Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Flower
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
A flowery tea that tastes clean and perfumy with a natural rosy aroma: Made from 100 percent genuine organic rosebuds and naturally dried to retain all the health benefits. A delicious and soothing cup to enjoy on a quiet afternoon or after a yoga session.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a LONG while since I’ve had a pure rose tea like this one … so long that I can’t even remember when the last time was!
And I love the flavor of steeped rosebuds!
What makes this particular Rose Flower Tea from Teasenz so special is that it’s organic. The rosebuds are whole, gorgeous rosebuds. They aren’t crushed nor are they just petals. These are the whole, young rosebuds, clipped before they’ve had a chance to open up and bloom.
I steeped these beautiful, fragrant rosebuds in 190°F for six minutes. And the result is a golden amber cup of sweet, floral deliciousness that smells as wonderful as it tastes.
The flavor is sweet and floral. It tastes distinctly of rose without tasting like a cup of perfume. It’s light and refreshing and aromatic, and there’s something so soothing and relaxing when I sip it. And I like it hot or chilled – the flavor is superb!
Pomegranate Mojito Green Tea from Zest Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zest Tea
Tea Description:
At Zest, we start every morning with a Mojito. This aromatic blend of young hyson green tea, peppermint, lime, and pomegranate will bring back memories of lounging on a beach, or maybe whatever memories you have left of college. Either way, our Pomegranate Mojito Green Tea is an amazingly refreshing blend, great for any time of day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Zest High-Octane Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I took the opportunity to taste this tea several times before I sat down and write a review about it, and I’m glad that I did. This is one blend that took a little “tweaking” on my part to find the right brewing temperature and time to get the most out of the tea.
Normally, I’ll brew a green tea from 175° – 180°F. I found that this tea works better with the lower temperature. I usually steep a green tea for 1 – 2 minutes, but I found that this tea required about 2 1/2 minutes to get the most out of the pomegranate, lime and peppermint flavors. I tried a 3 minute steep time too, and I wasn’t very happy with that result, so my recommendation for this tea is a temperature somewhere between 170° – 175°F and a steep time of 2 1/2 minutes.
And while it does seem like this is a lot of effort to put forth to find the “sweet spot” brewing parameters for a tea, it’s well worth the effort! This is a tasty green tea!
The peppermint is the prominent flavor of this cup, with notes of lime weaving their way in and out throughout the sip. The green tea notes are sweet and buttery. The pomegranate is a little more difficult for me to discern, but after a few sips, I started to notice hints of pomegranate arriving at the tail of the sip. The aftertaste is mostly pomegranate and lime with a crisp, clean minty note.
Of the three teas that I’ve reviewed thus far from Zest Tea, I think this one is my least favorite. I really enjoyed the Blue Lady and the Apple Cinnamon black teas, and I’m enjoying this one as well, but, there is something about this tea that is less appealing than the other two. A slight “chemical-y” off taste to it that I didn’t notice with the other two teas. It is a very slight taste though, and I still find the lime and mint notes to be quite delightful as well as the notes of pomegranate in the finish and aftertaste. It’s a tasty tea, it’s just not my favorite.
I also really like the energizing BOOST that I get from these Zest Teas!
Green Apple Watermelon Flavored Green Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
So, maybe I’m weird, but I like to eat the green apple and watermelon Jolly Ranchers together. I love the mixture of sweet and tart. So it seemed like a good idea to make a tea with buttery chinese sencha, some sweet young hyson, freeze-dried granny smith apple bits and some organic green apple and watermelon flavor. The green apple was pretty potent, so in the final blend, I added a bit of organic cantaloupe flavor to give it a bit more sweetness and melon-ness. Is that a word? It is now. (I wrote it on the Internet, so it has to be a word, right?)
I hope you enjoy this tea as much as I do. I’m looking forward to reading your reviews and tasting notes. =)
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf aroma of this Green Apple Watermelon Flavored Green Tea from 52Teas is sweet and fruity, smelling a bit more like candy than it does fruit, which after reading the above description, isn’t too surprising. The dry leaf doesn’t have any real noticeable “green tea” fragrance to it, but once brewed, I pick up on more of the green leafy notes. The brewed tea has less of that aforementioned sweet and fruity scent although I can still pick up on the watermelon and apple.
I’ve said this before about some of 52Teas’ blends, but I’m going to say it again … this cup benefits from a few minutes of cool time. When sipped “fresh from the teapot” hot, the flavors are kind of muddled. But, after allowing it to cool for about three minutes, the flavors start to come into focus.
The sip seems to mostly be about the green tea – and that’s quite alright with me. I can taste a sweet, vegetative taste that reminds me of lightly buttered veggies with a hint of grassy taste. I do taste notes of watermelon and sour apple weaving their way through the sip, tasting more watermelon than I do apple. The apple flavor really comes to life in the aftertaste, which tastes very much like the green apple Jolly Rancher candy that I used to enjoy as a kid. (Back then, you could by the Jolly Rancher stix, I don’t know if they still have those or not, it seems like all I can find now is the small, bite size hard candies.)
