Prestogeorge's Raspberry Passionfruit black tea

It's a good thing that tea shops let you smell their tea because I wouldn't have gotten this if I haven't.  I'm not the biggest fan of raspberry tea since a lot of them use raspberry leaf and that tends to make the tea super bitter.  However, I adore passion fruit and like how you have a commonplace flavor mixed with a tropical flavor.  I actually got this a few months ago so the purpose was to make iced tea, but it's 40 degrees here so I need a summer pick-me-up.

Did I show you guys this cup?  It's the Kati Brewing system by Tea Forte.  The holiday season IS coming and this makes a pretty nice gift for that special tea lover.

Outsides:  It's loose-leaf tea with a few raspberry leaves, dried passionfruit bits and red things for color.  I put in 2 tablespoons per 12 oz of almost boiling water for 5 minutes.  The color is a typical black tea color with a small hint of red.  In the bag, this has a lovely fruity smell that has an overtone of passionfruit with a berry undertone and it keeps it when brewed.

Insides:  First off, the tea is much more flavorful after cooling for 5 minutes or as iced tea, but I would not advise drinking it right away or you might be disappointed.  I like the way the two fruits combine.  Passionfruit is good but tends to not add a ton of flavor unless you really pile it on.  The raspberry complements the sweet and sour aspect while adding a bit of an earthy undertone.  The tea part is ok, it works well to complement the fruit flavors and I know I'm drinking tea and not some fruit drink.

Tilt:  This tea is $1.92 for 2 oz which is honestly a pretty good deal.  Sometimes, I get tea at Prestogeorge that's super cheap but is a little weak in terms of flavor but this stuff has a good, strong fruit flavor.  It makes a good iced tea and honestly, that's what it should be used for.  This would be super tasty at a get-together especially with some passionfruit syrup.

Overall:  I actually really like this and think it's worth the price.

My Rating:  Buy it!

Prestogeorge is a local tea and coffee retailer located in the Strip District in Pittsburgh.

Quick Review: Twinnings Hazelnut Chai and Free Samples!

I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures but I had just gotten these samples in the mail and really wanted to try the Hazelnut Chai for breakfast.  Twinnings USA has a site where you can get free samples of three different teas.  Naturally, I'm all about the free stuff despite not even drinking bagged tea so I ended up getting the hazelnut chai, spiced apple chai and lady grey (which I've tried but have really enjoyed).  Anyway, I just got the samples yesterday so don't expect them for a few weeks after ordering them.

Outsides:  Twinnings Hazelnut Chai black tea is part of their holiday collection and is their blend of chai tea with hazelnut flavoring added in.  It's in a normal tea sachet.  I let the tea steep in almost boiling water for 5 minutes.  Honestly, pictures of this tea would be pretty boring because it's just a boring black tea color.  The hazelnut adds a nice scent that is noticeable and strong but not as overpowering as something like Adagio's Chestnut black tea (which has been a fall favorite of mine). 

Insides:  Although there is a strong hazelnut smell, it doesn't really add much to the taste of the tea and if you've had the normal Twinnings Chai, that's pretty much what it tastes like.  For those of you who don't know, Twinnings actually does a pretty decent job making a chai tea.  It's not as good as Margaret's (or actually, Metropolitan Tea Company) but Twinnings has a small amount of heat to their tea with a nice amount of sweet spice and it goes well with half-and-half.  For a bagged tea, it's fairly well balanced and I was surprised at how smooth and un-bitter it was despite me thinking I oversteeped.  I did end up adding hazelnut Coffee Mate to it because I wanted a treat for breakfast, and the extra hazelnut flavor complemented the tea nicely. 

Tilt:  Twinnings is relatively inexpensive and I like how they have a few varieties on their chai tea (Hazelnut, extra spice, apple cider and vanilla).  I'm a big fan of hazelnut flavoring and appreciate that a big-name brand is providing slightly more unique tea flavorings.  I'd imagine this tea would be good cold, but it's not quite strong enough to make lattes and such out of (btw guys, I bought a cheap milk-frother and find that it makes the best matcha whisk). 

