Pomme Blossom White Tea from Plum Deluxe. . .

by ashmanra

Do yourself a favor and visit the website for this company. I betcha you’ll be drooling before you read half of the descriptions. Have someone hide your credit card first and change your Paypal account password if you are weak or you’ll be broke tomorrow.

Plum Deluxe has a monthly tea subscription available, a blender’s choice special so you can try a surprise tea at a special price, and of course, teas to order as you wish.

Today I tried their Pomme Blossom White Tea, a delightful and flavorful blend featuring white tea, rose hips, jasmine, apple pieces, hibiscus, safflower, ginger, cinnamon, orange peel, rose petals, and pomegranate essence. CALM DOWN HIBISCUS HATERS. There isn’t enough hibiscus to change the color of this tea to pink, so you know there is hardly any here. I could smell the rose hips and hibiscus but the tea was not tart. It WAS full of delicious, fresh flavor and was fantastic both hot and iced. Even the cinnamon is quite muted, just adding a sparkle to the cup.

What impressed me about this tea blend is that there is SO MUCH in it, but it is very well balanced and the end result is a really refreshing tea.

Sadly, this blend is not available at present, but no matter. Looking at their site, I’d say there a number of teas to fall in love with here.

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  White
Where to Buy:  Plum Deluxe
Description

This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

ashmanra

I am a music teacher, tutor, and former homeschool mom (25 years!) who started drinking loose leaf tea about seven years ago! My daughters and I have tea every day, and we are frequently joined by my students or friends for “tea time.” Now my hubby joins us, too. His tastes have evolved from Tetley with milk and sugar to mostly unadorned greens and oolongs. We have learned so much history, geography, and culture in this journey. My avatar is a mole in a teacup! Long story…

This post was posted in Plum Deluxe, White Tea

Genmai-Matcha Matsujirushi from Steepster. . . .

by VariaTEA

Steepster is a website for tea lovers. If you are not on the website and you love tea, I recommend joining immediately because ultimately it is what fueled my love of all things tea and introduced me to the world beyond DAVIDsTEA and Teavana. It is essentially a forum to connect with other tea lovers, write tea reviews, and discuss all things tea. It is through this site that I met wonderful friends, experienced tea swaps, and discovered traveling teaboxes, which is how I came across this tea.

For those who don’t know what a traveling teabox is, it is a box packed full of a variety of teas that is passed from person to person. Everyone can take as much or as little as they like from the box, making sure to replace what they take with samples of their own teas, keeping in mind things like quality, price, age, type, etc. It gives people a chance to try a whole bunch of new things without committing to more than just a sample.

As a Canadian, I am part of the Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box, which is one of the very few that operates outside the United States. It travels around Canada (and occasionally to the states) to the various Steepster members signed up to participate. Now it is my turn with the box and when I saw this inside, I couldn’t help but grab a taste. First of all its a genmaicha, which I love, but it is also a matcha-coated genmaicha, which means some desperately needed caffeine. And on top of all that, it is one of the few tea offerings by Steepster and since I never took advantage of the Steepster teas in the past, I was all the more intrigued.

I brewed it up as per the package instructions, 2 minutes at 185F, and the end result is a light yellowish-green brew that is slightly cloudy from the matcha dusting. It resembles lime juice now that I think about it. It does not taste like lime juice though and thank goodness for that. It is smooth. Very smooth…and goes down easily. It also manages to be light while simultaneously being quite flavorful. There is a great roasted (barley?) flavor from the popped rice and rather than coming off grassy, this has more of a slightly bitter herb quality to it. Yet, though it seems as if it should be savory, there is a sweetness here (thanks to the base) to round out the tea.

Personally, I am really enjoying this tea. It is so simple and yet so complex. It is also very familiar while being new and unique, like an old friend who I only just met.

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Green Tea
Where to Buy: Steepster
Description

These teas are no longer available but click below to learn more about Steepster

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

VariaTEA

Hey there! My name is Rachel. I’m a twenty-something from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who loves dogs and has a bit of an obsession with tea. As a child I hated the stuff since all I ever knew was Red Rose (no offense to Red Rose). However, a few years ago that all changed. I was on a diet and desperate for new flavors without adding calories and that’s when I turned to tea. I started off by going to DAVIDsTEA and Teavana for all their dessert-inspired flavors, and since I didn’t know any better, I bought 100 grams each of about twenty-something different teas. This was okay for the teas I liked but for those I didn’t I needed to find some way of getting rid of them. Enter Steepster.com. This is where I met some incredible tea friends, discovered tea swaps, and learned of so many amazing tea companies. My desire to try all the teas grew and since joining three years ago I have tried over a thousand different teas. I have learned what ingredients I love and I have learned what flavors I don’t like. I determined my go-to brewing method is Western-style with no added milk or sweeteners, though I also enjoy cold brewing, iced teas, teapops, lattes, and smoothies. I have yet to brew gong-fu style but I hope to do so just as soon as I get the proper teaware to do it. About a year ago, I actually stopped drinking tea but as my stash of over 200 teas started aging I decided I needed to respark my interest. I chose to take a 365 days of tea challenge on Instagram in which I post a new tea picture every day. So far it has been rather successful as I find myself drinking (and buying) more and more tea each day. Plus it enabled CuppaGeek to find me and invite me here to SororiTea Sisters.

This post was posted in Green Tea, Steepster Tea