Løv Organic

Blueberry and coconut are two of my favourite things, so in theory, this should be a winner. However, I’m personally finding the base a little too bitter, plus no blueberry. The coconut is there but it’s not? It doesn’t taste like fresh coconut. I wouldn’t call it coconut flakes either. It’s more processed and broken down, if that makes any sense. While the steeped tea most definitely smells like pleasant coconut, the taste is not translating as such. With each sip, I get the processed coconut followed by the lingering bitterness of the base.

Thank you to the wonderful MissB for sharing this one with me! Remedy cafe has a bunch of these teas so I’ll probably try almost all of them that way.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – July Tea #5- A blueberry tea

I never did get around to seeing blueberry and coconut as a flavor combination, but I guess it isn’t a terrible idea.  This tea doesn’t taste like much at this point anyway, being so old.  It doesn’t really taste like blueberry OR coconut.   What really is the point of old tea notes from me, other than to say SIPDOWNNNN.   Some teas probably don’t deserve a last sad note saying the flavor is faded when it is very obvious at the number of years the tea has aged that it won’t taste like what it is supposed to taste like.  ah well.  I still remember that amazing package of teas from Nicole that this was included in (as I remember most of the amazing tea packages over the years from you all. :D) 
2022 sipdowns:  84

In unrelated crap news, it’s surprising to me to see that monarch butterflies are now on the endangered species list. Lordy. And the milkweed in the yard has never been better than this year. I saw a monarch land on some of the milkweed yesterday…

Another one to try to thank Nicole for. :D This one was intriguing. Coconut and blueberry seem like a different combination. This is a very balanced blend though! With the dry leaf, I can only smell the coconut. So then I take a first sip and it’s surprisingly very juicy sweet blueberry with background notes of coconut (like the suntan lotion type, but I know that type of coconut won’t be getting old tasting anytime soon.) With the second steep, the blueberry sadly disappears and I’m left with stronger coconut. It’s almost like an Everlasting Gobstopper tea. The white tea itself is tough to taste under all these flavors. I can’t tell if the tea itself is buttery or it’s the coconut, but it’s tasty regardless. I wasn’t really paying attention to steeping parameters this time.

I enjoyed this iced. I can taste both blackcurrant and peach, which is a nice change of pace from one overwhelming flavor. Even if it is a good overwhelming. I didn’t get any wow factor here, but it was nice. I would only recommend being extremely careful not to oversteep – I brewed this at 160, normally only greens need to be that low for me, and it was still a bit bitter after three minutes.

Today I made a tea soda with this tea, which of course came from MissB. I found a bottle of sparkling water, and I need the bottle itself for carrying cold brewed tea to work, so a tea soda had to be made. Peach and black currant seemed like they would make a nice soda. It’s reasonably tasty, but could use… something. More sugar? Stronger tea? I dunno. The white tea is a bit strange in this too. Those hay flavors that white teas often have are quite strong here, and it doesn’t quite work in a soda. The peach and cassis are pretty nice, though. We’ll see how it turns out as a cold brew, I have a little left to try it.

Grabbed this at a Kusmi store in Paris, and thought it was Kusmi until I tried putting it into Steepster. Uh.. okay, so similar branding, different company? Got it.

The smell in the tin was divine, so I thought, why not, I’ll grab a tin… you can only buy a tin of this. Sadly, I couldn’t bring the tin home. Brewed up it’s okay, but I want more flavor to it. It’s really, really subtle. Might be lovely as an iced tea, like Sil suggested? It’s just that blueberry isn’t as yummy as I want it.

Fun fact: blueberries are called bleuets in Québec, but myrtilles in Belgium, France and Swizerland. This led to a heated debate between me and a Starbucks employee in Grenoble, France, trying to figure out just what those blue things were a the muffin.

1.5 tsp in 12 oz. water, 185F for three minutes.

Sipdown! Process of elimination makes me think that this was from Roswell Strange, so thanks! I had to add it to my spreadsheet just now, because I apparently missed writing down a bunch of teas from before… sigh…

Anyhow! This is really interesting. Pineapple + mint? I swear I’ve seen pineapple mint at the garden centres before, but haven’t ever tried it, nor do I know if it actually tastes like pineapple + mint, or whether it’s called that for a different reason. Either way, it kind of works in this tea. The mint is subtle and tastes like fresh mint as opposed to peppermint (which is good!), and the pineapple is light and fruity. The green rooibos is not particularly distinguishable, which makes it work well here. Red rooibos or honeybush probably would have ruined this for me.

Overall, not a tea that would fall into my favourites, but a very interesting try, and not a tea I’ve had anything remotely like previously! Thanks Roswell!

Not sure about this tea yet. I haven’t had many good experiences with rooibos nor with white tea or fruity tea. Because of its fruity flavour, I guess it would be nice as an iced tea. I will try it again but I’m not sure yet I would repurchase it.

