Tiesta Tea

For the life of me, I don’t know why “nutty” and “almond” ever made into the brand name of this chunky herbal blend, because it tastes like caramel apples. Despite the misguided moniker, I really like it, especially this time of year. They did get the “cream” part right, both in the title and in the mixture. Also the “relaxer” subtitle on the tin. Good for sipping while you watch the cat take a nap.

Schedule and setting for the next couple of weeks have prompted an immunity-boosting binge, so I’m spiking what I drink with lots of herbal goodies. In this case, I tossed a teaspoon of chickweed in with this chewy, chunky dessert tea and left it a good 15 minutes while I walked around our leafy-crisp neighborhood.

Straight up, this is a very naturally sweet herbal blend. I think I saw “apple crisp” as one of the flavor comparisons, and that’s accurate. So the chickweed (which is drinkable on its own, but not very flavorful) merely ratcheted the sweetness down a notch. A good way to mask something good for you.

P.S. It doesn’t taste much like almond, but it’s still very good!

This second-steeps very nicely; tossed in a pinch of St. John’s Wort, my current I-despise-January herbal defense, and you don’t even notice its there. Sweet creamy cinnamon apple dessert.

Apple Jacks. No further exposition needed.

This is the doppelganger of one of my favorites from Savoy Tea in Arkansas, Caramel Apple Almond. A work friend surprised me with a sample baggie this afternoon. I buried my nose in it and sniffed so hard I nearly inhaled an almond nugget. Sweet fruity caramel. It steeps to the color of pink grapefruit and tastes like caramel drizzled apple pie filling. Lummy. (Luscious + yummy) Decaf, to boot!

This is a very nice fruity green tea; very smooth, not bitter or artificial tasting. The leaves were good for 3 steeps, with decreasing fruitiness but still a nice green tea flavour.

Fruity and tangy, with just a hint of ginger. I think I maybe should have steeped this longer. It’s good though, and I’m guessing it’d be lovely iced.

Got this as a free sample with my Tiesta order. :) It smells like… really cinnamon-y apple crisp? I can definitely taste the apple and cinnamon as well, though it’s pretty tart, so it doesn’t taste as dessert-y as it smells. There’s this subtle mystery flavour that I’m assuming is the roasted chickory root? It’s interesting. I’m tempted to try adding milk and sugar to this next time, just to see what happenes.

Overboard TTB

I knew I’d had this before, but I wanted to try it again. The almond flavor is nice, and I like that there’s a creamy feel to it. As far as herbals go this is a good one.

From the SanTEA Claus TTB

Backlogging from last night…

This is pretty tasty! Lots of almond flavor with a bit of sweetness and a nice creamy note. The hot pink color of the brewed tea threw me for a loop, but I did enjoy my cup. The fact that it’s an herbal blend makes it even nicer since I’m always looking for a good before bed tea.

This came as part of a Tea Sparrow subscription box and has been sitting on my shelf for a while. Decided to try it hot even though the ingredients seem like it would be a great iced tea.

I’m usually not a fan of herbal teas because in my experience, they tend to have a lot of herby-tasting things. The ingredients on this looked safe though – mostly fruits.

The smell of this is really fruity and sweet, like strawberry/grape jello. Then, of course, my brain tells me to expect juicy sweetness, but was met with an initial sip of tartness. I let it cool a bit and decided to give it another try before getting the sugar, and surprisingly the tartness is gone. There’s even a bit of sweetness. It’s definitely very citrusy, and I can imagine this would be excellent as an iced tea, slightly sweetened. Guess I will save the rest for warmer weather, which unfortunately is at least a good 8 months from now.

I wish I had realized there was bergamot in this when I bought it… I am not a big fan of bergamot, I do drink it occasionally when I’m in the mood but prefer a subtle dose.

