Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Green, Roiboos, Etc.
Where to Buy: TeaLyra
Tea Description:
Imagine bowls full of juicy plump cherries, a summer breeze and easy living, ahh, a Cherry Fantasy! Top quality black tea provides the perfect base to our favourite cherry black tea! We think our blend has the best combination of both sour cherries, and sweet acerola cherries, offering a truly balanced cherry flavour! This brews a robust black cup, with bright cherry notes and a subtle ginger flavour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Cherry Fantasy Tea from TeaLyra is the tea of the day filling my cup! Right off the bat I will tell you that I am overjoyed this doesn’t have hibiscus in it! I find that hibiscus is overdone in fruity teas like cherry for example and often power the rest of the flavor. So…thumbs up…already!
Black tea, sour cherries, freeze-dried Acerola cherries, freeze-dried fig pieces, and freeze-dried sour cherry pieces are the ingredients of this tea. I love that they used freeze-dried fruit in this, too!
Cherry Fantasy Tea from TeaLyra is nicely done and can be enjoyed hot or cold as-is. The Cherry Trio is at the prefect flavor intensity. I have to say that this is one of the best (if not THE best) cherry flavored black teas I have had to date! This one really surprised me and I am very happy about that! If you are a fan of natural cherry give this tea a try!
Butterscotch Potion White Tea Blend by Tealyra
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White blend.
Where to Buy: Tealyra
Tea Description:
The delicious sweet creaminess of butterscotch that is popular the world over now melts seamlessly into your favourite tea! Exclusively blended by Tealux’s expert tea artisans and not available to buy from anywhere else, Butterscotch Potion is certified organic.
Light and delicate organic white tea forms the base of the blend, melting into mid-notes of spicy pink peppercorn and cinnamon and balancing out the sweet, creamy top notes of marigold and natural butterscotch flavoring. The natural sweetness of butterscotch is perfectly complemented by the deep but never overpowering spiciness of pepper and cinnamon. Producing a light gold-coloured infusion when steeped in hot water, Butterscotch potion is the perfect naturally sweet treat for any time of the day.
Ingredients: Organic White Tea, Organic Cinnamon, Organic Pink Peppercorn, Organic Marigolds, Natural Flavors
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Let me start by clearing something up from what I understand. Originally I bought this tea from Tealux which is a well known tea company across Europe and America and for good reason. However, when I went to get the information and links for this review I found that they have since changed their name. So Tealux does not exist any more and is instead replaced by Tealyra as of the start of October 2015. We are ensured that the company itself is remaining the same in regards to suppliers and blends for what it has to offer, but that the head office has decided to change their name which in turn changes the name of the company and ergo the website. This means that even though my bag says Tealux on it that any orders under the new name of Tealyra will contain the same blend but in a different bag. With this new information dealt with lets get down to the review.
Butterscotch is a pudding I remember well from my school days and thinking about it again has put a smile on my face. For anyone that has not tried butterscotch before the best way I can describe it’s flavour is a mixture of toffee, caramel, treacle and cream all in one delicious goo. A tall order for a tea but I’m excited to try it non the less.
Upon opening the packet I am met with a large leaf and floral blend, which was not quite as I imagined it somehow. I was expecting pieces of butterscotch in the blend to create the flavour, instead we have ‘natural flavours’ in their place to create a synthetic version. With that in mind I give it a sniff, and while it’s sweet (and again floral) it just is not butterscotch like. It does smell creamy and well it’s still a pleasant scent but not quite right.
This will be interesting! I put two teaspoons of leaf (as it’s large leaf) into my steeping mug with 90C water for roughly 3-4 minutes.
The resulting tea liquid is golden brown in colour and bares a sweet scent that actually does resemble butterscotch rather well. Less floral than it’s raw blend form but not as creamy or thick as actual butterscotch.
In terms of flavour this is very pleasant, a dark, toffee and treacle mix (without a lot of sweetness) with some creamy, floral undertones that linger in the after taste. It’s not bitter but I think the flavours would be enhanced a bit better with some sugar or honey, just to make it more butterscotch like. Even without anything extra it still does have a butterscotch essence and though it may not be perfect it’s still very well created.
As it cools it becomes creamier and a little thicker in the after taste, particularly the floral tones. At this point I can taste the white tea a little better and it’s also becoming increasingly dry.
Overall I would say this blend lives up to it’s name. It’s butterscotch enough to please the nostalgia of my youth for little to no calories in the process. Both of those facts make this blend a winner.
Citron Potion Oolong Tea from Tealyra
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Tealyra
Tea Description:
One of our most popular flavored teas, Citron Potion is a special blend of supreme jasmine scented oolong that has been cured with rare jasmine blossoms, a unique blend of herbs and a combination of refreshing citrus fruits. This organic oolong tea will quickly become a favorite with the pick me up natural orange oil, hint of organic lemon myrtle and the unmistakable rare flavor and aroma of the jasmine flower.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was a little worried about the tea leaf to ‘other stuff ratio when I opened the package of Citron Potion Oolong from Tealyra. I saw nary a leaf compared to the intense amount of jasmine flowers. The package smelled amazing though, and I made to pick out enough loosely rolled oolong leaves as possible. The style of oolong looked to be a baozhong. Those are among my favorite types of oolong, so I was hopeful about this brew.
Wanting to allow the leaves to do some crazy expansion, I loading 5g of tea into my gravity steeper, and doused it with 190 degree water. To my surprise, I watched the seemingly small amount of tea leaf expand to fill over half of the gravity steeper. The leaves were large and entirely uncut. Huh. Happy to see the expansion of the leaf, I got excited to try the brew. Phew!
The steeped leaf is quite fleshing and light. Tasting the tea, I can easily recognize the bouquet of floral notes that the oolong lays out for me. Roses, peony, and lilies. They are complimented by the sweetness of the orange oil, which probably takes the cake for the topmost note in this tea. I am having a had time finding the jasmine flower essence in this tea. Perhaps the flowers are just a carrier for the orange flavoring. Either way, I am pretty happy with how this tea came out.
I tried this tea two ways, brewed hot, and cold brewed in a large jug. Both methods produce a silky mouthfeel and really great and strong oolong-y flavors and citrus. This is going to be a great summer tea to get me through the dog days of summer! That is, if it ever gets warm again, it’s been so cold and rainy in the Mile High City lately! I’m wearing gloves to type this review, my fingers are freezing. This tea makes me wistful for summer, one day it will come, right? Right??
