Youthberry / Wild Orange Blossom Blend

I stayed an hour and a half after school today to help a senior complete everything he needed in order to graduate. I managed to drive home, but my get-up-and-go appears broken for the rest of the evening. Now that school’s out for the summer (yay!) I thought an iced tea sounded just delightful – and easy. A pre-mixed sample of this, which includes the rock sugar, came with my Teavana order today, and I thought it would fit the bill nicely.

When I opened the package, my eyes actually rolled up at the scent. I remember being unimpressed with the hot version when I tried it in the store, so being presented with the overwhelming scent of freshly cut orange and fruit was a little strange. It’s funny – there are a lot of Teavana mixes that smell just heavenly, but can’t brew worth a damn.

For the most part, I followed the directions that came with the sample. We don’t keep a lot of ice around, so I just made it like a normal pot and then stuck it in the fridge to cool. I did have to sample it hot first, and the impression I formed at the store is holding true – this is lackadaisical hot, and all the ingredients are just too lazy to stand out when they feel too warm.

I’m hoping the cool version will be better, and I will update when it’s ready. In the meantime, did you know it is delightful to pick out the apple pieces? After steeping, they are just so tart and tasty!

Update: The cold tea just came out of the refrigerator, and I can quite honestly say that the temperature did nothing for it. It’s more tart than fruity, the sugar doesn’t even register, and I feel like each sip coats my tongue with floral perfume. Sadly enough, it was actually better hot.

I received this tea as a free sample from Teavana with my last internet order. I was super disappointed to see it was pre-mixed with rock sugar. The instructions recommend steeping the entire 1oz sample for 16oz water. I thought this was way too much so I used 1.5tsp.

The dry tea smells like orange juice. There are large pieces of dried fruit, a very small amount of white tea and unfortunately, tonnes of rock sugar.

The brewed tea tastes like hot juice: apple, pineapple, orange, and I am tasting black current but the ingredients only list red current. It is much, much more sweet than I would have liked. There is a weird aftertaste which I associate with the sugar.

Overall, I think the blend would be good but without all of the rock sugar. I am going to try the rest of my sample as a cold brew.

A tea club coworker brought this in to share today. Not sure I’d call this tea since I can’t pick out any tea flavor at all, but for a tisane it isn’t too bad. A pretty pink color. Dunno what a youthberry is, but it does have a distinctly orange flavor profile. Sounds strange to say about a liquid maybe, but this is wet. I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be one I cared for after it cooled off and I could see where adding sugar would make it very close to juice. Steeped “leaves” look pretty much like a heap of damp fruit.

Seems like I’m on an iced tea mood – I made this iced to take with me while shopping, as 1. Buying drinks is expensive 2. No tea shops in the mall 3. it’s hot out 4. shopping is serious business.

Double strength, lemon slices, water and little bit of honey (since the tea had sugar added to it) = very very good! Much better than hot! However, this really tasted like juice than tea – I can pick out good citrus and orange.

However, I liked the Teavana Raspberry Riot one iced better.. oooh I got more in the fridge!

I got my Teavana order in the mail. All of them smell kind of.. not delicious, but whatever, for 1-3 bucks it was worth the try! Maybe they will taste awesome.. but first, the sample!

First of all, it smells delicious! I brewed up 2 teaspoons in a medium sized mug, took the rock sugar out of the strainer and put it in the bottom of my cup – I wanted to get the full sweetness, I was in the mood! Steeped for a short 2 minutes.

It was actually quite tasty! Nothing particularly unique or spectacular, but orangey and sweet. I think this would make an amazing iced tea, but I would never fork out the cash to actually purchase it, so we’ll see how far my sample takes me.

I’m with the masses, not the biggest Teavana fan, but thank you for this sample! It might be the tastiest part of my order!

I must admit that I’ve shared the opinion of a lot of other steepsterites (steepsterians?) and have been at my wit’s end with teavana of late. Between the pushy, incessant, salespeople, and the mass-produced unauthentic feel of it, I’ve been forsaking the convenience of getting my tea fix there for more hospitable pastures.

Be that as it may, I just couldn’t stay away when my inbox was inundated with lures for their “Heavenly Sale”. I mean who’s tea budget could resist up to 75% off? Certainly not I, I’m not that strong, nor are my ideals that resolute.

