Meßmer

I bought this on the cheap from aldi. It was the Apple fig kind. Ever since living in Turkey as a kid I’ve been chasing the tea they always offer to potential customers in local shops- my parents shopped quite a bit. This was a nice apple tea, but not a must have or must try or anything I would buy again.

It’s a fair earl grey. Nothing remarkable, I wouldn’t go out of my way to repurchase but it’s fair.

Since discovering the Teekane brand and how helpful it was for an upset stomach, I thought I would try other brands. The Teekane one had an issue where the bags kept breaking- although the were super full! This one is not as full but fennel tea has a strong flavor with less anyway. This is a nice fennel tea, if your into it. Almost licorice like and definitely good for you. I guess I liked it….I think after drinking the other one and this so close to each other I was just tired of Fennel.

Took this one, as I wanted something fruity.

And this tea from postcrossing sounds lovely.

Brewed for suggested 8 minutes; and it was actually very apricot-peach tea. Expected I guess.

But it doesn’t passed my expectations too much; I expected more present taste, it was like some really light apricot juice. Hot. So that said, yes, faint taste; luckily not much tart. But iced it would be better I think.

I liked idea of using “white hibiscus”, so it wasn’t deep red and it was nice, cloudy yellow.

I usually hate cherry flavored things but for some reason when I went to the store I picked not one but two cherry teas. Surprisingly I really loved the other one and this one isn’t so bad. It’s not full leaf, which is why I don’t think the tea part has much flavor. It has a nice cherry almond flavor that is not artificial at all. It’s just really really light, almost not matter how much tea you add. I liked mine with honey and a bit of milk. You can even turn this into a latte although I didn’t do that because I didn’t think the flavor was strong enough. Overall, it wasn’t too bad. I wouldn’t mind drinking again although I don’t want a whole big bag of it!

Edited to add: Drinking Cherry Tea’s help me sleep so much better! I usually have a hard time sleeping-not so on days I drink this!

Date: 23.06.2016. – 11.07.2016.
Place of obtain: Müller; Avenija Većeslava Holjevca 62; Zagreb, Croatia
Price: 16,50kn – 0,66kn/teabag (2,43$ – 0,10$)
Teabags: 25 * 1,75g = 43,75g
Bergamont: 0% ?

When compare price with taste, this is actually feir tea. It’s low price made expectations, which were not high.

An awesome German green tea! Tastes so good!

I like this tea, but it musn’t be steeped too long or the light hints of the orange and vanilla become cloying.

The smell of this when brewed is like lemon washing up liquid, which it tastes like, with a spicy ginger element

This isn’t very impressive a tea. I could barely taste any vanilla, and the apple flavour was fairly weak. I thought these problems might have had to do with the fact that I used too much water, but I added another tea bag, and it hardly made any difference, except for increasing the acidity somewhat. The tea has a pretty nice aftertaste that reflects more of a dessert-y vanilla-apple mixture than the weak, acidic apple flavour you actually taste when drinking the tea, and the flavour’s just not adequate when you’re actually drinking it. It needs more vanilla and a bit less acidity. In short, the whole taste should be the taste of the aftertaste. How could more vanilla in anything ever be a mistake, anyway?

Tried this one yesterday. It has such a rainbow of ingredients in the bag! It has a fresh crisp apple flavor, rather than a bakey flavor, which is odd because it has things like cinnamon and vanilla in it. The vanilla was subtle. I like this one because even though there was hibiscus in it, there was just enough that it helped the flavor instead of overpowering it. I think I was tasting the blackberry leaves though, which I do not like. Not bad!

This is a weird tea. When I smell lemon and vanilla together, I think, “What a combination!” This representation of it doesn’t make me feel that way, though. It lacks the voluptuous vanilla characteristic of Meßmer’s vanilla green, but thankfully, unlike Meßmer’s “lemon green”, the lemon here is clearly lemon, not some kind of lemongrass-tasting business. This tea’s taste kind of reminds me of a lemon flavoured cold-remedy, even though it’s been at least 10 years since I’ve drank that. The lemon isn’t at all fresh-tasting, juicy, or zesty. It could well be the hint of vanilla that’s bringing it to more of a mellowness, but when I envision a lemon-vanilla combination, I don’t necessarily imagine that subdued nature. I think of an overall smooth, full taste with a zesty, true to life lemon flavour and a full, fragrant vanilla to match. That’s not this tea’s flavour at all. It’s not unpleasant, it’s just a bit “meh,” really. Sweetened, it’s more of just a subdued lemon tea with a tiny hint of something to suggest vanilla, but not enough so that if you drank if unaware it’s a vanilla lemon tea, you’d realise that it is more than a lemon tea. The taste left in your mouth represents it as more two-flavoured than it tastes.

