Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
What’s better than eating a tub of cookie dough? Drinking an awesome organic iced tea with accents of organic cookie dough flavors and zero calories!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
So, I was really excited to learn about this tea! Cookie Dough iced tea? Yum!
But I was a little skeptical too, because I wondered how well the idea of cookie dough would translate to an iced tea. But if anyone could do it, Frank at Zoomdweebies could do it!
And this is really tasty. It took a few sips of the tea for my palate to get used to the idea that it was drinking cookie dough. But once those flavors developed on my palate, I really found it difficult to stop sipping! I’m on my third glass of this tea now, and it’s almost gone!
It’s sweet and I taste the buttery flavors of the dough. I also taste hints of a brown sugar like sweetness and hints of chocolate. These flavors meld nicely with the brisk flavor of the black tea base.
To brew: I used the hot brew method (I usually do with iced teas that I’m going to be reviewing because I feel that this is the best way to get the flavor from the tea so that I can offer the best and “most accurate” review I can.) I heated 1 quart of water to boiling and then steeped the large tea pouch for 2 minutes. I poured the hot tea into my favorite tea pitcher and then repeated the process, heating another quart of water to boiling and resteeping the pouch for 2 1/2 minutes. Then I combined both quarts of tea in my pitcher and I let the temperature drop to room temperature before stashing it in the fridge.
It is a sweet iced tea so I’d advise caution if you are one who sweetens the whole pitcher of tea as you’re making it. Maybe either go a little lighter on the sweetener or better yet, don’t sweeten it and maybe make a simple sugar syrup to sweeten it if you decide it needs a little something. I didn’t sweeten this at all and it tastes great served unsweetened.
A really yummy iced tea. Now, I’m looking forward to the “hot tea” version of this from 52Teas! (That’s your cue, Frank.)
Cotton Candy Honeybush Iced Tea From Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Our cotton candy iced teas have been a big hit, so I decided we really should have a caffeine-free, honeybush version.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the cotton candy teas that Zoomdweebies creates. So I was confident that I’d enjoy this one too.
And I do.
I way, way oversteeped this – but because it’s a honeybush blend, I wasn’t worried. When I say “way, way oversteeped” what I mean is that I infused 1 quart of water with the sachet for over 30 minutes.
I forgot to set my timer and I stepped away and then I looked at the clock a half an hour later and remembered that I had this tea steeping! Yikes!
But again, no worries. And no bitterness. Honeybush just doesn’t get bitter. The same is true of rooibos. However, I’ve found that if you use too hot of water to steep either one, the leaves may impart a funky, sour wood kind of flavor that I don’t really enjoy. But since I heated the water to 195°F rather than boiling, I didn’t have to worry about that funky flavor either.
The sweet, sugary cotton candy flavor is strong and I like it with the honeybush base. The lightly sweet flavor of the honeybush highlights the sweet candy notes. I don’t taste a strong nutty or woodsy note from the honeybush. I taste some background flavors of the honeybush, but it doesn’t overpower the fluffy notes of cotton candy.
This flavor works really well with the honeybush, in fact, I think that I might prefer the honeybush base to either the black tea or the green tea versions of cotton candy iced teas from Southern Boy Teas!
Another yummy iced tea. Very refreshing!
Apple Harvest Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
If this doesn’t put you in the mood for fall, I can’t help you. This awesome iced tea is a blend of organic southern Indian black teas and organic red delicious and granny smith apple flavors. It’s a bit sweet, a bit tart and all refreshing.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve been drinking this periodically throughout the day, and when I was pouring past the half-way point of the pitcher of tea, I realized that I better sit down and write about it before I have an empty pitcher of tea and no tea left to write about!
That is to say, it’s tasty. I like that it’s sweet but not cloying. When I focus on what I taste, I can recognize the apple notes. When I’m casually sipping, I don’t immediately notice that “hey, I’m drinking an apple tea.” I just notice that “hey, this tastes really good.” But then when I reach the bottom of the glass of tea, my last gulp is very obviously apple.
