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While Della Terra has a lot of really unique and tasty dessert teas, I’ve found that I really adore their fruity blends the best. Their Mother of Pearl is SO amazing, I could drink it all the damn time and be happy. So of course in my second order I had to pick up an ounce of this, since it’s gotten such good reviews and I do love mango. I’ve also learned recently that I like peach teas as well, when they’re done right.

I cold brewed this overnight in the fridge, and wow! Not Mother of Pearl wow, but still really really tasty. The peach is the most prominent flavor to me, with mango coming in at the end of the sip. The peach isn’t overpowering though, and you can also taste the base and a bit of the floral taste from the rose petals. Iced it is just perfect, so fruity and juicy! I love when fruit teas do taste like they have some juice squeezed in, it amazes me that flavoring can have this effect yet it does. Mmm! Definitely a winner, and I think I’ll need to have this an MoP in my cupboard at all times. Maybe I’ll even mix them together…

In my previous Red Leaf Tea orders, I’ve dived into the dessert-y flavors first. In this batch I got Bavarian Cream and Cookies & Cream, but for some reason I’ve really been feeling like fruity flavors recently. The Coconut Matcha last night was such a success, so I decided to try Pear for a little burst of energy this afternoon.

As a side note, I don’t usually find myself too affected by the caffeine content in tea. I will drink a cup of strong black in the morning if I have to get up early, but I think it’s more the flavor and briskness that perks me up. I can drink caffeinated teas late at night with very little effect. However, for some reason matcha is very different! I have a weird sleep cycle, and I’m often very tired after waking up well into the afternoon. A cup of matcha, though, makes me feel wide awake! It’s really nice to be able to have something that makes me feel refreshed that isn’t espresso—-which works for sure but makes me jittery. Matcha, though, gives me a caffeine boost with no jitters! Oddly enough I can still drink it at night though, usually as a hot latte it’ll have the same effect as warm milk. I think the only explanation is that matcha is made out of magic. Perfect, delicious, magic.

Anyway, my Pear Matcha was composed of the following:

Size: Small (30 grams)
Matcha Grade: Starter
Flavor Level: Distinctive

And you can find it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/pear-matcha.html

Much like my Watermelon Matcha, this smells a little artificial when you first open the bag. Like pear hard candy—which is pretty hard to find, but it does exist! It actually kind of reminds me of Japanese pear gummies, which are quite tasty but, you know, candy. However, I chalk the smell up to it sitting around in a bag for a while. It seems to happen with some teas, like the smell gets trapped in there and it smells way different than how it tastes.

I made this a bit differently than usual. Sifted it into a mug, added a bit of sugar, whisked in 2 ounces of hot water. I’m so anal about the amount for the “starter” portion: I always measure out exactly 2 ounces! As if, you know, a little more or less would really hurt haha. I guess since I am still new to matcha, though I’ve tried quite a few flavors, I am still very particular when making a cup. I added cold water and some ice cubes after—I was tempted to do a latte, but I am both low on milk and didn’t know if milk + pear is really a good idea. I DID do the coconut with milk, but then again coconut and creamy go together in my head when pear really just doesn’t.

Anyway, this definitely has the fresh pear taste LiberTEAS mentioned! Juicy and delicious, but I do find it a bit more artificial (and really just a bit) than the other ones I’ve tried. Maybe I just added a bit too much matcha to the mug? However, it’s what I usually use so I’m not sure. It’s really good, just not one of my absolute favorites I’ve tried from them. I mean they can’t ALL be my favorite, right? I think I’ll try mixing this with caramel next for a more dessert-y feel!

When I placed my last order at Red Leaf Tea, I was really debating the 4th type I was going to get. The first two were easy: Cookies and Cream and Bavarian Cream, since they were on sale! The third, Pear, I’ve been wanting to try for a while thanks to LiberTea’s reviews. But what for the 4th? There are so many I want to try, and Cotton Candy almost won out. But for some reason I was feeling like celebrating the end of summer, and tropical flavors seemed perfect for that! Though I almost went with the Pina Colada, I picked Coconut instead for simplicity’s sake. My matcha was composed of the following:

Size: Small (30g)
Matcha: Starter Grade
Flavoring: Distinctive

Distinctive is kind of my go-to flavoring now, though I do plan on trying Robust for Tiramisu since it is my all-time favorite dessert and I want a TON of that flavor packed in there! For this one, I am really glad (once again) with my flavor level choices: there’s just enough coconut. In fact, it’s not really that strong…. at first. While it smells very coconut-y in the bag, the first sip only had a trace of coconut. “Oh no!” I thought, but since I have faith in Red Leaf’s flavoring I soldiered on.

