Margaret's Golden Apple Spice Green T

This is another tea I got from Margaret's at a 50% discount.  To be honest, I haven't been feeling the urge to drink heavier teas despite the autumn weather.  This tea combines a lighter green tea base (they say sencha) with apple cider flavor.

Outsides:  First off, this is not on Margaret's site because a lot of things aren't on Margaret's site, but also possibly because it's on sale.  I also did a quick google search and could not find any teas that look like they have the same ingredients that I saw from the package.  From what I remember, the base is sencha and the add-ins are apple pieces, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, saffron threads and other things that I don't remember.  It's a very colorful blend and smells a bit like the spice of apple cider.  I steeped it in 185 degree water for 3 minutes.  It's a nice golden color as the name suggests and smells like fall spice.

Insides:  First off, the base is ok but nothing that you'd want to drink on your own.  It's smooth, has a medium body and isn't too bitter.  As for the flavorings, you get a lot more spice than apple.  There is a sweet and sour fruity midnote surrounded by the cinnamon and cloves and allspice and all the other spices that are in there.  These spices completely overwhelm the tea taste and the fruit taste.

Tilt:  I got this tea at a deep discount and can't find a good retailer online BUT I'm sure you can get some cheap sencha and jurryrig your own blend for some cheap price.  I think it's actually a lovely fall tea but I don't think I'll really drink it in the spring or summer months.  Because it's flavored, I think it's good to drink cold or with sugar.  I think my biggest problem with it is that it's pretty much a green chai with a hint of a fruity taste.  But, if I want something spicy then i'll probably get a chai and there are plenty of those with different bases (black, green and red).

Overall:  There's nothing wrong with it or bad tasting but if you want something like it, just get a green chai.

My Rating:  Pass.

Maragret's is a tea retailer in the Squirrel Hill district of Pittsburgh.

Hawthorn Tea and What the Hell Did I Buy!?

A week or so ago, I ordered an "oolong sampler" from Red Leaf Tea since it had a lot of oolongs and other teas that I wanted to try and was $14.99 for 12 teas.  Well, I received the teas and fun fact, the vast majory of them do not have any English on them.  Thankfully, Red Leaf Tea has a nice guide on their website as to what everything is, but I still wish I would have gotten something with labels on it or at least a list.

Hawthorn Fruits are little crabapple looking fruits that are used in many cultures except the United States.  I've unknowingly had them before as this candy called Haw Flakes, which is a bit like a fruit leather and tastes like a cross between strawberries and prunes.  Apparently, traditional Chinese Medicine uses it as a digestive aid.

Outsides:  When you open up the packet, it looks like a bunch of cut-open berries (which is exactly what they are).  I added the entire packet to 8 ounces of boiling water but I have no idea is that's what I'm supposed to do.  The liquid has a slight pink tint to it and smells like prunes.

Insides:  Honestly, this just tastes like sour water with very little other flavors or scents going on with it.  I tried ripping up the fruit a bit more to see if it does anything, but one thing I will tell you is that the fruit pretty much just tastes like a sour prune.  After forgetting about it overnight, I will say that it does taste a bit more fruity but it's mostly just sour water.

Tilt:  I don't know how much this is if you find it although I have seen haw candies at our big Asian store and they're pretty cheap.  Obviously, I don't care for this but I'm sure the fresh fruit would be nice to use in a preserve or pie for a bit of a sour kick to balance out something sweet like strawberries or maybe some apples.  It does taste a bit better cold.

Overall:  I'm not a fan.

My Rating:  Pass.

Red Leaf Tea sells an obscene amount of flavored Matchas and other teas.

Trader Joe's Bali Blue Moon coffee

 

A few months ago, I traded in my Keurig for a much more practical two-cup (16 oz) french press, partially because K-cups were a waste of money and partially because I heard that french presses were one of the best ways to brew coffee.   Since then, I've become pretty good at using it, developing a system even more precise than the way I brew my tea and trying out some sample blends at the supermarket.  I also went to Trader Joes and ended up getting two of their coffees, the Joe blend and Bali Blue Moon.  The Bali was supposed to be a gift for my boyfriend's brother but I figured it would be a good thing to try out.

