Happy Kombucha

Far out and thank you to my friend IndigoBloom flower child for this cool sample

This whole review is the rambling of an old woman. If you hate that sort of thing, do not read on!

Finally a tea that has some history (Kombucha and the hippie part) to have some fun with! The Haight in 1967! (Haight Ashbury San Francisco) Was really wierd! My best friend had moved there and when I went the 50 miles from San Jose to visit…well…I had been to a “Love In at Stanford”, and a “Sit In” at my Collage, and a meeting with “H. Rap Brown” (look it up) but this was a mind blowing freaky place! Even then my senses said DANGER! The thought of taking drugs around a bunch of strangers where anyone could do whatever they wanted to with you…well…it wasn’t for me! Pretty much that’s what it looked like on the streets and at my friend Kay’s place. A little girl around the corner from my house got hooked up with Charles Manson at that time in the City. Her name was Susan Atkins. I remember her way before the evil happened. Old memories.

Anyway, I had a lot of pain in my bones last night and had to go back to sleep this morning to catch up. The Kombucha called to me…hey Bonnie…let’s boogie on down memory lane and groove to the 60’s beat again! Cool! Far out! I could dig that!

http://youtu.be/cvWjIgiUIw4 …Mamas and the Papas Are you Going to San Francisco

I steeped this tea a long time…6 minutes and it’s delicious! I love pineapple! My review on the flavor is going to be short and SWEET!
This is full and buttery, not a thin fruit tea but naturally sweet and ripe. Happy to say that hot or cold this does not change character! Lovely cup to ice or drink hot which means you can have it year around in the cupboard and delight in it any way you want to have it.
This is a flavored oolong and I would have on hand because it isn’t fussy. Great every day, dependable tea!

(FYI I think I’m the only one in the Bay Area of my generation that did not do drugs! Instead I became a Vista Volunteer and went to the East Coast during the Civil Rights Era. I did however, wear mini shirts and platform shoes and looked like a hooker!)
http://youtu.be/ntLsElbW9Xo This last one is a classic 60’s protest song by Barry Maguire called The Eve of Distruction. He came to my home…(actually we were friends long ago) and got there before me one night and when I arrived the house was full of people and he was just sitting on the couch playing the guitar…some guy was washing my dishes. This was after I was married with children in the 70’s.

Special Thanks to Amanda for this one!

I’ve been called a Hippie (a drug-free one, might I add) on more than one occasion…so…here-goes!

This smells wonderful! Mango/Peach/Orange-like. This infuses to an orange-brown. There are some floaties – but – I can handle it!

Sure…this tastes like the fruits listed – mango, peach, etc…but here’s what I find interesting…perhaps my own little twist that I don’t think anyone has mentioned yet in their tasting notes and if they did and I missed it I am sorry!

This reminds me of a Fruity-Mango Chutney! The texture, the taste, the way it lingers, the fruits IN it! It’s really very nice! It has a GRAND flavor.

I really like this!

Thank you Indigobloom for this sample! Everyone probably knows by now Im not a big DT fan but this is one of my absolute favs from DT! As an oolong its not all that … I mean there are far better oolongs out there BUT this tea offers a sweet and yet tart but not TOO tart yummiess, no scummy oily top coat I get with many of DT’s blends, tropical flavors abound, I do agree with other reviewers that there is a peachy flavor to it even though there is no tea in the ingredient list, I taste the mango, but not so much the pineapple but the blend of all the fruits is perfect! I am sure this would be excellent iced but its soothing and yummy hot tonight! This would perhaps even make a nice drink blend – add some rum perhaps? I don’t drink anymore “oh no no no I don’t drink no more” some of you may remember that song, although I changed one word…I digress …. YUM YUM YUM!
If I were ever going to place a DT order I would get this. Thank you Indigobloom for a GENEROUS sample – I have enough to make this again sometime! I am sure I will!

Thanks to my tea pal Indigobloom for this sample!

Is this tea perfect for San Francisco? Hippy-dippy and kinda fruity? I’m about to find out. Speaking of fruity, I have a fruit fly infestation right now which is such a drag — I’ll have to take these leaves out to the compost immediately after I’m done! After doing a quick read of the package, I used my small Finium teacup and filter and went with 180F for 5 minutes.