At the end of the cup, I found myself wanting so much more. It is SO coconut-y, which is funny since I found myself kind of going “where’s the coconut?” at first. It’s not a toasted, bake-y coconut, but a fresh young coconut taste. If I didn’t know better, I would swear this was made with coconut milk instead of water! Well, water and regular milk. I did this as an iced latte: mixed up the base with water, then poured in cold milk and whisked some more for that tasty foam layer. That seems to be my preferred way of drinking matcha, though I do like hot lattes, smoothies, and of course matcha just made with water! It’s fun that you can do so many things with it: I think baking or candy making is up next, maybe some matcha toffee? Ice cream seems almost too easy, just add matcha to a custard base! It has to be custard, I’m so spoiled I find Philly-style bases a bit meh.

Back on topic, this matcha is tropical heaven. I close my eyes while sipping it and I could seriously be sitting on a beach, stretched out on the sand! I dunno if they drink matcha on beaches, but damn they should. I am so happy I got this one, it’s delicious and I think it will mix really well with the ones I have and plan to get. Coconut Mango, Coconut Cheesecake, yum yum! You can get this matcha here:

http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/coconut-matcha.html

Another sample thanks to Nature’s Tea Leaf! I was really intrigued by this one: cinnamon and oolong aren’t a combination I think of as going together, especially not with the light oolong chosen for this blend. But it smells incredibly delicious, so so cinammon-y, and there’s also huge chunks of cinnamon bark in there! The bf looooves cinnamon, so I made him up a cup of this. Of course I sneaked a sip first though—and I’m going to be making myself a cup REALLY soon because this is so tasty.

The aroma of this once brewed is really POW in your face, powerful cinnamon. But like cinnamon sticks/bark, not dry cinnamon. It’s a small distinction, but since I bake a lot it matters to me. Dry cinnamon is more holiday bake-y whereas bark is more for everyday use—in fact, my favorite place to use it is in chili! Trust me, it’s delicious. With cocoa powder and coffee and chilies… mmmm. Anyway, back on topic. This tea also brewed up super pale, as I’d expect a light oolong to, so it was off to a good start.

Holy COW this is good! It’s got all the markers of a very nice light oolong: floral, a bit creamy, with natural sweetness and very nice vegetal notes. There’s a lovely cinnamon taste, obviously very natural tasting since it comes from bark and not just flavoring. Not, you know, that flavoring always tastes fake but I find with spices I like the real deal! And, amazingly, the oolong and cinnamon are a perfect pair. Spicy, sweet, sooo good. I could drink this all day long, what a winner! I really want to try it cold too, I bet this would be fantastic hot and iced.

EDIT: I forgot to update this yesterday, but I got 3 hot brews AND a cold brew out of the leaves! It is sooo good iced, I think the oolong is more prominent though the cinnamon is definitely still present. Upping the rating a bit since this is equally good hot and cold, plus you can get a ton of brews out of it which is always nice.

I was lucky enough to get some review samples from Nature’s Tea Leaf and they came in TWO DAYS! Talk about fast shipping! Not only that, but they’re all one ounce which is pretty awesome. I wanted to dive in right away, and this one called to me just because it’s so darn pretty. Tons of whole, intact flowers and leaves, it’s really gorgeous. And it smells good, too!

I wasn’t exactly sure how to steep this: it’s a pu-erh blend but there are more herbal elements, so I did boiling water for 6 minutes. Thankfully that seemed like the right choice, since no one flavor is too overpowering or under-represented. There’s a lot going on here: I don’t think you could pick out any one flavor and say “it’s dominantly x!” There’s chrysanthemum, which I find to be kind of like a tastier version of chamomile. Then there’s mint, but it’s not so pervasive that it reads as a mint blend. There’s a hint of earthiness running through the cup, from the pu-erh and I suppose the lotus as well? Floral elements peek in from the rose, and there’s a bit of tartness (though not overpoweringly so) from the hibiscus. Oh, and a bit of citrus too from the lemon!

There is a LOT going on, but it all balances out into a very tasty blend. It’s a good “I don’t know what mood I am in” tea since it’s got a bit of everything: floral, earthy, tart, mint, citrus-y. It also seems like it’d be a good, calming night time tea. I think I’m going to be running through my ounce of this pretty quickly!