Outsides:  Bali Blue Moon is labled as a medium roast that is very full-bodied, rich and smooth and supposed to make a clean, smooth cup of coffee with a chocolaty finish.  The cool thing about Trader Joes coffees is that you grind them in store (or buy them whole bean and grind them at home), so they should have a lot of flavor when you take them home.  At first, the coffee smells robust and sweet but then you're hit with a slightly pungent bitter smell.  I've had to play around with the press method for making this a few times but best way I've found is adding 3 tablespoons for 8-10 oz of water, starting the timer at 4 minutes right before you pour in the water and making sure you press down at 30 seconds (if you want to make 16 oz, use 5 tablespoons).  I like drinking my coffee with a foam so that's what you see there.  The sweetness in the smell is still there as well as the bitterness, but the rich robust smell isn't as...robust.

Insides:  First off, this is a bit of a pain to press.  I usually add 2 tablespoons for 8 oz and start my 4 minute timer after I put on the lid, but that resulted in it tasting weak yet bitter.  I think I got it right this time as it does taste like something that's drinkable.  It has a sweet top note with a touch of roasty malted flavor but is quickly followed by a harsh bitterness that I just can't get rid of.  As for the claims on the package, the aftertaste does remind me of dark chocolate but it really does lack smoothness and has a medium body to it.

Tilt:  This was one of the more expensive coffees at Trader Joes being $8.99 for 13 oz.  Although this isn't a bad price for coffee, you do have to use more coffee per cup to make something acceptable (this was true with the Joe blend as well but at least that one is cheap as dirt).  I mean, this is just bad.  I can't give any reccomendations on what to do with it.  It's too light to be used for iced coffee but too bitter for anything else.  It might be good to someone who likes Starbucks though.

Overall:  I was skeptical of the brother's taste in a lot of things but hearing this was his favorite blend from Trader Joes just put another nail of the coffin for me.  Someone just take this away from me!  Blegh.

My Rating:  Pass.

Trader Joes coffee can be bought at Trader Joes in America (and I think it's Aldi Sud in Europe).  Coincidentally, they offer a full refund on their products which is actually quite nice.  The cookie butter they sell there is pretty amazing.

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.

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).  

Celestail Seasoning Lemon Zinger Herbal Tea (K-cup review)

So, I haven't done one of these in a while mostly because I just don't use any of my K-cups.  I got a Celestial Seasonings Tea variety pack and so, well, I need to drink them.  These have pretty much been laying on my counter since July.

Outsides:  A standard K-cup.  I brewed it like I brew all the other K-cups.  The liquid is red and it smells like fake lemon.

Insides:  This tastes like citric acid (the stuff that makes things sour).  Citric Acid and fake lemon flavor.  Now, I got this without any ingredients but it tastes drastically different from the zingers I've had from celestial in that it's more sour and doesn't have that sweet scent of rosehips to go with it.  That being said, this is not the worst tea I've had for the Keurig.  It's still pretty bad though.

Overall:  Just buy the normal Lemon Zinger and save 6 bucks.

My Rating:  Pass.

Celestial Seasonings and K-cups can be found in pretty much any grocery or department store.  They are expensive and the quality of the tea is....terrible, but they are easy to find so no link for you.  

Zen Tea Anti-Strain Herbal Tea

I'm going to assume Anti-Strain is supposed to be the Canadian Tension Tea.  I don't really drink normal tension tea, but figured I'd try a bag.  Plus, I've had too much caffeine already and don't want to be up forever.

Outsides:  This tea contains cinnamon, licorice, ginger, fennel, orange peel and cardamon and i have to say, it smells amazing, like a sweet and spicy chai tea.  I put a teaspoon and a half in 8 oz of boiling water and let it sit for 5 minutes.  The tea is the normal yellow herbal color (It's funny how many herbal teas get that color) and still smells amazing.  This also apparently supports the Dosha "vata" in accordance to Ayuvedic teachings, which I know very little about.

