Fusion Tea Room

My last sample that I haven’t logged from Fusion Tea Room!

So this tea…

Well…hmm…see…I……it was good. But…….it……….sigh It wasn’t what I was expecting, to be completely honest. But let me just review it and then explain.

Smell: Dry, in the bag. CARAMEL CARAMEL OH MY GOODNESS IT SMELLED CAKEY AND YUMMY! Though I did not taste chocolate at all. I mean, I guess maybe it was there….somewhere. Steeping it smelled WAY caramel-y! Yummy.

Taste: On the site it said this tea could be drank straight. I’m sorry, but THAT IS NOT TRUE! For me, at least. When I drank it, it wasn’t sweet and I couldn’t taste anything yummy. (Maybe I steeped it wrong, I don’t know, but at 8 mins and boiling, and following all instructions, twice, I don’t think so.) So I put in one packet of raw cane sugar, and that gave it a bit of a slight caramel taste. Slight. One other packet and it was SUPER sweet and SUPER caramel tasting. That was all though. It had a creamy caramel taste, a rich mouthfeel (haven’t been stretching my tea vocab, I need a start) and a pretty caramel color. Some slight cream may have made it better, maybe even more steep time. All in all, the tea wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t taste lots of yummy stuff. Sorry FTR, this one I don’t think is for me! (But I enjoy it enough to finish it, and keep trying to see if maybe it was something I did…I’m just not convinced this tea isn’t a slice of heaven, all of the other reviews were SO GOOD. So yeah, another go.)

Ugh just got home and I am soooo tired. Sorry all for the hasty and short reviews. I ended up trying a bunch of new ones today by chance so bear with me!
This tasted like regular mate to me. The lime came through a little but not enough to identify it if I didn’t know it was there. Or maybe that was the pistachio? shrugs
Anyhow thank you Kristaleyn for this sample!! I have more than enough for another cup, maybe it will reveal some secrets ;)

I’ll rate now, but I’m not near a real computer and touch screen keyboards are finnicky.

Backlogging:

So I love Genmaicha, so much, I honestly munch on it right out of the bag, well not the leaves, they don’t chew well, but the rest of it I am guilty of.

Fusion has a nice Genmaicha and its organic, which I prefer when I can get what I am looking for in organic form.

My first teas came from Fusion Teas just this week (this was weeks ago now) and I was really pleased with their packaging. Each foil like bag had a bright cheery label with full steeping instructions. Since I can’t seem to remember from one tea / steep to the next times and temps I love having them provided on the label! Thank you for this Fusion Teas.

Fusion’s Genmaicha is not the strongest flavored genmaicha I have ever had but I like it. Some days I want a genmaicha that is really strong, really “meaty” that I can sit back and savor and sip on for an extended period of time. Other days, especially with summer upon me in the midwest, I know I will prefer a lighter genmaicha and Fusion Teas’ Genmaicha will perfectly fit that bill! While I would not want to go more than a day or two without having a Genmaicha sometimes especially on the hottest of days I just can’t seem to drink a full cup due to its fullness, heaviness, and thickness of mouthfeel but with Fusion’s Genmaicha I know I will be loving this every day all summer long! Its actually one I feel I can chill and enjoy cold!

Genmaicha Light if you will, this tea is also perfect as an introductory genmaicha. Its not too overwhelming and from my own experience introducing people to genmaicha it can be something that people either love or, well, don’t love. I have a good feeling this is one that most everyone will be able to enjoy!

If you have not experienced genmaicha before, think nutty, buttery, lightly sweet, caramel like, and reminiscent of buttered popcorn, yet earthy, and green. Yes I know it sounds like a mouth full!

Fusion Tea Room’s Organic Genmaicha is brewed at 170 degrees F for 2 to 3 minutes. I brewed mine for 3 as I wanted a fuller flavor and usually go for a longer steep time. You can brew from 1 to 2 teaspoons at these settings, I used 1 and a half. I like that you can adjust your steep time and leaf amount to taste as this tea gives a bit of wiggle room for an even lighter or stronger brew!

To me, genmaicha is decadent, an indulgence, yet how can it be when it’s not bad for me? Its something I crave, think about often, I have to keep myself from drinking too much of it from fear I may run out. Did I mention I love genmaicha? The thing is yes there are some genmaicha that are better than others. I had thought I had found my one and only genmaicha, and I will always order that genmaicha from that vendor. The deal is though, now that I have had Fusion Tea Room’s genmaicha I have two I love, one that I believe will become my fall and winter genmaicha, and this one that will be my spring and summer genmaicha! I am just a lucky duck that I live in a state that has four seasons!

