Merry Cranberry

Jeez, this one has star anise too? Not as obvious as Ceylon Star but I think DavidsTea has a new favorite ingredient hahaha.

This one seems heavy too, I got an ounce of it but I don’t think it’s going to make much at all.

This is very, very Christmas to me! First and foremost, the flavor is cranberry with spice notes. Then the mistletoe adds a unique almost spruce-y type flavor. Not too strongly, but just enough that it reminds me a bit of a Christmas tree.

I completely forgot this is a green tea because it really seems more like an herbal. I do like it though. It’s sweet and spicy, with just a hint of earthiness.

I like it!

The dry mix is so heavy with fruit, which makes for one expensive tea. I used my entire 20 gram sample to make this cup, and being the frugalista that I am, this already starts me off on the wrong foot.

As for the taste, there is a mild tartness, as one would expect with cranberries, but it’s not translating quite right at the end of the sip. It’s leaving a strange dry feeling on my tongue – it’s on the verge of a dry-sour-almost chalky taste that I don’t enjoy. To make matters even worse, this doesn’t re-steep well.

Oh man…There is something in this that is not agreeing with my tummy :(

The idea of this tea is so fun and unique, and I love that it has mistletoe in it – so festive! It’s not a bad tea, it just isn’t well-suited to me. Between that and the price, I have no plans to buy it again.

I couldn’t believe how packed full of cranberries this tea was! I’ve learned that I adore cranberries in tea – they seem to give off a fair bit of flavour! Yum! Unfortunately, it does make the tea a bit expensive, but oh well.

The aroma of the dry tea is almost exclusively of sweet, sweet cranberries. And almost a hint of something creamy (?) but that’s about it. Steeped, it’s a different story. Sweetness and cranberry, plus a generous dose of cinnamon, and a hint of anise (which kept appearing and disappearing… I hope it tastes on the disappearing end of that spectrum, because I don’t much care for licorice).

The flavour is a touch weak in my cup, but it tastes oddly like a holiday in a cup! Light cranberry with cinnamon and anise and possibly something else that makes it taste like Christmas??? Or maybe that’s just the anise. Either way, it’s totally bearable here, which is awesome. This tea reminds me a bit of Organic Evergreen, probably because of the cranberries and green tea, but it’s definitely the holiday version.

Overall, not bad, but not a re-purchase. Even if I can handle the anise/licorice/fennel in a tea, it’s usually a bit of a compromise to drink it regardless, so I’d pass on this one again.

I had an existential tea crisis yesterday. I was looking for a specific blend (that I can’t even remember now) and I searched through all 3 very large shelves I have for tea, along with the smaller compartments they’ve taken over… and then my 2 huge baskets of sample. And I realized. I have too much tea! So I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off fluttering over what to do about it. Sell big sample envelopes? But I dug through my samples and could hardly bare to part with any because I still want to try them. Ugh! So I stuffed a swap envelope I was preparing extra-full to make myself feel better and went to the post office in a tizzy. Tea is taking over my life! What shall I do! And then I came home to a package form tattooed_tea and quickly my worries were forgotten because hey, new tea to try! Of course this only compounds my problem but it’s hard to beat the new-tea rush (even when it’s only samples!)

I decided to try this first because I love Christmas. I find it a relaxing time of the year (usually… not in 2012 orz) and hoped a big cup of Christmas cheer would calm me down a little! I have floating anxiety that tends to “latch on” to every little problem and make it seem way bigger than it is. So really, the “too much tea” thing probably seems really silly but for a hour or so it filled me with so much anxiety I felt like I was going to burst at the seams with worry.

Ahh, this was just what I needed! It smells like, well, Christmas. Cinnamon, star anise, allspice, cranberry. And while there doesn’t seem to be much green tea when it’s dried it blows up and totally filled up my steeper. Or maybe that’s the mistletoe? Regardless this is a wonderful blend and quite different from other Christmas blends that I’ve tried which usually come down to cinnamon, orange and clove. The tastes here are surprisingly complex and I am loving the tartness the cranberry adds! The one downside is how darn heavy this blend is, it would be expensive to keep stocked round the year!

