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Nov 30

Honeybush, Mandarin and Orange from Twinings

Flowering Tea,Herbal Tisanes,Tea Review,Twinings 11:00 pm | No Comments

Honeybush, Mandarin and Orange from TwiningsThis tisane is wonderful – full of juicy, tangy citrus flavor! From the moment I tore into the pouch, I could smell the strong fragrance of orange, so I was confident this would be a very flavorful tisane.

The honeybush base is honey-sweet and adds a pleasant, nutty flavor to the cup, as well as subtle notes of a wood-like taste.  In some honeybush blends, the woody flavors are a bit stronger, I suspect that the strong orange and tangerine flavors cancel out some of the woodier flavors of the honeybush – but I’m not complaining.  I find the balance that has been achieved here quite enjoyable.

The orange and mandarin flavors here are remarkably bright, tasting like fresh, juicy fruit.  Sweet and tangy with a tart note that lingers a bit in the aftertaste, imparting that little tingle of citrus taste on the tongue.  It pairs well with the naturally sweet honeybush.

Twinings of London describes this Herbal Unwind blend as

Honeybush has been enjoyed as a soothing beverage in South Africa for centuries. We have sourced the finest quality and blended it with the two distinct citrus flavors of orange and mandarin. Enjoy an extraordinary treat as it creates a relaxing moment to unwind.

Ingredients: Honeybush, Natural Orange and Mandarin Flavours with Other Natural Flavours

As I near the cup, I am noticing just what is so appealing to me about the flavor of this tisane.  It tastes quite a bit like a chewable vitamin C!  Is it weird that I’ve always enjoyed the flavor of those chewable tablets?  Hey, at least it makes it easier to consume them when needed!

Whether or not you like the taste of chewable vitamin C tablets, I think you will find that this is a very calming and relaxing cup.  I can see why Twinings chose to make this part of their Herbal Unwind collection.  It is certainly a delicious cup with which to unwind.  And the fresh, fruity flavor is one that children can enjoy as well as adults.



liber-teas
liber-teas
http://hungryinportland.com


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Nov 30

Glitter & Gold from David’s Tea

Black Tea,David's Tea,Flavored Tea,Tea Review 4:00 pm | No Comments

Glitter & Gold from David's TeaTo confess, I basically tried this tea on a whim. I usually pass on flavored teas, especially ones that seem gimmicky, but when I noticed a tea that has little gold balls and sugar crystals, I just couldn’t resist.  It looked like such fun! It’s also the holiday season, after all. After trying this tea, I could see myself grabbing it any time of year, for a little bit of gold glamour.

The leaves are a treat to look at- Chinese black tea with sugar crystals and gold sugar balls. This tea is extremely festive! The leaves have a strong smell of cinnamon and orange, along with the earthy scent of the tea. The aroma evokes the feeling of warming by a cozy fire.

After steeping, the tea actually sparkled! Little gold flecks happily float around the brew. OK, perhaps this is not a trait I usually look for in tea, but I love it. It has a spicy warm cinnamon flavor with an orange finish. I also detect some vanilla, but it’s not listed in the ingredients. Cloves are also listed, but they didn’t come through for me. However, I imagine they add to the warming effect.  The brew is smooth and satisfying. This tea would take well to milk, and would be great as a latte.

David’s Tea describes this tea as:

This deep dark Chinese tea is like a gorgeous starry night, glimmering with gold and silver sugar crystals that shimmer as they steep. Take a sip and the slow suggestion of cinnamon will warm your body. Your toes will tingle and your mind will turn to fireworks, falling stars, late-night seduction. It’s basically magic. (Is it getting hot in here, or is it just the tea?)

Glitter & Gold is absolutely perfect for the holidays. The smooth, warm taste is perfect for the chilly weather, and the glitter puts a bit of joy into your cup. It’s great for sharing during a festive gathering, or when you need a little lift after doing all of those holiday errands. Or really, any time of year to bring a little shine into your day. I’ve fallen for this glittery, joyful tea.



Sara
Sara
http://teahappiness.blogspot.com

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Nov 30

Velvet Garden White Rose from Numi Tea

Flavored Tea,Numi Tea,Tea Review,White Tea 8:00 am | No Comments

  • Type Of leaves: White Tea
  • Name Of Tea: Velvet Garden White Rose
  • Available From: Numi Tea

Velvet Garden White Rose from Numi TeaThis is far and away the best smelling rose tea.  It is an exquisite scent, reminiscent of old roses.  I have a rosarian friend who specializes in antique roses and this reminds me of his garden in June.  it is very heady stuff.

Both the tea and the rosebuds are finely chopped and packed into a bio-degradable  tea bag.  In fact, the whole packet is bio-degradable – kudos to Numi.