Thank you Fusion Tea Room!

Smell: Dry, in the bag. It was very spicy, and I could definitely smell cinnamon and cardamom, and a hint of orange. It reminded me of chai a bit. There’s also a lot of ginger. Yummy smelling, but strong, so I couldn’t sniff it too much. LOL Steeping there was a lot of cinnamon going on, but that’s ok with me.

Taste: The cinnamon and all the spices were at the forefront, which is nice. It’s not too overpowering or strong. The orange is there, but not too much. It’s subtle. I do taste it though, and I like it. I also want to say I can taste the rooibos, but I’m not sure because I haven’t had enough of it yet to know it’s taste. Same with the tulsi. It’s all very yummy though, with a warm taste that isn’t too spicy. :-)

Other tasting tidbits: two packs of raw cane sugar. No cream, but I think I saw a review that said it was good with it, despite the orange. I’ll try it next time.

Sipping now. Will add review and rating after I get deeper into it!

Mmmmm, thank you Fusion Teas Opened this bag up, was hit with the actual, real life smell of chocolate cake. Yum. The smell of the dry leaves was strong and wafted all around my desk. The tea itself was very mobile as it brewed, little flecks floating around everywhere in my ingenuiTEA. Tastes really lovely, but the chocolate seemed to be more muted while the honeybush grew stronger as it brewed. Still, super excellent tea.

Again, thanks to Fusion Tea Room for this sample! I must say, it was a very beautiful blend!! Very colorful and it made me smile at how pretty it is! Job well done. :-)

Smell: Dry, in the bag. PEACH!! PEACHY PEACH PEACH! And maybe some berry-ish appley smell? More peach berry than anything else. It was another one that I kept sniffing the bag while I waited for my water to boil. Steeping the peachy smell was still there, though the berry kind of died out and the hibiscus began surfacing. Color was a pretty red-purple, common for hibiscus and berry teas, I’m noticing. Kind of wine like. Yum.

Taste: First sip, with one packet of sugar (in the raw, as always!) It was tart. Not overly so, but a little bit, and the peach was so-so. A bit more sugar, and the peach came out a bit more and the tart died down. I’m not sure what my other tastes are, to be honest, because the tart and peach are the only ones surfacing. I’m going to let it cool for a bit.

time lapse. Warm now, but not hot, and the peach is WAY there, the tart is not bad at all anymore (me and hibiscus are starting to become friends) and I can taste a berry something. Not sure what, but I can taste it. I really like this tea, I think it’s yummy, I can taste all sorts of things, just don’t have a name for them, and I can taste lots of peach, which is good for me, because when I get a peach tea, that’s what I want: peach. (And I LOVE peach!)

I’m going to try this iced in a little bit, and update, because that is how it was suggested, though I think it is good warm. Peach. :-) Yay.

Side note on brewing: The first few times I’ve brewed any of my Fusion tea room teas (the Earl Grey, and the Chocolate Cake) and a few other loose leaf teas I used a tea ball, and they didn’t come out right. Now that I’ved used my bigger tea strainer (not huge though. You can put it in the mug. Perfect size!) all the teas have been perfect. :-) Yay for good tea strainers!! And letting tea breathe!

Update: THIS TEA IS GREAT ICED! But again, it’s also very good warm, so which ever you try and prefer is the way to go!!

Definitely a nice tea for the evening time, a bit of cocoa, orange and lemongrass makes for a very tasty and relaxing tisane. Sweet and yummmmy! See previous notes for more info. :-)

I want to send a big shout-out to Thomas at Fusion Tea Room for your amazing service (100 rating, I swear) and the wonderful (and generous) samples. My first review wasn’t great, so please read this one instead if you already saw that one!

This is a re-do of my first review. I am heating the water now, and I am going to ensure I have the proper water temperature. I’m going to let the pot cool for a bit, and then try again.

time lapse Yeah, because I’m not going to make you wait.

Smell: Dry, in the bag. OH MY GOSH OH MY GOODNESS OH MY……Just wow. I love the smell of Earl Grey, and I could just smell this the whole time I am waiting for it to steep. I mean, I don’t know if you can eat tea straight up, but if you could, I would want to eat this. That may be weird, but it just SMELLS SO GOOD TO ME! It’s a light, citrusy (did I spell that right?) aroma, and it isn’t too strong. It’s just….heavenly! :-) As it is steeping, the aroma isn’t as strong, but still as good. I am going to up the rating just because of the smell….

