 | "Impressively creamy and naturally sweet, this tea is exactly the right balance of the sweet and sour to produce almost an exact copy of its namesake. Yum!"
|
8.3/10
An ode to childhood’s perfect summer day, this offering from the folks at the Necessiteas comes quite close to matching the original creamy treat. Described as a mix of green tea, orange pieces, and white chocolate chips, it is touted as being a great candidate for iced tea.
Beyond the above description I failed to find out more about this tea on the Necessiteas’ website. I always prefer to first follow the manufacturer’s directions when trying out a new tea. I’m disappointed when tea companies don’t make the effort to give general guidelines on how to best brew their teas on their websites. Also posting an outline regarding the tea’s origins and production methods seems essential information to attract serious tea drinkers. But I digress…
Looking at the sample, a smattering of orange rind pieces are interspersed amongst bright olive green tea leaves of varying lengths. The white chocolate chips are few and far between. However, I’m not phased by this, as the aroma coming from the sample is surprisingly convincing. All the sweet citrusy notes of the famed popsicle are there. The odour of the mixture of vanilla and orange is quite mouth watering. I used my habitual method for brewing green tea. That is one teaspoon of leaves for an 8 ounce cup with water cooled to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and a 3 minute steep. A clear pale cup ensues, which smells very much like the dried leaves. Yum! A touch vegetal tasting, just enough to remind me that I am after all drinking green tea, it is impressively creamy and naturally sweet. Whoever blended this tea hit on exactly the right balance of the sweet and sour in this tea to produce almost an exact copy of its namesake. Moreover, the flavours are not overly intense as sometimes teas that try to emulate other foods are wont to be.
A second 3 minute infusion produces a cup that’s a bit on the watery side. Especially after having tasted the creamy deliciousness of the first infusion, the second one comes as a bit of a let down. However it is still quite drinkable and one might go that route to stretch out their dollars. At 12$ for 3.5 ounces it might be a little pricey for some for everyday use but certainly a nice summery treat from time to time. Nice work!
— To purchase The Necessiteas Orange Creamsicle, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
 |
Sophie Teaviews.com Reviewer » Read more about this reviewer on Sophie's profile page. » Find a list of recent posts by Sophie. |
“Our Cream Earl Grey White Tea has a delicate Earl Grey flavor with an extra creamy sweetness.” —Culinary Teas website.
I may be biased from the get-go because I don’t particularly favor genmaicha. The idea of rice and tea works well on paper, but the end-result is often like licking a rice cooker after you washed it; not too appealing. Of course, I’m in the minority. A lot of people love genmaicha.
On those occasions where I am looking to limit my tea-related caffeine intake, I very rarely opt for decaffeinated black tea, but instead go for rooibos or other herbal concoctions. This morning I was purposely trying to avoid caffeine, and my sample of London Commute Decaf caught my eye, so I decided to give it a whirl. KTeas states that this tea is a Ceylon tea that is decaffeinated using a natural CO2 process. The dried leaves look very much like the standard black tea, consisting of very dark and curled leaves. The dried blend smells very much like raisins. KTeas advises to infuse the leaves for 4 minutes, however I have noticed that some decaffeinated teas tend to go really bitter for long infusions, so I kept my steeping to less than two minutes. The tea was a rich reddish color. My first impression after tasting this tea was that despite it being decaffeinated, this tea has some serious kick. The flavor is robust, to say the least. While the raisin element that I detected in the aroma was also present in the flavor, the overwhelmingly dominant flavor element I noticed was a toasty-roasty flavor, perhaps comparable to, though much more intense than, the roasty flavor of hojicha. This toasty flavor was a bit too strong for me, and at times I found it too similar to burnt coffee, which I found off-putting. This tea needs sugar to keep that toasty/burnt flavor in check. Once sweetened, other notes of malt and cocoa were just barely present.
Tea and chocolate – a girl’s best friends. Or at least this girl’s best friends. Separate they’re fantastic enough, but combined they can reach epic heights. The Tea Room generously sent three flavours up my way:
One of my first goals when I joined was to find the perfect “Chai” tea. I haven’t yet achieved that lofty goal but K Teas Autumn morning ranks up there in the list. The website bills this as a lighter chai with Green teas from India, China and Japan, Black tea from India, cinnamon bits, cardamom seeds, cardamom husks, cloves, orange peel, and natural vanilla flavor. The aroma of the vanilla, cloves and the cardamom leap out at you building anticipation of that first taste.
“The full raspberry and chocolate flavors create a wonderful remembrance of Raspberry Truffles. Try adding a pinch of sugar to accentuate the flavor.
This was my first sample from TeaFrog, and before I even tried the tea, I was a fan. What can I say? I’m a sucker for clever (and cute) company names. TeaFrog’s version of Masala Chai appeared for the most part like any other chai. It included many of the typical ingredients, as well as a few I haven’t seen in chai blends before, including fennel and star anise. After looking over the ingredients, I was curious to see if these two particular flavors would be prominent in the blend. Honestly, I was secretly hoping they would blend seamlessly with the other ingredients because I’m not a fan of anything licorice flavored.
Suffuse Tea’s Rooibos Cinnamon comes packaged in white sachets making the contents hard to discern. In the case of this tea, however, I am guessing the ingredients list is rather simple, and so I don’t feel like I am missing out too much by not being able to clearly see the rooibos and cinnamon specks. I drank two cups of this tea without really thinking much of it, making me force myself to focus on the next one. I then realized that the reason the first two cups went down so quickly was that this brew lacks a “wow” factor, thereby lending it to easy and mindless sipping rather than savoring and contemplation. The rooibos flavor was sweet and nutty, but not as fresh as I have sampled from other selections. The cinnamon flavor was very mild, almost what I would describe as weak. I would have appreciated a stronger contribution of the cinnamon. I feel that this is a decent enough tea whose mild flavor profile would not be considered offensive or strong by too many people. This is a tea that I would certainly drink again if it was offered to me, but I would certainly not search this tea out, nor would I recommend it on the basis of it being a cinnamon-flavored blend, as I don’t think it delivers in that aspect.
Teavana seems to concentrate mostly on flavoured blends and fancy-shmancy leaves, with this tea falling firmly in the latter category. In keeping with Teavana tradition, they don’t have an abundance of what I (and I assume what other people who take their tea far too seriously) would consider useful information and facts that I really prefer to see on finer teas. Where, exactly, is it from (I would guess it’s a combination of Chinese teas)? Can I get a more precise detail of what the leaves are aside from “green tea and black tea?” Is there actually a religion that encourages giving up the things you don’t need so you can concentrate on meditating in the hopes that you will reach true Teavana? This tea brings more questions than answers.
Recent Comments