This has the most amazing fruity spice smell, ever. I know it says the liquor is golden green but I was really expecting it to turn red with the amount of cranberries I see in the blend. In this serving I got a gigantic piece of cinnamon the size of the top digit of my thumb- so as huge as a mountain, everyone!I didn’t read the ingredients carefully so it was a surprise to get a licorice scent from the liquid- from the anise.

Drinking it, I’m mainly picking up spicy sweet and something leafy that I can’t place. This is different. I thought it tasted alcoholic at first but it’s just the anise/licorice association. The cranberry-apple sweet notes and this leafy-ness come out more as it goes from hot to warm and reminds me of the Cranberry Pear tea. The anise has a nice sweet component too and I can handle it a lot better than fennel. Tangy sweet aftertaste with cinnamon prevailing throughout… that’s what I get for dumping a jumbo cinnamon stick in! Texture: somewhat oily (safflower) and tingling on lower cheek walls.

This is, without a doubt, a little taste of Christmas and I don’t think I would enjoy it as much out of season. It’s perfect for right now though and making me very excited for the upcoming holiday. Apparently there are mistletoe and green tea leaves in this? I don’t know what mistletoe leaves tastes like but you could have fooled me with the tea.

Dry Leaf Nose: Sweet with cranberry, apple and cinnamon notes.

Liquor: Golden green and clear.

Flavour: Sweet cranberries are prominent. The cup is complex and fruity, with cinnamon and anise in the background.

I had to make my weekly trip to DT a little early this time in order to get my hands on an advent calendar (which I did! Yay!) So I decided to take this as a cup to go. The man that helped me told me that is was like Elf Help, but spicier, this didn’t help me because I never tried Elf Help.
It found it to be very sweet and fruity. Too sweet and fruity actually. My stomach hurt afterward. But, one of the DT staff wrote this on my cup!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/raesmum/DSC_0010-1.jpg

Tea #2 from my order (I bought a few new to me teas & some tried & true favs like 200g of Forever Nuts).

The dry notes smell sweet & fruity, a find it’s more of a mixed berry fruit smell than strictly cranberry. I’m not really getting any of the spices from it. I do smell a green/earthy like smell which I attribute more to the mistletoe than the actual green tea.

It steeps up a golden green colour, but really I think it should be red. The taste is delicious, sweet, fruity & green tasting. I really think it could use more of the cinnamon & anise flavours. That would definetly up the rating.

Maybe this is just silly or the placebo affect because I know there is mistletoe in it, but this tea really is almost magical & Christmas tasting.

I had to get up and drive the fiance to work this morning at 4:15 am. Yes 4:15. AM. And I’m not a morning person. At all. The only good things that can come of this include the fact that I can fit in 2 cups of tea before my 8:00 am bio lab and I can watch the latest episode of PLL.

This tea smells pretty good. I’ve learned I enjoy cranberry in tea – Cranberry Pear and Prairie Berry. This one has a smell of spiciness as well.

For such a heavy seeming tea this has a nice light flavour. I’m guessing that spice I’m tasting is the star anise but I’m not completely sure. Whatever the spiciness is, it’s making it very holiday-like. Certainly not a tea I could drink all the time. It is delicious though.

The flavour reminds me of candles that you would burn around Christmastime. Apple, cinnamon and cranberry flavours are the most prominent. I could not detect any green tea flavour.

This may be the green tea I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I was fearful it would be all cranberry and cinnamon and no tea but there is a lovely astringency to it and the green tea flavour is lovely. I don’t know if it’s the cinnamon or the mistletoe or what but this tea is just so amazingly warm and lovely. I am always pleasantly surprised by cranberries, they add such a lovely warmth and sweetness to tea.

Cranberries, apples and spices. The mix just sounds fantastic and cozy to try while near the ice rink. Or at least while watching the figure skating season on television. It’s definitely a sweet dessert tea that I can agree with my fellow reviewers. It is the star anise, cinnamon and mistletoe that cuts through this however.

Closing my eyes as I drink this one I can picture hanging up the wreath and setting up the decorations with ease. Both from the taste and from the reminder of the appearance of the dry mix. Another great choice for the holiday season and picking up last minute gifts. Cheers!

This was interesting. I had been looking for a cranberry tea and was excited to try it. The cranberry and apple dominated this green and the star anise showed up in the aftertaste. I’m not a big fan of anything licorice-like at all, but I could barely taste the star anise (which was a relief!). My search for a cranberry tea continues, though. I think DAVIDsTEA has a cranberry pear tea which would be right up my alley.

