For our one year anniversary my husband and I spent the weekend in the town we met for the first time. We went to dinner and a movie and spent the weekend at a hotel. While killing time before our dinner reservations we wandered the large mall. Low and behold, it had a Teavana in it. We stopped in to try the samples, and I wanted to smell some of the new teas I hadn’t ordered (yumberry oolong was one). My husband really liked this in samples, and has each time he’s tried it. Since he’s not much of a tea drinker, and I was so happy to find something he liked unsweetened, we got 4 oz of this blend to take home.
I brewed up a 24 oz pot with 4.5 tsp of leaves, 170F water and 3 minutes steep time. These leaves made me happy as they are similar to the colors and smell present in Frank’s Apple-Vanilla white chai. I know the taste won’t be the same, as there is citrus in this mix and no apple, but it may be my replacement for when Frank’s stock/my cupboard is cleared of the white chai. Very pretty blend this mate/white tea mix is from Teavana. It smells delicious too.
The taste is pleasant, but after tasting the sample in the store I know I’m missing something. It’s not as sweet, so I added half a teaspoon of rock sugar to my cup. A little better with the sugar, but I wonder if I need to brew at a hotter temperature or longer steep to get it to taste more thick and spicy like the sample at Teavana. I’ve heard that they use white honey to sweeten their tea samples, anyone know where one can purchase that? I’ll have to do some research and see if that might help. I do like this, but I know it can taste better.
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I love this tea but also have trouble getting it to taste like teavana’s sample- they add alot of rock sugar but I have found that if I steep around 205 for 3min I actually get a better taste! It is too weak for me at 175!! I have played around with temp and kept increasing by 10 degrees and think 205 is the ticket. I want to try it @ 212 next time just for kicks. Let me know how it works for you. Hope you had a Happy Aniv!
I used a bit of sugar also and it was more like how thier samples were but not quite the same. I have heard that they use a higher temp & winter white honey which is on their site (I have not tried it though) hope this helps!
I love this tea but also have trouble getting it to taste like teavana’s sample- they add alot of rock sugar but I have found that if I steep around 205 for 3min I actually get a better taste! It is too weak for me at 175!! I have played around with temp and kept increasing by 10 degrees and think 205 is the ticket. I want to try it @ 212 next time just for kicks. Let me know how it works for you. Hope you had a Happy Aniv!
I used a bit of sugar also and it was more like how thier samples were but not quite the same. I have heard that they use a higher temp & winter white honey which is on their site (I have not tried it though) hope this helps!