Around this time every year, I get a craving for berries. Fresh, bright, juicy and sweet– I don’t know if it’s subliminal marketing towards pinks and reds from all the Valentine’s Day goodness floating around in the month of February or the sheer ferocity of Midwestern cabin fever (let me eat a plant that doesn’t taste like water just once, PLEASE), but the craving just keeps getting stronger and stronger. So when I noticed this tea sitting in my stash, I was almost surprised that something promising bright, juicy berry flavors had even lasted this long into the winter!
The dry leaf is pretty innocuous, mostly homogenous leaves with a fairly traditional black tea scent. When brewed, it’s a nice dark and roasty golden that takes nicely to honey. I can’t say that I’m picking out too much of the vibrancy of fruit flavors that I was hoping for, but rather a more mellow, subdued freshness to balance the black that is pretty pleasant. Maybe my desire for magical flavors to transport me right back to summer had my hopes a little too high, but for a flavored black, it’s got some interesting notes with light and fresh notes coming out as I sip further. A lovely one to sip as we count down the days until spring (41, but who’s counting?!) (Me. I’m totally counting.)!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Mountain Witch Tea Company
Description
It’s so hard to find strawberry tea! So we made our own. Our Alpine Strawberry tea is a sweet, tart delight made with black tea, strawberry leaves and our special Alpine strawberry flavor. Great hot or iced.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Passion Dragon Green Tea from Mountain Witch Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Description:
Passion Dragon Green Tea is one of our bestsellers at the farmer’s market. Green tea flavored with passion fruit, lemon and a pop of spice. Especially great as an iced tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Being such a fan of Mountain Witch Tea Company, I couldn’t wait to try another green tea of theirs. I have had a couple in the past but have found that I tend to like their flavored black teas better than their flavored green teas.
First off, I love the logo for this tea. The beautiful artwork is so fun and really eye catching. The loose leaf tea is the same way. The gorgeous green tea looks amazing along side the giant chrysanthemum that was in my sample.
Brewed up like a green tea, this tea sent a lovely tropical green tea aroma thru my desk. I really loved how this tea smelled. First taste and sadly this tea is not for me.
This tea delivers on a nice bright green tea flavor but there is an odd taste in there that makes this tea tart and not taste right to me. I’m not getting lovely buttery notes or any of the berry/passion flavors. I pick up the lemon and the cardamom and something else I can’t really put my finger on. What I can really pick up on is how very astringent this tea is. This tea may be one that needs to be cold brewed or enjoyed more as an iced tea to get those flavors to mingle together and give that passion fruit a chance to pop. Another one that I might need to go back and experiment with.
As much as I adore Mountain Witch Tea Company, I know this tea can be dynamite. Just need to figure out the best way to get those flavors to work for me.
Maui Mango Tea from Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our Maui Mango black tea will wow you with amazing mango flavor and real dried mango chunks. This tropical delight is great hot or iced.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow is it hot today. Like crazy smoldering hot. The kind of hot that makes you feel icky and gross as soon as you step outside. So today is a stay inside and catch up on projects sort of day. Oh and drink lots of tea. So that is my new plan. Drink lots of tea and do some reviews.
I thought this would be a good one to start with. The dry leaves had a nice sweet mango fragrance that just called to be made up like an iced tea. So that is exactly what I did. Brewed this up like I would a traditional black tea (212F-3 min) and then allowed it to cool. Added ice and took a sip.
Yum! Sweet tropical paradise. This brewed as an iced tea had such a nice subtle sweet taste. You could still taste the fantastic black tea base but there was a sweet mango flavor in there too. This is a great simple mango black tea. Not a knock you in the face sort of mango, just hints of mango. So nice. I was very pleased. This is exactly want I was wanting today. I can’t wait to take the rest of the loose leaf I have and try this as a cold brew. That is exactly what is accompanying me on my way to work tomorrow. Can’t wait!
Another fantastic tea from Mountain Witch Tea Company.
Champagne and Apricot from Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Description:
This light and fruity blend combines notes of delicate champagne and real pieces of sweet & tart apricots in a base of our finest black tea. Delicious hot or iced.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Who wouldn’t love a Champagne & Apricot tea? The name alone sounds delicious.
I adore Kelly’s blends @Mountain Witch Tea Company. And this one is no exception. I think Mountain Witch Tea Company is one of the only companies I would blindly buy 4 oz of tea without hesitation. I adore her blends that much.
Brewed up like a traditional black tea (212F-3 min), this tea had a pretty high astringent factor. You could taste a stonefruit like flavor but the astringency was a bit overwhelming.
Where this tea sparkled and shined was when I cold brewed the tea for a few hours in the fridge. Yummy Nommy Nom! This tea as a cold brew was bright, refreshing, and down right tasty. The apricot flavor is vibrant and very distinguishable. The black tea is smooth and the astringent factor is gone. I have already been told I need to pick up more of this tea for the upcoming hot days of summer. This blend cold brew is just that good.
Do yourself a favor, take advantage of Kelly’s 3 for $24 sale on her teas. You won’t regret it!
Skinny Minnie’s Ginger Hibiscus Herbal Tea from Mountain Witch Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Description:
This special herbal tea combines the powerful goodness of ginger and hibiscus flowers for a potent herbal brew with a tart, spicy flavor. Made with hibiscus petals, chopped ginger root.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I am not a huge fan of hibiscus but it also doesn’t scare me away from blends like it does other tea drinkers. I sometimes enjoy the tart taste that it gives a blend but I do not care for the unsweetened kool-aid like flavor it can give others.
I was a bit hesitant when I saw this blend on Mountain Witch Tea Company’s site but just about everything I have had from Kelly has been dynamite. So if anybody can do a hibiscus blend right, it would be her. I was also nervous with the ginger that was in the blend. There were some pretty large chunks of ginger in the sample bag she sent me. I’ve never had a blend where these two elements are together. Wasn’t sure how this was going to play out.
Steeped this one up like a traditional herbal and starting getting nervous when the water started to turn that deep red color. I took in a whiff and was shocked when I wasn’t over taken with the smell of ginger. Took my first sip, and I am impressed. This is really tasty. The two ingredients actually compliment each other and give this blend a tart semi sweet spicy profile. I can’t really describe this any other way. This is a unique blend for sure.
I know how that flavor profile sounds, but I really like this. So much so that I plan to pick up a 4 oz bag of it the next time I’m making an order with Mountain Witch Tea. I didn’t try this iced but I can’t wait to. I want more of this one and am rating this one pretty high.
Mountain Witch tea Co has done it again. Kudos Kelly!