Peachberry Jasmine Sutra

Like so many of Teavana’s blends, Peachberry Jasmine Sutra (and we have a WINNER for Stupidest Tea Name of the Year!) is dominated by its artificial flavors. This can be a good thing—I can’t be the only person who tried Youthberry and decided she never wanted to be without it. Or it can be a bad thing: Snow Geisha anyone? Or it can be just a ho-hum disappointment.

I was so hoping for this tea to taste as good as it smells. You are probably all familiar with the canister-top-waving selling technique at Teavana, and this one got me: a soft, fruity, sophisticated bouquet. I brewed it using a mesh ball, 175 degree water, for 2 minutes as the package recommends. At that point I sniffed: mmm, smells nice. And I looked: deep purple color. And I tasted: hot water with a slight perfumey taste. Dammit.

I added a little bit more hot water and gave it another 2 minutes, and tasted again: slightly sour hot water with a slight fruity/perfumey taste. What a disappointment. I was hoping for tea with an actual distinctive taste. Instead I tasted the insipid flavor of the green rooibos (I kind of don’t see the point of green rooibos; if I’d known this blend had so much of it, I wouldn’t have wasted my money), the artificial flavors, a slight sourness from the fruit, and that perfumey quality that might be the jasmine, or might just be more of the artificial flavor. I don’t taste green tea in the slightest. Am I crazy to have expected a little bit of green tea or jasmine flavor in a green jasmine blend?!

I then added copious sugar in the hopes that would bring out the flavor; what it did was obliterate all the flavor that wasn’t artificial. So now I’m drinking something that Victoria’s Secret should bottle and sell: hot sugary fruity perfume drink!

Sheesh. I had such high hopes for this one. That’ll teach me not to do my homework where Teavana teas are concerned. Next time I’m tempted to go to the mall and spend too much money, I’ll check Steepster.

Im finally at school with all my teas! This tea is from LauraR’s massive tea purge that I got in the mail today =)
I saw this as it was steeping going red and I’m thinking, god damn it what’s in here that’s doing this. Answer: hibiscus. And of course that’s all I taste when I sipped it. The aftertaste was VERY pleasant though and I could actually taste some peach and jasmine, but I don’t know why the hell they put hibiscus in it.. sigh. There goes a potentially super awesome tea.

I am on my third or fourth cup of this tea today. Overall, my relationship with this tea has improved today as I finally figured out that I was oversteeping it before. When steeped too long, the hibiscus flavors take over completely and it becomes hibiscus tea. When steeped for just one minute, the flavors of the green tea, jasmine and mild peach are there blended nicely with the hibiscus. With a faster steep time, I really enjoy this tea. The jasmine flavors don’t hold up on the second steeping (for two minutes).

What is this? This is not a review of a DAVIDsTEA blend!

So for no peculiar reason I had the opportunity to try some of this blend via Starbucks, this is the first loose leaf tea I have tried from Teavana as I usually do not stray far from my favorite DT blends.

Dry the tea has a very floral and fruity aroma that is actually quite soft in comparison to other similar tea blends I have had. The leaves are sparse between all the bits and pieces of fruit but the thing that does stand out is the rolled jasmine balls that give this tea a sophisticated look.

The final brew again retains the same floral smell, it gains a nice pinkish hue from the strawberries I am guessing. It has a light but sweet taste, mine has sat for a while so it has gotten pretty cold (darn paperwork!) it still tastes great leading me to believe this tea would be very tasty as an iced tea.

Going by their directions the tea came out tasting fine, I think 2tsp of leaves for 16oz of tea is too little, for me it came out a little soft tasting (possibly the blend itself?) and it has an amazing amount of crap that will come through your infuser, my mug is full of stuff at the bottom that is a little unappealing, but that is just cosmetics.

I don’t feel it would be a tea that I would go out and purchase for my stash but it has certainly opened up the doors for Teavana to get a blend or two in my stash.