My cup ended up being a medium orange and smells very fruity! The flavor is incredibly peachy and pineapple-y. It’s kind of hard to taste the oolong underneath here but it makes a good foil for the fruit. I actually like those fizzy kombucha drinks even though they are expensive. This has the slight aftertaste of one of those, it’s a fermented almost beer like quality. I didn’t know you could even get powdered kombucha, so that was interesting to discover.

When you buy a fresh kombucha drink it’s $4 a pop, so I was thinking you could mix this tea with some fizzy water and have a reasonable substitute for a lot less money. I wonder if it still has the same health benefits as the fresh tea? This would be good iced, too.

I’ve never been the biggest David’s Tea fan, but this had me scanning their website for the price. I might need some of this in the future, but then again I have a ton of flavored tea I still need to get through. Are they ever going to open up a David’s Tea in California?

It’s a nice fun, fruity flavored kinda deal. I think I’m going to try cold brewing the rest of it overnight. Me likey. Thanks IB!

I was hopelessly in love with this on my first tin. It has this thick “bready”, malty warmth that seems to be at odds, yet nonetheless, works so beautifully with the tropical fruity wave of sunshine.

I had my first cup of this while beginning BBC’s Sherlock with my older sister on a cold January evening. It was so wet and damp outside and nothing seemed more comforting or soothing than this tea. I steeped that first cup for all it was worth and drank as much as I could in the span of two episodes of Sherlock. I even got a giant mango piece. I love mangoes most of all.I was so enamored that, when I finally ran out,I bought it a fancy blue tin. Bliss was the world.

Now it’s almost a whole year later. I’m on my second tin of this and the mangoes are all gone. Sherlock’s gone too. Nothing is as good as it used to be and I don’t even want to re-steep the cup I have in front of me. I’m typing up a fifteen page essay. I should want to procrastinate! but I don’t. Maybe it’s the lack of mangoes, maybe the lack of Sherlock, but this just tastes like malty fake fruit fuzz now.

Oh, happiness, where did you go? Is it just me or can I blame another one on university papers? Why don’t I desire to repurchase you anymore? The world is cruel.

Self-pity, off. Please make a third season of Sherlock. Also, mangoes.

This is pretty good, a nice tropical flavored oolong. But I think the kombucha powder is making my throat itch. I’ve never had this happen before with anything, and given that’s the only ingredient in here I’ve never had before, it could be it.

Oh well, it’s not that horrible (so far at least, if you don’t hear from me again I was wrong) so I will definitely drink up all I have. I definitely want to try it iced.

I was expecting it to be a bit more tart given what I know about kombucha, but it’s not. Still, it has a nice flavor.

Thank you, Kittenna!

mmMmm peachy oolong peachy gummie.
This smells just great to me. Pretty leaves too – longer pieces of dark leaves intermixed with some green leaf pieces.
I steeped the tea with approximately 95*C water (my thermometer broke baawwwh) for 2 minutes (about..). I am realizing I should really watch my steeping times and get a thermometer asap, but I’m just enjoying the taste of tea again.

Speaking of taste – YUMMooo This is almost better than watching my neighbours try to mow their giant, steeply slanted hill. .. Back to it – so this tea tastes like absolutely wonderful fuzzy peach juice. I wonder what this would taste like iced? I bet heavenly. It has a very nice color to it as well which reminds me of roasted peaches. Slight creaminess on the tongue, but very subtle. It almost reminds me of peach sorbet.

Personally, I love this tea 100X’s more than Long Life Oolong.. but maybe I should give that one another shot. They seem like they should compete.. both oolongs, both peachy.

SNOWSTORM NEMO SAMPLING DAY

I got this sample from Itachi. Thanks Itachi!

The oolong base in this gets a little lost. HOWEVER, the fruit flavors are wonderful. It tastes like a tropical cocktail! I LOVE this tea and put it on my shopping list.

Mmmm, a peachy flavour with a hint of something else. Nom. I have no idea what a kombucha is or what it tastes like, but if this tea is an example of it, sign me up? I love sipping this one with a dash of agave. And it doesn’t matter, hot or cold, it is always delightful.

