Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Treehouse Teas
Tea Description:
If you like Pina Coladas and gettin’ caught in the rain this tea is for you! It’s a favorite herb and fruit tea that bursts ingredients of pineapple, apple, rosehip, coconut pieces and hibiscus petals. If you are allergic to coconut stay clear. Small Batch Blended and from Sing Buri, Thailand. It has a low antioxidant level and its a caffeine free herb and fruit tea. Steep: 5-10 minutes at a temperature: 100C, 212F. This can be re-steeped for additional cups! Also, makes great popsicles and pink tea for tea parties!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
With a description like the one above, my expectations for this tea were pretty high. I mean who doesn’t love a sweet tea that carries you away!
The tea mix itself is beautiful. I adore the colors and love how pretty it looks as the tea steeps. The dry mixture smells fabulous. Sweet and tropical. My excitement level was rising to taste this sweet tropical treat!
I brewed this up per their recommendations and was enjoying how the water was turning into a beautiful pink color.
I took my first sip and sadly- this tea didn’t hit the target for me. I wanted to love this tea so much. At first taste, you can pick up an almost strawberry flavor that reminds me of a strawberry Popsicle. The flavor isn’t very strong and is more on the weaker side. The coconut is subtle and gentle. I think with a tea that is being considered a pina colada, I wanted the coconut flavor to be strong. I didn’t pick up any pineapple or even any of the hibiscus tartness. This tea was more of a lightly flavored strawberry flavor. I can see this being a great tea for a little girl’s tea party but not for me. I would like my flavors a bit stronger.
My last thoughts on this tea is that maybe this tea is one that needs to be cold brewed or even steeped longer than the 10 minutes to really bring out the flavor. I did share the remainder of this tea with a tea drinking co-worker and her thoughts were in line with what I was thinking. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed the teas that I’ve tried from Treehouse Teas for the most part. Just a few I haven’t cared for. This tea blend would have been one that would have totally caught my eye so I am glad that I was able to try it, just not sure this would be one I would need to try again.
Sipdown #37!
Gielle 1st Flush Darjeeling Black Tea from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
This beautiful estate is set off to the side, away from most other Darjeeling estates, and this discreet locale aptly suits the owners of Gielle. They do what they think is best – in particular, to use the old “Chinese” tea bushes and to make an older style First Flush Darjeeling. Our tea mentor, Bernd Wulf, helped to develop this older style back in the 1960s. It was less oxidized than the Darjeelings of that time, thus lighter and greener, yet still with enough body to handle milk and sugar. Bernd was the father of our tea supplier Marcus Wulf – a cornerstone of our Tradition of Tea that ensures you excellent tea, produced and sourced with great care over generations.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I should probably say upfront that first flush Darjeeling is one of my favourite varieties of black tea, so this one is preaching to the converted with me. The dry leaf itself is a thing of beauty – light and medium green leaves, and some downy silver-white buds. They’re a little twisted, and of about 1-2cm in length. The scent is mildly grapey with hints of stone fruit. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 2.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a medium golden-orange.
To taste, it’s pretty much perfection. The main flavour I can discern is dried apricot – quite rich and fruity. It lingers beautifully right until the end of the sip. There’s a very light hint of muscatel grape, which develops primarily at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste, and something that’s reminding me just a little of frangipane – a sort of nutty, almondy sweetness. It pairs beautifully with the apricot. There’s the slightest touch of what I can only describe as briskness – not bitterness or astringency, but a slight sharpness that takes this tea to a whole new level. It seems to enhance the grape notes a little, cutting through the initial rich sweetness. Certainly no bad thing!
This is a fine example of a first flush Darjeeling – clean-tasting, and beautifully light and delicate. Each one I’ve tried seems to have a slightly different character, and drinking this cup has been another pleasant experience. I’d not hesitate to recommend it to Darjeeling fans.
Peaceful Pineapple from Treehouse Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Treehouse Teas
Tea Description:
Peaceful Pineapple Organic Green Loose Leaf Tea
Relax, unwind and find your inner peace. Organic Blue Mallow Flowers, Organic Chinese Green Tea, Natural Mango Flavor, Organic Marigold Petals, Natural Papaya Flavor, and Natural Pineapple Flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Peaceful Pineapple. That name kind of struck me as a bit odd only because when I think of pineapple, I think of parities and fruit trays. Not relaxing and unwinding. But hey, I’m nothing but one to take in all experiences. So if this tea will help me unwind, I’m good with it!
This green flavored tea was quite lovely to look at. I enjoyed the pop of purple amongst the green tea leaves. I steeped this up with the green tea setting on my Breville and was excited to try a pineapple flavored tea. In the past these have been hit or miss with me. A lot more times than not, the pineapple flavor either doesn’t come across as being true pineapple-more of a tropical papaya flavor.
