aisling of tea

And the sailor said ‘Brandy, you’re a fine girl, what a good wife you would be…” Okay, so, that song is the only real reference to brandy I have, and that’s not even the right brandy. Well, that song and the singer from the 90s…anyway. In college, one of my roommates liked to mix (cheap, horrible) brandy with her cola when she drank, and so I’ve had a few of those, but that’s really it. I’m a whisky girl, through and through. That’s what happens when you go to high school in Tennessee and college in Kentucky. But it looked interesting and I liked the brandy I’ve had, so I thought “why not?” If nothing else, it will be good for mixing with the apple matcha. Or the cola matcha, for when I’m having a bad day at work and need a drink but can’t have one just yet. At least I can pretend. But I don’t really have a flavor profile in mind when I try this matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/brandy-matcha.html), so it will be an interesting experience. For instance, when I try a pineapple tea, I have in mind what I think a pineapple should taste like and I can match the tea up to that flavor profile and see how it compares. With this, I’m just shooting in the dark, though I’m sure I’ll be comparing it to whisky before this review is done.

Oh wow, this is good. This is goooood. Yes, the unnecessary “o”s were necessary. It’s fruity and smooth and…yum. I don’t quite know how to describe it. It’s not what I was expecting out of brandy, but I don’t really have any experience with brandy, so what do I know? I can almost taste a touch of alcohol, but that might just be my imagination. It does seem warming, which is odd since I’m drinking it cold. I love cold matcha and how easy it is to mix. Add water to matcha powder, whisk/froth, and go! Done! Yum. Saves me a ton of time in the mornings when I’m barely awake and trying to get ready for work.

Anyway, yes. If this is what brandy tastes like, I need to try some as soon as possible. I think my father in law has some…it might be time to hang out with the in laws. It tastes kind of like bubble gum but…juicy fruit gum, not double bubble. Definitely one I plan to keep around.

Now, I’m already a big fan of Red Leaf Tea’s green apple matcha, but that one really does taste like a green apple, tart and sweet all at the same time. Which is great, but every once in a while a girl needs a smoother apple, a juicer, sweeter apple, which is what I hope to gain from this matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/apple-matcha.html). I’m eager to try it as a latte with vanilla soy milk and some of their Cinnamon Matcha…I’m hoping for a apple pie with ice cream kind of drink. I love apples and apple juice, so whenever I spot an apple blend, I have to try it. And there are so many things you can do with apple that I’m hoping to be able to do with this apple matcha. Apple matcha pie, anyone? Or apple fritters with an apple matcha icing…yes, please! I make homemade donuts occasionally…can you imagine a big apple cake donut covered in cinnamon sugar? I may have to make donuts in the near future. I hope this matcha lives up to all of the plans I have for it. And I hope it gives me the energy to follow through on those plans! Because now that I’ve mentioned it, if I don’t make donuts in the near future, my wife will be devastated.

Unfortunately, this is just not for me. The smell of the dry matcha has the smell of the more bitter matchas I’ve had from Red Leaf Tea, and that smell carried through into the taste of the brewed tea. It tastes something like apple candy when you power through the bitterness, which is nice, but far from the apple juice I was craving. I’m not an apple candy type of girl, unless it’s a sour apple. It might still be good as a latte, but I won’t be cooking with it, sadly. Still it isn’t terrible, and the bitterness seems to fade over time. Maybe it will still hold up to donuts, as the amount of sugar in them will balance out the bitterness. I don’t really think this is one I need to get more of, and if any of my local friends want a taste, I’m happy to share. I’ll experiment with what I have left, maybe I can find a way to fall in love with this tea. But personally I’m going to stick with the Green Apple matcha, also from Red Leaf Teas.

So I have a confession to make. I don’t like pina coladas…or getting caught in the rain, for that matter. They’re too sickeningly sweet filled with tropical flavors built to give me heartburn. I love fresh pineapple, but when I wasn’t on meds to help fight my acid reflux, even looking at one was enough to send me into heartburn agony for a few hours. But now I can indulge and it’s wonderful! Anyway, yes, I don’t like pina coladas because of the creaminess as well, so I’m glad they released a pineapple matcha (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/pineapple-matcha.html) as well as a pina colada matcha. Pineapple I can definitely get behind. We love pineapple in this house, my wife spent some time in Mexico and fell in love with them there. We even have one of those pineapple corer/slicers, a big piece of $10 equipment with a single purpose that I refuse to live without. I am very excited to be trying this matcha and I’m praying it will help feed in to that pineapple addiction we’ve found ourselves with. Maybe I’ll try it swirled together with some strawberry matcha…I love the taste of pineapples and strawberries together. Or any of the berries, for that matter. They just balance each other out so beautifully.

