Teavana

Okay, I don’t know what it is with this one … maybe I just got a lot of cream pieces in the first cup? I’m getting more strawberry than anything else and have to chug the cup of tea to get any creaminess. I can’t tell if I’m being dense or if this tea’s just not as good as I originally thought. Disappointing.

Okay. I figured it out. And I am an idiot.

I had this twice over the weekend (both times while playing Tales of Symphonia with the fiance) and both times it was horrible. I thought I’d used 1tbs/180F/3min as my parameters the first time and couldn’t figure out why I was getting vomit flavored tea when I tried them again. Stupid stupid stupid. I should’ve checked my initial note on this: 1tsp/180F/2min. GAH!

I am not the biggest fan of Teavana. My experiences with them have ranged from “wow, this salesgirl is super helpful!” to “wow, these salespeople are so rude I’m never coming back here!” I don’t like how expensive they are, I don’t like how pushy and nasty some of the salespeople have been, and, initially, I was really disappointed by their teas.

Their Heavenly Sale, however, was a sort of perfect storm for me. I love sales. I love getting things at a tiny fraction of their actual cost. Especially when it’s something like this tea, which I’ve been eyeballing since joining Steepster, but have hesitated on buying due to the cost.

As a reward for finishing off the dreaded Pineapple Oolong, I opened my bag of this tea. It has more tea leaves than Raspberry Pineapple Luau did, but the tea leaves are still outnumbered by the chunks of fruit and other mystery bits. The dry leaves smell like one of those strawberry CreamSavers candies; mouthwateringly sweet.

I didn’t really believe the steep time of 2 minutes on the package; I was forseeing barely-colored water and a bland fruity-but-not-fruity taste, but used it anyway. I ended up with dark pink tea with no real scent to it. Initially, it tastes like sourish strawberries, biting in a way I didn’t expect. But about halfway through the sip, it turns smooth, and if you sip continuously, that smooth feeling completely takes over leaving the strawberries to sweeten up the background.

This tea is magically, unbelievably good. YES! So happy I ordered this!

This was my first blooming tea and I was truly delighted!. This smooth, delicate white tea released a flavorful, yet subtle peach finish; and the marigold flower unfolded beautifully. I steeped the tea ball three times without losing flavor or strength. Looking forward to having this again … I think I may even dream about this tea tonight!

I tasted this for the first time in the Teavana store. It was served cold and sweetened with their German rock sugar. It was cool and refreshing. I really enjoyed it and it will be great when the hot summer months come around. I was just sent a sample of this and can’t wait to make some lovely iced tea.

Once again, I’ve gone far too long without a review. Naughty me! To further illustrate my naughtiness, I realized that I had started cold steeping this and forgot about it for days :( I decided to sadly trash the fridge’s ware and ended up inspired to make and ice a fresh cup.

I was excited because the tea ended up an absolutely gorgeous color. It looked like orange soda. I took a tentative sip and, yep, definitely ginger coconut, ha.

When I went downstairs I set my tea down on the windowsill. When I glanced at it I saw my Lloyd figurine seemed to be cautiously inspecting it. Accidental hilarity. http://tinypic.com/r/9jiyyr/8

Anyway, tasty as always :)

I don’t know whether I love or hate this tea – it has a lingering sweetness to it that its at the back of my tongue when I’m drinking it…but it has such a good chai flavor and spiciness to it…. I think this is one that I am going to save and drink hot when I’m in the mood for chai; it seems like it would be a better hot tea.

When I was in Teavana, the employee suggested that I try these two mixed together since I didn’t like the Marshmallow Macaron alone; he said it tasted like a s’more. I had it iced with a bit of sweetness and it was definitely…different… Not bad, but certainly not a favorite. I probably wouldn’t have it again.

Tea #4 from Considering a new TTB
I’ve been wanting to try teavana’s higher end offerings and I’m pretty curious as to how this stacks up agains gyokuro from other companies. At 19.98 per 2oz it’s already nearly twice the price of the gyokuro I order from another company and didn’t resteep nearly as well, which in and of itself is a reason why I would be unlikely to purchase it. I did enjoy the flavor, it was mildly vegetal, slightly sweet, and a little buttery. I can see why it is offered by teavana, it’s the type of green tea that will appeal to many people because it lacks the overwhelming vegetal flavors of many other varieties, but I just can’t get past the price.

I’ll still stick to ordering from Yunomi for my gyokuro, but this is a tea I would pick up again if it were on sale.

It’s Monday morning and I am back to work after taking Thursday and Friday off. I knew this morning would require drastic measures to get back into the flow, so I reached for this Black Dragon Pearl tea that my lovely wife bought for me this weekend at the Teavana store.

The sales pitch was that this selection is stronger than your average black tea. I planned to save it for those mornings when I needed shock treatment to return to the land of the living. And here we are.

When I opened the container, a slightly more powerful than usual tea smell shot out from the rolled dark tea balls inside. I had high hopes that the taste would follow suit.

I steeped the “pearls” (I used 10 for two cups of tea) for four minutes at 195 degrees as instructed. The brewed color was a muddy gold. The aroma was richly tea-like.

The flavor was like a potent English or Irish Breakfast tea. However, the taste was a little sweeter and more focused than those blended varieties. My first few sips also contained some bite which I initially thought was astringency. However, this was soon overpowered by the more robust black tea taste.

My head started to clear during my first cup which is always a positive sign for me. As I began my second cup, the well established flavor on my palate began to seem smoother and sweeter. The pseudo-astringent bite had all but disappeared. The sweetness began to identify itself as brown sugar. Also, the Yunnan flavor attributes emerged. The aftertaste did not have any bitterness.

All in all, I found this to be a very pleasant morning tea after the first few sips. I’ll determine how powerful it was at quitting time today when I measure my production for the day.

