Tangerine Creamsicle

The name of the tea sounds wonderful, but I’ll admit that I was a bit hesitant trying this one. I keep trying, but I don’t seem to be much of a fan of fruity or floral teas.

The dry base has a really nice, citrusy smell. Once brewed, I get a bit more of the grassy guayusa smell, and less citrus.

I first tasted it straight, and it’s pretty good. A light tangerine taste with a grassy/earthy undertone to it. It doesn’t really taste creamy to me, but that’s ok.

When I added a bit of cane sugar (as is suggested), the citrus flavour became more apparent, and the grassy taste was reduced. Very good. I’m not a huge fan of adding anything to my drinks, though, so I’m glad I can drink this one straight if I want to.

This is one “fruity” tea that I like.

This tea is fantastic. My first guayusa ever and I am quite enjoying it. It tastes just like an orange creamsicle with some..I want to say “grassy” aftertaste that I assume is from the guayusa. Very nice.

When I noticed the aroma of the dry tea leaves I started to think this was going to a dud; it reminded me of fish food. However, after the first sip I was simply amazed; shocked more like it. It actually tastes like a tangerine creamsicle! I LOVE IT!!!! There is no artificial taste whatsoever. It’s not over-the-top, in your face tangerine. It’s simply…perfect. I’m totally in love and I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot of money keeping this stocked in my cupboard.

Made this today with some sugar, then had to leave the house to run some errands. I’m not normally a fan of cold tea, but this one isn’t bad! Although it is very earthy, even with the addition of sugar, and I don’t get much tangerine or cream out of it. Oh well. Still a nice pick me up.

Cold brewed a bit of this for work today! And man, did I ever need that caffeine boost today. Sundays are a shitshow for brunch places, and with the weather being so stupid and perfect, I was going full-tilt for over 10 hours. I really think that the only thing that kept me going was the jet fuel tea latte I made early that day and a quart and a skosh of this wonderful, delicious, uplifting brew.
I love the bright and grassy, bold and brassy guyausa in this blend. It never gets astringent or bitter, no matter how long you brew it. I have to get my usual mate to the exact amounts, or I will have an undrinkable bitter brew. The creamy, dreamy notes and the tangerine hug each other in a smooth, refreshing embrace throughout the infusion. I made it a little on the light side, but I think that was really what I needed.

Thanks Stephanie for this sample. This tea smells great, unfortunately, I also discovered that I don’t like guayusa :( I just couldn’t get over the taste and ended up pouring out the tea. I’ll refrain from rating this one since it’s not the tea’s fault.

One of the best guayusas ever, period.
This tea had the sweetness that I wanted with a creaminess that was subtle enough to not disrupt the green guayusa taste. If there was a downside to this tea it would be that it is no longer available.

Ooooo! This was notably NOT orange but VERY tangerine! Yay for that! And the creamsicle part really hit its mark as well. This is lovely. I’ll miss it once I’m out :(

Happy sipdown! I unfortunately never got tangerine and/or creamsicle notes from this, hence the sipdown relief. I also didn’t fall asleep until nearly 6am this morning despite going to bed at 12:30am so needless to say, my brain is numb and I just want to hang out all day drinking tea and such.

Sipdown (153/158)!

So apparently who can text each other first is a thing that people in relationships do; and I’m a competitive person so I attempted to stay up until 6AM last night/this morning (because that’s when Tyrell normally gets up; and fuck getting up that early, I thought it’d be easier to just stay up that late) but instead ended up passing out somewhere around 5 AM and then slept in today until about 3 PM – and I’m still exhausted.

Bad idea.

But this is what I’m starting the day with. It was one of my two requested samples in my most recent Butiki order that I got yesterday – I liked the idea of it being a tangerine tea instead of orange and cream is always a plus. Dry it smells like a sweet and sorta tart tangerine, with an earthy guayusa element that reminds me of what air smells like after a major thunderstorm. That’s something I’ve been experiencing a lot this week; it’s rained quite heavily every day this week…

Steeped up, it’s actually much more mellow than I thought it would be. The tangerine is kinda gentle and smooth and the earthy guayusa really dominates over it in a way that’s very close to being too much. I do get some cream elements in this but for me it’s not working. I don’t get Creamsicle so much as I do curdled citrus and milk. That flavour is really only present in the aftertaste, but it’s definitely not appealing and it’s kind of ruining the cup for me.

And I found it only got worse as the cup cooled.

So, this one isn’t a winner for me and I doubt something I’ll drink again but I’m very happy to have tried it because now I know. I mean, it wasn’t terrible but there were just elements to it that didn’t tie in together well for me. I can see how/why other people might like it, though.