Caraway Tea Company

I tasted the Orange Vanilla Cream Black tea from Caraway and it was DELICIOUS, so I had high hopes for this tea. I was hoping for a light, creamy, vanilla-ish tea that would soothe me while simultaneously remind me of those orange creamsicle pops for which it was named…

Unfortunately, no such luck. While this tea wasn’t BAD, it definitely does not live up to its name. Even with some vanilla soymilk helping it along, it was flat and really had no depth of flavor. I will drink it, but I won’t crave it, that’s for sure!

I love love love yuzu, and it’s pretty easy to find in NYC. I use it in cooking a lot, so it was kind of a surprise when I found out how uncommon it is in the rest of the US. It’s often equated to lemon, but yuzu is a citrus unto itself with no real flavor to equate it to. I suppose lemon + mandarin orange would be more accurate, but it still doesn’t capture the amazing aspects of yuzu. I’ve been looking for a yuzu tea, and I’ve been contemplating Mellow Monk’s but it’s quite expensive. Since this was on sale for like $4 for 4oz I decided it couldn’t hurt!

Like the Cherry Sakura, I treated this tea with kid gloves: a small amount of leaf cold-brewed for a pretty short amount of time. And holy wow did it work! There’s zero berry flavor here which I am quite pleased with, since I just wanted yuzu. This seriously tastes like iced sencha with yuzu juice squeezed in! I’m so happy that I’ve found a way to save the green teas from Caraway, and this one I would actually restock unless, of course, I find a better yuzu tea. I hear Den’s has a seasonal one…

I cold-brewed this two nights ago and really meant to write it up, but I had the Batman marathon to attend! Quite possibly the most amazing movie experience of my life! But that doesn’t really have much to do with tea (aside from the fact that I brought this with me into the theater—thankfully the one I went to lets you bring in food/drinks for midnight screenings or long showings!). As a side note, now that I’ve been making my own iced tea I find grocery store brands way too sweet.

Anyway, Caraway’s teas don’t have the best rep here, I think a lot of people were disappointed with their purchases even with the crazy discounts. Some of them smell horrifyingly artificial, this one included. It’s like BAM cherry cough syrup right in your face. Eurgh. But I was determined to make it work, so I cold-brewed this with a small amount of leaf for less time than usual, hoping to tone down the cherry-ness. And, thankfully, it worked! This really just tastes like a nice mild sencha until the end of the sip, where you get a bright burst of cherry that really doesn’t taste artificial. It kind of reminds me of DAVIDs Cherry Blossom without the floral notes. However, neither are actually sakura tea, since there are no cherry blossoms. What is up with “sakura” tea being cherry-flavored? Sakura trees aren’t actually fruit-bearing so it makes no sense to me. I’ve had 3 other sakura teas that are really sakura, and it’s a very different taste than cherry. Anyway, if I treat this as a mild cherry iced tea I think it’s actually pretty nice—I don’t think I’d buy it again (I prefer Den’s Sakura sencha and Tay’s Kyoto), but I will definitely finish off the bag.

I have only recently started enjoying green teas with fruit flavourings in them.
The dry notes were spectacularly fruity. I wasn’t quite getting the mango scent, perhaps more of the passionfruit (although I’ve never tried an actual passion fruit).
Once steeped I found it lost much of it’s fruity scent, so I added a touch of honey just in case. This tea was nice & light & refreshing. I found there was very little green tea taste (which is great for me, probably less so for someone who loves the taste of green tea).

It seems like most people are displeased with their Caraway, so I am pretty nervous about digging into mine. Especially this one, since it was over $20 before discounts. A tea that pricey should be delicious, right? In the bag this smells like Element’s Pink Sonoma, which I loved, so I was cautiously optimistic. I decided to cold brew it since that seems to lessen the artificial-ness of some teas, which seems to be the main complaint with Caraway’s product.

I’ll admit that I totally forgot this was in the fridge and steeped it for about 20 hours instead of 12. Oops! Fortunately it didn’t seem to do much damage, just a bit of bitterness because there was too much leaf. I’m gonna chalk that one up to my spazziness and not the tea. The raspberry here is very subtle, not as bright or fruity as I was expecting based on the smell. The champagne comes in at the end of the sip and tastes like, well, champagne! It’s sweet and almost sparkling, which I didn’t expect. The white base is bright and a bit fruity, with some soft floral notes. Overall this is a nice tea and much better than I was expecting based on some of their other teas. I do prefer Pink Sonoma, but that tea isn’t even available anymore so I suppose this is a fair substitute!

Optimism or insanity – you decide.

Thankfully this one is a bit better so we can go with optimism that something I picked out works (somewhat). So glad still at this point I didn’t get anything larger than a sample size. The base is a bit harsh which is no surprise given the looks of everything: lots of dust in the bottom of my cup, lots of little pieces in the basket for a sencha.

The flavor isn’t cloyingly fake like mean green tangerine but it’s still clearly artificial. Actually now after a bit more I can feel it on my tongue. Gross.

Bummer. I was looking forward to these teas and so far that’s two misses. Or one miss and one near miss. I hope the one straight tea I got isn’t horrible, but I was in the mood for something citrusy and new.

oh dear god it really is Pledge in tea form.

I guess I’ll add something else despite the fact I tried two sips, dumped it, and am contemplating just throwing away the bag because I find it hard to believe I’ll be able to find it a home. It seems like it might be good if you love citrus. And then the wave of artificial flavoring rolls over your tongue and triggers your gag reflex.

