It’s black. It’s green. It’s creamy. It’s buttery. It’s fruity. It’s got complete roses in its blend.
This tea sounds like an indecisive hot mess, I know. The blend’s ingredients sound like someone had a bunch of leftovers and upended them into a vat. (They include, for reference, Black Tea, Calendula, Cornflower, Green Tea, Mango, Pineapple, Rose).
But it totally works. It’s sweet and friendly and flowery. I’m not getting “Arabian Nights” from this (possibly because I’ve never had Turkish delight). I’m getting “Mother Goose.” This tea is a fairytale jumble. All of your favorite stories and flavors, blending together. It’s a dessert potluck. *
* (note: Have you ever had a dessert potluck? Probably the best party I ever threw.)
If you’re in the mood for some sweetness, throw this in your kettle. All the rabbits and sprites in the forest will be clamoring to join you.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green/Black
Where to Buy: Fox Tea Club
Description
Exotic seductive smoothness and delicate spice aromas float from the cup with each sip of this black and green tea blend, which includes calendula, red rose, and cornflower petals. Remarkable subtle tones of vanilla cream with rich sponge cake recall warm deserts evenings with the crescent moon rising in the starry sky.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Peppermint from Ceremonie Tea
This tea sample came to me in an individually wrapped and sealed box featuring the beautiful Ceremonie tea logo on the outside and a jewelry-box-inspired light blue color on the inside. Easily one of the nicest tea sample packaging I’ve seen lately.
The tea itself is simple: pure peppermint. The flavor is cooling (“sparkling” as they put it), definitely the menthol-cold feeling of peppermint and not the sweeter green mint of spearmint. Though I should say that the peppermint has its own sweetness, a smooth almost-vanilla creaminess alongside all the icy herbal flavors.
Peppermint is one of those herbal teas that boasts all kinds of health benefits, from aiding digestion, to increasing mental focus, and more. Personally, I like to drink it on days when allergies or dry weather make my throat a little itchy. The sensory combination of warm tea and cooling peppermint are relaxing and soothing. Since it’s a caffeine-free herbal blend, it’s a great night time brew, perfect to help you ease into the evening.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Ceremonie Tea
Description:
This sparkling peppermint infusion is a refreshing treat that delights your senses, cleansing your palate. It’s caffeine-free, enjoyable day or night.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Pistachio Orange Pu Erh from Fava Tea Company
Everyone where I work sniffed this bag and declared the scent heavenly. It smells like a tray of cookies. Nutty and sweet and a little zesty.
And it TASTES LIKE THAT, TOO. You guys. This was the Find Of The Week.
This is Mrs-Claus-in-a-tea. Imagine the prototypical grandma, with an army of tiny elf children assisting and getting the sprinkles and sugar everywhere. She is baking and listening to Jackson 5 and shimmying that caboose all around. Outside, the reindeer are watching through frosted windows. Rudolph is in the forefront, glowing like the attention-grabber he is. He knows that ol’ Mrs Claus can’t resist that round red nose. (She loves round red things! The nose reminds her of Santa!) She’ll be out with freshly-baked cookies for him as soon as they’re out of the oven and cooled.
Is there more tea like this in Fava’s workshop? I promised myself I’d stop buying tea until I wrap up the samples I have now… but I’m tempted to try a few more of Fava’s blends.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Fava Tea Company
Description
Hand blended to perfection this blend is the perfect compliment of earthy pu-erh, nutty pistachio and sweet citrus! You are my sunshine….! You’ll be singing as you enjoy this blend iced during the spring and summer months and hot during the cooler fall and winter months of the year. This blend has been described as a Pistachio Orange Cake with Buttercream…
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Chocolate Tiramisu from Fava Tea. . . .
I accidentally left this in the steeper far too long — which you aren’t supposed to do with green — but it’s still really tasty, so that’s a sublimely positive thing for us scatterbrained tea enthusiasts.
This tea tastes like white chocolate, nuts, and caramel. It’s supposed to taste like Tiramisu, but I’m not sure I’m getting that. Tiramisu, to me, mostly has coffee notes. That said, who cares, a tasty tea is a tasty tea. This is SO creamy and delicious and sweet. It’s a slick mouth-feel (ew, the phrase “mouth-feel” is horrible) that really coats the inside of the mouth.
I feel like I’m in a French patisserie with this tea. Everything is Marie Antoinette pastel. I have a tiny purebred dog upon my lap. My pinky is up. I’m with all of my friends. We’re wearing blush and having a scintillating conversation that focuses on fine arts and gossip.
We might enjoy ourselves so much that we oversteep the tea. But that’s okay. This tea doesn’t mind.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black & Green
Where to Buy: Fava Tea
Description
This is a green and black tea blend with almonds, coconut, and cocoa pieces. If you like the darker, creamy, savory teas, this is one for you! A popular dessert tea. Blends well with rock sugar. Try Vanilla Rocks, Chocolate Cream Rocks, or Strawberry Rocks, for starters!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Blueberry Custard customized from BlendBee.com
Confession: I’m completely fine with drinking alone…. Tea, of course 😉 But drinking with friends offers some undeniable benefits – laughter and memories made, more importantly a spread of tastebuds that offers better insight than just one picky tongue.*
There are so so many beautiful ingredients in this custom Blueberry Custard from Blendbee, I needed all the help I could get to do it justice! First off, I highly recommend using a clear brewing system (gravity steeper or mason jar) to be able to fully enjoy the making of this majestic Purple infusion. (Fortunately I had just cleaned the hard-earned tea patina off mine with baking soda and vinegar, so it was even more beautiful than my usual cuppa!)
Between the three of us sipping, only one added sugar and it really took away from the innate sweetness of this mix, hmmm better off just trusting the blend maker on this one. Some of us were crazy about this tea, but others found the herbals to be unpalatable. So we looked into what exactly were imbibing…
With Blendbee, you can create your own mix weighing anywhere from 1 oz to ½ pound. You start with a choice from 15 tea bases, and here they chose the China Green tea.
Next there are over 90 categorized ingredients to choose from (though it’s recommended to stick below 8). Must be a tough decision from all those options! This blender chose 7:
Earthy and pungent category: yarrow flower;
Mild and fruity category: elder berries;
Herbaceous herb category: strawberry leaves;
Mild and nutty category: ashwaganda root;
Mild and herbal category: agrimony herb, and coriander seed;
And one uncategorized, marshmallow root.
Next the website offers additional extracts and flavors (up to 3 per blend). Here the blueberry and custard flavor extracts were used. (It was argued at one point that this put the ingredient count to 9, above the recommended 8, but that person is a stickler for semantics and didn’t like the tea anyway, so read that with a grain of salt).
Some of these herbs strike me as acquired tastes, beyond that, I would’ve preferred having actual blueberries instead of the extract, though I didn’t see it as an option (yet) and the extract probably consistently offers more flavor in a smaller space.
This organic blend featured so many different flavor profiles, it was a… memorable… experience for well-developed sippers, and newbies alike.
*The best part of sharing with friends is finding a loving home for leaves that aren’t your favorite (yet). Thanks H.R.!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: BlendBee
Description:
Create custom teas, with more than a hundred quality and organic ingredients to choose from.
