Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Tea Description:
A happy tea for celebrating happy moments. Sip, smile, & share. $7/oz. $1 of every sale goes to our charity partner, The Joy Team.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love my purple packages each month. Those are the ones from Plum Deluxe and those are the ones that make me drool.
I have learned from just the few months that I have been a member of Plum Deluxe that how they descrie their tea is exactly how their tea tastes. If they say it is a grapefruit black tea, that is what it will taste like, making Plum Deluxe a tried and true tea shop to order from in my book.
This little gem was in this month’s package. I have been eyeing it for a while.
The smell of the dry leaves was a sweet jasmine citrus aroma. So delicious smelling.
I prepped this up using my handy dandy Breville One Touch on the white tea setting. Poured the sweet jasmine tea into my tea cup and instantly tasted it.
Jasmine, check. White delicate base with sweet notes, check. Hints of a citrus like tangerine flavor, check. Yep, check on all the flavors that were described. But does it taste good?
Oh yes it does. This is a sweet white jasmine tangerine tea that delivers a delicate sweet slightly floral taste. Exactly the flavor I was hoping would actually come thru.
I’ve been able to get another steeping out of these quality leaves and ingredients. Another winning tea from Plum Deluxe. Awesome job guys!
Pancake Breakfast Black Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Because the love for this tea is so strong, we stuck closely to the original recipe. One difference is that we’re utilizing different teas in our black tea base. I think you’ll notice the difference and I’m confident you’ll feel this was a change for the better! We’ve made a really yummy thing even better!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about the Tea of the Week Program from 52Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
Well hello there! It’s been a long time, no see! It has been a hot minute since this Dodo has written anything in the world wide tea web about tea. Just to catch anyone up, I have started a new job, and it is that job that has made this little bird a bit apprehensive about writing any reviews. You see, I now work with the tea company, Tealet. The curtain has fallen, and the inside of the tea world looks quite different than it did on the outside. Taking everything I learn with a grain of salt, I think I can safely begin reviewing teas at perhaps an even more subjective perspective than before. (Cracks neck) Now I am ready to get back to work!
On to the tea! This is the first tea that I cracked out of the re-blend sampler pack I receive as my kickstarter rewards. This was the one I was most excited about. Upon opening the package, I get a strong whiff of the flavors. Maple at the forefront, light and fluffy buttered pancake at the bottom. At first whiff it smelled like the black tea base was cowering in the wake of the flavoring.
Steeping the tea, the black base does get to shine through a bit more. It’s a robust cuppa, very suitable for a breakfast setting. A dash of cream, no sugar, and you get more dessert flavors from the maple and the black tea. The flavoring themselves are quite strong, maybe a little too strong for me. Even so, they pin down hot, fluffy pancakes, buttered and drowned in syrup so well I almost don’t care.
This tea is quite good. I finished my sampler bag in three days! I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs a quirky twist on your plain, old, worn out English Breakfast. Two for you, 52Teas, you go 52Teas!
Wai Tisane from PONOinfusions
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal/Fruit Tisane
Where to Buy: PONOinfusions
Tea Description:
Wai will refresh you with a tranquil infusion of herbs & botanicals, inspired by breathtaking waterfalls, streams, and fresh water pools, all preciously vital to life in Hawai’i. Made from certified organic and fair trade ingredients and caffeine-free, Wai immerses you in a marriage of mint & berry. Wai means fresh water in Hawaiian—a precious resource in Hawai’i’s fragile ecosystems.
To learn more about efforts to conserve wai and the native plants & animals who call Hawai’i’s wai home, such as the endangered pinapinao (Hawaiian damselfly) and the uluhe fern featured on this package, please visit the Native Flora & Fauna section of our website.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
PONOinfusions is a company I only very recently discovered. So far, I love everything about them from their use of organic and fair trade certified ingredients to the incorporation of Hawaiian ingredients in their blends, creative themes to their teas, incorporation of Hawaiian culture and most importantly the strong emphasis on the fauna and flora in Hawaii which are endangered or at risk. On each tin you can see some of these species highlighted in the packaging, and a portion of their sales go to support working to sustain and preserve Hawaii’s natural resources and plant and wildlife.
As described on their site, ‘pono’ means ‘the right thing to do’ and my first impression here is that Alex and Andrea are certainly doing their best to do that for Hawaii! I am very excited to get my first taste of one of their blends.
The tisane I’m trying today (and not all of the teas in their line are tisanes) is called “Wai” which means fresh water, and the feature fauna and flora on their package’s design are the Hawaiian damselfly and uluhe fern. As I taste this for the first time, I’m definitely keeping the intended ‘theme’ in mind and will be seeing how the flavour compares to it.