Since this is a white tea, I brewed it about 175 for 2 minutes.  It is much darker than I expected, kind of an old gold color.  The brewing tea’s aroma is a bit softened from the dry, but maintains its lovely scent.  I almost don’t want to drink it – what if it doesn’t live up to the aroma?  However, I bravely take a sip and hooray! the tea lives up to its potential.  It is a lovely rose flavor, nicely under-girded with a floral white tea.

This is a tea which looks sturdy and feels it in your mouth, but the flavor is delicate.  The packet instructs us to think romantic thoughts while it brews and I guess it is like love – strong,  but delicate and to be savored.  Now, if I only had some marzipan to go with this, my tea-time would be complete.

NumiTea says this about it:

Our enchanted White Rose blends the smoothness of delicate, organic white tea with whole organic rose buds. This sweet and fragrant liaison is as provocative as it is healthy.

White tea is fairly low in caffeine, so this might make a nice tea for an evening at home with your true love.



Marlena A.
Marlena A.
http://teafortoday.blogspot.com/


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Nov 29

Ultra Spice Chai from Twinings

Black Tea,Chai Tea,Flavored Tea,Tea Review,Twinings 4:00 pm | No Comments

Ultra Spice Chai from TwiningsMmmmm, spicy. Definitely spicier than most other bagged chai teas from the mass market companies. Now, I have had spicier chai – but that’s partly because I’ve had friends bring back chai from India for me, and I’ve had loose leaf chai with fresh spices ground into it (including black pepper!) – but short of those experiences, most of us have relatively mild chai.

If you’ve been wanting something with more assertive spices and the convenience of being in tea bags, and also the convenience of being available at most supermarkets, we have a winner!

There’s lots more cardamom in this chai than in the other chais I’ve reviewed recently, and more cloves, and, well, more of everything. I love cardamom – I don’t think a lot of Americans appreciate cardamom enough. I made my Thanksgiving sweet potatoes with butter, brown sugar, fresh grated ginger root, and ground cardamom, and they were a definite hit, the first thing everyone finished. Try adding cardamom to any recipe that calls for cloves – add just a pinch of cardamom as well. Oh, wait, I’m wandering away from the topic. Tea, that’s right – a chai tea that actually has enough cardamom for my tastes.

Here’s what Twinings says about this tea:

The finest black tea expertly blended with the more of the sweet and savory spice flavors of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and ginger to deliver a robust tea with a rich, vibrant aroma and bold, spice taste.

Ingredients: Black Tea, Natural Chai, Cinnamon & Ginger Flavours with Other Natural Flavours, Cardamom, Clove

Most chai calls for some sweetener and milk. This one’s strong enough that dairy milk works well with it – usually, I use almond milk when I add milk at all, and I know a lot of people favor the plant milks, but if you’ve just been waiting for something worth adding whole milk to, or even cream, this tea is spicy enough to taste great with those options.



BunRab
BunRab
http://bunrab.livejournal.com

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Nov 29

Merry Mint from Stash Tea

Flavored Tea,Green Tea,Stash Tea,Tea Review 8:00 am | No Comments

Merry Mint from Stash TeaI have always liked Stash Tea.  I’ve never had any bad ones, personal preference, yes, but not bad.  I like the boxes the teabags come in, with their nifty little opening at the bottom.  I have a lot of friends that are still into teabags and these are handy.

I am a big fan of unflavored tea, but I like an occasional flavored green.  They are also excellent for getting your friends to drink green tea, which is good for you.  Well, all teas are good for you, but green seems to shine in that department.

Merry Mint or Joyeuse Menthe for you Francophiles, is a very well-behaved mint and to top it off, it is organic.  It has a very pleasant aroma that doesn’t shout at you.  The dry leaves are quite small, yet I could distinguish between the thin needles of tea and the chunks of peppermint.  I brewed it for about 2 minutes with water about 180.  I was rewarded with a very nice cup of pleasantly minty tea, with a tiny kick.

Stash Teas says this about it:

Festive blend of organic green tea and lively spearmint and peppermint.

Ingredients: organic green tea, organic spearmint, organic peppermint, organic ginger root, organic lemongrass, organic wintergreen oil

Aha, there’s that little kick, the ginger root,  clever of them to put that in.  Sometimes if I have mint teabags I use them to mix a Raita – an Indian condiment.  Mine is a container of Greek yogurt, mint and chopped oranges.  It is very cooling with Indian curries.  I just add the mint until I like it, but don’t get too carried away, it should be a nice balance.  Greek Yogurt is closest to Indian yogurts.



