Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Tea Leaf Co.
Tea Description:
An eye-catching green tea blend with a sweet rose fragrance and light citrus notes. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this blend while the world’s magical nature reveals itself to you.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
My first couple of sips of this tea – Wish Upon A Star Green Tea from Tea Leaf Co. – were a little less than memorable, to be honest. I tasted green tea and little else. I found myself wondering where is the rose and citrus?
Then I sat the cup aside and let it cool a few minutes. Now as I sip it, I can taste those lovely notes of rose and orange – and they’re really quite lovely indeed!
The orange and rose are still quite delicate, but they’re discernible now and I like the way the flavors are arranged here. The green tea is the strongest flavor: it’s fresh and lightly vegetal with a pleasantly creamy texture. It’s very smooth! I’m not getting any astringency from this at all. The vegetal tones are somewhere between sweet grass and mild steamed veggies.
The rose is the next flavor I pick up on – it’s a subtle rose flavor. Not sharp nor does it lend a strong perfume-y flavor to the cup. It’s softly sweet and pleasantly floral. It’s a nice contrast to the hint of juicy flavor that I pick up on from the orange. Another subtle flavor, the orange adds just a touch of brightness to the cup. It’s a very uplifting note.
Overall, a very pleasant cup of tea. I recommend letting it cool slightly so that the flavors have time to develop – about five minutes – just the right amount of time to let the tea come to a drinkable temperature while the flavors come forward.
Organic Teatox Tea from Fit Life Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Fit Life Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Say goodbye to weight gain, bloating and digestive stress. Two daily cups of Organic Teatox can help burn fat, stimulate weight loss, boost your immune system and cleanse your digestive system.
Our pyramid tea bag extracts maximum flavor to infuse more essential oils and flavor into your cup. Steeping releases purifying dynamic ingredients that can ease bloating and, together with proper diet and exercise, help promote weight loss.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve never been one to go for the whole ‘detox’ or weight loss tea fads that are going around because I basically don’t buy it. I’ve been drinking tea for years and I simply do not believe that simply drinking tea (or a specially crafted tea blend) will cause significant weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you need to change your overall diet and you need to exercise. Drinking tea isn’t going to be your miracle weight loss cure. If it was, after drinking all the tea I’ve consumed over the last ten years, I’d have a body like Jennifer Aniston. I don’t.
But, that doesn’t mean that drinking tea doesn’t offer you some great health benefits because I believe that there are health benefits to tea. I just don’t think it’s the cure-all that some tea companies try to suggest in an effort to sell their product. But as long as you find a tea that also tastes great, there’s nothing wrong with adding tea to your diet to enjoy some health benefits.
But you’re not going to know if it tastes great until you try it – .so I decided that I’d give this Organic Teatox Tea from Fit Life Tea Company a try
To steep this tea, I placed 1 sachet in an 8 ounce teacup and heated freshly filtered water to 195°F. Then I poured the heated water over the sachet and let it steep for 6 minutes. Then I let it cool completely before I poured it into the Fit Life BPA-Free Plastic Bottle (I’ll review that in a few days!) and refrigerated it to get it nice and cold.
Before I let it cool, I did take a sip of the hot tea to determine if I liked it better hot or cold. (Since they did send me the bottle, I decided that I needed to try it iced!) And so I’ll start by saying that this tisane is definitely better iced. The hibiscus loses some of its biting tartness. Oh, it’s still tart, but, it’s not quite as tart as what I experienced from the hot tea.
Fortunately, the apple in this softens the tartness of the hibiscus just a bit. And the allspice gives it a nice little hint of spice. I think hibiscus is much better when it’s in the midst of some spice like it is here. The contrast between the warm spice and the tart hibiscus works nicely.
Overall, this is actually quite tasty. The combination of the tart hibiscus, the sweet apple and the warmth of the allspice creates a very palatable taste. I would recommend to not oversteep this, at 6 minutes, there is a pleasant texture to the drink, but I think if I had steeped it longer, it might have been a tad too syrupy. If you like that kind of texture from your hibiscus beverages – then go for it!
It surprises me to say this, but I’d drink this again. That’s not something I’d say often about a tea with hibiscus as the main ingredient, so kudos to Fit Life Tea!
Fit Life Tea Company has this Teatox in two different sizes, a 14 day detox and a 28 day detox.
Candy Cane Tea from Naked Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea & Rooibos
Tea Information:
Organic! A fun tea inspired by the classic holiday candy. It’s not like drinking a candy cane though. It’s actually more on the softer side. Perfumed floral aroma, lightly minty, softly sweet with hints of raspberry.
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
It’s also part of Amoda Tea’s Holiday Box!
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
So, I got a nice surprise from Amoda! As their way of thanking me for not only subscribing but also for writing reviews of the teas that they send, they sent me the Holiday Box that I wished for when I received December’s subscription box! Amoda = my Santa Claus!
And this is the first tea that I’m trying from the Holiday Box.
And YUM! This is really good. It’s a bit different than you might expect if you taste this without reading the above description of the tea. The name Candy Cane is a very suggestive name and having tried several different “candy cane” teas over the years, I’ve kind of come to expect a tea called “Candy Cane” to taste a little bit like liquefied candy cane in tea.
But just as the description above states, this doesn’t taste like that. This has a minty taste (just like most candy canes!) but the mint is balanced with a sweet-tart raspberry flavor, hints of cinnamon and whispers of sweet jasmine and rose.
The base of this tea is a green tea and red rooibos base – very festive! I don’t taste a strong flavor from the rooibos, maybe a hint of nutty flavor but it’s slight. I taste the sweet green tea peeking through the mint, raspberry and cinnamon.
