Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Learn more about Tea of Life and Amazon Teas here.
Tea Ingredients:
Organic White Tea and Organic Blackberry Pieces with Blackberry Flavor.
Taster’s Review:
I am usually someone who turns my nose up at bagged tea. That’s because I find that the bagged tea is usually inferior to loose leaf. However, I must say that the teas that I’ve been tasting from Tea of Life have been really impressive. And these are sacheted teas!
And the latest tea that I’ve tasted from Tea of Life is this Organic White Tea Blackberry. This is really, REALLY good. The blackberry flavor is really well defined and doesn’t taste artificial. It tastes like I ate a fresh blackberry – bursting with juicy flavor! – every time I take a sip. Sweet, true to the fruit flavor. Delicious!
And the sweet, delicate, somewhat earthy quality of the white tea marries nicely with the abundant blackberry flavor. They are balanced well – with enough blackberry flavor so that there’s no doubt what I’m tasting, but, not so much that it tastes like blackberry punch and not tea. I can taste the white tea here.
I received this tea sachet as part of the Organic Teas Natural Tea Pyramids gift package. The description of this tea gift package in the Tea of Life brochure says this:
A beautifully packed gift of tea. Contains 4 different Organic teas in biodegradable pyramid tea bags which are individually packed in pyramid shape boxes.
This is a really fun tea gift! The tea sachets are packaged very elegantly in slender pyramids, and there are four different teas (a black tea, a green tea, this white tea, and a rooibos blend) – something like this would be ideal for someone who is new to exploring tea, or would also be great for travel.
A really yummy tea!
Lemon Meringue Tisane from Trail Lodge Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Honeybush
Where to Buy: Trail Lodge Tea
Tisane Description:
This is truly a classic tea! It makes a great hot or iced tea. We have finally found the perfect lemon tea. This one has a mild and smooth lemon flavor with a hint of creaminess, reminiscent of lemon meringue pie. It is naturally caffeine free. Ingredients: Rooibos, Green Rooibos, Honeybush, Lemon Bits, Calendula and Cornflower Petals, and Flavoring.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This Lemon Meringue Tisane from Trail Lodge Teas is easily one of the better Lemon Meringue Pie teas/tisanes that I’ve tasted. It’s totally YUM!
The base is a combination of red (or oxidized) rooibos, green (or non-oxidized) rooibos, and honeybush. I think that this is a winning combination. I’m not big on rooibos, but, when they’re combined with the honeybush, this seems to soften that sometimes “funky” taste that goes along with rooibos. And since green rooibos is much better tasting than red rooibos … this brings out the fruity character to the rooibos rather than that woodsy/nutty flavor. Nice! The honeybush still offers some of that sweet honey-esque tone and just a hint of nutty taste that accentuates the “pie-like” quality of this tisane.
The lemon is a softer, sweeter lemon, much like the creamy curd filling of a lemon meringue pie. I taste notes of vanilla too, and this brings a meringue-like quality to the cup. And every once in a while, I could swear I taste just a hint of butter that seems to imitate a pie crust like flavor together with the nutty tones of the honeybush.
This blend works together so well. Sweet, lemon-y goodness! A nice dessert-y treat that you can enjoy any time of the day … you can even make it a late night snack since it’s naturally caffeine free!
Little Litchi Raspberry Black Tea Blend from Utopia Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Utopia Tea
Tea Description:
Sweet, grape-like litchi berries combined with red raspberries, and fruity Keemun (“Chinese famous black tea”) produce a brisk and sweet cup that is thoroughly satisfying. Black tea contains a large amount of antioxidant compounds called polyphenols that aid in fighting harmful diseases while protecting the body. Black tea is also known to strengthen the immune system, lower cholesterol, and protect teeth and bones. Small amounts of calcium, manganese, and potassium have also been found in black tea. This is one to enjoy hot or over ice!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have to admit that if I were shopping on the Utopia Tea website, this is not a tea I would have selected for myself. I like Litchi teas (or Lychee teas … or however one chooses to spell it!) but, I don’t usually get overly excited about them because sometimes they can be just … a bit too much, and because of that, I don’t generally buy them for myself.
Fortunately, this Little Litchi Raspberry Black Tea Blend from Utopia Tea has a nice balance of raspberry and Litchi fruit so the Litchi doesn’t come off as “weird” or off-putting. The raspberry offsets the distinctive flavor of the Litchi … providing a really tasty treat for the taste buds!
There is a distinct tart note to this cup, and if I didn’t read the ingredient list on the package before I tasted it, I would have guessed that there is hibiscus in this one. It doesn’t really taste overtly hibiscus-y, but, it does have that tart note from the hibiscus and that’s what I’m tasting here.
But, the hibiscus works within this blend. The Keemun black tea base is a robust black base, and I like the way it melds with the hibiscus and the other flavors. The Keemun has a slight smoky note to it … it’s faint, but it’s there. There is more of a wine-like character to this Keemun than a smoked note, and I think that the wine-y quality works well with the raspberry and litchi (and the hibiscus!)
Overall, the flavor is sweet and tart and very nicely round. There are nice layers of flavor. It doesn’t come off as too tart, or too sweet. It isn’t bitter or overly astringent. It’s really quite pleasant … and this is one that’s tasty hot or iced!
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.
Organic Jasmine Pearl Scented Green Tea from Teahouse Kuan Yin
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teahouse Kuan Yin
Tea Description:
These hand-rolled pearls contain pure tips of silvery spring tea scented with jasmine. Our Jasmine Pearl brews a more fragrant and complex cup than our Yin Hao, and it is beautiful to watch the pearls unfurl during the steeping process. Ours is IMO-certified organic.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love a good Jasmine Tea … and this Organic Jasmine Pearl Scented Green Tea from Teahouse Kuan Yin is definitely a good Jasmine Tea!
First of all – I LOVE that it’s organic! I love that it’s a scented Jasmine. A few days ago, I had a dreadful encounter with a Jasmine tea that was not scented but instead flavored … and there is a difference! I know I’ve talked about the difference here on this blog before, but for those of you who haven’t read my rant about the difference: basically, a scented jasmine is a tea that has been properly jasmine-ified (yes, it’s a word, I just made it up) … that is to say, the jasmine scent/flavor was achieved by layering the tea leaves with fresh jasmine blossoms, allowing their heady essence to absorb into the leaves naturally. A flavored jasmine, on the other hand, is a tea that has been flavored/scented with a jasmine oil. The result of this process creates a tea that tastes more like perfume than like tea. And it’s just plain nasty.
But this Organic Jasmine Pearl Scented Green Tea from Teahouse Kuan Tin was NOT flavored … it was scented! The leaves were layered with the jasmine flowers! That’s the way to do it! The result is a tea that is pleasantly flavored with the natural essence of jasmine and not a perfume-y substitute. It is beautifully floral.
The green tea tastes lightly vegetative, and melds beautifully with the floral notes. A lovely, contemplative cup. If you like a good jasmine tea … this is one you should try.