Fusion Teas

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82
drank Honey Mead Black by Fusion Teas
4170 tasting notes

I like the days when I barely wake up in the morning and know exactly which tea I’m craving.  And remember exactly which tea it actually is, even if I have only had it twice.  This is that tea and I didn’t even write a tasting note for it yet!  This is older now, but it’s a bright orange brew that has the sweet taste of cherries.  I was worried they were going to ruin it with bee pollen, but they didn’t.  It also doesn’t really taste like honey or mead.  Not that I know what mead tastes like.Maybe more like a cherry infused syrup or something.    I made sure to get a big dried cherry into the infuser for this tasting note!  I crave this once in a while, but it’s not the best tea I have ever had.
Steep #1// 1 1/2 teaspoons // 23 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

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This definitely has a raspberry scent to it. The flavor is kind of flat. There are a lot of base notes without the high notes that convey fruits and berries. Maybe it’s the chocolate flavor that is making it flat? I can pick out the raspberries, but it’s not the bright almost perfume like flavor that I’ve had in french teas. The raspberry is reminiscent of AQ2T blend with raspberries, but I don’t recall which one. I recall liking that blend, but this one feels more clunky and unharmonious with the flavors. The sip starts out flat, then is tart for a second, the flatness dissipates in the finish where the berry comes out with a little chocolate. Not into this.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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drank Black Cherry Black by Fusion Teas
1711 tasting notes

Trying this cold steeped despite the hot steep horror. It’s a lot better, but I hesitate to say it’s good or enjoyable. It smells very artificial cherry and a little of that comes out in the flavor, but there is some authentic cherry taste too mixed in with over the top maraschino. It’s very tart, which I dislike. The alkaline dusty taste isn’t nearly as strong as when hot. With how tart it is I’d have to add a bunch of sugar to make this enjoyable and at that point I might as well be drinking cherry soda.

Preparation
Iced

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drank Black Cherry Black by Fusion Teas
1711 tasting notes

How did I miss that hibiscus is in the top three ingredients when ordering this?! I’m certainly not missing it in the cup. It is very cherry like, but then the tart hib kicks in and then a very strong alkaline flavor that I see someone else described as dust, which also fits. This is going right into the get rid of bin and dumping the cup.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Having another cup of this and I think I’m done. It’s going to the get rid of bag. It’s not that it’s a bad tea, it’s just not a great tea and I don’t have time or cupboard space for ok tea. There is a little bit of roasted coconut taste that merges in with something vaguely sweeter like a hint of caramel. Not getting any salt and I wish the flavors were more intense.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec
AJRimmer

I get that completely. At the moment, most of my tins are filled with teas I feel pretty eh about, and I need to do the work of deciding which ones to power through and which I should just pass along.

Dustin

Same! I have a bag of “get rid of teas” and I feel like there is probably a lot more I could put in it.

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This smells very coconut/chocolatey. I just finished pancakes with maple syrup, so I’m having to let my tastebuds readjust. The sip is smooth with a slight tang, but doesn’t have much going on. The finish is where the chocolate coconut flavors come out. I’m having a hard time getting the salt part, but I imagine salt is hard to distribute easily throughout a blend and has a tendency to sink to the bottom making for a salty last cup. My mouth is left with a dry feeling after each sip. This is a nice cup, but so far not something I’d rebuy.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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drank Passion Fruit by Fusion Teas
1711 tasting notes

This tea smells so good! Bright passion fruit scent. My first few sips when steeped were tart. Way to tart. Now that the cup has cooled a little the tartness doesn’t seem as shocking, but it’s still there. The sip is tart, almost a lemony sensation and the passion fruit flavor is hard to find. Right after the sip there is a flatness that I liken to cardboard that kicks in for a few seconds, then the finish alternates in some aromatic passion flavor. As this is, I feel like it’s missing something. One of my early EG experiences that opened up my EG curiosity was a passion fruit EG by Lupicia. It was part of their Hawaii blends line and they discontinued it shortly after I fell for it. I might try mixing some of this with an EG to see if that rounds things out a bit. Or maybe try it cold steeped. I’m not impressed for far, but I haven’t given up on it’s potential either.

