Tiesta Tea

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #59 overall / Tea #26 for February

Thursday 2/18 — Pulled this out yesterday to have for Mastress Alita #2021steepstersipdown prompt on Feb 2/17 (“Wednesday, February 17th: Random Acts of Kindness Day – Drink a tea that was kindly gifted to you!”)… @briannadrinkstea on Instagram put this in my box of goodies that traveled to me from Australia!

It’s been a while since I have had a tea from Tiesta Tea, I brewed this warm-ish and plain at work with a metal steeper in my 20 oz DT tumbler. It was a cozy cuppa of green tea with light citrus + lemongrass flavors. Last couple of sips I drank cold 2/18.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

March Mad(Hatter) Tea Tournament!
Round #1 – Match #5    Tiesta – Fruity Pebbles  VS.  Butiki – Taiwanese Bi Luo Chun

So here we have one old and one “new” tea.  I didn’t know which would win here, but then I steeped:  whoa, even if this weren’t a Butiki tea, in a blind taste test, I would still go for this one.  I could swear it’s not that old.  It still, even after all these years, has wonderful characteristics of a green tea that I love.  The Tiesta is okay, with its generic fruit flavor, but overall the green tea seems drying and tasteless.  Which might explain including the fruit.  Winner: Butiki’s Taiwanese Bi Luo Chun

A sample I had requested with my order from Tiesta!  I can’t resist a name like ‘Fruity Pebbles’ as I once loved that cereal — I try not to have it too much now because I’m old and that cereal is basically 100% sugar.  The blend here is a long leafed green with fruit bits!  Pineapple, papaya, and strawberry bits, with an addition of rose petals.  I wouldn’t say it specifically tastes like the artificialness that is Fruity Pebbles… but if there was a healthy authentic version of Fruity Pebbles, this would come close.  It’s a fruit flavored green tea.  The fruit takes over any flavor of the green tea.  Mostly pineapple.  No rose notes to be found.  I like it! 
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 37 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  32 minutes after boiling // 2-3 min
2021 sipdowns: 2 (Octavia – Ancient Yunnan)

Discovery Advent Tea #19
SPICY! I like spicy chai but this is like pepper spicy. Which makes sense because I’m looking straight at a darling little hot pepper of some sort. Interesting chocolate aroma to go with it. I let it steep longer to see if it would get spicer. IT does not.

Discovery Advent Tea #2
Guessed correctly that it was oolong with many tropical fruits. I quite enjoyed this one. Quite nummy.

Homemade advent day 15

I made this as a coldbrew, despite the cold conditions here in BC. No snow yet, but almost two weeks straight of daily rain and gloom. A few days recently have had brief sunny periods and I feel inspired to make a fruity coldbrew for the occassion. I chose this sample I took out of a TTB because the ginger is wintery and warming but the peach is fruity and suits a coldbrew. I didn’t love the cup as much as I normally enjoy ginger teas.

The ingredients sound great, because ginger, papaya pieces, apple, orange blossom, and peach pieces sound like an amazing combo. The4 peppercorns give this an extra kick of spicy! However, there is also a small amount of very potent rosehips that make this blend very acidic. I wasn’t expecting this to be so sour and because the ginger is naturally sweet I hoped it would balance out. The second steep had more ginger and less fruit but was still sour. A real disappointment.

A very fruity, sweet, ‘red’ tisane, with some tartness. Pretty nice. The liquor is very dark and almost more like a juice than a tisane. You can definitely taste the currants in this one.

With milk and sugar, this is pretty decent. The maple flavor is totally there. It’s sweet and desserty. It’s decadent enough that I don’t think I could have it too often. I love this sort of thing, but actually this is somehow too much for me.

For me, when hot, the citrus flavor was too strong, but iced (I made sun tea) it was quite good.