Overall:  Is this tea something you REALLY need?  No, not really.  If you want a fun bagged tea for work, this might be a good choice but I'd just buy a normal chai you know you'd like and some hazelnut syrup/creamer/flavored stevia drops and achieve it that way.

My Rating:  Pass/Try it.  

Twinnings is one of the most famous tea retailers in the world and because of that, is available in pretty much every drug and grocery store.

Speculations: David's Tea Fall Collection

Hey Tea Lovers!  I've decided to try something new and do a preview and speculation of collections from tea boutiques such as David's Tea and possibly Teavana.  I have not tried these teas yet so don't take what I say to heart, but feel free to voice your opinions about these teas and if you've tried them, share with us.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

The Teas:  

Pumpkin Chai

 

Ingredients:

Black tea, cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, squash, carrot, caramel bits, pumpkin candies, natural and artificial flavouring*. 

 

Mmm...pumpkin.  It's something a lot of people are polarized about and I'm on the love side of that polarization.  People also can be particular about their chai and honestly, very few companies deliver a good one.  This particular one looks a bit sparse on the spices but the squash, carrots and candies seem like they could add an interesting sweetness.  I imagine the strange ingredients also are there for color and the candies are there to weigh it down.  Still, this seems like something worth trying.

 

Mom's Apple Pie

 

Ingredients:

Green tea (China), apple pieces, cinnamon, artificial flavouring*. 

 

I'm actually pretty sure I'll like this.  The ingredient list (minus the artificial flavoring) seems simple compared to their other teas and I have been looking for a green tea flavored with apple.  This seems like something light and sweet and a good alternative to the heavily-spiced blacks and herbals you see for fall.  

 

Sugar and Spice

 

Ingredients:

 

 Black tea, apples, cinnamon cassia, cloves, carrots, marigold petals, natural vanilla flavoring*. 

 

I wish they added caradom in there so that it would be a chai because the world needs more unique chais.   I also appreciate the natural vanilla flavor.  Honestly, I wouldn't want to buy this and it seems like the least interesting in the collection.  There are tons of spice teas out there and this one just seems like a glorified apple spice.  These kinds of teas are also pretty subjective to taste.  

Pistachio  Creme

 

Ingredients:

 

 Mulberry leaf, pistachios, chamomile, natural cream, macadamia and pistachio flavouring*. 

 

This actually sounds really interesting.  I've only had a few nut-flavored teas and think they work quite well for the fall and winter when you want that roasty toasty flavor.  The chamomile is also an interesting but rational ingredient since I feel that it adds sweetness while also giving teas a slight increase in mouthfeel.  This is definitely one I'd love to try and I feel like this would be a wonderful herbal for a desert alternative.  

Cocoberry

 

Ingredients:

Black Tea, black currant, mango, barberry, coffee bean, juniper berry, hibiscus, roasted yerba mate, lucuma powder, acerola powder, baobab fruit powder, acai powder, coffee flavor, natural strawberry flavor, natural and artificial plum, sugar cane and cherry flavour*. 

 

Dat ingredient list!  This is actually a mate, so it's full of caffeine and David's Tea seems to be promoting this one as the healthy one.  Lucuma is supposed to be a natural sweetener that tastes a bit like maple.  Honestly, this seems a bit too crazy for me plus I haven't had good experience with coffee-flavored mates.  There just seems like there's so much going on with the fruit, coffee, hibiscus and random flavorings.  It might be good but I'm a bit meh about this one.

 

The Teaware:

 

 

 

 

I didn't include all of them, but this should give you the general idea of the patterns used.  

Adorable.

I love the colors but also the simplicity.  I love the leaves, birds and chevrons.  I just love them all.  In fact, I'd rather have these mugs and teapots than the sampler they have.

David's Tea's Fall Collection Website:  All pictures were taken from here. 

 

 

 

 

 

Celestial Seasonings Black Cherry Pomegranate Black Tea

So, I stole a few boxes of tea from my mom in order to make some cold brew tea.  It's obviously not because I need more tea or anything, but because I happen to like fruit-flavored tea for the summer and am running low on it and funds.  This tea is old and I don't know if this even exists anymore, but I'll use it.

Hot version:  the color is darker in this one.