An ever so amazing friend of mine sent this up to me with a bunch of other Teavana flavours I wanted to try. Of course when they arrived I dived right in and . . . they all tasted the same to me. So now I’m revisiting a few and picking out the various notes that make them different. This one . . . it is most definitely the jasmine that makes it unique, but the hibiscus definitely becomes her partner in crime. I say crime because they overpower the other notes, the amazing fruit pieces that give their siren call to my nose when I smell this dry.

I love peach, and was hoping that this was a peach/berry mix. Sadly that isn’t what I got. It isn’t a bad tea, it just isn’t what I was hoping for, or one of my favourites.

Got home too tired for an actual dinner today. I ended up just eating a bowl of cereal. And after cereal, tea! : ) I never seem to be too tired for tea!

I looked for something fruity that I could sip while I finished up some work (yes… still working at 9pm… But at least I’m home!). I decided to steep some Peachberry Jasmine Sutra.

This tea has a history with me. I bought it a while ago. When I read the description online it sounded like something I would love. When I finally had it in my hands, I was sorta iffy about the smell. It smelled great, but not necessarily like something I would want to drink. The first time I brewed it I I had one taste of the tea and… it tasted exactly like Generic Bubble Gum Flavor!!!!! I tried it a few times, bubble gum every time, and gave up on it for a while.

When I brewed it today, I think I was too tired to think about the fact that it was supposed to be a mix of fruity and jasmine (the dry tea is quite a mix! You can see the Jasmine Pearls, Green rooibos, dehydrated strawberries, hibiscus…). When I sipped it (densely sweetened with brown sugar) it was a pleasant surprise! Yum! Liquid Bubble Gum!

So, I have found, that while this is a pretty horrible mix of Jasmine, peach, and berry, it is a pretty decent Bubble Gum flavored tea!!! (Or maybe bubble gum flavor actually is a sum of these flavors??? Doubt it…)

I do not love this tea. Especially since it tastes nothing like it is supposed to! I will finish off what I have left and it will probably be the end of this tea for me!

I’ve finished up another package of this lovely tea… truly a tragedy. This may be one of Teavana’s infamous fruit blends with a bit of tea added, but they do it right.

The fruit combination is excellent and gets major props for including kiwi, which is one of my favorites and severely underrated. You can’t really distinguish between each fruit, but they create something new that’s better than each would be individually.

However, this is from the taste a straightforward fruit punch-y tisane. The jasmine pearls adds a perfect floral touch without taking over the flavor, and I assume the green rooibos helps as well (although I’ve never had straight green rooibos so I can’t say for sure). This is a tea that needs to be sweetened to bring out the full potential, but when it is, it’s a perfect medley of some of my favorite flavors.

2 teaspoons of this plus 1 teaspoon of pear luna and body +mind blend with a little bit of sugar!

Very good way to use these teas— don’t think I’ll buy any of them again, but blended they are very nice. The Jasmine is no longer overwhelmingly strong and the pear luna seems to have a better flavor when blended!

Amount: 3 scoops
Water: 1 teapot (3 cups) at 160-ish, should have been 175
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes, i tried sips at 1, 2, and 3. Next time 2
Served: Hot

Smell: peach, fruity, earthy, sweet
Flavor: slightly sour / citrus, strawberry, peach
Body:medium
Liquor: dark red
Aftertaste: bitter, sour

Notes: added honey to help smooth the tartness after tasting, it might be better as a summer iced tea.

This is by far my favorite tea from Teavana. Previously I had been in love with Snow Geisha, but one visit my boyfriend convinced me to try a new brew, and I chose this one. Instant love!

This is a tea for tea-lovers-who-love-sugar-and-sweet-in-everything. The flavor of the tea itself is there, but also heavily mixed with the peach and fruity essences. Upon first sip, your taste buds are hit with the sweetness of the fruit, which then mellows to the more subtle flavor of the tea leaves.

I’ve made this tea both hot and also iced, and I find that though it works well both ways, I prefer it hot since the flavor of the tea tends to mellow as it chills.

If you’re looking for a sweet and fruity tea, definitely try this one – it’s the one tea flavor that I hoard in my cupboard year-round, as a delicious pick-me-up.