So after a bit of mental back and forth, I decided to give this one a go. Pineapple can be done well in teas, so hopefully this one will live up to expectations. When I first mixed it up, my wife could smell it from across the room. “That has to be bubble gum or cotton candy.” Nope, just pineapple! It does smell very sweet. At first sip, I’d be hard-pressed to find pineapple specifically, more of an overall tropical candy flavor with a touch of a medicinal aftertaste, like chewable baby aspirin. But in the aftertaste, the taste that lingers on your tongue, I found pineapple. Yum, yum, yum pineapple. I’m not too sure of this one, I’m going to have to try it with strawberry, but it’s got all of the sweetness of pineapple and none of the tartness that makes it so good. I don’t think this is one I’ll be stocking up on, but I don’t think I’ll be forcing it on my friends either. I won’t have any trouble finishing it, but I doubt I’ll get more. Still, I am grateful to have been granted the chance to try it! I just don’t think I’m enough of a tropical fruit fan to fully enjoy it.

I am so, so sad. You all know me. You know I’m a DavidsTea fangirl, through and through. I will try everything they put out, but this…this is horrible. It starts with cherry cola taste, but then switches into horrible musty, dusty flavor. The aftertaste is cherry cola, which is especially cruel because I keep thinking “maybe it’s not that bad” and I take another sip. Yup, it’s that bad. I’m glad we only got 10g and I used all 10 to cold steep a pot.

I love this tea and since it was being offered as an iced tea of the day today, I was more than happy to fill my tumbler with it. Having a bit of a crap day due to not getting the hours I need, but this tea is always a tasty companion. I always forget how much I love it.

This is wonderful. I’m stressed beyond words today and for no real reason. I’ve got to stop using my days off to go out and be sure busy >.<. My hormones are all out of whack…when my wife showed up to see me at work today and brought me a diet dr pepper, I nearly cried. One of those days. Anyway, this got me through work today and I just have to make it through one more day before I get three glorious days off. Yay! But this was creamy and sassy-frassy and tasted a bit like a root beer hard candy with a creamy vanilla swirl. Definitely one to love.

cold steeped.

Love, love, love this blend. It’s so tasty! It’s been cold steeped as part of my Teas of Day here at home and I went through a pot of it in a day. The peachy pineappley goodness of this chilly blend is just perfect for these days at work with a less than stellar AC unit. If there are better ways to stay hydrated, I don’t want to know!

Cold steeped my 10g sample of this beauty, and while it was very good, I don’t think it’s one I need to stock up, especially considering I have a tin of Blueberry Jam. Of the two, I still prefer the blueberry, though if this one was offered, I certainly wouldn’t say no! I love berry teas and this one is very, very good at being just that.

Cold steeped this and yum! Still not quite my cup of tea, but darn good regardless. The wife liked it, and since she’s not a fan of cold tea, this is a major win. But the tartness of the lemon mixes well with the creaminess of the meringue…I can see why she loves it.

Cold brewed this and love it. I can’t wait to try it with agave instead of sugar, but this is love. It’s tart, but not too tart, and just delicious. Best raspberry tea I’ve ever had.

Cold steeped this, not impressed. It tasted bitter and like an ordinary green, I didn’t get any taste of strawberry or rhubarb at all. Sadness. It was alright, but I think I’ll save it for the wife, who likes it hot.

Used this as a pick me up on Saturday after a hellish Friday and a sleepless night. Boy did it work. The sweet cotton candy taste brought a smile to my face with every sip. I wanted to share it with everyone I talked to.

Love this matcha. Love it. It’s almost as good as the cotton candy, but not quite. But it’s sweet and juicy and guh. I’m still amazed at how good it is.

I had this hot once, and I remember it wasn’t bad, but I decided to use up the rest of my sample in a cold brew experiment. It was…less than delicious. I wanted it to taste like root beer and it just didn’t. Ah well, this is just one less tea I need in my cupboard! I can’t remember what I didn’t like about it, I just remember it wasn’t nearly as good as I had been hoping for.

