Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane
Where to Buy: Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices, and Herbs
Tea Description:
Peaches, hibiscus, apple bits, elderberries, and sunflower petals with peach cream flavor.
Time: 10-12 minutes; Temperature: 203-212⁰F: 1-2 level tsp./6 oz serving
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Peach Melba from Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices, and Herbs is a sweet, tangy, treat.
I want to address the hibiscus in this blend. Its done so well! I am not one to favor hibiscus in any amount. I see no need for it 99% of the time, however in this blend it actually does something good! To begin, it provides the right amount of tart to make this rather sweet tea balanced. Secondly, it does not cover all the other flavors in the tisane.
Often times I think tea companies add hibiscus because it is so inexpensive and helps to expand the blend, however in this case Mahamosa has done right by this blend.
The peach flavor comes through nicely and the creamy flavor is present. The apple flavors taste as if they were fresh apples picked right from the teas in an orchard! The elderberries, which I love, happen to have a very fresh and slightly tart flavor too but that is okay because there is a deep sweetness in this tea that needs a dash of sour, and tart to help it stay down to earth.
If you enjoy this tea hot you simply must try some on ice! It is something I can see myself serving in place of juice this summer and far more healthy!
Vanilla Dream Tea from Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices & Herbs
Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where to Buy:
Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices, & Herbs
Product Description:
An intense vanilla taste blends harmoniously with a select black tea blend, to produce a creamy heavenly tea. Ingredients: Black tea, flavoring, vanilla pieces.
http://www.mahamosa.com/teabar/en/black-tea/flavored-scented-blended/vanilla-dream.html
Tasters Review:
Dry this smells pretty awesome…a really wonderful vanilla aroma. Once I started infusing it morphed a little. It was like a vanilla/cream combo with a bit of fragrant aroma sort of like a body spray or perfume type smell.
The taste is vanilla/cream and a little floral – almost like a jasmine-type taste eventho I really doubt there is any jasmine in this flavor but I’m picking up a little something regardless!
After really trying to ‘think’ about the after taste of this I finally realized what it was…it was the black tea base – it’s strong and malty with hints of cocoa powder almost…which linger. There is a mysterious spec of smokiness, too, in the black tea base. With all of these tasting-features it makes for a unique combo – one that I doubt I have ever had in a vanilla flavored black tea before. That, in itself, I appreciate.
This is pretty good. Different than I was expecting, but good.
Toasta Rica from Mad Pots of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong, Mate, Ceylon, Rooibos Blend
Where to Buy: Mad Pots of Tea
Tea Description:
If You Were a Tea, What Would You Taste Like?
I’m sure this is a question you find yourself pondering almost daily…. If you want your own Custom Blend or “PersonaliTEA” Make My Blend!
Taster’s Review:
Mad Pots of Tea has a few select blends for sale on their site, but what is more important is that they make your custom blend for you based on a short but interesting survey that you take prior to their master blender Madam Potts taking over and mixing up your specialized tea!
It is all based on your likes, personality, and a answers to the survey. Its as if she profiles you!
My blend is called Toasta Rica because I love Costa Rica, and I like toasty teas. My tea came in a nice resealable brown paper bag which I believe is from recycled paper (love it) and a lovely card personalized by Madam Potts which reads:
Words of Inspiration from your form:
Rainforest, Autumn, Rich spice scents, Costa Rica, Full-Bodied, Mediative, Toasty, Aromatic, Fruity, Spicy, Exotic, Intense, Earth Tones.
Which basically means keywords I had put into the questionnaire I filled out when I began my journey on her site.
Also there is a note that my blend has never been created and will never be created for anyone else! It is a unique tea – just like me.
Of course I have big cheesy smiles all around now!
The ingredients of my blend include: Imperial Oolong, Mango Ceylon, Yerba Mate, Rooibos, Ginger Root, Sarsaparilla, Damiana, Allspice, Coriander, Cardamon, and Stevia.
I do love a good chai and this tea has a true chai flavor to it but one thing I notice when sipping this tea is a wonderful black pepper note that just dances on the tip of my tongue – I LOVE black pepper! It is a sweet tea that has just the right amount of fruit notes to it without being too fruity and cutting through the intense tones of what I call my renaissance tea!
While you can’t get my exact blend, of course without asking me for it, I just want to say how in love I am with my tea blend from Mad Pots of Tea and I want to encourage any tea lover to give her method of finding the perfect blend for you a try!
Turn around on your blend is not fast. I waited five weeks from the time of order to receiving it but I am fine with that as it seems there was time allowed for the flavors to meld and the true beauty of this tea to develop.