And my temp. slider won’t let me set it at 203 degrees……but 205 isn’t that off, so yeah.

Taste: Ohhh yeah, that’s perfect. This is a very smooth Earl Grey. There is NO bitter in here. None. So I take back my previous statement about Bergomot being bitter in general.Well, ok, I taste a small amount of…not bitter, but just the strong taste of tea in general, you know? But the Earl Grey! The flavor!! THIS IS AMAZING!!! And it’s amazing what temperature change can do! Two packets of sugar in the raw and this is perfect for me. And yeah, you may think my rating is high but THIS IS THE BEST EARL GREY I HAVE EVER TASTED!! It is even a bit better than my favorite, also 100 rated Earl Grey tea. I’m going to have to bump that rating down a bit, since it has been so long since I’ve had that EG anyway. I don’t think I’m ever going back to bagged tea again, not if it comes in a loose form. (Or if it is just one of those really high quality places anyway. I can do that.) I want to just ramble on. I LOVE this!

And this review is supposed to be completely honest. So here is my honesty: The first steep, before I re-adjusted tea temp, wasn’t so good. I could drink it but it wasn’t that good. But now that I have re-done it, THIS TEA IS AMAZING I AM NOT LYING!! BEST EVER! EVER!! And to know that I have CHOCOLATE CAKE HONEYBUSH BY FUSION TEA ROOM THAT I HAVE YET TO TRY? Oh……………boy.

I drank this one last night but it was iffy since I wasn’t using my kettle/tea stuff, I was using a friend’s while visiting. So I didn’t add the tasting note last night because I wanted to make sure I did it right with my own things. :-)

Once again, thank you to Fusion Tea Room for this!!

Smell: Dry, in the bag. Very Cocoa-y. Can’t really smell the orange, and the cocoa is a medium smell, but yummy. It doesn’t smell overly sweet, it smells like natural cocoa, and I like it. Steeping the cocoa is still there, though not as strong. Still yummy though. Makes me excited. The color is a light orange-brown, and I was worried that for some reason it was steeping weak, but the taste for both times is about the same, and this time is strong, so I think I’m doing this right.

Taste: First raw sugar packet, the cocoa is subtle, and the orange isn’t there at all. A little bit more sugar (I like sweet!) and the cocoa is definitely there. The orange is also there, a bit less than the cocoa, but I love the mix. The cocoa is smooth, creamy, and again, not overpowering, and there is a nice citrusy taste, but not sour. It’s all very sweet and pleasant. takes a sip. Oh yeah, this is just….so yummy! I love how I can taste the cocoa, so that the name isn’t lying. The orange…it’s there, but, now that I’ve tasted it again, it’s very subtle, and a bit overpowered by the cocoa, but for me personally, I like that. Upping the rating a bit because it is sweeter than the first few sips let on….

more sips. Yummy. I’m happy with this, and it’s herbal so I can drink this late at night!!! :D

My first cup last night was steeped at 7 mins, but again, it just wasn’t exactly right because I was working with stuff that wasn’t mine. This time, I bumped it up to 8 minutes. If there wasn’t orange in this, I would possibly put cream, but I learned the hard way (before being told) that cream curdles in orange tea. :P But I don’t think it needs it that bad, it would just go nice with the chocolate taste.

I’m very satisfied with it though! YUM!

Sip down. But it’s OK, because I have more on the way. My wife went into withdrawal already on the Chamomile Vanilla Bean and it isn’t even gone yet. So since I am paying shipping anyway might as well take advantage right? Also grabbed the Earl Grey for a friend.

For those of you who avoid fruit teas for fear of hibiscus – this one does not have it listed as an ingredient. Super fruit is pretty accurate – pomegranate and gojiberry, but you can taste the Sencha base, and that is important to me. The lemon grass is just a hint. Definitely my favorite from Fusion. It is my second favorite fruit tea from any I have tried. (Number 1 is Empire Tea Services Peach Apricot – it is amazing.) I love this one steaming hot or room temperature. It remains consistently good through out.

Nom, thanks Fusion Tea! Smells really strongly spicy, in a lovely way! Lots of exciting pieces in the blend. There’s melty, caramelly looking stuff in the used leaves. Mmmmm. This is going to sound super weird, but the smell of the cup reminds me kinda of….pipe smoke? An interesting and complex cup o’tea.