Butterscotch is another one of those flavors that I adore. Butterscotch anything is pretty much a guarantee I buy it. I love the rich buttery-ness of it. In my drinking days, butterscotch schnapps was my go-to drink. I love it. Mix it with a bit of milk or hot cocoa…oh yes. The best, though, is around the holidays, mix a touch of it into egg nog. Ooooh, now that’s an idea, egg nog matcha. Red Leaf Tea, I will love you forever if you develop an egg nog matcha by the holidays! I can’t have real nog any more, so I’ve been hunting for a good tea substitute.

Anyway, yes. Butterscotch is love for me. It’s another Dad memory, he loves it and it makes me think of him…or maybe I’m just homesick this week. Butterscotch pudding is the only pudding I’ll touch and if an ice cream shop offers butterscotch topping, I’ll risk the dairy allergy to get a cone covered in the stuff. Liquid gold, it is. And seeing the success of Red leaf Tea’s Caramel and French Vanilla flavors, I have complete confidence in this blend being amazing. I think this definitely calls for a hot tea latte, despite it being stupidly hot outside. Am I in Toronto or back in Tennessee? These hot days are killing me…I should be able to handle them better!

No, I went for a cold matcha instead, it’s too hot out there to bother with hot drinks, though this one was made to be enjoyed hot. Hot with a touch of rum and milk. Mmm…anyway. Yes. Cold, it’s less than stellar, but it’s still yummy. Very buttery and rich, but not too rich. I want to sip on this all day, but I need to save some for when it’s cool enough to be able to handle a hot drink. It does taste like candy, but it’s not overwhemingly sweet. It’s just tasty. I’m not wowed by it like I am with some of their other blends, though. This one’s good, but I need to try it a few more times before I decide if I’m going to keep it on my shelf or not. Perhaps a warmer water temperature will help, or a better ratio of tea to water. Still, it won’t be hard at all to convince myself to drink this one! I might even be convinced to share it. It can be found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/butterscotch-matcha.html

Growing up, we had a long, gorgeous grapevine in our backyard. Concord grapes…mmmm. Is there anything finer? We had an archway that the grapes grew over, and my brother and I would just sit under it for ages, eating the grapes and spitting out the seeds. Mom would make grape juice and grape jelly and all sorts of grapey goodness…there are few things in this world as delicious as homemade grape juice.

When my wife was searching for a house for us while I was still living in the States, I didn’t have a whole lot of input. I mean, I could see pictures and such, but really the decision was out of my hands. One day she called me and told me she’d found it, she’d found a home for us. The house itself is kind of small, especially since we rent out the basement, but the backyard…gah, the backyard. It opens up behind the garage into a sort of fairytale….including a long grapevine snaking around the edge of the garage. When she told me about that grapevine, I was sold. This house is our home. We’re hoping it will survive when the garage gets torn down.

So grapes, as you can see, bring up crazy amounts of memories, and I’m very eager to see which kind of grape flavor this matcha yields. If it’s concord, I’ll be in heaven. Heck, I’m already in heaven, I love grape flavoured anything!

Oh yum. The scent as the bag opens is very much in your face grape. Grape, grape, grape. Guh, it smells so good. The first sip is amazing, like pure grape skittles in liquid form. It doesn’t taste like realy grapes, unfortunately, not to me, at least. But it does taste like grape candy, which is almost as good! Remember grape mentos? It tastes like those…yum. Iced, this is amazingly refreshing on this hot summer day. Is it officially summer yet? I think so….anyway, yes. This is a wonderful matcha blend, and if you’re a grape fan, it’s one you need to try (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/grape-matcha.html). Need. The smell alone makes it worth it, it smells so amazingly good. I’m so glad they put together a grape blend, I know I’m in love with it. It is totally one of my favorites that I’ve tried so far and despite having a horrible day, it’s putting a smile on my face, so thank you, Red Leaf Tea.

Now, when I was in college, I worked in the campus library. Said campus library also contained a coffee shop where I got an employee discount, so I lived on sugary coffee drinks. I loved them, especially anything mixed with caramel. I learned how to brew coffee at home (yes, it took me until college to learn this), but it was never quite the same, so day after day I bought coffee after expensive coffee. It turns out, my body takes issue with both caffeine and dairy, so eventually I had to give up coffee. Have you ever seen a librarian strung out on coffee? Scary stuff. But considering I only liked it with extra sugar and way too much cream, it was probably for the best. Now, every once in a while my father in law will brew up a two cup pot when we’re at his house and offer me a cup, but I just don’t touch coffee anymore. Haven’t since I started drinking looseleaf tea about two years ago. But occasionally, I miss it. Occasionally I just want a big cup of creamy coffee goodness and I have to tell myself no.