Thanks so much to TeaEqualsBliss for this one! It’s been on my shopping list FOREVER, and finally I get to try it, hooray! I must admit that I kind of spazzed out when making this. I saw “chai” and immediately made it my preferred way for lemongrass-based chais: boiling water, 5 minutes, with coconut milk and brown sugar. Okay, I prefer it with dulce de leche but I don’t always have that on hand! As I was pouring it into the milk I realized with horror that this was a green tea. That I’d poured boiling water over, steeped for 5 minutes, and added milk to. Gah! Coconut milk, but still. I was prepared for a disaster.

Well, somehow, it came out AMAZING. The genmaicha and chai are a perfect combination: toasty, nutty and earthy from the genmaicha, spicy, tingly and warm from the chai. The lemongrass adds a Thai-ish, citrus-y twist that is just divine. It’s like the perfect chai! The spice balance is really amazing: clove and ginger up front, a sweet hint of cardamom and a kick of cinnamon. Sooo tasty, now I know why everyone was telling me to try Yogic haha.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this gem! While I don’t tend to favor rooibos blends, one sniff and I knew this would be good. It smells like a caramel macchiato! I know there’s no actual coffee/espresso flavor in here, but it’s got an earthy richness that reminds me of fancy coffee house drinks.

I cold brewed this, which I really hadn’t thought to do but someone recommended it and I just had to try it out. I was hoping it would cut out some of the medicinal nature of rooibos, and lo and behold, it did! All the good woodsy, earthy aspects are brought to the forefront but the parts that make me nauseous are gone. Wellll almost, there’s just a teeny teeny bit of the medicinal-ness at the very end that I am willing to overlook because this is so yummy!

It is definitely caramel, and quite strong at that. Maybe not caramel candies, but caramel syrup: not heavy and rich, but light yet deep on flavor. It really really tastes like coffee too, I just can’t get the association out of my head. Iced caramel coffee, delicious! This is REALLY good, and I think I might actually be buying a rooibos blend of my own free will once my generous sample runs out.

I made a cold brew of this the other day, due to my newfound infatuation with cold Earl Greys. I mean, obviously citrus is good cold, but I don’t usually think of EG as a “citrus” tea per say. However, I looooved when I made my Tea Table EGC iced, though sadly I spilled half of it all over the floor and it came to an untimely demise.

I decided to try it with my favorite black EGC, and OH MY GOD. It’s heaven in a cup! Strongly creamy and so deliciously vanilla, with just enough bergamot and a very bold base. Ahh, the perfect afternoon iced tea. I might start making this by the pitcher—thankfully it really is cheap enough to have every day!

I seem to have fallen in love with Earl Grey Creams. I adore the two I have in stock always (Upton’s Vanilla Cream and Culinary’s White EGC), and I really enjoyed the one I tried from the Tea Table. I was kind of addicted to the ice cream I made out of it…

Anyway, I realized I’ve had this gem of a sample sitting around for some time untouched. Well, time to change that! The smell is heavenly, just what you’d expect from an EGC. Rich, smooth, creamy and dessert-like. The flavor is strong too, very vanilla-y, like pudding or a cupcake. It reminds me of their vanilla oolong (probably because I also had it today) but the flavor doesn’t mask the base. I think black teas can take a LOT of flavoring and still stand out, and you can definitely taste the black here.

However, what I am not getting is a whole lot of bergamot. It’s fainter than the Tea Table version, and is kind of downplayed by all the creaminess. Usually I find that citrus bite and vanilla smoothness and interesting counterpoint, but here it’s just smooth cream and a strong black base with maybe a tiny hint of bergamot. It’s more a lightly citrus-y cream tea than an EGC but it’s still delicious!

You know, I’m so overwhelmed by samples that I totally forgot I had a whole bunch of them from DAVIDs! I got one of the sampler packs in the cute little tins, I forget which one but it has an absolutely gorgeous leaf design on the front. Classy! I’ve been working my way through them slowly, and decided it was about time to try them all out. This one was up first, since it smells like pudding which is never a bad thing.

I cold brewed this for 12 hours, even though the weather is getting a little chilly and perhaps it’s time to move back to warm teas. It was 75 this afternoon and it seemed hot in comparison to what we’ve been getting in NY! Fall really is pretty much here. Then again I drink iced tea in the dead of winter.

This tea reminds me a LOT of Silk Dragon and Mandarin Silk, both in appearance and taste. It’s got that pudding-like quality, though with the Silk Dragon it was more like delicate vanilla cupcakes. Here it’s POW vanilla right in the face, and sadly it’s a hair artificial. Not enough to ruin the cup, but I definitely prefer the other variations of this that I’ve tried. I mean, it’s still good, and if I hadn’t had Silk Dragon I’d probably rate it a lot higher, but… vanilla oolongs have been spoiled for me! Silk Dragon is the one.