Update: Adding Lupicia’s Breakfast EG to this cup and a little cream made it really nice.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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After reading the description of this tea, I think they totally missed the mark. I do get an almond vanilla like flavor, but it’s flat and gets a little bitter as it cools. When I think of roasted nuts in the winter I think of cinnamon spiced nuts if they aren’t chestnuts, which I’ve only had plain. At winter fairs that I’ve been to the scent of cinnamon almonds roasting draws you to the source where you find someone roasting fresh almonds and pouring the hot almonds into a paper cone for anxious buyers. This tea is not that experience. The sip is bland with a little bitterness and the cardboard flatness while the finish is a little astringent with a nice almond vanilla aroma. There are so many other flavors that pair so well with almond, that I’d surprised they stopped short here. Lemon, orange, chocolate, coconut, cinnamon…. so many choices to round out and add more to this flavor profile. Into the reject pile it goes!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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drank 50-50 Delight by Fusion Teas
1711 tasting notes

What to drink while watching protesters storm the nations capitol? Something new while listening to all the conspiracy theorists rage on! I wonder if I’ll forever associate orange tea with unrest.

This is very orangey! I expected there to be chocolate in it since chocolate and strong orange seem to go hand in hand in tea, but there isn’t any here! There is something dark/deep tasting in this that balances the brighter notes of the orange nicely in the way that chocolate does. There is a dry mouth sensation after each sip that I’m not into. I think I like this tea, but further investigation is needed!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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drank Pumpkin Rooibos by Fusion Teas
1711 tasting notes

This did not taste like pumpkin at all. It tasted like hot buttered rum. It was good, just unexpected and it took me a minute to work out the flavors I was tasting.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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drank Lemon Meringue by Fusion Teas
1711 tasting notes

First time trying a Fusion tea and I’m loving it! It’s light and lemony without the citrus bite. It reminds me a lot of a favorite Butiki blend, but without the almond flavoring in it. I wonder if I can add that. I got a sample size of this, but will have to order more. It even held up to a forgetful oversteeping.

This cup is contrasting greatly with the rest of my day. I think I programmed my kiln cycle incorrectly and hope my castings turn out despite my error. That was after we woke up to a dead pet. The tiny roommates are pretty crushed. We all have jerk bird holes in our hearts now. Can heart holes be filled with tea? Only one way to find out. Hold my kettle…

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 6 min, 0 sec
Lexie Aleah

I’ve been wanting to place an order with them! I’ve only tried their Roasted Pumpkin Mate tea and that one was really good.

Tiffany :)

Roasted Pumpkin Mate & Lemon Meringue both sound good.

gmathis

Lemon Cream by CuppaGeek also has that non-tart lemony thing going. Sorry to hear about the pet—those critters take up a lot of real estate in your heart.

Mastress Alita

hugs for the lost pet I would be a wreck without my comfort animal, so I understand. In 2019 I lost my cockatiel after 21 years and I still have that hole heart. It has healed a lot with time and the kitty that needed me as much as I needed her later that year. I hope you and yours get through the worst of it swiftly.

Dustin

I didn’t see a pumpkin mate when ordering, but I did get a pumpkin rooibos which I liked.
I haven’t tried any of CuppaGeek’s teas either!
Thanks, y’all. Loving and loss are part of the lessons pets teach us and I wanted the kids to learn about, but none of us expected the loss part to happen now. I’m sorry to hear about your cockatiel. That’s so rough.

ashmanra

I am so sorry about your bird!

tea-sipper

I’m sorry you guys lost your bird buddy.