Tasty!!
and guess what? I finally scratched some of that toasty oolong itch :)
Now, it was a little fruity to really rub out the craving, but a nice start! I love that the tea was sweet and tart all at once. I definitely got a “tropical fruit” flavour in there, and I think I can pinpoint the mango, and maybe even the pineapple but I’m probably just imagining that.
Anyhow, I found this quite enjoyable. Oh and bonus! I managed to keep the bag for a second steep even though this was an in store cuppa purchase :P
—the second steep was just as fruity, roasty, and flavourful as the first though maybe a tad lighter in a way that detracted nothing from the taste at all. In fact, I think I rather enjoyed the second steep more, since the first was a touch thick.
If I didn’t know for a fact that there are other oolongs for me to love out there, I would consider buying me a supply of this for the house.
One other thing: in a strange way, this almost reminds me of Forbidden Fruit. Am I the only tea-freak getting that???

Okay, I love eating the little pinapple pieces out of the tin.

Aside from the pineapple pieces, I love the overall flavour of this tea. Its fruityness is quite strong and powerful, but not too overpowering. And the dry smell is soooo good. One morning I accedentally left the lid open, and when I came home from school my entire kitchen smelled like this tea. It was quite exciting.

I’ve had this one in my collection for a while, and am finally getting around to logging it/sipping down what I had left. It was given to me by a friend who thought it would be something that I would enjoy. Sadly, I wish I could say I liked it more than I do. It is playing study buddy tonight as I finish a term paper, but secretly I wish I had just brewed up my old late night friend the Skinny. Happy to be done the bag though as tomorrow the new teas come out and I have some nice space in my cupboard now :)

This was neat – it smelled like jolly ranchers loose but had a decently subtle taste when I brewed it up.
It only had a mild kombucha bite to it, and the oolong didn’t sing to me but somehow I still liked this. I’m backlogging so I am sure I’m forgetting a lot of what made this great. Suffice it to say I enjoyed it.

I like the long life oolong better. It’s good but not great.

I had today off and couldn’t resist dropping by DT for the new tea of the month. This very much reminds me of Forbidden Fruit, but more tropical. It has the same juicy feel and the same dark oolong leaves. The scent of the tea dry is absolutely to die for. Mango is my favourite fruit, but this isn’t as flavourful as I’d expected.

I havent tryed this one yet but I was doing some reading online and heard that this tea is potentionaly dangerous because of the kombutcha? I dont know if it was mostly reffering to home made or even the bought kind they said it can cause allergic reaction or infection from bacteria..has anyone heard or experianced this??? I just wanna know if its safe? :) thank you

I found a little sample of this that a friend had given me a while back. I figured might as well give it a go, even though I wasn’t really sure about it after looking up kombucha online.

It smells pretty good dry. It smells really fruity and yummy when steeped. It’s okay. Maybe I’m all weirded out by the idea of kombucha so it’s clouding my judgement. I don’t mind it. It’s pleasantly fruity with a bit of an earthy aftertaste. But, I like Long Life Oolong way better. I’m glad this was just a small sample.

Got this in store and did not realise that she had left the tea bag in, so it was . . . verrrrrry strong. It’s a generally sweet, kinda fruity tea. The kombucha is very powerful, with the earthy overtones of similarly-fermented pu’erh. I reach for it occasionally, but very occasionally.

Backlogging:
I have a hard time loving Oolong, but I love Kombucha so this one makes it in my good graces. This one is so totally awesome dude (psychedelic even) :) It’s lovely and tropical and I’ve had it straight and with milk, and I think i prefer it without. If you have a hard time with Oolongs, try this one. Becareful to follow brewing instructions, it can be bitter if you oversteep.

1 TB for 450mL water, bare.

This smells like the Long Life Oolong from DavidsTea, pleasantly peachy — although there is no peach in this blend. There is mango and pineapple and something, well, fermenty. But that’s supposed to be there.

I am not sure how this kombucha thing works. I thought kombucha was a leathery biomass that sits on top of fermeting liquid. Does this tea contain dried biomass? Or is kombucha the name of the liquid?

Anyway, the fermenty flavours in this blend do not agree with me. This tea tasted like peaches with malt vinegar. Acidic and strange and a bit sweaty. I could detect no oolong. Not for me.