 Outsides:  Celestial Seasonings has those weird sachets that I personally think are pointless to me.  They're not individually-wrapped  and don't even have strings on them.  For the hot-brew, I put one sachet in 8 oz of almost boiling water.  It's a light brown color with a hint of orange or red and it smells like cherries.

Insides:  The hot one has a nice balance between the tea and fruit flavors, partially because the tea is just not very strong or full-bodied.  There's a pinch of bitterness in there but it's not too astringent.  The cherry flavor is light but tends to overpower any other fruit flavor in the tea.  It's sweet but has a nice tart note that pairs well with the tea.  And no, I don't taste any pomegranate except possibly as it complements the cherry flavors.

The cold tea is a bit different.  There really isn't as strong of a tea flavor and cold brewing gets rid of a lot of the bitterness.  Thankfully, the cherry flavor is brought out nicely and makes this more of a natural version of Kool-Aid.  It's actually quite fragrant and smells a bit like cherry chapstick. 

Tilt:  I honestly don't even know how old this box of tea was but I'd guess it's easily two years old.  Celestial Seasonings is cheap for a bagged tea but something people will learn when they become closer to the ultimate tea snob like me is that you can get whole-leaf teas from various places that are cheaper and tastier.  I like it more cold-brewed and during the summertime or when I feel like having iced tea.  I also think that fruit teas are generally a good thing to serve when you have company around since most humans tend to like sweet, fruit-flavored things. 

Overall:  It's ok.  I'm glad I finished the box and my housemates drank it. 

My Rating:  Pass

Celestial Seasonings is an American tea company specializing in flavored teas with beautiful artwork on the packaging (in my opinion, the artwork tends to be the only reason to get the box).  

Choicest Tea Rose Black Tea

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the three dollar tins of tea from the Asian market and I usually pick up one when I'm grocery shopping.  One of my favorites is Lotus Foods Co. in the Strip District of Pittsburgh because of its huge selection and inexpensive prices, which goes for tea as well.  Although I've heard mixed reviews about this brand (I mean, it's cheap so it's not guaranteed to be good), I've heard good things about the Rose Black and the Tieguanyin (which was out -_-).  I also picked up a Jasmine Tea which I've heard good reviews about.

Outsides:  Much like the other Choicests, the Rose Black is double sealed with metal and also has a bit of paper protecting the tea when you first open it.  There are a few rose petals scattered in the tea, but it's more uncommon than I would have hoped.  I brewed a teaspoon and a half in 8 oz of 95 degree water for 3 minutes.  The color is actually quite light for a black tea and it has a smells similar to a Keemun in that it has a note of prune to it.

Insides:  So, I'm pretty sure this is a Keemun because of the sweeter taste and the notes of dried plums and apricots.  The tea itself actually has no bitterness but the compromise is a lighter body, so don't be afraid to steep a little longer.  If you're expecting the tea to be very floral, you'll be sorely disappointed.  There is practically no taste of rose and at most, a slight fruity taste.  Still, it's a nice breakfast tea if you want something less robust and I actually think it would make a nice iced tea since it has a bit of natural sweetness.

Tilt:  The tin itself is pretty nice for a tea that cost three dollars and I'm always a fan of these scenic portraits on these tins.  I actually got this because I thought it might be a good tea for cold-brewing and honestly, it's not bad.  I'd like it to be a bit more robust, but I guess i could either blend it with something or hot brew it and then chill it.  For three bucks, I'll work with it.

Overall:  My biggest disappointment is that this tea isn't robust enough for me, but it's still not bad for what it is, plus I'm not upset at having to add more tea leaves because of the amount you get for the price.  It's not perfect, but don't be afraid of picking it up.

My Rating:  Try it!

I'm pretty sure I never had a website for Choicest Teas, but it can be found in pretty much any Asian market.

Prestogeorge's Coconut Vanilla Black Tea

So, I'm kind of in a tea no-buy right now.  Part of it is honestly because I have way too much tea and need to drink the stuff I have.  For example, I think I got this one in November and have only really gotten rid of it via mixing it with the Bananas Foster tea (which is another one that I love but never drink).  I figured that I'd try making some iced tea with this for dinner and see what it's like.

