Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal Tisane

Where to Buy: Teavana

Tea Description:

Well-balanced sweet and savory blend of tomato, lime, hibiscus, carrot and celery with a hint of chili heat finish.  A modern twist on the brunch classic, this Bloody Mary inspired herbal tea is garden fresh and fabulously flavorful. Rich and sweet sun dried tomato, celery, beetroot, carrot, apple, plum and raisins get a quiet-heat and citrus kick from pieces of chili, lime, orange and cinnamon in this haute tea that is fashionably and refreshingly cool.

Ingredients:Apple pieces, tomato pieces, hibiscus blossoms, raisins, beetroot pieces, cinnamon, carrot pieces, natural and artificial flavoring, orange pieces, lime pieces, rose blossom leaves, plum pieces (plum, rice flour), celery pieces, chili pieces

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I know there area a lot of different opinions when it comes to Teavana.  My general feelings are that I think they tend to cater to the fruitier and tarty/sweet flavored tastes more than anything.  I have found most of the teas I have tried from Teavana to be TOO sweet and/or tarty for my liking but that hasn’t stopped me from trying some of their offerings at least once.  I think the reason they are over flavored and sweet or tarty is because they over use Hibiscus which is something I don’t like.  I’m not a big Hibiscus fan, overall.

Having said that…I wanted to try their Tomato Lime Cocktail Herbal Tea just because it sounded interesting.  Again, I think they used too much hibiscus.  BUT…looking around that…here’s what I thought about this tea from Teavana…it wasn’t bad.  The aroma – once infused – was a combination of tomato soup and hibiscus.  The color was a deep purple.

I don’t know if I would agree with the product description saying that this blend of flavors was well balanced due to the high tart flavor it has but I appreciate the ingredients they did use in this otherwise.  Up front you can certainly taste the apple, tomato, and hibiscus.  2nd sip I noticed the carrot, orange, lime, and celery.  It was the end sips that I noticed the plum/raisin notes.  And in the after taste the chili and cinnamon were present.

I’m thinking they used the beetroot to enhance the color and not-so-much the flavor.  And I have no idea why they added rose blossom leaves in there…maybe for the look of the dry blend to the eye, maybe.

I wasn’t happy with this when I was sipping on it SUPER HOT…only because of my dislike of Hibiscus…it was just way too tart for a hot tea (for me).  After letting it cool for about 7 minutes I enjoyed it much better.  I also think at a little warmer than ‘luke warm’ makes this cup fairly tasty!  Overall – I think this was a good flavor attempt and offering by Teavana.  I did like that hint of spicy kick at the end of the sip, too.  I liked that it didn’t get too out of hand – as well.  The company did do several things RIGHT with this combination of flavors – I just wish they would pull back on that hibiscus!

I’m fairly certain that another company could use less hibiscus and pair it with a black tea base or maybe even a green and create something really amazing!  But if you are into really unique flavors and offerings and want to try something off the wall – try this one!