Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
For those looking for a delicious pick me up during their day, the Red Sunset tea blend is the ideal choice! This rare tea from Europe starts with a premium loose leaf black tea that is bold and loaded with flavor. The sweet taste and floral undertones to this blend are provided by the addition of rose petals, safflower, and natural fruit flavors. The natural sweet flavor combined with a bold taste of black tea makes Red Sunset an excellent choice for the coffee or soda drinker looking for a healthier alternative that still contains caffeine.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is quite unexpected, in the very best way!
When I first opened the package, I couldn’t help but notice the aroma. This is extraordinarily fragrant! Almost overwhelmingly so … to the point that I found myself a bit worried as I brewed it, because I feared that it would come off as a cup of perfume rather than a cup of tea!
That’s not to say that I dislike the fragrance – it’s actually quite lovely. It is very strongly ROSE but with the fruit essence in there too, it smells not so much like a Rose Congou or other rose teas that I’ve tried … instead, it smells like a fruit salad that has been doused with rose water. It’s really quite a beautiful scent, although it is very strong … almost to the point of being an olfactory nerve assault.
And while I did worry that this would taste a bit too much like perfume, it doesn’t – not at all! The rose flavor is definitely there, but when combined with the luscious flavor of fruit and the black tea, it creates a very pleasing flavor that offers a delicious balance of fruit and flower.
Red Leaf Tea does not elaborate on the fruit flavor that is used in this blend, and because of the strong essence of rose it is difficult to discern exactly what fruit flavor I’m tasting … one minute, it tastes a bit like peach, and then another minute, I could swear I’m tasting a sweet citrus. It sometimes tastes a bit like mango, too. It’s a difficult fruit note to pin-point, but I kind of like the mystery of it, because it allows my palate to explore a lot of different possibilities.
A really tasty surprise, this Red Sunset Tea! I’ve enjoyed it immensely!
Cranberry Pomegranate from Rooibee Red Tea
Product Information:
What It Is: Ready-To-Drink beverage crafted from Red Rooibos
Where to Buy: Goodies Company
Product Description:
Refreshing and delicately flavored with cranberry and pomegranate, Rooibee Red Tea is sure to please. It’s also rich in antioxidants, low in calories, naturally caffeine-free, and certified USDA organic. What’s not to love?
Learn more about this product here.
Taster’s Review:
Recently, I subscribed to a new monthly subscription with Goodies Company, a company that sends out monthly “foodie” tasting boxes. This bottle of Rooibee Red Tea was one of the products in my very first box, which I received a couple of months ago, but am just getting around to trying it now.
I guess you could say that I’m very often reluctant to try Ready-to-Drink teas. I usually find them to be too sweet for my liking, as most of them seem to be crafted with more sugars and sweeteners than actual tea. Add that with the fact that I’m not wild about red rooibos, and you have a product about which I am – at the very least – skeptical.
However, I’m finding this to be quite pleasant to drink. I like that the sweetener used here is Cane Sugar rather than corn syrup, so it doesn’t have that sickeningly, sticky sweet taste that not only sticks to the tongue but to the teeth. The rooibos is naturally sweet, so I think they should have maybe added a little less cane sugar here than they did, because this is still rather sweet.
The flavors of cranberry and pomegranate are not overtly obvious, they meld well into the flavor of the rooibos to create a very unified taste that is part nutty, sweet rooibos, part cranberry and part pomegranate. I notice that the taste of the fruits is most prominent in the aftertaste, where I get a gentle berry tingle on the tongue that tastes very much of both cranberry and pomegranate, but I think that this could be tastier of the two fruits were better represented during the sip and not just after.
Overall, I enjoyed this bottle of RTD rooibos. It is sweet, yes, and a tad too sweet for my liking, but, it was also very refreshing, and nice to drink after a meal. It managed to curb that tendency to hunt down some dessert when I sipped it right after my meal, and I do like that.
Will I buy it again? Probably not. I might try another flavor of the Rooibee Red Tea if I happened to find it while I was out and about, but, I don’t know that I’d go out of my way looking for the product, nor do I think it would be my first choice of beverages if given a wide variety of choices, but if the choices are limited, and the Rooibee Red Tea products happened to be one of those limited choices, I might choose it.
Red Velvet Cupcake Rooibos from Simpson & Vail
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where To Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tisane Description:
A cup of this brewing “tea” imparts a heavenly aroma of chocolatey goodness. The aroma is truly awesome. And the taste? This “tea” strikes the perfect balance of chocolate, rooibos and cupcake. So brew a cup, sit back and relax, knowing that the goodness in the cup is also good for your waistline!
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
When served fresh-out-of-the-teapot-hot, I find this to be a little too rooibos-y for my liking. I tasted hints of chocolate and another indistinguishable sort of sweetness, but, really, what I tasted was rooibos – that nutty, woody, sweet taste of rooibos.
As the tea cools in my cup slightly (for just a couple of minutes!), I find that the chocolate-y notes begin to develop and they come together with the rooibos notes nicely, although, I can’t say that this tastes so much like any red velvet cupcake that I’ve tasted. I haven’t tried a lot of red velvet cupcakes, as they don’t tend to be my favorite cupcake (when I want chocolate, I want CHOCOLATE, not a hint of chocolate that’s been swathed in a red velvet-y color, although there are times when I love red velvet, I like the slight tang of the red velvet combined with the creamy, sweet-tangy frosting). But, of the red velvet cupcakes that I have tried, I can’t say that this tisane that is in my cup tastes much like any of those.
