Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
A blended black tea with smooth cocoa beans gives a rich and malty cup of tea. Breakfast Americano makes an amazing start to your day and we recommend you try it with a touch of steamed milk.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Still on my Epic Sipdown Journey, I came across this fellow who I bought from other Steepster friend in a Stash Sale a while ago. I’ve had a few Simple Loose Leaf blends before so I was looking forwarded to this one.
I have to admit right off the bat, I think I steeped this guy wrong. The whole description of this tea doesn’t match what I’m drinking. The description is a malty rich cocoa like black tea. Exactly what the dry mixture smells like. When I brewed this up like a black tea with water at 212F and 3 min, I got a very smoky malty tea with no hints of cocoa beans and a very astringent finish. This is a new tea cup and tea pot that I hadn’t used before so I’m very curious on how this happened.
I think even if the smoky notes weren’t there, this wouldn’t be the tea for me. There is an overwhelming amount of malty notes and nothing but the astringency to offset them. I wish I could get those cocoa beans to pop.
My apologizes to Simple Loose Leaf. I think I royally screwed up this tea and won’t be able to give you the proper review. Maybe another time I’ll get this right and we can try this again!
Strawberry Sencha from Treehouse Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Treehouse Teas
Tea Description:
The smell of fresh picked strawberries round out an exceptionally smooth green tea. Papaya and strawberry pieces layer this Sencha which is made to Japanese specifications. High in Antioxidants this tea also makes for a wonderful iced tea perfect for back porch rocking. Steep 3-7 minutes at a temperature of 194F.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Strawberry Sencha? Yes please! Sign me up! I had a great experience with Treehouse Tea’s delicious Gemaicha so I was excited to try their version of a flavored sencha.
I brewed a big pot of this up for the twins and I to share after dinner. The amazing strawberry aroma that I could smell while the tea was steeping was fresh and vibrant. I couldn’t wait to try it. I brewed this up in my Breville One Touch on the green tea setting. Poured three mugs and sat myself down in front of the computer to enjoy this tea.
As I sat and allowed this to cool for a moment, I’m transported to sweet strawberry heaven. Took my first sip and I’m still in strawberry heaven! This tea is delicious. The strawberry tastes fresh and almost juicy like. The green tea delivers a nice buttery rich mouth full each and every sip. For those strawberry lovers out there, this is for you! I’m excited to try this as an iced tea here in a few minutes.
A word of warning tho, this tea gets bitter as it cools off. So drink it while its hot! Which really shouldn’t be a problem. This tea is too good and the cuppa will be empty before you know it!
Bliss- Vanilla Heather from Astrolo Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Floral
Where to Buy: Astrolo Teas
Tea Description:
The Vanilla Heather blend is by far the lightest tea I’ve made. I like to say that it feels like drinking cotton candy made of sweet flowers while floating on a cloud. And that just makes me happy!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
One of my favorite tea shops right now is Astrolo Tea, a different kind of tea shop. This tea shop not only has an amazing selection of teas, but they are handcrafted and made with care and attention like you can’t believe! The owner is 100% dedicated to her product and her customers. Not only is she an amazing tea creator, she is an astrologer as well! So talented.
But on to this tea. This tea is a unique blend of Assam, heather flowers and vanilla-all organic. There is a beautiful sweetness that envelopes you when you first take a whiff of the dry leaf mixture. I scooped out a serving and set up the Breville One Touch on a black setting. There are nicely laid out directions on the package.
Took a few moments for the tea to cool off and then took my first sip. Oh. . .My. . .Goodness!!! I am going to be re-ordering this one and soon. This is a gorgeous combination of black tea, sweet vanilla, and floral notes. I can’t ask for a better tea right now with my constant craving of floral teas. There is a nice full bodied feel to this tea and an ever so slight astringent background. I can’t drink this tea fast enough to satiate the craving it stirred up. So very good. I love how the floral and vanilla work so well together. Neither overpower the other and all the ingredients combine to create this gorgeous taste. Another very well done tea from Astrolo Tea!
Lemon Meringue from Tealish
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green & Red Rooibos
Where to Buy: Tealish
Tea Description:
A colourful blend of green and red rooibos with a smooth lemon taste reminiscent of freshly baked lemon meringue pie. With a delicious zesty lemon flavour and a perfect creamy finish, this red tea infusion is a sweet and healthy treat!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love my green rooibos. Red rooibos- can’t stand the stuff. But green rooibos I simply love and adore.
So the other day when I was going thru my oh so neglected tea stash I stumbled upon this delight. This is one example of why I love Steepster so much. I’m sure this tea came from one of my Steepster friends who wanted to share their tea love with me. Without that person sending me a lovely care package, I’m not sure I would have ever had this tea and that would have been a shame!
First off, the dry leaves smell so sweet and have a lovely lemon baked dessert fragrance. I brewed this up like an herbal-212F-5 minutes and allowed it to cool for a moment.
Wow, does this taste good! This tea tastes like a lemon tart! You can really taste the lemon but it tastes more like a lemon pie filling. Sweet and lush. There is also a tart like flavor that gives the tea more of a dessert quality. This may not taste like a lemon meringue pie but it still tastes amazing! I even had enough left over to try this tea iced and I ended up with the same amazing results. The only flavor I was really missing was the pie like flavor. The rest of them are spot on. I was even able to get a couple infusions out of this tea. I drank this tea to curve my sweet tooth craving that hits me somewhere between 2pm-3pm. It worked too!
I’m pretty impressed with this tea and I’m excited to see that I have more Tealish to try in the future.
Strawberry Genmaicha Green from ESP Emporium
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: ESP Emporium
Tea Description:
Here, we have two green teas, which were combined to an exceptional premium tea blend. The characteristic of Japanese Genmaicha is supported wonderfully by our smooth green tea. This creation is perfected by the added strawberry pieces and a finely balanced flavor composition.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Since I’ve tried a few ‘unconventional’ Genmaicha blends lately I wanted to do something different with this one, which is why I cold brewed it. I’m not even sure if I’ve ever done that before with a Genmaicha blend; I can’t easily bring an example to mind.
I have to admit it was a little weird tasting a cold brewed Genmaicha; the green tea wasn’t anything exceptional nor was it disappointing but the strong, drawn out notes of roasted brown rice – which took on a near barley taste, were more intense than I would expect from Genmaicha. More like a good mugicha than anything else, to be honest.
The strawberry certainly is not the most vibrant strawberry flavour though. I wouldn’t even call it all that realistic to be honest; what it does taste like it strawberry candy. Some kind of cross between those fluffy strawberry marshmallow five cent candies you see in gas stations and a really nice strawberry gummy candy? I like the taste itself, but the pairing with the green tea/roasted notes doesn’t work for me.
So overall; I’d say there were definitely high and low points to this tea and if I revisit it I’ll definitely be trying an alternative prep method (perhaps something more traditional) than revisiting this one. It’s not worth a second taste.