The apple notes and the black tea notes work together extremely well. The black tea tastes smoother. It’s a medium-bodied black tea base that’s very pleasant to drink. It has a certain “invigorating” quality to it without being even the slightest bit aggressive, bitter or astringent. It is smooth and silky and very refreshing.
The apple tastes sweet and there’s just enough tartness to the apple to add a balancing contrast to the flavor. It’s not an overly flavored tea – this is a tea first and an apple-y tasting tea second.
I have to admit that when this tea was announced on the week of October 13, I wasn’t all that excited about it. I mean, it sounded good and if I wasn’t already a subscriber, I probably would have ordered the tea to try it. But, was I dancing the happy dance over the idea of Apple Harvest Iced Tea? No, no I wasn’t. But now, I’m dancing that happy dance. Because this tea is really good! I ended up liking this much more than I thought I would. Yum!
Strawberry Pina Colada Flavored Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium Organic black tea with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
As one who doesn’t drink a lot of alcohol, I can’t say that I’ve ever tasted a Strawberry Pina Colada. But this flavor combination – in a black tea! – is tasty.
The aroma of the dry tea smells strongly of strawberry and coconut. The pineapple is noticeable as well. I could even detect just a hint of rum. The brewed tea doesn’t have as strong a scent as the dry tea, but I can still smell coconut notes and hints of strawberry.
The strawberry really comes through in the flavor. I can taste the strawberry right from the beginning of the sip, and that flavor remains throughout the sip and into the aftertaste. I get that familiar berry tingle on the tongue in the aftertaste.
The coconut is the next flavor I really notice. It adds a delicious creamy flavor to the tea. The pineapple is probably the least noticeable of the fruit flavors in this, but, I taste it at mid-sip and I pick up more pineapple-y notes toward the finish.
As for the rum notes, I can taste them but I find them to be rather faint. I find them to be most noticeable when I focus on the flavors.
Overall, a really tasty iced tea. It’s sweet, but there are some interesting contrasts to keep it from being cloying. I am enjoying this.
Black Currant Flavored Iced White Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Now THIS is the good stuff. Don’t let the uncomplicated, single flavor of this tea give you the impression that is is some humdrum tea. This is a BEAUTIFUL blend of premium shou mei fannings with organic black currant flavors. This is a crowd-pleaser and a thirst-quencher. You’re going to want a few of these, trust me.
Learn more about this iced tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to SBT’s tea of the week here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! I was so excited to try the first White Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas. And it looks like SBT chose one of my favorite white tea creations from 52Teas to work with, the Black Currant Bai Mu Dan! The 52Teas blend tasted amazing iced and this does too!
Of course, this Black Currant White Iced Tea was made with a Shou Mei base rather than a Bai Mu Dan so it’s a little different right from the off. But this is still every bit as refreshing as I remember that tea tasting. Tart black currant flavor that contrasts with the sweet white tea base. These two components were made for one another!
The Shou Mei is also a stronger tasting tea than a typical Bai Mu Dan. It’s sweet and hay-like. I like the crisp, airy flavor that reminds me of the way the air tastes after a hay cutting. You have to be out where they cut hay to experience that, of course. I grew up in such a place. Or, if you don’t want to take a drive out to the country, you can just brew a pitcher of this iced tea and get some of that same flavor in a glass.
Actually, I think that the iced tea is better than the air in the country. The air in the country can sometimes also smell a bit like the cows and horses that eat the hay. And that’s not my favorite smell.
To brew this tea, I went with the hot brew method. I heated 1 quart of water in the kettle of my tea maker to 160°F and then dropped the sachet into the water and let it steep for 2 1/2 minutes. The parameters on the package suggest “not more than 90 seconds” but 90 seconds just didn’t seem long enough for me at such a low temperature. So I made the decision to go with a little more time and I’m glad I did. I’m really happy with the resulting flavor! For the second quart, I resteeped the sachet for 3 minutes. I combined both quarts in my iced tea pitcher and stashed it in the ice box.
After several hours of cool time, I am left with a pitcher full of yummy black currant iced tea. I love the white tea base. It’s crisp and refreshing. I look forward to the other white tea creations that SBT comes up with!