Even though the lemon isn’t very true to life in my books, it might be more real tasting than what I’ve had in lemon-ginger tea combinations so far. It might be a nice sweetened tea to drink if you’re sick in bed, but I don’t think it has as much flavour as it should. Maybe it’s just that the flavour it does have is pretty average. With some powdered vanilla and lemon zest or rind, I may be more impressed, but as it is, the tea’s nothing to write home about.

Geht nicht! Hahaha!
I guess I thought before that the deliciousness of Meßmer’s green vanilla tea would mean that the brand has a lot of other great teas. I’ve tried maybe six or seven, not all of which have been subject to a Steepster review yet, and I think the green vanilla is the only one I definitely want a place for in my collection. This tea is not changing my mind about that.
I don’t know how this tea’s flavour went wrong. It’s like the flipside to Kusmi’s Lemon & Ginger Green (as in, there was actually a vaguely lemon flavour with this green, whereas in Kusmi’s lemon was pretty much non-existent) or the Kusmi Detox for people who don’t necessarily want to feel like they’re drinking wet tobacco. I’m not happy that this is in a full pack of 25 and that I now have 24 more bags to use up. The smell was a bit of a giveaway that the flavour wouldn’t be what I wanted it to be, but I thought it’d be no problem in the end because citrus and green tea is something I think really works, especially lemon and green tea. So what’s the problem? It just tastes like a pretty forgettable, easily embittered green with a hint of a kind of lemon that really does nothing for me. It actually tastes to me a lot more like a lemongrass and green tea mixture than a legitimate lemon green tea. I wish I could be more descriptive, but all I want to do is throw some lemon juice and zest in this tea and sweeten it. I think I’m inclined to be even harsher, because the lemongrassy character of it sends my mind straight back to Kusmi Detox, and that is one godawful tea.

Lemon green tea is a stellar idea, but this is a pretty dismal execution. It’s not cringingly bad or unsalvagable through additives, so I won’t throw it out at this point. I think in future I’m going to be a bit more upmarket with my green tea and lemon selections, because I don’t want to be disappointed again. This combination shouldn’t be that hard to get right, and if I can get a better flavour than your tea has by mixing my own lemon with a plain tea, you’ve failed as a company. I don’t think the average tea drinker wants to be a mixologist to get a good-tasting tea (especially when the desired flavour is ridiculously simple), and they don’t want to have to mix a number of products or ingredients together to get the flavour that another product could deliver right off the bat. If this were some complicated, exotic flavour that’s hard to reproduce in tea form, I might understand why it’d be hard to get it right. It’s lemon and green tea! RDTGHUJKLJHGFDGD!

Sadly, I felt a bit letdown by this. Why? Because I’ve had two Meßmer vanilla green tea lattes this week and they were the high point of my tea drinking week. I chased this up on Amazon Germany because I knew it existed but didn’t see it in my supermarket and thought it would surely be great given how excellent the brand’s vanilla green tea is. Not really, though. It’s not that the tea has anything really terrible or unappealing about it, it’s just that it tasted pretty much the same as the vanilla rooibos I had a little while ago. I could be drinking rooibos any time of the day or night, but can’t do that with black tea, so the black comes off second best in this situation. I noticed barely any difference between the flavour of this tea and the vanilla rooibos (other than the fact that the tea base here was slightly more assertive in terms of flavour), though admittedly, I haven’t had the vanilla rooibos in several months so there could be differences I’m simplifying.

I don’t know if the vanilla used in this is the same as the vanilla used in the other brands’ rooibos vanilla flavouring, but it tastes the same to me, and I don’t know if the vanilla used in this is different to the vanilla used in Meßmer’s vanilla green tea (the ingredients imply that it’s not), but it tastes quite different to me. It smells the same in the bag though, so it’s probably how differently the flavours combine with black and green teas. It’s a degree of difference I didn’t anticipate.

I don’t think this is a bad tea for the price, and I’m not even that annoyed at myself for having accidentally bought a pack of two boxes of it and thus having 39 more bags of it to get through when one cup of caffeinated tea a day is my maximum—it’s just that there’s probably more enjoyable vanilla black teas out there waiting for me (and I know there’s a huge number of them available) and I mostly got this because I expected it to be as good as the brand’s vanilla green. I wouldn’t specifically not recommend it (it will wake you up, it tastes pretty good, and it’s cheap), but it won’t challenge you, be a uniquely delicious take on a classic theme, or anything else like that. I had this as a latte, but I tried it with just the sweetener (before adding soy milk) and it seemed fine that way, too. With this many bags to use up, I will probably use the vanilla bean powder I bought on my trip to Paris to make future lattes with this tea something to really look forward to.

