Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mahamosa
Tea Description:
This mild China-Ceylon black tea blend evokes the Caribbean. Comprised of light-yellow orange peels and orange-red blazing safflowers, this tea creation has a sweet, firm, fresh and tangy flavor. A sip of this tea will bring to mind the fervent red flesh of sun-ripened blood oranges.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Blood Orange Flavored Black Tea from Mahamosa delivers exactly what it promises! The sweet, juicy flavor of Blood Orange!
The black tea base is a mellow tasting black tea – and before even reading the above description, I could tell just from the taste that this this was a Ceylon … or at the very least, a blend that included Ceylon, and according to the aforementioned description, it is a blend of Ceylon and black teas from China. The flavor is a little “deeper” than a typical Ceylon, I attribute this depth to the China tea. It has a good, solid flavor, but it isn’t what I’d call “bold” or “robust.”
The real star of this cup is the Blood Orange flavor. It is so BRIGHT and refreshing! It tastes authentic … it tastes true to the fruit. So if you’re fond of citrus-y teas, this one would be right up your alley. It’s got a little bit of tangy appeal to it, but mostly, it’s just sweet and juicy like the fruit itself.
I found this to be really tasty … something that would be good to have around when the weather warms up and you want a really delicious iced tea. It makes a really nice hot tea too, it has nice, natural sweetness to it, but, I found that just a pinch of sugar really brought out the natural orange notes just a little more. Really YUM!
Lemon Aid Herbal Tisane from The Rabbit Hole
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: The Rabbit Hole
Tisane Description:
The marriage of lemon and ginger, need we say more? Great hot with a dash of honey but equally at home with a few ice cubes to chill it down.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Nice! This Lemon Aid Herbal Tisane from The Rabbit Hole is really refreshing! There is a really nice balance between the ginger and the citrus-y tones here, the ginger is not overpowering … it doesn’t have that high-powered pepper kick to it. Instead, it is warm and soothing and it complements the citrus flavors of the tisane.
Like the ginger, I am finding the lemon-y notes to be somewhat subdued, but, it has a really lovely, sweet lemon taste rather than a pucker-y lemon flavor. There is, of course, some tart and tangy notes to the lemon and these are most noticeable in the aftertaste where I feel a little tingle on my tongue. The aftertaste also offers some of the peppery tones of the ginger … but it is still quite subtle. It’s very pleasant.
I drank this hot, since the weather is still so cold outside, and I found it to be very comforting and cozy to drink hot, but as it cooled, I found it to be very refreshing, like lemonade. I did notice that some of the flavors tapered slightly as it cooled, so I would recommend brewing it strong if you’re making iced tea with this.
This is the kind of tea that you want to keep on hand for the times when you might be feeling a bit under the weather, because it’s so soothing to the throat. I am not feeling under the weather at the moment, but, I did notice how nice it felt on my throat, regardless!
A very nice tisane!
Organic After Dinner Mint from The Rabbit Hole
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: The Rabbit Hole
Tisane Description:
The perfect after dinner treat to help with digestion and give you the illusion of munching on an after dinner mint (or ten!). Great for those of us watching the waistline.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
My favorite cookies as a girl scout (yes, I was a girl scout!) were always the thin mints. Crunchy chocolate-y cookie coated with a chocolate-y coating … and somewhere in there was also the crisp flavor of mint. Even now, whenever the girl scouts come ’round to my door selling cookies, I can’t resist ordering at least one box of thin mints!
Well, this tea is very thin mint-ish. It’s pure, organic cacao nibs and dried peppermint leaves. That’s it. No rooibos or honeybush or anything else. Just cacao and mint.
The result is a creamy, chocolate-y, cool minty tasting tisane that makes a great after dinner tea that could also substitute for dessert! The peppermint helps soothe and calm the tummy while the cacao satisfies the sweet tooth! Does it get any better than that? And this has a delicious sweetness to it, so you don’t need to add any sugar to it – making this a low calorie, low caffeine way to curb those late night cravings!
