Number E

This was the new flavour that Number E had brought with this for the TO Tea Festival. I have to say that while I thought the quality was good, this was very boring to me compared to the many other wonderful sparkling teas that they offer. But I suppose it could be a nice option if you’re looking for something more familiar and predictable.

I wanted to try this at the festival last year, but they sold out so quickly. Thankfully I was able to try it this year and, in fact, I really enjoyed it! It’s a lemon black tea, so it’s got somewhere between a classic Southern Sweet Tea and an Arnold Palmer vibe but with light carbonation. I appreciated how brisk and malty the black tea was.

Another favourite that I was excited to get to revisit/cool down with. It’s so smooth and cooling with a pulpy cucumber note, a hint of citrus, and a slight finish of mint. Very chuggable, which is good because that’s exactly what I did.

I picked up a few cans of Numbere E’s sparkling teas while at the Toronto Tea Festival on Sunday so that we’d have something cold to drink at our booth to keep hydrated with in between all the hot tea cuppings/speaking during the day.

In the past I wasn’t a fan of this and it was because I didn’t like the taste of the cucumber with the carbonation. This time around, I actually quite enjoyed the flavour and found the sparking cucumber really refreshing. Fun example of how palates can just so much with time! Definitely a cucumber forward flavour in that more mellow and cooling sort of way but with a little bit of a sharper greener edge to it alongside sweet mint notes and a bit of citrus brightness. Big “spa water” vibes that I appreciated a whole lot in the moment.

Last of the Number E sparkling teas…

To be honest, I hated this one. I tried to be really open minded when trying it because I thought I might not enjoy it because of the green tea – especially if it was as present as the oolong was in Hanging Belay. However, it wasn’t even the green tea that I hate. No, the part that I simply COULD NOT get over was the carbonated cucumber. The flavour was very intense, and it just had me gagging. I think that perhaps I may not be able to enjoy carbonated cucumber in general because I definitely had a similar visceral reaction when I tried the cucumber flavour of sparkling tea from Teatulia.

Sorry Number E, but this is a hard pass from me.

Ya’ girl is tired tonight, so we’re doing two sentence tasting notes so I can clear some backlog…

I worked Toronto Tea Festival at the DAVIDsTEA this past weekend for the second year in a row, and where we’re set up is in a very hot spot of the event hall with poor air circulation so between that and percolator with boiling water near our feet for all of our sampling stations it gets HOT. So, I bought a six pack of Number E’s RTDs again to slam back during lulls as a way to stay cold. This is always a favourite with its juicy, ripe blueberry flavour and the light earthiness and mineral notes of the oolong itself.

Last but certainly not least of the sparkling teas from Numbere E that we split/enjoyed during Toronto Tea Festival on Sunday, to keep hydrated at our booth. This has always been my favourite of their flavours, and if I’m being honest I mostly drank this one all on my own. Truthfully I don’t get a lot of the lemon or the oolong from the profile (maybe in the light floral undertones). I’m just that big of a whore for a good blueberry product, and this one is incredibly thick and jammy tasting even for a sparkling tea. But that sparkling element keeps it from feeling heavy despite how rich the flavour is, and I adore that. If it was possible to take canned beverages as carry on for a flight then I would have easily brought a case of this one back with me…

This was the best sparkling tea in my opinion – it’s an oolong tea with blueberry and lemon. To start, the idea of comboing those flavours? Excellent. That just sounds beautifully delicious. Plus, to be honest, oolong tea is definitely not the most commercial type of tea if you’re looking for mass market appeal – so kudos to Number E for going for it even though it’s not the most commercial – ’cause if you were going purely commercial this flavour profile probably would have been delicious on something like a black tea.

So getting in the taste…

The best part of this sparkling tea? YOU CAN TASTE THE OOLONG. It’s floral, a little nutty, and well rounded – and it adds a great depth to the sweet, jammy blueberry notes. Those two flavours actually make up the majority of the flavour profile those there’s a light lemon notes that I picked out in the top note and the very lightly in the undertones following that. Miraculously, this is a sparkling tea that is flavourful and nuanced that TASTES LIKE TEA.

Wonderful.

Would drink, and often.

Another that I picked up and shared with our Toronto Tea Festival booth gang this past Sunday. Probably my least favourite of the bunch, but not bad by any stretch. It’s very, very tart and tangy with distinct notes of hibiscus, cranberry, and orange. Mostly the hibiscus and cranberry, though. There was some sort of undertone that made me think of Thanksgiving at one point in a somewhat weird but not unwelcome way. Of course, cranberry always makes me go there a little anyway.

I think mostly it’s just the bottom of the list from this recent tasting because it’s the flavour I felt most confidant I could find similar of from elsewhere.

Had Number E’s line up of Sparkling teas shortly after the TO Tea Festival, but in a move that was very unlike me I actually forgot to write about them…

This was probably my second favourite of the three; it’s a herbal/fruit based “Sparkling Tea” where the tea is actually a tisane – hibiscus. Taste wise, it’s very refreshing and drinkable with a sweetness and tartness. It gives me both “Cranberry Gingerale” vibes as well as “Cranberry Cider” vibes – but obviously without the ginger. I could probably drink a ton of these very easily – especially in the summer. I think the sweetness is really pleasant and natural, and offset with an appropriate crispness and tart finish.

My main issue with this flavour? Well, since it IS completely herbal it doesn’t feel like tea to me. Like, this is just a sparkling fruit juice. You can brand it as tea because of the hibiscus but it simply doesn’t feel true/differentiated enough from other sparkling drinks that just use fruit juices…