Utopia Tea

Besides the yellow rosy floral taste, this tea makes me sad. They should have put in real, big mango bits, grrrr!!! As it is, the fruity flavour, which is yet more “yellowness”, comes off as somewhat insincere. A little tangy, like pineapple or lemon. I hadn’t realized yellow was a taste before this tea so it gets cool points for that.

I should try this iced before passing final judgment on it though. I don’t think this tea was meant to thrive as a hot cup and it definitely wasn’t meant to ever bear witness to the addition of milk.. it came out tasting a little like pledge polisher after that. Nope.

The dry loose leaves smell like citrus jello, which is lovely but, you know, I want mangoes!

Edit: on closer inspection, this bag looks like it contains a handful of yellow and white fruit pieces, so there is hope. I’ll make a more “analytical” note when I make some iced tea.

This is a nice basic Ceylon. I love that it’s organic!
As Momo said it has some honey notes to it and is slightly cocoaish.
A little bit of a malty note.
Its nothing that will blow your mind with flavors but it is a rock solid morning black tea that I appreciate greatly! It has just enough flavor to make it special, without being overdone.
I will try this iced as well as suggested by Momo as I can in fact see this being excellent that way!
Thank you Utopia for this sample!

I was fortunate enough to try Utopia’s rich and tasteful blend of Chocolate Strawberry Saffron tea. It’s loose Indian black tea leaves are the perfect match for the dark chocolate, luscious strawberries, white chocolate chips and aromatic saffron.

The moment I opened the package I began to smell the sweet, and beautiful aroma of the exquisite blend. Combining the succulent taste of sweet strawberries and rich, creamy dark & white chocolate helps the tea release it’s calming sensation to the indulger.

I prepared the tea with no milk and no sugar because of it’s fresh sweet-floral, berry flavor, smooth and sugary texture; I found it didn’t need anything added to it. The tea already has “the taste of perfection!”

The tea leaves were arranged in paper tea bag that was nice prepared by Utopia Tea. Irish Breakfast is an organic tea that some coffee lovers may enjoy. If you’re into a tea that is a bit stronger than usual and enjoy a nice wakening then I would suggest this one. I was iffy at trying it at first because I never had good experiences with Irish flavoured products, but to my surprise, it was actually a smooth, and refreshing tea. I prepared the tea with milk and a hint of sugar because of the bold taste it contains. The bold taste helps enrich the flavour and is a great way to start off an early morning. Also, because of the bold taste with the hint of strong flavours I was able to reuse my tea bag for a second time and enjoy another warm cup. It’s usually not my “cup of tea” to reuse a tea bag or any tea leaves but this tea is worth the bargain!

www.theteacupoflife.blogspot.ca

I’m removing this from my cupboard simply because I mixed the rest of it with ALL the English breakfast samples I’ve received from swaps and different companies.

It was a risk, but it’s actually quite a nice brew!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea.

Yikes! Hibiscus!

Actually, the hibiscus is not too terrible in this. It does look VERY hibiscus-y once it’s brewed, but after six minutes of steeping, it doesn’t come off as too syrupy. It is a wee bit tart, but, it’s not too tart for me.

This has a tasty citrus taste, with notes of berry. It’s not bad, but it’s nothing I’m going to get terribly excited over either. Just OK.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea.

This is really quite nice. Warm and zesty without being overbearing on the spice notes. The strawberry is sweet and has just a touch of berry tartness. A really interesting blend of flavors, I like the way this one plays out. Nice!

I got this a little hotter than I intended. It took it in stride and did not get bitter. The Jasmine in this is very fresh. Has a clean green aftertaste. I was going to have one cup and move on to drink a variety today – but this begged for a second cup. This is up there with the best of the jasmines I have tried. Utopia has done an excellent job with this one.

I grabbed this one out of the drawer this afternoon. The jasmine in this is really nice. This is a wonderful tea.

To echo Hesper June, this one is $8/4oz, so it is also an affordable jasmine.

