Prestogeorge's Cranberry Orange Herbal Tea

Outsides:  This tea is LOADED with big, chunky pieces of fruit.  What you see in my picture is the very bottom of the bag where all the little bits gather, but the vast majority of this is big pieces of cranberry and big pieces of orange.  Apparently this has Chamomile, Rosehips and Hibiscus as well.  I didn't have much left but still wanted to review it, so I put more tea than was necissary into the basic infuser ball and stuck it in 8 oz boiling water.  The liquid is a lovely red color and it smells of sweet citrus and cranberries.

Insides:  There's almost a juice-like quality to this.  The liquid tastes very thick and tangy, not like the normal tea (granted, this is herbal tea).  It's sour, but if you like hibiscus tea then it shouldn't be a problem for anyone.  I really like this.  It tastes like a very fall/winter beverage with the cranberry and citrus flavors and is what I expect when I think of cranberry tea.  Since this is a fruity herbal tea, it can handle hot or cold, sugar or no sugar.  I might even add some cinnamon if I'm feeling audacious.

Overall:  It's a bit sad that this was my last cup of this.

My Rating:  Try it!

Prestogeorge is my local tea shop in Pittsburgh.  It has a nice, big variety although the shipping is expensive so you should probably find somewhere else if you need a place for tea.  

Adagio Cranberry Black Tea

Cranberries are one of those things that you think are gross when you're younger but then enjoy more as you get older, partially for the health benefits and partially because the bitterness of berry goes well with our bitterness against life.  And hey, not all cranberry things need to be bitter (Crasins are actually pretty sweet).  But I like the bitterness and find that cranberries have a nice strong flavor on their own so they should go well with tea.

Outsides:  Adagio's Cranberry tea is black tea with a lot of Raspberry leaves (which I don't know how I feel about that), as well as cranberry flavor and pieces.  I steeped it for about 5 minutes at near boiling temperature.  The tea is as dark as the rest of them but smells like raspberry.  Not cranberry, raspberry. 

Insides:  I'm just going to say this right off the bat that this is the most disappointing tea of the bunch.  It tastes like raspberry tea as opposed to cranberry and a bad raspberry at that.  The raspberry leaves give it this soapy kind of aroma as opposed to a juicy fruit and I don't know if it's that bad flavor choice or the underlying cranberry that brings out the bitterness in the tea.  What's more disappointing is that I thought this would be the hardest tea to screw up, but I guess this is just a cop-out from Adagio.

Overall:  The tin is cute but there is absolutely no reason to get this on it's own.

My Rating:  Pass.

Adagio is an online tea retailer that has a lot of unique blends.  I got this tea in their Holiday Stocking Stuffers gift set, which is a bit pricy at 6 1oz containers for $14 but has cute little tins.

TasTEA Time! Made! 10 calorie cranberry lemon green tea

It's so hot here.  Like over 90 degrees hot, which is pretty much as hot as it gets in PA.  I'm not shy to making hot tea in this weather, but right now I don't care.  I don't want to drink something that's over 100 degrees when I want to stay in temperatures below 70.  Just ignore that hot coffee review I'm posting after.  Here's a cranberry iced tea review!

Outsides:  It's in a plastic bottle, presumably PET.  The stuff looks like yellowish cranberry juice and smells like a light cranberry juice.

Insides:  It immediately hits you with the bitterness of the cranberry juice but once you taste it, isn't as strong or thick.  There isn't much of the lemon flavor, but it could just be mingling with the cranberry.  The best way to describe it is one of those cranberry juice cocktails, except not as sweet and with a very light, refreshing flavor that comes from the green tea.  It's actually really good if you like cranberry.  Oh, and that cranberry taste completely obliterates any sweetener flavors too because I couldn't tell there were any in here.

Overall:   I like it.  I'm sure even if you don't, you could mix it up with some booze and go to town.  Plus it's 10 calories, so it's great for people who are STILL looking out for their beach bodies.

My Rating:  Buy it!  Here's the site.

Review: O.N.E Active Coconut Water Grapefruit Cranberry

I think I'm just gonna put non-tea/coffee/hot-cocoa/ soda drinks as reviews.  I don't expect to have many of these, but I don't feel like making up a name for every random new type of drink.

What:  Grapefruit and Cranberry flavored Coconut water.

Where:  USA

Why Should I Care:  Coconut water is all kinds of good for you.  It makes one of the best sports drinks (even better than Gatorade), it's full of potassium, it's isotonic to the body's fluid and supposidly, can be used as an IV fluid.  The sports drink part really stuck out to me though since I hate Gatorade (I bought lime flavored on clearance and despite loving lime, it's still sitting by me with 3/4ths in the bottle).  You really don't need any kind of sports drink unless you're working out heavily for more than an hour and a half, but they're nice to have.  Plus this one has Ginseng and energy-boosting herbs.

Packaging:  I like the box-type packaging.  

Non-Taste Senses:  It's a light red color and smells lightly of cranberry.

Taste:  You know what?  It's actually pretty good.  Unlike Gatorade, it doesn't have that hint of salt so it ends up tasting more like a light cranberry juice instead of a sports drink.  The texture is a little bit thicker than your average non-milk drink and it isn't as sweet or as strong as a juice, but it also tastes like they use actual fruit as opposed to artificial flavoring.  

Overall:  I recommend it.  It's not something I'd drink for fun, but as far as sports drinks or even coconut water goes, it's pretty tasty.  

My Rating:  Try it.  Here's the site.