Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: English Tea Shop
Tea Description:
Spicy Anise: Black tea, ginger pieces, cloves and star anise with ginger, mint and anise flavours.
Taster’s Review:
The ingredient list of this Spicy Anise Black Tea Blend from English Tea Shop shows a variety of spices that are reminiscent of a chai blend, however, the flavor is more like a warm, slightly spicy and minty tea rather than a chai. The anise is not as prevalent as I would like it to be, especially when considering the name of the tea. The name suggests to me that I’m going to have a strong anise-y tasting tea, but, the anise is not as dominant as the mint is in this blend.
The other spices – ginger and clove – are very subtle and offer a warm background note. The black tea base almost seems lost in the presence of the other flavors here. Oh, I can still taste the black tea, but it is a little too mellow in my opinion. I think a bold black tea base as well as a stronger presence of anise would make this a tea worthy of a name called “Spicy Anise.”
This is a bit disappointing, really. I was hoping for more from this blend.
Winter Fire Guayusa Blend from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Guayusa
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Spice things up with our Winter Fire guayusa. We started out with a generous amount of cinnamon then ground up some whole chilies and added a touch of cayenne to our guayusa base. The result is a cinnamon flavor that packs some heat with a smooth molasses undertone. This guayusa works well without sugar; however, add a little sugar for a flavor that resembles red hot candy.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! This Winter Fire Guayusa Blend from Butiki Teas has got some SERIOUS kick to it! I doubt anyone could accuse this tisane of wimping out – it brings the heat, and then turns it up … way up! If this winter weather has left you feeling cold, just brew yourself a cup of this tisane and it will warm you right up!
But, as the description suggests, there is a smooth molasses undertone to it too. Once your palate gets past that striking heat, there are some really delightful flavors to explore.
The fiery heat from the cayenne, chilies and cinnamon sort of mask the coffee-ish flavors of the guayusa at first, but as I continue to sip on this, I start to notice those coffee notes. There is a sweet, molasses-like flavor to the cup as well.
The prominent flavors are – quite obviously – the spices of this tisane. It’s a little jarring at first, just how spicy this is, but, once your mouth begins to get used to the heat, you’ll find you’re able to explore the other notes and you’ll find that there’s more to this than just the spice.
Those who can’t handle spicy-hot … this is not a tisane for you. This is for those who like it hot!
Spicy Orange Rooibos Blend from Tea of Life
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Learn more about Tea of Life and Amazon Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this Spicy Orange Rooibos Blend from Tea of Life as part of the African Rooibos Tea Collection Gift Set. It includes 12 tea sachets with four different varieties (3 of each variety): the Spicy Orange that I’m trying today, as well as Original Spice, Passion Fruit Mango and unflavored Rooibos. I’ll review the other flavors at another time. But for this evening, I was in the mood for an orange spiced tisane … and this seemed to fit the bill.
This has a really lovely orange and spice flavor. The orange tastes sweet and a little tangy, and the spices are warm. This isn’t a spicy tisane, it’s gentle and warm.
The sweetness of the rooibos comes through too, it’s almost a honey-esque note that reminds me more of honeybush than rooibos, and since I tend to prefer honeybush over rooibos, I’m not complaining one bit about that. The sometimes sour wood taste of rooibos isn’t there, and I’m not complaining about that either. I taste a light nutty tone in the background, and that, along with the aforementioned honey note, is all that I taste from the rooibos.
Mostly what I taste here is the orange and spice. It’s a treat to sip on a chilly evening like tonight!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Spicy Tortilla Green Tea Infused Sipping Broth from Millie’s Savory Teas
Product Information:
Leaf Type: Green
About This Product:
A zesty blend of chipotle pepper, spices and green tea. The flavor and spice of a Mexican Sopa.
To Learn more about this Millie’s Savory Teas, click here.
To Subscribe to Love with Food, click here.
Taster’s Review:
I was excited to try this savory “tea” because I’ve enjoyed the other green tea infused sipping broths that I’ve tried from Millie’s Savory Teas. I felt confident that I’d also enjoy this Spicy Tortilla.
I could smell the spices of this tea the moment I opened the package! It smells like Mexican Food! YUM!
Oh, this is tasty! As I’ve mentioned in the first paragraph, I’ve tried a couple of other tea infused sipping broths from Millie’s – you can read my review for the Indian Spice sipping broth here, and for the Tomato Basil sipping broth here. If you were to ask me before tasting them which of these three I think I’d prefer, without a moment’s hesitation, I would have said the Tomato Basil. But as it turns out, the Tomato Basil is my least favorite of the three. This one might just be my favorite thus far.