Sip down. It would be enough if this just had a nice Ceylon base and a healthy dose of bergamot. This has more. It doesn’t say it on the label but this seems to have a touch of smoke. It really makes this an excellent Earl Grey.

The other tea Utopia sent me. I haven’t had peppermint tea in FOREVER, and when I did, it was bagged. This is strong stuff if you haven’t had it in ages. As soon as you take a sip, it’s sinus clearing strong.

I love the taste of real mint, because it has that green herb taste behind the great and powerful minty flavor. But it gets to be too much. So I iced the rest, and it really cuts down on the sort of burn of peppermint power when cold, and I think it brings out the herbal flavor more.

And my stomach had ended up feeling upset after lunch, and this definitely fixed everything up. Yay, peppermint!

Utopia sent me a couple teas to review on my blog and since I’m supposed to be studying for finals, it made more sense to drink and write about tea, clearly.

This is the first straight Ceylon I’ve ever had, and I’m enjoying it. It’s nice and smooth, with honey notes to it. Definitely no need for any sort of sweetener, at least for me!

I also iced some of it, which I think I like even better. Ceylon does make a fantastic iced tea, after all. 4 ounces of this is $9 so it’s definitely an inexpensive option for iced tea.

Multiple cups. Love this smoky Earl. As I was about to take my first sip a little spider lowered down from the ceiling in front of me and all I could think of was the crunchy giant spider eaten by the cat. Whoever posted that, I am still laughing.

It does smell like Sangria!

It’s a mellower fruity taste…which I do appreciate! The lemon and berry/fruit flavors are mild and delightful! I can pick up on the apple, too! It’s soft and pleasant

Elderberries, tart hibiscus, citrus, lemongrass, apple, orange, rosehips, carrots, raspberries, natural flavors are the ingredients and this is another fruity tisane that Utopia did that seems to work really well with the hibiscus! Again!!!! Other companies should take note! These guys don’t overdo it with the tarty-Hibiscus and it makes the whole cuppa quite enjoyable! I had half a cup hot and the other half cold. Both are soothing and tasty but I do like the cold version a bit more! Thumbs up!

If you like caffeine free rooibos, this is a fun one. It’s vanilla up front followed by sassafras root and rooibos. I used half the sample and steeped it twice. Enjoyed hot.

Then I used the rest of the sample, steeped, then chilled. I poured this over ice cream. The rooibos flavor is more prominant and darker when done this way. It did make a fun drink that did not last long.

First, my sample does not look like the picture. Mine is CTC which is typical of many black teas and is not necessarily an indicator of poor quality.

As for the taste, I really like this one. The Ceylon tea base is smoked. That works really well in my opinion and sets this off from the typical Earl Grey crowd. The oil of bergamot (not flavoring) is well balanced but clearly present. I did two steeps. This might become my new favorite EG.

Slightly longer review here – http://theeverdayteablog.blogspot.com/2012/07/utopia-tea-earl-grey.html

I got this sample from Utopia for review. This would be a good one for those who aren’t big green tea fans. I ignored the instructions and used my usual cooler temp for greens. The jasmine is nice – fresh, floral, with hints of honeysuckle. The Purrfect Cup said it tasted lavender, maybe but I got honeysuckle. Anyway, I am once again reminded I don’t hate jasmine when it tastes like this. I find this tea to be creamy then lightly jasmine. Mellow is the best descriptor I can think of as brewed. The green base is supposed to be lightly roasted but I can’t catch that, in fact the base itself is pretty much in the background. If you keep the water temp down there is no bitterness. I still have half the sample and will enjoy sipping this again another day.

Dry – this smells like the old Original Jolly Ranchers! NOT the lil bite-sized ones. YES!!! There’s a difference! LOL :)

Once infused – it smells like Pixie Sticks or Smarties!

It has a very dark brown color. The aroma is pleasant – NOT overdone.

The hibiscus is barely-there and I really appreciate this! THIS is the way to use the hibiscus on the assist! Other companies SHOULD take notice!!!!!

