Cupteavity describes their Russian Court blend as being a glorified Earl Grey of sorts with citrus and currant in the mix. The blend was a relatively dark batch with a sheen of what appeared to be peels of orange and hints of currant chunks hidden amidst the black tea. I also thought I saw bits of lemongrass, blue mallow and marigold in the fray.

I wish they had an ingredient list somewhere. The smell was overpoweringly zesty. The berry and citrus fused to create this feeling of…cake. If “cake” can be considered a feeling. Sure it can. I brewed 2 heaping teaspoons in 16 oz. of boiling water for five minutes. I was too cowardly to try the Russian double-brew technique.

The liquor brewed to a deep brown, hearty black tea. First thing I had to get past was the initial bitter-tangy taste of the Earl Grey, which is definitely there. Besides that hiccup, it settled in to a deep brew with a fruit-filled hint and an aura of sweetness imparted by the floral aspects. However, the aftertaste kind of leaves the palate a bit chalk-dry.

The dry batch seemed very similar to a light oolong or a dark green tea; Mao Feng, mayhap. The smell was exactly as the site description made it out to me – strawberry and mint. No deviation from that. Like a flavored children’s toothpaste.

The Cupteavity tea profile provided little in the way of information. No brewing instructions, either. I had to go with my best guess for a green; 2 teaspoons (healthy), 185F-ish water, 16 oz., five-minute steep.

I’ll confess the liquor didn’t look very appetizing, like broth. The mint scent was really overpowering, backstaging strawberry. I think this answered the question of what type of mint was involved…peppermint. Said mint-muscle was also too strong in the taste. By itself, it would’ve been fine, it just didn’t mix well with the other ingredients. I’m hard-pressed to remember if I sensed any sign of green tea.

So let’s sum this up: If it’s fruit flavor you want, you can’t go wrong with fruit. Or, as I’ve pointed out, fruit juice. Don’t be ordering tea. Tea has tea flavor. It’s not like fruit. It’s more like tea. If you want tea, I say order tea. That’s a different experience. It’s known as “having tea.”

Have you noticed, by the way, there are no tea-flavored fruits? Take a clue from nature.”

So a Strawberry flavored blend of green tea and Mint is not exactly my idea of beverage paradise. Flavored tea gains its fruity taste from elaborate and arcane chemical processes that, in my opinion, diminish the tea, and removes the exotic and wonderful qualities of your friendly neighborhood Jade Empress.

One thing I felt a little bad about on brewing these leaves, is how beautifully they unraveled. It seems a Crime to flavor what are, fairly obviously, very good quality leaves. In fact I have emailed the Leaf Police your URL and they shall be round shortly to detain you for questioning. Still, the gentile and sweet flavor of fresh strawberries somewhat softened the blow. One thing I’ve found with many of the better Teas is a fresh mouth feel left as a parting gift. In this blend the mint fills the very-same role that the natural fluoride would normally fill. All in all its a very enjoyable cup, although its not really a good fit for my own cup, its probably perfect for lovers of good flavored green teas.

Here it is on June 7, and with the snow that dusted the ground when I woke up yesterday (which, thankfully, melted by the afternoon) fresh in my mind, I figured I could go for a rich, warming cup of tea. This blend smelled like currant and pine to me, so I figured it would fit the bill nicely.

After five minutes of steeping, I got what I hoped for. The tea was hearty and spicy and warming. The flavours blended together well into a bold, unique blend. As I sipped away, I felt as though I was docked at the frozen misty port at Murmansk, gazing proudly at a Soviet flag hoisted in front of me (and pretending it’s still the early 90’s).

What some may find disappointing is that this isn’t a distinctly earl gray tea, but I read the description after drinking the tea, so this fact did not bother me much. Once I knew it was earl gray, I could smell and taste it, but it still wasn’t prominent.

The only thing I found really disappointing is that, as far as I can tell, the Russian part of this tea is merely a name and has nothing to do with the blend itself. I suppose I’ll have to satisfy my lust for the Motherland elsewhere with some good ‘ol fashioned vodka.

Cupteavity is a Pennsylvania based company that sort of flew under my radar until they sent some samples in for review. One thing to note about Cupteavity is that while playing around on their website, I found that if you are not in a big hurry to get your tea, they have some VERY reasonable shipping prices if you select first class shipping. Also, they will give you a 1 oz sample of their tea of the week with a $20 purchase.

While waiting for my cup to infuse, I discovered that Cupteavity does not list the ingredients of each blend on their website. My sample package does contain not only rooibos, but also flower shreds and it appears maybe some almond slivers and some other ingredient that I am unsure of. While I am not one that dings the review for lack of sharing ingredients, I did want to point that out for folks that have allergies and other sensitivities. The aroma of the blend coming from my sample package is quite floral (rosy) with just a touch of vanilla. While Cupteavity describes this as rooibos vanilla with a hint of rose, I found just the opposite to be true! My cup was very rosy with just a touch of vanilla. Since strong rose flavored teas generally aren’t a favorite of mine, I found this to be a little disappointing. The rose even overpowered the rooibos some, which was a little surprising to me because I generally think of rooibos as having a kind of strong and distinctive flavor.

