Teavana

This one comes, with my great appreciation, from Meghann.

This is a blend (half-and half?) that smells so good I just wanted to stick my nose in the bag and keep it there. Just like Walgreens no-name brand Christmas cherry chocolates.

The Azteca chocolate/strawberry cancels out any sour in the cherry, which is fine by me. I brewed this first experimental cup according to package directions — 195 for 2-3 minutes, closer to 2 just in case … but it could stand to be stronger to get all the chocolatey, fruity potential out of it. Looking forward to trying again.

This is a pleasant brew. The citrus really emerges. I had a very small sample and did not have enough to try this on ice. I agree that it might make an excellent iced tea. There’s a touch of astringency here even though I steeped it for only one minute and 30 seconds.

Yesterday I was in our local Teavana and bought a blend of this & Rooibos Tropica . When I got home I made myself a cup of it . It was very nice . Glad I purchased the blend .

This tea brews up a bright red cup smelling of fresh ripe strawberries. There are nice sized chunks of strawberries and apples in the tisane along with rosehip and hibiscus. I was surprised at how tart this tisane was, but it was very refreshing. Adding a pinch of sugar took the tartness down a bunch. Quite a pleasant herbal strawberry blend. I don’t think I taste any kiwi, but it could be there, I’ve never actually eaten a kiwi, so not sure what I’m searching for in taste. I’m hoping this would be a good mix to add to my iced peach black tea from Adagio. Maybe I’ll try them together tomorrow!

I was in our local Teavana store and saw a sample blend of this tea & jasmine dragon phoenix pearls in a carafe . It tasted really good in the store so I bought a 4oz. bag of it . Now I am having a cup of this blend at home . It is a nice relaxing tea . Glad I followed my instincts and made the purchase .

Ruined this tonight with too hot water. That or my cold is making this taste really bitter and not as sweet as it normally is. Off to make a new cup.

There is a lot going on in this tea. It has more ingredients to it than I thought it had, but it smells mighty good.

The aroma is sweet caramel goodness with a hint of apricot. The scent of the sweetness reminds me of the creme in the earl grey creme.

It steeps up a light peach liqour, very see through. I steeped it for 1 minute at 175 F as directed. The smell is heavenly once brewed.

I sat here sniffing it for a few minutes before sipping. Such a sweet delicious scent.

I am surprised I can taste the green tea base in this blend, sometimes with Teavana, the actual tea gets lost in the mix. This is a welcomed change. I’ve never had apricots or apricots in tea before, but I like how it pairs with the caramel. Quite a nice after dinner tea. I’m just hoping the caffeine doesn’t keep me up longer than I want it to!

Drinking this at work and enjoying it.

It’s a cold, wintery spring day here in Colorado – though the sun is shining now :) We have snow peaks on the downy tips of our trees here, so this tea seemed appropriate. The taste is vegetal, leafy green, today. I still don’t taste any peach, but it’s warm, so it’ll do.

Still no peach flavor, though I get a slight scent of it upon opening the tea tin. Do I have a peach impediment? Still, a good tea :)

Picked this up yesterday and I quite like it. Like most white teas, it has a light flavor – not too heavy, but definitely interesting. I couldn’t quite taste peach, but it has a nice floral/fruit quality.

I’d had some success sweetening up Numi’s Desert Lime with honeybush so I tried that tonight with this, which as I mentioned in my last note on this is pretty tart. I stuck two Tazo Honeybush teabags into my oversized mug along with about 3.5 teaspoons (maybe 4) of this. It does make a difference; really ratchets down the tartness to something less puckerful, without oversweetening as splenda seemed to do.

When I ordered the two lemon herbals and some gear from Teavana, I tossed this one in mostly to qualify for free shipping but also because I was curious to try something with a pear flavor other than the Tazo Green Ginger, which I didn’t care for very much. (I thought I wasn’t tasting the pear in that, but the last few times I’ve tried it I’ve concluded I am tasting the pear — it’s what is taking the edge off the ginger — but I still don’t love it.)

This is another chunky, colorful, trail-mix texture mix, with a very dominant, and pleasant, scent of dried pear to the dry mix. There’s a nutty undercurrent that is consistent with the trail mix idea.

The liquor is a delightful color; a peachy pink color that I think we referred to as melon when it was the in clothing color for women last decade (but since it was last decade I could be misremembering). There’s a fruity, almost wine-like aroma that along with the color makes me think of a blush wine.

The taste. Rose hips and hibiscus. What more can I say? They have their place but they seem to overpower many an otherwise promising drink with unwarranted tartness where sweetness would have been more consistent with the flavor of the fruit itself. The pear is underneath this tart, somewhat lemon-laced flavor, along with some apple, and yeah, I can taste the pineapple too. I really wish they’d gone for sweet with this one rather than tart. It could have been miraculous.

