Tropical Tea Company

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TTB-A sample! I accidentally put too much leaf in this, but it’s a rooibos, so can you really overleaf it?

I realized why the mint rooibos appealed to me, because this has a medicinal almost minty smell of the dry leaf, and it appears in the taste as well. It works ok in this because this is chocolate so mint it errs on the minty side instead of the medicine side (like some fruity rooibos blends). I mean it isn’t super chocolate but it’s enough, and it kind of reminds me of a minty white chocolate truffle, sure. Pretty decent overall but having tried this and the mint one I think I prefer the mint since it really owns the mint flavor. Maybe I’m just suggestible but my throat is getting a bit of scratchiness in the back like Kittena described after drinking this, so that’s a bit unpleasant. Eh, rooibos.

I cold-brewed this yesterday, and was surprised to find that I like it more this way (I usually stick to fruity teas and tisanes for cold brewing). It brought out more of the flavor, and one of the things that bugs me the most about this tea is how bland it usually is.

This is another tea that I really wanted to like because it just smelled so good when I opened the package. I’m not sure what it is about Tropical Tea Company, but the tea always seems a little off to me and it is more noticeable as the tea cools. My first sip was bitter, almost enough for me to put the cup down and walk away. I knew going in this was a white tea base and paid close attention to the time and temperature so that wasn’t the problem. I kept going and got a very creamy coconut taste and more bitter. The coconut managed to not be totally off putting, which is a plus, but I never tasted the pineapple.

This is the first cup of tea I’ve dumped out because it was just that bad and no amount of sugar was going to make it drinkable.

I really wanted to like this, I adore Sencha and I absolutely love peach, but this was a bit of a let down. I think I enjoyed the smell of this one more than the taste. It started out with a strong grassy smell and taste that I always associate with Sencha, but as it cooled off I found it very weak and off tasting. This didn’t have a strong peach taste to it, but it does taste slightly sweeter than any other Sencha that I’ve had.

Part of my problem could be that I am pretty sure what little bit I had of this was pretty old. This week I’ve been clearing out any tea that I have no idea where it came from. I also didn’t have any directions with it. I ended up using 1 heaping teaspoon to 8oz of water, but if I had more of this I would have gone with only 6oz.

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Backlogging a few cups of this, too, I have been starting many days with this – just because it’s handy and hardy!

Well, upon first blush, this smells kind of but not strongly apple-y. It’s still very hot so perhaps the smell will come out more when it cools down. I’m not sure why there is the word ‘crunch’ in the title because it is not a word I think of when I think of tea, but according to the other tasting notes, this will taste of apples and cream.

Tasting it now, there’s definitely an apple flavour to it, which is nice. The apple flavour is what gets noticed first and it is the strongest flavour. I don’t pick up much ‘cream’ but I’ve never been good with that concept and I add milk to most of my black teas anyway so that might be part of it. This seems like a very ‘thin’ tea to my feeling. Not much substance to it. I like it okay, but I wouldn’t make a purchase.

Thanks to Jackie T for trading this to me.

Got this trade from Jackie T Thanks Jackie!

This is very chocolatey and floral. I did as other tasting notes suggested and didn’t raise my expectations too high and didn’t actually expect it to taste like the name suggests and it’s not bad. Since Jackie had trouble at 3 minutes with bitterness, I dropped the temperature and only steeped for 2.5 minutes and I’m not having a bitterness issue at all. Of course, I also add milk and sugar to my black teas, so that might be part of it also, but I’m very sensitive to bitterness so I can usually taste it anyway.

I’m not really sure how I feel about the floral aspects of this. The flowery tastes mingle strangely with the chocolate ones and it doesn’t feel melded well, or ‘together’ enough for me, like they’re competing and the floral is winning. I would rather the chocolate to win.

All in all, this is okay. Someone would probably like it better than me if they like floral aspects more than me. I’m glad I got to try this, but I won’t be drinking the…1/2-1 tsp left in my sample. Now what to do with it! My heart hurts when I throw tea in the trash.

Backlogging this one as well…see other notes :)

After having so many well flavored teas, you get really disappointed when a tea doesn’t come through. Maybe I’m getting spoiled from all the great companies and their quality of flavors.

This is a robust black tea and gave me some well needed caffeine this morning. Just not getting any maple or vanilla notes.

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Mum is leaving for Florida today. Without me. So I needed something that reminded me that there are warmer days ahead!
I’m shocked to discover that this is really hitting the spot. At first sip, I noticed an icky plastic taste… So I added a 3/4 tsp of sugar and pow! deeeelicious. Resteep will be iced.
That said, I’ll leave the rating as is, because a) I don’t crave this type of flavour often (err given my love n hate thing I have going on with coconut) and b)in this first infusion I’m not getting any white tea flavour at all. Bah. I’m loving the cup right now, and that is all that really matters right! slurrrrrrrp

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Tea #9 from the ’Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

This tea is a bit bland to me. There’s a faint peach flavor, but I’m not getting anything from the sencha or the jasmine. I made sure my steeping parameters were appropriate, so I’m thinking this is not the tea for me. However, I love the idea of peach and sencha together, so I’ll have to see what other options are out there.

I got this when Nicole was clearing out her stash. I looked at the leaf and couldn’t tell what it was. I thought it looked like a green with maybe some rooibos in the mix. It is very pretty with blue, yellow, and red petals in it. Turns out this is a white tea. Sooo I got the water waaay to hot. This didn’t care and did not get bitter (just dark). The taste first made me think alcoholic beverage. After I adjusted I realized it was creamy coconut but not the usual overwhelming coconut… and pineapple… My first reaction to pineapple was eeewww, I hate pineapple. Then I realized it goes really well with coconut. I found myself enjoying the cup. The white base could not really be singled out but it seemed to fill in the empty spots in the sip. Not something I would ever have picked up and tried on my own. Turns out I actually liked it. Thanks Nicole!

Edit – I can’t find this company on the web. The links take me to Miss Gloria’s Tea House. New owner? anyway, This blend does not appear be in their collection.

It smells a little like chocolate. Perhaps like white chocolate (which isn’t really chocolate, since it contains no cocoa solids). Anyway, flavour is mostly rooibos, with a hint of vanilla and mint.

I taste coconut!! and pineapple. The white tea part hovers around the edges. Not bad. Reminds me of pina colada, and now that I’ve read the other reviews… sun tan lotion. ha!
This would likely do well iced, I imagine. Maybe I’ll save it for summer. With a splash of rum or vodka… oh my goodness yes that will be good. I just hope I remember!
Many thanks to Sil for the most generous sample!

This has so many companion ingredients, I’m wondering if “just pineapple” is a bit of a misnomer.

However, the other goodies (calendula just makes a tea happy; I’ve got to pick some up for blending) make it bright and sunshiny tasting. Decent orange pekoe base. This has great chilled/iced potential, but I’m enjoying it warm, too.

Belated thanks to Nicole. This is good!

Sipdown! Of the batch from momo, anyhow. I don’t recall if I still have some from Azzrian sitting around too.

Anyhow, I still quite like this one. Sweet and caramelly and pretty delicious. I’m likely to keep some version of this in my cupboard most of the time, but as I have numerous ones right now, definitely no need to get any more of this!

Smells strongly of chocolate after steeping. Doesn’t have a strong chocolate taste, though. I mainly get cinnamon and some cloves. It wasn’t bad but not as strong as I like my chais. Probably won’t reorder but it was fine for afternoon tea club at work, and the price was right. :)

Made in our usual way at work: half water, half 2% milk, sugar. Steeped in water, left infuser basket in after adding hot milk and sugar until tea was gone.