Kanpe Tea

I went to Target in hopes of getting flip flops, but they only had those flimsy thin fabric bottom ones, and they wanted $15!! for a pair, pfffffft. Thankfully the trip was not a total bust because I found a pretty cool 34 oz carafe, and since at the time it was 64 degrees out, I decided to make iced tea in it.

I have been meaning to try this forever. I didn’t really realize it was so hibiscus based, but it was actually kind of hard to tell. I don’t know which of the other ingredients made it taste so much like cherry.

I can’t really make out any other fruits in there, it just has that fruitiness to it but it’s predominately cherry to me, with just the right hint of cinnamon.

And I am still saving the rest of the carafe to go with my eventual pizza in an hour or so to go along with hockey. And then because just the sound of the wind outside is making me feel cold inside, it’s back to hot tea!

This was tasty. I’m almost tempted to buy a tin. but not quite enough. I have so many juice teas already… I do not need another. but the cinnamon. Oh how I love cinnamon!! when it’s in a dessert. Not so much as a spicy candy. bleh.
It’s very rich, this one. And like I said, the cinnamon… mmmm. it just adds something special here. and maybe the banana as well. I like banana in my teas, apparently. Though I’ve never considered that option til today. It seems I like it enough to forgive the evil doings of hibby! ha!
You know what… maybe I’ll add a dash of cinnamon to some of my other fruity teas. Maybe then I won’t have to add yet another tea to my cupboard!! Not sure what to do about adding banana. Plantain chips probably would not do the trick!

Wow, I was really surprised by how much I LOVED this tea!! Loved it!
I remember trying Sleigh Ride from the Advent Calendar and despising it, but this one is amazing. Iced! I should say Iced!

I went into the Halifax Shopping Mall Davids to see if they were accept applications and to see what else I could apply for, since it’s a close enough bus ride and I wouldn’t mind a mall job for a little while. The desk job was not so good for my health. Anyways -

I went away with this tea to go, Iced! mmmm it was so freaking good. The tartness came only at the end of the sip, in a really delightful, sweet lemonade way. I did have agave, which helped with the sweetness, but all the fruits and cinnamon and mm! Yum!

I’m the master of comma abuse.

Anyways – yum!
Oh, and they’re not hiring but I’ll bring in a resume anyways, just in case!

I disliked this tea with my first sip. I liked the fruitiness, but combined with the cinnamon it didn’t initially sit well on my tongue. Additionally, the tartness of the hibiscus followed with an unusual sweetener taste (probably the stevia) almost made me give up on this pot of tea, and set it aside for my brother to finish off for me. I put it on the counter and it cooled to slightly over room temperature, so I decided to give it another try…Hmmm…Better. It’s starting to taste almost like a wine now; the cinnamon seems more complimentary now, and less in the forefront. I still don’t love this tea, but it’s slowly growing on me. By time my brother gets home there may not even be any left for him to try.

I like to keep a pot or pitcher of tea in the fridge in hot weather season. It hasn’t really bee all that hot, which means the iced teas aren’t as refreshing as intended but they are still tasty.

I’ve learned to make my peace with hibiscus. It just needs to be iced. This particular tea intrigued me because of the cinnamon. Another reviewer mentioned that it tasted like Christmas and I completely agree! There’s actually a popular German Christmas tea that tastes a lot like this. I can drink this straight once diluted, but husband preferred it full strength with a dollop of honey. I love that it tastes like fruit punch and cinnamon. Quite a good fruit tea.

Kanpe is tea made for a great cause and that is reason enough to buy it. Seriously!

The first ingredient is hibiscus and that did give me pause. I’m not a hibiscus hater, but I don’t love the bitterness that sometimes comes with it. Thankfully, this tea is not bitter. Somehow the mango, papaya, coconut, and cinnamon work perfectly with the hibiscus. I’m not saying that this tea will convert hibiscus haters, but if you’re not adverse to it, this tea may be a good for you to try.

