Teavana

I find this Matcha to be higher quality than many others I have come by. I have prepared it many different ways (including traditional), but one that I particularly enjoy has been with Apple Juice.

Recipe: I prepare the Matcha in a separate bowl (one that was hand crafted/designed for Matcha) with 1/4 of water and use the bamboo whisk. Then I add it to my cup of Apple Juice. If you use hot water, after you whisk it, throw it all over ice and shake away. Enjoy!

I succumbed to the Teavana sales.

Also, we just got back from a trip to Long Island, where we celebrated my great-aunts 100th birthday, pretty crazy. I’m happy to be back, especially since it was so dry. Both my sinus passages and I are happy to be back near my tea stash.

This one I was a bit worried about, but it’s actually pretty nice. I’ve been into teas with almond and this is a light fruity one. I’m curious how it will fair with the addition of some rooibos. It definitely needs sweetener, it’s a little sour without and it’s not as creamy as say, Tiesta Teas Nutty Almond Cream but definitely drinkable!

Tried this in store. Solo yummy. Even my boyfriend liked it. And he’s more into fruity flavor tea

Tried this in store. Recommended to me after I said I like sweet and spicy favors. This tasted really good. What I imagine when I think of chai. Had it sweetened with rock sugar.

I’m baccck! Sorry it’s been so long, but I’ve been super busy.

Stopped into a Teavana with friends the other night and they were offering this one up as a sample. To me it didn’t seem much different from some really nice Yunnan teas I’ve tried before. I found it to be rather malty with a touch of honey. Sure it was nice, but I didn’t find it to be as special as they were claiming it to be.

I certainly wasn’t going to shell out nearly $30 to take some home with me.

My second and final brew of Teavana Orange Chocolate Sweet Spice ended up being a completely different beverage from last time because I used a quadruple dose of the blend and let it steep through the entire duration of MI5 Season 5 Episode 2.

In the end, the opaque, burgundy-colored solution tasted more like spiced wine than anything related to chocolate, but I liked it better this way than brewed weak (as prescribed). The spiced wine effect may have been produced by the overinfused hibiscus and orange pieces. The chocolate was completely shrouded.

Anyway, it seems safe to say that I won’t be buying this foody infusion again, but it was an interesting experiment made possible by the post-holiday sale.

Another truly foody beverage from Teavana, Orange Chocolate Sweet Spice was only drinkable by me prepared at about five times the prescribed strength (I used half my 2 ounce envelope for a Bodum filled about two-thirds of the way), and even then I had to stir multiple big spoons of sugar in. As usual, I found myself questioning this concept. The only orthodox tea-esque ingredient here is hibiscus. Mostly it’s chunks of food.

In the end, I feel that I’d rather use those calories for something better than a beverage like this. (How about some slices of one of those orange-shaped foil-wrapped Terry’s orange chocolates?) I will not buy Orange Chocolate Sweet Spice again—unless it comes in another Christmas package with a radically reduced price after the holidays. Actually, given my reactions to all of these holiday concoctions, I may never shop at Teavana again…

So I am new to this community and new to tea so bare with my novice reviews. I went to Teavana for the first time today (have been frequenting Davids since my revelation with tea) and was quite impressed that a) They had a super tasty oolong (monkey something) and were owned by starbucks (already have my gold card and would love to use my rewards for free tea).

I bought this because I really do seem to gravitate towards oolongs and was intrigued by the aroma. I got it home and brewed it hot. Immediately I smell the cinnamon, and also the chicory. My first taste was overwhelmingly cinnamon – not bad but not what I was expecting. After the cinnamon wears off I immediately taste the apple. I honestly do not taste an oolong flavour at all which is quite disappointing. After reading these reviews I now realize there isn’t much oolong in the tea so I’m glad to know I’m learning.

I bought four other teas and will try them and rate them as well.

I also bought the German Sugar. I have been trying to not add anything to my teas to have a guilt free caffeine drink but figured I would buy some and try it out.

Any thoughts on the German Sugar?

This came to be via a “Mystery Swap” with Allie. Thank you!

I am not sure what to think about this one. The mix of berries is a bit overwhelming and very tart hot. I think this would be better as an ice tea as it is mellowing out as it cools. I will brew some up tonight to try with lunch tomorrow iced.

An average Oolong, no better than the generic ‘oolong’ you might buy from a undecipherable jar in Chinatown, NY.

The oolong overpowers the finer notes of the Jasmine. While it is a nice idea, I don’t think they did a good job with it.

You can really taste the hibiscus flowers in this and not the green tea. I like sour flavors and I like citrus flavors, but this tea hit a sour note. There really is very little green tea in the envelope that I bought.

The ingredients from the tea envelope label are: Green tea, apple pieces, citrus pieces, ginger, hibiscus flowers, flavoring, orange juice bits. I don’t taste the ginger at all, and would really like to know if the flavoring is natural or artificial.

I wanted to log this tea before removing it from my cupboard. I remember liking this pretty well. I would definitely repurchase it, if only because it’s convenient for me to pick some up, and while not cheap, it’s not crazy expensive.

This morning I decided to try My Morning Mate and on reading the label see; “…mate, black tea and red rooibos…” that’s when my brain short circuited. It’s too early for riddles! How do I steep this thing?!

Being a tea newb, I immediately searched Steepster to see what others had in their tasting notes (thank you). I THINK I brewed it properly because it tastes rather good. It has a slight chicory flavor and a sweet almost caramel smell. I’m not certain what the caffeine content is but I definitely felt the after effects!

Thanks to My Morning Mate, I’m very much awake and ready to tackle the uninteresting required reading that I need to do for an online course. Yay…

I’m not a big fan of this blend only because I don’t like oranges. But the Youthberry tea by itself is absolutely wonderful! It tastes so delicious iced! In fact, I have to get some next time I stop in at Teavana!

Very high quality. I can tell they put a lot of thought and time into this tea!

By far one of the most complicate flavor I had encountered. It’s a little off IMO, don’t know if it’s because of the abundance of coconut shavings or what. I got this on clearance and couldn’t return it, so I played around with it a little bit.

I mixed 1/2 tsp of Spiced Apple Cider and 1/2 Samurai Chai Mate and 1/2 Six Summits Oolong and oh boy I felt like a tea goddess that just created the most beautiful winter or after meal tea. I no longer get that weird coconut after taste.

Too much tart hibiscus to be soothing. Might be great iced

This has rooibos in it? I swear there’s no rooibos in my bag. Just lots of ‘stuff’. Cinnamon sticks, apple pieces, dark lumps of something. Stuff.

It’s not a sickly sweet cinnamon flavour, which is a good thing. But it’s pretty much just cinnamon water. I’m not getting any apple.

Adding coconut cream doesn’t do anything either.

I give up. Down the drain. I might accidentally dispose of the rest of it unless someone’s interested – I’d just drop it in a regular envelope…

This is SO sweet.

Cinnamon candy. A little hibiscus/chicory/orange peel aftertaste.

But mostly cinnamon.

I don’t hate it, and it only cost me something like $1.50 for the 50g, so I consider it worth a try.

But… apple? Nope. No apple here.

Edit: Oh. Weird. Oh gross weird omg whyyyyyy. I pulled some Kale Chips out of the oven and gently salted them with Magic Mushroom Powder (ha!) and then sipped this tea. Sooooo gross! But I can taste the apple like this. :/