Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
After sharing some blueberry cordials with a friend, my helper, Shante wanted us to create a blueberry cordial tea. So here it is: our premium Indian black teas blended with organic chocolate, blueberry and brandy flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about how to subscribe to Southern Boy Teas here.
Check out Southern Boy Teas Indiegogo Fundraising Campaign here and consider supporting this small business!
Taster’s Review:
I’m starting to notice that I need to drink at least a full glass of iced tea of whatever flavor I’m reviewing from Southern Boy Teas before I’m able to make a proper assessment of it. I need to finish the first glass and be about halfway through my second glass before I’m able to really offer a fair evaluation of the tea.
That’s because the flavors don’t really reach out and grab me from the first few sips. It isn’t until I reach the end of the first glass that I’m starting to notice the flavors. Then with the second glass … I notice that the flavors are still developing on my palate. By the time I’ve reached the mid-glass point of the second glass of iced tea, then I can really taste the flavors clearly.
And this is really a tasty iced tea!
I don’t know if it’s a “blueberry cordial” exactly, though. I find myself still searching for the chocolate notes. I can taste the blueberry very clearly. I get a strong sweet yet tart blueberry flavor with that familiar tingly berry sensation at the finish. That tingling, tart note lingers into the aftertaste.
I also taste notes of brandy. The notes of brandy are subtle but they’re there and they seem to accentuate the flavors of the blueberry rather than try to stand out on their own.
The chocolate is there too, but it’s something that I find myself needing to really focus on the sip to taste. Once I do focus on the sip – by sipping slowly with a slight ‘slurp’ to aerate the liquid on my palate – I can really taste the chocolate. So, I’m not saying that the chocolate notes are too delicate, I’m just saying that when taking a casual sip, they aren’t as noticeable as when I’m really trying to focus on what flavors I’m experiencing with this tea.
The black tea is also tasted in this. It’s not an aggressive flavor, but it’s tasted. It’s smooth and brisk. No bitterness and I’m not detecting any astringency either. It’s just smooth and pleasant. It isn’t a particularly bold tasting tea, but it isn’t something I’d call muted or even drab. I think it’s offering just the right amount of flavor for this particular blend: allowing the flavors of the blueberry cordial to shine through while still reminding me that I’m drinking black tea.
Overall, I think that this blend is a win. It might not be my favorite to come from Southern Boy Teas, but it’s one that I wouldn’t mind having again. I enjoyed it!
Candy Cane Flavored Iced White Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Don’t let the simplicity of this flavor fool you: this is a blend of our premium organic shou mei white tea fannings with organic peppermint candy cane flavors and it does not disappoint. Believe me when I say, you’ll have a hard time keeping this tea in your refrigerator.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
After having tried the Candy Cane Iced Black Tea from SBT last year and loving it, I had really high expectations for this white tea version. Unfortunately, it fell a little short of the expectations I had.
Oh, this is still a really tasty iced tea. It’s just not as amazing as I remember the black tea version. Then again, it could be that my expectations were too high, so this was not going to reach those heights.
But this is – as I said – quite tasty. The white tea is light and I like the crisp, refreshing flavor. It has a sweet flavor that’s airy and hay-like and very fresh tasting.
This fresh taste melds well with the cool notes of the minty candy cane flavor. It’s not just “minty” – there is a light sweetness in there too so this tastes more like a white tea flavored with a candy cane than it does a white tea flavored with peppermint. There are hints of vanilla and a soft, almost ‘candy-like’ sweetness in there. I like that I’m getting this really delicious sweetness but it isn’t too sweet.
It’s a tasty tea. That said, if I’m going to be shopping for a candy cane iced tea, I’d probably be putting the black tea version in my cart before I’d grab the white tea version.
Please take a minute to check out Southern Boy Teas’ Indiegogo campaign and support this small business – help them take their business even further.
Gingerbread Flavored Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
This is a crowd pleaser. Order this today and offer your Thanksgiving dinner guests an awesome caffeine-free treat with organic flavors of gingerbread and a hint of cream cheese frosting. This is a real treat and likely to go fast. Do not miss out on this one.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Gingerbread is not something I eat often. I like some gingerbread, but most that I find tends to be a little on the wimpy side with no real ginger flavor. An exception to that is the gingerbread that I’ve tasted from Nikki’s Cookies. Good stuff.
But a lot of the gingerbread that you can buy in the grocery stores (about a month ago, you couldn’t walk into a grocery store without seeing a “gingerbread house kit.” And most of that stuff tastes like it was made from cardboard. No real ginger flavor – it’s as if the ginger that they use in the recipe is ground ginger that had been sitting on the shelf since Christmas in 1990. Boring flavor with no ginger kick.
So I’m hoping this tea will give me the kind of gingerbread flavor I want!
I hot-brewed this tea. I brought a quart of water to 195°F and dropped the sachet into the kettle and let it steep for 9 minutes. Then I strained the liquid into my favorite half gallon iced tea pitcher and repeated the process: heated a quart of water – 195°F – and put the same sachet into the kettle. This time, I let it steep for 11 minutes. Then I let the pitcher come to room temperature before I stashed it in the refrigerator to cool overnight.
