The Des Anges from Nina’s Paris

The Des Anges from Nina's Paris
The Des Anges from Nina’s Paris

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Nina’s Paris

Tea Description:

Strawberry pieces, vanilla, and strawberry flavors.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The Des Anges from Nina’s Paris is a nice simplistic tea with subtle flavors. I can appreciate the way this tea is not over done with flavorings. I can taste the black tea base, the strawberry, and the vanilla, and none seem to be fighting with another for focus. It is a pleasant cup of tea.

I am not quite sure that it is strong enough to hold up to creamer or sweetener but I think that it would give it a nice kick and jack it up a notch. It is rather a no fuss, simple, enjoy me as I am tea. That is not to take away from the blend, but if you are looking for an in your face flavor, this isn’t it. However if you often time flavored teas too flavorful and prefer a subtle hint of flavor to your tea, then this is bang on!

This tea also is not very sweet, which is nice, a lot of flavored teas are too sweet. This taste a lot more like some fresh strawberries had been infused in the tea with a splash of vanilla flavor. I do not find the vanilla to give the tea as much of a creamy flavor and the mouthfeel is very light as well.

Overall a nice change of pace in a flavored tea.

Key Lime Pie from Della Terra Teas

Key Lime Pie from Della Terra Teas
Key Lime Pie from Della Terra Teas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas

Tea Description:

This tea combines the flavor of delicious Key Lime pie and black tea.  If you love lime, pie, tea… any of those, you’ll love this tea!  Perfect for first thing in the morning or even as a dessert.  Enjoy your day in the sunny Florida keys with this one!

Ingredients: Black tea, lime flavor, cream flavor, lime pieces and bits*

Allergens: contains dairy, soy.

Suggested brewing tips

Serving Size: 1 level tsp./6oz serving

Water Temp:  210°F

Steep Time: 2-5 minutes

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

What can I say about Key Lime Pie from Della Terra Teas, I don’t know, how about YUM YUM YUM!!!! One thing I have noticed with lime flavored things, not just tea, there is more often than not this strange yucky aftertaste that lingers around for a long time. Well you will not find that lingering yuck in this tea! What you do get is a zesty, sweet, limey goodness that lasts and pleasantly lingers on your palate! I love this tea and I can’t wait to try it iced and cold steeped.

It is no secret I am a huge fan of Della Terra Teas and have successfully narrowed my flavored tea sipping down to a few very good and consistent companies, Della Terra Teas is one of them. Their teas are always of high quality and true to the flavor description. On the rare occasion their tea is not received warmly by customers they work on the blend and perfect it based on reviews. I respect that.

I find lime to be a flavor that is really difficult to get just right but Della Terra has managed to not only do a lime tea but a key lime pie tea and it sure does remind me of a creamy key lime dream. What I love even more is that the black tea base is not lost beneath the flavors. I can distinctly taste the tea in this blend.

This tea is sweet but not cloying and there is also no aftertaste from the sweetness. I think this will make a wonderful summer tea and should be served to anyone who usually enjoys those half lemonade half tea blends to convert them!

Divine Temple from Georgia Tea Company

Divine Temple from Georgia Tea Company
Divine Temple from Georgia Tea Company

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: White

Where to Buy: Georgia Tea Company

Tea Description:

This name of this tea is perfect, for it is divine to drink. Before you take your first sip, inhale the aroma which comes from your cup. You sense a combination of fruits, many fruits. Now take your first sip; there is a sweetness to the palate. But you also sense a substantive base which complements the sweetness. This comes from the multi-blend of white and green teas. No wonder this is our bestselling tea. It is perfect for an afternoon break. And you get all the health benefits which come from the high amount of antioxidants in the green and white teas. What more could you ask!

Steeping time: 175°F / 2-3 min / 2.5 teaspoons per 10oz

Ingredients: white tea China Pai Mu Tan, green tea Darjeeling, green tea China -Fog Tea, -Sencha, -Lung Ching, -Gunpowder, -Jasmine, -Jasmine Jade Pearls, candied mango bits (mango, sugar), candied pineapple bits (pineapple, sugar), candied papaya bits (papaya, sugar), flavoring, orange peels, strawberry bits, red currants, sour cherry bits, apricot bits

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Divine Temple from Georgia Tea Company tastes like a fine wine. This tea is scrumptious and truly divine. I love the mixture of white tea and sencha which I can detect from all the other various teas within this really cool blend. Oh and yes as the description states, you want to drink this in before taking your first sip. The aroma is just to die for. This is the kind of blend that I could see myself being buried with, surrounding me, tucking me into my hand built casket. Sorry the review was turning a little dark there, but in all seriousness, whoever created this blend really hit the nail on the head here. They must surely be very proud of themselves, then again, this is a really hard tea to top.

So what is this tea anyway? Well as you can see, the ingredients list a whole array of yummy goodness, white teas, green teas, fruits of all types from berries to citrus. I can really taste the tropical fruits but the berry notes also jump up and dance for me now and then, especially the cherry. One may think that this tea is just too confused, the flavors won’t stand out, it will be a muddled mess. Nope, its damn tasty, that is what it is and there is some sort of backdrop here, that just screams white wine. This is surely a tea to be chilled and guzzled in the summer and this tea blend will absolutely be gracing my shelf in the kitchen that hosts my summer stash, but right now I am quite enjoying this tea warm, and when warm, the liquor of this tea, which does have a liquor note in it, is almost reminiscent of a warmed brandy.

