Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Our premium buttery sweet organic Chinese fannings green tea blended with organic yellow cake, pineapple, brown sugar, and a hint of maraschino cherry flavors. This is ridiculously delicious. Don’t miss your chance to grab one.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about SBT’s subscription here.
Taster’s Review:
Pineapple Upside Down Cake used to be one of my favorite desserts my mom would make as a child. Growing up, my brothers and I were never fans of the traditional birthday cake. My poor mom would always ending up baking a pie or some other dessert (she tried once to make orange fluff and put candles in it-true story). She would ask us if we were sure we didn’t want a chocolate cake and we would always say no, we want pie or we want cheesecake. Or we would ask for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Which was a little different than the traditional Pineapple Upside Down Cake. My mom would make it as a cheesecake instead. To this day, even as adults,we devour that dessert whenever she makes it. And she makes a healthy version of it now too- so you don’t have to feel guilty about cramming huge bites of it in your face.
This tea brought all those warm and fuzzy memories to me. This tea reminds me of that dessert my mom makes minus the cheesecake part. So good! The green tea provides a rich buttery base. The pineapple flavor is mixed in with just the right amount of brown sugar and maraschino cherry flavoring. You can seriously taste each flavor separately. But they do mingle very well together. The only flavor I didn’t pick up was the yellow cake but I’m wondering if that was a flavor that the green tea kind of overshadowed. Oh well. Regardless I am really enjoying this one.
I cold brewed this one and was very happy with the results. I didn’t try making it up like a hot beverage because I ended up steeping this one until there were just no more infusions in the poor little tea pouch. I see myself picking more of this one up for sure. This one is going to be a fantastic addition to those teas I keep on hand to keep my sweet tooth from demanding a piece of candy or junk food around 2pm each work day.
Peaches and Cream from Piper & Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Piper & Leaf
Tea Description:
This tea is rich and creamy, with bright elements of peaches and apricots. A black tea base, blended with locally grown peaches, apricots, papayas, pineapples, hibiscus, and vanilla. Smooth over ice, brighter served hot. Delicious with a dash of milk! Brew this tea for 3.5-4 minutes. Taste develops nicely as the pot sits(after loose leaf is removed) so make a pot and enjoy the journey. This tea is lightly caffeinated.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about their Tea of the Month program here.
Taster’s Review:
I wish we had a tea shop where I live. About the extent we have are grocery stores and some coffee shops around the area. So when I see shops like Piper & Leaf, I seem to get a wee bit jealous. This has to be one of the cutest shops I’ve seen online in a while. They even sell these very cool drinking jars with their logo on them. (Those might just end up in my cart one of these days)
This tea smells like peach candy! It smells fruity and brews up to a very pretty amber color. I made this tea up per their instructions and then dumped the tea into a huge glass of ice. First taste and I was surprised. I’m not picking up the intended peaches’n cream sort of flavor. This tea comes across as being very tart. I am for sure picking up the hibiscus that is in this blend. It almost seems to over take the tea, which makes me sad. From the description this tea sounds like it would be a great light tea for the summer. The pineapple flavor is also there and shows up more and more as I drink the tea. The black tea base is also pretty overwhelming, giving the tea a slight astringent factor. It is good, just not what I was hoping for. I am completely missing the Peaches ‘N Cream flavor.
I wish the tea tasted more like what the name of it is. A great iced Peaches ‘N Cream tea would be fantastic for the summer. I wonder if it would be better with a green tea base. . . or maybe even a green rooibos base. . .
I probably just need to try again and shake the bag up more. This little bump is in no way going to stop me from placing an order for some more samples. There are some tasty looking blends on their site that I think I just have to try!
NOTE: The second infusion was a lot better than the second. I added in another scoop of tea as well. The creaminess shone thru and the vanilla became a star. I think if you “monkey” around with the steepings and a few other variables a bit you can pull out the Peaches ‘N Cream flavor.
Perles de Antilles Rooibos Blend from Camellia Sinensis
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Roiboos
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
What makes this extra good? One, it’s organic. Two, the coconut is subtle, rather than being the main note. Three… is that banana I taste? How unusual, but very pleasant. Together with the green rooibos, this is a fantastic combo. Soft, sweet and creamy. You can try it hot or iced.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rooibos blends just aren’t my favorite. They just aren’t. But I do enjoy green rooibos more than I do red rooibos – I find that light, fruity note of the green rooibos to be appealing, especially when it’s part of a fruit flavored blend like this Perles de Antilles Rooibos Blend from Camellia Sinensis.
I think that the above description from Amoda Tea to be pretty spot on: the coconut notes are soft and unassuming, and the banana adds a pleasant flavor to this delightful tropical fruit flavored tisane. The overall flavor is indeed “soft, sweet and creamy.”
The creaminess is kind of a surprise for me, because I haven’t had a lot of green rooibos blends that have been what I’d categorize as “creamy.” Usually, they’re light and crisp and have almost a ‘bubbly’ type of character to them. I suspect the coconut and banana flavors brings a bit of creaminess to the party.
