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I am struggling to find a balance when I steep this tea; too short and the flavor is weak, too long and the sharpness of lemon takes over the rest of the fruits. The fact that the tea is nearly colorless doesn’t help – it’s hard to gauge steepage when the water doesn’t turn yellow or green or amber!

Anyway, this is one of those teas that smells better than it tastes. Not that it tastes bad…it reminds me of those cans of fruit cocktail you can buy at the grocery store. A little zesty, a little sweet. Not terribly exciting, though.

This is a lovely fruity tea. Don’t ask me which fruits because I really can’t say for sure. Rather berry-like, I think. Maybe raspberries?

Although it is a black tea, it tastes green to me; can’t put my finger on why. Maybe my tongue is just out of whack since I haven’t been drinking a lot of tea lately. (Correction: I have not been reviewing tea lately, so my critical thinking in regard to flavor is off.)

Quite a lovely, sweet tea. Perfect in the evening, when I can’t have caffeine.

Drinking this is like drinking pure honey. But I’m not talking about that weak, almost watery honey that comes in the bear-shaped bottle. This is that richer, dark-colored honey that you buy at the farmer’s market. Mmmm. Since I’m a honey fiend – the sort that makes Winnie the Pooh look only mildly interested – this is a Very Good Thing.

It is very sweet, though. There’s cane sugar as well as honey in here, so I definitely get a bit of that sticky, unclean mouthfeel after drinking it. Not exactly refreshing, if you know what I mean. And I’m not sure that I can really taste the tea, although the lemons are barely there, keeping the honey from going into overdrive and into cloying mode. But it’s definitely not a balanced flavor.

I saw this at the grocery store and thought I’d give it a shot, since it was $2 and the glass bottle looked like it could be reused for a drinking glass. (Ah, remember when POM teas used to come in glass bottles that could be used for that purpose?)

I love mojitos, but this tea is one of the nastiest things I have ever tasted. It’s not like a mojito at all! When I first opened the bottle, I thought, “This stuff smells like marinara sauce. WTF?” But I still had hope that it would taste OK.

Not at all. The moment I tasted it I wanted to gag. It’s sickeningly sweet, like there’s waaaaay too much cane sugar in it, but also sour. The mint flavor, which I hoped would dominate, is almost missing – the only hint of it comes from the slightly minty aftertaste, but this too is dulled by the sticky-sweetness. It’s gross!

Sniffing it again, I’m wondering if “marinara sauce” isn’t quite right. It reminds me of something thinner…like the sauce in canned Spaghetti-Os. Either way, NOTHING about this drink makes me think of mojitos!!

This is a chunkier matcha than any other blend I’ve used. There’s always at least one largish lump (bigger than a pinhead, smaller than a pea) floating around in the tea, no matter how much I whisk away. I usually just end up fishing it out, but I’m curious why I can’t seem to break the darn thing.

The balance of strawberry and green tea is nice; the bitterness of the tea still comes through pleasantly, and the strawberry adds a sweet note that isn’t cloying or overwhelming.

The flavor is generally weaker than the Strawberry Matcha au Lait blend from Lupicia, which is how I usually get my Strawberry Matcha fix, and in color Frank’s tea is a much yellower shade.

It’s been a couple of years since Teavana discontinued Rose Marzipan Delight, and alas, the tea leaves are fading. It still tastes good, but it’s not nearly as glorious as it was a few years ago. The sweetness is slowly fading away, and there’s nothing I can do to arrest it.

When you smell the dry tea leaves, the spiciness of this tea doesn’t really make you think of pumpkin pie. It’s very ginger-y and clove-y, not so pumpkin-y. But that’s just the leaves. Surely the tea will taste different?

Eh. Meh. The cinnamon’s stronger in the tea, but it’s still a very spicy tea and not at all pumpkin-like. Oh, wait – I can sorta taste the pumpkin at the very end, almost in the aftertaste, but I’m not sure if it’s actually there or if it’s a phantom created in my mind. Hmmm.

It is a nice spiced tea. It’s warming and pleasant. But as a pumpkin-themed tea, it just isn’t working for me.

I never thought of honeydew melons as being particularly Californian, so I was surprised when I saw “Golden Honey Dew” as one of the exclusive, California-only blends at my local Lupicia store. But sure, why not? I’m Californian and like honeydew, maybe it is ‘our thing.’

I can’t remember if I’ve had ‘green rooibos’ in any other blends. The liquor still turns out a deep reddish-orange, like regular ‘red’ rooibos. I can’t taste much of a difference, either, but that could simply be because the melon flavor DOMINATES this tea. It’s the first thing you smell when you open the tin, and the scent of juicy honeydew floats over the teacup. It’s very sweet and refreshing – definitely worth checking out if you’re in the Bay Area and want to try this regional tea blend from Lupicia.

Pssst.
Just FYI.
Half and half didn’t work so well in this ‘matcha au lait’ mix.

I thought I’d try it out, just for fun, and it’s not a winning combination. The cream overwhelms the strawberry, and gives the green tea a cheesy quality. Not good!