Della Terra Teas

I’m going by smilies on my ratings so the numbers may not be that high. I took 4tsp (for 16oz) and steeped at boiling for about 4 minutes (boiling for me is between 195 and 200). I think it may have been too long. This is my first attempt with this one and I’m dissapointed with it. I get an overwhelmingly taste of tea/playdoh (where that comes from I have no idea! maybe the rooibos?). I taste a little blueberry and slight hint of creaminess…but the tea/playdoh taste is overpowering. I don’t know if I added to much or steeped for too long but right now it’s not living up to its name:( Nothing like Strawberry Zabaglione by 52 teas. I’ll update my rating with future steepings.

Confession: I picked out almost all of the hibiscus.

I cold brewed this one. Kept it to 3 hours because I wasn’t sure if I got all the hibiscus. Now this is the way to drink this tea.

I personally think it was much better cold brewed than hot. There is a strong taste of strawberry initially, followed by a sweet candy taste. There is a long, lingering aftertaste of jelly bean. It is not a bad aftertaste at all.

I am happy I tried the last of my sample as a cold brew, keeping in mind I got rid of most of the hibiscus.

Free sample from Della Terra.

The tea smells very good. Almost like sweet, rose, strawberry, candylike and of course, hibiscus.

The brewed tea smells like sweet and kinda of spicey, hibiscus, very faintly reminds me of jelly beans.

The tea tastes like sweet hibiscus, some strawberry taste. I didnt want to add any sweetener because there was a jelly bean in it, but it could have used a bit more sweetness to bring out that real jelly bean candy kind of sweetness.

My pet peeve about this tea is that the mix has a bunch of different sized peices in it. There are real large dried strawberries, whole jelly beans, and very small chopped peices. There was a lot of settling in the bag. It was hard to get a decent scoop with everything in it.

The dry blend is a beautiful mix of black tea, orange-red safflower petals, and peices of orange peel It smells very strong of bergamot, mmmm Earl Grey.

While brewing there is a slight bergamot smell, maybe some kind of nutty smell, like almond, everything seems blunted by the safflower.

The brewed tea is not good while it is hot. As it starts to cool, it becomes much better. It is not very strong bergamot at all. You can taste the safflower and black tea base strongly. There is a citrous type flavour, but it is neither sweet nor tart.

Overall, not my favorite paris blend but it is good enough.

As some Steepsterites know, either some false advertising went on with this tea or it was just an honest mistake. I’m personally not a fan of smokey teas so the Lapsang souchong surprise isn’t a pleasant one for me. This was also sold as a chocolate EGC, but I don’t really taste any chocolate in this. Yes, there are mini chocolate chips but the smokiness is covering that up.

There is also a fair share of colourful sprinkles and silver dragées, so consequently, you’re left with a reddish-orange skum ring on the surface.

Without any additives, it’s a lighter Lapsang with a weak bergamot note. I added some coconut almond milk in hopes of drowning out the smoke. What it left me with is black forest ham. I’m not even joking. I’m not really a fan of red meat as it is, so a tea that tastes like it is a bonus right there.

Why did this have to happen?

Sipdown! The last little bit of this is going out in a swap! I’m not entirely sure how different this is from lime chiffon. I think I prefer more of the lime chiffon because its a bit more tart than this one. Ill need to do a taste test between the lime and the lemon chiffon but I think I lean slightly more towards the lemon chiffon. What I like most about these is that the chiffons from della terra all steep well forever and you never get that rooibos taste.

It’s decided. I do not enjoy this tea. I can see how it tastes and feels like pudding, kindof. I guess. (grumbles)
The lemon version is so amazing. I wish I knew why I feel so differently about this!
I can drink this, if I need to. I mean it’s not a “wincing” tea, you know where you make a little face with every sip?

Speaking of teas with similar profiles(see previous note), I made a cup of Espresso matcha as a latte, and it turned out SUPER floral in the same way I find this one. Turns out the espresso one is floral only when hot and I usually have it in a smoothie or bottle shaken. Sighs. I really wanted my coffee/matcha latte!

I thought I’d adore this!! but somehow… I don’t :(
Now, it does fill a gap in my tea cupboard so I’m not complaining. Much.
Bare, it reminds me alot of that blueberry green tea I tried the other day. I wonder if it was contaminated? I had them in the same carrier bag for a few days. Hrm.
Anyhow. With some sugar, I can pick out alot more of the lime note. And with some milk, it tastes just like key lime pie filling! with some Senna on the side, which is what I disliked about the tea which may have contaminated this one. Not bad, really, just not what I was expecting considering my love for Lemon Chiffon.

A sample and a sipdown thanks to Kittenna!

Blueberry has just been my thing lately, what with the 52teas reblend and all. I was excited to get to try this and compare the two, even though it’s not a straight comparison. I just wanted to see how the two blueberry notes stacked up more than anything.

I can tell there’s rooibos in here just because there’s a slight woody note that isn’t present in the straight black 52teas blend. It’s not bad, just an extra part of the flavor. Here the blueberry is juicy and tart, but then the cream comes in to prevent any astringence in the swallow. This is perfect to drink straight and would make for quite an iced tea in the summer, I’ll bet.

Which – summer might actually come this year after all! The high today was 67! Allllmost to the 70s at last!

Sip down! Made this one this afternoon, with some cold water added to the boiling water we get from the hot water tap. It was so good and comforting, yay!

This one is definitely on the reorder list. I can mistreat it and the flavour carries the tea. It doesn’t taste terribly bitter or astringent or anything, and everyone wonders what smells so good. :)

So weird. This smells exactly like the gluten free carrot raisin muffins I just ate.