Along with said order, I received yet another sample of this blend. I’ve been pretty sick all week, so this seemed the most appealing choice to bring with me to work. It was so pleasant, and really did the trick! It was light and fruity, but not too berry-y. I usually don’t care for anything peach flavored, but even though the Youthberry had a similar flavor palette, it was still pleasing, and well-balanced by the orange. The german rock sugar was a nice addition. I hardly ever add sugar to my tea but this provided just enough of a hint of sweetness without ruining the delicate blend. It tasted fresh and vibrant and led me down the road to recovery! It hit the spot so much that I ended up bringing it two days in a row, which hardly ever happens!

How funny that my favorite tea of this rather bulky order might end up being the free sample? I guess the solution to my teavana dilemma is to stick to online purchases. However, if I’m resigned to ordering online I’ll probably end up placing orders with companies I actually like, and feel good about supporting. After all, there’s plenty of them out there :)

Free sample included with my last Teavana order.

I remember trying this in store and being less than wowed, even though it’s one of their most touted blends. I think it’s because I had it hot and that just seemed wrong, somehow. So when I made this, I did so with the intent of putting it over ice.

Preparation notes: The whole sample in 500 ml. water at the below parameters. I did a second steep of the leaves (not about to waste 1 freaking oz of that stuff on only 2 cups) at 4 minutes steep time.

Dry leaf: I don’t even know that there was anything in that ‘tea’ besides rock sugar and fruit chunks. I really didn’t see anything that I would describe as a leaf. Strange…

Steeped tea: I’m pretty sure that hibiscus is the culprit for both the color and the flavor of this. It steeped to a bright, vibrant reddish pink and smelled very orangey. And while I did get a fair bit of orange on the sip (while hot), I got this overwhelming tart flavor that completely managed to bury whatever rock sugar got put in there.

After I made the four cups I actually had to add sugar to get some of the fruity flavor back (a tsp. and a half) and then I set it in the refrigerator so the boyfriend and I could have this with dinner.

…and once cold, it just fell flat. Like it couldn’t decide whether to be juice or tea, so it tried to walk the line and failed. I am glad I only had a sample of this. It’s gone and I’m over it.

(P.S. If this sounds overly negative, please take with a large grain of salt. I had a rough day today and this bore the brunt of it, I’m afraid.)

This came as a free sample with my most recent order…and let me tell you, ordering online at Teavana is so much easier than entering the gauntlet in the mall.

Hadn’t tried this before, but loved it the moment I ripped open the package. It smells “happy,” – like Sunny D (orange, citrus-y bliss). I’m trying to cut down on caffeine during the afternoon, so this low-caffeine treat fit the bill. I notice that they add the rock sugar to the samples. I like that you can put the sugar in with the tea in the tea-sac bag so it blends more properly. There is a minty flavor on the edge of the aftertaste. Very pleasant, mint & citrus.

I’m drinking this hot, but I bet it’s even more amazing iced. Love the slight fruity flavor too… mango and pineapple. A tropical slice of heaven.

So this came with an online order. Smells pretty good. I looked at the sample and thought it seems like a lot of leaf for 16oz as it says on the instructions. As I’m finding though you seem to need more stuff when you are steeping the fruit. So again we have hibiscus here, and sigh this is reminding me of Tazo passion. However with the ginormous citrus presence. Yes I know used an overused word like “shared sacrifice”. The sample says it has german rock sugar in it……but there’s no sweetness here. Just citrusy goodness. Grapefruit, Orange, Pineapple, I saw the apple there too. Reminds me of when I used to sell citrus fruit in band as a high school-er. I was never that great of a salesman so we bought most the citrus and you could smell the aroma in the garage. This one time at band camp we were stretching and I split my shorts. I’m glad football excluded me from band camp in the later years. You know one of my favorite songs at the time was a classic from Weezer http://youtu.be/LHQqqM5sr7g Touché TeaEqualsBliss

Felt like something relatively fresh tasting, and I’d been planning on doing some bai mu dan until I came back for the tea kettle, and it was boiling. Since I didn’t feel like waiting that long for it to cool, I decided on this instead, my one herbal tea.

Still like the orange blossom taste, which is still a truth that should not be, considering how I normally don’t like orange-tasting things and fruity teas. This time, however, I think the rock sugar aftertaste is getting to me. This is the one thing about sugar, is that it makes your mouth feel fuzzy and weird after you eat it. It’s also making the tea REALLY REALLY sweet.

And by the way, it is getting really, really hard to curb temptation to go on a sample-buying binge on Teavivre.

EDIT: Toooootally just did. Thank freaking god for their free samples and such.