The mint is a combination of peppermint and spearmint, but even though we’ve got two mint types in this blend, the mint doesn’t overpower the cup. It’s minty without tasting too much like a swig of mouthwash. The warm cinnamon contrasts with the cool minty tones and gives this cup it’s holiday flavor.
The rose and jasmine are very subtle. There’s just a soft insinuation of flower in this – and it’s just enough to add a little bit of interest to the cup. If you take a sip of this and find yourself searching for the floral notes, slurp the sip. The aeration will bring those floral notes to life.
Raspberry is the one unexpected flavor of this cup, but I like that fruity sweetness and the hint of tart that melds with the cinnamon in the aftertaste.
This is definitely an unusual Candy Cane! (But let me tell you, if I found a candy cane that tasted like this, I’d be a big fan of it, because this is yummy!) It definitely has a ‘sweet treat’ kind of taste to it, but it isn’t the traditional Candy Cane. This is a new-and-improved Candy Cane, Naked Teas Galore style!
C of Tranquilitea Herbal Tisane from Good Life Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Good Life Tea
Tisane Description:
Luscious hibiscus flowers join with subtle citrus notes of lemongrass and tart rose hips. Add the superfruits and chamomile and you’ve got one bedtime immune system booster!
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you’re probably well aware of my lack of enthusiasm for herbal tisanes that contain hibiscus and chamomile. Well, this blend has both of them. So as you can probably imagine, I wasn’t dancing the happy dance while I was brewing this.
But, it’s actually quite tasty! A lot nicer than I expected it to be, for sure, and much tastier than I would have imagined.
This is the first tea that I’m trying from this “new-to-me” company, and along with the teas that they sent to me, they sent a letter. In it, they described this blend this way:
This is a fruit and herbal blend. It has a nice blueberry base with Chamomile and Lemon Grass. The name is from a place on the moon where the Apollo landed – Sea of Tranquility. The name is a play on words. C is for the Vitamin C which the hibiscus and rosehips offer. Tranquilitea is the chamomile. It’s a great flower that promotes calmness and helps with sleep. This is our second most popular tea. The lemon grass is to give a nice, bright finish. This mix contains a little bit of Amber sugar to mellow it out.
While I’m generally not crazy about teas that include sugar or sweetener, I have to admit that I’m kind of glad that the Amber sugar is there, because I think that this would be a bit too tart without it. I’m not one who usually sweetens a tisane like this, and I know that if the sugar wasn’t there, I would have probably wanted to add a pinch of sugar to it to tame down the tartness.
That said, I do prefer to decide how much sugar I’m adding to my cup. So, I’m kind of finding myself unsure of how I feel about this addition. I’m glad that this wasn’t too tart when I took my first sip, but, at the same time, I’m not thrilled that sugar was added to the tisane. But without dwelling on the subject too long, I’ll tell you about the rest of what I’m tasting…
This tisane is pleasantly sweet and fruity. I’m liking the blueberry, and as much as I am not fond of hibiscus, I have to admit that hibiscus DOES enhance berry flavors. And it does enhance the blueberry nicely. I am getting the sweet blueberry flavor with a touch of berry tartness. The lemongrass adds just a hint of citrus flavor and perks up the flavors.
I can barely taste the chamomile. In fact, this would be the ideal blend for someone who doesn’t like chamomile but wants to drink chamomile teas for their restful/healthful properties, because like I said, the chamomile is barely noticeable as far as taste goes.
To brew this, I went with my go-to temperature of 195°F for herbals and steeped it for six minutes. I find that six minutes was a good time – it delivered a really delicious blueberry flavor with light citrus-y notes without too much hibiscus-y taste or texture.
Overall, this is a pleasant cup of tea. It’s soothing and sweet, with just the right level of tartness to it. And to my surprise, as I’m typing this, I find myself becoming slightly drowsy from the tea! That’s a big bonus in my book.
Boost Et Moi Tisane from Les 2 Marmottes
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Tisane
Where to Buy: Les 2 Marmottes
Tisane Description:
Guarana, ginseng, ginger: a trio 100% plant explosive vitality! In addition, these pêchus ingredients are not the only stars. We have put together a stunning blend of subtlety by slipping rosehips for its fruity taste, lemon balm for its sweet and aromatic flavor and tangy hibiscus note and its beautiful ruby color. A lively and rich in aromas tea for a day full of pep.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have enjoyed the adventure of these teas and tisanes from Les 2 Marmottes. Since I can’t read most of the packaging, I have to turn to the website and Chrome’s ability to translate the French language to know what the tea is all about. It makes for an interesting tea moment.
When I grabbed this Boost Et Moi … I visited the website to see what ingredients I would be encountering with this blend. Here’s what the translated website lists:
- Hibiscus Flower
- Rosehip
- Melissa
- Guarana
- Ginseng
- Ginger
I wish that there wasn’t hibiscus in this. Fortunately the hibiscus imparts very little of its tart flavor, mostly it seems it is there for a berry like flavor and the vivid ruby color and a bit of texture. I’m glad that it’s not a syrupy texture.
There is an interesting contrast of flavors in this blend: a distinct herbaceous note with a slight earthy character from the ginseng. There is a touch of lemon-y taste from the Melissa, and the Guarana adds a slight bitter note. I like the peppery zing of ginger.
This is the third tea/tisane that I’ve tasted from Les 2 Marmottes, and it’s probably my least favorite of the three. I would rather the hibiscus not be in there, and I’m not wild about ginseng. That said, this is not an unpleasant functional tea, but I don’t know that it’s one that I’d reach for to drink every day. I do like the burst of energy that this tea provides, though.
Overall, this is alright, but not my favorite of these little adventures that Les 2 Marmottes has taken me on.