Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
A relaxing, naturally caffeine-free herbal tea blended from blackberry leaves, chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus, lavender flowers, and rose petals.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is an herbal tea from Adagio’s Sunlit Blooms collection. It’s a floral blend, containing whole chamomile flowers, lavender and rose petals. It also contains peppermint, hibiscus, and blackberry leaves. Judging by the dry leaf, the main constituent is blackberry leaves, which are green and fluffy, rather like raspberry leaves. The other ingredients seem rather sparse.
I used 1.5tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is yellow-green, which is doubtless testament to how little hibiscus is actually in this blend. The scent is deeply herbal – predominantly chamomile and lavender as far as I can discern.
To taste, this is a mild, lightly floral blend. Rose is clearly there, and lavender, although both are less pungent than might be expected, and don’t make the cup taste “perfumey” in the way they sometimes can. Half of me appreciates this, as teas with heavy perfume-like flavours can be rather cloying. The other half is wishing for a bit more flavour, as the overall effect is rather thin-tasting. The chamomile emerges a little towards the end of the sip, adding a honey-like sweetness that works well with the floral flavours. It’s a pleasant enough cup, if a little bland and weak. It’s like this tea is lacking in personality.
I’m really not sure what the blackberry leaves are adding to this blend, other than bulk. I appreciate that they have reputed health benefits, but I would have liked to have seen the other ingredients in greater quantity, as they impart the flavour this blend is sadly lacking. This one would make a pleasant pre-bedtime cup, if you’re after a caffeine-free blend with mild, relaxing flavours, but it’s not really one I’d purposefully seek out at other times of the day.
Enchanted Narnia herbal tea by Bluebird Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Bluebird Tea Co.
Tea Description:
‘Put the Turkish Delight down, Get out of that wardrobe + get the kettle on Edmund!’ said Lucy… Well perhaps we have paraphrased a little there. But we’re pretty sure that’s what she was thinking. Enchanted rose + smooth chocolate make an enchanting brew indeed.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the inspiration behind this blend from Bluebird Tea Co. The dry leaf looks like something right out of Narnia, with its whole pink rosebuds, additional rose petals, plentiful cocoa shells, lemongrass pieces and the fluffy, mossy greenness of the raspberry leaves. It’s so pretty, the White Witch of Narnia might well use it to tempt Edmund away. I used a generous heaped teaspoon of leaf for my cup, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water. No additions. The resulting liquor is a medium golden brown, and the scent is faintly herbal, maybe a touch floral.
To taste, this one is pure liquid turkish delight, although the variety that comes coated in chocolate rather than dusted with icing sugar. The rose is the most prominent flavour; sweet with a hint of perfume. The flavour of milk chocolate emerges in the midsip, adding a creamy, almost vanilla-like sweetness that really complements the rose. Although cocoa shells are responsible for the flavour, there’s none of the dry bittersweetness cocoa can sometimes add to a tea. This is liquid milk chocolate over rose-flavoured turkish delight; sweet, smooth, and perfectly befitting a fairy tale.
I had hoped that the lemongrass would add perhaps a hint of lemon-flavoured Turkish delight, but it really doesn’t. While it contributes to the overall sweetness of this blend, its mild citrus flavour is completely overpowered by the rose. Still, that’s a minor complaint. With a tea this delicious, it hardly registers.
I’m always impressed by Bluebird’s blends. It’s clear that they take a lot of time putting each one together, and the ingredients are obviously wonderfully fresh. The rose buds in this blend, for example, are a bright pink, firm to the touch, and still tightly nipped together. There are no brown, soft, wilting rosebuds here! The abundance of whole ingredients adds to the aesthetic impact of the dry mix – these are truly beautiful teas that are a delight to look at as well as drink. The inspiration behind this tea is strong and clearly realised – it would be easy to identify this as a turkish delight tea, even had it not been labelled.
If you’re interested in a quality herbal tea, a delicious dessert tea, or are just a fan of the Narnia books and films, this blend could be just the thing for you. It comes highly recommended.
Nosy Bey Black Tea from Dammann Freres
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Dammann Freres
Tea Description:
Black tea flavoured with vanilla and bush peach. Embellished with pieces of pineapple and sprinkled with flower petals. A successful fusion from sunbathed orchards and vanilla tropical scents.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
One of my favorite flavors in tea used to be peach. When starting my disturbing obsession with tea, I started out with Celestial Seasoning’s Peach Blossom Green Tea. I moved on to other peachy teas, and I think down the road I just had one too many bad peach flavorings that I have been totally turned off by it. I was able to snag a little bit of this in a crazy huge group order hosted by a generous member of Steepster. I heard good things about this tea, and I wanted to give peach a chance!
