Ambiance

Sigh, another kitchen cleanout tea.

This caffeine-free Raspberry teabag has a lot of ingredients but they’re all well-balanced. I really appreciate the fact that there are freeze-dried raspberries in this and not just flavouring. The taste does not lie. Tart raspberry mostly, starts out kind of drying at the beginning of the cup but ends on a sweeter note, maybe from the blackberry leaves. Also a very noticeable cooling sensation after I’ve finished. This would be great for a summer day, brewed hot then iced with a sprinkle of your sweetener of choice. I think this tea came from Smart and Final or Grocery Outlet and was cheap.

Kitchen clean-out. As far as I know, this Earl Grey isn’t ancient. It doesn’t taste very good, though. Bitter, gets sour when cooled and not enough bergamot for my likes. I’d rather have Bigelow if I’m going for affordable bags.

6 PM, certainly time for not caffeine tea. I was not sure if fruit one, or caffeine-free. Then I picked this one.

Colour is dark red; well hibiscus is in. And rosehips. Well more like herbal blend than fruit blend.
Aroma: good work, it smells after ripe raspberries and no funky notes. Though nothing else but raspberries.
Taste: sweet raspberries like mixed with sugar. Just cream is missing :-) For me too sweet.

Overall: Pleasant, yet quite plain. Good for easy-drinker in the evening, when you don´t want to care about noticing aromas and tastes.

And thank you Derk

I have drunk many different kinds of jasmine green tea from soft floral to heavy tannins that made me pucker. Orange jasmine sounded different.
Open the foiled/sealed tea bag – i don’t always sniff – but lots of heavy citrus aromas.
I prefer my teas straight – no sweetener or dairy/milk. I like my tea brewed strong, so one tea bag in a 10oz mug for over 5 minutes.
For me there are more orange notes than jasmine but I like it. I’m on my second box of this tea. There is a difference in overall flavor from my first box to my second.

Im sitting here on my mom’s laptop trying to get into the zone to work on my novel and failing. I try to make a bit of ambiance by listening to a Pandora station I made inspired by Portishead but the obnoxiously loud television my dad is watching and the noise my brothers are making (they make music blargh!) manage to only foster an ambiance of environmental schizophrenia. Im also out of cigarettes and trying to keep it that way. Soooo I’m not in the greatest mood, but I will aim to be unbiased.

Observation 1: More borrowed tea. I am drinking this because I have a little tasting party to attend with my good friend and boyfriend on Saturday and I wan’t to not devour my tea samples and whats left of what I bought from Jupicia (50 grams does not go a long way… its like 3 or 4 days of tea; still cheaper than buying a pack of cigarettes every other day) so that I can bring them with me.

Observation 2: I did not notice a scent at all when I opened the package. I frowned a bit, I wanted a tea not an herbal, but you know the whole beggars and choosers… It was individually wrapped so yay freshness!

Observation 3: I steeped 2 teabags for 6 minutes in a 32oz teapot. The color is very pretty, a deep red orange, the kind of colors that make me long for the color changes of leaves that we don’t experience here in California. There is a heavy sweet scent with a light hint of raspberry. I wish there were more raspberry aroma.

Observation 4: I tried it first with sugar. There is an explosion of raspberry and then an aftertaste that I cannot describe as anything other than sucralose. That has always been a nuisance to me concerning fruity teas. I don’t know if it is something they put in them or what, but there’s always an artificial sugar aftertaste.

Observation 5: I tried it again without sugar. It tastes like not-quite-ripe raspberries; it is mildly tangy.

Overall, it’s not my cup of tea, but I am making due with what I’ve got. I have never been the biggest fan of fruity blends myself, but it tastes pretty standard. I probably would purchase this for tiny guests to have something to drink that isn’t a soda, but I doubt I would drink this again myself (unless I run out of tea again. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen).

1st observation: I drank the very last of my jasmine tea and really wanted tea so I asked my aunt for tea. She gave me 2 bags of Ambiance’s orange jasmine green tea and 2 bags of Ambiance’s caffeine free raspberry tea. I was craving jasmine so I gave the jasmine tea a shot. After all, beggars cannot be choosers.

2nd observation: The packaging is aluminum and individually wrapped, so yay freshness! Upon opening, I was greeted with a very interesting scent, the tang of citrus along with the sweet scent of jasmine lightly intertwined. My first scent-sation was that of dread. It did not smell nice.

3rd observation: I steeped the tea in a teapot, 32 oz with 2 tea bags for 3 minutes. After steeping, the tea was a clear amber color and smelled only of jasmine.

4th observation: Still apprehensive, I added cream and sugar. My first taste impression was that of both releif and dissapointment. It tastes just like any standard run-of-the-mill jasmine tea. I was hoping for something to blow my mind. It did have a tangy aftertaste that reminds me of orange zest.

5th observation: I cleared my palette and tasted the tea again without sugar or cream. It tastes like a bitter jasmine tea and I will not be drinking this without cream and/or sugar at all.

Overall: I was hoping for something a bit interesting and ended up with a fairly plain yet drinkable tea. If I want a jasmine green tea, I think I’ll find a better blend.

Pretty meh, but better than nothing.