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93

I loved this tea. I’m not a chai fan anymore, chai in general reminds me of those thick colored pencils for some reason - I had a sample of this one. THIS chai is delicious, warming, autumn. The pumpkin is not strong and is a complementary flavor to support the other notes, as is right. I enjoyed this sample and immediately ordered a large bag from the company – it’s that good. The smell is incredible as well. Right now this is the only Chai I enjoy. Even if you’re not a pumpkin fan, you may still like this one.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Pumpkin, Spices

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C

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65

From StarFevre a while ago! Thanks!  I always wanted to try this one.  What a weird blend though – apple, actual vanilla, tons of hibiscus.  I don’t think there are any spices here, which I think “Turkish Apple” tea should have?  It seems a shame to use this expensive vanilla with hibiscus, but vanilla was much cheaper back when this blend was made.  Hardy har har.  The first steep was mostly tasting like hibiscus, but that went on the backburner for the second steep the next night and I was actually tasting some vanilla and apple.  It’s fine, probably better fresher, but the hibiscus was probably also much stronger?  That poor vanilla though….
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 10 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  5 minute steep

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30

I finished off my Caramel Chai Pu’erh sampler from Fusion Teas this morning, and since Dethlefsen & Balk has stopped producing it and that was where they were wholesaling it from, they have stopped carrying it; I’m a bit sad about that sipdown since I really enjoyed that particular chai.

I also have brewed up the entire sampler of this tea from Fusion Teas in a few cold brew mason jars, but despite my best efforts I couldn’t hunt down the wholesale source (I could find many strawberry oolongs, but they were all using infused flavor and didn’t include strawberry pieces or blue cornflower petals). So either Fusion is making some additions, or they have just managed to elude me on their sourcing… touche, Fusion, touche! You win this round.

I do have to say that compared to the Strawberry Oolong I get from TeaSource, I am not crazy about this one. It has a much stronger aroma, so one would think this would be quite flavorful, but there is just something about that flavor that just… doesn’t really appeal to me. It tastes too artificial to me, I think… or maybe there is just something about the natural notes of the oolong that is clashing with whatever flavoring has been added to the tea? I’m not sure exactly what the case may be, but something about the taste isn’t meshing for me. I’m getting a slightly acrid peach flavor mixed with a really artificial strawberry flavor, minus the sweetness you’d expect to accompany that sort of strawberry flavor; the vegetal smoothness of the base oolong at least holds through, and it would probably be a good, quality oolong, if this flavoring just wasn’t working for me.

There is a review by Pureleaf on this and I think I’m getting the same sort of flavor experience from this, only finding it a bit more unpleasant, personally. I’ll finish what I’ve steeped up in my water bottles, but am not going to miss it. And may even make a brew of my TeaSource Strawberry Oolong which has a softer but natural and tasty strawberry note added to a green oolong to wash this away.

Of course this one is still available for ordering, and it’s the one that won’t be missed. C’est la vie.

Flavors: Artificial, Biting, Bitter, Peach, Strawberry, Vegetal

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 9 g 32 OZ / 946 ML

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61
drank Apple Strudel by Fusion Teas
4170 tasting notes

From StarFevre! Thanks so much! I always wanted to try this one… though the resulting tea is less lovely than the name promises. I surely don’t expect hibiscus in anything called ‘Apple Strudel’. So that tanginess just ruins the cup. Hints of apple and cinnamon otherwise. And black currant? hmm. If the tangy ingredients were removed, this would be much better. Probably similar to Davids Forever Nuts. Just an odd combo of ingredients here.

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84

I finally added all the teas from StarFevre I received a while ago to my Steepster cupboard (again another BIG thank you for those!) Other than the lovely package from SkySamurai and a couple samples from Whispering Pines, I have not acquired any teas in 2019, so I’m doing GOOD so far! I knew I was doing good when I didn’t buy any of my beloved Coconut Banana Cream Pie tea that was recently reblended. That told me I can stay strong! That insane number of teas in my cupboard will be a big NO to any tea purchases, definitely. I need to work on my beloved, precious teas I already have! But I can’t refuse when other Steepsterers want to have a cupboard clear out and send me some things to try. :D But hopefully the cupboard never gets this ridiculous ever again. Yowzas.

