Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Lemon Lily
Tea Description:
Organic ingredients: Honeybush, cinnamon, ginger, hibiscus, Canadian Maple Flakes.
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Taster’s Review:
I had high hopes for this Avonlea Honeybush Tisane from Lemon Lily. I mean, cinnamon, ginger and maple together with the honeyed, nutty flavor of honeybush actually sounds pretty tasty. Even with hibiscus in there. But as I taste it, I’m finding myself disappointed by this.
I don’t like the combination of honeybush and hibiscus. This just isn’t working for me. You might think that the sweetness of the honeybush would help even out the tartness of the hibiscus, but the honeybush sweetness isn’t enough to soften the tartness of the hibiscus and the result is just a weird, funky taste.
And it’s a weird taste that even the warm spice of the cinnamon and ginger can’t offset. Even the maple – which is a favorite flavor of mine – even the maple does very little to improve the flavor here. In fact, I’m tasting relatively little maple flavor here. Very disappointing.
As it cools, this does taste better. The honeybush and hibiscus don’t seem to be battling it out to create that weird taste anymore, but the hibiscus is still too tart for my liking. It’s drinkable now and I don’t think I would have described it as such while it was hot.
Served hot, it’s a very weird cup of tea. As it cools, it becomes drinkable but it’s still quite tart and I find myself wishing the hibiscus wasn’t there.
I have enjoyed many of the teas that I’ve tried from Lemon Lily (thanks to not just one but two boxes from Postal Teas that has featured them), but this one just isn’t bringing a smile to my face.
French Canadian Maple Tea from Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our French Canadian Maple Black Tea is a classic blend of Ceylon and maple flavor resulting in a premium taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea had me with the very first sip. It is SO incredibly yummy.
The maple flavoring is perfect – it is sweet and a strong flavor but, I can also taste the black tea. It is a Ceylon black tea, so it is fairly mellow. With the addition of the maple flavoring what might otherwise be considered a medium-bodied tea becomes a rich, full-bodied tea.
That being said, this isn’t what I’d call an energizing type of tea. Instead, it is a cozy, comforting cup… a very pleasant tasting tea, it isn’t overly invigorating so it isn’t exactly the kind of tea you’d want to drink on the mornings when you need to get up and go.
Instead, I’d recommend this tea for the days you want to linger and curl up with a deliciously cozy cup of tea. Perfect for weekend mornings when you can take your time and savor this delicious maple flavor: It has that classic maple flavor that reminds me of maple sugar candy! There are complex nutty tones (chestnuts!) and a gentle warm spice note in the distance. YUM!
This is sweet without additions, but if you want something sweeter – a little bit of turbinado sugar will turn this into a delicious dessert-y treat in no time. This tea would also make a fantastic latte – just brew it a little stronger by adding a little extra leaf, and then add steamed, frothed milk to the brewed cup: it’s a creamy and indulgent way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Of course, if you want to amplify the maple flavor, you can also sweeten it with a drizzle of maple syrup.
As for me, I love this straight up – nothing added. It has an enjoyable sweetness to it that makes my sweet tooth happy without me needing to add calories to the cup. While this would be tasty as an iced tea, I prefer it hot, because the flavors have a very autumnal taste to them, and hot tea really plays to that cozy autumn-ness of the tea.
This is my first tea that I’ve sampled from this company, and I’m thrilled with it. I can definitely see a Tealicious Tea Company order in my future!
Canadian Ice Wine Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Our Canadian Ice Wine tea has a unique flavor. Grapes are left to fully ripen and then freeze before they are picked to make ice wine. Add a dash of sugar and have an organoleptic journey to the winter vineyards of Niagara. A delicious fresh and piquant white grape flavor with hints of exotic fruit that pleasantly lingers on the tongue. Made with all natural flavorings.
Taster’s Review:
I know that I’ve written about my gramma and her yard full of fruit. One fruit that she grew that I don’t think I’ve written about, though, is her grape vine. It wasn’t as prolific as her lemon tree or her apricot tree, but, the limited amount of fruit she did manage to harvest from it was very memorable. Those grapes were considered a great treat when they were harvested because there weren’t quite so many of them as the other fruit.
These weren’t the ordinary, store-bought variety of grapes. They had seeds in them, and the fruit was crisp and juicy with just a hint of sweetness to them. They were more tart than sweet. It was almost a pucker-y kind of tart, but just as I was about to pucker, the sweetness would arrive. They were very refreshing, bursting with grape flavor.
This Canadian Ice Wine Tea brings me back to those days and the flavor of those grapes. It has a crisp, bright flavor that is tart with just a hint of sweetness. It is a true grape flavor – not some cloyingly sweet, artificial grape taste that you might find in purple ice pops.
The black tea base is a brisk, black Ceylon tea. Mellow and smooth; it is not particularly strong. It does its job: providing a delicious background flavor. It has some astringency to it which plays well with the wine-like flavor.
I really have enjoyed this tea; it is a nice change from the typical sweet-fruit flavored teas out there. It’s remarkably refreshing – and it has this crisp, fresh taste to it that has really taken me by surprise. I like this! It makes a nice afternoon tea or, for a real treat – try it iced! When chilled this tea becomes much more wine-like in flavor. The grape flavor really emerges powerfully. Awesome!