Brew La La Tea

My throw-it-in-the-fridge-with-a-lemon jag continues. After squeezing and zesting a lemon to attempt homemade pesto yesterday, I tossed the squoze-out fruit in a jar with a couple bags of this cheap, but serviceable green tea.

Quality green teas don’t usually cold steep well for me, but cheapies do fine. There’s enough flavor in the base you can tell it’s a green tea, but it isn’t bitter; the strawberry leans toward candy flavor, but isn’t unpleasantly artificial.

It was kind of a Gift of the Magi Mother’s Day…I have a lovely basket of new tea that I’ve been gloating over all afternoon, but it was so sticky and humid that nothing but iced would do. I’ll just have to wait till the rain moves through.

Yesterday, I pulled out this little green/strawberry blend that has proven to be un-finicky and fridge friendly and started it in a mason jar. Added half a lemon and the juice from the can of pineapples we grilled for lunch. Results? Semi-sweet pine-lemon-berry green tea chiller. Not bad for a random assembly!

The forecast for the next week is “120% percent humidity with a 90% chance of bug bites.” So…mason jars at the ready, I’ve got several batches of cold brew chilling in the fridge.

This is an especially pleasant one: hadn’t tried it cold yet. The strawberry flavor leans to the sweet end of the spectrum, but the green tea base adds a little garden freshness and it really does remind me of Mom’s homemade strawberry jam. Wish I had a jar right now.

Without rubbing it in to my friends who are currently freezing, we’ve warmed up, thawed out, and the sunshine coming through the window is actually warm. I’m soaking up the photons while I can … another cold snap coming in a couple days. So in keeping with the weather, I’ve lightened up the tea as well.

I had never heard of Brew La La before trying this tin of strawberry tea. (I see several other reviews for different varieties now that I’ve hunted a little.) It’s bagged, the green tea base is grocery-store grade, but the strawberry flavoring actually leans toward strawberry instead of candy or ice cream topping. Light and cheerful.

Well, whaddya know? Life goes on, and sometimes you find a plausible replacement for your favorite cheap strawberry tea. Husband stumbled onto this on a Thursday Tuesday Morning run and it was waiting for me on the kitchen table when I got home.

Nothing complex about it—recognizable strawberry flavor just short of the candy/syrupy end of the spectrum with a light gift-grade, green tea base. Decent tea. In the absence of Lake Wobegon, let’s call it the Turkey Creek of teas, where the women are strong, the men are thoughtful, and all the cats are far above average. (Only in my neighborhood, instead of a black cat crossing your path while you’re out on a walk, you get a banty chicken crossing the road instead :) Do I know how to ramble on or what?

A relative bought me a big tin of this for Christmas. I would never be able to finish 50 bags of the same caffeinated tea, so I passed it along to my sisters, but first I tried a bag. I actually do like this quite a lot and would totally drink a decaf version of it. The green tea is nice and light and fits really well with the peach flavor. I really don’t taste any ginger, but that’s all right. It’s a nice peach flavor and really a lovely, light blend.

I picked this up because I love fruity teas. As I poured the hot water over the tea sachet, I was immediately able to smell the scent of blueberries.
I do wish the actual taste of blueberries was stronger though – I was able to better smell them than taste them which I was a bit disappointed by. Nonetheless, the taste of the green tea is strong, and I do like it.

Oh yummmmmm. So light and flowery! Low-maintenance brew, too. Drank it black, although some rock sugar and a splash of milk would have made this just about heaven in a cup.

This is the second offering from Brew La La that I’ve tried. The first being the Acai Green and now this Pomegranate Green one. I’m getting the impression that Brew La La knows what they’re doing when it comes to green tea. Always light, always refreshing, perfectly balanced and never bitter. They also cram a ton of tea bags in their tin so you don’t have to worry about running out anytime soon. Here, the pomegranate flavour tastes natural and isn’t cloying. I bought both of my Brew La La (I just love saying that, can you tell?! haha) tins at Winners for a great price.I haven’t seen anymore anywhere else since but if I ever spot it again, I will be sure to pick more up. For someone like me who loves green tea, this brand is a delightful treat!

This is good! Mild and smooth. Never bitter no matter how long you steep it. Green tea with a nice, fruity kick. I’m not sure what acai is supposed to taste like but it reminds me of blueberry. I like it!

Got this on my Winner’s shopping trip, and I must admit…for a bagged tea, this is pretty darn good.

I have no idea what an acai berry tastes like, so I can’t exactly speak to the authenticity of the flavour. What flavour it did have was yummy. Berry, crisp, fruity, not at all artificial-tasting. Yum. The green tea base was also good; not bitter, not overly grassy, didn’t leave a funky after-taste in my mouth. Also yum.

The downside of the packaging: 25 bags are packaged in a sealed foil baggie, but the bags are loose inside the baggie. So this means if you don’t drink the tea quickly, it will get really stale really quickly. I like the tin, but it’s certainly not air-tight. I would much prefer to have every bag individually wrapped. Not as good for transport; you can’t just chuck a bag in your purse (or put one in your pocket) and run off to a meeting. Too bad.

Verdict: great price, so would probably buy again if it was available. I would also consider trying other flavours since this one is so good.

Still on the quest for the perfect red velvet tea. Did you know red velvet is one of my favorite things? Well, you do now! I was a little nervous to see that these teabags were so small, but good things can come in small packages, right? The scent of this blend is very much rooibos with a hint of something tart in the background — not sure if I can say it’s hibiscus or raspberry. I’m worried that it’s not going to be the red velvet tea I want after all.

Sipping… well, this is definitely not red velvet cake for me at least. There is a strong rooibos flavor followed by a nice cherry note. Surprisingly, the hibiscus is not very present except maybe in adding some tartness to the cherry. The thing that I don’t like about this tea is that the flavors fade very fast. Nothing lingers and it’s as if the tea gives everything up for you to enjoy for only a second. On the other hand, the cherry is not artificial enough to bother me, so it’s very drinkable. I do think that I will continue to drink this tea, as it is a nice rooibos and cherry blend, but it’s not a repurchase.

I am not a fan of this tea. It has a nice minty scent. The flavor is like water with a slight mint flavor. It has a nice smooth flavor. It was just a bit too weak for my taste buds.