Suddenly my reviews on Teaopia teas have become very important to me, mostly because I don’t know how many of them will still exist after the Teavana takeover. I’m hoping the arrangement is similar to the La senza/ Victoria’s Secret takeover (both stores basically operate the same with their own lines and websites) but considering that Teavana has stated the main drive behind their acquisition was the prime store locations and the lack of a need to renovate I’m not placing any money on that hope. So with every Teaopia tea I have I need to ask myself “Do I like this enough to really stockpile it sometime over the next couple of months?” Considering how I don’t have unlimited income, and I do like teas from other manufactures this is pretty difficult for me. Life would be so much easier if I’d just win the lottery (although my odds aren’t looking particularly good, which has more to do with the fact that I’ve never bought myself a lottery ticket, than the actual odds of the lottery).
Although I’m sure I’ll be revisiting that little rant with each Teaopia tea, for now I’ll put it aside and get to what you actually wanted to read: my opinions of the tea (ok you wanted to read ANYBODY’S opinions of the tea, but my way makes me feel all special.). I’ll try to be more to the point now to make up for my rambling.
Pro’s:
-I really liked the raspberry mint taste; I think they blended really well together. I’m not sure I’d call it ‘Mojito’ because it lacks the syrup-y (nasty) taste I associate with a true mojito. On the other hand from first smell to last sip, what the taste reminded me of most strongly was –and I don’t mean this in a bad way – Dukoral. That fizzy raspberry flavoured drink you take before going on a tropical vacation to prevent …let’s call it upset stomach. As I said I don’t mean the comparison in a bad way, the only thing I disliked about the Dukoral was the carbonation and syrup-y-ness of it, which are absent from the tisane.
-Also I took this when I had an upset stomach and it actually managed to calm it better than just mint.
Con’s
-It’s really heavy. It’s really really heavy (from the fruit bits) and not one of the cheaper teas either. I got 65 grams of this and it was like 25 grams of plain green tea. I’m actually curious to try getting just some dried raspberry leaves (Probably from Art of Tea) and using my own mint leaves to see if I can get a similar product minus the berry chunks.
-and with all teas with this amount of fruit chunks and the bottom of the cup is fruit sludge. Which is saying something considering I double strain this tea.
Now to answer the question on no one’s mind but my own: “will I buy this tea again”
Unfortunately the answer is probably not, not unless it goes on sale, it just costs too much, and there’s too many other teas I want to get. I really need to win that lottery.