I was craving cold tea yesterday and I had just stopped into DavidsTea, so I made a pot of this. It’s kind of sad, isn’t it, that I work a few hundred feet from DavidsTea, but at no point do I get a break long enough to run out and get a cup >.<

Anyway, this tea intrigued me and, let’s face it, I’m a sucker for an interesting tin. I’m kind of in love. Iced, it’s nice and refreshing, but the spices work to somehow make it warm and comforting as well. It’s magic! Everyone should try this….yum.

I received this in a swap from reasoned_melody
it probably isn’t one I would have chosen for myself, but that’s what’s so great about swaps & the little extras.
I really enjoyed this, I brewed it hot, but probably would enjoy it cold even more so.
it’s fruity, sweet, tart & spicy… but just to say you get the spices which is great.
it reminds me a lot of vampire voodoo from The Tea Store in Ottawa.

very yummy!!

I was served this as the Tea of the Day on ice.

This tea is very sour and very bitter. I do believe that I have a strong sensitivity to the hibiscus. The overall taste was a sour, bitter fruity concoction with a stevia-like aftertaste.

Sipdown again! I had this one while watching Once Upon a Time tonight which was sososososo GOOD! I love how fruity, hibiscusy, and cinnamony this one is. It’s great hot AND iced. One day I will get a tin of it.

First tea battle!

So, I feel like I need to give a short explanation before I go on with the review. I’ve had, for the last 3 years, the aim of trying all of the teas from DT, buying at least 25g of each (usually 50g) to give them all a true shot at impressing me. I finished the endeavour about two months ago, and I was totally thrilled about the achievement (so was the staff at my local DT, lol). But all along, I’ve been doing it with the goal of building, afterwards, a 32-teas cupboard with my own “permanent collection”, that is, all my favourites. Narrowing it to 32 is REALLY difficult, and sometimes, it’s not worth taking up 2 different spots for 2 teas that fill the same “role” (that is, when I feel like having one, I usually don’t mind having the other instead). Sooooo, this is why I am making tea battles (exciting, right?! I think it is!), where I brew 2 teas side to side, compare them, and choose a winner to be part of my collection of 32 teas.

Today’s contest is: Kanpe Tea vs. Sleigh Ride

I always felt like these two teas were essentially the same, both being very tart from the hibiscus, as well as fruity and spicy and comforting and sort of juicy. I LOVE both, but it certainly isn’t worth having both at hand as they are so similar. Going into the tea battle, I did feel like Sleigh Ride had an advantage, having it linked to fond memories. Comparing them side to side really made the differences more apparent:

- Kanpe is really an in-your-face tea, the flavour is bold, very bold, and rich. Right away, you get a huge amount of sweetness, and a huge amount of tartness. Yum! I know hibiscus haters are a plenty, but I love it! Behind all that sweetness and tartness, you can definitely pick up the fact it’s very fruity, yet it’s really difficult to point to specific fruits, it just feels tropical. It’s also a little spicy, with a hint of cinnamon. But that only adds depth to the prominent sweetness and tartness, which compliment one another in a very balanced way. Maybe it actually is a little too sweet, but that doesn’t keep me from craving one more sip after each of them! It is very slightly astringent. Not enough for it to be unpleasant, but I’d do without that hint of astringency.

- Sleigh Ride is surprisingly (well, it surprised me anyway) a bit less bold. As similar as it is, I see big differences now. What you get right away is the hibiscus: it’s very tart. Probably, not more than Kanpe, but all of the spotlight goes on the tartness, since it is not nearly as sweet. However, after the initial hit of tartness, the spices are very prominent, especially cinnamon. I think I can taste what the popped rice adds to the mix, and I like the additional dimension, but it gets a little lost in all the rest. It’s also fruity, but the spices are really what I naturally concentrate on after the tartness has passed. It has the hint of astringency that Kanpe had as well, so on that level it’s a draw.

Comparison: While Kanpe is so sweet it is almost too much, the in-your-face sweetness compliments the in-your-face tartness so well that I can’t help falling in love with every sip. Sleigh Ride is awesome, but feels a little empty on that level compared to Kanpe. The additional spice taste gives it a few extra points, but that won’t do it. I think Kanpe is a keeper. Sorry Sleigh Ride, I love you nonetheless!