Insides:  Well, this smells great and it might possibly taste great except for the smack in your face of weird sweetness that is the licorice.  Is there supposed to be that much licorice in accordance to Ayuvedic principals, because the aftertaste is riddiculous.  Putting aside the licorice, which is pretty near impossible, the herbs used are the spicy sweet kind and the tea has a nice brightness to it.  But you better like licorice.

Overall:  Works great as an air freshener, not as a drink.

My Rating:  Pass.

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

Zen Tea Cape Town Flavored Rooibos

So, I ordered from Zen Tea all of TWO DAYS ago and just got their order.  WOW!  Anyway, I bought a crap-ton of sample-sized teas as well as a few bigger ones, so you guys are going to get a lot of reviews for their stuff.  This is the only Rooibos I bought though because quite frankly, Rooibos is a pain in the ass to clean up and although I like it, it's not something I reach for often.  This one seemed interesting in that it had floral blossoms and is quite colorful with blue and red and pink flowers inside the rusty orange base of the rooibos.

Outsides:  Cape Town Rooibos contains rooibos (duh), hibiscus, rose and blue mallow blossoms and marigold.  Despite this, there are not many other colors in the leaves other than rust, but it's still rather pretty and the occasional blue flower really adds to that.  I brewed about a teaspoon and a half of this in about 8 oz of boiled water for at least 5 minutes, but I didn't really keep time.  The tea is a clear rust orange color and smells like normal rooibos with a hint of sweet floral.

Insides:  So, rooibos is not really my thing but even with that being said, this is definitely a higher-quality rooibos.  Sometimes, a cheap rooibos will taste a bit like seaweed or dirt, but this one has a medium body, vanilla undertone and sweet floral notes.  That being said, this is not really that exciting for me.  The floral touch is nice but not really making it worth it for me.  I can't deny that this is decent quality and if you need some rooibos, this is not a bad base for adding juice to.

Overall:  Meh.  I'd say try it because it's cheap and not bad quality but you don't need to bend over backwards for it.

My Rating:  Pass/Try it (I need to think of a word for this).

Zen Tea is a tea retailer that specializes in mid to high quality teas.  They're having a 50% off sale until December 24th, so now is the time to try.

Yogi Ginger Tea

So, I've had this tea since....a long time.  Probably not as long as I've had the other Yogi tea at my house, but still a fairly substantial amount of time.  Since this is Ginger tea, it is supposed to aid with digestion and I've just never needed help with that in the last few months so it's been laying in my cupboard for a few weeks now.  I also enjoy ginger and have to try this sometime :/

Outside:  The tea is in an individually foil wrapped envelope with your average tea sachet with string inside.  Ingredients are all organic and include ginger, lemongrass, licorice, peppermint (which you can smell very strongly) and black pepper, so expect spicy and sweet.  I boiled about 8 oz of water and am letting the bag sit in it for 5+ minutes since this is an herbal and I just don't care.  The color is not a typical ginger tea color in that it's an opaque medium yellow as opposed to the light color that comes from ginger.  It smells like peppermint tea.

Insides:  Why did I have apprehension about trying this tea?  Because this is clearly supposed to be medicine as opposed to a fully enjoyable beverage.  It comes in and tastes a bit like peppermint but then burns as it goes down your esophagus and leaves an aftertaste of licorice.  I feel as though I'm in the wrong state of mind while reviewing this and would be much more helpful if I was hung over.  But, I feel as though I am not giving as accurate of a description of the flavor as I should so here it is.  Each herb has a component to the flavor.  The peppermint gives a nice head to what would be a flavorless beginning, the licorice adds a nice sweetness, the lemongrass gives a nice citrus hint, and the ginger and pepper burn when they go down.  There!

Overall:  This is not a tea for enjoying but possibly a good cure for a hangover.

My Rating:  Pass on flavor, try while hungover.

Yogi Tea is a nice organic tea company that specializes in holistic medicine.

