Kaleisia Tea

First off , the smell of this is divine, both the dry and wet leaf. And the tea itself too. Lots of flavors going on! Definitely fruity! I would say its berry sorbet, the ratio of all the other fruits to berries is pretty high. It’s more like a tropical paradise. I’m getting a lot of the mango and papaya and pineapple. This is definitely one I need to try iced. I’m actually surprised I made it hot. I guess I was distracted, haha. But even hot it’s yummy fruitiness. It does get docked a few points just because its not very berry, and more of a tropical fruit tea. Still delicious though. And so worth the $4!

Backlog
I tried a sip of this hot in store, unsweetened, and it was pretty good so I bought some. This first thing I did was try it iced. Oh my is it good iced. The nutty oolong really comes through, with the coconut supporting it, not masking it. Sweetened and iced this is so so good. In fact, I drank 4 cups of it iced the first night, and 8 the next day at the beach (2 cups, then resteeped once for another 2 cups, 4 cups and resteeped once for another four when I went to the beach). I really like the fact that the coconut is there put its not overpowering the oolong.

When I smelled this in the shop, I know I had to try this, and when I tried my boyfriends cousins glass of this iced, and I knew I had to have this. I ended up coming home with 4oz! Iced and sweetened it’s nutty but fresh, sweet but light, a perfect balance between the dessert flavor and the fresh green tea. Hot, I’m getting more dessert and less green, but still quite delicious. Very good and I could see myself reaching for this a lot when I want an iced tea that’s not fruity. I’m impressed.

Backlog:

what doesn’t this tea have in it? It’s got black tea, white tea, and green tea … plus a whole lot of fruit! And a whole lot of flavor. This one became another summertime favorite because it’s amazing iced.

The fruit notes are more like a “medley” of fruit – very much like a fruit salad. Very refreshing and pleasantly sweet.

I tasted mostly green tea in this blend: fresh and crisp notes of leafy green tea. I barely could taste the white tea or the Darjeeling black. Those flavors sat off in the distance, and I can’t tell you that this blend would have tasted the same without those teas in this blend … and it probably would have been a quite a different experience if I changed the brew temp or steep time … but for the time/temp I used, I experienced mostly green tea and a lot of fruity notes. (I went with a lower brew temperature (185°F) and steeped the tea for 2 1/2 minutes in my Breville One- Touch.)

A little backlogging.

Last night I went to a vegan dinner at the Kaleisia Tea Lounge that was hosted by this local farm using seasonal ingredients. It sounded really cool, and the food was tasty, but the whole thing was executed poorly. The food was just brought out to us without them telling us what was in it or the ingredients. They didn’t talk about the local farm that it came from. The entree, which was this zuchinni-quinoa wrap thingie was really interesting, but it was just brought out to us with little fanfare. There was some kind of berry sauce but they didn’t explain it. It was disappointing. Or maybe I just care too much about analyzing my food. I imagine if the chef was there he could talk for hours about the kind of food he made..

Anyway, when I got there, I was disappointed to learn they weren’t serving any tea with dinner, you had to buy it separately. They WERE giving out wine, for some odd reason, but wine is so hit or miss for me. I had just missed the end of “happy hour” by a few minutes, where all teas were discounted. I could have bought a tea of the month at a discounted price, but none of the flavors jumped out at me, and none of them were green. I really really wanted a green tea, and I knew if I bought one of the “tea of the month”s to save a buck, I’d just be disappointed I didn’t buy a green tea. I don’t know if that’s really true, but that was my thinking at the time.

So, long story short, I got a dragonwell. It’s actually not too badly priced by the ounce at this tea shop, but I have SOOOO much tea (especially of the dragonwell variety) I don’t need anymore at the moment. This was really vegetal, but definitely drinkable. It was very much a green tea.

As a side note, at this vegan dinner I went by myself, but ended up meeting another solo person and we chatted for a hella long time. Maybe we’ll become tea buddies. I need more local tea buddies, besides forcing all tea on my boyfriend..