There is a lot going on in this blend already with fruitiness, it has lemon peel and lemongrass which I both like. But the bergamot overwhelms this and makes it more bitter and drying in my opinion… and soapy. I tried adding a teaspoon of coconut sugar but that didn’t really improve things. I think this is going in my pile of stuff to give away or compost. Wah… Yuk. This is undrinkable in my opinion.

I wanted to do my most recent shopping trip at a local Meijer’s, namely to see what selection they had of Vitamin waters and other flavored waters that both my Mom and I have become slightly addicted to. I decided to wander down the tea/coffee isle just to see what there was to see. To my surprise and delight, I found a larger tea section then I had expected. Most was the usual stuff, bagged tea such as Bigelow, Yogi, Lipton. Then I saw bags of this tea, Tiesta. I randomly chose this one, mostly because of the word Relax on the bag. I just tried it tonight…

I like it well enough that I won’t mind finishing the bag, but I highly doubt I would get it again. It’s not a bad herbal tea…in fact I agree with the other assessments in that the taste of this bares a close resemblance to Forever Nuts by David’s Tea. So if you love that tea, but aren’t crazy about DT’s prices or shipping charges, check your local Meijer…they just might have it.

Mmmm, the smell of this dry tea is amazing, kind of like a really cinnamony oatmeal cookie. With almonds. Brewed, more of the apple comes out, and it starts to smell like apple pie in a cup. If you add milk and sugar, it actually tastes like apple pie in a cup. :) Without, it’s just a really lovely apple and cinnamon tisane with a smooth nutty/creamy finish.

One of my co-workers bought this at our local Sprouts and let me try it. I was proctoring a test when I had this, which unfortunately meant that I only got one sip around the correct brewing time before proceeding to get distracted by one of my test-takers. I left the bag in for about 5 extra minutes and came back to a very different experience. The first sip I took was sweet and tasted mostly like the flavoring. The next sip I got when I came back to my cup was almost entirely grassy green tea. I was surprised that it hadn’t gone bitter at all, which probably means my water wasn’t as hot as it should have been in the first place. I think this would be pretty good, if not a touch weak, when brewed correctly. I’m not going to rate this yet until I get a chance to have another cup without getting pulled away.

1st tea from Lewis & Clarke TTB.

Mild aroma. The flavor is a bit stronger than the aroma, but what stands out is the mouth-feel: it is rich and full. Also a long finish. The flavors are fruity; vaguely citrus, but I can’t really identify individual components.

I have to confess that I find it hard to get excited about most tisanes, and this one is no exception. It is nice enough but nothing to get excited about.

I wanted to try this tea, but didn’t want it enough to pay for the shipping cost. It was at the grocery store this evening and I decided to grab it. To be honest, I’m expecting this to taste like Forever Nuts. It’s definitely a brighter pink, but smells quite similar.

Sipping… Hm.. this one could have used a longer steep time. It tastes a little bit watery and weak. Besides that, I do get some of the same notes as Forever Nuts. It’s slightly less tart, though, which allows for the sweet apple and almond to come through more clearly. The cinnamon seems to be stronger in this blend as well. I’m going to try to play around with this a little more, but I’m not sure I like this more than Forever Nuts despite the convenience of buying it in person.

Tea of the afternoon here that was part of my big Tiesta order from a few weeks ago. Sorry to write such a brief review, but I’m busy today.

This just sounded so good! Flapjack oolong… maple syrup and nutty with a dark oolong. yummm. Unfortunately I felt the flavor here was pretty light. I was definitely hoping for something for more intense, but in the bright side, at least it wasn’t artificial. You do get notes of maple/nutty/pancake but they are very faint. I think the best idea I had with this was to sweeten it with a tiny bit of maple syrup. Then it was perfect. Not bad but not quite flavorful enough for my personal tastes.

