Wild Berry Zinger

Last night I was heading into my bed to read before sleeping, when I absolutely had to have a cup of tea to take with me. Now, sometimes I thinking about it before hand and make a cup of tea to drink while I read while I’m getting ready to shut down for the night and head into the bedroom. But no, last night I already had the lights off, the heat lowered, the computers sleeping, book, cel phone, and water in hand, heading into the bedroom, when I realized I had to have tea, that I would be preoccupied wanting tea while I read if I did not make some. So I put down my stuff and headed back into the kitchen, prepared to out of bed a bit longer while I made tea.

This brings me to a problem I keeping meaning to query my fellow Steepsterians about. What do you drink when you want tea late at night?

I’m talking 9/10pm when you’ll likely only drink a cup or two. I don’t want to drink a black tea because even though I’ll occasionally have one while making dinner, with dinner, or right after dinner, it’s just too late to have one that late. I don’t want a green or white tea because I’m likely to drink only one cup and feel like I’m wasting the multiple steeps I could have had from those leaves and I personally am not comfortable leaving wet tea leaves over night. Which leaves me with herbals. I like rooibos but I’m low on it and often don’t feel like it that late at night. I tend not to like chamomile straight or in blends where it’s a dominate taste, but I don’t mind being able to taste it in blends so long as it isn’t the strongest flavor. I don’t mind hibiscus cause I like tart things so I wouldn’t avoid it but I wouldn’t go out of my way to find it either. So far I’ve had a hard time finding non-rooibos herbals that I like and want to drink, not just this is okay and I can finish the box/tin ones.

So part two of my query, Steepsterians, is to ask for your herbal recommendations. I will also take good rooibos recommendations, since not many of you drink it, and I’m open to them, but I’m looking for mainly herbals to consider.

Now back to my regularly scheduled late night tea story. Barbara, my mom, brought back a ton of teas from the Celestrial Seasonings plant in Denver, CO, when my dad, my sister, and she were visiting my sister’s boyfriend who was stationed there with the Air Force. One box that she gave me was a sampler of their fruity herbals.

As someone who also readings “junk food” romances, I’m also embarrassed to admit that I kind of like these teas. I enjoy fruity teas and herbals, when I’m in the mood for one. And while these aren’t as good as others I’ve had, they are decent and I don’t mind the tartness from the hibiscus.

I did steep this tea less than the recommended four to six minutes and with water below boiling. It could probably be steeped less time and with cooler water. It was still a dark purple-red. It tasted fruity and tart with a general berryness. It filled my late night need for tea.

Now this one’s a teabag courtesy of one of my roommates (who is away for the summer).

Brewed aroma here is definitely more fakey-cherry. Cherry cough syrup-y?

Flavourwise, I’m again getting a similar sort of sweetness. It comes up a bit sooner though, and doesn’t linger as long, so it’s much more bearable. The hibiscus is also done reasonably well in this blend, with the tartness not overwhelming everything, even though this steep is just as epically long as the other. I’d have to say that the Tea Forte version, comparing them side by side, has a more tart berry sort of flavour, whereas this one is more of a sweet berry flavour. Both blends have the tartness of hibiscus of course, but the berry flavour itself is different.

I have to say, both definitely have their merits – I’m more familiar with Celestial Seasonings, so their ‘zinger’ blends typically taste “right” to me, but the Tea Forte version was interesting and different. The sweet aftertaste would therefore probably be the only reason I’d pick one (CS) over the other (TF), in general.

Fun experiment – I’m definitely almost asleep now.

I’m still chilly – hope I’m not getting sick! I decided to make a lazy herbal bagged tisane with some honey. I chose this one because it’s the one flavor in my CS sampler that I haven’t tried yet.

It’s quite good! Sweet/tart with the honey, fruit punch-like. It is hibiscus-y so if you don’t like hibiscus you won’t like this. All in all, not a bad lazy tea bag, but I wouldn’t buy a box of it (but I do plan on buying a box of raspberry zinger. I have such a soft spot for that one!).

