I’m a Doctor Who fan and, even with the information that this is an “impossible girl” inspired tea, it still took me several seconds to figure out what the name of this blend meant. Maybe my brain was just really slow today? Hopefully you can figure it out faster. 😉
I steeped two teaspoons of this tea in ten ounces of 175-degree water for three minutes.
While steeping, it starts smelling fruity right away. This is a flavored tea (raspberry-pomegranate flavored) and the tea liquid is much darker than an unflavored green tea would. That might be from the raspberry, although it’s not really pink; it’s a sort of clear and handsome brown color with a reddish tinge.
First sip: It’s definitely fruity and sweet. Pomegranate and raspberry are both quite tart fruits, but the tartness isn’t coming through too strongly here, although yes, there is quite a bit of astringency. The fruity flavors complement each other well, and the green tea base sings backup; I’m hard put to it to distinguish its flavor components separately, yet I can still tell it’s there.
With sugar: Sweeter, of course. But surprisingly, I can taste the green tea base a bit more now. The sugar tames the astringency but doesn’t really bring out the fruity flavors like I hoped/assumed it would.
I bet this one would be great as iced tea too, but wouldn’t want to try milk with it because it might be too acidic for that.
All in all a fun tea, and one that I’d like to try iced (or as cold-brew) if I ever have the chance to try it again!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Fandom Teas
Description
This tea is no longer available but click below for Doctor Who teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Organic Assam Black Tea by Mana Organics
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mana Organics
Description
A brisk tea with a malty, honey-sweet aroma followed deep character of taste and a pleasant pungency that will please even the most discerning of palates.Only Tippy Golden Flower Orange Pekoe Premier Grade (TGFOP1) Assam tea direct from our family’s estate, Chota Tingrai. Healthier for you and the environment thanks to our USDA certified organic practices. Packed onsite in re-sealable bag so you get that garden-fresh taste again and again. Tastes, smells, and looks so delicious that we got an award in the Global Tea Championship 2017
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
English Breakfast Black Tea by Steeped Tea
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Steeped Tea
Description
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Downton Abbey® Mrs. Patmore’s Pudding Tea by Republic of Tea
- Unbleached
- Minimalistic (don’t use much material)
- Biodegradable (well, it’s just a thin piece of paper, and tea leaves are compostable)
- Chemical-free
- Glue-free
- Gluten-free
- Without extra packaging like staples, strings, or tags
It’s a very clever design and I really appreciate the effort they put into making eco-friendly tea so accessible.
So anyway. I steeped this tea for four minutes. I enjoyed the steeping process as well as the tasting process, because this tea gives off a wonderful aroma as it brews. It’s actually so good that you might end up worrying that the tea won’t live up to its fragrance when you actually taste it. It smells like an excellent dessert, which of course it should since it’s dessert-flavored, and creates the impression that you’re baking something custardy in your kitchen.
After steeping, it’s become a nice medium-dark color; it’s reddish/orange/brown, and the smell has strong notes of vanilla and cream. The first sip definitely has more black tea flavor than you’d expect from the fragrance. There’s lots of pudding flavor too, especially in the aftertaste. A bit sweet on its own (without sugar), and it’s very, very buttery.
With milk, it tastes like a custardy dessert in liquid form– it doesn’t taste eggy, though (which is probably a good thing, because who would want to drink eggy tea? Although eggnog chai is definitely a thing I drink sometimes, but it tastes more of spices than of egg fortunately).
Four minutes is just the right steeping time. If you wanted it more dessert-like, you could add sugar to boost the sweetness. But I’m having it for breakfast, not dessert, so I’m not doing that because it seems plenty sweet enough the way it is. Milk goes very well with this (and adds a slightly sweet dimension while also boosting the creaminess). Especially whole milk. I don’t vouch for creamless milk though. Anyway, the creaminess plays into the pudding illusion, so that’s another positive.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Republic of Tea
Description
This decadent dessert tea has the homemade flavors of vanilla sponge cake drizzled with rich caramel sauce. The full-bodied base of premium black tea lends itself well to a splash of milk, making it a perfect afternoon tea to partner with puddings, scones and shortbread.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea by Harney and Sons
I steeped this tea in approximately eight ounces of 212-degree water, using one tea bag, for about three and a half minutes.
These are really cute pyramid tea sachets! (I know pyramid sachets have gotten much more popular recently partly because everybody is recognizing how cute they are, but it still strikes me every time!) I don’t usually buy these, but you have to admit they’re super convenient. There’s no measuring, no latching and unlatching a tea-ball or pouring through a strainer after steeping, no wishing the mesh was smaller so the tea particles wouldn’t get out, no wondering why all of my tea steeping baskets are in the dirty dishes and how I’ll ever get the cooked-on milk out of the mesh of the one that I made chai with that one time.
The Harney website says that there are three types of cinnamon in this tea; I wonder which ones they are. Google says there are four main types of cinnamon in the world today that are used commercially: Ceylon, Cassia, Saigon, and Korintje, so I guess this tea has most of those. It certainly smells very strongly of cinnamon, and there are chunks of cinnamon bark visible with the tea leaves in each sachet before brewing. There’s plenty of quality tea leaves in the bag. Much more intact than in most teabags.
The tea liquid, once steeped, is amber-like but a bit darker. The smell is like those red-hot candies that my grandma used to keep in a candy dish at her house–I used to always wish she’d let me have one when I was little (I didn’t get one very often though, in my recollection at least, but in retrospect that might only be “not very often” in comparison to the number of times I asked, which if you know anything about little kids and how many times they can ask for something per minute, means you should probably take that with a grain of salt). The tea is kind of opaque, probably from the cinnamon granules–which tells me that there’s probably powdered cinnamon in the mix as well as the chunks that I saw.. It’s a teeny bit viscous, too.
First sip: sweet and spicy. The spice isn’t as up-front as expected-more “hovering,” which is nice because it means that the tea flavor even comes through a little. It’s a tad astringent, but not bitter at all.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Description
Our most popular flavored tea worldwide, Hot Cinnamon Spice is an assertive blend of black teas, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves. There’s no sugar added. Try our great value, a bag of 50 tea sachets. Each tea sachet brews a 12 oz cup.
Ingredients:
Black tea, orange peel, three types of cinnamon, cloves.
Contains Natural & Artificial flavors.