This tea is a perfect example of why being pretentious about the teas you buy isn’t necessarily advantageous. This tea cost something like a couple of euros for a box of 25 (fannings) bags, but in my books, the taste simply can’t be argued with. I never make lattes with or sweeten green tea (in fact, I think this was the first time ever), but I thought the incredibly rich vanilla flavour here called for it.

It was probably the best tea latte I’ve ever had.

I didn’t know that something could balance that richness of flavour with a kind of airy, ethereal quality. And the smell is just divine from start to finish. I wish I could put it into words. I love vanilla so much, and this has not disappointed me one bit! Oh, it’s good.

In a way, I have to admit that when I see flavour in tea ingredients, I feel a bit like the company’s cheating. But it’s pretty commonplace, and how a company uses the flavours involved can make all the difference, and show a company’s skill. With cheap tea, it feels like a necessary evil, in any case. I’d probably prefer teas to be sweetened solely through having bits of plants in them, but with a lot of teas, that isn’t the case, and with flavour like this, I feel like I can’t complain. This tea actually contains both vanilla flavour and vanilla. I don’t know if that’s how it has the taste it does, but holy cow!

You can’t re-steep this, but I guess that’s the standard thing for teas made from fannings. I guess I hadn’t really thought about that fact before today because I used to use the used tea bag together with a fresh one to brew a new cup of tea, which I didn’t do with this, because I’m keeping it to one caffeinated beverage a day now (This hasn’t really applied to second steepings of the Kusmi teas I’ve reviewed lately, because you can effectively re-use the leaves again if you steep them for a longer time , or just boil them for a while, which really didn’t work here.) The second steeping still tasted nice, but it didn’t really taste like a proper tea latte or anything.

If you’re looking for something that’s a complex green with vanilla woven subtly in, this will probably not please you. I don’t find it to be a fake-tasting, loud vanilla, but it’s definitely an assertive one, and is there against a backdrop of simple, single note, dry grass-tasting green tea. That might sound weirdly unappetising, but personally, vanilla and grass and two of my favourite smells (that’s the case for a lot of people, isn’t it?), so really, it makes a lot of sense.

I think sometimes tastes or scents don’t necessarily need to challenge you. Lately, I’ve mostly been trying a lot of these Kusmi teas that have a lot of flavour combinations that I hadn’t had before, and a lot of black tea mixes. Before a few months ago, I hadn’t even drank a cup of black tea in 20 years, nor had I had teas with as many flavour elements as some of them have. This tea is unlike those, and in a way I’m glad about that. I think in a latte, it’s something that could be considered a crowd pleaser—I think this could impress someone who thinks they don’t really like tea, a veteran cappuccino drinker, or someone who just likes sweet, fragrant things. I think milky, sweet things appeal to pretty much everyone, and maybe it’s just because I don’t like coffee, but I think this does a way better job of that than a regular latte does.

It’s tea that smells like cookies and ice cream and doesn’t taste cheap and fake. Do you really need convincing?

@Farewell luncheon for IUSP.
First cup was good.
Second cup not so much.
Different tea bags both times.

A less impressive tisane from Messmer. The sweet apple and vanilla flavours are present in the thin-bodied liquor but too light! More or less like drinking scented water instead of tea, if you see what I mean. This is a tea bag so either the formula of the tisane is not quite right, or they have put too little ingredients in each bag…

For people new to chai, this should be a pretty good tea to start with. With vanilla, it is sweet, slightly creamy and only mildly spicy. My only complaint is that it is not quite strong enough. I think it will be a great base for chai latte!

I like Messmer because it has lots of interesting blends in addition to the classic choices. This white tea has to be my favourite! Though the vanilla and peach flavours come from flavouring, they are subtle enough to make you think they are natural. And who wouldn’t like the combination of vanilla and peach?? I keep sniffing the tea because the scent is just too lovely! ;P

The liquor is delicate and decidedly flowery, which is exactly what I love about white teas. It is peachy too – Reminds me of Snapple or Twinings peach tea, only better. :) Was talking about spring blend with Winter Salo yesterday, and I realize that this really matches the image of spring in my mind. :) Beautiful. We really need more good quality, inexpensive tea bags like this!

A strong, classic black tea. Kept me alert and focused in class today!

Read the English translation of the tea description just now – so this is a pure black tea. Now, I strongly suspect that the tea bag I used this morning was contaminated because I could smell vanilla in it! I am not too surprised though, cos the tea bag came in a thin paper packet, and it was stored in a box (I got the tea bag from a B&B in Germany) along with other highly aromatic Messmer teas which had the same packaging. I believe the tea bag had been in the box for some time too. It seemed to have lost some of its flavour and was not as strong as it’s supposed to be. BUT I did enjoy the tea as I love vanilla and lighter teas!! :P