Winner: Kanpe Tea! Yay!

How have I not reviewed this before? I could have sworn I had. Anyways . . .

Hot? This sucker is cherry pie fresh from the oven. Especially with a couple drops of agave. I still haven’t figured out how I can love a tea so based with hibiscus this much, but even when I ran out it wasn’t long before I was restocking. I’ve had it iced as well, and it is lovely, but for me this one is meant to be hot. And with pie. Dang, now I want pie.

They were giving out samples of this iced as I walked by my local DT. I have never tried it hot but iced it is very refreshing. I found it to be flavourful and sweet enough without any sweetener, and very refreshing! I really like hibiscus and fruity teas so for people who share my enjoyment, try it iced!

My sister is back in town, but it’s late… what tea to drink?

Being a herbal AND for a good cause, she chose this one. I only had a bit of this left so I dumped what was left in the teapot, poured in the boiling water, and hoped for the best! It did not disappoint, but then again my sister is one of the rare few who really enjoys hibiscus tea. The coconut and cinnamon help to balance it out a bit, with the apple and mango taking a backseat to the other flavours. I must have gotten the water-tea ratio right because tonight this tea was delicious! Warm, spicy, fruity… all good things.

Ummm… Still undecided.

This might be a fruit Tea that I share, with my kids at work. It smells delightful, like sour cherry pie and banana splits but the taste falls flat. It could be because I did not put enough tea into my Libre or it could be that my first scoop got too much hibiscus in it, but either way something was missing.

It’s a great tea for a great cause, I will just have to give it one more try before I completely write it off as a no-go.

I never bothered with this tea until I was told if I like DavidsTea’s Goji Pop, I’d love this tea. Then of course it was sold out when the sales gal suggested. It drove me crazy for awhile until I could get my hands on some.

Dry Leaves: smells red fruity candy sweet, like red licorice but more fruity.

Steeped: steeps into a beautiful deep red, like fruit punch. Smells sweet, like cherries and slightly nutty (from the coconut maybe).

Taste: wahh, Tart! That first hit on the tongue is super tarty, booooo! I’m not a fan of tart as I associate it with that crappy bagged fruit tea that adds hibiscus to make it fruity – though this is a cleaner tart than bagged tea. Very fruity, but I can’t peg down the mango and papaya but I can taste the banana and coconut mellowing it out at the end. As the cup goes on, I start to notice the warmth of cinnamon. The tartness dries out my throat. For a 5 minute steep, this tea is quite strong. I don’t notice the stevia sweetness.
I’m not sure how this is like Goji pop as it doesn’t have that sweetness of the melons and Kanpe is much much more tart vs. the goji berry tart.

Kanpe Tea, I think, would make a good fruit base for sangria. Or maybe good iced or as a punch spliced with some Sprite/7up to pull out the tart.

If you like hibiscus and tarty teas, you will love Kanpe! It is also a herbal, so you can drink it into the wee hours of the night.

Me? I’m going to pass on this one. Too tarty for me (unless I just got a bad scoop of mostly hibiscus). I’m going to save it to splice with soda or sangria (I’ll review again then), but otherwise, I’m not going to buy more. I’m going to stick to Goji Pop.

Day 93 (yesterday) of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge was

Another one of those teas that brews a nice, dark red and gives an amazing, dry flavour. It gave a lovely mulled flavour — sweet, fruity and spiced.

Unfortunately, it is a one-steep wonder — while some herbal teas at least give a decent second steep, this gives an extremely watery and only lightly flavoured second go.

I don’t care for this tea. I’m really not a big fan of most juice teas (especially ones with hibiscus), and this one’s too strong and tart for my taste.

I can’t explain how much I love this tea! It was the first tea I tried from David’s (thanks Karen!) and I always end up restocking this one. It’s definitely a staple. I drink it cold, and kanpe is basically like drinking fruit punch! Not to sweet or over powering but very enjoyable.

I liked this a lot as an Iced Tea. I haven’t tried hot yet. It has a great strong flavor and I love the fact that it’s a product that’s giving back too…