Today, I have a pitcher full of gingerbread tea! Well, I guess I should say, I did have a pitcher full of gingerbread tea. Now I have about 1 glassful of tea remaining at the bottom of the pitcher and that glassful will be consumed soon!
This has a nice ginger flavor. The ginger is subtle but present in every sip. It doesn’t have a strong, peppery zing from the ginger, but there’s enough ginger in there to know that you’re tasting ginger. And there’s a pleasant sweetness, almost molasses-y, and that’s something I want to taste with gingerbread too.
This is sweet and enjoyable without being cloying. The ginger cuts through enough of the sweetness to keep it from tasting too sweet. The honeybush is a good base for the gingerbread flavors because the nutty and honey-esque flavors of the honeybush really tie in well with the overall gingerbread concept.
If I’m to offer any “complaint” about this tea, it would be that I want a little more “buttery/pastry” like flavor. That – it would seem – has become a common complaint of mine about some of the baked good flavor teas that 52Teas/Southern Boy Teas/Zoomdweebies has been producing as of late. I’m just not getting the buttery/pastry-like flavor that I’ve come to love from some of 52Teas’ classic flavors like their Pancake Breakfast tea. I think that would make this taste more like a gingerbread cookie.
That said, I found this iced tisane to be enjoyable. I like the flavor of the ginger and the molasses notes are quite delightful. It’s not my favorite iced tea selection from Southern Boy Teas, but it’s tasty and refreshing. The fact that the half gallon pitcher is nearly empty after it being in the refrigerator for less than a day should be testament to the fact that I enjoyed the flavor and it is very easy to drink.
Please take a moment to check out Frank’s Kickstarter campaign! He’s looking to take Southern Boy Teas to new heights and the fundraising effort will help get him started in the right direction! Please help this small business!
Peaches & Cream Iced Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium Organic green tea with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about how to subscribe to Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I had high hopes for this particular flavor of iced tea from Southern Boy Teas. The idea of a Peaches & Cream iced green tea sounded oh so yummy!
Unfortunately, I don’t get a strong peach or cream flavor from this one. Not while it’s cold, anyway. I found that after the tea came to room temperature, rather than cold, right out of the fridge, the flavors developed a little bit.
Which was kind of a disappointment, because hey, let’s face it, we drink iced tea because we’re looking for a chilled beverage, right?
The green tea is a light tasting green tea with soft buttery notes. These buttery notes do accentuate the cream flavor, but only slightly. Slight vegetal tones to the green tea. It’s a light and fresh tasting green tea – enjoyable.
As I mentioned earlier, I found the peach to be very difficult to discern when the tea is served cold. I keep the glass of iced tea sitting out on the counter for about fifteen or twenty minutes for the temperature to get out of the “chilly” and a little closer to “room temperature” before I drink it now, because it’s at this temperature that it tastes best. The cream notes are a little easier to discern than the peach, it’s a soft, vanilla-y note and it’s nice.
It’s a pleasant enough iced tea but I enjoyed several other green iced teas from Southern Boy Teas much more than I enjoyed this one. Good … but not great.
To brew: I used the “hot brew” method, heating 1 quart of freshly filtered water to 170°F and steeping for 1 1/2 minutes. Then I poured the brewed tea into my tea pitcher and resteeped the pouch again, 1 quart of water, 170°F and 2 minutes. Then I combined the two quarts of brewed tea together and chilled them in refrigerator until cold.
Spiced Orange Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Premium Organic black tea with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! This tastes like a “holiday” tea blend – only iced! It has a great flavor with the warm spices and the burst of orange. It’s a little sweet and a little spicy and I love the way the bright citrus notes perk up the flavors of the spices.
The black tea base is flavorful and has a refreshing yet bold, brisk flavor. This isn’t your average black tea that you’ll find in the yellow, white and red box in the supermarket. (You know which tea I’m talking about, don’t you?) You can taste the quality in this tea.
It isn’t overly spiced. But I can definitely taste clove and cinnamon. The photo above shows star anise but I don’t taste it. I don’t really taste a strong presence of any spice – it’s more like a zesty medley of spices to add some depth to the iced tea.
I like the way the spices accent the vibrant orange taste. Like the spices, the orange isn’t overdone. There is a really good contrast between juicy orange flavor, lively spices, and brisk tea notes.
It may not be as unusual as “cotton candy” or “garlic toast” iced tea but this is a tasty, flavorful, refreshing iced tea that will quench the thirst and it has a certain holiday flair to it, making it seem quite alright to be drinking iced tea when it’s chilly outside! This is something that I’ve started doing over the last few years – keeping a pitcher of iced tea in my fridge even in the cooler months. A few years ago, I limited my iced tea brewing to the warm months when I really needed some cold drink waiting for me in refrigerator, but now I’ve come to embrace drinking both hot and cold teas year ’round.
And this tea would be great any time of year!