Babble

Tea Tasting Day (8/8)

And here we are at the last tea. Thanks for joining me on my tea tasting day.

This tastes JUST like candied almonds, with the sweetner in it. This would make a great Christmas tea. I’m not a huge fan of candied almonds, so I’m not a huge fan. But, if you were/are, you’ll LOVE this tea. Really wish I could try it without sweetner, though. As a side note, my boyfriend originally told me this was walnuts and I believed him, so clearly I’m not good at distinguishing nut flavors.

Update: Had it without sweetner thanks to the nice guy at the front, it’s not bad hot or iced. It still tastes like candied almonds. Why do they add sweetner to it? It’s really fine all by itself! It’s a special blend, too. More rooibos than tea, though. My boyfriend bought 2 oz of this tea to try coldbrewing, so we’ll see how it goes.

Tea Tasting Day (7/8)

This tea tastes just like pineapple juice. Not bad, especially since pineapple juice can get kinda pricey. I think it’s better than the Mango Blossom black tea I had earlier today, and it’s actually real pineapple instead of just flavoring. I’m not the biggest fan of herbals, but I’d recommend it to someone who likes pineapple juice.

Tea Tasting Day (6/8)

This mate tea wasn’t bad. I’ve never had a lemon mate before, so I was intrigued. This has a nice lemon, citrus, and earthy taste to it. There’s lingering tastes of lemon essence? Orange essence? Something. Not bad for a mate tea. I try to avoid these because they usually have caffeine. But this isn’t too bad.

Tea Tasting Day (6/8)

NOW we’re talking. This was surprisingly very good and yummy. I can taste the nutty flavors. It’s very smooth, almost creamy. Definitely my favorite so far. I don’t taste too much sweetener in here, so I think this is very close to how this tea tastes for real.

I really want to buy this tea, but I can’t because I have soooo much tea I still need to go through. But, it’s going on my wish list. This is actually a better version of the Teavana Choconut. And cheaper, too. Eat it – Teavana!

This review is showing up a bunch of times for some reason. Not sure why, even though I’ve tried numerous times to edit it. Does anyone have an ideas?

Tea Tasting Day (5/8)

Well.. so much for going kayaking. Just as we were about to leave, my boyfriend notices that his car just got hit in the parking lot. Argh! There’s not much damage, but now we have to do the insurance thing. So, I decided to come back and write some more tea reviews. Meh …

Well.. so much for going kayaking. Just as we were about to leave, my boyfriend notices that his car just got hit in the parking lot. Argh! There’s not much damage, but now we have to do the insurance thing. So, I decided to come back and write some more tea reviews. Meh …Anyway, so far these teas haven’t been anything special, but this Mango Blossoms isn’t so bad. I can definitely tastes the mango, and I think the sweetner actually helps here. It tastes a bit like a Capri Sun (like the Mango Melange I had from TeBella). Not tasting any blossoms, though, just mango. Maybe a slight floral taste, but not much. I didn’t even think this was tea at first, but when I looked closer, it is in fact black tea, but I certainly can’t really taste it. I also thought there might be actual fruit pieces in it, but it’s actuall just flavor. Quite interesting.

Well.. so much for going kayaking. Just as we were about to leave, my boyfriend notices that his car just got hit in the parking lot. Argh! There’s not much damage, but now we have to do the insurance thing. So, I decided to come back and write some more tea reviews. Meh …Anyway, so far these teas haven’t been anything special, but this Mango Blossoms isn’t so bad. I can definitely tastes the mango, and I think the sweetner actually helps here. It tastes a bit like a Capri Sun (like the Mango Melange I had from TeBella). Not tasting any blossoms, though, just mango. Maybe a slight floral taste, but not much. I didn’t even think this was tea at first, but when I looked closer, it is in fact black tea, but I certainly can’t really taste it. I also thought there might be actual fruit pieces in it, but it’s actuall just flavor. Quite interesting.I think the issue here is that mango isn’t my favorite flavor. I like it more than peach, but not as much as the berries. This is definitely the best tea I’ve had so far.

