Watermelon Oolong/Fraser Tea

Hello my fellow tea drinkers, I come with another of cup tea that offers a different experience than the normal oolong Tea experience. This tea features the completely natural flavor of watermelon. Which is indeed a feat for being that I am a lover of watermelons and melons, in general. I have had many teas and treats that feature a grossly overpowered artificial watermelon flavor. But I believe that this tea actually has captured the true essence of that summertime fruit.

The really interesting thing about this blend’s composition is that it features no watermelon at all. Now the reason is that watermelon is, of course, very hard to dry out. This blend’s ingredients are as follows; oolong, green tea, blueberries, coconut, mango, papaya, pineapples, lemongrass, osmanthus, and cornflowers. With all these flavors combined it is hard to believe that it tastes just like a cup of watermelon! With the first sip, you get that kick of sweet, refreshing watermelon and then the blend of oolong and green tea mellow it out while still carrying that flavor all the way through. I will also say that I was very skeptical of this blend for I have never been a fan of mango and papaya but I am happy to be surprised that my tastebuds can be fooled!

For the prices on this blend, for 12 sachets it is $8.98, for a 4-ounce loose leaf tin it is $11.95, 8 ounces $21.95, 12 ounces $28.95, and for 16 ounces it is $34.95. Now it does look there is a way on their site to get specific samples and I believe that you add the item designated as “samples” to your cart and in the “notes” section of the checkout then you list your desired teas. They also have specific tea blend samplers that features a handful of black teas to their rooibos tea blends.

To conclude, this tea great to drink cold or hot at any time of the year! It provides that watermelon flavor without being artificial. So if you are curious and want to try something a bit different I will give this blend a try, I certainly don’t regret it!

See you for the next cuppa!


Want to Know More About This Tea?

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy:  Fraser Tea

Description

A virtual summer picnic in your glass, Watermelon Oolong Organic Oolong Tea combines fresh berries and tropical fruit flavors together with lemongrass for a crisp and refreshing taste.  This superior grade organic oolong tea offers numerous nutritional benefits including weight management, diabetes management, and mental health.  Think wellness; embrace flavor.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

What’s Steepin’ from The Goat Tea. . . . .

Let’s be honest, the first thing that grabs you with this tea blend is literally the name of the tea company who sells it! The Goat Tea.  An unusual name but one very fitting for this amazing tea company.

The Goat Tea reached out to the SororiTea Sisters and asked if we would be interested in reviewing their teas.  After taking a moment to look at their site, I knew I had to learn more about this tea company.

First off, the logo.  The logo is fantastic! A goat. . .with a monocle. . . drinking tea. . . I mean,  how could you not? As someone whose parents used to raise goats, this whole idea of matching goats with tea just hits my heart and gives me all the feelings.  To learn more about how the name and logo came together,  check out this blog post and others about the journey.

Now on to the tea. . .The Goat Tea offers a few different and unique blends.  I’m quite obsessed with their line up right now and I’m trying to drink down some of my current stash so I can justify getting more of their tea.  (My current tea stash is literally in every nook and cranny of my kitchen and dining room area so I have made myself commit to drinking those delights first before getting any new ones.)

This particular blend of theirs is What’s Steepin’, a green tea blend.  Apples, rosehips, organic green tea, hibiscus, carrots, lime pieces, sea salt, stevia along with a few other inclusions make up this blend.  What first caught my eye was the orange pops of color from the carrots.  I love tea blends that push the boundaries of what normally is in a tea and with this tea having carrots in it, this blend fits that bill.

Brewed up with fresh prepped water per the package recommendations (212F), I allowed the tea to steep for right around 5 minutes.  All the while enjoying the fresh tart and lime aromas.  Once the tea cooled for a moment, I took a sip. This tea is sweet and for someone that doesn’t drink a whole lot of sweet teas, it reminded me instantly of candy.

The sweetness of this tea is definitely the first notes you get followed by this amazing watermelon and lime combination.  There is a subtle tartness you get here and there along with a lemony finish.  I can’t really say I taste any green tea in this blend but the green tea really isn’t the start- the inclusions are.