Organic Berry Bomb from The Rabbit Hole
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Rabbit Hole
Tea Description:
Delicious, ripe raspberries explode with blueberries and strawberries to create this beautiful berry brew. Works well hot or iced up with a dash of honey if you like it that way. The perfect afternoon pick me up.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As summer slowly comes to an end – a bit too slowly for my liking, really, I mean, come on! I’m ready for the cooler weather already! – I find that this tea is ready to remind me of all the delicious flavors that summer offers. Really, is there any food that says summer more than fresh, juicy berries? And this tea embraces three of my favorite berries – strawberry, raspberry and blueberry – In one tasty cup.
The moment I opened the package of this tea, I knew I was in for a berry delicious treat! The berry aroma was so delightful and strong … YUM! The fragrance of the brewed tea is softer than that of the dry leaf, but it still smells incredibly yummy.
This is one of those teas that tastes best if you’ve given it a few moments to cool down to a drinkable temperature … and it gets better the more it cools! When drunk very hot, the flavors are not easily discerned in the sip, but, definitely explode in the aftertaste. Delicious berry flavor … sweet and tart and juicy! But after it’s cooled to a still-hot-but-not-piping-hot temperature, the berry flavor really comes to life.
The berry flavor is quite remarkable – I taste each of the berries, and usually with these berry medley type teas I find that the flavors become sort of jumbled into a super-berry kind of flavor where I taste notes of each but they all sort of meld together into one unified flavor. That doesn’t happen here.
Instead, I taste the strawberry. It is sweet and luscious and reminds me of those days in the summer when I rush home after visiting the produce market and buy a bunch of the berries … I have to grab a few immediately because if I don’t, they’ll be gone (I have a tween-ager daughter who loves the berries more than I do!) And I taste the blueberry, juicy and just a little bit tart. And I taste the raspberry: sweet, intense flavor with a tangy, tarty finish that tickles the tongue.
And even though the berry flavors are absolutely divine, this IS a black tea and this tea won’t let you forget that. It has a pleasant, full flavor that is brisk yet mild enough to let the berry flavors come through. A pleasing, mellow cup that would be very enjoyable as an afternoon cuppa – alone or with friends!
But where this tea really shines is as an iced tea. It is sweet and flavorful enough to serve straight – with no additions at all – but a little bit of sugar goes a long way to perk up the flavors a bit (or perhaps a drizzle of honey as suggested by Rabbit Hole!) And as I sip this, I wonder how wonderful it would taste with a sprig of mint!
A lovely tea that reminds me of the beauty of summer.
Ruby Zing from The Rabbit Hole
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: The Rabbit Hole
Tisane Description:
The tart liquor of this calming scarlet brew is sure to wake your palate and recharge your Vitamin C supplies. Great hot or iced with a touch of sweetening.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
TART! If you’re a fan of tart-tasting teas and tisanes, this one is for you.
Yes, this definitely is Zesty! This tisane is aptly named: It delivers a ZING and brews to a beautiful, deep ruby color.
Fortunately, the tart is not all that there is to this tisane. I probably wouldn’t be able to finish the cup if it were. Once my palate gets over the tart, it finds other flavors: cherry, blueberry, and even coconut! YUM!
The flavors of the cherry and blueberry are certainly enhanced by the presence of the tart hibiscus, as it not only brings out these fruits slightly sour side but also enhances their sweeter side. The hibiscus, of course, is responsible for the majority of the tartness, as well as the pretty ruby-red color and the richness to the body of this tisane. I only steeped it for five and a half minutes which allowed the hibiscus enough time to provide some body without it becoming too thick and syrupy. And as for the tart, I found that this could be dialed down a notch with the addition of a little bit of sugar. I didn’t add a whole lot – just a half a teaspoon of turbinado sugar to my jumbo-sized tea mug – but it really made a difference in the overall flavor.
Generally speaking, I’m not overly fond of tarty-tart-tart teas like this, but, somehow, I’m finding this to not be so bad. It’s actually tasty and I’m able to enjoy the cup. I think that has something to do with the fact that there is more to this than just tart, and the tartness does not completely mask the flavors of the cherry and blueberry – and especially the coconut, which adds a sweet, creamy goodness to the cup that has quickly become my favorite aspect of this tisane.