Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teabox
Tea Description:
Strawberries – sweet and luscious – are the perfect summer treat and this tea blend is just as so.
Yielding a gorgeous brownish-red color liquor, this tea is complex, charming and subtle. Sweet aroma of fresh strawberries and mint makes the brew inviting. The mellow, silky-bodied liquor promises to render your palate with tangy flavors of strawberry and orange that linger on for the long haul Marked by a long, fruity finish, this medium caffeine tea is suited for a soothing sip throughout the day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Strawberry Spritz Iced Tea just sounds amazing, doesn’t? It brings to mind relaxing thoughts of reading a good book while enjoying a bright and sunny day. So relaxing. This blend is a lovely blend of black tea, strawberries, orange peel, mint, vanilla and cinnamon. Quite an array of bright and vibrant flavors.
Brewed up per the pouch instructions-190F for 5 minutes, I happily poured the brew into my mug. I think I may have overleafed just by the aromas I’m getting from the tea. Darn!
From what I’m getting, this tea has amazing promise and may deserve a cold brew session. There are strong sweet strawberry and orange notes in each sip. The astringent factor of the black tea base seems to be a bit stronger (again, probably due to overleafing!) than I would have liked. The rest of the flavors are mellow and give a nice background for the other flavors to pop. I wish the mint or vanilla was a tad stronger to give the tea a bit more of a complex feel and flavor.
This tea is pretty good. Even with my overleaf issue. I wish the strawberry notes or orange notes were a bit stronger, but all in all, very decent. I truly believe this is a blend that needs to be enjoyed as a cold brew. Can’t say I would want a ton of this one but I’m very glad I was able to try the blend.
I didn’t realize Teabox offered flavored blends like this. I’m off to see what other fun blends they have to offer!
Love Love Love from Harlow Tea Co
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Harlow Tea Co
Tea Description:
Love, Love, Love Loose Leaf Tea
This caffeine free tea is a great tea for any tea drinker, someone brand new to tea or have tried it all.
Honeybush tea is vey mild, but gives great flavor without caffeine. Floral hints from rose hips, hibiscus flower, and lady’s mantle is balanced with the fruity aroma of dried plums.
Does not contain caffeine
Lady’s mantle is considered in many cultures to be used as a woman’s healing herb.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Honeybush and I have a love hate relationship. Sometimes I love it and sometimes not so much. I wasn’t sure what I would think of Harlow Tea Co’s Love Love Love blend.
First whiff of the dry leaf and I was greeted with a lush plum fragrance that I wanted to bottle into a candle. So very soft and romantic. This simple mixture yielded such an amazing full flavor, just like all of the other Harlow Tea Co blends I’ve tried.
Silky sweet notes combined with a deep plum jam note. Very soft notes of floral complete with sip with just small peeks of hibiscus. Each flavor does a great job of complimenting the others and no one flavor dominates. This tea is as romantic as you can get!
The perfect tea to end your day with. Soul soothing and one you can really curl up with. I’m in love with this blend! I haven’t had a chance to try Love Love Love as an iced tea or cold brew but that is next on the list. Another superb blend from Harlow Tea Co.
Green Guava from Simpson and Vail
CuppaGeek’s Review:
Simpson & Vail is one of my favorite tea companies to review. The crew is passionate and incredibly in tune to what the tea community wants and needs. They provide amazing customer service and deliver fresh teas with flavors that are crisp and bright.
Green Guava is one of their “summer” blends that they have been featuring. Vibrant sweet tropical notes are what I’m picking up from the pouch. The tea itself gives you such a summer feel. I love how the bright colors pop against the green tea base.
Allowed to cool for just a few moments and I was greeted with flavors that are recommencement of a sweet jam you would pick up at your local farmer’s market. Fresh sweet with a tiny twinge of tartness. Buttery green tea base brings out a wonderful balance and completes each sip with such a full bodied feel. To bring out the tropical feel I really wish there was almost a hint of pineapple or mango thrown into the mix. There is almost a note of a flavor that is missing.
All in all, this flavored green tea is really nice. Subtle, gentle, and not in your face. One that could bring a soothing tone to a hectic day or even as an afternoon tea.
