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Re-review of this tea

Guess who’s getting sick right before her anniversary weekend trip? Me, right here. So Vitamin C, healthy foods, lots of sleep, and lot of echinacea (+ mullein) tea. My supervisor jokingly made a “bleh” face when I mentioned echinacea tea, but luckily I actually like this the taste of this tea. It’s herbaceous and slightly drying. Right now I just have a scratchy throat so I’m hoping it won’t progress too far. As long as I’m not throwing up I’m still going!

Glad this tea is $4.50 for 50g. I’ll be chugging it like crazy :\

A re-review of this tea.

Now with it being October I’m trying all the herbal/rooibos pumpkin blends I can find. Unless I find one at a tea shop I’m going to in Minneapolis this weekend for my anniversary , this rooibos blend is my last one I’m trying.

I tried it 2 ways:

Way 1 (plain cup): 1.5-2tsp of leaf, steeped 8min in 8oz of 190F water: Def tasting cinnamon and cloves followed still by rooibos and a bit of apple. The spices seemed weak to me, but I’ve realized iHOT airs on the side of caution with their spices. See my tasting note for rooibos chai: this pumpkin blend has more spice than it! Overall this cup was okay if weak.

Way 2 (latte): 4 “perfect spoonfuls” (10tsp), steeped 5ish min in 8oz of 190F water, mixed with hot, frothed 1% milk (approx 6oz): Wow, ok, THERE’S the cinnamon and cloves! The latte is much more powerful and this is where the tea shines. I would even reduce my leaf by 1 perfect spoonful (or sub in something else) because the spices were almost a bit strong for me. Overall a good latte!

However, if I had to say what my favourite pumpkin tea is I would say Spiced Pumpkin by DAVIDs TEA: reason being, they had actual pumpkin in that blend. This tea from iHOT is an easy #2, and pumpkin cheesecake (DAVIDs) and pumpkin pie (Steeped Tea) were crap. I kind of consider this tea to be the better chai rooibos blend as opposed to a pumpkin tea. Definitely a repurchase.

iHOT does a calendar every year and each month there is a coupon for 25g free of a certain tea. This month was this tea, which kind of fits with the fall/harvest season. Made a cup of it iced: brewed 1tbsp of leaf in 8oz of 190F water, steeped 8min, left in the fridge to cool overnight.

Wow, this is a killer “iced” tea! The apple and lemon shine through perfectly: not really any tartness, not too sweet, and lots of nice flavour! I don’t think there is any hibiscus in the blend (my acid reflux likes that!) and yet it is still packed with apple and lemon flavour. This is great tea all around. I must admit though, I haven’t been drinking too many cold beverages lately now that it’s cooling down, but this will be a choice for when I start doing cold teas again!.

Just tried this plain, didn’t even bother making a latte. Basically paid $9.50 (after tax) for a tea that tastes like rooibos. Pumpkin pie my foot.

Re-review of this tea!

This is in the fond farewells on the DAVIDs website but I’ll see if I can grab more. This tea is amazing- especially compared to pumpkin cheesecake- bleh. A plain cup of this tea is kinda watery but as a latte (4 perfect spoonfuls in 8oz of 200F water steeped for 5 min and mixed with hot frothed 1% milk) makes a great pumpkin spice tea latte. Yes, you actually taste pumpkin (real chunks of it in here!) with spices and a touch of sweetness.

I have 2 more pumpkin teas to try out, but so far this is my fave.

Re-review of this tea.

When I had this tea 2 years ago I liked it fairly well as a latte. I dunno if they changed the tea or if my tastes have changed (prob both tbh) but here are my findings:

way 1: plain cup: approx 1.5-2 tsp steeped 5.5 min in 8oz of 200F water: smells amazing, but tastes strongly of wood. This rooibos/honeybush blend is woodier than usual rooibos? Didn’t finish the cup.

way 2: 4 “perfect spoonfuls” (approx 10 tsp) steeped 5min in 8oz of 200F water then mixed with hot, frothed 1% milk: VERY strong wood taste. but milky! Gross. No pumpkin cheesecake taste in the least. Had to mix some anise milk powder (dutch treat- look it up) do I didn’t dump this down the sink. Even then it’s JUST palatable.

Giving the rest of the tea away to the first Canadian (sorry, I only have those stamps) who wants it. I can’t believe how much this was not like pumpkin cheesecake.

Had this last weekend at my in laws place. My doctor says I’m not supposed to drink peppermint because it could irritate my heartburn, but I didn’t find that was the case with this tea- prob cause its mostly “apple mint”. I liked the not too strong, not too weak minty flavour that did not become bitter if steeped for long + the citrus taste. I think I will have to purchase some of this tea again!

When you think of chai teas, you think of a decent kick of spices, am I right? I tried this tea twice, once steeped for 5 min and it was very weak. iHOT recommends 8-10min of steeping so I tried 10. The rooibos base is stronger but hardly any spice taste. What the heck? Not that this tea is gross or anything it just lacks what it promises. I did buy this tea to mix with Carrot Cake tea from DAVIDs for lattes so it will get used up to tone down the licorice root, but by itself totally not a repurchase. First tea that’s really let me down from iHOT :(

A re-review of this tea since I never did a proper tasting note.

Been sipping this one down fast. Lately I’ve been packing drawstring paper tea filters with loose leaf tea and keep a Ziploc baggie of them in my purse so that’s the only tea I have when I’m out and about and at work- this really helps me use up teas and why my cupboard # is so low (19!).

For this tea, the main taste is in the fruity flavouring (and wow is the scent strong!). I recently tried rosehips plain and really disliked them (tasted like stomach acid to me) but I like this blend because of the other herbs and flavourings masking the sour taste of rosehips. I also detect a bit of cinnamon as well? I do like the fact this tea can stand up to super long steeps when I forget the bag in my travel mug when I’m working. A tea that can withstand abuse is a must have at work ;)

Overall this tea is decent. Maybe a repurchase in the future as well? Who knows

I was so excited when they got more Gan Zao Ye in stock- that’s my favourite tea I’ve bought from Verdant yet. When I stocked up on that I also decided to try this tea out as well seeing as it’s another caffeine free tea :).

Brewed up always at 200F with 8oz of water, close to 5grams of tea (my scale isn’t sensitive enough to tell the exact amount). I’ve tried the first steeping, subsequent steeps, long steeps and short steeps, and to me it tastes like a very mild black tea without astringency (or caffeine). Maybe similar to a Darjeeling? My palate isn’t in tune to black teas very much seeing as how I cannot handle them. I did enjoy this tea though, and it did not hurt my stomach :).