Outsides:  Prestogeroge just puts their teas in paper bags with ties on the end, which seems to work because I haven't noticed too much of a degradation in flavor.  I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the leaves but they're pretty much your standard black tea.  I brew 1.5 teaspoons of this in almost boiling water for 4 minutes.  The tea looks dark and has a light coconut scent. 

Insides:  The coconut and vanilla flavors bring a lot of sweetness to this while also offsetting the bitterness.  They also are a great combination (which isn't too surprising) because of how the vanilla adds a slight bit of creme flavor to the vanilla, making it more decadent.  The base tea is flavorful but not too robust.  I think the flavor diminished a bit over time, but it seems like an assam and ceylon blend.  I do like this hot and it makes a great winter treat with some added milk, but this REALLY shines as iced tea.  OH MY GAWD, it tastes like summer.   The sugar really brings out the sweetness of the coconut while the tea keeps its light texture. 

Tilt:  Obviously, this is a summer drink.  It's also pretty cheap, much like the vast majority of teas from Prestogeorge.  I don't think a coconut tea is unique to them so I'm sure that you can find an equivalent somewhere else.  I just really should use up more of my teas.

Overall:  Obviously, you need to like coconut to like this.  But I can't think of many teas more perfect than this for the summer.

My Rating:  Buy (for the summer) and Try (for every other time)

Prestogeorge is a local tea shop in Pittsburgh with a wide variety of tea and coffee. 

Harney and Sons Paris Flavored Black Tea

 

So, I go on Reddit's /r/tea fairly often and one of the companies I see mentioned fairly often is Harney and Sons with the Paris blend being the blend I hear about the most.  I've seen some of their teas at Macy's but they are way too expensive and in bags anyway.  However, Amazon has a good selection of the loose-leaf tins and you can even buy by the pound if you like it.  Paris sounded particularly interesting because it's a blend of black currants, vanilla and bergamont.

Outsides:  This particular tea was in a 4 oz black tin, which is actually quite informative.  It tells you the caffeine level, how strong it should taste, what it really is supposed to do (relax or wake you up), so I thought that was really cool.  There's only the tin protecting the leaves.  The initial smell you get is very heavy on the berry and vanilla with an interesting tartness mixed with the sweetness.  I brewed 1.5 teaspoons on 8 oz of 95 degree Celsius water for about 4 minutes.  The brew is a darker black tea color and doesn't have as strong of a scent but is still strong.

Insides:  First off, I've tried drinking this with milk and sugar, but I prefer reducing the amount I add from 2 teaspoons to 1.5 and just drinking it plain.  There isn't a really pronounced bergamont flavor despite it being in the list of the ingredients.  Rather, it's a hint that brings a nice citrusy zest to the berry vanilla flavor that's going on.  I think this tea tastes a bit like a berry mouse or some kind of berry desert.  It's pretty naturally sweet so you can definitely drink without sugar.  The tea seems to be a blend of ceylon and is strong but not overpowering to the blend.

Tilt:  So, the tin it came in is really good quality and the label design is simple yet classy.  The tea is pretty unique and is hard to give a real food analog, but is also pretty drinkable and something that I personally reach for.  This would be nice to drink in the fall since the berry flavor is a bit reminiscent of summer but the vanilla flavor gives it a bit of extra richness that would be a bit more appropriate for this time.  I've heard people describe it as tasting like pipe tobacco, but since I don't know what it tastes like, I would still say some kind of berry desert.

Overall:  It's unique but still something you might grab for.  It's a unique bergamont blend and I'm really excited to try more from Harney and Sons.

My Rating:  Buy it!

Harney and Sons is a British tea company.

Yorkshire Breakfast Tea

As you may know, I try to not buy too many teabags because they are expensive for what you are getting and usually not the best quality.  However, I've been craving a good black tea lately and have heard great things about Yorkshire.  This box of 20 tea bags was $2 at Big Lots, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Outsides:  I have no idea what kinds of teas are going into this breakfast blend, but they're typically largely made up of Assam and this one smells like it.  I really appreciate the packaging on these.  The sachet is inside of a nice foil/cellophane packet that will keep it waterproof and the actual tea sachet is very large and gives tons of room for the tea to expand.  I was making a pot of O'Sullivan's favorite so I just used the leftover water (it's probably 98 degrees Celsius or lower) and let it steep for about 4 minutes.  The color is a rich reddish brown and it smells like a strong breakfast tea, a little citrusy and a little sweet.

