Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Creamy raspberry, orange and lime sherbet in an iced tea, from our Southern Boy Teas collection. This is a great blend of finely processed (CTC) Indian black tea blended with organic flavors and sealed in an oversized teabag. Each individually packaged teabag will yield 2-quarts (a full gallon if you re-steep) of the best iced tea you’ve ever had.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is my first iced tea of 2015! I tried this one for the first time last summer, and it was so good I went back straightaway for another pouch. I was a bit of a Southern Boy Teas doubter at first, because I didn’t see how tea could taste of ice cream or sherbet, jello or bubblegum. Somehow, though, they do, and this one is no exception.
I brewed this one up the way I usually do – the bag gets 2 minutes in 1/4 litre of boiling water, which is then topped up to 1.8 litres with cold water and put in the fridge overnight. I usually drink half a jug a day (so just under a litre), and as the tea bag is good for a second brewing, these teas represent great value for money. More important than that, though, is the flavour! This one is out of this world! The sherbet is creamy, fruity, and even a little effervescent tasting. I can detect flavours of raspberry, orange, lemon and lime by turns, although they’re not particularly distinct. Just tiny flashes that skip across my taste buds and are gone. Ultimately, the individual fruit flavours merge together into a generically sherbet-y taste. However it’s done, it’s truly amazing.
It’s also worth mentioning that the black base here, although remaining firmly in the background, is beautifully smooth, and neither too heavy or too light for the flavourings. It gives the tea a decent amount of body, so you know that’s what you’re drinking, but it’s never overpowering, and it’s not at all bitter of astringent.
To sum up my thoughts, then: this tea is magic. You need to try some.
Mango Sherbet Flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Learn more about Southern Boy Teas here.
Check out Southern Boy Teas’ Kickstarter Campaign to raise funds to attend the ASD Trade Show in Las Vegas.
Taster’s Review:
I was excited when I saw this flavor added to the Southern Boy Teas line, because I remembered the yummy Mango Ice Cream flavor that 52Teas had as their tea of the week some time ago, and I was hoping that this would be similar to that. That tea was seriously yummy!
And so is this Iced Tea flavor from SBT! The mango is a strong flavor and it’s sweet and fruity. There is a creamy element to the flavor as well, and I like the way this melds with the black tea notes to create a malty, creamy, refreshing black tea flavor.
This iced tea is so delicious! It tastes like someone melted a scoop of mango sherbet in my glass of iced tea! It’s sweet and mango-ish, with just the right notes of creaminess, but these flavors don’t overpower the brisk flavor of the black tea. The creaminess does soften the “edge” of the tea just slightly without overwhelming the ‘black tea’ flavor that I’m looking for when I pour myself a glass of iced tea.
This iced tea flavor from SBT is a real winner!
Frank (the chief Zoomdweebie at 52Teas and Southern Boy Teas) is trying to raise enough money to set up a display at the ASD Trade Show in Las Vegas, which is to take place very soon. This kind of exposure will really help his company take off. Please consider helping this small business become a big success by donating to their Kickstarter campaign. Thank you!
Southern Boy Teas Series, Part 1: Rainbow Sherbet from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
About the Southern Boy Tea Line of Iced Tea:
While I thoroughly enjoy crafting a new blend every week for 52teas, and while I realize that my customer base is comprised largely of enlightened individuals who appreciate loose leaf teas, I also know that there are scads more iced tea drinkers out there who have no desire to be bothered with the intricacies of anything that’s not already packaged in a tea bag.
For that reason, we are now launching a new brand, Southern Boy Teas, devoted entirely to premium iced teas in tea bags. Someday, we would like to be the Jones Soda of iced tea, offering truly unique flavors and premium teas. To begin, we’ve created eight blends of unique and amazing teas, all crafted with the finest ingredients we could find.
Learn more about Southern Boy Iced Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I ordered one of each of the new flavors to the Southern Boy Teas line, except for this one. This one I ordered two, because I wanted to experiment with hot-brewing vs. cold-brewing, and as this was one of my very favorite flavors from 52Teas, I knew I wouldn’t mind tasting this one twice!