I started to take this to work with me yesterday because I have all the proper equipment and the experience with it to brew this correctly. Last time I got it too weak and not hot enough. My wife saw me heading out the door with the bag and asked what I was doing. I told her.
She said, “It will put you to sleep”.
“No it won’t. It doesn’t have that affect on me.”
“Well, you’re not taking it”
“Because?”
“It’s mine!”
I’m smarter than I look. I put the bag down and walked away.
So when I got home from band practice late in the evening, I put a pan on the stove – not using the microwave this time. Brought it to a rolling boil and poured 2 cups into my press. In minutes the water was turning a beautiful golden caramel. I think I got it right this time. The vanilla aroma mixed with coconut is really nice.

The sip is vanilla at the front, followed by a mixture of flavors I don’t recognize but can only assume is mostly the chamomile. Late in the sip it fades into a pleasant coconut/vanilla mix that remains in the aftertaste. I do like this. I can’t say I fully understand it, but then I am not the chamomile drinker. So I ask my wife what she thought – is this good?

She said, “Oh, yes. You need to thank Fusion tea for sending this and tell them how good it is.”
“Done. So is this something you would drink often enough that we should order?”
“Absolutely. I love chamomile and this one is really good.”
As for me, this is the first chamomile I even wanted to finish so it looks like this is one we will be sharing – because I can’t leave the house with it.

I LOVE chocolate raspberry combos. The best dessert I ever had was a chocolate cheesecake with fresh from the market raspberries and chocolate sauce. ANYWAY, this is really good. It’s a mild chocolate flavor with a sweet raspberry with a base of a delicious earthy mate. The scent of raspberry seems more present than the flavor though. But all the flavors work really well together. It’s smooth and creamy and tastes like you’re eating a dessert. I didn’t add any sort of sweetener but it was still very good. Bonus: I’ve heard mate has brain boosting powers (and don’t I need it). Fusion Tea Room really puts a lot of effort in their blends, you can tell! (Their pistachio lime mate seems especially inspired.) I received this in a package of a few free samples from Fusion Tea Room, so track them down and they may send some to you!

My first impression of the aroma was that it smelled exactly like fruity pebbles cereal. This really excited me but as I took a sip the hibiscus turned out to be a little too overwhelming for me. The tartness came on a bit strong and I think I’m starting to realize that I’m not a big fan of this flavor profile. By the way, I cold brewed this so I’m not sure if that has anything affect on it. It still smells nice but I don’t think I can handle the tartness.

I got home from work Friday and awaiting me was an unexpected sample of this! My wife loves chamomile tea. I haven’t liked any of them because of the other ingredients. No rose and no spearmint in this one. Yeah! Hopeful, I steeped this in my press. It was really clear. I took a cup to my wife and said, “I’m not sure I made this correctly”. She sipped and said, “You got it right”. Woo hoo! So I took a sip of my cup. Despite what she said, I didn’t get the water hot enough. Also not sure I used enough leaf. I am holding off a rating until I try again.

For now I will say even made wrong I really like this. This starts vanilla then mid sip there is a bit of something different (a touch bitter). The late sip turns coconut. Even though I could drink this often I am convinced with a little tweeking I can get more out of it.

I know that hibiscus has kind of a bad rep, but I love it. So when I opened the little pouch from the sample that Fusion Tea Room so generously sent me, I got super excited. I was also hit with a really strong apple/hibiscus/vanilla type of smell, and it’s just so tantalizing.

I knew I wanted to have this iced, since it’s currently about 80 degrees out and I’m laying in the grass writing a paper on the nature of truth (what a lib arts college student I am, ha) and I didn’t want hot tea. So I brewed it double-strength and then flash iced it. It takes me a full tray of ice when I do this, but that’s okay.

It’s delicious. This is going right on my wish list. The hibiscus hits the palate first and the apple sweeps over, sweeter and smoother in its wake. There’s a lingering hint of vanilla and something cinnamonny too. I think the warmth of the vanilla does a lot to knit the whole thing together. Very appetizing.

Just want to start this off with thanks to Fusion Tea Room for this sample!

I’ve been away from Steepster for a little while, and it’s because life has been busy! I’m still posting regularly on my blog and have a special treat for readers today (or early tomorrow, depending on some things), but I’ve also been out and about, enjoying my life a lot.

In any case, while I’ve tried Mate a couple of times and it’s alright each time, I always planned to taste the samples from Fusion Tea Room, but I wasn’t writing about Mate just yet, so I kept putting it off. Well, recently at work, our Media Team has been working on a recruiting video and one of the people interviewed talked about how he doesn’t drink coffee, but only Mate (“which has every nutrient your body could need,” according to him). After hearing that line repeated indefinitely as the Media guys edited the video, I got a hankering to try some more of the Mate I’ve got hanging out in the cupboard.