First sip and I’m a bit confused by the tea. All I am really getting is a green tea flavor and a confusing one at that. I’m not really getting the mango, papaya, or pineapple flavors. More of just this more or less bland green tea. No real flavor is singing to me or even one flavor I can discern from another. I’m wondering if there is too much going on or if I need to try cold brewing this pineapple tea to make the flavors pop. As it sits, the flavors just aren’t there for me so I’m going to dump this cuppa out and try experimenting with this tea a bit more down the road. I was hoping I would have a nice tropical flavor to drink this afternoon. Looks like I need to keep looking or need to keep experimenting!
Lemongrass and Pandan Herbal Tea from Chiang Rai Tea House
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Chiang Rai Tea House
Tea Description:
An exquisite, balanced blend of two fragrant herbs typical of South East Asia. The lemony flavor and aroma of lemongrass is a great match to the sweet, vanilla-like taste of pandan. If you haven’t tried pandan yet, this infusion is not to be missed. The lemongrass-pandan combination is known to relieve stress, ease constipation. detoxify the blood and, being caffeine-free, it’s also the perfect after-dinner beverage. As for all our teas and herbs, these two are also organic.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Pandan seems to be becoming a more popular ingredient in herbal tea – I’ve certainly seen it more recently than I ever have before. It has quite a distinctive flavour, but one that’s also hard to describe – it’s sweet in a way reminiscent of liquorice root, with an almost thick-tasting starchiness. Pretty unique.
This particular blend contains an approximately 60/40 split between lemongrass and pandan. The “leaves” are quite small (approximately 2mm shreds of lemongrass, with slightly larger twists of pandan), but this also means that they brew up relatively quickly. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a pale golden colour, the scent generically sweet.
To taste, the pandan is definitely the most dominant flavour. It has a rather thick mouthfeel, and it’s the kind of flavour that lingers at the back of the throat. The sweetness, particularly, is rather cloying after a while. Fortunately, the lemongrass is there to freshen things up a little. It has a hay-like sweetness of its own, but also a clean, citrus edge that cuts through the pandan and helps to end the sip on a bright, refreshing note. I drank my cup hot, but I can also see this working well iced.
A pleasant, summery cup with two classically Thai components. This one is an excellent, and unusual, herbal, and definitely worth a try if you’re in the market for a caffeine-free option.
Hello Sweet-Tea A Doctor Who Fandom Tea from Fandom Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Fandom Teas
Tea Description:
Spoilers!
Our Hello Sweet-tea blend is a ginger peach black tea with notes of spearmint, hibiscus, and cinnamon. It can be enjoyed hot or iced and it’s perfect as a little afternoon pick me up, or at any other time of the day. This blend is inspired by River Song from Doctor Who!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I will admit this and probably sound like a poser but I do not watch Doctor Who. I have nothing against the show and do have an interest in one day watching it, but really it comes down to time. With our schedule being so hectic, I’m going to bed basically as soon as my 10 year old is to catch up on a few games I play on my Kindle and to read. My TV watching really happens more on the weekends or when I’m yelling at the screen during America Ninja Warrior. I’m kinda obsessed with that show right now. (Ryan Stratis- I’m looking at you to win this year!).
Ok, that is out of the way I have to say I’m very intrigued with the combinations in this black flavored tea. Peach, ginger, cinnamon, spearmint, and hibiscus. And you can smell each ingredient as the tea steeps. The color is a beautiful amber and so far I’m enjoying just sitting here indulging in the fragrance this tea is emitting.
Now it is time for the taste test. I brewed this tea up like a black tea and made an effort not to allowing this tea to oversteep and become bitter. So how does it taste?
Unique. Very unique. The flavor that hits you first is the combination of spearmint, peach, and cinnamon. Very different. Not bad, just different. As the taste starts to end you come away with the hibiscus aftertaste. In the very next sip I came away with peach and ginger notes with malty hints. It seems like each sip you are presented with a different flavor combination. As the tea cools, I am definitely getting that astringency but it really isn’t adding anything to the tea. I’m wishing that the tea was either more of a peach, sweet cinnamon, black tea without the ginger but I could see where some tea drinkers may want that hint of spice in the tea to give it a kick.
Being not much of a ginger tea fan, I can see where this one isn’t right up my alley. I do enjoy how different the tea is and if a tea is part of a fandom, I’m all over it being the geeky gal I am. I’m just not sure if this particular tea is for me. But they have several more fandoms I’m excited to try including a Game of Thrones tea and a Walking Dead tea.
Sipdown #34!