So when I spotted this matcha, I had to have it. The caffeine in matcha doesn’t affect me the way the caffeine in coffee does, and so I am very, very eager to try this. Maybe I’ll even sprinkle in a bit of caramel….next time.

When the package is opened, the smell of coffee hits you square in the nose. Mmm, I miss that smell. That smell only grows stronger as the matcha is brewed…mmm, it smells yummy. Okay, so, it’s love at first sip. It tastes like strong, sweet coffee. It is lovely…there’s even a hint of chocolate! I can’t wait to try this in latte form with some Caramel Matcha…maybe even the English Toffee to bring out the chocolate in both. Definitely begging to be mixed with vanilla soy milk. If you’re a coffee fan, or an ex-coffee fan like myself, this is a matcha to try (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/orange-matcha-clone.html). It’s so, so good. It’s like an expensive coffee from Starbucks without the too high price tag and the horrible side effects of coffee! The aftertaste is almost one of roasted barley, which I like. Coffee always tasted burnt to me. But this is lovely. I see a happy future for me with this matcha at my side.

Now, full disclosure here: I’m not a cherry fan. I’m just not. Cherry is one of those throwaway flavors that they include in a pack of candy just to tease the kids who don’t get the good flavors like strawberry or grape. Now, bing cherries are delicious, but maraschino need to stay far, far away from me. But my wife loves them. Cherry anything, and she loves it. So this is a “tempt her to the dark side of matcha” purchase, as she doesn’t like matcha much. Today we’re trying all three I bought for her…and then feverishly cleaning the house while hopped up on matcha goodness. But I am interested in seeing if it tastes like a real cherry or a cherry flavoring. And if it’s a real cherry, which one? Bing? Black? Sour? Maraschino? The world may never know…because my cherry palate is about as refined as a brick. I should have bought the chocolate matcha and made her a cherry chocolate milkshake…she’d be sold in a minute! Maybe I’ll find some chocolate soy milk…yeah…

Regardless, I’m looking forward to trying this! A whole new world and all that. What’s life without a few new experiences? Holy cherry, batman! It is very, very cherry. I mixed a full scoop with 200 millilitres of chocolate soy milk for the wife, but had a sip or two of it straight before I mixed in the milk. Mmm. If I liked cherry, I would be all over this. The taste of the matcha isn’t lost at all, but cherry is definitely the frontrunner. It is a maraschino cherry flavor, but according to my wife, this is far from a bad thing. I can smell it from across the room and it smells amazing. Kind of like a cherry slushie without all of the horrible syrup and artificial flavoring. I think iced, this would be an incredibly refreshing treat…it makes me want to try making matcha popsicles. Maybe matcha fudgicles, or cherry chocolate pudding. Definitely going to experiment with this little beauty to make various different treats for that wife of mine. Maybe I’ll order the Cola matcha with the next round and mix it with that…mmm. Now that one I can get behind. Or cherry vanilla….yum. This matcha just inspires me to play around a bit and try new flavors. Maybe cherry is one that I’ll keep around, if only to experiment with (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cherry-matcha.html).

I know, I know. These reviews are nothing but memories, but I can’t help it! If I can drink a tasty drink that is good for me, gives me energy, and makes me think of happy things, well, why wouldn’t I? This one is all my grandmother and my father. Every Thanksgiving, my grandmother would let us drink cranberry juice mixed with ginger ale, and we felt so grown up. So grown up! It’s still my preferred way of drinking cranberry juice, and when the cranberry ginger ale is released around the holidays, all I do is think of her. Her son, my father, is a ginger ale memory for me too, it’s his favorite soft drink. Vernor’s, if you’ve got it, or Schweppes, but Canada Dry will do in a pinch and make him think of me anyway. When my wife is ill, it’s ginger ale, if you please, not lemon-lime anything. You know that old adage that girls always search for someone like their father? It’s so true in my case…my wife and my father are amazingly alike. So when I spotted it on the Red Leaf tea website, I had to grab it for my campaign to get her to like matcha. Who knows, I might convert my dad with it when he comes up to visit next (found here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/ginger-ale-matcha.html)!