So here goes!

The smell of the dry Mate reminded me of the beginnings of a pumpkin pie, which I think is generally the point. Once brewed, the aroma is pretty powerful and actually caught me off guard at first. It almost is more coffee-like than anything else in the smell, but with the spices that were detected earlier for certain.

The liquor as-is was definitely reminiscent of coffee to me, just without the bitterness. It is hard for me to describe. So I added some sugar (as Mate instructions always seem to include “add sugar and milk to taste”) and it definitely sweetened and was a little nicer. But I remembered how much more I enjoyed the last Mate I drank once I added milk, so I did so here as well.

Once the drink was completed (in my opinion), the creaminess could lend itself to the task of ensuring the right mouth feel/texture to the drink so it really was just like pumpkin pie.

So far, with flavored Mate, I find that I like them best once sugar and milk have been added. We’ll see if this continues to hold true as I explore further!

Scooping this out to put in my infuser, it looked absolutely delicious. As usual with Fusion Tea Room, they put a lot of effort into the blend. It smells delicious too — a nice fragrant peach. The steep color is a deep red. The flavor is a little sour, which means it would be the perfect tea to add sugar to, but I think I already eat enough sugar, so I’d rather not. (The hibiscus is probably what is creating most of the sour and usually overpowers teas.) The flavor also has something a bit odd to it. The flavor makes me think that some of the stem of the peach was left in this blend or something or the pit of the peach… an odd flavor I can’t place. But I really like this blend otherwise. That may also be because peach isn’t even listed in the ingredients. The berry flavor is great. Most of the fruit blends I’ve had are much worse. It’s kind of tough to get a strongeer good flavor out of a fruit tea.

Last of my Fusion Tea Room samples (thank you again!) that I am trying out. I have been curious about this one for a bit, although I have since had other teas with yogurt bits. This one has not created any weird surface on the top of the tea so that’s a plus.

It smells like blueberry muffins and yogurt together. I am just really on a breakfast kick today too, so this is a great way to end my day.

It tastes as advertised: very blueberry! There’s a bit of a tangy taste thanks to the yogurt, and I think it makes it taste a bit creamy, compared to how most other fruity rooibos blends I’ve had have tasted. It’s nice and sweet, and it almost tastes like blueberry cheesecake instead.

I love how well blueberry goes with rooibos, I’m amazed this is only the second time I’ve had it because I REALLY enjoy it. Since the other one I had was an iced tea, I will have to try this one out iced too. I bet it’ll be even better.

Adding this to the “when I have less tea, I will get this” list.

I can’t believe there aren’t any tasting notes for this one!

I have to say… this one actually smells like a pina colada! Like, it smells like the drink I had tonight tasted! DELICIOUS! Sweet and pineapply and coconutty and rummy and good. Definitely most excited for this one!

Steeped, it still smells like a pina colada, but I’m getting more apple than I would like.

Ohhh why did they have to add hibiscus. sigh It’s tart, but luckily not too tart. And… it definitely tastes more like pina colada than either of the other two, but it’s still not quite right. Pina coladas are not tart, and do not contain a bunch of apple.

That all being said, this is a flavourful tisane that I won’t mind finishing off. However, the quest for a pina colada tea continues.

ETA: Ohhhh, my bad. Thanks to Fusion Tea Room for the generous sample!

ETA again: Finishing the cold cup this morning (since last night I felt pretty gross after the Adagio tea, I didn’t finish anything I brought upstairs for fear it would come back up anyhow). I feel like if the hibiscus was removed from this blend, there would actually be a fairly authentic pina colada flavour. Who cares about the colour – I’d rather a gross looking tea that tastes great than a great-looking tea that tastes gross.

No notes yet.

Hmmm… weird that I’m the first to review this one…..

Anyways, this is a backlog from two days ago. I had this one iced as that makes sense to me. It was….. weird. It wasn’t bad, but it definitely tasted different than I thought it would. The name suggests that it’s like a strawberry fruit tea, but the ingredients and the taste beg to differ. It definitely has a fruity flavor, but it’s more like a berry fruit-punch flavor. I could definitely pick up some strawberry on this one, but it tasted more like other berries than strawberries. It was all enveloped with this…. weird flavor. I can’t really place it. This was okay, but not excellent and definitely a little off putting.

Thanks to Fusion Tea Room for sending me this generous sample!