Orange and Papaya from Tea Shirt

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy: Tea Shirt

Tea Description:

Orange and Papaya from Tea Shirt

Flavoured Green Tea

Ingredients: green tea (60%), lemon grass, apple pieces, freeze-dried apple pieces, orange slices, mango flakes, papaya flakes, flavouring.

Preparation: Use one teaspoon of loose leaf tea per person.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Orange and Papaya flavored green tea from Tea Shirt had my interest right away. I mean orange, papaya, and green tea? How could this blend be anything but amazing?

When I received the tea, I was surprised by how big the fruit chunks are in it.The picture is exactly what you get.  Huge chunks of mango, papaya, and orange peel along with apple pieces. Really lovely to look at and amazing to smell. Very rich in citrus and tropical notes.

I scooped a few heap fulls into my infuser and cold brewed this tea. With how muggy the summer has been lately, I wanted this tea to be a nice iced cold brew.

I let the tea cold brew overnight and tried it in the morning. I was hoping that those gorgeous chunks of fruit and lovely green tea leaves would produce an amazing treat for my taste buds. And it did just that!

The green tea gives a lovely buttery base that the orange and papaya flavors compliment nicely.  Each flavor takes its time in the spotlight and there isn’t one flavor that overwhelms. Simple yet lovely.  Lush Orange notes mingling with the tropical hints from the mango and papaya.  A really nice refreshing take on a citrus tropical iced tea for the summer or really for anytime!

Well done Tea Shirt!

 

 

Sugar Plum Fairy from Simpson & Vail

SugarPlumFairyTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal

Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail

Tea Description:

This green rooibos blend is caffeine free and is sure to be enjoyed by young and old alike. The reddish amber cup imparts a fruity, heady aroma. It has an interesting complex flavor that is a perfectly balanced blend of fruity, sweet and exotic.

Like the Sugar Plum Fairy herself, this herbal blend has an elegant taste that is sure to become a classic.

Ingredients: Organic green rooibos, organic whole cloves, rosehips, hibiscus, sweet blackberry leaf, flavorings, vanilla beans, mallow blossoms and raspberry pieces.

Brew tea at 212º – steep for 5 minutes.

Caffeine Free. Certified Kosher

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

When you think of Sugar Plum Fairies, you instantly think of Christmas time, but I have to say, this tea is marvelous for any time of the year!

This gorgeous herbal tea is a mixture of green rooibos, cloves, rosehips, hibiscus, blackberry leaf, mallow blossoms, vanilla, raspberry pieces, and natural flavorings.  A unique blend of ingredients for sure. I took one whiff of the dry mix and I wasn’t sure this would be a tea I would enjoy. The clove was a bit on the overpowering side but this is Simpson & Vail, I have to try all of their teas!

Brewed this up like a herbal with fresh boiled water and allowed to steep for about 5 minutes. The tea had a lovely gorgeous red color that made me just smile. I allowed the tea to cool for a few moments and took a sip. After taking my first sip, I promptly put my feet up and grabbed the book I was reading. This tea is one of those soothing teas that just make you feel warm and loved.  The green rooibos provides a lovely honey base that the other flavors can bounce off of while the clove provides a warming sensation and a kick of spice, the hibiscus delivers a slight tart flavor while the vanilla bean leads itself to the sweetness that the ingredient is known for. All of that from the first sip. Really well done tea and one that does not disappoint.

I loved this tea so much that I thought the tea needed to be an iced tea. So I brewed the tea up stronger than I normally would and then poured the hot tea over iced and added in a few orange wedges and limes into my mason jar glass.  Thru a straw in it and I was set with a gorgeous looking brew.  The taste was still as good if not better than when I had it hot. The flavors seemed to be deeper giving a lovely almost punch like flavor.

If you are looking for a lovely herbal tea to share during the upcoming summer months, I encourage you to check this one out. I’ll be serving it for sure! Perfect for any tea parities as well!

 

Mango Sticky Rice Genmaicha from 52Teas

52teas3_1430856114__73092Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy: 52Teas

Tea Description:

Green teas, popped rice, mango, toasted coconut, toasted sesame seeds and all-natural flavors

This tea is no longer available but check out the amazing teas available now from 52Teas.

Taster’s Review:

Alright, raise your hand if you backed 52Teas Kickstarter.  Now keep your hand raised if you picked the Mango Sticky Rice Genmaicha as one of your teas for the incentive. . . .if your hand is still raised, consider yourself one of the lucky ones!!

This tea is simply amazing, bright, and full of vibrant flavors.  A tea that completely took me surprise by how much I liked it and one that I’m sad to say that I will not be able to buy more of unless this is a reblend.

Anne of 52Teas has been hitting it out of the park lately.  Such creative and unique blends. I think each time I try a new blend I declare that blend to be my new favorite and I’m about ready to do it again.

Brewed up with the directions on the canister, this tea is a gorgeous blend of mango, coconut, and genmaicha with a slight toasted sweetness that I will not forget anytime soon.   First sip in after brewing and allowing the tea to cool, you get that mango sweetness mixed with a slightly toasted note and an element of tartness here and there.  I am not a huge fan of coconut in teas, but in this tea, it just helps give an added depth that I just adore! The coconut helps the mango provide this really lovely unique fruity flavor that just mixes with that toasted goodness.

