Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Honeybush
Where to Buy: Tea Forté
Product Description:
A tropical oasis of lush citrus with refreshing notes of spearmint and the natural sweetness of high-mountain grown South African rooibos. Your purchase helps protect fragile ecosystems.
Ingredients: organic honeybush, organic spearmint leaves, organic orange peel, organic rooibos, organic sunflower petals, natural flavors
Taster’s Review:
This tisane from Tea Forté is part of the “Herbal Retreat” collection – a beautifully boxed set of elegant pyramid sachets or “single steeps.” What’s a single steep, you ask? Well, not long ago, I reviewed one of my favorite tea products of all time, the KATI tumbler. The single steeps were made to go along with the KATI tumbler, and they are loose leaf teas and tisanes that are packaged with just the right amount of tea in each package for a single steep in the KATI tumbler. I love these single steeps because they offer the ultimate convenience with no measuring and no fuss, but I still get to enjoy the quality of loose leaf tea. And you can be sure the next time I’m planning a trip, I am going to get myself some of these single steeps so that I can bring loose leaf with me and not have to settle for those horrible tea bags provided by the hotel.
But I digress… I’m supposed to be telling you more about this Mojito Marmalade. This is a rooibos/honeybush blend. The aroma of the dry leaf has a pleasant minty note and a citrus-y tone. I can smell nutty hints from the rooibos and honeybush as well, but these aren’t as strong as the orange and spearmint.
The brewed liquor is sweet with a tangy orange flavor. What’s really interesting to me is that this really does taste like marmalade. It has that candied orange peel taste to it. The taste is so spot-on that I can almost feel the texture of the marmalade as I sip this.
While spearmint can be a very dominating flavor, I like that here it is more of an accent flavor rather than the main focus. That is not to say that the flavor of the mint is muted – not at all! But, it isn’t so aggressive that it overpowers the sweet marmalade-y taste that I’m enjoying.
The rooibos and honeybush are tastes that are less apparent, and I sometimes catch myself trying to taste it. There are faint notes of sweet, nutty tones, and there is a slight woody tone toward the finish. The aftertaste is sweet with a tart citrus note. It even tingles a little bit on the tongue!
This just may be my favorite tisane from Tea Forté to date. It’s really delicious!
Champagne Mojito Green Tea from 52Teas available from iHeartTeas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: iHeartTeas
Product Description:
Fresh cut spearmint in a blend with sweet Chinese Sencha green tea infused with the essence of key lime and champagne.
Taster’s Review:
Recently, 52Teas announced their “Rescued from Retirement” program which enables other companies to bring back some of their blends. I was thrilled with the prospect of being able to try some of 52Teas blends that were released before I “discovered” the company. This Champagne Mojito is the perfect example. Released the week of April 5, 2009 – about seven months before my first order with 52Teas – this was a tea I probably would not have been able to try if it were not for the Rescued from Retirement program.
And I’m really glad I got to try it, because it is yummy. The green tea base is a Chinese Sencha that is sweet and a little creamy/buttery. It has a fresh taste but not very vegetative, and in the case with this particular tea, I think that is a good thing. I think that a more vegetative tasting green tea would interfere with the delicate taste of the champagne.
These ingredients compliment each other very well. I find that the crisp, clean taste of the spearmint brings out some of the sweeter notes of the lime, complimenting the sweet, delicate features of the champagne. The lime is zesty with just enough tart flavor to cut through some of the mintier tones of the spearmint. It doesn’t taste too minty, it doesn’t taste too tart, and it doesn’t taste too sweet. It is a very pleasing harmony of flavors. This is delicious served hot, but, it is even better when iced. It is incredibly refreshing and thirst-quenching.
Many thanks to Rachel from iHeartTeas for bringing this one out of retirement. This tea appears to be sold out at her Tea Trade store, but, she has many other excellent teas from 52Teas available.