I mixed 1 tsp this with 1 tsp irish breakfast for a bit more of a kick. The flavour is intense enough that I could probably dilute it even more. Wow.

This one is pretty good, and I’m thinking I’d like to restock it as I’m already half way through!

Oh hey. Apparently I missed putting this in my online cupboard. And apparently I haven’t had it yet!

After my failed Cherry Cola tea flavoured popsicle, I needed something comforting to cleanse my palate. Hence a white chocolate hazelnut Ritter Sport, and some tea that smells (and tastes!) like baked goods.

I don’t really get “oatmeal raisin cookie” out of it, but I do get delicious spiced baked good. A different spice from the Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie one, even. I had a big raisin in my brew basket so there’s less tea in here than I expected, but it’s still delicious. I can taste the tea in the background, the cinnamon, a carb-y sweet baked flavour (not really getting oats, though), and some extra sweetness from that raisin.

I really like Della Terra’s black flavoured teas. Well, the ones I’ve tried. The green ones are good as well, but since black teas are closer to my heart, I love them more. :)

1.5 tsp in 12 oz water, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp soy creamer.

Since it’s almost summer, seems like a good time for this tea. I added some of the Birthday Cake from David’s. It really works as a blend. Mmm… lemon lime cake.

This tea smells really good. It seems a little less flavourful than the chiffon teas. There a bit of a sweet, creamy citrus taste.

Another tea to leave my cupboard today. Reading my previous steeping notes I saw I drank this tea for the first time whilst playing Bioshock Infinite and now I finish it as I play The Last Remnant. Perhaps I crave apple when I game?

So long Apple pie.

My second pot of tea today to help aid my completion of Bioshock Infinite. Apple tea in general is something I have a love/hate relationship with. It’s hard to find an apple tea that is just right without being too sweet or artificial. Plus I have to be in the right frame of mind to drink it too.

In raw form this blend does actually smell like apple pie. It’s a sweet apple with a toasted bread/crust aroma that reminds me of both apple pie and fruit loaf cake.

Once steeped the tea is dark mahogany in colour and a dark, spicy apple scent.

Flavours are delicate with a hint of a spicy after taste. The apple is clean, sweet and juicy with the almond giving the blend a sort of creaminess but keeping it light. A lot of the baked smell has gone since it’s steeped and it’s also not really there in flavour either so it’s more of the inside if the apple pie.

As far as apple tea goes for me this is a tasty spiced apple tea but lacks the baked goodness it’s raw scent offers. At least for me anyway.

i’m pretty sure i had no idea what i wanted this one to be when we picked it up. Mostly though? now that I’m trying it? i want it to be more honey and less spice. There is too much in form of cloves happening here for me to see this as anything different from a wannabe rooibos chai. which is not, apparently, what i wanted it to be. It’s not terrible, just there are better teas out there that are mostly the same thing.

oh yeah..sipdown! 293….

I found a surprise sample in my package! Thanks to Della Terra Teas for sending it even though I placed my order a couple days before the promotion. So I had ordered a mate tea, and somehow some of the mate got stuck to the back and the bottom of the packet. (shrug)

The dry leaf is colorful – a combination of pinks, orange, blue and yellow because of the hibiscus, jelly beans (!), and apple and strawberry bits. I can smell the jelly beans, which busted its way out of the packet as soon as I opened it. The liquor has the usual stunning color of hibiscus, which initially dominates the flavor and then subsides so that the strawberry and jelly bean take over. It’s tart, but not as much as pure hibiscus tea (mostly likely because the kind I have is in tea bag form and this one is full leaf). Overall, this tea is sweet and slightly sugary. If you like hibiscus, or at least tolerate it, it’s pretty good.

Almost too chocolatey. It tastes a lot like Nature’s Leaf Chocolate Midnight, only not as dark. Not a bad cup of chocolate tea. I might try mixing it with some chai.

Since this tea is pretty much Shamrocks and Shenanigans, but with candy cane pieces, I’m keeping this review short. This is one of my favorite dessert teas. It tastes so good! The addition of the candy cane creates a nice aftertaste, and adds color to the dry leaf as well.

The other night when I was forcing myself to re-drink the possibly rancid coconut tea that everyone else in the world loves, I really wanted to be drinking this because I got my third Della Terra order in the mail that day! Can I get a “Huzzahhhh!”?

So I said “To bloody hell with this!” (in my fake British accent) and dumped that other tea-which-shall-not-be-named down the drain and made this instead.

Let me break it down for you. It tastes like a strawberry sundae. Similar to Davidstea’s sadly discontinued Ice Cream Cake tea if that had strawberries/flavoring in it. That being said, sure, there is a bit of an artificial taste to it, but what did you really expect?? You are sitting there drinking an ice cream flavored TEA after all!!

Really good. I’m still undecided on whether or not I would reorder this one, but I’m glad to have tried it and plan to enjoy another mug again soon :)

Della Terra FTW!
(I know I need to expand my tea horizons, if there is another amazing flavored tea company out there please introduce me!!)

(Boiling, 3-4min)

This is very similar to Lemon Chiffon, but just a tiny bit more tart (from the lime, I assume.) The blend is pretty much exactly as described: you can taste the lemon, the lime, and the cream. It’s very, very good, but I think I like the Chiffon just a little bit more, as it tasted sweeter to me.

Sipdown! 168 BOOYAH! Having a couple cups of tea this evening while we relax and watch some fringe and the following. Mostly it’s just nice to be at home enjoying our company before a hopefully relatively early night after our adventures from this past weekend :)

Maybe i’ll make 160 my goal for January haha that might be doable…