A nice golden liquor and a semi-strong roasted scent you’d expect from a genmaicha. Very smooth and silky on the tongue. A decent tea.

This tea tastes like a cookie. Fin.

Thanks Liberteas
This was very nice! A medium strength green tea with hints of lovely fruit. Juicy and real! YUM!

While madly digging through my samples yesterday for Black Jasmine Cream, I stumbled upon a packet of this from my box from LiberTEAS from ages ago! It was hiding down at the bottom, sneaky but I’m going to drink you no matter where you hide.

I have tried quite a few caramel and toffee teas, so many that they kind of seem to blend together. And they almost always have a black base! One of those CTC, who knows what kind of black it is bases that pretty much just tastes like “tea.” Strong tea, but I’m not picking up any specific notes other than “oh yeah, this is definitely tea!”

The caramel is quite strong, as you’d expect since there are little toffee chips in here. But it’s kind of flat: not toasty or particularly rich. You know what this reminds me of? Those butter cookies in the individual packs they sell in cafeterias. Tasty, curbs your sugar craving, but you’d never sit around craving a cookie and think of that specific one.

Very yummy. Not too strong but has a nice bold flavor, it’s a great tea to have in the morning.

Tea Tasting Day (8/8)

And here we are at the last tea. Thanks for joining me on my tea tasting day.

This tastes JUST like candied almonds, with the sweetner in it. This would make a great Christmas tea. I’m not a huge fan of candied almonds, so I’m not a huge fan. But, if you were/are, you’ll LOVE this tea. Really wish I could try it without sweetner, though. As a side note, my boyfriend originally told me this was walnuts and I believed him, so clearly I’m not good at distinguishing nut flavors.

Update: Had it without sweetner thanks to the nice guy at the front, it’s not bad hot or iced. It still tastes like candied almonds. Why do they add sweetner to it? It’s really fine all by itself! It’s a special blend, too. More rooibos than tea, though. My boyfriend bought 2 oz of this tea to try coldbrewing, so we’ll see how it goes.

Tea Tasting Day (7/8)

This tea tastes just like pineapple juice. Not bad, especially since pineapple juice can get kinda pricey. I think it’s better than the Mango Blossom black tea I had earlier today, and it’s actually real pineapple instead of just flavoring. I’m not the biggest fan of herbals, but I’d recommend it to someone who likes pineapple juice.

Tea Tasting Day (6/8)

This mate tea wasn’t bad. I’ve never had a lemon mate before, so I was intrigued. This has a nice lemon, citrus, and earthy taste to it. There’s lingering tastes of lemon essence? Orange essence? Something. Not bad for a mate tea. I try to avoid these because they usually have caffeine. But this isn’t too bad.

Tea Tasting Day (6/8)

NOW we’re talking. This was surprisingly very good and yummy. I can taste the nutty flavors. It’s very smooth, almost creamy. Definitely my favorite so far. I don’t taste too much sweetener in here, so I think this is very close to how this tea tastes for real.

I really want to buy this tea, but I can’t because I have soooo much tea I still need to go through. But, it’s going on my wish list. This is actually a better version of the Teavana Choconut. And cheaper, too. Eat it – Teavana!

This review is showing up a bunch of times for some reason. Not sure why, even though I’ve tried numerous times to edit it. Does anyone have an ideas?

Tea Tasting Day (5/8)

Well.. so much for going kayaking. Just as we were about to leave, my boyfriend notices that his car just got hit in the parking lot. Argh! There’s not much damage, but now we have to do the insurance thing. So, I decided to come back and write some more tea reviews. Meh …

Well.. so much for going kayaking. Just as we were about to leave, my boyfriend notices that his car just got hit in the parking lot. Argh! There’s not much damage, but now we have to do the insurance thing. So, I decided to come back and write some more tea reviews. Meh …Anyway, so far these teas haven’t been anything special, but this Mango Blossoms isn’t so bad. I can definitely tastes the mango, and I think the sweetner actually helps here. It tastes a bit like a Capri Sun (like the Mango Melange I had from TeBella). Not tasting any blossoms, though, just mango. Maybe a slight floral taste, but not much. I didn’t even think this was tea at first, but when I looked closer, it is in fact black tea, but I certainly can’t really taste it. I also thought there might be actual fruit pieces in it, but it’s actuall just flavor. Quite interesting.