I have neglected my beloved steepster for far too long!
I am back and wish you all a wickedly good new year and hope you got spoiled with tea for Christmas.

I’m starting with an herbal for 2013 still from my obsessive relationship with davidstea ….oh my love may we never be parted.

Soooo merry cranberry dry smells like those dried fruit bars like healthy fruit roll ups!

I ate a dried cranberry from the tin and it was nice as cranberries usually are( better then raisins).
As per my habit with fruity teasI steeped longer and put more in ….full flavour or get off my boat…or is it bus?

Once steeped just smells like tea..smells like I may have accidentally made it bitter oh well first flop of 2013 ? We will see.

As for taste it is actually nice it has a fruity fuzzy robe on for sure but it’s the black tea that centres it.it has a nice tartness that overshadows any bitterness and I think it would work with a good icing in the summer.it is no Paradise Found but its decent in it’s own right it’s what I wished Pu’erh would taste more like less earth dirty and more rich dark tea leaves steeped in history.

I will definitely be trying it again but I am rating it nonetheless that’s how I roll.

Cheers my tea loving friends drink deep and well and never stop :-)

Ok, first of all, it doesn’t look a lot like the picture, but more like a pile of craisins that rolled though lawn clippings with anise on top. But, uh, in a good way? It smells almost completely of cranberry when it’s dry, but there’s not much cranberry after steeping, ime. Somehow the anise is really light and not at all overpowering like it tends to be. YUM. Downside: the chunks are so huge it’s hard to accurately judge servings? I tend to probably add TOO MUCH and I only have the wee little ornament packs so I doubt this will last very long with me. :P

I have to hold off on rating this one… I took it to work in my go-cup, and while I enjoyed it tremendously (especially the smell, oh my GOD), I feel I should wait to give it a rating until I’ve prepared it properly, in my perfect mug.

But I did drink this today, and thought it was absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to have more.

I am loving this tea. Nice and light but still Christmassy (is that a word). I was wondering about the star anise and wether it would take over the tea or not but it hasn’t in any of the cups I have had so far. The green tea comes out quite nicely even with everything else going on.
And my favourite part? I love eating the cranberries out of my steeper after the tea is done steeping. So yummy.
This even resteeps well once. I normally prepare my tea with the regular paramaters and then I just add more water to the steeper and get the tea when I have finished my first cup.
I do have to remember to pay attention when at David’s getting my tins refilled. I asked the girl for 100 g of this one and when I saw the tin wasn’t full I told her to go ahead and fill it. Well imagine my shock when I looked at the tin at home and it had 190g in it. Whoops. Guess I won’t need to refill this tin for awhile.

Had a very Merry Christmas, mostly since I was showered in tea gifts!
(imagine swimming in tea like Scrooge McDuck).
I wasn’t sure about this tea due to so-so ratings, but I really enjoyed it! I feel it could benefit from being more cranberry-y, so might dice up berries before next attempt, maybe that will help them steep better? I always wonder about dried fruit.. I can’t imagine a raisin imparting that much flavour, but I am no tea scientist. Anyhow, was a great light before-bed tea and if there is still some at the store, will treat myself to more!
Happy New Year all :)

I started off not really liking this one, but the health benefits of it has been plentiful. My friend came to my work in a frantic state because she knew she had a uti and couldn’t get a doctors apt until three days later. I know that cranberry tends to help with this and she was about to drink a bottle of minute maid cranberry cocktail. I told her not to, and gave her this tea instead. It helped alleviate her symptoms and get her through until her appointment. I am now drinking it because I have felt something like that might be coming on and its doing just the trick. I like this tea because the cranberries in it are huge. My only complaint about this one is that because it is a heavier green tea, the actual leaves get overpowered by the cranberry, the star anise and the cinnamon… but all in all, its a helpful cup of tea, that I will be sad to see discontinued. I should mention, I have tried it hot and cold, and I actually prefer this one cold brewed.

this one was a bit tart for me, but smells just lovely. the spices really round it out and, for me at least, make it more palatable.
if this didn’t have the green tea it would probably be my go-to night time herbal for the holidays.