Tea Tasting Day (4/8)

I don’t have much experience with rose tea, and I have to say that this is an .. interesting tea. There’s definitely flavors of rose, but it’s kinda odd.. Not my favorite flower tea, by the way. I’m definitely more of a jasmine fan. This is my least favorite tea of the bunch. Blech.

Also, I will continue the latter half of my tea ratings later, since I’m going to enjoy the rest of my beautiful day. I know you all are on the edge of your seats ;)

Tea Tasting Day 3/8

Right off the bat, this tastes slightly bitter, so I’m distracted by that. Either that or it’s a really strong chocolate taste. It’s a little hard to tell. I do taste the chocolate, but the bitterness is a little distracting.

Also, I’m looking at this and it has white chocolate, which I’m also not a fan of. That explains why I’m not crazy about this tea. I wonder if this tea is actually from Culinary Teas. I’ll have to explore a little more later..

Tea Tasting Day (2/8)

If you can believe it, this is the only tea that they have both hot AND unsweetened, so luckily I don’t have to guess at the flavors. I can taste the chocolate and mint equally, although the mint leaves more of a lasting effect on the tongue. Really curious how this would taste iced. I’m curious where they get this tea from, since I know a lot of vendors carry a chocolate mint rooibos. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s not bad.

I’m not sure why they don’t sweeten the hot tea, but I’m not complaining..

Tea Tasting Day (1/8)

So my local tea shop, Kaleisia, is doing a tea tasting, and I just had to attend, since it’s the “last one ever”. I knew, going into this, that most of the teas were pre-sweetened, and you’ll hear me complain about this. But, I try my best to discern the flavor and give the teas an appropriate rating. Also, unless otherwise stated, these teas are ICED.

First up was their limited blend – Summer Delight. It has a lot of different flavors and fruits in it, but I’m really tasting the peach flavor most of all. Not getting much for tangerines or strawberries. It’s … okay. Your generic black fruit tea that doesn’t taste much like tea. Although I think the sweetener really cancels this out, though.

Also, this is NOT what the tea actually looks like. But it’s a limited edition and I couldn’t find it on their site, so I just found a comparable picture.

Thank you to Azzrian for this surprise sample.

I’m a little sad. Because of the bad weather here in Florida, I’m stuck at my boyfriend’s house for a few more days, and I’m far away from my house – where the majority of my tea samples are. Luckily, I had the forethought to bring this up with me.

I cold-brewed this, and it’s not too bad. The peach flavor is there, but not too prominent. Peach is a hit or miss flavor for me. It’s not overwhelming. I think sweetener would help bring out the peach flavor for this tea.

The second steeping, I thought, was maybe even better than the first. I wonder how the other flavored White Adagios compare.

Thanks to Michelle for these two teas.

A while ago, I was craving an iced tea at the mall, so I went to Teavana. Since I usually like to blend my iced teas, they recommended I blend the Cha Yen Thai with the Amandine Rose. I was skeptical – because blacks are hit or miss for me – but this one turned out really good. They put just a tad bit of sweetener in it, and it really brought the flavor out.

It had been a while, but I decided to cold brew a mix of both at home. It came out just as lovely, although I do think it’s one of the few teas where adding sweetner helps a little. It’s very creamy on its own, though. And quite flavorful. I’m not sure which tea I like better, since I’ve only had the two of them mixed together. Next time, I plan to cold brew both separately and see how it comes out. My guess is I’ll like the Cha Yen better, but we’ll see…

Thanks to Michelle for sending this along.

I actually drank this a couple days ago, while working on an assignment for school. I really needed some caffeine, and knowing tea might not be quite enough, I thought about coffee. Now, I have nothing against coffee, but I’ve really tried to cut back on it when I can and drink tea instead. Also, I didn’t want to support Starbucks if I could help it ;) .. And then I remembered I had this tea. Yerba Mate is known to contain LOTS of caffeine, and since I needed a “fix” I figured this was the perfect time to try it.

Since I knew Yerba Mate wouldn’t need to expand, I put this is a tea filter, boiled some water, and let it steep while working on my assignment. Not sure how long I brewed it for – at least 6 minutes.. maybe closer to 8? It was not bad at all. I agree with the other reviewers that it tastes a lot like Big Red gum, since the cinnamon is so strong. It’s definitely not a bad tea, and was tasty enough to drink the whole thing.

