Sweet & Sassy SororiTea From Uniq Teas

by liberteas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Uniq Teas

Tea Description:

Sweet caramel notes are accented with a touch of spice and hint of almond. This is LiberTEAS blend.

Learn more about creating your own blend here.

You can order this blend here.

Taster’s Review:

Not too long ago, we (the SororiTea Sisters) were contacted by Uniq Teas and invited to each create our own blend which we could then sample and review.   Well, of course we took them up on it!  It sounded like fun!

And it really is fun!  The Uniq Teas website is so easy to use!  You just create an account, then choose from their selection of 40 different Organic and Fair Trade teas to create a blend. You choose the teas, and you choose how much of each blend is used to come up with your own unique blend.  Then, you name the tea, design the label, and you write the description.  You even decide if you want the tea to be a public tea (available for everyone to purchase) or a private one.

It was a blast to put this blend together.  It is a blend of black teas:  Caramelicious, Black Chai, and Almond.  I then chose the name Sweet & Sassy SororiTea because caramel and almond is sweet, and I thought that the spices would add a certain sassy attitude to the cup without coming off as being too spicy.

And I’m really happy with this!  The black tea offers a strong background of flavor – it is rich, assertive and slightly astringent.  I’m not experiencing any bitterness, but, I also think that this is a tea that you don’t want to over-infuse, because I think it could become bitter if it’s left to brew too long.  I steeped this for 3 1/2 minutes and it came out just right.

And even though the black tea base is strong, it doesn’t overwhelm the flavors which I find to have just the balance I was looking for.  The caramel comes through as the strongest flavor, and there are hints of almond in the background.  The spices are loud and indeed sassy, but they aren’t overly spicy.  It was my intention that even though a chai blend was being used as part of my tea blend, I didn’t really want it to come off as a chai.  I wanted it to come off as a spiced caramel blend with a touch of almonds, and that’s just what I got!  This blend is great served straight … but I like it even better as a latte as it helps to bring out the creamy notes of the caramel and the sweetness of the almonds.

I am definitely going to be returning to Uniq Teas in the future to create another blend … maybe a twist on Earl Grey next time!

liberteas

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see. Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog! Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

This post was posted in Black Tea, Chai

Sassy Green Tea with Açaí from Village Tea

by liberteas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Village Tea

Company Description:

Ingredients: chinese green tea, ginger, flavor, orange peel, peach pieces, chilies, cloves, safflower, acai

Our Sassy Green Tea with Acai combines top-quality green tea with peach, ginger, acai, and orange for a sweet and subtle spice.

Taster’s Review:

This is really good!  I love the sweet and spicy in this cup – the sweet is just a little stronger than the spicy, and they enhance each other very well.  It is really quite a palate pleaser!

That being said, I’m finding it a little difficult to discern the different fruits and spices being represented here.  They seem to merge very well – almost too well – so I can only taste wee little notes of each ingredient.

The green tea base is subtle here, it has a nice smoothness and offers a nice richness to the blend.  It doesn’t taste very vegetative or grassy to me at all, and this may be because of the type of green tea used in the blend, or it could be that those sometimes undesirable flavors tend to be overwhelmed by the other flavors in the blend.  (While I do have an appreciation for the vegetative/grassy notes of some green teas, I know that there are quite a few of you out there who do not)

I can taste a sweet smoothness brought on by the peach flavor, along with a delicate note of orange.  There is a light tartness from the açaí berry.  A subtle warmth comes through from the cloves and the ginger, and just at the end of the sip, the chili sort of SNAPS on the tongue, it isn’t really powerful or overwhelming… but it does let you know it’s there.

It’s really quite an enchanting blend – and I can see why Village Tea calls this their Sassy Green Tea!

liberteas

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see. Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog! Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

This post was posted in Green Tea