That’s not to say that it isn’t a tasty cup of tea. It is. When it’s really hot, I am not a big fan of it, but, after a few minutes of cooling time, the chocolate flavors pick up a bit and it becomes a nice, slightly chocolate, rooibos tisane. I taste a very subtle note of coconut as well as an ever so slight raspberry taste here, but these flavors are pretty inconspicuous and difficult to discern unless you really tune in to the tea.
Pleasant, but I must say that Simpson & Vail does have better dessert teas. Right off the bat, I would recommend their Cinnamon Chocolate Brownie. That one is amazing!
Berry Berry Herbal Tea from Culinary Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Tisane Description:
A full flavored berry tea. We have added black and red currants, as well as raisins to our blend. A naturally sweet herbal tea.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
The above description forgot to mention that it is also a naturally tart herbal tea. Hibiscus! But, I’m kind of liking the way the hibiscus marries with the currants. It adds an interesting dimension to the flavor of the currants (and there are TONS of little tiny currants in this blend).
I don’t taste a lot of raisin-y flavor to this, especially not when it is served hot. As the tea cools, a sweet raisin note starts to emerge, but it isn’t a well defined flavor. Mostly what I taste is the flavor of currant, which adds a deep, almost-wine-like flavor to the cup, and the hibiscus, which adds tartness to the already slightly tart currant notes. But the hibiscus also does something else here, it gives more of a berry-like taste to the cup.
Yes, currants are a berry, but, they taste more wine-y to me than a typical berry flavor (that is, a berry like blueberry or raspberry or strawberry), and the hibiscus seems to enhance the berry profile of the currants a little bit, which I really like.
I don’t recommend oversteeping this tea – because although it contains no tea leaves (and therefore it’s not going to become bitter or tannic), it does contain hibiscus and when it’s left to brew too long, it becomes syrupy and tart. I brewed this for about 6 minutes, and I’d say that was just about perfect. It added some texture without going overboard, and it added a pleasant tartness without it becoming pucker-y.
As I sip this, I find it enjoyable, but I think it could be more enjoyable if a few spices were added to it as it infuses – maybe some cinnamon or some cloves might add a warm dimension to the flavor and make it a bit like mulled wine. Or, you could add some hot apple cider (perhaps at a 1:1 ratio?) to give the apple cider a delicious berry taste while lightening the flavor of the berry tea.
This is a tasty tisane. It’s not what I’d call a favorite, but, it’s not bad. I like it served warm by allowing it to cool somewhat after it’s been brewed. When it’s too hot, the hibiscus is very prominent. But as it cools, the flavors mellow somewhat and it’s much nicer.
Red Hot Orange White from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Red hot cinnamon, sweet juicy orange and delicate white tea combine to form a red hot orange white cuppa that’s as satisfying as it is aromatic. Indulge your senses with this week’s tea of the week.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This seems like the perfect evening to enjoy this tea. It’s cold and wet outside, and I’m in need of something warm and soothing.
Well, this isn’t exactly what I hoped for. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s tasty! And it delivers exactly what the name of it suggests: a “red hot” cinnamon and orange flavored white tea. I guess I was just hoping for a little more than just that. I think that the addition of some cardamom and cloves would have really added something special to this tea. As it is, this tea is kind of one-dimensional, but, with the addition of a couple of other spices I think that this could have been so much better.
But, I guess that’s the tea blender in me … trying to dissect a tea and figure out how to make it better. I did that all the time when I was doing the tea artist thing. So rather than dwelling on how to improve this tea, why don’t I just review it like it is!
The ingredients state that the base of this tea is “Premium white teas” which suggests to me more than one type of tea. I’m thinking that this is a combination of Shou Mei and Bai Mu Dan. There are a couple of “needles” in my pouch that could suggest either a Silver Needle or a good quality Bai Mu Dan is in the blend. The tea tastes delicate and somewhat earthy. It is a bit more astringent that I usually would expect from a white tea, perhaps it is the flavors that bring the astringency out.
The cinnamon is strong, but it is not as strong as you might expect with a name like “Red Hot Orange White.” 52Teas managed to keep the cinnamon in balance with the other ingredients, allowing the white tea and the orange-y notes to shine through.
It is the orange that I like the best in this blend, and here’s why. With other spiced orange blends that I’ve tried (and I’ve tried quite a few, it seems like everyone has a spiced orange blend for the holiday season!) the spices seem to overpower the orange, forcing the citrus to play a background note to the stronger spice notes. Here, the orange is balanced with the cinnamon. It isn’t overwhelmed. It adds a very pleasing bright, juicy note of fruit to the cup.
So, while this isn’t my favorite 52Teas blend that I’ve tried lately, it’s not a complete miss either. I think I’m going to get myself some cardamom and cloves and play around with this to make my own “customized” blend and see if I like that better … mostly for my own curiosity (in other words, to see if I know what I’m talking about!)