Now, the stevia in this blend is where I think a lot of the sweetness is coming into play and for someone who isn’t a fan of stevia, sadly, this tea prepped hot was just too sweet. I wish the stevia maybe was a bit less or not even in the blend at all, because the other flavors are amazing.

Since the tea blend prepped hot just wasn’t doing it for me, I decided to try a cold brew.  Cold brewed again, all those watermelon, lime, and tart flavors were fabulous, but the stevia sweetness was there too.

Overall, I absolutely dig this blend.  The watermelon lime combo has always been a favorite of mine and throw in some hibiscus and pomegranate, and you have yourself an amazing treat.  Throw in green tea and you have my heart! The only thing stopping me from really enjoying this tea is just the fact that I am not used to having stevia or sugar in my tea and the sweetness is a bit too much for me for an everyday drink.  For that time when I’m craving something sweet, this tea will absolutely do the trick.

If you haven’t checked out The Goat Tea, I highly encourage you to do so. I’m a big fan of tea companies that pay it forward and work with charities and currently, The Goat Tea is working with The St Francis Wolf Sanctuary and have a tea blend dedicated to the cause.  All proceeds from His MajesTEA Meeko will go to benefit this organization.

So even though this tea blend maybe wasn’t my absolute favorite, I’ll still enjoy this blend and am super excited to check out the rest of their offerings.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Green/Tisane
Where to Buy: The Goat Tea
Description

Steep this amazing creation of watermelon, basil and lime for a perfect cup of tea. Enjoy this exotic, but delicious, tea hot or cold.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Watermelon Lime Green Tea from The Tea Guys

watermelonlimebasilTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green Tea

Where to Buy:  The Tea Guys

Tea Description:

Sweet-as-candy watermelon is paired with the subtle peppery-sweet flavor of basil, and the spice of cracked pink peppercorns, all folded into a base of smoky green tea. The result is a sophisticated and refreshing cup that will surprise and delight you.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I really thought that Watermelon Lime and Basil Green Tea was an herbal that I was shocked  when I looked up the product page for this tea that it is actually a green. I saw nary a leaf in my sample package when brewing up this tea iced. I would feel bad that I used boiling water for my brews, but all I could see was chunks of dried fruit.

The chunks of fruit smelled absolutely yummy, though. It was like a lime popsicle married a fresh watermelon. It’s been getting hotter and hotter as summer begins to actually set in the rocky mountains. This tea is perfect for the oncoming heat wave. Tossing the big ‘ole chunks into my infuser, I came across something I have yet to encounter in any tea, seeds! Like, legit dried watermelon or pumpkin seeds. I have yet to see the merit of these seeds in the taste of the infusion, but I may be missing something subtle that my tastes buds just cannot catch.

When the tea cools, I taste a pool party in my mouth. The lime popsicle is joined by a watermelon Jolly Rancher that takes me back to the playground. Some people may be put off by the candy like flavor that dominates this tea, but I am all for it. I love iced teas that taste like candy. It’s pretty much Kool-aid without the calories. Sometimes a person just needs juice tea!

Despite being mislabeled as a true tea and not delivering, I enjoyed this icy cold brew a lot more than I thought I would. The seeds did not deter me from relishing in the watermelon-y goodness.

Honey, I Dew White from DAVIDsTEA

Honey I dewTea Information:

Leaf Type:  White

Where to Buy:  DAVIDsTEA

Tea Description:

In Vietnam, melons are a sign of good luck. In Chinese medicine, they’re said to help cool the body down. Around here, we think they’re just about the tastiest fruit around – especially when you pair them with fresh, delicate white tea. With fruity hints of pineapple and mango, this melon-packed blend is refreshing, juicy and naturally sweet. The best part? This tea was named by our customers! Is there anything they can’t dew?

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

It’s very refreshing to see another permanent white tea blend on the DAVIDsTEA walls; I’ve been complaining for months about the dwindling amount of permanent white teas – I’ve even suffered some losses that were more emotional than I’d care to admit (Coconut Grove, Sweet Strawberry, and Big Apple…). At least a lot of seasonal blends for Spring featured a white base, and one of the Mother’s Day blends as well.