Marlena A.
Marlena A.
http://teafortoday.blogspot.com/


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Nov 28

Milk Caramel from Lupicia Tea

Flavored Tea,Green Tea,Lupicia Tea,Tea Review 11:00 pm | 1 Comment

Milk Caramel from Lupicia TeaLupicia is easily one of my favorite tea companies.  They have a huge selection of delicious teas, fast shipping (and it’s free if your order is over $45) and every month for a year after my most recent purchase, I get a free “Fresh Tea Magazine” in the mail.  It’s actually more like a newsletter than a Magazine, but the best part about it is that there is a free sample of the tea of the month enclosed in the Fresh Tea Magazine!  Yay!  (I mean, really, what’s better than getting free tea in the mail?)

This is a tea that I ordered from Lupicia some time ago, and with so many teas in my tea cupboard, I am just now getting around to trying it.  And it is so yummy that I’m almost kicking myself for not trying it sooner.  But, when I think about it, it is a very autumnal tea, so maybe THIS is the right time to be trying it.

Even though the above thumbnail photo is small, it is a pretty good representation of what this tea looks like dry:  Medium to dark brown leaves (toasted green tea leaves) with little caramel-y kernel bits (although, there are fewer in my bag of tea than the photo might suggest).  It smells amazing, with a roasty-toasty kind of scent with a delicious caramel note.  I steeped this tea in 185°F water for 3 minutes, and it brewed up a dark, golden brown.

Most of the caramel flavored teas I’ve tasted have been black teas, so I was very intrigued by this caramel flavored Houjicha.  There really aren’t that many flavored Houjicha teas out there (I think Lupicia has four different flavored Houjicha teas, and that’s the largest selection that I can recall seeing!) so when I find a flavored Houjicha, I sit up and take notice, and this one had me at Caramel…

Lupicia describes this tea as:

Sweet aroma of milk caramel brings out the comforting aroma of houjicha.

The toasted flavor of the Houjicha proves an excellent combination with the flavor of creamy caramel.  This is sweet, smooth and so decadent.  If you like caramel, you really MUST try this tea!

The Houjicha base is a light base, but, when matched with the sweet, creamy notes of caramel, it becomes a deep, rich experience … but still manages to maintain its lightness, somehow.  It doesn’t feel heavy on the palate.  The caramel is a sweet, milky smooth caramel flavor, reminding me a bit of dulce de leche.  And even though this is a sweet tasting tea, I like that it isn’t cloying.  It is a very cozy, indulgent flavor.  And because the caffeine in Houjicha is light, this is a tea that you can probably enjoy any time of the day without it interfering with your rest cycle … and it makes an awesome evening dessert!



liber-teas
liber-teas
http://hungryinportland.com


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Nov 28

Cherry Almond from Culinary Teas

Black Tea,Culinary Teas,Flavored Tea,Tea Review 4:00 pm | No Comments

Cherry Almond Black Tea from Culinary TeasI didn’t see too many flower petals or pieces of fruit or almond, when I first looked at the dry tea leaves of this tea. The tea had a pleasant, though faint, aroma of cherry blosson when I opened the package; once I brewed the tea, the cherry aroma and flavor were still  quite mild until I added sweetener, which really brought out the cherry flavor.

Sugar was good, but honey is even better. The almond note stayed quite faint even with sweetener added; it was more of a bit of extra smoothness to the tea, rather than an actual flavor. Because the overall flavor was mild, when I tried a second cup of this, I let it steep longer – a good 5 minutes, rather than 3 minutes – and that did make the cherry flavor and aroma stand out more.

Culinary Teas says about this tea:

Deep cherry flavor with almond notes. A dash of sugar enhances the flavor and offers a smooth silky character to this tea.

Ingredients: Luxury black tea, Sweetened cranberries, Almond slices, Rose petals, blackberry + lime leaves, Safflower petals, Natural flavors.

It’s quite interesting how cranberries and rose petals contribute to the flavor of cherry and the aroma of cherry blossom! It just goes to show that flavoring tea is a complex process.

The tea is quite smooth – it tasted like a tea I could drink all day, and would make a lovely afternoon tea with some shortbread cookies. The base tea is a Ceylon, one of those Ceylons that tastes quite a bit like a Darjeeling, emphasizing the afternoon character of the tea. Since the flavors are mild, one wouldn’t want to add milk to this tea – that would wash the flavor out completely. Lemon also would overpower the existing flavors.

A slice of a sweeter fruit, though, such as peach, adds some more sweetness and also a flavor that complements the cherry flavor nicely. The smoothness of this tea, and fact that the flavorings are natural, allows it to be turned into iced tea quite well – no bitterness from oils or artificial flavorings, as happens to some teas when they’re iced.

I will try icing anything once; this is a tea that I will be making more iced tea out of, and looking forward to using the aforementioned peach slice in a glass of iced cherry almond tea in the summertime. (Since I love throwing fruit into tea, hot or iced, year-round, I keep bags of frozen fruit slices in my freezer – peaches, strawberries, etc. Citrus doesn’t freeze well, but luckily, fresh citrus fruits are available even in winter.)



BunRab
BunRab
http://bunrab.livejournal.com

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