My first impression of the taste is that it’s very familiar in a really comforting way. Breaking down the flavours I can see why; a lot of the ingredients are ones I like a great deal individually and they’re working very well combined. The body of the flavour of comprised mostly of the mint in the blend. I know this uses both peppermint and spearmint, but the spearmint is definitely more of a dominant/concentrated flavour than the peppermint is. Layered under that is the raspberry. It’s not raspberry in a really obvious way; but a gentle, subtle soft hint of raspberry that provides contrast from the mint. The nettle leaf is a little earthy and unrefined, it seems to roll in and out of sips as a flavour that I’m noticing. Finally there’s a floral aspect that finishes the sip. It reminds me of a mild jasmine though as far as I’m aware there isn’t actually any jasmine or floral ingredients in the blend.
While none of these ingredients individually make me think of fresh water there’s something about the way they interact with each other that’s very calming and tranquil and reminds me of seafoam, and skinny dipping with friends in the middle of July as the sunsets. Additionally, I remember reading a poem not too long ago that compared the ocean to a womb, first and foremost giving life and that’s the kind of feeling I get from drinking this tea. I want warm waves to wash over and cradle me.
Overall, I really like the overall taste of this tisane but more importantly I love the way it makes me feel. I haven’t been this excited about a newly discovered company in a really long time, and I’m excited to hopefully try more of their blends (in particular I’m hoping I get to try Nahele) and I very, very much recommend checking out their website! Definitely a cool company, and I think they deserve a little more attention.
Mint Yerba Mate (Herbal) from Aka Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Aka Teas
Tea Description:
Need some energy and focus? Yerba Maté has been shown to help the body digest carbohydrates (more energy!), burn calories from fat, and delay the buildup of lactic acid after a workout.
Stimulating to the mind, body, and taste buds, Mint Yerba Maté can’t be beat. With it’s healthy concentration of polyphenols and antioxidants, Yerba Maté has been touted as the most nutritious and balanced energy-giver, when compared to coffee, black tea, green tea, guarana, or kola nut
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Aka Teas is one of my newest love affairs when it comes to tea shops. I love their hand blended teas and the flavors each tea yields. When I saw this one, I knew it would be instant love. And it was.
I’m a sucker for mint teas. I have digestive issues so I find mint so refreshing and cooling. Almost relaxing because of the cooling effect it seems to have on my body. Pair that up with another love of mine, Yerba Mate and you have yourself a match made in heaven. And that is exactly how I see this tea.
I dumped the sample of this tea into my One Touch Breville and hit the Herbal setting for 5 minutes @212F. I wanted for that lovely beeping noise to alert me that my tea was ready.
I let this cool for a moment and dove right in. The mint hit me first. Such a lovely spearmint. Clean and refreshing. The Yerba Mate had a solid roasted flavor and that is the second flavor that hit my taste buds. The two combined was a unique flavor but one I really enjoyed. A mint refreshing cooling invigorating roasted tea. Simple but full of flavor. Each flavor played off the other and one flavor didn’t dominate the other. If you are a mint fan and an yerba mate fan, I think you’ll like this one too.
Yogi Berry from Yellowstone Tea Co
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Yellowstone Tea Co
Tea Description:
This Berry tea is great iced and full of antioxidants for flu season.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been neglecting my herbal teas as of late. I’m sorry herbals! I’ll try to keep you more in sight ;).
This tea is from Yellowstone Tea Co, an Etsy Store. I have tried a few of their teas in the past so when I saw this poor neglected fellow in my tea basket, I knew it was time to try him.
Into my tea pot the sample went along with 1 cup of water at 212F to steep for 5 minutes. The tea produced a gorgeous dark red liquid. So very pretty!
What is so nice with this herbal is the different and unique flavors that have been added in. There are apples, orange peel, elderberries, hibiscus, rosehips, carrot flavors, orange slices, lemongrass, beet powder, raspberry fruit powder, and freeze dried grapes. I can’t say that I’ve ever had a tea with carrots or beet powder. I was excited to see what these flavors would produce.
The first flavor that hits me is the tartness from the hibiscus but it is nicely contrasted with the lemon from the lemongrass and the sweet flavor from the grapes. The other lovely flavor is what I’m assuming is the beet powder. There is a really nice sweet yet I swear there are hints of an earthy flavor there, maybe I should describe it more like a tangy note. Last but not least are the orange peels. They are probably my favorite part. The citrus flavor that is added in really kicks this tea up a couple notches and really balances out the flavor.
This tea iced is even just amazing. So many flavors going on. Each sip is different from the next. An explosion of flavor with each taste.
Such a fun herbal to end my day with.