And not going to lie, the fact this was named by DT’s customers (and has such a cute name) is really appealing as well; I find I’m definitely more drawn in to wanting to try a tea when it has a unique name, even if the ingredients/flavor pairings aren’t that unusual. Let us put an end to the “Earl Grey Creams” and “Jasmine Greens” that every company seems to have a version of; give yours a neat name, and make it stand out!

I’m doing this one iced; yes, iced and not cold brewed. I don’t often have the means to do iced tea because I don’t actually have ice at my place. We don’t own an ice tray, and I don’t have the freezer space in my little apartment for larger bags of ice. I know it could be easily remedied by buying an ice cube tray but I always forget; so iced tea is a special treat for me provided by being in the right place (err, chef’s kitchen) at the right time.

My initial thought when I tried this was of Trident’s Watermelon Twist gum – the sugary, candy sweet watermelon top notes were pretty identical. I was expecting something both more mellow and, based on the name, more in the line of Honeydew so I was a little taken aback but once I got accustomed to the taste I found it really enjoyable. Contrasting that, the tail of the sip was a lot more natural tasting once the sweetness has subsided, and definitely a lot more honey dew than watermelon. I like the layers of melon that this one has. Almost like Trident Layers? That’s a bad pun, sorry.

The body of the sip is interesting too; somewhere in between where the watermelon eases up and the honeydew takes over there are a lot of very strong apple notes and some very vague mango and pineapple notes. I’d say they mostly create a tropical fruit vibe rather than make an impact as unique, stand-alone flavors though.

This was really enjoyable, and I think quite different from any other white blend that DT is currently offering, let alone any of their current blends. I really, really like the way they do Honeydew flavors; I’m thinking in particular of Honeydew Mate and Cool Cucumber (two seasonal blends). I loved both quite a bit (I still have some Cool Cucumber), and they definitely honed in on that awesome honeydew flavor. While DT’s watermelon can get too sweet or artificial, honeydew is a flavor they have successfully nailed. If you’re a fan of either of those two blends I absolutely 100% recommend giving this one a shot.

Watermelon Barley Herbal Tea from Lupicia

WatermelonbarleyTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal

Where to Buy: Lupicia USA

Tea Description:

Aromatic six-rowed barley produced in Japan flavored with fresh watermelon. Limited flavor just for summer.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Tis the season of iced tea and delicious summer fruit! Nothing says ‘summer’ to me quite like mugicha (which is roasted barley tea, traditionally sipped on iced as cold as my heart.) and fresh, sweet, and messy watermelon. Lupicia’s Watermelon Barley tea sounded almost too good to be true on their website, I just had to bite. I’m hoping that the hype I have built up in my brain lives up to this fantasy blend.

The combination of roasted and toasted barley with fresh and juicy watermelon sounds like it could be either really great, or really awful. The only way is to drink this tea and find out!

Upon opening the bag, the sachets inside are large and offer a tiny hint of what I am about to brew. The main scent on first whiff was the roasted grain smell, rich and full. Cloyingly sweet in the background is the fruity watermelon. I didn’t let myself investigate further, I was dying to sink my teeth into the brew. I attempted the cold brew in 2 cups of cold water for 4 hours, simply out of laziness. This resulted in the toasty flavor of the barley becoming a little too overpowering for the watermelon to handle. I could only taste a whisper, it might as well have been regular old mugicha.

The next day I wanted to make it right. I knew it was just a user error on my end, and I needed this tea to taste differently than it had when I brewed it cold. So, I used one pyramid type bag in 16oz. of freshly boiled water. Steeped for 5 minutes then chilled in the refrigerator. When I brought it out the next morning and huffed the liquid, I was met with a satisfyingly sweet smell. The watermelon! Drinking it throughout the day was greatly refreshing. The watermelon was so very melon-y, juicy, thirst quenching. It leans on the side of becoming candy-like in flavor, but stays true to the actual fruit. The barley is still the forefront, but not obnoxiously so. The brew as a whole tastes like grilled watermelon, in a good way. (which is a great thing to try for your next barbeque, by the way!) Probably my new favorite go to easy iced tea for the summer!