One tasting note for now!
A sample from Tiesta Tea!  Thank you!   A lovely, bright summer herbal.  Though the dreaded hibiscus is here, it is a tame beast, not obnoxious in this golden hued mug.  I really couldn’t even guess the hibiscus is here.  So now that that’s out of the way, I can say this is an acceptable herbal!  This isn’t overtly sour citrus as the name suggests, mainly a nice balance of fruits.  Fruity and refreshing, especially on hot summer nights.
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 19 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 minute steep
2020 Sipdowns: 66 (Teavivre – Mango Time + 1 sample of Teavivre – Lychee Black)

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #34

There wasn’t a whole lot of this one left in the box so I was definitely worried that the cup would come out tasting thin, especially because so much of what was left was the large cut decorative citrus wedges that don’t typically contribute much flavour to the tea blend. However, this was a whole lot of sweet, bright and juicy tasting lime! Really in your face and vibrant/full of life. I liked it a lot!

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #28

I’m finishing up a mug of this right now and I want to like this blend so much because it smells nice, and I’ve been so into ginger/peach flavours lately that I’d hate for that success streak to end…

But as much as I want to be all over this blend, I just can’t be. The peach flavour is actually very nice: it’s not too sweet or too tart/tangy and it’s well balanced with the ginger as well – neither one over powers the other. However, the ginger. Oh, the ginger! It’s just off tasting; the best way I can think to describe it is that the way it finishes in the mouth is just musty like a dusty attic? That’s such a non ideal flavour to get from a cup of tea; and it makes the whole blend seem just a little stale and flat.

It’s drinkable, but you should always strive for a little bit more than just “drinkable”.

A sample from Tiesta!  THANK YOU, Tiesta Tea! Unfortunately this tea was gone from their site quite soon after they sent it… but sometimes their teas appear and disappear a lot. This is a lovely green yerba mate mixed with all sorts of tropical fruits: mango, papaya, passion fruit, lychee and other fruits you might typically find in a blend. I thought this would give me a reading power boost while drinking it the other day, being a yerba mate blend.  But there are PLENTY of other ingredients here, making the yerba mate fairly unnoticeable.  So many tropical fruits!  But then they seemed to blend together to create a generic fruit flavor. An enjoyable one anyway!  These are the ingredients I want to see in a summer blend. I wish I had distinctly tasted these fruits, but at least the tea didn’t really distract from the book I was reading (Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘The Lacuna’ – also the perfect summer read.)

I almost didn’t add this because it is no longer listed on their website. In case it is a seasonal tea that will come back this fall, I am adding it.

I reviewed this for Sororitea Sisters and will just link to that review.

Meanwhile, stay cool and stay hydrated, everyone! It is brutal out there!

http://www.sororiteasisters.com/2020/07/20/naughty-or-anise-tiesta-tea/

From SkySamurai a while ago!  Thanks so much.  An invigorating cup of matcha.  I added some matcha to the bottom of a mug then waited for the kettle water to cool about an hour (longer than I wanted) and then whisked the matcha with a fork while slowly pouring the water into the mug.  (It probably would work better with a dry mug.)   It’s tasty!  Like fresh green tea with a bit of a creamy note.  Lingering delicious flavor.  No clumping!  It passes the matcha test anyway. 

I have found a new favorite show:  Motherland: Fort Salem.  I have only watched two episodes but it is good stuff.  Hooked me within the first twenty minutes. Witches in war from historical times.  I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Thanks so much for this sample, Tiesta Tea!  I’m always up for trying any Earl Grey Cream I can get my hands on!  Those blue flowers in the blend were really making me nostalgic for my favorite Earls from the past.  It seems like good ones are hard to find these days. This one is middle of the pack of my favorites – not the best I’ve had but not the worst!  The short leaves make a robust base, which is necessary for any Earl I gravitate towards.  The bergamot is fine – not strong enough for me and also not the preferred flavor type.  I wish there was more cream.  It seems any EG that is supposed to be cream is just so very faint with the cream now.  I’m talking about every tea company.  I wonder if companies had to switch to a more natural flavor these days… I don’t prefer it.  I like the obvious thick cream notes of older blends.  To be fair, I have had this tea for almost eight months now and the flavor of the bergamot did seem stronger before… but still no cream either way.  Got to have that cream.  It is odd however, when a tea has bergamot I cannot usually pick out any flavors from the actual base.  I like this, but still on the hunt for a GREAT Earl Cream.  Especially in these sad times.
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 15 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 min
2020 Sipdowns: 30 (Bird &Blend – TEA Wells)