The first time I brewed it, I brewed it hot, using a quart of boiling water, and steeping for 3 minutes. I then removed the teabag, poured the hot tea into my pitcher, and added another quart of fresh water, and chilled it overnight. The next day, I had a pitcher full of delicious iced tea that was refreshing and tasted almost like the Rainbow Sherbet tea from last year. Almost… but not quite. The original was definitely much more memorable … but I wasn’t disappointed, because this was still very good, and it got me to wondering how good the cold-brewed batch would be.
Cold-brewing is even simpler than hot-brewing with this tea, because 52Teas put them into large tea bags. These tea bags are very roomy – lots of space for the tea to expand so there’s no worry about loss of flavor. I dropped the teabag into my new glass iced tea pitcher and added 2 quarts of freshly filtered water, sealed the lid and stashed it in the refrigerator overnight.
The result: PURE awesomeness! THIS is the Rainbow Sherbet tea I remember from last year. Sweet and fruity, with a touch of creaminess… just as if I had dropped a scoop of rainbow sherbet into my tea and it melted.
Seriously, iced tea doesn’t get much better than this!
On The Fourth Day of Christmas, 52Teas Sent to Me…
Back in October (I think?), 52Teas posted in the Steepster Forums asking which teas that “we” Steepsterites would like to see in the 12 Days of Christmas Sampler. I responded that I’d like to see my Tomato, Basil and Black Pepper blend in there (and I would still like that!), and then went on to list some that I thought he’d include as well as some of my favorites.
This tea – today’s tea – happened to be on that list. Yay!
So … for the Fourth Day of Christmas, 52Teas sent to me …
RAINBOW SHERBET FLAVORED BLACK TEA
If you’ve been keeping up with my reviews of 52Teas this past summer, you know that they had a couple of iced tea series … and those were great. But NONE of them made as good an iced tea as this. In fact, I think that this may just be my #1 favorite iced tea.
It is also very good hot. It has the flavors of lime, orange and raspberry, as well as a hint – the faintest hint – of vanilla to give it a sense of creaminess. And it tastes as though someone put a scoop of rainbow sherbet in my black tea and let it melt. So incredibly YUM!
Here is the review I wrote for this tea back in August. It is as good now as it was back then!
Ho! Ho! Ho! This is shaping up to be a great 12 Days of Christmas sampler!
Rainbow Sherbet from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Product Description:
We’ve blended our premium Indian black teas with real freeze-dried orange sections, freeze-dried raspberries and natural lime, orange and raspberry flavors (with just a touch of natural vanilla flavor to give it that smooth sherbet essence).
This tea SMELLS simply INCREDIBLE, like you just popped open a carton of rainbow sherbet, and the flavor is like someone melted a scoop of rainbow sherbet in your tea. Lime, orange, raspberry–who knew such an unusual combination would prove to be so delicious?
Taster’s Review:
The moment I tore open the pouch of this tea, I was blown away! This smells AMAZING! Not like amazing, but Ahhhh-MAZ-ing! But, I must disagree with the above description about the aroma, because this smells way better than any rainbow sherbet I’ve ever opened. It smells like rainbow sherbet times 10!
And it tastes as incredible as it smells. I brewed my first cup of this to drink hot, because I generally taste all teas hot first. Then I brewed a pitcher full of it to enjoy for iced tea the next day. And as stunning as it is hot, I like this one better iced – it is so refreshing and delicious.
Everything is in pleasing harmony with this tea. The combination of black teas (52Teas uses a blend of Nilgiri and Assam as their base) is strong and delicious; it melds well with the fruit flavors.
The fruit flavors are very well balanced: while I can taste notes of raspberry, lime and orange, they aren’t too aggressive and they do not attempt to overpower each other. The raspberry is sweet with a berry tartness, the lime is citrus-y sour, and the orange is sweet and juicy. YUM!
The vanilla note is very slight here, it is more of a slight creaminess and sweetness rather than a strong vanilla essence, and it does give the overall cup a sherbet/dessert-y kind of taste.
This is definitely another winner from 52Teas. I absolutely LOVE this one!