While I am glad to have heard of Cupteavity and still am interested in trying more of their blends, Berlin Mix is not a blend that I will be purchasing. This is not terrible by any means, but it is not really my thing. I used to have a white tea in my stash which was a white tea with vanilla and rose and I really thought this was going to be the rooibos version of that blend. However, that blend was much heavier on the vanilla and had just a hint of rose. I could only recommend this to those that are lovers are a rather rosy tea.

So it is of great surprise to me to find a tisane blend that brandishes “Berlin” as a part of its title. I never knew Germany had anything to do with tea. This being a rooibos blend as well, I thought South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch. Not the “Deutsche”. I’m sure there’s a good reason for the moniker, but I can barely think of one.

Enough about my lack of scholasticism, on with the tea! Type-thingy.

The Cupteavity site described this as a blend of vanilla, rose and rooibos. A “romantic” blend. Well, on first sniff, romance hardly came to mind. Rather, I instantly envisioned vanilla-rose pudding. However, I love pudding, so I suppose that would count as somewhat of a romance. Right?

I noticed red chunks amidst the rooibos flakes. Some lighter shades were present as well. I gathered those were the bits of vanilla that gave me the urge to eat it.

I brewed 2 teaspoons in 16 oz. of boiling water for five minutes; my usual. The Cupteavity site didn’t give specifics, which is okay. I managed.

The infusion was a deep red, par for course for a rooibos. Nothing special. It had a nutty, herbal scent with rose petal layers, only a hint of vanilla towards the end. This tasted strikingly similar to a rose-flavored black tea. Not as astringent as that comparison, but there. Overall, though, I felt it was sort of lacking. Rooibos and rose just aren’t a match made in heaven, and the vanilla doesn’t show up as much of a sandwich. Still an okay cup, though.

If you follow Teaviews to any extent, you know by now that I like flavored teas quite a bit. I am also attracted to blends with unusual flavor profiles, so I had to request a sample when I saw this blend. Cupteavity was a company that was previously unknown to me until recently. One thing to note about Cupteavity is that if you are not in a hurry to receive your tea, and can wait for First Class mail, then they have some very reasonable shipping prices.

My sample package consists of green tea, dried strawberry pieces, and I believe there is some mint in there. I prepared this using my standard green tea preparation which is water brought to steaming and infused the leaves for 2-3 min. The thing that strikes me most about this cup is that the three flavors (green tea, mint, strawberry) have a nice balance to them. Mint does probably dominate the cup, but it doesn’t totally overpower the strawberry or the green tea. The strawberry is the next most dominate, but I can in fact taste a bit of the green tea. The green tea is mild and does not bring any vegetal or swampy notes to the cup. I did enjoy this best with a touch of sweetener (rock cane sugar) and thought this was best when iced. In fact, if I purchased this, I would likely prepare it iced 90% of the time.

This tea reminds me of some of those crazy gum flavors out on the market the past few years like strawberry lime and watermelon mint. I can’t say that this is favorite of mine, but it does make a pretty decent iced tea and is definitely worth consideration if you contemplate a purchase from Cupteavity.

CupTeavity is following a rich British, and later American, tradition of naming and flavouring products to evoke exotic foreign imagery in the mind of their customers. This is a traditional British blend, complimented by the addition of currants and orange bits, as well as, it appears, lemon grass.

My first steep was as is traditional for Black Tea’s in general, and British blends in specific, to be specific it was with near boiling water for five minutes. It brewed up a light red, as all tea with lemon does. Clear and clean on the eyes, and strongly citric to the nose. It assailed my buds with bold malty flavours, and the rich, tannin overtones of Assam, this is all slightly unbalanced by the strong citrus tang, but is returned to normalcy by the smoothing effects of the currant and lemon grass. They form a sort of flavour bridge between two strong contenders.

The second time around I steeped the spent leaves for about ten minutes. I did this more as an act of cheap-skatery than any actual belief that I’d get anything remotely interesting in the flavour department. After ten in the wash I poured it off, first to the pot, then to the cup, and was surprised that the leaves had once again yielded more than just a purty colour. Its was rather a shocker as most flavoured teas attain such by chemical means, and the bits of fruit etc., are added for entirely decorative reasons. This blend holds both the rich flavour of black tea, and the citrus twist until the third steep, something odd for a flavoured black tea. This is my first sampling of a CupTeavity blend, and I have to say I’m somewhat impressed, and definitely looking forward many more.