So yeah.
If in the end it turns out I got just the teapot for $25, that would be fine with me. I’m now scared to try the other teas I bought.

Oh Caraway, I want to like your tea; it is just too artificial.

Uggg. Another bad one from Caraway. If you like your tea with a touch of Pledge, this is your tea. Uggg

Something I cannot understand is why any tea company would use such artificial flavoring AND why they would believe real tea lovers would settle for it.
Smells artificial and tastes artificial. Sad really. I think of the little native people who spend so much time and effort collecting these teas for the world to enjoy, then just to have such mediocre flavorings applied. Sad.

Another sample from my “this was on sale so it’s okay” order from Caraway.

I almost bought a full 4 oz of this during the sale, but I told myself to just buy a sample .. and I’m glad I did.

First of all, the tea smells ….. weird. Artificial, maybe? I’m not sure what I was expecting since the title could be many things, but certainly not this. I think I was expecting something more creamy. Also, I noticed the mate looked a little more different than normal. More twiggy. At least I think it was the mate I was looking at.

As for the taste? It’s weird too. I don’t know how to describe it. It does have a little bit of a creamy taste, but it’s not quite what I was hoping for. The tea is better colder than hot. The tea isn’t bad – it’s certainly drinkable. I’m just not as crazy about it as I have been with other flavored mates I’ve had.

Maybe I’ll brew a little more, but I think I’m going to save the rest of this for a tea swap since someone might enjoy it more.

This is from my big “I didn’t really need tea but there was a sale, so it’s okay” order from Carraway Tea.

This tea smells DELICIOUS. Very much like an orange creamsicle. However, when I went to brew it, I wasn’t getting much flavors of anything. Barely any orange flavor and certainly not enough cream flavor. I wonder if I should use more rooibos next time for a more potent flavor. After such a wonderful smell, I’m a little disappointed :(

This tea does have a light pomegranate taste with grape undertones but brews up a little on the bland side. The white tea does not shine the way I had hoped. Next steeping I will double the tea leaves and see how it comes out.

I am going to GUESS this is a Ceylon base but I have to confess I do not consider myself very versed in identifying black teas yet.
Its a nice cherry flavored tea.
I have not had too many cherry black teas yet although I have been trying to find a really great one.
I would say this is very good, maybe not GREAT but I have nothing to really compare it to. Thus far however I am quite pleased with this in my cabinet!
Its a nice blend that is not too sweet but just sweet enough.
No astringency, not bitter, nor tart.
I did add an agave stick because I got them in today from David’s in my first ever David’s order and had to give one a try. This seemed to be a good tea to try them out with.
I do like the added sweetener to this tea but it was nice on its own as well.
There may be a slight “artificial” flavor in this tea but I am not sure if that is the tea itself or if it is the agave that I am just not used to yet.
Regardless a nice tea.

EDIT:
I made a mistake and logged this under Compass Teas but this was from Caraway! I have since changed it in the database.

Thanks for this LiberTEAs!

Dry this smells like Apple/Cinnamon/Almond Pie or Danish of some sort…very aromatic and appealing at that!

Once infused this has a pinkish-light-brown color to it. The aroma changes and isn’t very pie-like anymore…but still very scented of Almonds and Apples…not as much Cinnamon.

The taste is nice! It has a great even-steven amount of almond and cinnamon and the apples are juicy and not overly tart or peppy…everything joins hands together nicely in this fruit and nut tisane.

The after taste is much like a candied apple.

This is a nice treat. A good flavored fruit and nut combo and one fruit/herbal I find me wanting more of!

Backlogging…thanks AGAIN to LiberTEAs!

I wasn’t really fond of this one…not sure why…just didn’t stand out in any way for me. It was your run-of-the-mill rooibos with spice…that sums it up…not bad, just not memorable, I guess.

Thanks LiberTEAs!

This is intense with aroma but a little flatter with the taste but I like it very much because of that fact! Nicely done!

Backlogging: I had some of this as my last cup of the evening last night. This is a really delicious rooibos chai. The cinnamon was a sweet cinnamon and it dominated the cup. I could also note the warmth of the cardamom and just a hint of peppery goodness from the ginger. The hint of vanilla eliminated the need to add any milk to this chai, and since I am a bit uncomfortable with adding milk to rooibos anyway, it worked well for me.

It wasn’t overly spicy, it was sweet and warming though. I really liked it.

Orange, Ginger, and Peach! All 3 flavors blended in perfect harmony over top of the green tea. Nice! Just enough of each flavor for my liking and overall a nicely flavored green!

I cannot believe that I am the first to review this tea on Steepster… it is SO good. Yummy, nummy good. Sweet and nutty, and apple-ish and cinnamon-y and roasty-toasty. So very yum.

Finishing up this cup, and then sending the rest of my sample to my SororiTea Sister! Full-length review to be published soon!

This is delicious. The flavor is really intense. The green tea is a mild flavor, but has a pleasant buttery undertone and a fresh, light taste. The orange and peach flavors are the strongest, and they are the flavors that bring the intensity to this cup. The ginger offers a peppery background note that adds a nice accent to the fruit flavors.

A great tea to enjoy after a long and stressful day!

I just received this tea today, and I couldn’t wait to try it! I love me some Earl Grey!

This is delightful… I mean, really REALLY good! I like it a lot. Certainly one of my favorite Earl Grey teas.