Adagio Holiday Stocking Stuffers Review

The cute little tins

These are pretty similar to the other tiny tins I have, although the Adagio ones are slightly bigger

  

To give you some background, I got this giftset during Black Friday weekend when they were offering free shipping.  I honestly felt a bit ambivalent about the holiday blends since they were all black tea and the only two that seemed unique were the Chestnut and the Pumpkin Spice, but I figured it was a good way for me to see what Adagio had to offer.  Plus, I'm a sucker for cute little tines.

This is a sampler set so don't expect a lot of tea in each tin.  It's $14 for 6 ounces, which is a bit overpriced but you are getting reusable tins.  There's also a teabag option but it's 30 teabags for $14 so that's pretty exorbitant.  You can probably get 8 cups per tin so it's a pretty good sized sample but not something that would last too long (unless you're like me and have way too many different varieties of tea to drink).

As a general note, I don't care for this black tea base.  It's not the worst black tea, I just find that it lacks flavor and gets bitter really fast.  These teas can only steep 3 or 4 minutes tops or else they'll become practically undrinkable.  The bigger issue i have is that the black tea just doesn't have as robust of a flavor as I'd like and expect for the price Adagio asks for their tea.  Maybe the black tea they have in stock isn't very fresh but there has been a consistent lack of....OOMPH to their product.  

Anyway, TO THE FLAVORS!

I did individual reviews on these but some of these ratings might be different since certain teas tend to grow on me.  For people who are new, Buy it is the top rating and means that I imagine the vast majority of people enjoying this and it's a good value, Try it means that it's good but you shouldn't really go out of your way to get it (I'll have Try/Buy as well which basically means Buy it if you need a tea like that, Try it if you don't), Pass is for a variety of different reasons but mostly because a tea is average in taste or you can find better value and taste elsewhere and Stay Away which means it's terrible.

Pumpkin Spice:  A nice blend of tea and spices, although I'm not 100% sure what is in pumpkin spice and Adagio doesn't really make it clear.  Although the flavor is mild, it's enjoyable in the fall and has a nice desert quality to it.  Try it!

Candy Apple:  I'm just going to add a picture below this of the ingredients because I have no idea what "Candy Apple Flavor" is supposed to mean, but it doesn't matter because this tea did not impress me.  Where was the apple flavor?  Pass.

Candy Cane:  I actually like this one as a mint black tea.  It has a nice, balanced peppermint flavor and is probably the best mint black tea I've had past putting homegrown mint in black tea.  Try it!

Chestnut:  Easily the standout favorite for me.  The nutty flavor might be strong for some people, but it has an almost buttery aroma and a wonderful warm flavor.  Buy it!

Cranberry:  While Chestnut was the favorite, this one was a big epic fail.  The Raspberry leaves added completely offset the flavor balance and make this tea taste more bitter than the other ones.  Plus, it doesn't even taste like cranberries, just a BAD raspberry tea.  Stay Away!

Gingerbread:  The negative sounding but not necessarily negative way to describe this is a weak non-spicy chai.  It's a nice spiced black tea but not incredibly unique.  Pass.

Overall, I feel a bit meh about this set.  The tins are nice and I'll certainly be using them after I finish (or in some cases, throw away) the tea but you can buy tins for less money.  I'd recommend getting samples of the teas you want the buy (especially Chestnut) but you or whoever you're getting this for probably doesn't need this set.

My Rating (for the whole set):  Pass.

Adagio is an online tea vendor with a wide variety of products.  They have a lot of $5 coupons floating around and if you feel like getting one, my twitter is @teaandpolish.  

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.

Adagio's Candy Apple Black Tea

To me, this is the anomaly in the Adagio Holiday Stocking Stuffer collection because I honestly don't associate candy apples with October to January.  I love candy apples, but they're something that I buy at amusement parks and the fair.  However, I did eat a candy apple a few weeks ago.  There's an Italian grocery store near my school which sells cheap produce and really good deserts.  I was buying some $1 pomegranates when I saw some candy apples at the counter for $1.50 so I bought one but much to my surprise and dismay, the apple was all brown inside :(.  That being said, I always get a candy apple when I see one so hopefully this tea will satiate my need.