Another tea from the box! This blend has that same fake lime flavor that lots of lime teas have, and I’m not a fan. So if you like other lime teas, it’s likely that you’d like this one. It wasn’t super chemically or anything. It was perfectly drinkable, just not to my tastes. Lime flavored food is fine, but I’ve only found one lime flavored tea that I like, sadly.

Another tea box tea. When it’s warm, there’s a strong unpleasant flavor that’s difficult to pinpoint. I can taste the peach also, but that secondary flavor is enough for me to not enjoy this cup very much. There’s supposed to be ginger in here too, but I don’t notice that too much. Once it’s totally cooled, the artificial flavor dissipates and I can taste the peach better and even a little of the ginger. This one turned out to not be so bad after all. Not great, but not bad. Just drink it cool.

I had to buy a tin of this on sale BECAUSE THERE ARE TINY BABY LEMON JELLY SLICES IN THE TEA. I love those jelly slices.  I was dubious that there were even jelly slices in the tin, for a clearance tea.  But then I spotted one and made sure to get one in the infuser!   So it was a jelly slice, a big lemon slice (that looks like blood orange which is odd) and a whole teaspoon of other goodies.  There are also supposed to be yogurt granules here which I didn’t spot too many of.  Those would add a lovely layer to the flavor.   I tried it once without a jelly slice, and the flavor did seem very tart, but tasting it with that jelly slice and it adds a much needed sweetener aspect.  I’m not sure if it all melted in the first steep.  So it’s tart and sweet.  The lime flavor isn’t exactly authentic, which is too bad.  But they needed to add the artificial lime because otherwise there are a bunch of lemon ingredients here, not lime. And the name is LIME.  The blackberry leaves are noticeable and I never really like those in a blend…. the second cup was overpowering, to the point of tasting mostly like children’s vitamins.  I love the novelty of this and it will be fun until I sip down the tin. 
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 12 minutes after boiling  // 3 minute steep
Steep #2  // 6 minutes after boiling //  4 min
2020 Sipdowns:   15 (Bird & Blend’s Bristol Breeze)

This tea is everything I was hoping it would be and more. If you are craving blueberries, this tea is perfect for you! It’s tart and SO full of blueberry flavour; there are more subtle hints of elderberry, apple, and there is just enough hibiscus. This tea is great to chill out with, and I drink it often because I don’t feel the need to add any sugar.

Additional notes: Note to self: Make sure you only get ONE pepper in a mug per steep session. And if you steep for 15+ minutes, get ready for fire.

Despite the odd name, this was on sale in summer and I had to order it along with the Pina Colada oolong I adore.  I LOVE the idea of cocoa shells with black tea and spicy pepper and this is exactly that.  The tin is FULL so even if I’m trying to mix it, for now it seems the larger goodies will remain in the top of the tin.  HUGE cocoa shells and whole tiny peppers.  The flavor is a lovely balance of spicy and chocolate — just what I was hoping.  The black tea is light now, but I’m sure it will get deeper the further down the tin I go, as the black tea is smaller than the cocoa shells or peppers. The second steep was much lighter, sadly, but MUCH more spice was apparent.   I’m very glad I was able to nab this one.  This will not just be a Christmas tea.  
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon (plus one whole pepper) for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 minute steep   
2019 Sipdowns: 90 ( Fusion’s Roasted Pumpkin Mate & Kim’s Homemade chai)