If you haven’t checked out the fabulous line of teas at Simpson and Vail- please do! I’m sure you’ll find at least five teas that will instantly hop into your cart.
What do learn more about this tea?
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tea Description:
A wonderful afternoon tea! This fabulous blend of delicious fruits is melded with colorful herbs and our delicate White Monkey tea. The pale ecru cup emits a scrumptious fruity taste that is certain to please.
Learn even more about this tea here.
The Love Dalek Tea from Adagio Teas (Custom Blends)
CuppaGeek’s Review:
Love Dalek Tea (from Adagio Teas Custom Blend platform) is a blend based off of the Doctor Who series, one of my personal favorite. After taking a whiff of the dry leaf mix, you can almost taste a white tea flavor with notes of tart cherry and hibiscus. A great play on flavor-tart and floral.
Brewed up with water at 190F and allowed 3 minutes to steep, I was eager to take my first sip. In this blend it seems, black tea is king. I was eager for those white floral notes to pop out and play with the tart cherry flavorings added- but that didn’t happen right away.
At the very beginning of each sip, you know that the black tea reigns supreme. What I was hoping would be a lovely floral cherry tea with a slight astringency, turned into a heavy handed astringent hibiscus tea party.
But I wasn’t ready to just say, this isn’t my cuppa. After all, this is a Doctor Who blend. So I prepped a few more sessions with this tea. And Eureka! After third infusion I was finally able to pull out a lovely white tea astringent tea with pops of floral and cherry notes. Delicious and exactly what I was looking for.
So what are my final thoughts on this tea? As confused as the blend seems to be, I think there is potential. This may be a tea that needs a good solid cold brew to allow all the flavors an opportunity to shine. I’m glad I have a few servings left to try just that!
All in all, I still love the idea behind Custom Blends from Adagio Teas. Drinking a tea dedicated to your favorite fandoms just gives one warm fuzzies!!
What to learn more about this tea?
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/White Tea Blend
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
YOU ARE DALEKTABLE. YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD VALENTINE. INFATUATE! INFATUATE! INFATUATE!
Ingredients: White Peony, Black Tea, Rose Hips, Hibiscus, Apple Pieces, Rose Petals, Natural Wild Cherry Flavor, Rose Flavor, Dried Cherries
Learn even more about this tea here.
Holiday Happiness from Aka Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Aka Tea
Tea Description:
Don’t you love the smell of warm sugar cookies and cinnamon? How could that combination go wrong? This tea was inspired by winter loveliness, glistening white snow, a good book by the fireplace, and the ambiance of laughter. This tea is just waiting to celebrate holiday happiness with you!
Holiday Happiness – Green tea ( Mao Jian ), cinnamon, hibiscus, jasmine, spearmint, rosehips, peppermint, anise seed, rosemary, and natural flavoring
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After trying to unsuccessfully make a protein matcha smoothie, I needed something to refresh my tastebuds. When I noticed in my tea stash that I still had a serving of Holiday Happiness from Aka Tea, I was giddy! I had reviewed a lot of their teas a while back and didn’t realize that I still had one left. I have already reviewed Holiday Happiness on my blog-CuppaGeek, but I wanted to see if my thoughts were the same.
Right out of the pouch you can smell the minty baked good aroma that reminds me of peppermint sugar cookies. What a treat!
Brewed this up per the instructions Aka Tea provides on their site-175 F and steep for about 3 minutes. The brew turned a lovely shade of pick almost instantly. Made my heart happy!
What I really love about this blend in particular is the amount of tea vs inclusions. There seems to be a happy medium of both. The tea isn’t overwhelmed by the inclusions and the inclusions are not overwhelmed by the tea. There is a lovely partnership between the ingredients blending together and creating a wonderfully unique flavor.
First sip in and I am once again in my tea happy place. Warm sweet cinnamon notes mixed with a slight tart minty background. Rich buttery green notes followed by a sweet flora note. Thru the entire sip, there is a spiced undertone that really mixes well with the rest of the flavors. Sure this tea is sort of all over the place, but it is one journey I love time and time again.
As odd as those flavors sound, this blend really works. There is an almost winter feel to the tea, but I have no problem drinking this in the middle of summer and am looking at buying a larger size. Holiday Happiness from Aka Tea is a tried and true flavored tea that never disappoints!