Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Rooibos/Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Fusion Teas
Tea Description:
This unique combination merges tangy pomegranate and sweet melon into a surprisingly complex tea. Every sip takes you on a journey of flavors that is sure to intrigue and delight.
Tasting Notes:
candied apple, rainforest, campfire
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Let’s start this review off with talking about how gorgeous this blend is. I love the pops of bright colors. Just makes the tea blend so warm and inviting. The aroma I get from the dry leaf is the same. Sweet and alluring. From the beginning, I’ve got high hopes for this tea.
Brewed this tea up like an herbal- 5 minutes at 212F and just let the aroma take me away. This tea reminds me of summer. Summer pool parties and the beach. The melon fragrance is very prominent, giving you that summer feel. After the five minutes was up, I took my first sip.
This tea has such a lovely melon flavor. Melon in tea is hard to accomplish but they’ve done it with this blend. This reminds me more of a cross between watermelon and honey dew. Almost like the fruit you would see at a pool party. That is exactly what this tea tastes like. A huge bowl of fresh cantaloupe, watermelon, and honey dew. The pomegranate flavor is there but it is more in the background giving a slight tart contrast. The green rooibos is giving the tea an extra tang of sweetness while the yerba mate is bringing it back down with a grassy finish. This tea would be a phenomenal iced tea in the summer months or if you need to brighten up your day, this tea would definitely do it.
This may not be a tea I could see drinking everyday but I think this would be a great tea to serve at a party or over ice with some fresh berries in it while relaxing outside. Such a tasty treat!
Jungle Ju Ju Guayusa from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Guayusa
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
Head for the Ju Ju Jungle, made with a guayusa herb and fruit blend that’ll make you feel like swinging from the vines and hanging from the trees. No wonder. Guayusa contains a combo of the natural stimulants also found in green tea and dark chocolate. People claim it protects you against snake bites, gives you courage, and helps you spiritually connect to nature. With its smooth flavour and natural buzz, we’ll just say it makes for a deliciously stimulating cup of tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Uh-oh.
So I picked up some of this a couple weeks ago ’cause I had sipped down Main Squeeze (also from DT), which has been a cupboard staple of mine for daily use a little over a year now, and I wanted to switch things up a little bit because drinking too much of the same thing can definitely get boring or begin to feel too routine. Well, I think I may have spent a year missing out because this was really, really good.
Overall I tend to prefer guayusa over mate; I like the wet, mossy, earthy flavour of guayusa a lot because it makes me think of petrichor so this tea already had that edge over Main Squeeze; dry it smells very fresh with a more raw, unrefined peach flavour. It’s not a soft, creamy peach: it’s peach fresh from the orchard with the skin and a bit of dirt. The papaya comes through in the scent as well, but it’s definitely not the focus despite the surplus of very large candied papaya pieces in the leaf.
And the taste was awesome; the guayusa was everything I could have asked it to be and the peach I got to experience in the dry smell translated perfectly into the taste. The papaya is stronger in the taste as well, and adds this lovely roundness to the flavour that highlights the peach, petrichor, and plush earthy notes as well as a tropical and exotic kind of vibe. And it tastes so fresh; it’s weird that it tastes both tropical and like it could’ve come fresh from a local orchard.
It’s sweet enough that I can’t ever see why you’d add anything to it but it’s still got a mellowness to it too. The mouthfeel was very full as well. I’m totally picturing myself drinking this on the walk to work and I think that’s an A+ idea. Really, I have zero complaints about this one other than my own idiocy for drinking it at 6PM and now being way too wide awake.
This could easily, and I predict will easily, make its way into my cupboard staples so long as it proves to provide a consistent brew. It’s not one of the fanciest/highest quality teas I own – but for every day drinking and that extra caffeine boost before going to work I think it’s perfect! Plus, it’s a totally fun summer kind of flavour!
Blueberry and Banana Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebie’s
Tea Description:
Premium Organic black tea with organic flavors. Each 14g teabag will make one 2-quart pitcher of DELICIOUS iced tea. Re-steep the teabag and you can get a full gallon out of each one. Steep in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. (3 minutes MAX.) Then combine with ice and water to make a 2-quart pitcher. It couldn’t be simpler–OR more delicious!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love me a Banana flavored tea. They are hard to find, especially ones that are not red rooibos flavored. So when I saw this one during one of the recent sales, I had to grab it.
SBT’s teas are pretty convenient. Fill a pitcher with water, throw the tea pouch in, and a few hours later you have yourself some iced tea. Pretty tasty iced tea too. They make 2 quarts to share or not to share with others. I chose the not to share route with this one.
