple of ways. First, there’s no milk products in the mix, so if you want to control the amount of milk that goes in to your chai – or the type of milk that goes in to your chai – you can do that. Second, there is no sweetener in this chai, so you can decide if you want it sweet (or not!) and what kind of sweetener you want to use. I love it for these reasons alone, because I find that so many of the chai preparations out there tend to be overly sweetened and I like being able to have the freedom to choose how much milk I want … sometimes those other prepared chai mixes have too much milk product in them and they end up tasting too creamy for my liking.
I mean, I like a decadent, creamy beverage, but, I don’t like it to be so heavily laden with cream that I feel like I need to scrape the residue off my tongue, you know? I like that this product offers me the freedom to choose just how much milk goes in to my chai latte!
The first time I prepared this, I prepared it according to the suggested preparation instructions, which suggests 4 oz. of boiling water, 1 rounded scoop of chai powder (each package comes with the most adorable little bamboo scoop that measures out 1/4 teaspoon of chai powder), and 4 oz. of milk. Add sweetener of choice if desired (I added about 1/4 teaspoon of turbinado sugar). After you stir to combine the ingredients, heat it up a bit (to replace the heat taken by the chill of the milk), and enjoy. It was delicious, but I found that I wanted the flavors to be a little stronger, so I added another half a scoop – yet another reason I love this chai, I can add more to the cup if I want to! – and found the beverage to be perfect chai JOY!
The cup was rich, spicy, and creamy. Decadent! I can taste the richness and hint of malty notes from the black tea, and I love that I can taste the nutmeg here! This chai blend has all the “usual” suspects: cinnamon, clove, cardamom and ginger … plus some black pepper to spice it up (which I can taste too!) and then the aforementioned nutmeg. It is spicy but not overwhelmingly so. Blue Lotus Chai has achieved a really nice balance. (However, if they’re looking for suggestions for blend #4, might I suggest one with Anise and/or fennel? I do love a licorice note in my chai!)
I love this chai latte that I made thanks to the ease of Blue Lotus Chai! This blend has everything I want from a chai latte, and I loved that I could very easily customize it to make it that way. You can’t get that from your local coffee shop! This is the way chai SHOULD be!