It has a nice amount of spice to it, but this isn’t so spicy that it has me running to the kitchen for a glass of water to cool my tongue. It’s zesty, warm and delicious, much like a tortilla soup that I might order at my favorite Mexican Food restaurant. I can taste notes of chipotle, garlic, tomato and onion. All that’s missing, really, is strips of tortilla chips!
Oh … and the green tea is missing, too. As I’ve mentioned in my reviews of the other savory teas, the green tea is difficult to detect in these sipping broths. Of the three, I think I tasted more green tea in the Indian Spice. There isn’t a whole lot of green tea flavor to this.
That is my one big complaint about these blends. I find myself wishing there was more green tea so that I can actually think of it as a “tea.” It’s a bit like adding a little bit of tea to my soup … I’m still eating soup, not drinking tea. That’s what’s happening here too. I’m sipping broth, not tea.
It’s still really tasty, though, and something I’d sip again.
Napalm Ferret Green Tea Blend from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
I apologize if this disappoints anyone, but this week’s tea tastes like neither napalm nor ferrets. And no animals were harmed in the manufacture of the tea.
Instead, what we have here is a tea blend from the warped imagination of one of our former tea bar customers. I’m honestly not sure exactly what it means or why it was so important to him, but then, that’s kind of the way a lot of the conversations at Zoomdweebie’s went for me–a bit over my head: like, outer space over my head. But that’s okay.
After explaining to me that he really wanted me to make a Napalm Ferret tea, Joe and I sat down to determine what exactly would constitute a Napalm Ferret tea. He decided right away that it needed to be a gunpowder base, with bananas because ferrets like bananas, I guess. It also needed cinnamon chips and just a touch of cayenne pepper. And that is how Napalm Ferret tea was born.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about Zoomdweebie’s fundraising campaign to reopen the Tea Bar here.
Taster’s Review:
I found this Napalm Ferret Green Tea Blend from 52Teas to be … entertaining … before I even opened the pouch. I started laughing out loud when I read the label, which reads:
*NOT flavored like ferret or napalm.
No animals were harmed making this tea.
This is one of the reasons why I love getting tea from 52Teas – Frank is a real person and he has a great sense of humor. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he makes tea … FUN! And since I spend a great deal of time drinking tea … I want it to be fun.
And this is a fun blend. The aroma of the dry leaf is primarily cinnamon, but I smell notes of banana, as well as the cayenne and the green tea … and these components alter the cinnamon-y notes just enough to offer what I’ll call a skewed cinnamon scent. Skewed … but I like it!
And I really like how it tastes! The cinnamon and cayenne work together to offer a burn in the back of the throat that starts off soft and builds gradually. By mid-cup, the sensation in the back of my throat is a very warm burn … but it burns so good!
And the banana … I like that it’s there. It offers a soft, sweet fruity note that offers a pleasing distinction between the heat from the cinnamon and cayenne pepper. The green tea is light and delicately sweet, with hints of a background “smoke” that enhances the overall “napalmishness” of this cup. (Yes, napalmishness is a word, I just made it up for the purposes of this review as I could think of no other word that worked quite as effectively as napalmishness. Hey, I’m a tea reviewer, trust me, I know what I’m doing!)
If I could offer any constructive criticism of this tea, it would be that I think I’d like just a little bit more banana to this. Just a little bit more. I can taste the banana and I like the way it comes through here, but, I think … just a little bit more would be nice. However, I found myself quite satisfied with how this tea turned out … I really like it.
At the end of my reviews of teas from 52Teas lately, I’ve been including a bit about the fundraising campaign to reopen Zoomdweebies. But, this time, I think I’m going to include a bit written by Frank himself, found on the notes about this tea:
If you would like to support our effort to reopen Zoomdweebie’s Tea Bar, so that creative minds like Joseph’s can continue to thrive in a groovy environment like our tea bar, PLEASE visit our crowd-funding campaign page via the link above. Alternatively, if you think folks like Joseph should not be left freely wandering the streets, PLEASE support our crowd-funding effort so we can corral him with the rest of the freaks and geeks that make up Zoomdweebie’s. We promise, they’ll likely spend a lot of time at the tea bar and less time wandering the streets thinking about napalm ferrets and quoting Charlie the Unicorn.
I hope you’ll help them keep this dude off the streets of Wichita. I’m sure that the citizens of Wichita will thank you too!