The pineapple adds a little bit of brightness to the cup. The apple is not particularly distinguishable, but I do note a little bit of apple-like sweetness that enhances the overall cup.
I really like this: it’s a soothing, gentle kind of flavor, the kind of tisane you want to curl up to late at night. And because it’s naturally caffeine-free, you can do just that. It’s sweet and it’s fruity without tasting like a cloying fruit punch concoction. It’s quite tasty, really.
Ananas et Curry Green Tea from Jardin du Thé
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Jardin du Thé (However it isn’t currently listed)
Tea Description:
The vert parfumé à l’ananas accompagné de curry, de gui, de fleurs de tournesol, d’osmanthus et de souci. Un mélange fleuri des plus originaux.
Green tea flavored with curry accompanied by pineapple, mistletoe, sunflower flowers, osmanthus and concern/worry/care. A floral blend of the most original.
Learn more about this tea on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
First, a nod to MissB – this is another tea passed along to me by her while she’s off abroad. Tea friends may very well literally be the best!
This is actually one of the teas she sent that I was most excited to try. As is pretty well known, I love pineapple but don’t actually like spices too much. However, I have had pineapple curry before and I really enjoyed it so I was super open minded about this one.
The smell of this one is lightly pineapple, and steeped up it’s very supple with a soft sweetness to it. It’s a little bit candy like – but not over the top or overly artificial tasting. The osmanthus in this was nice; even though I don’t recall seeing any in the measured out leaf I felt like I was tasting the slightly sweet, whispy floral notes that I associate with it. I’m a big fan of pineapple and floral pairings – as far as I can recall everyone I’ve had has been well executed. I’m personally not very familiar with mistletoe so I don’t know if I can accurately weigh in on how that ingredient presented itself in the blend. I did try looking it up, but the one relatively reliable site I found said it has a very bitter taste – and that’s certainly not something I observed with this blend, so either that’s not an accurate description of mistletoe’s flavour or it doesn’t come through in the tea.
Sadly, neither did anything remotely ‘curry’ like – not even a little bit. That’s definitely disappointing especially since the curry aspect is in the name of the tea. If you can’t deliver on what your tea is named after, you definitely lose a few points in my book. The green base was nice; it was light and just a touch sweet and grassy. It definitely complimented the floral notes and pineapple well.
So overall I thought this was a nice tea and I certainly enjoyed it – but it’s nothing like what I expected and the name isn’t accurate at all so if you’re going to try it keep a very open mind and don’t expect the curry to come through too much, if at all.
One Night in Rio Black Tea Blend from Camellia Sinensis
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
This tea is so hard to resist! The coconut is prominent, but not overpowering. You can still taste the malty black tea at the base. Sweet, juicy pineapple first, creamy coconut second, and a lingering note that tastes oddly like cookies. A new flavoured favourite of ours.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
One Night in Rio Black Tea Blend from Camellia Sinensis had my mouth watering from the moment I opened the pouch! The combined aroma of pineapple and coconut was strong and oh-so-delightful! And what I think I appreciated most about it was that this was an authentic fragrance – it smelled like REAL pineapple and coconut.
I brewed the tea in my Breville One-Touch, using 500 ml of water and the entire contents of the sampler pouch that was in this month’s Amoda Tea box. I set the parameters for boiling (212°F) and 2 1/2 minutes. As I stood there – eagerly awaiting – I noticed that the fragrance of coconut and pineapple had filled my kitchen.
And now that same fragrance is wafting from my teacup. I waited another few minutes – leading me to realize that the hardest part when it comes to drinking tea is waiting for the tea to be ready to drink! But finally – my first sip! YUM!
I find myself in slight disagreement with the above description from Amoda Tea – I am tasting the black tea as the prominent flavor profile of this cup. The coconut is a close second with the pineapple lingering in the background until the finish, when the pineapple flavor pops.
I like how all three sets of flavors are present throughout the sip, though. I’m not waiting for one of the flavors to shine through. From the very start, I taste notes of black tea, coconut and pineapple.
The black tea, although it is the strongest flavor for me, is not an overly strong or aggressive tasting tea. It’s a mellow, medium-bodied black tea: sweet with notes of malt and I taste hints of flower. It’s a pleasant black tea base. Not one I’d choose as a breakfast tea (at least, not in this presentation) but it would make a really nice afternoon or dessert tea.
The coconut flavor starts out strong in this cup and continues to develop. By the time I reached mid-cup, I could really taste and feel the soft, creamy texture of the coconut. It never really becomes a ‘slick’ coconut texture though – I know that some of the fans of coconut teas want that slickery texture from the coconut. This doesn’t really have that but it does have a genuine coconut flavor that I really enjoyed.
The pineapple is a more subdued flavor, as I mentioned previously, and while the pineapple isn’t the star of the show, it does add a bright, uplifting note to the cup that invigorates the palate.
A really enjoyable blend – a big thanks to Amoda Tea for including this tea in the box this month!