Insides:  First off, this tea is incredibly smooth.  There's a bit of bitterness, but it's not really a problem since the tea itself is rather crisp and sweet.  The quality used here is good and I feel like the bag's design helped it develop a full flavor with sweet notes and more citrusy notes while not tasting as acidic as a lot of cheaper teas tend to be.  The finish is nice and smooth too, no bitter aftertaste.  I've been drinking this a lot between classes in order to pep up a bit, and it's great with sugar and cream (I'm drinking mine with honey and lime right now).

Overall:  I'm glad I bought this tea.  It's a great bagged black tea

My Rating:  Buy it!

Yorkshire Tea is a fun little English tea brand that is owned by Taylors of Harrogate.  You can probably find this at Big Lots but I've seen it at local grocery stores.

Zen Tea's O'Sullivan's favorite (Irish Breakfast Tea)

Life Pro-Tip:  Baking Soda with warm water does wonders for carpet stains.

So, I'm going to assume this is an Irish Breakfast Tea, even though I've never had an Irish Breakfast tea before.  Now, when I hear "Irish Breakfast", the horribly offensive part of me thinks this is a coffee with a shot of whiskey in it, home fries with bacon and cheese as well as some pastry in the shape of a leprechaun.  What it actually is is a blend of different black teas, a majority of which is Assam or the dark roasts of tea (in robustness).  Zen Tea even suggests that it is great with milk and sugar.

Outsides:  I don't know what teas are in this (Boo Zen Tea!), but it is Cut/Tear/Cut processed, so the pieces are very small.  I brewed about a teaspoon and a half of this in 8 oz of almost boiling water for longer than I should have (6 minutes).  The color is dark and red and this has a bit of a malty, but strong breakfast tea smell.

Insides:  Without the add-ins, this tea has a strong malty flavor and full body, but is not as undrinkable bitter as I expected it to be.  There's also a natural sweetness to it and a full warmth from the maltiness as well as these slight floral notes.  Now, I probably should have stopped steeping after about 4-5 minutes, but if you oversteep then you can always add milk and sugar.  However, this is what I call breakfast tea.  With milk and sugar, the tea flavor is still strong and the sugar works well to bring out the natural sweetness in the tea.  This tea can certainly take its flavors and I'm sure honey and some booze would go well with it.

Overall:  You can find Irish Breakfasts in other tea companies and probably even cheaper, but this is a good one and may be worth investing in.

My Rating:  Try it!

Zen Tea is a Canadian tea retailer that specializes in bringing the world of tea to your cup.  They generally have mid to high quality teas.  

Zen Tea Ceylon Ratnaupra

Outsides:  This Ceylon Ratnaurpa is just ceylon tea and nothing else.  I brewed a teaspoon of it at near boiling water for 3 minutes and I'd recommend tasting it after 3 minutes to see if you like it and let it steep a few seconds longer if you want a stronger flavor.  The color is kind of a medium reddish brown and it smells very clean and a bit spicy with a note of breakfast tea.

Insides:  First off, this tea is going to be a bit more bitter than other types.  That's just the nature of it and I think the term used for this is a brisk taste.  This has a bit of a bready malty taste to it which reminds me a bit of wheat beer.  The body is less than the Darjeeling but still very full.  This has a nice aftertaste as well, a bit malty and a bit floral but actually sweet compared to the overall bitterness of the tea.

Overall:  It's good, but I'm glad I did this experiment because I found out that Ceylon is not my favorite black tea.  I still recommend getting a sample of something like this just to find out how much you like Ceylon versus other tea.

My Rating:  Try it!

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea retailer that specializes in mid to high quality tea.

Zen Tea Earl Grey Blue Flower

 
So, I made a mistake.  For some reason, probably my own stupidity, I thought this was the same as Earl Grey Creme.  Well, it isn't.  It's just normal Earl Grey, which I'm ok with but I really love that Earl Grey Creme.  But, Prestogeorge seems to have something similar to that so I might not be out of luck.  Anyway, I'm sure this will be a perfectly good Earl Grey.

