Passionfruit Citrus / Blue Lady

Shoved a couple of these in my luggage because I thought I might end up appreciating having easy/travel friendly tea bags that packed a caffeine punch. I only ended up drinking this one, during Sunday morning breakfast with a handful of tea blogger/content creator friends from instagram – it was actually so great! The tea ended up being the punch of caffeine I needed for the morning, and the flavour itself wasn’t too bad. Definitely tasted much more like passionfruit than any type of citrus. I think the strangest thing is that it’s a sweet tropical note but it doesn’t have any of the acidity that I would normally associate with passionfruit. In that way, it reminded me a bit of DT’s Green Passionfruit blend – though I think I maybe liked this better because of the black base versus the green base.

Another tea bag as thank you for forwarding postcards to Russia. And for some reason, when I have opened this one I thought it is some kind Earl Grey.

It isn’t, but as I really needed caffeine boost today morning, I decided to give it a try even passion fruit flavour was something completely different than I was looking for.

I prepared it with 4 minutes steeping time as suggested and I got fruity (not sure if passion fruit at all), tea with chalky aftertaste. I would rather say somehow tropical and a bit tart (hibiscus is in). Sadly, looking at the ingredients I see it should be a bit citrusy… but nothing from that in my cup.

The caffeine boosted me a lot though and I am very glad for that, that counts. Flavour is dismal on the other hand and honestly I would not like to drink it daily.

I used the least amount of leaf and the most amount of water, steeped for the shortest amount of time so that the caffeine does not overwhelm my senses. Surprisingly, I like it! I’ve been putting this one off not only because of the added caffeine but also because of the hibiscus. I’m not opposed to the flavor so much as to the fact that I can’t add milk to my black teas when it’s present. But I have to say that this tastes good without the dairy, so I’m pleased with the cup. I also really enjoyed Zest’s Earl Grey, but I had to space it out over the course of the day because it was just too much. This one has CBD, so maybe that will help balance the jitters a bit? James loves, loves, loves the Superberry Samba green tea from Zest (the CBD version) so much that he rarely drinks any other tea these days.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 212 degrees + 20 minutes

The second cup still has flavor, but I’m not sure it’s enough to warrant an additional steep. Especially since I’m already fully caffeinated from the first cup and I’m getting into the afternoon now.

Sipdown 68-2021
This tea was an unfortunate victim of sitting in my sipdown box for too long. Because of that, it really picked up some strange flavors and just didn’t taste quite right when I tried to drink it.

This was from the TTB earlier this year and I saved it until I was traveling and could enjoy an caffeine boost to get me through the day. I’m not really sure why one would need more tea extract in tea, but its and interesting concept. I actually switched from coffee to tea because even half calf coffee was too much caffeine for me.
I was careful to not over steep this as I thought it might be bitter, and I wasn’t tasting much of the orange pekoe base of the tea. This starts out hibiscus (maybe a good thing to hide bitterness?) and ends with a weird soapy aftertaste. Most teas benefit from a steep in a go cup, I have an oolong that I only like to do in the go cup as it turns a bit nutty that doesn’t happen in a regular steeper, but this one just had more aftertaste the longer I drank.
Not for me, glad I got to try it.

A nice tea to power me through a dreary week. It has a juicy aroma and flavour that’s quite pleasant, probably from the passion fruit in this blend.

I’ve found it’s the least bitter of all the Zest Teas – I’ve no idea why, but I’m glad. The hibiscus is nice but I wish the citrus flavours would come out more. There’s this sort of generic citrus flavour which isn’t detectable as lemon or orange, but some kind of hybrid. I think adding some bergamot would really lift this tea.

Nonetheless, it’s enjoyable and I finished the cup easily.

The only downside to the high caffeine level of this tea is that it becomes my one tea of the day. Having another tea later on is just too much, even if it’s a normal caffeine level for a tea. I’m too sensitive to caffeine.

Full review and a few pictures, like usual: https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/zest-blue-lady-tea-review/

Drinking this in hopes that the placebo effect will help me. Although I’m edging up on Anxiety level 4 going to 5 so this is probably not going to help that. Maybe. Hard to say. Caffeine is so weird. I missed yesterday because as I predicted, 3 days a week is too much but I had to shift some hours onto today since I have no vacation left which means I don’t get to leave work until 6pm (usually leave time 1pm) so I’m not please and very unhappy, and anxious.

But that has nothing to do with this tea, which is tasty.