My husband and I are finishing off the last of this. Now the search begins for a caffeine free tea that he likes as much as this one.

My husband and I have been trying to conserve this tea and now we have enough for one more pot left. It will be a sad day when we finish this up, especially since it is no longer on Teavana’s website.

Second pot of the night…wow, this tea is a hit at my house. I oversteeped this quite a bit as I forgot to set the timer. Amazingly, it is still good. Less sweet and a bit more spice but good. I think I may always steep this a bit longer than the directions.

The second infusion of this tea is a bit lighter in color and less sweet/spicy. It is still a fairly good tea that I think deserves a bit of a ratings boost purely because my husband (who likes herbal teas, but always has the reaction of “It is alright” to every tea I give him) said “I want more” about this tea.

The scent of this tea in the tin is absolutely amazing. I hope that the taste is as good or even better. I’m not sure I will be able to rate this tea correctly as I don’t remember ever having had a plum, so I don’t know what it is supposed to taste like.

This tea brews up to a great pink color which reminds me of pink lemonade. The scent of the liquid is the same as the dry tea, but slightly muted. This is actually pretty good. It has a very nice, light, yet slightly spicy flavor. I think I may really like this, but only time will tell. If I can get at least 1 more infusion out of it, a boost to the rating will be in order.

A good strong Irish Breakfast tea, but not overpowering. Lovely on its own, which is more than I can say for some of the Irish Breakfast tea I’ve tried.

Another one from the quiet life!!!

This tea contains everything but the kitchen sink, yet it doesn’t taste like much more than cinnamon and rooibos! How is that possible!? It was quite enjoyable with a touch of honey, but I just don’t understand where the flavor of the apple pieces, peach pieces, pear pieces, rose buds, mallow flower blossoms, rhubarb bits, red currants, almond slices, and vanilla went to! I used an extra teaspoon and a half of tisane – I was forewarned – but it just made it extra cinnamony. I will certainly enjoy the rest of my sample, but it’s not different enough from plain rooibos where I would seek it out.

It’s so hot…I cold brewed some of this last night and have been steadily polishing it off as the day has gone on, almost time to make some more, but that’s a different story…

As I said, cold brewed: Three scoops of tea, a pinch of rock sugar, 4 ounces of hot water to start the infusing process, let sit three minutes, add ice cubes and cold water to fill the pitcher. Stir a minute till evenly distributed. Enjoy.

It is imperative that this tea be underinfused as it CAN get bitter with the rosehips and hibiscus, so some sugar and the underinfusion will make it refreshing and slightly sweet. Stay cool everyone…

Fantastic day today, only seems fitting that this is what I had! I had an iced brew:

In a pitcher:
2 scoops Youthberry (Teavana)
1 scoop Peachberry Jasmine Sutra (Teavana)
1/2 scoop Rock Sugar
Add 1/3 pitcher of hot water, steep 3 minutes, fill with 1/3 ice to shock the tea and the rest of the way with cold water.
Refrigerate/Steep overnight

Drank this with and after lunch today. The Youthberry gives a fruit punch red colored liquor, it is tangy and fruity. The tang comes mostly from the rosehips and hibiscus, but the pineapple and apple are not helping to reduce the tang. The Peachberry blend helps to mild out the Youthberry in that the Jasmine, though entirely lost in the brew, will kill some of the tang making this palatable. The blend of kiwi, strawberries and peaches in the Peachberry, plus the green tea, add a slightly sweetened note to the brew. I am pretty sure that the Youthberry also contains grapes, as there is a slightly wine-y (not a word, sorry, essence of wine?) taste to it. Sugar also helps to make it palatable and I highly suggest adding some.

I say today was fantastic because I had my lunch and was still sipping some of my tea as I strolled into my local mall on my lunch hour and low-and-behold, as I window-shopped and hit my favorite store (Sephora) across the way, I saw a new store coming, and I bet you can guess what it was…TEAVANA! I do not know when it will open, but I can assure you that when it does, expect of flux of Teavana reviews!

Back to the tea: this blend is good, albeit still a little tart/tangy, especially if oversteeped in any way. I mean oversteeped hot or oversteeped as left in the fridge too long, either way will make it tangier. I do not mind the tartness of this, but it can get old making this a tea and tea blend I cannot drink everyday. As a note, neither tea is really all that great on it’s own, but blending them does make it better.

Another suggestion to combatting this tea’s tartness is to add Peachberry Jasmine Sutra AND a Jasmine tea, I suggest the Jasmine Pearls. But this will be another review.

PS Looking back, apparently I never rated this tea on its own, though I have a four ounce tin, how did that happen? I will write a rating of this following my usual format later on.