Another tea from Tiesta to try…

And if my sleep schedule wasn’t messed up enough already, I had a long nap today and needed something to revive me. This says it’s a blend of green and white teas and certainly smells fruity in the pouch. I saw a piece of dried fruit in there too :)

This is nice, I like the green/white blend because I think the white gives it a bit of sweetness. It has a bit of tart from the fruit which seems mostly tropical to me, and a touch of rose gives it some floral. This isn’t as strongly fruit flavored as I thought it would be from smelling it in the bag. Regardless, it is a nice blend especially for warm weather. I think I’ll need to try this one iced someday. Good, but not amazing. Definitely more subtle than Lupicia’s flavored teas. And I don’t really think tea helps to keep me slim or I’d be the skinniest person on Earth… ha ha

I have been researching and applying for jobs all day today, this is some seriously boring stuff! It’s a beautiful day and I’d rather be out playing but I guess I’ll get to do that this weekend.

Strawberry Exotica is a very good cold brewed tea, perhaps better than it is hot. It’s mild, sweet and has nice strawberry and tropical fruit essence. I wish I had more of this as a cold brew. It’s tasty….

Part of an order that I received from Tiesta Tea yesterday. Shipping was slow, the post office was partly to blame, and when I inquired about the slow shipping time, Tiesta refunded the money that I paid on shipping for this. I thought that was good of them.

Now I don’t have any fruity white teas in my stash for some reason, and was looking forward to trying this one. It’s the second cup I’ve had this afternoon. With a name like “Strawberry Exotica”, I was really hoping for something huge in the strawberry department. This is definitely sweet (from the white tea) and fruity. I would say there’s as much mango and pineapple in here as strawberry, but it’s a pleasant flavor for sure. Not exactly what I was expecting, but not bad either. It’s a lightly flavored tropical white tea. I will need to try this cold brewed someday, me thinks. Maybe that will bring out even more fruitiness.

I got this from the Pass the Stash Teabox. I took it mainly because I’ve not had much of a chance to deal with Mate’s in general, and I’m hoping to find more wake up options then just plain old coffee.

Let me say, first impression is I have had liquor smell less boozy then this stuff does in the bag. I’m hoping this is like 52teas where it has a lot of scent but the flavor isn’t the same strength because if this tastes like that we’ve got a problem.

Alright I’ve tasted it an I really don’t mind it. I may have underleafed it though because I get coconut and hot water pretty much. And after I pulled my steeper out, it looked like what I had put in was cut in half so maybe it had fluffed up some in the bag? I don’t hate this but I’m glad I have more to give it another go. The good news is Tiesta Tea is sold at Meijer by me so if I like it as a coffee alternative I can get it easily.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

This one is in Tea Sparrow packaging. I’m always interested in fruit teas, even if they almost always end up being disappointing with either too much apple or too much hibiscus. This one has chunks of papaya, mango, and apple, and it has the hugest pieces of hibiscus that I have ever seen (I avoided them mostly). The dry scent reminds me of a specific fruit gum that I can’t think of right now, and it’s quite tart.

Uh oh… Even though I tried to avoid the hibiscus chunks, my tea brewed up that trademark fuchsia color and it smells quite tart. Here goes nothing… :P Whoa buddy, this is super tart! To its credit, it does taste very citrusy, which is good. But it’s also quite strong on the hibiscus tartness, and I’ve not been adding any sweetener to my teas. I can see this one being very tasty and refreshing as an iced tea, but it’s just too tart for me to drink it hot. Ah well…

The first time I brewed this tea it was literally on a whim. I had just bought it, ripped it open, scooped out 2 tspns and eagerly dumped it into “hot” water. I was initally scared it might not have been hot enough, but it is a green blend, so I hoped for the best. Turned out to be for the best! It was delicious! :)

I could taste “fiji apples” and a slight “fruit punch” flavor, which I am guessing is the kiwi taste? I really didn’t get much kiwi. I could detect a hint of kiwi, but not much. No biggie for me though.

Second time around I think I made the water TOO hot, because I wasn’t able to get that fruity taste. The green tea is all I can taste second time around.

I would probably buy this again because its relatively cheap and easy to get down at Mejier, or at the Giant Eagle near my work place. I would also buy this again because I like the taste. :)