The banana sadly in this one is more of a hint or a slight aftertaste. The black tea base shows through the most with the blueberry falling into second place. If I hadn’t know there was supposed to be banana flavoring in this, I would have just thought it was a blueberry tea. I was really hoping for more banana. But even with that, I can see this one being a purchase here and there. The blueberry flavor that is used I really enjoy.
I’ll have to pick more of this up in the summer months for get together and family time at my parents’ pool. I can see this one going over really well!
Apricot Meadow Herbal Tea from Plum Deluxe Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Tea Description:
One of the best parts of a monthly tea experience is to try unique blends; this month, see what happens when unexpected ingredients come together. Apricot + lemongrass? Who knew! Spicy, sweet, yet gentle.
Lemongrass is a very interesting herb – it really transforms flavor when it is paired with other flavors. It’s a lot of fun to experiment with – you can actually make it into a tea all on its own, but we think this combination is perfect excuse to slow down and laze on a sunny spring day. You’ve earned it!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Plum Deluxe’s subscription plan here.
Taster’s Review:
I have been wanting to do a tea subscription for a very long time but with not really digging red rooibos I was always leery of committing. Plus with some of the subscription plans you get a lot of tea and I am really the only one that drinks it in my house, so I wasn’t sure if my cupboard could handle the overflow. But I finally took a chance and decided I would check one out. I emailed a few companies with a few questions and Andy from Plum Deluxe was the first one to reply. I have asked him so many questions at this point, I bet he thinks I’m crazy.
I received my first package and it is adorable. Along with my 1 oz of the tea of the month, I also received a sample of another of their blends and a cute little reusable bag with the companies logo on it. I love tea mail days. I dug in right away.
The dry leaves definitely smell like a fresh apricot. Threw 2 tsps into my Breville, set it up to 212F and steep for 5 minutes.
This really is a beautifully and well done herbal tea. I highly recommend it. The sweetness is there and you can really taste the apricot. The honeybush really provides a great sweet addition. There is almost a spicy tang to it as well. But its gentle and warming. The package says its great iced so I tried the herbal that way as well. Same steeping parameters but added some ice. Wow. I can see this as being a great summer tea. The apricot and honey flavors are really pronounced maybe even more so than when I enjoyed this hot. I might have to hold off one drinking anymore and save it for later in the summer months. I’m excited to see what next month’s tea will be.
Lilac Blend from Strand Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Strand Tea Company
Tea Description:
Premium Black Teas from highland China blended with lilac flowers. This tea looks, smells, and tastes great.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Lilac Blend from Strand Tea Company has me just beaming with happiness. It is a beautiful sun shiny day outside, I am looking at my first flowers of the year, although they are daffodils, not lilacs, and dreamily sipping on such a delightful surprise! I love lilacs, they are so very fragrant and beautiful. This tea speaks to my sensibilities of summer, flowers, and yet there is a wonderful, surprising fruitiness as well. Mmmmm, so good!
I have to say I have never heard of Strand before a generous tea trade with a fellow Steepster but I am really glad to know of this company and am looking forward to exploring their site more throughly.
I have read on Steepster that this company sends a tea sample and a cookie with orders! WHAT? Okay this place may have me breaking my no order streak! Cookies and tea, YES PLEASE!
And then I saw the price of this tea. No its not a bad thing, rather shockingly good! 2 ounces for only 3.50 – are you kidding me? Wow what a bargain!
And the taste? Can it match up to all my self imposed hype? Why yes, it can! It is sweet – like honey, fruity, wonderful berry notes, almost a blueberry flavor but I get some deep red berry notes in here too. It tastes wine like, a bit like a blueberry mead tea.
The aroma is beautiful as well. This is a cup you just hold up under your nose and deeply inhale the aroma between sips. Gad this is good!
Lilac from Strand Tea Company has a full mouthfeel nearly creamy. Add a splash of milk and you have a dessert tea for sure, oh so creamy and delicious! The mouthfeel is surprisingly heavy for what one would think is a light dainty tea. This tea has some heft to it.
A perfect tea for younger ones too! I could easily see this being the hit at a tea party for young and old alike! I doubt the kids would even know this is tea and mistake it for some sugary drink if you didn’t tell them about it!
I can’t wait to try this tea iced!
I had to come back and add this to my review. My daughter tried this tea after it had become cold. She prefers cold tea to hot. Regardless she found a note in this tea that I had totally missed but should not have! I think my daughter is getting really good at detecting flavor notes in tea. Before long she may be better than I am at it because this note is SO obvious, yet I missed it! Walnut! Yes walnut, I can’t believe I missed it because as soon as she said it – it become so obvious! I made a second steep in addition to enjoying the rest of my cold cup and I am even more in love. You know how once you identify a flavor note it becomes even easier to pick out? Well now I am enjoying this sweet, honey kissed, blueberry, creamy, floral, WALNUT tasting tea. Yummm