This is exactly the tea I was craving today even though I’ve only had this tea once before… somehow I remembered it! Sadly, I only bought a sample from Fusion, but if I’m craving it, that must mean I should have ordered more. It sounded like a chutney tea to me. It has huge mango cubes with some pepper and what looks like two types of oolong: the long black wiry type but also the occasional dark green bundle. The smoke in the name probably scares people away, but it really isn’t that smoky. The fruit flavor is nice with only an occasional hint of spice. The sip is very smooth, like a syrup.. The second steep was the same. It KIND OF reminds me of 52Teas Smoky Butterscotch Peach? That would be the closest tea I’ve experienced anyway… This blend is fine, but I guess I imagine something even more delicious? More mango, more spice? I guess it’s tough to compete with what you WANT something to be. This is a great base to pair mango with though…. smooth, sweet & syrupy and never bitter…

Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 12 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min

tea-sipper

Also, I really am craving a ripe pu-erh… flavored with marshmallow. But somehow none exist? Then I’m wondering which is my best marshmallow tea to combine with a ripe pu-erh…..

tea-sipper

….meant to say, if anyone knows of any marshmallow pu-erh, or knows the pu-erh that tastes most like marshmallow?

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85
drank Amazon Spice Guayusa by Fusion Teas
168 tasting notes

5th day of the Sara Advent Tea Calendar! As soon as the hot water touched the leaf, the kitchen smelled like… is that the guayusa? It smells like tulsi!

It doesn’t taste that much like tulsi. But it does a tiny bit to me. It’s sweet and herby with a hint of spice, cinnamon? It tastes like warm goodness. Mmm.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Herbs, Tulsi

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 5 min, 0 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
Mastress Alita

Guayusa is a close cousin of yerba mate, the two caffeinated herbals from South America. I find guayusa to be a bit more naturally sweet than yerba mate, but they both taste sort of like gunpowder green tea to me — a sort of tobacco smoke, grassy green taste (I usually get sort of hay-like notes from both guayusa and yerba mate), with occassionally mild notes of coffee bean (I usually get more of the coffee notes if the leaf has been roasted, which it was not in this case).

Tulsi is an Indian basil that has three varieties, and usually when I encounter it in tea, they are typically using a blend of the three types rather than just one (krishna, rama, or vana). Krishna tulsi has more of a purple color and a taste described as being clove or pepper-like, rama tulsi has green leaves and a more mellow taste than the krishna variety, and the vana variety has light green leaves and is described as having a more citrus flavor. Tulsi to me typically tastes a little minty and a little citrusy with a peppery aftertaste (for a typical 3-varietal blend).

There is lemongrass in this, which would account for a lot of that herby, grassy citrus flavor.

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84
drank Roasted Pumpkin Mate by Fusion Teas
735 tasting notes

I got a sample of this from Mastress Alita! Thank you!

This seems like it’s going to be an interesting one. I usually strongly dislike mate, but this smells intriguing. Pumpkin spice with nutty toasted notes. I can smell the puffed rice and pumpkin seeds especially, paired with this scent I don’t have a name for, but smell often in Asian grocery stores. Hmm. Dunno what that is.

I didn’t realize this had stevia in it already. Oops. I added some before I saw that. Luckily it’s not a lot, so this didn’t get too crazy sweet. The flavor is surprising! It just tastes like pumpkin pie to me. Smooth, savory pumpkin with cinnamon and ginger’s warmth. But I also taste unmistakable graham cracker crust. There is a bit of rooibos flavor, which I’m not usually a fan of, but in this blend, it works. This tastes like it was baked in the oven in the best way. And I’m not getting a single mate note.

Here’s hoping the caffeine kicks in soon. (Unrelated: I unfollowed a ton of followers who haven’t posted in 3 years or longer… so now my Followers/Following looks super unbalanced. Hmm.)

Flavors: Cinnamon, Ginger, Graham Cracker, Nutty, Pumpkin, Roasted, Rooibos, Toasted, Toasted Rice, Toasty

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 30 sec 24 OZ / 709 ML
gmathis

(Unrelated … has anybody ever figured out how to make the followers who just want to sell you mattresses go away? I have several pages of those that I wish begone.)

Mastress Alita

gmathis: I post those type of Followers on the Spammers on Steepster thread on the forums.

gmathis

I’ve tried to do the same … just hard to keep up with them!