Well.. so much for going kayaking. Just as we were about to leave, my boyfriend notices that his car just got hit in the parking lot. Argh! There’s not much damage, but now we have to do the insurance thing. So, I decided to come back and write some more tea reviews. Meh …Anyway, so far these teas haven’t been anything special, but this Mango Blossoms isn’t so bad. I can definitely tastes the mango, and I think the sweetner actually helps here. It tastes a bit like a Capri Sun (like the Mango Melange I had from TeBella). Not tasting any blossoms, though, just mango. Maybe a slight floral taste, but not much. I didn’t even think this was tea at first, but when I looked closer, it is in fact black tea, but I certainly can’t really taste it. I also thought there might be actual fruit pieces in it, but it’s actuall just flavor. Quite interesting.I think the issue here is that mango isn’t my favorite flavor. I like it more than peach, but not as much as the berries. This is definitely the best tea I’ve had so far.

Tea Tasting Day (4/8)

I don’t have much experience with rose tea, and I have to say that this is an .. interesting tea. There’s definitely flavors of rose, but it’s kinda odd.. Not my favorite flower tea, by the way. I’m definitely more of a jasmine fan. This is my least favorite tea of the bunch. Blech.

Also, I will continue the latter half of my tea ratings later, since I’m going to enjoy the rest of my beautiful day. I know you all are on the edge of your seats ;)

Tea Tasting Day 3/8

Right off the bat, this tastes slightly bitter, so I’m distracted by that. Either that or it’s a really strong chocolate taste. It’s a little hard to tell. I do taste the chocolate, but the bitterness is a little distracting.

Also, I’m looking at this and it has white chocolate, which I’m also not a fan of. That explains why I’m not crazy about this tea. I wonder if this tea is actually from Culinary Teas. I’ll have to explore a little more later..

Tea Tasting Day (2/8)

If you can believe it, this is the only tea that they have both hot AND unsweetened, so luckily I don’t have to guess at the flavors. I can taste the chocolate and mint equally, although the mint leaves more of a lasting effect on the tongue. Really curious how this would taste iced. I’m curious where they get this tea from, since I know a lot of vendors carry a chocolate mint rooibos. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s not bad.

I’m not sure why they don’t sweeten the hot tea, but I’m not complaining..

Tea Tasting Day (1/8)

So my local tea shop, Kaleisia, is doing a tea tasting, and I just had to attend, since it’s the “last one ever”. I knew, going into this, that most of the teas were pre-sweetened, and you’ll hear me complain about this. But, I try my best to discern the flavor and give the teas an appropriate rating. Also, unless otherwise stated, these teas are ICED.

First up was their limited blend – Summer Delight. It has a lot of different flavors and fruits in it, but I’m really tasting the peach flavor most of all. Not getting much for tangerines or strawberries. It’s … okay. Your generic black fruit tea that doesn’t taste much like tea. Although I think the sweetener really cancels this out, though.

Also, this is NOT what the tea actually looks like. But it’s a limited edition and I couldn’t find it on their site, so I just found a comparable picture.

Backlog:

I brewed some of this last night for iced tea today. This tea is better iced than hot … so REFRESHING. Sweet strawberry and the orange gives it just a hint of tangy … so so yummy!

This is pretty tasty! The strawberry flavor is so perfect! It is a strong, delicious strawberry flavor, it is sweet and a little tart like the real thing. The orange comes through nicely too, offering a hint of orange which accents the strawberry well. The green tea tastes lightly buttery with a hint of vegetative taste. Really yummy! This one will be awesome iced.

Backlog:

I finished off the last that I had of this tea yesterday too. You could say it was a day of finishing off the last little bits in my stash … or as some would say a “sipdown.” This is delicious, caramel-y and rich. Here is my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/05/11/creamy-toffee-from-kaleisia-tea/