Outsides:  Ok Adagio, what the heck is Candy Apple Flavor supposed to be?  I really dislike it when companies put these flavors instead of proper ingredients.  The Punpkin Spice flavored tea did the same thing and honestly, I don't know exactly what flavors go into pumpkin spice.  I stepped this for 5 minutes at near boiling water.  It's pretty much the same color as the Candy Cane tea but has the aroma of cinnamon and fruit.

Insides:  As shocking as this may sound (sarcasm), this tea does not taste like a candy apple but rather is an excuse for Adagio to package an apple cinnamon tea.  That being said, it's not that extraordinary.  The cinnamon flavor pokes through but only brings a little bit of the apple flavor with it, having the black tea completely overtake the flavor.  Adding cream helps a little in terms of bringing out the apple flavor but it really isn't as strong as Prestogeorge's (which apparently, I havent' reviewed yet).  It's not bad, just leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Overall:  Drinkable, but nothing you should purchase on it's own.

My Rating:  Pass.

Adagio is a fancy online tea retailer that has a wide variety of flavors.  I got this included in the Holiday Stocking Stuffers set which has 6 oz of tea for $14.

TasTEA Time! Tazo Awake (black tea)

What's this?  A bagged tea?  That's right, I'm back with some tea I stole...I mean borrowed from the local hospital cafeteria.  It just so happens that they have about 6 different kinds of Tazo, so that's what I'll be reviewing.  Awake seems to be the company's breakfast blend and a rather boring black tea.

Outsides:  The tea is in a nice foil-lined bag.  It was brewed at almost boiling water for about 4 minutes.  As you can see, this tea is dark and murky, so it's probably an Assam blend and even smells like one.

Insides:  Oh Tazo, you and your mediocrity.  I think Twinnings may make a more flavorful breakfast blend than you, which isn't saying much.  It's bitter, not unbearably so but moreso than the loose-leaf teas I got from Prestogeorge or Adagio, but it DOES have a tea flavor.  If I have to profile it, I'd say bitter with a bit of musk and that's it.  Ugh, just...no.  You can get better tea at 1/3 of the cost and I'm not even talking loose-leaf.  There is nothing special here and I'm probably going to give my stolen...I MEAN BORROWED, tea away.

Overall:  You'll be getting better tea from Twinnings or Biglow.

My Rating:  Pass/Burn it!

I don't feel like putting up the link but Tazo can be found everywhere so it doesn't even matter.  

TasTEA Time! Adagio's Chocolate Chai Black Tea

I actually don't have much of an intro to this other than I make chocolate chai tea concentrate so unfortunately, Adagio has that to live up to.

Outsides:  I figured I'd show you the bags these things come in.  Chocolate chai has all the typical ingredients of chai PLUS CHOCOLATE so yum yum.  I steeped it in almost boiling water for...4 or 5 minutes, which is longer than Adagio wants but I like my chai spices strong.  It's a orange brown color but I'll be reviewing it with cream because that's how most people drink it.  It smells not unlike gingerbread.

Insides:  I'm not really impressed.  The chocolate flavor is there so that's nice, but the chai base is just not as strong as I was hoping for.  It's not really that spicy and honestly, even the chocolate flavor doesn't add much to the taste.  It's still not bad but I'd reccommend the Thai Chai over this any day.

Overall:  Meh.  I'm glad I got this in a sample. 

My Rating:  Pass.

Adagio is one of the most reputable online tea dealers.  They have a lot of different varieties and even have free shipping until cyber monday.  If you go on my Twitter @teaandpolish, I try and send out $5 gift certificate codes every day.

K-cup Review: Gloria Jean Butter Toffee

Gloria Jean is one of the more famous flavored K-cup makers (and apparently makes legitimate coffee items like French Presses) and have extra bold blends as well as neat flavors like Butter Toffee and Mudslide.  I have their Hazelnut coffee to review but was just curious about this one.  Toffee is pretty much the crunchy version of caramel and I love caramel!

Outsides:  Your average K-cup.  This smells really nice, like a candy or cake.

