Wise Ape Company might be best known for its Chocolate Hustle tea blend, a high-caffeine yerba mate blend, but recently, the Wise Ape has branched out to feature an assam black tea blend and an herbal blend as well. Orange Dreamsicle is the new herbal tea offering from Wise Ape.
I love the names and designs from Wise Ape, not to mention their videos featuring a big ape hand brewing tea. Orange Dreamsicle is a great name for a bedtime tea, evoking the flavors of a favorite ice cream bar.
The blend itself is very chamomile-driven, with the gentle lemony tones from that herb taking the lead. Behind the chamomile, I taste vanilla and orange as well, contributing to the creamy ice-cream-inspired flavors in the blend’s name. The vanilla and orange add sweetness without being too artificial or sugary; they are gentle yet flavorful and let you add more sweetness to suit your own tastes. For my personal preferences, I will say that I wish there was a bit more citrus and a bit less chamomile, but it makes sense that there is lots of chamomile for a sleepytime brew.
Smooth and easy-drinking, a great cup of tea to ease you into sweet dreams.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Wise Ape Tea Co.
Description: A dreamy blend of chamomile flowers with subtle hints of orange and cream, combined with adaptogenic super-herbs to support your nightly zen. This relaxing elixir is designed to calm the mind, ease the body, and help you sink into a restorative night’s sleep.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
June ZenTeaBar.Love’s Box of Tea Lovin’ Goodness. . . . .
Adulting has been ever consuming in my life recently, in a good way, but that hasn’t left a whole lot of time to sit back and enjoy gorgeous cups of teas.
Enter June’s ZenTeaBar.Love box of goodies. If you aren’t familiar with ZenTeaBar.Love, I highly encourage you to check them out. For $10 a month (that includes shipping), the lovely folks at ZenTeaBar.Love curate a box of tea lovelies that will help reset your soul and get you back on your track. Hawaii natives, the creators of the ZenTeaBar.Love box want to provide a box of tea that really helps create the perfect zen vibes to create that perfect “zenful” moment.
This month’s box was based on the four seasons.
Summer was represented by Adagio’s Citrus Green. A lovely simple green tea with a sturdy helping of citrus flavors to keep summer in check. Brewed up hot, this tea just didn’t resonate well with me but cold brewed- this tea was exactly what I was looking for. (Included in the box were three conveniently packed tea bags.)
Pumpkin Spice Chai was the perfect choice for a fall tea. Art of Tea is one of those companies that I absolutely adore. Their teas are always great quality and I can’t help but gobble them up. This particular take on a pumpkin flavored chai was right up my alley. Brewed hot and made into a latte, this tea screams all things fall and all things pumpkin. The pumpkin flavor is spot on with a creaminess that really helps elevates the cuppa. What I love the most about this tea is that the spices don’t overwhelm the tea like other versions of this tea that I’ve had. A perfectly blended pumpkin loving tea with a hint of spice. (Included in the box was an abundant sample of loose leaf tea in a tin.)
Winter’s tea may have been my favorite. I have tried this tea before but that didn’t disappoint me at all when I saw Chocolate PuErh by Numi Organic Tea. Chocolate lovers, pay attention. This tea is one of those teas that just can’t help loving and I’m not even a big chocolate fan. Brewed hot, this tea has a chocolate creaminess that mixes and mingles so well with the puerh tea. The earthy tones are subdued by the chocolate but it works so well. I’ve always been a big fan of this tea. (Included were three tea bags.)
I’ve always wanted to enjoy a tea from Tea Source so when I noticed Machu Peach-U was in the box to represent Spring, I was excited. Cold brewed, this white tea is divine. Gorgeous subtle floral notes with a peach flavoring that definitely has more of a natural peach flavor than other peach flavored teas that I’ve had in the past. A wonderful white peach tea to keep your spirits bright. (Included in the box was a great sample of loose leaf)
All in all, there was more than 17 cups of tea included in the box. I should also mention that included in this box was tea bag filters and a bamboo teaspoon. For the price, this box can’t be beat and the variety is wonderful. What I love the most is the fact that this may be a way for me to enjoy tea companies that I may not necessarily come across on my own. Plus they include a lovely tea menu that gives you the low down on where you can purchase more of each of the varieties of teas included in the box.
I can’ wait to see what teas are hand packed with love for July.
Here’s the scoop!
Where to Buy: ZenTeaBar.Love
Description
The ZenTeaBar family is completely in love with our connection to nature! Kelly, creator of ZenTeaBar.love realized there is more to just a cup of tea. The “ZEN” vibes you feel…that flowing mindfulness, the connection! We should Zenfully sample teas we love! During this process, a few questions came about:
-How can we select the perfect tea with all the tea options available today?
-How do we experience the true benefit of a tea leaf?
-How can we share the “ZEN” vibe?
Through this realization is how ZenTeaBar.love blossomed.
Our goal is to expand a new way for you to Zen-fully experience teas you love in the most comfortable, elegant way possible. All of our boxes are individually stamped, folded, and packed by hand; and are infused with our team’s Aloha and good vibes. We’d love to have you along on this ZenTeaBar venture with us! Mahalo!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Coconut Oolong from Zen Tea. . . .
This is my second time swapping with the same person. Its funny because we have very similar tastes and I’ve quite enjoyed almost every tea I have been sent. This time around I admittedly asked for a few that I had previously tried because they were just so good. But, this Coconut Oolong is a new one. I have loved coconut my whole life. I actually have pretty cool memories of drilling into whole coconuts in the garage with my stepdad so I could drink the water and eat the flesh. I also had an obsession with pina coladas (virgin) as a kid…and you know what, even as an adult i’ll enjoy one poolside on vacation. Anyways, I have tried my fair share of coconut teas. I’ve now tried two coconut teas that contained oolong as a base and I definitely liked both of them.