Outsides:  This tea contains black tea, bergamont orange and blue cornflowers, I feel as though the flowers are almost pointless because you can't really see them that well in the blue base, and they don't really change the color of the tea.  I brewed a teaspoon and a half of this in 8 oz of near boiling water for about 4 minutes.  The color is a medium orange like most Earl Grey teas are and smells strongly of bergamont. 

Insides:  I immediately added milk and sugar to this because the bergamont is too strong to drink on its own for me, but it goes great in milk.  The flavor is strong, citrusy and a bit spicy and floral, but there still is a noticeable tea flavor that pokes through so Zen Tea clearly didn't use the extreme bottom of the barrel when it comes to tea. I think this earl grey is actually well balanced, doesn't lose flavor in cream and yet doesn't taste like soap.  It's not quite as good as the Earl Grey Creme but it's pretty close to a perfect normal Earl Grey for me.

Overall:  If you like normal Earl Grey, you'll probably like this.

My Rating:  Buy it!

Zen Tea is a canadian tea retailer that specializes in mid to high quality tea and bringing the world of tea closer to your home.  

Bonus:  Lazy Christmas Mani

Zen Tea's Darjeeling Margaret's Hope Second Flush FTGFOP1 Organic

Yes, that is the full name and yes, it's a bit overwhelming but this is actually more of a personal project than just me writing whether I like a tea or not.  It starts with a question.  What is the difference between this tea and that tea, whether it just be a different type of tea like green versus oolong or a different region that the tea is grown, like Ceylon versus Darjeeling or maybe the difference between good quality tea and poor quality tea?  You can read how they taste on blogs (like mine) but it just isn't the same as actually tasting it.  It was a slippery slope to this, going from Big Lots tea bags to loose-leaf flavored teas to reading about these different origins and extremely detailed teas to finally just getting a bunch of samples and trying a bunch of high quality teas.  I picked Zen Tea for 2 reasons:  The teas I have tried from them have been of a pretty high quality in terms of ingredients and they were having a 50 percent off sale, so I got about 18 teas (some sample and some big sizes) for $35.  But ultimately, I want to know what a good quality Darjeeling, Keemun, Ceylon, etc. tastes like and that's what I'm doing now.

 

Outsides:   I know there's something you guys want to know and that's what FTGFOP1 means.  Well, here's an answer but the short version is high-quality, unbroken leaves.  Darjeeling is a mountain range in India where tea is grown and honestly, I have no idea of Margaret's hope means anything.  I brewed about a tespoon for three minutes in 8 oz of boiling water.  The color is the golden amber color while the smell is fruity with almost a hint of honey to it.

Insides:  The tea is extremely smooth with a medium body and very little astringency.  It's sweet, with a warm, nutty note to the flavor and a fruity aftertaste as well as a hint of floral.  So far, this is sweeter than the Assams and Ceylons I've tried, but closer to Ceylon in body but reminds me more of the Assam in flavor.  The flavor is bright and crisp and I'm sure you can drink this iced (it's definately mild enough to drink without sugar or milk).  Honestly, it's taking a bit of self-restraint not chugging the thing.

Overall:  For all of the high-quality teas, I'm going to say try because everyone should figure out what they like, but I really like this one

My Rating:  Buy it!  It's very good!

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea Retailer that specializes in mid to high quality teas.  The sample size was normally $2.20 but I got it half-off.  Also, apparently this wasn't the most expensive one, but it's still very good.

Prestogeorge Bananas Foster Black Tea

I'm a little surprised that I haven't reviewed this yet.  Banana flavored tea is rare but an interesting and delicious combination.  The sweetness of the banana makes a nice juxtaposition to the more clean and bright flavors of (usually) ceylon tea.



Outsides:  Prestogeorge's Bananas Foster contains black tea and banana as well as other flavors which I can't name because this is apparently not on their website.  I can tell you that this stuff smells STRONGLY of banana, in an awesome way.  I brewed about a teaspoon and a half of this stuff in 8 oz of boiled water for about 5 minutes.  Now, it's a dark orange gold color like a lot of ceylons, but I immediately added cream and sugar.  It smells very similar to banana cream pie.