Both the fruit flavors are more true to the Jolly Rancher candy than they are the actual fruit. The description that Frank from 52Teas wrote (the one that I’ve pasted above) is pretty spot-on: this does taste a lot like I popped two Jolly Rancher candies (a green apple and watermelon) in my mouth and let them dissolve together … or perhaps, more accurately, like I dropped one of each Jolly Rancher candy into my cup of green tea and let them dissolve and add their sweet yumminess to the tea.
It’s a good tea. I can’t say it’s my favorite from 52Teas, but it’s one that I’ll enjoy having in my cupboard for as long as it lasts.
Raspberry Vanilla Mint Green Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
This vibrant blend combines a fresh Chinese Young Hyson green tea with peppermint leaves, raspberry and vanilla flavors. This refreshing and versatile green tea boasts fresh, intoxicating flavors that will keep you coming back for more. Perfect any time hot and exceptional iced with a touch of sweetener.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s NEW Selection Club subscription program here.
Taster’s Review:
Yay! My latest package from Simple Loose Leaf – which is my FIRST of their all new Selection Club subscription – just arrived! I’m so excited. This Raspberry Vanilla Mint Green tea is the first tea that I’m trying from this month’s box.
Let me explain a little how the Selection Club works (at least, this is my understanding of the program, I hope it makes sense when I explain it!): Every month, an email is sent out to subscribers. Here’s what my April email says:
Below we have selected 5 teas that we feel you will love. Please browse these teas and familiarize yourself with what they have to offer. At the bottom of the page there is a button that will take you to a form that you will enter your selections.
So, you choose from the five different teas which tea you’d like to receive for April. Or, if you prefer, you can get a sampling of all five! Me being a taster … that’s the option I chose. There is even an option to tell Simple Loose Leaf what your preferences are so that they can design the selection of five teas to the types of teas you drink most often. I didn’t fill out this preference form because … I want the variety!
So in the mail, I received a cute little box with five sample sized teas inside! In addition to this Raspberry Vanilla Mint Green tea, I also have Ti Kuan Yin, Winter White Chai, Gunpowder Green and Caravan Black. I also have a smaller sample from next month’s selections: Hazelberry Pu’er!
This is one seriously awesome tea of the month club! Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you about this Raspberry Vanilla Mint Green Tea:
This tea is so yum! I love that I can taste all four flavors that are promised in the name of the tea: I taste the mint, I taste the raspberry, the vanilla and the green tea. At the start of the sip, I notice the mint immediately as the menthol hits the back of my palate immediately before the liquid hits my tongue. Then I pick up on the soft, creamy notes of vanilla, and the sweet-tart flavors of berry.
The green tea is not as prominent as I think it should be. I’m usually of the belief that a tea – even a flavored tea – should first be about the tea, and I’m wanting that to be the case here. It isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that the green tea is absent. I taste the green tea. It’s sweet, lightly grassy with herbaceous undertones that meld well with the mint, with a buttery note that marries well with the creamy vanilla tones. And even though the green tea notes are not as strong as I think they should be, this is still a seriously tasty cup!
I found my cup emptied pretty quickly … and if the speed in which the tea disappeared from my cup is any indication, then I’d say that this tea is a winner!
If you’re interested in joining Simple Loose Leaf’s Monthly Selection Club, I can save you some money! Use this code: SISTERSELECTION25 and get a 25% discount when you sign up for the selection club. This discount is not applicable on the retail selection of teas, and is only good for the selection club subscription.
Cran-Strawberry Young Hyson Green Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Thinking about Thanksgiving this week and cranberry sauce and decided to make this delicious blend of sweet young hyson green tea with dried cranberries, freeze-dried strawberries and organic flavors.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
When 52Teas announced this Cran-Strawberry Young Hyson Green Tea as their tea of the week for the week of November 25th, I was pretty sure I’d enjoy it. I like cranberry, I love strawberry and I enjoy green tea. But I like this a lot more than I expected to! This tea offers a really appealing balance of sweet and tart, along with the smooth, lush flavors of a Young Hyson green tea. It’s really delightful.
I like that the cranberry and strawberry flavors are well-paired here, one doesn’t overpower the other and they aren’t competing with one another. As I said above, it’s a really good balance between sweet and tart. The tart cuts through the sweet enough so that it’s not too sweet, and the tart isn’t making me pucker. Very nice.
The Young Hyson tea tastes vibrant and it has a nice texture to it. When the tea is served hot, it has a soothing, broth-like comfort to it. When it’s iced, it tastes refreshing and smooth.
Really nice.