The scent alone of this tea is pretty magical. The notes of vanilla and peach invade my senses and take over my brain. The rose petals and chunks of pineapple are a bit of a head scratcher, I can’t seem to see the reason for it.
Brewing this up, it produces a strong black tea base with a good supporting cast of smooth and creamy vanilla and bright fruity peach. Incidentally, that combination tastes exactly like peaches and cream instant oatmeal. Which does not sound like a compliment, but there was an entire year in life where I ate nothing for breakfast except off brand peaches and cream instant oatmeal. Man, that stuff is so good… I still crave it sometimes.
This tea brews up nicely, and the flavor stick its out in the resteepings. I have yet to have tried this tea iced, but I can tell it would be a winner!
Cinnamon Apple Crunch from Steep City Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Steep City Teas
Tea Description:
Wonderfully tasty! This green tea blend will bring back memories of your favorite apple pie, sweet and warm with a cinnamon crunchy texture. The perfect tea cup for kids and grownups. It is perfect for a tea party, tea in the afternoon or as a special drink for the holidays!
Green tea, apple pieces, natural flavors, cinnamon pieces, safflower, and rose petals
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Cinnamon Apple Crunch from Steep City Teas is a nice departure from the norm. It has a light summer time apple flavor with just a light enough floral undertone to make you feel like laying back in the green summer grass and catching some rays! The cinnamon is subtle and I like that. I love a little cinnamon in tea but often times the cinnamon can take over a blend, diluting the other lovely ingredients.
While this could surely be a lovely holiday time drink, with its apple pie flavor and sweetness, I actually prefer it more in the summer as an iced tea. The sencha base adds a wonderful buttery flavor and mouthfeel which absolutely support the flavors in this blend. I feel that it adds to that “crunch” flavor. It reminds me of that crumble on top of an apple strudel. I love that oversteeping this tea is nearly impossible even with the green tea base. Trust me, I gave this tea a good test in that area, by error of course, but even when steeped for a good long 7 minutes it was still amazing!
Wether you enjoy it warm, or cold, you will appreciate the versatility of this scrumptious blend. I also agree that people of all ages will enjoy this tea. It is not too sweet but just sweet enough, naturally, so that the kids will enjoy it. Speaking of naturally, there is no a bit of artificial flavor to this tea. It tastes like fresh juicy apple, not some nasty artificial flavoring. The floral note comes from real rose petals, not a perfumery substance that imparts bad flavor in the tea.Another winner from Steep City, but then every tea I have sampled from them has been delightful!
Blood Orange Tisane from Chai Diaries
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Chai Diaries
Tisane Description:
The first thing you’ll notice about this holiday blend is the color: a vibrant amaranth red that grabs you by the lapels and demands your attention. Then the aroma: enticing vanilla, sophisticated orange peel, hints of rose and lemon all tangle for a share of the stage in this bold elixir. Finally, the first divine sip.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
I have to disagree with the above description … the first thing I noticed about this Blood Orange Tisane from Chai Diaries is not the color. What I noticed is that this is not a one with an overload of hibiscus! Yes, there is hibiscus in it, but, after steeping for six minutes, the tisane is not heavy, thick or syrupy the way a tisane with too much hibiscus would be.
The fact that the hibiscus is not overdone gets bonus points from this reviewer … because as you are probably aware (if you’ve read very many of my tisane reviews!) I don’t like hibiscus! In small amounts, hibiscus can be beneficial to a tisane. It adds a little bit of body and color to the brewed cup, as well as a distinct flavor – tartness! – not to mention significant health benefits. But too much hibiscus can mean a very tart, syrup-like thickness to the brewed tisane. Not very appealing, at least, not to me!
This tisane, on the other hand, is very appealing because the hibiscus is done the right way … as are the other components to this tisane. It is sweet with enough tartness to keep it interesting. The vanilla in this adds a very enjoyable creamy note to the cup, tasting a bit like a one of those creamsicle frozen treats!
While it is good served hot, I found that I preferred it iced! I recommend brewing it stronger when you want this one iced, because the flavor softens a bit as it cools. And brewing it stronger means adding more dry leaf to the teapot … not steeping it longer. Keep the steep time to 5 – 7 minutes to minimize the hibiscus’s impact on the final product.
This is sweet enough that it doesn’t need any sweetener – and this would be a fantastic alternative to overly sugared sodas for the kids (and adults!) in the summer!