I am thrilled with my blend even though my head was not thinking chai-esque the fact is chai is one of my first tea loves! Not only is this a chai tea but an extremely excellent chai at that! I have several chai teas from many companies here but this one is supreme!
Somehow Madame Pots hit the nail on the head with this blend not forgetting I needed something a tad bit fruity to break the monotony of the chai spices! I love that oolong was used as a base, I am an oolong lover through and though but I also love that some mate was added as I always need to get my energy flowing! I do not feel that any of these flavor components, although there are many strong elements in this tea, take over. Each flavor is getting its time in the Toasta Rica sun! Oh yeah!
Thank you Madame Potts!
Life in Balance (Black Tea & Chai Spices) from Hari Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Hari Tea
Tea Description:
What is your body made of? In the most elementary sense: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. You probably don’t think too much about them, but if they get out of balance, you feel it. How do you feel? Why it’s elementary, my dear. Enjoy life in balance with black tea and just the right exotic blend of chai spices.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of this tea is delightful – I just love the scent of a well-blended chai! Spicy, heady, almost intoxicating! That’s what I’m getting from my teacup as the fragrance wafts from it.
The flavor is very nice. It is a nicely balanced spiced chai: it doesn’t taste too spicy, the spices taste warm and inviting, and the flavor of the black tea is present in each and every sip. It is well-rounded and has a spicy-sweet taste rather than the often overdone spicy-hot taste. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some zesty hot spices, but, I really admire how Hari Tea balanced the spices here so that they’d be warm and invigorating, but not too spicy. It allows for some of the natural earthy tones from the spices as well as the tea to express themselves – something that I don’t often experience with a spiced chai blend.
This tea also comes in the neatest little cotton muslin bags that appear to be hand sewn. Normally, I’m not a fan of bagged tea, but, I do like these bags. Because they’re made of fabric rather than paper, there is some “give” to the bag so that the tea can properly expand.
I find the tea to be quite soothing while it seems to restore me from the inside out. A very pleasant experience, indeed! I did not try this chai as a latte, mostly because I found it quite delicious served straight. A little milk or cream would give it a very pleasant creamy taste and make it almost dessert-like and I do enjoy a good chai latte! Perhaps next time!
Campfire Blend Tea from Whispering Pines Tea Company
Tea Type:
Black Tea/Rooibos Blend
Where To Buy:
Whispering Pines Tea Company
Product Description:
This is an amazing wake-up tea — A dark fiery blend that smells and tastes like it was pulled straight out of the rockies, Campfire Blend uses 11 different black teas as the base and mixes that with rooibos, orange peel and spices to create a taste and aroma unlike anything you could ever imagine…except for maybe the whisper of an ancient campfire and the cry of a lone wolf on a cool autumn night.
Tasters Review:
The Product Description states this has 11 different black teas? My attention was grabbed! Plus Rooibos? I was even MORE interested! AND Spices and Orange Peel? Let’s just say THIS blend had me at “Hello!”
When I asked Brenden which 11 black teas he used he told me he was sworn to secrecy – which I can totally understand and appreciate! BUT…then he told me (and let me pass it along to our readers) that Campfire Blend uses Glen Arbor Breakfast as the base tea. Glen Arbor Breakfast is made with 2 keemun teas, 7 ceylon teas, one lapsang souchong, and one assam. YUP! I’m totally excited about this blend!
It smells smoky and orange-E. The color of the liquor is that of a rooibos but also a medium-dark brown combined.
It’s smoky but not overly-so…not like a straight-up Lapsang Souchung but still very nice and fitting to the name. The mesh of 11 black teas in the base are interesting…something I have never tasted before! That I like and appreciate all of the thought that went into it.
I can taste the orange and it’s lovely. Again, not overpowering but I’m happy it’s present. The spices seem to mesh really well with each other as well as the black tea base. I can’t pick out one spice over the other(s)…it’s a nice combo – that’s for sure!
It’s earthy and woodsy…true to it’s name, too! It’s slightly sweet which is a nice surprise. It has a sweeter-maltiness to it, too! I REALLY like that!
It also has a very subtle taste of mineral/rock type taste…reminiscent of Wuyi Rock Oolong, perhaps.
I really like this because it is so different. Also because you can tell a lot of thought and work went into it. It certainly lives up to it’s name…CAMPFIRE BLEND.
I’ve had some really nice email conversations with Brenden at Whispering Pines and think Brenden is great! Whispering Pines has some wonderful offerings with creative combos and nifty names but the quality is top-notch as is the customer service! The email correspondence is great and I can’t wait to write another review for one of their teas! Stay Tuned!