As for Coconut Oolong by Zen, it smelled like suntan lotion. That may sound bad but its not! I just mean that the coconut smell was very strong and pleasant and summery. The taste of coconut was not as strong as the smell. It was rather light but still with a creamy undertone. Oolong is a cross between black tea and green tea. Depending on how it is made, sometimes it can taste more like black and other times it can taste closer to green…of course there are also times were it tastes like something all its own. In this instance it tastes closer to green tea in my opinion, with a slight floral undertone. I often prefer green to black especially when coconut is involved, so I like it a lot. My only negative opinion on this blend would be that I would have liked some coconut shreds or white chocolate or something else in the mix. There was only tea leaves and,I’m assuming, coconut flavoring. It would have been nice to see some thick shreds of coconut- even if just for aesthetics.
All and all I enjoyed this blend and it is my first try of the company Zen. I am curious to see what else they have and would suggest that you check them out!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Description
A lightly floral and smooth Baozhong Oolong from Taiwan is perfectly blended with creamy coconut to make our Coconut Oolong. The cakery coconut flavour is amazing, and tea is a very smooth, rich, almost milky tea with a natural sweetness and subtle floral notes. If you love coconut milk sweets and sophisticated oolongs, this is tea for you.
Ingredients : Oolong tea, coconut flavor
Preparation(1 cup): 1 teaspoon, 90C(194F) water, 3 minutes
Tea origin : Taiwan, Baozhong(Pouchong. Lightly oxidized, green oolong. Rich, naturally sweet fragrance of honey, flowers, and coconut)
For the best infusions, we recommend you try brewing this tea in a Porcelain teapot or Guywan.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Toffee Dream White Tea from Zen Tea Life
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: Zen Tea Life
Tea Description:
The nutty toasty flavor from the toffee. It smells lovely toffee and looks pretty with lots of yellowish green soft buds mixed with blue corn flower. Recommend for someone that loves a light, sweet, and nutty tea. Must try teas for white tea lovers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Zen Tea Life is an excellent company. Funny enough, I have yet to try any tea from them. I usually go with their teaware, which are really cute and cheap! Their slabs of Korean cedar are a fixture on my tea tray.
This tea hails from a friend on Steepster who did a mystery box sale a while back. The box took a detour to another user’s place before making it back to me. Luckily, there was no problem fixing the problem and in no time I had a perfectly packed cube filled with tea treasures at my door. The only thing is, I had forgotten that I had asked for a box in the first place. It took me a hot minute to noodle out where the box of insane samples came from. Thank goodness I love surprises!
White Toffee Dream was the first sample I tried out of the box. I was very intrigued, I have never had a toffee tea with a white base before. I picked it out because of it’s visual appeal; the cornflower and the big chunks of caramel substance looked awesome against the backdrop of the Bai Mu Dan.
Brewing the tea made the toffee pieces melt in slow motion. The aroma really filled the room. Who needs scented candles or air fresheners when you can just brew a cup of tea? Using 4g in a 16oz mug with 90c water produced a unique cup. The toffee was not doubt there, and an interesting floral and hay rounding out the notes. I do get a candy sequence I get strong notes of graham cracker that follows the toffee. Like a toffee cheesecake almost?
While I agree that black tea may have mad a better choice for this flavor, it’s just so… pedestrian. Zen tea life made a good choice going with a white tea base. It’s different, and worth a try, even if I wouldn’t think about stocking it any time soon.
Organic Energizing Chai Blend from Zen Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh Tea & Yerba Maté
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Tea Description:
Velvety, mellow and deep, this chai is an enticing blend of energizing pu-erh tea, shade-grown yerba maté, and cacao. Made even more inviting by creamy vanilla, nutty coconut and fruity, pungent and uplifting Ayurvedic long pepper. It is the most sophisticated take on hot cocoa.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was skeptical. A chai blend with a pu-erh and yerba maté base? Sounds way too earthy for my liking! But, this Organic Energizing Chai Blend from Zen Tea is really quite smooth and tasty!
I don’t know if its really “fair” to call it a chai, because the only “chai” spices it has is pepper (and this is long pepper, not the usual black pepper) and cardamom. But OK, since, chai technically means “tea” and not spiced tea, I’ll accept that this is a chai.
But, that criticism notwithstanding, this is still really tasty. It’s not overtly spicy, and not nearly as spicy as I would like a “chai” to be, but, I like this for what it is. And what it is is a smooth, sweet, warm blend that brings together the flavors of chocolate, coconut and vanilla in a really exciting way.
As I mentioned before, the base of this chai is a pu-erh tea and Argentinian Yerba Maté. Both of these ingredients contribute to the earthy notes of the cup, and this is a very prominent taste to this drink. But, I am not finding it off-putting, and I’m not sure if it’s because the coconut and vanilla give it a pleasant smooth, creaminess that seems to soften the earthy tones or because the earthiness complements the chocolate notes so well (or perhaps a bit of both of these reasons!) The Pu-erh is more pronounced than the Yerba Maté, but I can taste both in this cup.
The chocolate is really nice here. It has a deep, rich, almost toasty flavor to it, and this is nicely accented with the sweet, creamy notes from the vanilla and coconut. Overall, this is a really tasty cup – certainly different from the typical chai! But, I like this one for its differences. This is not one I’d recommend to someone looking for a good, spicy chai, but, rather, someone who was looking for something that is a departure from that spicy chai. This is not spicy … but it is tasty!
I like it!