This is wonderful. Ginger and I are not the best of buddies, but I’m coming around to it. This reminds me of a local ginger ale found only in Middle Kentucky called “Ale-8-1”. It’s full of ginger flavor, but in a very good way. If you get this one, don’t be put off by the overwhelming ginger smell, it’s not nearly as strong as it smells, which is a good thing to me. It would definitely be a matcha I reach for when I’m headed into work with an upset stomach, but need a pick me up. I don’t think it’s one I’ll keep in stock, but it’s not one I’ll be actively trying to swap away either. I’m excited to try it with the cranberry. If you’re familiar with ginger ale brands, it’s more of a Vernor’s than anything else. Lord have mercy, I spend way too much time with ginger ale, apparently. But if I can talk my Dad into trying matcha, this will definitely be the one I lead with. Who knows, my father in law greatly enjoyed the French Vanilla matcha from Red Leaf Tea, maybe my dad can be won over as well!

Now, I have to say, I am wildly impressed with Red Leaf Tea. With the sheer amount of matcha I’ve been getting through this promotion, I was starting to feel like I was taking advantage of their goodwill and resolved to hang up my reviewing hat, saying that I had tried all the flavors I wanted to try. Imagine my pleased surprise when I mentioned this in a review and they responded to let me know they were releasing new flavors soon and encouraging me to keep trying new ones and keep reviewing! I know they read all reviews posted and I’ve received wonderfully kind responses to my reviews and emails to them. Their customer service is stellar and it makes it so that I want to recommend their teas to everyone I meet (and I do!). And while yes, I have gotten a ton of matcha through this promotion, I’ve also gained an adoration of matcha that will keep me coming to them long after I really do stop reviewing their product. But by now they know me, and they know my reviews and they’re just wonderfully kind to me. When I received my package yesterday, I found a little matcha spoon included with my order! I don’t know if it’s a promotion I just didn’t see, or if it was for me specially, but it certainly made my day!

I don’t know an awful lot about English toffee, but what I do know, I like. I got this one to try with my wife, in an effort to get her to like matcha. We’ll see how it goes!

When I opened the package, (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/english-toffee-matcha.html) it smelled a lot like the Caramel Matcha from Red Leaf Tea, which is very promising. I love their Caramel matcha. Brewed up, it still smelled like caramel, but with a hint of chocolate. And that’s exactly what it tastes like, caramel mixed together with tasty, tasty chocolate. I’m not a huge chocolate fan, but this is very, very good. Very sweet too, but not overwhelmingly so. But then again, I like my teas sweet. But when I see pictures of English Toffee, this is what I think it would taste like, so yay! I love that it even tastes like that crunchy caramel….mmm. This would be a very good starter matcha for those who like sweet things, English Toffee especially. I might even win my wife over with this one!

This is…interesting. It tastes a touch medicinal, but it is definitely raspberry. My first reaction was that it tastes alcoholic and that I really want to try some with lime. Mmm. I like it, but I’m not sure if I love it.

Guh, cotton candy. This was the flavor I most looked forward to, and it’s the one I ripped into and gleefully made a cup as soon as the package arrived. So much for my nap, I have matcha to drink! I didn’t even read the description on the site, it just instantly wound up in my cart. Cotton candy is childhood to me, as well as a good number of college years spent drinking cotton candy cosmos. I can hear my mother in my head right now. “No, you can’t get cotton candy, if we’re going to pay $5 for a snack, it’s going to be something more than just spun sugar!” But rarely she would cave and oh man. Oooooh man. I remember at one company picnic, they had a cotton candy machine, and you could have all the cotton candy you wanted. They even showed you how to make it! It was amazing. It was the ultimate snack of my childhood. Fast forward a few years to the summer between my first and second year of college. I had an apartment with three other girls, two of whom I didn’t know, and I was working at Beech Bend Park. Now, if you know where that is, you either a) went to Western Kentucky University or b) are a biker, because it’s adjacent to the Beech Bend racetrack and the Beech Bend Campground, where Harley days are held every year. Usually, I got stuck working the teacups (ironic, huh?), but every once in a while, I got to work food services and I got to make the cotton candy. Oh my goodness. Heaven. Hot work, but heaven. A year or two later I went to O’Charley’s with a friend and spotted the Cotton Candy Cosmo on the menu. Unable to resist anything cotton candy, I had to try out. Out came a martini glass overflowing with fresh cotton candy. A little shaker contained vodka and when your poured the vodka over the cotton candy, it melted and mixed in so beautifully that you forgot you were drinking way too much alcohol.

