Tangerine Orange Zinger

So I tried to make a tea soda out of this. I failed.

To make things better, I brewed up the last bags into a pot of hot tea. And am trying to come to terms with the fact that all I’m really capable of making tea-wise is a pot of hot neat tea, and iced sweet tea. The second of which I don’t even like and only make for my mother. My lattes are sad, and my other experiments just leave me empty inside.

Oh, well. I still love my tea hot and neat.

This + early V-day chocolates = om nom nom :D

I cold-brewed this overnight on Saturday and the end result was surprisingly good. The resulted tea is, of course, bright pink due to the hibiscus but the tangerine stills manages to make its presence known on the end of the sip. It is delighfully floral which was a bit tart when the tea was hot, but luckily turned to just a light sweet taste when cold. My husband has been drinking the tea constantly, in fact, I only had one glass of it before he was able to finish off the gallon pitcher. Needless to say I will be making another gallon today. This one is receiving a slight ratings boost because it is MUCH better cold than hot.

I had a couple of these teabags sitting around from an ancient Celestial Seasonings sampler. Zinger = hibiscus which I am not thrilled with so I thought I’d try cold brewing this. It tastes amazingly like fruit punch. If you’re a fan of Hawaiian fruit punch and are trying to cut back on calories, you may need to try it. I don’t have much else to say, it’s kind of a citrusy, hibiscus-y creation, the aftertaste is waaaay too TART for me. I don’t think I will be buying more.

Cold-steeped of few tea-bags of this in a pitcher for about 24 hours. This is a tasty, sweet, and pleasantly tart brew. Yes, the hibisus is there, but it’s not overpowering. The citrus is nice and strong. I get a little bit of spice from this too: Maybe a little cinnamon? This very satisfying on a hot day. I would brew this again!

It feels weird to drink an orange flavored tea that is basically purple. It’s like my tongue is worried that my eyes are seeing purple.
This smells a lot like the orange sage blend from Teavana. It actually has a very similar orange flavor; almost spot on in fact. >:) Cheap version of that tea here I come! It’s not 100% on, but the orange is there. The tart is also something that I really like, so in my biased view, this is something I’d keep around.

A box of this somehow made it into the cupboards at work, so I’ve been having it every so often. I’m usually a loose leaf kinda girl, but this makes me want to try more from Celestial Seasonings, since it’s pretty nice! Fruity and very tart, and almost reminds me more of heavily flavored water than tea — not always a bad thing in my book.

Caitlin and I had tea again. I have been keeping these “zinger” teas down to a five minute steep because I remember not liking them when I tried to drink them when I was a little girl. This one tasted pretty good. It was nice and orangey without being overpowering or sour. It tasted like warm semi-sweet orange juice. It would actually be nice to drink for breakfast if I didn’t want black milk tea.

The only thing that amused me was that the liquor looked about the same as the True Blueberry I had. Dark and slightly red. I think the redness must come from the hibiscus that the two share in their ingredient list. Hibiscus is Caitlin’s favorite tea, so she tries to get blends that has hibiscus as one of the first two ingredients on the blends. Which is good for me, because I have been very curious about hibiscus.

I love tangerines and Mandarin oranges, but I definitely do not like this tea. It’s your typical Zinger by Celestial Seasonings, packed with hibiscus and dark. There’s something about the tangerine flavor that reminds me of pool water… I’ll just leave it there.

Fruity Herbal – usually not my fave. This is ok…prob better iced. It’s not as intense as some fruity herbals which is GOOD in my book but I am not sure if I want to give it a thumbs up…will stick with neutral.