Fruit Tisanes Are Misunderstood...
And I JUST wrote a review of a Fusion Tea Room tea addressing these very things right before I saw this post. :/ I think the Fusion Tea Room blends are very inspired and a lot of effort goes into them. But of the four Fusions I’ve tried, the fruit blend is my least favorite. It is still VERY good for a fruit tea, but I mention in my review that it’s tough to get a fruit tea with a strong flavor and not have the hibiscus overpower the other flavors. I also kind of avoid hibiscus teas for that reason (and know I should be adding sugar if only I wasn’t already eating too much.) But if ANY fruit blends should be tried, it should be Fusion Tea Rooms.
Also, as I was picking a tea at 11PM, I was wondering if yerba mate has caffiene? It was between the fruit tea or the yerba mate and I wasn’t sure so I went with the peach infusion.
I think I am coming to the conclusion that I should just change our fruit tisane category to Hibiscus Tisanes or Hibiscus Blends or something in that nature. Just not sure that is what people are searching for in terms of keywords in Google, I will have to do some research.
This has been a thought provoking and I appreciate all of your comments.
Muppetlove, Good choice on the Peach Infusion. Mate has three different stimulants that act differently than caffeine. You become more focused and it lasts longer than just plain caffeine so you might have been up for a while. ;)
yes, it would be useful to find out what people are actually searching for when they come across your teas. Though maybe having the word fruit in the title is still useful – “hibiscus fruit blends” or something. My sister drinks a lot of this kind of tea and I’m not even sure she knows what hibiscus is or that it is in most fruit herbals.
btw, thanks for starting this discussion; it’s something I’ve always wondered about.
I’d think you’d want to go for something with a little more pizzazz, like “Fruit Fusions” or “Fruit Hybrids”, hybrid is a pretty hot buzzword these days. I’d actually be surprised to hear that ‘tisane’ is common usage outside of the tea aficionados. I’d honestly never heard the word prior to getting into more fancy teas. In other words, I didn’t know calling non-tea related beverages ‘tea’ was a bad thing.
Though I’ve never owned or operated a beverage selling business, so any advice I give should be suspect :P
I am your typical child of the 80’s – raised on coca-cola, pepsi, gatorade, hi-c, kool aid, etc etc etc. My palate has been a slave to high fructose corn syrup since before I can remember. It actually took me awhile to learn to love real tea and real coffee. Until working for a coffee roaster, I was only into super syrup-y Starbucks lattes or bottles of Snapple.
My tastes have adjusted – what was once bitter or bland is now delicious. However, I think my sugar-obsessed past will always stick with me. I like tisanes for exactly this reason. I am in constant need of variety and always seeking drinks with flavor. I try to stay away from natural and artificial liquid flavorings, so I’m a big fan of tea blends – with real tea bases – that are loaded with fruit pieces, spices and herbs. I even like the dreaded hibiscus! It’s sweet and sour, perfect for a kid who grew up eating Sour Patch Kids. When used right it adds great flavor to a cup, especially a nice big glass of iced tea.
I am in the Dallas area and we are still considered the south where sweet iced tea is consumed more than water here. Our fruit tisanes are very popular here. I think they cater to someone more like you. I grew up in the same time. My palate has evolved but there’s nothing more refreshing than an ice cold fruit tisane during the 100 degree summer months here. Most of our fruit tisanes are better over ice.
It’s usually either tea or full-sugar (no diet!) soda for me. I’m rarely drinking anything else. And Sour Patch Kids were my favorite! I still love them.
LOL @ this post. Yeah, my palate as a tea drinker has “changed” so that I don’t like tisanes anymore! Oh yeah, and I also don’t like fruit juice, booze or chocolate milk.
No, wait, what?
“Non-tea drinkers” probably like fruit tisanes because they are close to fruit juice, and because they do not like tea.
I also see no reason whatsoever for hibiscus to be a necessary ingredient. I have had several without it. Which is good, because I don’t like teas to be too tart, true. I have never liked tart too much. I will not refuse to drink a tea just because it has hibiscus, and I have really liked some with that ingredient, but I agree with others that think that ingredient is often a “bully” to other flavours. I think hibiscus is used carelessly by most blenders.
I would just like to say I am impressed with my fellow Steepsterites. When this thread started, I thought, oh no, it won’t be long before this gets locked or deleted. This could have easily gone horribly wrong but it didn’t – thanks all for staying friendly.
I have no explanation for why the majority of tea drinkers tend towards not liking hibiscus while non-tea drinkers do. I am not sure it needs to be understood as much as accepted. It looks like the problem is Fusion is not hitting its target audience on Steepster with the fruit tisanes. In Fusion’s defense the ingredients ARE clearly listed.
I agree, it could have gone wrong. My wife was nervous when I told her about it haha! I tend to call it how I see it and sometimes it gets me into trouble :) I always keep an open mind though. By doing so I may have discovered a better way to categorize or name them. I don’t want to qualify every fruit tisane by putting hibiscus in the name but by naming the category Hibiscus Infusions or Blends or something of that nature there could be a cool marketing strategy.
We still send out samples to anyone that is willing to give their honest review on here. I know many of you have already done so and we appreciate all the feedback. Oh and we have plenty of Non-Hibiscus blends as well :) Just visit our site and send us a note.
I have to say that when I started reading, I was a bit irritated with this thread and some of the comments made by Fusion teas, like “…whenever DR. Oz speaks women take whatever he says very seriously and he has talked about hibiscus a few times in the past.” I am quite female and I don’t believe a word that comes out of that man’s mouth, so that sweeping generalization really stuck in my craw. But I’m trying to be good, so I’m just going to say that sweeping generalizations like that do nothing good for anyone. I wandered to this thread because I was interested in trying out this company, but comments like that talked me out of it.
Anyway. I just want to add my voice to the others saying hibiscus is a big no-go for me. I’ll try blends with hibiscus in them, but I don’t tend to like them. When it is overdone in fruit blends, it makes me nauseous and activates my heartburn like crazy. It’s not just a matter of taste, it’s a matter of health. Why would I want to drink something that makes me sick? And I wholeheartedly disagree that a fruit tisane has to include hibiscus, I have a fair number of blends that do not.
I apologize for offending you. All I can do is speak from experience. I do not watch Dr Oz and I do not have an opinion of the man, but I know whenever we he talks about a certain herb we get a ton of questions and inquiries about it. Of course not every women watches him or believes him, I wasn’t trying to say that.
Generalizing is simply a way not to lump every women or every fruit tisane a certain way and thats what I was trying to do and nothing is ever a matter of fact.
Ah…generalizing is the exact opposite of that. It is, in fact, lumping every woman or fruit tisane a certain way. “Fruit tisanes that have hibiscus in them are horrible” is an example of a generalization similar to “When Dr Oz speaks, women take whatever he says very seriously.” Why women? I know quite a few men who take him seriously too. Why not people? or why bother to say something like that at all? I’m just saying, think before you speak. As a owner of a company, your image should matter.
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