I general, I plan to limit my Yerba Mate intake since I don’t want to have caffeine overload. In general, I don’t like to “need” it to get through my day. But there are definitely dragging days. I wonder how this compares to the Mate Vana, the other mate tea Teavana sells..

Thank you to Azzrian for the lovely sample.

So after I researched for a bit how long to properly brew this, I’m not sure how long I steeped this for since I was doing other things at the time and forgot to time it. Oops. My guess is around 4 minutes.

It’s not bad for a type of tea I normally don’t like. Not quite as flavorful as the puerh cafe I had a little bit ago, but I’m going to try and steep it again for longer to see if I can taste the flavor more. It’s definitely drinkable, and it’s not too bad as an iced tea, either. In fact, I might like it better iced. It’s a LOT like coffee.

Hey, it’s another night of discontinued tea as I work on my comp paper for grad school. I bought this from Teavana a while ago. It smells wonderful, which I’m sure is part of the reason I bought it. I brewed this along time ago, probably found it too bitter, and put it away in the “Tea Box Void”. I resurrected it recently and found it still had a pleasant smell, so I thought I would give it another try. This time, I did some homework, and found out you shouldn’t brew it for more than 2 minutes. Check and check. The short steeping helped a lot, and it is a pleasant tea to drink.

As it’s cooling down, I think I would prefer it iced. Also, I agree with the other reviews that these flavors would have worked better with a black tea. The green tea they’ve used is just too unforgiving. Well, not like it matters since it’s discontinued.

I originally bought this tea in Japan while at the Lupicia store. This tea is quite old, but it was stored airtight and away from light so I figured I would give it a brew and WOW! – I have to say I’m impressed. I’m not a big pu-erh fan, and the straight pu-erhs I’ve had were just meh. But the coffee flavors really help enhance this. It tastes a LOT like coffee and makes the pu-erh a lot more drinkable. Dr. Oz would be so proud.

It’s a shame it’s discontinued so I’ll never be able to get it again. I guess they’ve updated it or something to include more flavoring. That could be good or bad.

Thanks for the sample, Fong Mong Tea.

I debated whether or not to use all of my sample for my testing. I decide to use half of my sample (3g), just in case something messed up. I followed the directions and brewed in my cast iron.

I’m still getting into more refined oolongs, but this definitely has some subtle floral notes and a little bit of sweetness. Nothing too prominent. I steeped it for 6 minutes, which seemed a little bit long, although there wasn’t any bitterness to speak of. I plan to steep it a little less next time with my second infusion.

This is MUCH better than the other Yogi Green tea I had the other day. I was intrigued by the Kombucha since originally I thought you could only get it in bottled form. The package said to steep the bag for 3 minutes, but I forgot about it and steeped it for longer. Not too bad and not as bitter as I thought it would be. The green tea is a little more prominent here, as is the lemongrass and a little bit of the mint.

My original experience with Kombucha was the bottled stuff that tastes a LOT like vinegar and was pretty bad to drink. Thankfully, this is a lot better.

Had this at Jason’s Deli. I was a little disappointed at first to learn that the first ingredient was not green tea, it’s lemongrass. And the third ingredient – which is really the most predominant – is licorice root. I’ve concluded I’m really not a fan of it. It almost tastes artificially sweet without it. I can’t taste any green tea, which is a shame because this was all they had for green tea at the restaurant. If you like medicinal teas and don’t care for green tea, but want to drink something that has green tea in it, this might be right up your alley. It’s really a shame, too, since I don’t mind herbals mixed with greens.

Not bad as far as herbals go. Had this on a whim in a Mt. Dora tea shop to avoid caffeine. I was worried the hibiscus – the primary ingredient – would be too tart and overpowering. At first, it was, but throwing a packet of raw sugar really helped being out the flavors, such as the berries. I also tried this ice without the sugar, and I think it’s better iced. Overall, not bad, and there’s an impressive list of fruit in these teas.

No notes yet.

This was made with a little bit sweetener and was very good. Very sweet and reminds me a lot of a Capri Sun (except without all the high fructose corn syrup). I’m wondering what this tastes without sweetener, but it’s definitely a good juice replacement.

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