Now it’s my go-to snack when the wife takes me to the movies. It’s $3 and it makes my inner kid go bouncing all over the place. This tea does the same thing (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/cotton-candy-matcha.html). It’s…it’s amazing how much it really does taste like cotton candy, especially when cold. The cooler my cup got, the more it tasted like those little fluffy clouds of heaven. You can still taste the matcha, and it has an odd creaminess to it, but it’s just…wow. Wow. It all blends together and it even has that burnt sugar bit at the end of the sip. I’m going to take a cup of this to the Zoo next Tuesday, ride the carousel, and just go back in time to the carnivals and theme parks of my youth.

There are few things in this world that scream “summer” to me like watermelon. Unfortunately, they’re one of those rare treats as my father is allergic to it, so I only had it at other people’s parties when growing up. Now, my wife doesn’t like it, so it’s rare I can convince myself to lug a watermelon home and slice it up, just for myself. But the local grocery store now has mini seedless watermelons for a good price, so I’ve already had two so far this summer and plan on going back for another on Friday. So much love for watermelon in my heart. It’s just juicy and delicious and amazing. I’m just curious, did anyone out there grow up salting their watermelon? Until I was 10, we lived in Michigan and I’d never even heard of it, but when we moved to Tennessee, everyone did it. It does bring out the juiciness of it, but it’s also, you know, terrible for you.

Now, I know watermelon can be a tough flavor for tea. Many people have tried (two come to mind in 52teas watermelon iced tea and DavidsTea’s Luscious Watermelon), but I have to say I wasn’t horribly impressed with those I’ve tried. So while I had to try it, I just had to, I wasn’t holding out a lot of high hopes for this watermelon matcha (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/watermelon-matcha.html). When I opened the package, I got juicy watermelon…but a hint of metallic or whatever it was that made the lemon, peach, and mango teas so bitter. But since warm weather has moved in, I’ve gotten into the habit of mixing my tea with room temperature or cold water, and it definitely paid off this time. I get juicy, creamy watermelon and absolutely no bitterness. Mmmm, this is good. This is really good. It’s light and refreshing and utterly perfect for these coming summer months…it’s gonna be a scorcher. This is the watermelon I’ve been searching for and I can’t wait to try it blended up with some fresh melon. This kind of tastes like a watermelon bubble tea, but without the overwhelming sweetness. Maybe I need to find some tapioca pearls. It reminds me of the Ten Ren watermelon oolong blended with fresh melon, not Freshly Squeezed’s idea of a bubble tea. I’m only a little bitter, I promise. But this is a definite restock for me, and one I will definitely be sharing with friends and family.

This is the story of a girl…a girl who went through two sets of braces. A girl who spent most of high school unable to chew bubble gum. Before I got the first set of braces, I was a bubble gum fiend. My favorite Easter candy was that little mini egg carton filled with bubble gum eggs. Still is, to be honest. But after two sets of braces and a TMJ surgery, I was firmly broken of the habit of chewing gum. If I’m offered a piece, I take it, but I don’t tend to buy it. But when I do, I buy the bubble gum flavor…is there anything better? It’s another one of those flavors I associate with childhood and so this brings up all sorts of good memories, even at first whiff. Bubble gum ice cream, does anyone remember that? The rainbow ice cream filled with little gum pieces…it was two treats in one! Two treats that made two separate royal messes! I also broke my nephew of bubble gum at the age of 3 (he’s 13 now). I wasn’t thinking and his folks said he could have a gumball, so I gave him one of mine. Filled with Shocktart powder. He won’t touch the stuff now, ha! I should feel guilty, but I bet his dentist thanks me for it.

Anyway, bubble gum has a very fond place in my heart, and it brings up all kinds of memories. It was another of the new matcha flavors that immediately hopped into my cart and I had to try immediately (found here:http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/bubble-gum-matcha.html). And I’m so glad I did. It’s definitely the bubble gum ice cream of bubble gum flavors, a rainbow of different tastes and flavors, but under the single heading of bubble gum. Generic bubble gum. Not the teeth-rotting super sugary kind, but the Bazooka Joe kind that loses its flavor too quick. Except this tea doesn’t lose any of its flavor. Oh gosh, it’s good. My brain keeps trying to make me chew the tea, it tastes so much like bubble gum. I wish I had known about this when I was younger! I keep going back for sip after sip. It’s taking definite willpower to put it down long enough to write this review! I want to blow bubbles with it. I get the feeling this would make amazing cupcakes, maybe with cotton candy icing. Yum, yum, yum. Definitely a staple in my cupboard.