I have this one in the BYOTea set. It’s the first one I’ve tried, even though I ordered the set a few months ago. If you haven’t seen it, it’s pretty neat for people on the go who like loose tea, but may not have the equipment with them. (Think vacation, work, commuting, etc.) It comes with 10 biodegradable tea pouches to put 3-4 pinches of tea in. I found that four works best for my travel mug. The tea is kept in these plastic folded pouches that remind me of a clutch handbag. When it’s folded up, the plastic seals shut and the tea is kept safely inside. Ingenious, actually.
I’m in class right now, so I warmed the teapot almost to boiling. I’ve burned myself so many times, that I’ve been working on guesstimating the temperature of the water and stopping it before it boils. I’ve got it down to sound, however, since I’m not all that certain of temperature, I’ve left it off. I did let it steep for about three minutes.
The tea smells fresh and fruity, both before and after steeping. The taste is refreshing. The green tea is somewhat grassy, but not like a really green, green tea. It complements the tropical fruit nicely. The passion fruit provides a fullness to the flavor. It’s not a weak taste, nor is is sickly sweet. I’d say it’s rather realistic. I also taste pineapple, although it could be my tropical imagination getting the better of me. I’m really thrilled with the convenience of these little packets of tea.
I hadn’t heard of this before your review. Sounds pretty cool – I’ll have to give it a go. :)
The packets are nice, but the tea’s shelf life won’t be as long as if it were stored in a tin. It’s still a neat concept. My students all crowded around me as if I had made some new discovery, so it added to the atmosphere of exploring something new.