Insides:  Oh goodness, this is not just any flavored tea but a desert in a cup!  The tea is good and if you like strong tea, then it's perfectly fine to drink on it's own.  However, the flavors really sparkle with cream and sugar.  The banana flavor is enhanced by a little hint of molasses flavor while balancing out well with the tea.  The tea is a medium-quality tea with an ok body for black tea but a bit too much astringency, but still much better than the black tea I've gotten from Adagio.  I still love this and encourage everyone to find a tea like this and try it out.

Overall:  I love it.  It's unique, well flavored and an absolute crowd pleaser.  <3

My Rating:  Buy it (if you're even in Pittsburgh)!  Has my Seal of Approval.  

Prestogeorge is my local tea retailer although they technically specialize in coffee.  They have a wide variety of tea and ship a few of them, but at a bit of a steep price.

The Republic of Tea Comfort and Joy Holiday Black Tea

It's been a long time since I've reviewed a bagged tea, but I recently ordered the Republic of Tea Catalog for a reason that may or may not have been for free samples, and wanted to try this one.  I'm a sucker for holiday teas since they're usually fruity and spicy and get you into that holiday mood.



Outsides:  I got a biodegradable envelope with a round, unbleached sachet of tea inside.  TL;DR:  The most environmentally friendly a sachet tea can be.  This tea blend contains black tea, apple pieces, cinnamon, cloves and licorice.  The tea smells great unsteeped, like a sweet apple spice cake.  I steeped it in boiled water for about 4 minutes.  The color is lighter than but still very similar looking to apple cider in both hue and opacity.  It still has that sweet spiced apple cake smell to it.

Insides:  First off, I can barely taste the tea.  It's there, but it lacks astringency (good) and balance between all the other flavors (not so good) with a little bit of a weak tea body.  The flavor mix does have a very nice balance between fruity and spicy, with the cinnamon, cloves and licorice adding sweetness to the apple flavor that this tea had.  If anything, this is a good tea for anyone wanting the flavor of apple cider but without all the sugar.  And despite my not-nice things that I said about the tea portion, I think that it was at one point, a decent quality tea for a bagged tea, just overshadowed by the flavor.

Overall:  If you have someone on your holiday list that likes bagged tea and cider, this might be the gift to give.

My Rating:  Try it!

The Republic of Tea often advertises on my blog, meaning they have tons of money but also some higher quality tea bags as opposed to most of the other tea bag companies I review.  I got this sample from a catalog which I will look through and they seem to have a cool "Design your own gift" thing which looks like a good idea.

Zen Tea Earl Grey Creme

I've been craving Earl Grey lately, which is strange because I was never really into it before but it's become a regular part of my tea routine.  It's also a bit difficult finding a good earl grey; something that is strong enough to add milk to but not going into the soapy tasting category.  This particular Earl Grey was pretty cheap (50 grams for 2-something with the sale price) and the hint of vanilla sounded interesting.

  

Outsides:  Black tea with bergamont, vanilla and blue flowers.  I have to say, this stuff smells DIVINE!  Citrusy and spicy and sweet!  I brewed a tablespoon and a half in near boiling water for 4 minutes.  The tea is actually lighter than I expected but is that nice Ceylon color with brownish gold tones and smells sweet, spicy and citrusy.  

Insides:  First off, this is too strong for me so I had to add a bit of sugar and milk.  Second off, this is probably the most perfect cup of Earl Grey I have ever had.  The base black tea is very flavorful with little bitterness and a smooth body.  The amount of bergamont makes this tea slightly spicy and slightly citrusy, with a floral undertone here or there, but the thing that really makes this special is the vanilla, which transforms this into a relatively low calorie desert.  It's warm and fresh and uplifting and I am definately buying more of it before this sale ends.  Oh, it's good cold too although I added sugar to mine.

Overall:  I love it.  Seal of approval indeed.

My Rating:  Buy it!

Zen Tea is a Canadian online tea vendor that specializes in mid to high quality tea.