The Keemun is medium strength…semi-malty/a hint of smoke.

The Pom/Raspberry/Litchi combo is VERY nicely combined! The mesh well together for both hot and cold methods!

This is a wonderfully-flavored black! I’m VERY surprised and glad this turned out the way it did! Utopia did an EXCELLENT job with this one! Quite FAB, indeed!

I’m liking this one A LOT :)

I NEED TO GET MORE OF THIS TEA… WOW,, my perfect coffee substitute..

Smelling it from the bag it smells like black tea with coffee beans… smokey.. roasted.
brewing the tea, it smells like coffee!!! A really lovely roasted coffee smell, oh I loved it..

tasting it, I could tell it was tea, which to me was a good thing, because if I wanted a full on coffee, I would have just made coffee instead.. it still had the good coffee taste, I’m glad it was smooth and rich but it wasn’t as latte as I had wanted.. I will be making this again with frothy milk, ohh latte!!

Let me start by saying I’m not a huge chamomile fan so it has to be pretty exceptional for me to like it.

The vanilla bean surely helped tone down that Chamomile taste I tend to question so that’s a plus. There was something hinting at a slight apple-likeness, too, perhaps it was the stevia.

This was ok.

It was fairly mellow but I don’t think I wanted it any more intense – to be honest with you!
I could pick up on the licorice and stevia notes towards the end of the sip. I probably would have omitted one or both of those ingredients, tho.

It’s alright tho.

Thanks to DaisyChubb I was able to sample this one! thanks-thanks!

At first I wasn’t loving the aroma – but it was ‘right on’ with the latte smell-a-like so I guess mission accomplished there. The first sip smacked me in the face but after a moment I determined that I sort of liked it and with more sips I acquired a taste for it. The roasted coffee was first and foremost. The cocoa bits contributed but weren’t over the top and the barley was there too! This lived up to it’s name and was a cup that would certainly help you out on those rough mornings :)

Got this in a swap, can’t remember from whom though. Thank you, whoever you are!

I want to like coffee tea, I really do but I cannot seem to find one that I fancy. I’ve tried JavaVana and Serene Teaz’s Cafe Latte and they’re just not for me. This one is no exception.

Granted, this probably would have been better had I not ruined the first steep with some creamer of questionable freshness (I don’t think there are supposed to be chunks in there!) but it was just meh to me. I think the first steep would have been better but I’m pretty sure I still wouldn’t have been a huge fan. Perhaps that’s because I only like “coffee” beverages loaded with sugar and other flavors.

The Serene Teaz cafe latte is up for swap if anyone’s interested.

Another product of my swap with DaisyChubb. The ingredients in this one again seem similar to my maté from Argo, but this one has malted barley in it, which is new. I was going to steep this one for 4 minutes like I often do with matés, but as it was steeping it smelled so powerfully like coffee that I pulled it out at 3 minutes.

Now that it’s finished steeping the coffee smell isn’t quite so strong, but it is definitely there. Definitely that heavily roasted aroma. I also get a few notes of unsweetened chocolate. The flavor reminds me a little of coffee, primarily those roasted notes, but because it’s maté it’s not bitter like coffee. This one isn’t as chocolatey or almondy as others I’ve had in the past. If I was a coffee person, I would probably really like this tea, but as it happens I am not. It’s pretty decent, but I still prefer the maté from Argo.

Got this in a swap from Daisy. Mate seems to work wonders when I feel I might be getting a migraine but for a long time the only one I liked was Teavana’s Matevana (which is still amazing!). Then I added one from Adagio but mate seems to be a bit hard to find so I jumped at the chance to try this from Daisy.

What I’m finding now is that a lot of mates are basically variations of the same thing. This one is nutty and a bit chocolately and reminds me of a cross between Matevana and Adagio’s Toasted Mocha Nut Mate. That’s not to say it’s not good, it is, but could we get some variety up in here?

It’s held up well for 3 steeps and is fantastic with some almond joy creamer (but really, what wouldn’t be?).