Island Rose

sooo verdict on thes tea bags from this company is that they have some great flavours…but need to lose the stevia. this one is like a tastier neo citran haha but because i can taste the stevia, it’s not a repeat, go find these tea bags, sort of tea. ignoring that, the lemon is super tasty and delicious!

Final Count: 128

holy mother of something…THIS is orange! It kinda reminds me of orange syrup…the stuff that is the concentrate of the orange pop you get in restaurants. a little more sour, but over all generally that was the taste. I’d probably love this much more if i could’t taste the stevia coming through, but even at that it was still a really tasty cup :)

HOLY RUM…oh and a little vanilla. haha this smells like an insanely creamy rum cocktail. Kinda makes me long for my caramel rum milkshake heh. all that being said, there’s an after taste to this that i’m not a fan of it’s a bit artificial like..and reminds me a little bit of medicine from when i was a kid. greats to try though and i appreciate the sharing of tea bags with me from tea friends!

Monthly TTB Club.

I really, really dislike presweetened teas. Not only are they usually sweeter than I like, they also often use sweeteners that don’t taste good to me. I think I would like this if it wasn’t sweetened with stevia. The stevia just ruins this for me.

Monthly TTB Club.

I’m not sure what it was, but I really disliked this one. It reminds me of Stash’s Hibiscus teas, which I also really dislike. I wonder if it has licorice root in it.

Monthly TTB Club.

I liked this one, but it tasted more like Hibiscus-apple than Strawberry Vanilla.

HGTTB

This is so weird because it actually smells just like cola. Tastewise, I am getting hot, flat, hibby-flavored cola. Flat and soda just isn’t right but I could see this having potential as a tea soda.

This is how I always imagined butterbeer tasting! It’s caramelly, rummy, creamy and completely decadent.

The flavoring is intense without being heavy handed, so the fannings base is inoffensive if not slightly dominated by the flavorings.

This isn’t so much like drinking a cup of tea as it is a cocktail or a dessert.

This fruit tea is a little odd. Not bad, but weird. For one, it’s strange tasting “cola” in a warm tea, and that’s a little off-putting. I steeped a little too long, so the hibiscus is pretty powerful. I don’t think I would ever have this again by choice, but I wouldn’t refuse to drink it if offered.

Sipdown (104)! I’ve been very hesitant about trying this one because of all the negative reviews and a warning from Skysamurai. First off, the smell was just so repugnant that I was almost scared to try this tea. It smelled like someone used a citrus cleaning product in a retirement home. And of course it tasted just like cleaning product as well. The smell was so strong it actually made me a little lightheaded. Needless to say, I had to dump the rest of the mug. Yikes.

I drank this tea iced and it had a strong lime smell. The taste was more mild than the smell. It was not bad as an iced tea and I didn’t even add sugar.

Small Big Traveling Tea Box

Blech. Bleck. Nope. I have liked all the Island Rose teas that I have tried thus far..but this one is different. I’m not sure whether I just took a sip of tea or just bathed my tongue in a vat of cleaning products. Is this even safe to pour down my sink? I don’t even know:O

Small Big Traveling Tea Box

This tea is quite delicious!^.^ On a cloudy day like today, this tea is perfect. Smooth and lemony. The more the tea cools, the stronger the flavor. I’m really quite impressed with Island Rose, they did a nice job with this cup :] No wonder the sun isn’t in the sky, it’s in my cup! :]

This tea smells like Pine-Sol.

Does it taste like Pine-Sol? That, I don’t know but what it does taste like is a hot cup of lime peel. If you love the taste of citrus peel and the clean scent of disinfectant cleaner… you’ll love this tea.

Had this one in my cupboard for awhile. Not really a fan of plain black tea and it comes with a bunch of other tea that I love. Pulled it out to mix with lemonade for an arnie palmer. Seems like your typical english breakfast to me, just a bit lighter. Honestly I thought it tasted better steeped at 2-3 mins.

Swap Sample!

When the packet said “Green Lime” I assumed green tea with lime…but no. My tastebuds say, “WTF IS this crap?” Apparently it is Lapacho. I googled Lapacho…and to be honest it sounds dangerous! “The active ingredients such as lapachol have been found to possess significant abortifacient and reproductive toxicity effects for rats.234” HOLY CRAP! How can they sell this as tea then? Good thing it tasted terrible and I dumped it out…bleh!

I need to find somewhere to buy this in Canada. This tea was absolutely AMAZING. LOVE IT. It tastes so creamy and the rum flavour is really good. LOOOOOVE.

Swap sample from SkySamurai! Thanks!

Wow this IS extremely rummy! LOL! The hint of vanilla makes me think of rum cake! Generic black fannings base is mediocre but not offensive in this instance…this is actually kind of fun because it tastes like I’m having a tea cocktail at work! TGIF? :)

Anyway not something I’m likely to purchase but certainly is fun to try! So far I find Island Rose to be pretty good for bagged tea.

Thank you Skysamurai for letting me try this unique tea!

I’m generally a fan of hibiscusy herbals, so I was excited to try this one and intrigued by the cola aspect. It steeps up a BRIGHT purplish red immediately and smells distinctly of cola. I took a couple of sips hot and knew I wanted to pour the rest over ice. I think I really like this tea conceptually. I think the hibiscus, cinnamon and cola pair well together, but the stevia is throwing me off. If this had no sweetener so I could add my own I would be much happier, I think. Really unique though and I’m glad I got to try it! :)

Love this tea. Had it many times but it’s been a year or so since I’ve had some in my collection. As soon as I tore open the package I thought tear jerkers! Do you remember sour tear jerkers? The gum that is round and has a sweet gum, hollow inside, and sour outside. The orange ones taste very similar to this tea; without the sourness of course. Good warm and cold. Hot is fine but I think it’s best when it’s chilled slightly.

Skysamurai was kind enough to share this with me after I mentioned that I love love love rose tea. It was a nice treat to have after spending nearly 2 hours outside with my toddler trick-or-treating. I have to say that I was impressed by his endurance and his ability to double-fist candy and plop it into his treat sack. Our neighbors thought he was adorable and let him get away with it, so we’ve got a boatload of candy. Yum!

But back to the tea…

On the first sip of this tea I thought it tasted familiar, I’ve not had the opportunity to try this specific tea before, but it reminds me of something I’ve had in the past which of course is comforting yet it still bugs me a bit that I can’t remember.

This had a really nice balance between the rose and the ceylon base. Many rose teas tend to remind me somewhat of potpourri, but this one, while strong didn’t go overboard with the rose flavor. I was distracted while steeping my second bag, we had some adorable trick-or-treaters come to the door, so I oversteeped by about 2 minutes. This was enough to make the tea turn bitter, but not entirely undrinkable. I also discovered that I this tea isn’t nearly as tasty at room temperature, so in the future I’ll definitely remember to finish it quickly.

I love Island Rose. Every tea I’ve tasted has been a wonderful adventure. Save for this one. I didn’t even occur to me that I might not like it until I opened the tea pouch. Don’t get me wrong I like the flavor of lime and I love green tea; but mixed together…. it just isn’t working for me. Kinda reminds me of the green skittles or sour patch kids that I leave at the bottom of the bag and give to someone else.

Here’s my other problem with this tea: If it has green tea how can it be non-caffeinated? Maybe decaf… but anyay… this one will be going in my give away pile.