Highly highly highly recommend this tea. I’ve had it cold brewed, hot, and iced and each session delivered an amazing flavor that my hubby and I just gobbled up. We adore this tea and can’t get enough of it. This might be of those teas that I beg Anne to make more of! It was that good.

Another amazing tea!

 

Chalmun’s CanTeana from Geeky Teas

ChalmunsTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal

Where to Buy: Geeky Teas

Tea Description:

Beware: you may find yourself buying the death star steeper and watching your boyfriend drink your entire stash in his Darth Vader mug before you’ve had your third cup.

What little I’ve managed to steal back from him has been excellent. Any tea with rose gets a high five, and the inclusion of apple pieces is a rare (delightful) find.

Taster’s Review:

Geeky Teas is one of my favorite places to go on the internet.  I am so sad that I live so far away from Donna’s actual store.  I swear I would be there all the time.  But at least I get to visit online and enjoy the fandom geeky love that is being offered to geeks like myself in the form of tea blends.

I’ve reviewed Geeky Teas before both on SororiTea Sisters and CuppaGeek.  The teas are either hit or miss for me, but when they hit they are marvelous and typically when they miss, with a bit of tweaking they would be superstars. But let’s start by saying this- Donna’s love of tea and of her clients makes her one of my favorite companies to purchase products from.  I can’t get over how much she has listened to my comments and made slight changes here and there.  She has really taken what I’ve said (& others) to heart and made huge improvements.  You can’t ask for a better company to work with than Geeky Teas.

Let’s chat about the blend.  I love my Star Wars.  Anything with Star Wars I’m all over.  When my son told me he wanted to be Jango Fett (yes Jango!) I felt I had done well as a parent.  (Ha!) So when I came across this blend, I couldn’t wait to pick up a sample and see what it was all about.

Brewed up like an herbal tea, this herbal concoction has quite an array of inclusions.  The dry mixture didn’t have much of an aroma to it.  I steeped the tea in my Death Star Infuser (yep, told you.  Love Star Wars).   I allowed the tea to steep for about 6 minutes in fresh boiled water. As I was about to take my first sip, I was hoping I would get a marvelous herbal aroma from the fresh brewed tea, but I still didn’t really pick any one particular note.

Took that first sip and sad to say, this blend just doesn’t do it for me.  I really didn’t pick up any one particular flavor profile or not.  I mainly noted a muddy like herbal flavor.  I could get a hint of a flavor here or there but by the time I noted it, the flavor has faded.  Sadly this blend may not be for me, but to be fair- I did get a sample of this and the pieces looked to be pretty small.  I’m wondering if maybe my tea sample was crushed by being in my tea stash, which could explain the muddy flavor.  I have a feeling that is what happened.  I would be more than willingly to try the tea again. I think it has the promise to be fabulous. Just need to work thru a few more teas before I can make an order.

If you haven’t checked out Geeky Teas and you are a fandom sort of person, I encourage you to check out Geeky Teas’s offerings of over 40 different fandom teas!

Black Tea from Naveya Tea

NaveyaFitnessBlackTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy: Naveya Tea

About Naveya Tea:

Our fitness tea select best 100% natural detox tea,using flowers and teas to heal your body and soul.We promise all of our ingredients are renowned for their positive effects on metabolism and detoxification.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I drank this tea the other day after having their Jasmine Tea which was very good and a solid green jasmine tea.  I had high expectations for this one.  This is a straight black tea.  Their site that has recently been revamped to market their line of teas as Fitness Teas has quite a nice assortment of teas to choose from.  I was glad they sent me this tea and the Jasmine Tea to try.

Brewed this up like a black tea but errored on the side of caution and went with a 2 min steeping time.  I didn’t want to oversteep this one.  The dry leaves of this tea had a very nice robust malty aroma that I didn’t want to turn bitter.

Let this cool for a few minutes and took my first sip.  This tea was delicious and hit the spot.  There is just the right amount of malty notes to company the full bodied taste that you get each and every sip.  Even as this tea cooled in my traveler mug, I didn’t get any bitterness hitting me or even strong astringent notes.  Each sip was a smooth refreshing almost silky like black tea that I found myself wanting more of.

Since my first experience with this tea, I’ve had it a few more times and each time this tea is spot on.  So good! I really like this and I am one that likes to take a black tea with me along with my water bottle for my hour drive to take the kids to school and me to work.

My only issue is that they are marketing this as a fitness tea and that seems to be the new craze lately.  I read in a Vogue article that we wold be seeing more and more of that this year.  I don’t have a problem with companies marketing their teas as fitness teas at all.  As long as there are disclaimers were they need to be.  Like I said in my review of the jasmine tea.  I just really liked the look of their older site with the beautiful floral arrangements and tea pots galore.  Those kind of sites are what attract my attention.  When I see the site now, it gives me two feelings.  1) I need to go work out and 2) Guilty for not working out. Again, no issue here with them marketing their teas however they want.  I just think the tea enthusiasts out there would like the previous site just a bit better.

Regardless, they make some amazing teas!