White Tea with Island Mango and Peach

I’m tired of winter already and needed something with a springy lilt to it. This did the trick. I wasn’t careful with water temp; let it get to a boil, so that may have killed off a little bit of the delicacy. Got lots of mango and not much peach. But still a well-done blend for a grocery store brand.

I think my fiancee picked up this box of tea a while ago. It’s been sitting in my box of teabags to rate. It smells very nicely of peaches. The flavor is initially a little tart and fruity, with a strong fresh peach aftertaste. The only flavor that I’m getting is the peach, there’s not really any mango noticeable. I don’t dislike this one, but there’s just a little too much artificial sweetness in it for me.

-Silken pyramid-shaped teabag with a tag.
-Teabag smells faintly of peach. Tea liquor aroma is of ripe peaches.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy dark yellow color.
-Tart and fruity flavor and finish. Lingering fresh peach aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Good tea. Strong fresh peach flavor with a small artificial note.

1 pyramid bag for 250mL water.

Smells great — peaches, peach fuzz, a bit of mango.

Tastes bitter and soapy. Boiling water, just-off-the-boil water, cooler water — doesn’t seem to matter. Mineral bitter and soapy, at that.

White teas are my favorite because of their light, subtle, often beautiful tastes. This tea does not disappoint. It is an excellent blend of the flavor of the tea and the flavor of the fruit. A sip begins with the smooth, refreshing taste of the white tea and then finishes with a lovely blend of the mango and peach flavors. I think I taste more of the peach than the mango, but I’m okay with that!

Confession: I’m a sucker for any product that has “island” in the title. I pretty much live for my annual beach vacation, and those marketing people know where to hit suckers like me. But this tea could be called “XYZ Tea” and it would still be one of the best teas I’ve ever had. Seriously, Lipton’s Island Mango and Peach tea is gooood.

For starters, the tea comes in pyramid-shaped bags, which allows the leaves a lot more room to spread, allowing for a smooth, rich flavor to flow into the cup. The leaves are infused with actual pieces of fruit, which gives the tea a REAL fruit taste – something authentic – as opposed to the flat flavor found in a lot of “fruity teas”. The box comes with 18 of these bags, and each bag packs 75mg of flavonoids per oz. serving. Ahhh, the healthy deliciousness of this tea.

This is technically a white tea, although the ingredients also lists green tea, along with rose hips, lemon grass, orange leaves, and a few other natural ingredients. I always drink this tea hot – the scent is pretty killer – but it also makes a great iced tea.

This is one of my favorite teas and one that I always make sure is in my cabinet. I recommend it for anyone that loves white tea, green tea, fruit tea, herbal tea, orange or peach tea, healthy and nutritious drinks…or has a pulse. That means you, buddy.

How do I put this delicately? The smell and taste of this tea is terrible. I can smell this tea wet and dry from across the house. Potent and artificial. The aroma reminds me of peaches and a cross between model glue and turpentine. I had to plug my a nose to take a sip. After the third sip, I couldn’t stomach it anymore so I dumped it in sink. That’s $3.99 down the drain!

I wanted some tea before bed, but didn’t feel like using my Teavana Perfect Tea Maker (which is a pain to clean) or even a filter bag, so I pulled this out. As always, the quality was excellent for a bagged tea and the taste was delicately sweet.

The initial smell of this tea is mainly peach, with a hint of mango. However, as the tea develops the role is reversed and you get more of the mango and less of the peach. The color is a very nice orange-lemon citrus like shade. This is a very light tasting tea, nice before bed. I usually like my teas to be a little bit stronger, but I bet that extra steeping time would help a bit.

Update: I just realized that I left half of this cup sitting around…I’m lowering the rating. If it isn’t memorable enough for me to remember that I didn’t finish it, obviously I’m not that much of a fan.

I’m surprised this tea has such low ratings. I’m an herbal tea drinker and this is the only caffeinated thing in my cupboard. The white tea flavor is very light and delicate and compliments the peach flavor wonderfully. I didn’t taste any mango, but in any case I still like it :)

Well first off, I grew up basically thinking that flavored teas were ‘wrong’ and the only way to enjoy tea is with a nice, black, bitter cup. So, I brewed this up expecting to hate it.

This is a VERY fragrant tea. My mom (the black tea lover) was horrified at the scent and at the very notion that this could be considered a tea. Fortunately, it smells beautiful. Nice and tropical with mostly the mango coming through.

Since the scent is so strong, the tea tastes much stronger than when it cools. Over time it is actually fairly weak, but when the olfactory senses come in contact with that warm brew it just makes the taste so much stronger. Overall, I found it to be a pleasant cup…simple described as fruity with the mango AND peach definitely shining through. It also reseeps nice, which is a big plus for me! Unfortunately, this tea does leave a bit of an aftertaste in the back of your throat.

One problem I have with this is the element of ‘tea.’ First off, this is actually a white/green/herbal blend, not white which is what the box claims. On that same note, I found it to be fairly pointless to include white and green tea, because the peach and mango overpowered it tremendously. I feel like this would have worked just as well if they nixed the tea ingredients, thus ridding it of caffeine, and just made it an herbal infusion.

Overall, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this, although I definitely preferred when it was iced and the flavored were more muted. Yes, people always get all ‘well…it’s a bagged tea so it’s lower quality blah blah blah’ but I’m judging by TASTE. Overall loose leaf is higher quality but sometimes a loose leaf tastes yuck while a bagged tastes great. I think this is a good relaxing, convenient choice and although I may not love enough to purchase again, I don’t mind finishing up the rest of the box :)