Insides:  Meh.  It's ok, but I feel like other companies do flavored coffee better.  For one thing, the coffee's really weak.  It's like I'm drinking caramel-scented water.  The flavoring is nice, sweet smelling and...there, but there really isn't much to say other than this is not a flavored coffee. 

Overall:  If you know someone who doesn't like coffee, they might like this (with creamer and sugar), but for people who want real flavored coffee (in this variety), check out Wolfgang Puck Caramel Cream Single Cup Coffee Pods,.  Just pass on this one.

My Rating:  Pass.  Here's a product site:  Keurig K-Cup 18-Pk. Gloria Jean's Butter Toffee Coffee

TasTEA Time! Loyd Green Tea with Lemon

Here's tea number 2 from a company that seems to be the Polish version of Lipton.  Here's the thing about green tea from companies that aren't Asian; they have a statistically higher chance of being sub-par in terms of tea quality.  There are exceptions (Dilmah, which has a delightfully warm and full-bodied green tea), but I'm not surprised if people dislike green tea after only having the Euromerican version.  Plus they're adding lemon to it, which I'm just going to say it, lemon kills off a lot of green tea flavor.  Lemon is often used to disguise bad tea from being bad, it replaces an acid found in tea with a tastier acid.  People always add it to tea, but if you have a good tea, you don't need to add it.  But enough of my ranting, let's try the tea.

Outsides:  It's your average medium gold green tea color and...how can i put this?  The tea smells like lemon Pine-Sol.  It's way too....citrusy to smell natural.

Insides:  The lemon flavor kills it.  The tea isn't horrible tasting, mostly sweet with very little bitterness.  It's your average drugstore tea.  But dear gawd, that lemon flavor is overkill.  You could probably mop up your floors with that stuff and expect a nice lemon scent afterwards.  It's really too much, and I've had this open for a while.  

Overall:  I guess if you REALLY like lemon, give this a try.  But for the average person, stay away and stick with something else.  

My Rating:  Pass.  Here's a site:  Loyd Green Tea Lemon

TasTEA Time! Tea Forté Cucumber Mint Green Tea

The second of the free samples I've received, this is the most interesting one.  For one thing, how exactly do you incorporate cucumber into tea?  However, this tea is for youth recovery and has the added ingredient of blueberries to increase the amount of antioxidants within the tea.  

An interesting note from Alex from RateTea.com/fellow Blogger:  Tea Forte actually lists the country and region origin of the tea they use.  To me, this doesn't justify the price especially for the quality they provide, but it is pretty neat and I'd love to see other companies follow this model.  

Outsides:  The individual sachet is packaged in a plastic/cellophane material.  It's your average gold green tea color and smells slightly like vodka.  I'm assuming that this is because the blueberry and mint mixed together in such a way, but it's still pretty strange.

Insides:  Well, the mint only lends a little to the flavor.  I feel as though this tea was made only for people who want nice skin as opposed to people who want an interesting flavor.  It's not a terrible quality tea, just not what the retail price suggests it should be.  The flavor combination is interesting but is more noticeable in the smell than the taste.  There is only a hint of the mint and no other real flavor.

Overall:  Wow, today is not a good tea day.  It's not that I consider this tea bad and for all I know, this could make my 23 year old skin look like 18 year old skin, but I just judge these things on taste and this one is pretty....meh.  It's not exciting, it's only interesting because of the smell and if you want good green tea, you can get something cheaper than this.

My Rating:  Pass (unless you want more youthful skin):  Here's the site:  Tea Forte.  

TasTEA Time! Snapple Berry Herbal Tea

So, Snapple doesn't make tea-bags anymore, but they used to.  I actually like Snapple since it's cheap, they have fun flavors and their tea is generally pretty good.  It's not top-quality by any means, but it's enjoyable if you like fruity tea.  Also, I'm a huge fan of berry tea.  I am going to warn you that this is old tea so the flavor is probably going to be impacted, but it was inside a cellophane sealed box, so hopefully it isn't too bad.  

Outsides:  It's a paper wrapped sachet.  The tea is dark and purple colored with the smell of strawberries and blueberries.