 You know, Georgia Tea Company is quickly becoming one of my favorite tea vendors, they ship quickly, they have good email follow up to let you know when your order is received, and shipped, and they offer some really intensely good tea blends. Their prices are more than fair, and their shipping is not bad at all at just 4.50 per order or free shipping for orders over 50.00 USD.
I have a healthy stash of their teas already to begin with but I can’t wait to try them all. I have yet to be let down from even one of their blends.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Della Terra Teas

Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Della Terra Teas
Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Della Terra Teas

Tea Information: 

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Della Terra Teas

Tea Description:

Pineapple, check.  Brown sugar, check.  Creamy butter, check.  Delicious cake, check.  What do we get…  Pineapple Upside Down Cake.  This tea starts off with a delicious tea base, and finishes off with a rich pineapple, brown sugar and creamy cake taste.  Absolutely one of our owners personal favorites!

Ingredients: Black tea, pineapple bits and flavor, cream flavor, cherry bits*

Allergens: contains dairy.

Suggested brewing tips

Serving Size: 1 level tsp./6oz serving

Water Temp:  210°F

Steep Time: 2-3 minutes

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I really can’t believe I have not reviewed Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Della Terra Teas yet! I absolutely love this tea. It is one of my top five favorites from Della Terra and let me tell you it is darn difficult to come up with a top five because they are all so very good! This tea is also one of my stash perma teas too. I always have to have some on hand.

It is so yummy, so sweetly perfect. When I first tried this tea, back when it was first released by Della Terra Teas, I remember being worried it would be too pineapple flavored. Not that I mind a pineapple tea but I really was not looking for a tropical flavor in Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I was not disappointed! I wanted a cakey tasting tea and oh boy this is it! This tastes more like cake flavored tea than any tea I have tasted that was supposed to taste like cake. The pineapple is juicy and sweet but not so overpowering that it takes on too much of a tropical flavor. There is a honeyed note or a syrup like note to it that reminds me of the drippings from sugared pineapple. The aroma is mouthwatering!

This is a very sweet tea so don’t fault it for that but it also is not cloying and does not have a lingering sickly sweetness in the mouth.  Another thing to love about this tea is the number of steeps you can get out of it. I was able to get six steeps from this leaf before it began to lose any flavor!

I am always impressed with Della Terra Teas and I am even more impressed by their customer service and amazing deals they offer on their Facebook page.

Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea

Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea
Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Oolong

Where to Buy: Teavivre 

Tea Description:

This Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin has a little of coffee’s flavor, which is suitable for who loves teas with coffee taste. You will sense a familiar fragrance of coffee for first sip, and after swallowing the liquid, a sweet aftertaste will quickly upwelling to your throat. As it is 85% fermented, this Tie Guan Yin will not become bitter even for a long time infusion. Dry tea leaves are brown and curly, has a smell of charcoal fire. The liquid is in golden yellow color, which truly feasts to the eyes.

Organic Roasted Oolong with Coffee Aroma

Organically produced near Zhangzhou(漳州) in Fujian, China.

Harvest Time: September, 2012

Hand made into small, rolled up leaves

Roasted, 85% fermented

Golden Yellow color, bright and clean liquid

Sweet and soft taste with coffee fragrance for first sip, long-last flavor, sweet aftertaste around throat

Low caffeine (less than 10% of a cup of coffee)

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The aroma of Organic Superfine Moderately Roasted Tie Guan Yin “Iron Goddess” Oolong Tea is milky and creamy, which is surprising since I was really anticipating a deeper roasted aroma. Regardless, I love a milky tea so if it tasted milky I would be fine with that. I decided to go ahead and let it steep for a couple more minutes since Iron Goddess does not get bitter with longer steeps. This seems to be the way to go because after two more minutes after an initial 2 minutes it became stronger, bolder, with a coffee like aroma and that roasted aroma I was expecting. I will later hate to try it with a shorter steep though as I am sure that milky aroma had something to it!

Finally, the first sip was delicious! I did initially get a little creaminess but the smokiness and roasted flavor took over. The tea is a bit sweeter than I had expected having it compared in the description to a coffee like flavor but I rather like it. It is robust, not as robust as some black teas but robust for an oolong.

While I really can see how this would be a great tea to serve to a coffee drinker I don’t want the tea drinkers out there who do not care for coffee to be afraid to give it a try. The quality of this tea is astounding, as are all of Teavivre’s teas and realistically nothing taste like coffee but coffee itself. This is clearly an excellent Iron Goddess, deep, roasty, and toasty, and the creamy texture of this tea on the mouth is really special.

Also this is a tea that keeps on giving. Even with my long five minute steep the first time around I can continue to keep on steepin! Following steeps have some interesting notes highlighted that bring about the thoughts of a green tea, such as green bean for example, but more like veggies that are fire roasted! So good! I love having this Iron Goddess with some milk chocolate, it really taste like s’mores between the creamy note in the tea and the smokiness with the toasty note, and of course the chocolate!

This tea has some serious NOM factor!