Another one I found in the previously mentioned Big Tins of Mystery! It was out of a Celestial Seasonings sampler pack that a former friend (we fell out, probably for the best) once sent me for my birthday along with a few other things from CS. I remember being quite taken by the boxes. Pretty pictures. They had actually made an effort on decoration. I wasn’t particularly interested in the actual contents though, which I found disappointing on account of 75% of them being herbals. I don’t care about tisanes. They are not tea and they are not interesting. (And many of them aren’t that well tasting either) Oh and FYI as a personal little peeve, rooibos falls under this category. It is not tea.

Anyway, berries! I like berries, so while I haven’t bothered to look at the ingredients, I’m feeling semi-confident. I mean if I only have one bag out of a whole sampler pack left, then surely the others must have been used up, right? And if I didn’t like them, there would have been more than one left, right?

It smells like… sweets. Not particularly fruity to be honest. Rather more synthetic and very very sweet. I do notice though that it gets a highly suspicious bright red colour while steeping. This is worrying. I have some very bad experiences with that particular colour. I haven’t even tasted it yet and already I’ve poured the rest of the water into a small pot to heat it up and the kettle on with water for a pot of emergency Lapsang Souchong if I’m right.

Okay. Here goes. takes deep breath and summons all reserves of courage

Ack! Yuck! Spitty!

I was right about that bright red colour. It tattles about the presence of the dreaded hibiscus. That stuff seems to be in just about everything and I just can’t get it down. To me it has a dreadful metallic sort of taste that reminds me most of all of blood. No thank you, says I.

It’s a mystery though that there was only this one bag left. I must have traded the others, but why did I keep one?

This smells mainly of hibiscus. I’m also one of the rare people on here who really loves the tart flavor. This somehow tastes more of cherry than anything else. There is a bit of raspberry in there too, but it is pretty artificial tasting. It reminds me a bit of the forest berries tea by Adagio without the black base. It isn’t terrible, just not the very best. I’d say I’d drink it just for something fruity.

I got this one for my husband because he seems to like these hibiscus based Zinger teas. I have a mug of it and it was okay. Very tart though with just a hint of berries. I’m making a pitcher of cold-brewed. I hope that cold-brewing it brings out the sweetness of the hibiscus like it did with the Tangerine Zinger.

Backlogging! Cold brewed this today with LOTS of ice. Nice berry flavor but mostly tart from the hibiscus.

So in paying attention I’ve established that my review of this tea yesterday was actualy a review of Black Cherry Berry. Sad to say, if that was supposed to be Black Cherry, it was not a good rendition.

Though, in actually drinking the wild berry tea, I like it! Seems redundant considering the other berry teas they make, but maybe they wanted to corner the market.

Edit – Rating is going down down down as it gets more bitter despite not continuing to steep. Stick with Blueberry – Check!

After a few samplers ,I’m growing to like this.The combination of berry tastes are lovely,tart and sweet with a delightful red berries scent .I rate this higher than True Blueberry Tea,partly it may be true I like the red berries better,what’s more I also think this tea is much clearer than Blueberry Tea.Apart from the usual hibiscus(actually I love it even when brewed alone),lovely and tart raspberry 、cranberry、cherry and a hint of blueberry,I can sense the sweetness of strawberries too myself.The tea is so young and lovely in my opinion,well done.

Definitely my favorite of the Celestial Seasonings Zingers I’ve had. I love the hibiscus, the blackberry, and the cranberry notes that are in here. It’s a fruit-punchy tea that wouldn’t appeal to everyone (if you don’t like hibiscus or tart, stay far, far away). I love all things fruity and naturally sweet with that edge of tart, so this tea is delicious.

This was part of a sampler pack of fruit teas. I wish there were more variety packs from CS, because there’s a lot of flavors I’m interested in trying, but they can be hit or miss and I hate to buy a box I’m not going to want to drink. I’ll probably grab a box of this one next time it’s on sale.