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Some how my cupboard has gotten very caffeinated. Even my fruity teas have a black base. Well, that’s wonderful unless I want to sleep at night. So I’ve begun trying to stock up a bit with portable tea (bags and sachets) for when I’m out. Not a lot of blackberry flavor, quite a bit of hibiscus, vanilla sort of hidden. With some stevia, well okay, a lot of stevia, it was passable. I used my special magic cure for hibiscus – my french vanilla stevia drops (from the health food store). They fix just about anything. Obviously, since I added vanilla, I tasted the vanilla more. It brings more of a blackberry flavor. This will still be okay for a to-go tea but I wouldn’t buy it again.

Like all the matchas from Red Leaf, it’s delicious! I make mine with 8 oz. of lite vanilla soy milk, 2 ice cubes, 3/4 tsp of powder. I put it in my little blender and, oh my, its wonderful and frothy and delicious. I used this as my bribe to get some work done… paying bills, doing taxes, etc. Thank you Cheri for this sample!

I love the tartness of the cranberry taste. Some how, it seems very different from the tartness in hibiscus (which I don’t like). It’s funny that it has hibiscus but not cranberry in the ingredients. It’s very refreshing. I needed a change from some of my other caffeine free teas. They all seemed to be focused on making me sleepy. (But that was obviously my poor choice; I mean if I choose Sleepytime Vanilla and Soothing Caramel Bedtime what do I think they are going to be like!) This tea has a bit of freshness and liveliness that I need in the middle of the afternoon. With some sweetener it tastes almost like a nice cranberry juice. In a good way. I have a feeling that this will be wonderful cold this summer. This tea reminds me of another tea, Warming Crimson Berry from Frontier Natural Products Co-op. Warming Crimson Berry had some peppercorn and red pepper flakes. It was a great cold weather tea. I think I could make this into a spicy winter treat. A tea for all seasons?
BTW, I really don’t like thievery limited pull down list for flavors and scents and that I can’t put in my own flavors and tastes.

I received a generous sample of the loose leaf version from Zwi. Thanks! I have had many chais (as is true for most of us) and that’s what this is. I like it but don’t love it. A few years ago, I was totally addicted to the tazo concentrate with vanilla soy milk. (Bad girl… way too fattening) I’ve tried a bunch and I only like a few. This is not one of them, for me. Maybe I under-leafed. I wouldn’t buy this particular tea but it certainly would appeal to many people. I guess I was looking for a little more WOW.

I made some hot and a cold brew of this tea. The hot was enjoyable but the cold was even better. Nicely balanced teas. This will be a great summer cold brew. I’ll be having a lot of this during the summer!

I have two lovely samples of this tea! It’s a creamy EG with well balance bergamot. I have been drinking too much EG with a heavy bergamot lately and it tastes good to back that down a little.. Is there such a thing as bergamot over dose? If so… that’s what I had coming into this tea. I was a little worried that it would have too much bergamot but it doesn’t! There is a nice creamy element to the tea that is probably the cheesecake part of it. The flavor fills the mouth nicely. This is a tea I will have on my wish list.

I bought this tea before I read the reviews. Well,it’s not bad. I was afraid that it would be pretty bad since the reviews weren’t very positive. The mint is predominant but the chocolate helps fill it out. I did use some vanilla stevia which may account for the disparity between my score and some of the others. Several of my mint teas ( mostly Morrocan Mint) have caffeine so this is a good non-caffeinated choice. Since the chocolate is not strong it should probably be called Mint Chocolate Truffle instead of Chocolate Mint.

The flavors are licorice and fennel. It doesn’t list cardamon but I can see it and taste it. Reminds me of other licorice herbals I’ve had. Not much to set it apart from others. Nothing wrong with it. Will be good as an evening herbal but nothing exciting. And I definitely need more herbals. I was up half the night after my awesome experience with the Chocolate Yerba Mate. After being in Supercleaner mode yestesterday, I am soooooo sore today. Yikes. This is a good relaxing cuppa while I sit and watch some classic Doctor Who. Ahhhh.

The aroma is fantastic. The taste is a little bland on my first try. Luckily I have a full 2 oz. so I can play around with it a little. First steeping was only 2 min. I made a new pot and steeped for 3 min. I also put just a little more leaf. I wish the amount section below let us put in half teaspoons. I would say I did 1.5 for 8 oz. Just a bit of stevia and I have all I wanted in an almond cookie tea! I’m really glad I re-made this tea before rating it. The almond really comes up to the front with a burst of taste.

A nice black tea for the morning. Light lemon taste peeks out like a bit of spring sunshine. I wonder what this would taste like if cold brewed? I think the lemon would become more prominent. Thanks Zwi for this sample.