Smell wise: Dry it smells a lot like Grape flavored Nerds. Wet, not so much artificial tasting alittle bit more like grape juice.

Taste: a hint of grape closely followed up by what I’m assuming is the Oolong because it tastes a lot like the other Oolongs I’ve had. This will probably make a good iced tea though I am not impressed by it. Not going to buy this one again.

Aside from the new teas that came out, I realized that I hadn’t tried this one and added it to the list. Like others have mentioned it has a fruity/bubblegummy kind of scent and slight flavor. There is an odd after taste of soap that is really throwing me off. Other then maybe seeing if this tea will make a good iced tea…or at least passable, because I don’t see much use for this tea.

No no NOOOO YUCK. I usually like Teavana teas when I want something overpoweringly flavored or don’t mind overpaying for just a good straight loose leaf (love em or hate em, they do have some good quality unflavored teas… just pricey). This is characteristically Teavana in that the tea comprises a minority of the contents and they drown it in extra flavors. The main problem, however, is that they have chosen “essence of petrochemical rubber tire factory” as one of the flavors they added to this one along with all the berries & other stuff. I can taste the conveyor belt and fractional distillation chamber rinsing fluid just as prominently as the berries and tart florals.

For those who enjoy this tea and call it “unique”, maybe they just like their Acai berry notes well balanced with trimethylbenzene, or enjoy the tartness of pineapple offset with a good phenolic benzotriazole type methacrylate… Perhaps they are just used to brewing fruity teas with industrial factory waste-water imported direct from China. I guess, then, it would be unique. Not in a good way though.

Once it cooled and you spoon it full of sweetener, you can almost drink it. The trick is to try not to breathe in the aromatics (too artificial) while drinking it, and try to imagine yourself in a sweatshop shoe-sole factory while you do.

I would only wish this tea upon my worst enemies and those who actually enjoy artificial/industrial chemical flavors.

This is an ok white tea. It does smell enticing and tastes good, but I just don’t want to go out and find more now that its gone. I think the aroma tricks you since the tea doesn’t quite live up to it. One reviewer said it seems out of balance; well, I agree as there seems to be an element missing or out of balance.

I thought this would be a nice change to most of my white teas, to have something with a littl kick. Instead the flavor seems “watered down” when brewed.

Storm! Theres a storm brewing! This is highly unusual for my part of the world, and I’m excited. Rain! Cool air! Better tea drinking weather.
Well, who knows how long it will last me, so I ran for my teapot, and brewed up an evening tea.
Blergh. Blergh! What happened? I remembered this as being Forever Nuts-esque, but not as good. Today I brew up a bland cup, with the only note being a faint and artificial sweetness. Ick.
I’m glad this is a sipdown. This is the second Teavana tea that has lead me astray with its name. Caramel Almond Amaretti sounds so lovely, but its been a major letdown, with none of the promise of its name. Gah.
Sipdown, thank goodness.

I ate too much at dinner, and am compleatly stuffed. But, I decided that I wanted something sweet still, so this was my solution.
Something just a little artificial lurking at the back of this sip. And not quite as good as Forever Nuts.
I think the name is a wrong. I dont get caramel or almond in this cup.

For those who say that this is like DavidsTea’s Forever Nuts, I can see what they are saying.
Both fruit and nut blends, both a brilliant and impressive pink color, and both a sweet and nutty non-caff treat.
I think that this one is mellower than Forever Nuts, which is neither a good or bad quality. I feel like there was an element of tartness to Nuts, while Amaretti has a little more nuty quality.
Either way, its a good tea. It was exactly the thing I wanted tonight.

I got a $50 Teavana gift card for my bday and today I finally got to go spend it and was remarkably good about not spending much over that (5 bucks.lol.)

I think I may have over sugared this because it tastes like syrup. Blah. I know I didn’t over steep it because I kept a close eye on it. Though maybe I should go for minute and 30 seconds next time…because underneath the hibiscus-grapefruit/cloying sweetness is a strange metallic flat taste. You know, maybe it’s time I cleaned the ol’ kettle out..that could be what’s causing the issue. And to those who might ask: I only use water in my kettle and no we don’t have hard water…but it’s been quite a while since I’ve cleaned it out.

I’d be willing to bet this is some of the highest quality green tea (or tea in general) that I’ve tasted or purchased. I’m a newbie though so I might have an unusually high score compared to better traveled taste buds. I’m very interested in learning about other, better priced but still high quality versions. I also want to learn more about radiation exposure of the regions from which these matcha are produced. I know this comes from Nishio, and to the best of my knowledge, no increases in radiation have been noted there. Any additional information or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Happy tea tasting ;)

I didn’t see much actual tea in this blend…just a lot of little fruit chunks. It smelled rather like the Strawberry & Cream gummy candies, so I decided to give it a shot (and I’m rather glad I did).

Once brewed it came out to a richly purplish brew – I’m guessing there’s hyacinth in there somewhere – that still has an intense (and slightly fake) candied smell noted earlier. I love sticking my whole face in the cup to revel in the sugary sweetness of it all…

But it’s definitely a lot less palatable than the aroma implies. Even with such a short steep it came out very hyacinth-sour and not all that strawberry at all, which was a bit disappointing.

Had it not smelled like sweetness and candy I would’ve been totally content with the sour fruitiness of this blend, but as it stands I really feel as though I’ve been the victim of a bait and switch, flavour-wise.

It’s not going to be painful to finish the cup, but I’m not likely to make another one.

I am a pumpkin spice fanatic, and this has been perfect. I’ve been drinking it cold with no sweetener and it is just right – the perfect blend of spices, the slightest tinge of sweetness, and just the right amount of pumpkin flavoring. I usually think rooibos teas are too weak, but this is perfect.