Nattie

I have one trying to sell me ‘little blue pills’ at the moment

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83

additional notes: Sipdown! I like this enough for a blackberry tea. The blackberry leaf isn’t too overpowering/cloying and the extra sweetness is nice from the “maple”. The blackberry flavoring certainly has lasted the last three years, so I would buy this again! Even better with two teaspoons. Rich and dark. My first choice would be 52Teas blackberry teas though. Not too many other blackberry teas out there… looks like S&V has one I should try.
2021 sipdowns: 73

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83

I bought this from Fusion a while ago, in fact I think it was last year’s Black Friday sale. I have a bunch of sample sizes I ordered because I love so many of Fusion’s teas, but to me, the new batches sometimes seemed like they tasted older than the YEARS old blends I still have in the cupboards. what the heck? I don’t know. This was a new to me blend, I had to try one that was maple and blackberry. I only used one teaspoon and there was about half a blackberry in my infuser. The black tea was fairly small, so I guess it was going to be a deep cup anyway. I prefer a deep black tea with blackberry flavor. I wouldn’t necessarily call the sweet flavor ‘maple’, but there was a lot of blackberry flavor. The black tea base is just okay, though I’m glad it wasn’t lighter. I’m also glad the blackberry leaves didn’t leave an off putting flavor. The second steep had an even deeper flavor, and still plenty of blackberry. Overall, it’s like a sweet blackberry black tea and I’m a fan.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

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88

Trick or Treat! This sampler is over a year old now, but the leaf still has a nice aroma that reminds me a bit of a Nestle Crunch Bar only with a sharper cocoa aroma rather than milk chocolate, and also some hints of nuttiness. It’s very pleasant. I really like the Roasted Pumpkin Mate blend by Fusion teas, and have been meaning to get around to trying some of the other mate blends from my sampler pack.

The flavor is nice, though the chocolate isn’t the rich fudgy sort of taste of the chocolate tea I had yesterday; it’s more of a cocoa flavor with some subtle bittersweet notes, and reminds me a lot of the taste of pure cocoa shells. The tea does have notes a strong roasted nuts note coming through from the roasted mate/toasted rice/almond combo, and a subtle coffee note from the barley/chicory, and both of these flavors compliment the cocoa taste nicely. The tea is overall quite sweet, and I believe that’s because some rooibos is added to the blend, because the sweetness tastes a bit honey or caramel like.

Overall, a really good mate blend, and those can be hard to find!

Flavors: Caramel, Cocoa, Coffee, Dark Bittersweet, Honey, Nutty, Roasted Nuts, Sweet

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 5 min, 0 sec 4 g 12 OZ / 350 ML

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77

I was pleasantly surprised by this tea-I was expecting it to just taste like rooibos but i can taste the toasted caramel flavor. It legit does taste like it sounds. You do get that slight woody rooibos flavor though. But overall it’s not bad! I don’t think the caramel is supposed to be super strong and sweet which makes sense but I like caramel teas that are strong and sweet so I don’t think this is for me-but glad I got to try it!

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92
drank Harmony Tulsi by Fusion Teas
1216 tasting notes

May Flowers! Time to work on another of my old Fusion Tea samplers. This is a tulsi/rooibos blend with lots of florals — chamomile, lavender, and rose — as well as a touch of ginger and cinnamon spices and some lemon verbena. Since I’ve been pretty interested in tulsi teas, I was pretty excited for this one!

It has a very unique scent; the rooibos comes out a lot, with a sort of sweet fruity/woody aroma, and there is a lot of sweetness and a hint of a citrus and pepper scent. Brewed, the aroma is a bit more mellow, coming out more of a honeyed rooibos scent, with some floral notes wafting from the cup. I really enjoy the flavor; the tea has a slightly nutty/woody taste to the base, but it is very sweet. There is a very noticeable minty note, and a somewhat subtle hint of spice that hits the back of the throat right at the end of the sip. Oddly enough, I don’t really get a strong floral flavor from the tea, but I have a feeling the florals are adding to the sweetness of the cup.

The way the flavors come together here really works for me; this is probably one of the nicest herbal blends I’ve tried, and makes a very nice late evening sipper. This is a tea I’d gladly restock in my collection.

Flavors: Honey, Mint, Rooibos, Spices, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 14 OZ / 414 ML

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