Insides:  I think at one time, this was a nice herbal tea.  The berry flavor is still strong and you taste a few herbs in there.  But this is old tea and you can tell it's old tea.  Whatever tea background was there has only a hint of flavor left.  There's something that tastes like licorice and doesn't go too well with the berry flavor.  But still, it's not the worst old tea I've had.

Overall:  This one wasn't my favorite of the Snapple tea bags, but it's not terribly bad.  Honestly, I'd kinda like Snapple to bring these tea bags back.  Still, if you see someone selling this on eBay or something, don't buy it.

My Rating:  Pass.  Here's the Snapple site:  Snapple inc.  

K-cup Reviews: celestial Seasonings southern sweet black iced tea

Oh goodie, we have another Brew Over Ice...thing.  I figured I'd try a tea this time and in general, I like Celestial Seasonings.  The quality of the tea isn't the best but they really excel in their flavorings and offering a great variety.  Plus, their normal tea makes great iced tea.  Now, I'm not the biggest fan of sweet tea and I'm curious whether this variety is sweetened or unsweetened (the K-cup feels like it's full of powder or grans), but I'm willing to give it a try.

Like the other Brew Over Ice variety, I brewed it, waited for the liquid to cool and then added the ice.

Outsides:  It's your fairly standard K-cup.  The outside is a dark black tea that smells like tea that I don't really want to drink.  It smells like tea you'd get from someone who doesn't know how to brew good tea, full of chemicals and like it's just too strong.  

Insides:  First off, it is slightly sweetened.  To me, it's sweetened pretty perfectly, still being sweet but not overpowering or syrupy.  Now, the tea part is awful.  It's bitter, as in all I can really taste is the sugar and bitter.  The tea is a blend of Assam and the dumpster.  It does have a bit of fragrence to it, but this is not something anybody who's tried decent tea would drink.  Oh, and it's like 60 cents to make a CUP of this.  A SMALL CUP!  Most people can make at least a pitcher full of sweet tea with that money.

Overall:  Now, I've had sweet tea that was too sweet and could still tell was quality tea.  This isn't TOO sweet and I can tell that it's crap.  You know what, save your money from getting these K-cups and make your own put of sweet tea.  Use Lipton Tea Bags or  Seasonings if you want.  It'll be better than this.

My Rating;  Pass.  Here's the Link:  Keurig K-Cup Celestial Seasonings Southern Sweet Iced Tea, 16-Pack

K-cup Review: Timothy's Decaf Columbian

You know, I keep avoiding decaf coffees.  It's not that I find them bad, I just always figued that coffee = caffeine and that was the end of it.  But today after work, I really wanted a cup of coffee.  Normally, I wouldn't care whether it had caffeine or not, but I have to wake up at 7 to go back to my job so staying up until 3 would cause me to have a bad time.  Timothy's is the same brand responsible for the Kahlua coffee, so it would be interesting to see how they handle dark roasts.

Outsides:  A blue K-cup but nothing out of the ordinary.  The coffee is dark and actually smells very smokey and rich, which is a good sign.

Insides:  I am going to preface this by telling you two things that may have affected the taste of this without being the coffee's fault.  1)  My machine stalled.  Occasionally, my machine will not spit out coffee like it's supposed to and will store extra water in it's container or something.  This normally doesn't effect the taste unless it adds the extra water, but I think I replaced the cup in time to prevent that.  2)  I only have non-dairy creamer.  Like, powder creamer.  It works great for tea but I prefer using half-and-half for coffee.

That all being said, this tastes really acidic to me.  Oh, it's slightly smokey and actually pretty sweet, but it also tastes like someone added some lemon juice to the coffee.  I know some people like coffee like this (Starbucks has a business selling it) but I prefer sweet or smokey flavors over the harsh flavor of acid.  But you know what, this is in every sample pack they put out for the Keurig.  Try it for yourself because maybe I screwed up.

Overall:  I don't care for it.  I drank it and maybe it's my fault it tastes so awful, but I don't recommend getting this.

My Rating:  Pass.  Here's the site:  Timothy's