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Sweet Memories is a combination of green tea and chamomile, with the barest hint of hibiscus. I normally avoid teas with hibiscus because they tend to be needlessly tart, but this is a great example of hibiscus done right. The slight tartness it adds is a perfect balance to the sweetness of the peach. With just a touch of ginger and cinnamon to spice up the blend it ends up reminding me of peach pie in a teacup— in other words, it’s absolutely delicious.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/6/16/tuesday-tea-sweet-memories-tea-herbal-alchemy

What I enjoy most about this tea is the scent, it smells pleasantly of vanilla, which never fails to pick me up when I’m tired or not feeling well. After five weeks on the road (with a small child in tow) in the middle of allergy season, I’m feeling both tired and a bit run down. It’s great to finally be home, now if only I could stop sneezing long enough to finish unpacking.

Until my allergy attack has passed, much of my work is at a stand-still. It’s impossible to work on developing recipes when you can’t taste anything and even harder to write about the nuances of a great cup of tea (which is why today was the day to pull out an old favorite.) This is one of those rare teas that feels like someone blended it specifically with my tastes in mind. I love a strong Earl Grey and this one has nice brisk notes from the bergamot that are slightly tempered by the sweetness from the vanilla. From the first sip I was in love, which is why you’ll always find a 200g (7oz) package of it sitting on my kitchen counter.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/6/23/tuesday-tea-earl-grey-cream-zen-tea

Since I’m rushing back out of town again in a few days I decided to make some headway on my tea samples I thought would make good iced tea. When I opened up the package I was greeted with the strong scent of mango— it smells delicious even before steeped! I tossed the full ounce in my steeping pitcher and promptly forgot about it. Over 24 hours later, while desperately in need of a cold drink, I remembered it was still sitting in the fridge.
24 hours was a little long to cold steep this tea, it ended up being more heavy on the fruit flavoring than I would have liked. It tasted strongly of passion fruit, with a hint of mango and I couldn’t really taste the black base. I ended up making a batch of unflavored black tea and combining the two. Still, I think it makes a great iced tea, although next time I’ll brew it according to the package directions since it tastes better that way.

I wasn’t a fan of this the first time I tried it so I decided to toss the rest of it in my cold steeping pitcher and make iced tea. This time around I was able to taste the banana flavor, although it had a strong chemical aftertaste. I ended up drinking a few glasses, then dumping out the rest of the pitcher.

While I was traveling I ended up cold steeping this in my travel mug before I went to bed each night. Like magic I woke up to a great cup of cold tea each morning, it was heaven! It tasted heavily of vanilla, with hints of bergamot— the exact opposite of how it tastes when I steep it according to the package directions. I think I prefer this cold steeped since it doesn’t dry my mouth out as much, but either way it’s a delicious tea.

This was one of the teas I brought on my recent road trip. I thought a nice fruity tea would hit the spot once the temperatures started to rise, but I only made it through half the package before abandoning it for something else. The flavor wasn’t bad, it tasted somewhat like lychee, which is a tropical fruit, but not exactly what I was expecting. I’ll cold steep the last of this and finish it off once I get back to Saint Louis next week.

Overall I would say that Takeya has delivered exactly what the package described, a classic black tea. Much like the iced tea I grew up with the flavor isn’t particularly strong. It does have a slightly sweet, almost fruity flavor that is perfect for iced tea. I did find that once I added ice the tea immediately began to cloud, something that doesn’t bother me, but is a huge sticking point with some iced tea traditionalists. Brewing the tea hot, then allowing it to cool in the fridge instead of adding ice helped somewhat with the issue of clouding while also giving me a stronger flavored tea. Unfortunately that meant I used 4 packages of tea instead of 2 when making a full pitcher. Since there are only 6 to a box, so this method isn’t really cost efficient. I’ve seen these priced around $3.99 per box (and as much as $7.99.) At that price I’ll most likely continue to measure out my tea into sandwich bags if I want to leave it for my husband or take my Flash Chill pitcher with me when I travel.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/6/9/tuesday-tea-flash-chill-classic-black-whole-leaf-iced-tea-takeya

Unlike most chai this tea does not use black tea for a base and instead uses Yerba Mate, which has a higher caffeine content and a slightly toasted flavor. I’ve really been enjoying the strong flavor of cardamom mixed in with the citrus from the lemongrass and toasted notes of the yerba mate. The flavors are different than I’m accustomed to seeing in a chai, but they’re delicious— especially the cardamom.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/5/1/tuesday-tea-spicy-chai-mate-tea-market

Considering that this is a tea from Harney & Sons, a company who has been known for quality tea for more years than I’ve been alive, I knew going in that I was in for a treat. I wasn’t disappointed, this is one of the better bottled teas that I’ve tasted. The high-quality back tea that was used as a base for this drink isn’t drowned out by flavoring, even though there is a strong peach flavor. Occasionally I could even pick up hints of honey. The flavors from the sweeteners were light and not overpowering like I find most bottled teas to be and allowed the peach-like flavor to really come through.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/5/26/tuesday-tea-road-trip-review-bottled-peach-tea-harney-and-sons