I iced this blend with dinner tonight. It was the perfect accompaniment to a summer salad. The vanilla and white hold hands as the background to a lovely fruity top layer. It’s a chilly, sweet cream flavor that sparkles.
This berry-and-sugar-tasting blend is the Wonder Woman of teas: quiet yet tough, feminine yet sturdy. And, like Wonder Woman, it’s a summer blockbuster that’s stolen my heart.
I realize that calling a tea “feminine” might turn people away from it, which isn’t a result I want. There’s a weird bias against men liking “girly” things that doesn’t apply to women liking “manly” things. Which I think is a bunch of hooey.
So implore the dudes out there: try this tea. Get in touch with your Softer Side. Let the creamy, fruity deliciousness wash over you.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description
I’ve not done a passion fruit tea before – so I thought it was about time to change that! Because passion fruit tends to be a tart fruit, I thought the perfect tea base would be a sweet Bai Mu Dan from the Yunnan Province. Then I added some vanilla bean for some extra sweetness and a touch of creaminess.
This is really quite nice, I love the way the sweeter components soften the tart fruit just enough so I’m not puckering – but not so much that it obscures the flavor of the fruit. It’s going to make a really lovely summertime refresher!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Thunder from The Love Tea Company. . . . .
What a bold and dramatic name for a white tea: White Thunder. So many white teas get paired with desserts, like ice cream flavors or berries, so I was intrigued to try out this flavor just from the brash name alone. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that this tea is from Love Tea, one of our ChariTea companies. Learn more here.
The White Thunder blend features white tea, peony, spearmint, and peppermint. I brewed it both hot and iced, and preferred the flavors chilled. There’s something about drinking an iced mint tea, like Moroccan Mint, that just feels best suited over ice on a hot day.
Back to White Thunder, for a tea without any fruit ingredients, there is a delectable peachy flavor mingling with all the mint. This is a well-balance blend, despite mint making up half of the ingredients list. The white tea and peony really get a chance to shine and be tasted, and bring forward that bright stone-fruit taste. The white tea adds a sweet, mild, earthiness, and the peony compliments those tones with floral, blossoming notes of its own.
The spearmint and peppermint add a touch of frost to even out all the flowers and fruit. The balance of sweet and crisp feel like sitting on fresh green grass that has been cooled by the shade. White Thunder might be my new favorite summer iced blend, bringing just the right balance of cool mint and breezy florals.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description:
Bai Mudan, also known as White Peony is a type of white tea made from pluckings of one leaf shoot and two immediate young leaves. Bai Mudan is sometimes preferred by white tea drinkers for its fuller flavor and greater potency than other major types of white tea. For an extra kick, peppermint and spearmint are added to this blend. Boom, crack, that’s the sound of your taste buds loving this blend.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
A Trio of Peach Teas from Beleave, Rishi, and Teavana. . . .
Who knew I had so many peachy teas in my cupboard? Let’s look at a spontaneous peach tea trio!
Pinkies Up Peach from Beleave Teas
Leaf type: white tea
This is a white tea with peach pieces and added flavors. The dry leaf smells fruity and juicy without being artificial. When brewed, the white tea base is smooth and buttery and pairs perfectly with the bright sweet peach overtones. White tea and peach are a winning combination. Black tea blends tend to get too tart or overbearing against the sweet fruit. Pinkies Up Peach from Beleave would make a great summer iced tea.
Peach Blossom White from Rishi Tea
Leaf type: white tea
Wow, blossoms indeed! There are plenty of buds and petals in the dry leaf, and the blend smells a flower box. Brewed, the fragrance is even stronger with jasmine and peony. The peach takes a back seat in this blend, and taste a bit more peach candies than fresh fruit. The peach tones pop up in the aftertaste, alongside citrus notes like mandarin orange. This wasn’t a very peachy tea, but it was a unique floral blend that surprised me.
Peach Cran Tango from Teavana
Leaf type: black tea
Even before Teavana closed its online shop, I believe the Peach Cran Tango blend was discontinued. So it’s a bit of a moot point for me to review it now. To help soothe the Teavana ache, I tried to replicate this blend on Adagio’s custom tea builder. Give my Peach Cran Tango and try and see how it stacks up.
The last of the Teavana sample I tasted was simple but enjoyable. Sweet peach is balanced with a bit of tart cranberry, all atop a solid black tea base. This is technically a peach blend, though it also features a good dose of cranberry. Cranberries are sweet, tangy and versatile, and seem to tango with just about any fruit partner. The red-berry tartness help the peach from being too cloying and make for a balanced fruit blend.
Well I’m feeling just peachy after all these peach teas. All this sweet fruit makes me feel like warmer weather is on its way already…
Anji Bai from Teasenz. . . .
Another rainy night with the feeling of winter in the air. I want tea, a tea that makes me go “mmmmmm” and cuddle the cup.
Enter Anji Bai. Flat leaves of brilliant green that steep a golden cup of tea. The dry leaves smell like milk chocolate to me for some reason, which is also true of some Da Hong Pao. But the steeped tea does not.
The steeped tea smells like oh so fresh lightly buttered vegetables with a hint of asparagus and a hint of peas, but also freshly shelled walnuts with the little papery membrane still on. It reminds me somewhat of a Huang Shan Mao Feng.
At first I think the flavor is very light and mild, and I really concentrate on my cup. The creamy texture of the tea coats your mouth and makes you want more. I could really chug this tea but it is so delicious that I try to slow down and enjoy it. Now the green veggie notes are lingering along with the creaminess. Each exhale causes a little rush of flavor.
Note to self – drink this tea during quiet time and meditation. Exquisite.
(Package said steep for four minutes, website said three so I went for three since it is a green.)
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Description
Fresh and creamy soft with notes of citrus and nuts. From Anji, the town of dense bamboo forests and tea cultivation, comes this Anji Bai Cha, one of the rarest of all Chinese teas. With long, delicate, vivid green leaves, Anji white tea is beautiful in every sense of the word. A green tea connoisseur’s dream.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
White Berry from Naked Teas Galore. . .
I keep calling this tea Berry White, perhaps because I think it should be named for the singer or just a fun pun. However, its White Berry which is more descriptive than anything given this is a tea made up of White Peony, Silver Needles, rosehips, blue cornflowers, flavoring.
I had just enough in my sample pulled from a traveling teabox to try this both hot and iced. Both methods were steeped for 4 minutes in 175F water, as per the company’s recommendation.
I started with the hot tea since that is the more standard brewing method and thus my control for flavor. Though it is a pretty smooth, summery tea, it lacks the berry flavor I hoped for. Instead this, to me at least, tastes vaguely floral.
Iced, this is even more floral and that I attribute to the white peony base. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I would have thought I was drinking a glass of iced white peony tea as opposed to a flavored white tea. Though that might not seem like a bad thing for those who enjoy this type of tea, it is not what I have been promised and so I find myself disappointed.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Naked Teas Galore
Description
Smooth, light & refreshing berry tea!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