Another from MissB This one smelled like it’s name but the taste wasn’t one that i cared for until it was almost completely cooled. Warm it fell flat, but cooled it was a really subtle blueberry coconut tea. Smooth and quite refreshing. No need to keep this in my cupboard but warm brewed then cooled is the way to go with then one imo. Not sure if a straight cole brew would work, but someone should try haha

Another from MissB that i had today. This is a really nice peach, blackcurrant tea. I’ve been sick of “peach” teas for the last while but the addition of the blackcurrant to this one makes is a really pleasant cup that isn’t just PEACH. This was my favourite of the two lov organic’s i had today from missb :) Thanks as always!

I really, really like this, however I’m having a hard time describing it. It smells like a hot, tart grapefruit and tastes more like a sour orange, or sweet grapefruit, or a bunch of citrus with a hint of floral that I just can’t place. It’s more robust than say a juice… I’m really perplexed and need to review the ingredient list. Regardless, it’s refreshing and I can easily drink this often.

Hm. Loved this in Europe, not so much at home. Perhaps brewed at too low of a temperature? (I let the water sit a bit before using it). Took quite a bit of sweetener to get the peach to pop this time around, and even then, it was really drying. Hm.

Grabbed at Kusmi, had no idea it was a different company until I tried to put it in the database. It smelled like heaven at the store – sweet, sweet peach and apricot. Flavor wise, it’s a sweet peach mostly with blackcurrant in the background, and an aftertaste of apricot. Light yet creamy… Wow.

Backlog- The thing I remember the most about this tea was the cinnamon was not overpowering. I like cinnamon but I’m not one of those cinnamon lovers. I don’t remember getting any orange from this tea and that was a bit disappointing. It seemed to be a pretty pleasant rooibos tea but lacked something that would make it stand out.

Tried out this sample today ( from CameronB) when I needed less caffeine. There are times when I am just so happy to stick a teabag in a cup and add boiling water.

I wasn’t expecting much from this tea. Most fruit teas in my experience have hibiscus and I really do not like hibiscus. When I looked at the tea bag I couldn’t see very much hibiscus so I was hopeful. My first sniff of the tea was mostly peaches but I could pick up a bit of the pineapple and mango after awhile. I really quite enjoyed this tea. The hibiscus was so light it actually enhanced the fruit instead of overpowering it. It was an enjoyable cup.

I don’t know how I can ever remember all these Lov names for their teas. They all seem to sound alike after awhile although their tea packaging is cute.

This one is a mild herbal chai blend. Definitely strong on the anise/Fennel flavour. The other spices are not too strong and it was a pretty pleasant tea. Even though I don’t hate anise/licorice it’s just not my thing when it comes to tea but I’m glad I got a chance to try this tea.

Enjoying this tea this evening. This was a sample from CameronB.

I like how each tea has it’s own special colour on the package for the tea bag. This one was a dark French blue. It seemed this tea would appeal to me since I like mint and lemon.

It’s definitely mint and verbena with the verbena being the stronger of the two. To me verbena isn’t quite lemon though. It has it’s own special flavour that comes across as a bit medicine flavour to me. I guess I’m just not liking the verbena that much but I can appreciate that this is a nice herbal blend with no artificial flavouring. It would definitely appeal to those who love verbena. Glad I got the chance to try it!

Mmmm this one is tasty. It’s orange , caramel rooibos. It’s got a nice light sweetness and the caramel (or orange) isn’t overdone either. Orange is sometimes a hard one to get right in the teas. I’ve had some pretty bad teas with orange in them. Caramel is another thing I hate when it’s too sweet or overdone. There’s a good balance in this tea.

This tea was a bit of a disappointment. I love rose teas and was looking for the rose buds in the tea. NONE. Only rose flavouring. They put in lavender petals though. Another concern. Lavender is great in bath and body products but it’s a bit strong in tea.

When I brewed this tea, it seemed to taste better in the first few sips. Maybe the super hot water blinded my taste buds to how strong the lavender was. When the tea cooled down, the lavender seemed to dominate the tea. Yeah, it was mixed in there with the rose but to me it seemed too intense. I guess there were apple pieces in there but I couldn’t taste them , just lavender & rose.

Enjoying this tea tonight. Another one from CameronB. I can taste the camomile, faint cinnamon & apple. Rounding it out is a bit of licorice that doesn’t dominate but seems to blend in very well. In fact it was hard to pick the licorice out right away because it’s a bit toned down and I’m used to licorice being strong and bold.

This is a very enjoyable cup for the evening. I have to admit I like the sachets too instead of loose leaf all the time. For an evening tea, it just makes it much more simple and less fuss once in awhile.

This is one of the many Lov samples CameronB sent my way. I had this one this afternoon. It has white tea, green tea, & green rooibos with apricot, mango & pineapple. When I opened the tea sachet I could smell the apricot and pineapple right away.

I like that this tea doesn’t have artificial flavouring, just natural flavouring. Brewed up, it was a dark amber colour—pretty much like a red rooibos. I could taste the pineapple and apricot but it was very subtle. The hay notes from the white tea came through and balanced nicely with it. It was an enjoyable cup!

Sipdown (126)!

According to my box calendar, today’s Word of The Day is… Sobriquet!

Today is definitely a word that I didn’t know; the definition being: A descriptive name or epithet – a nickname. I think it’s going to be much harder to use this one in a sentence today but I’ll certainly try and I challenge you all to do the same.

This tea comes from Cameron B. – it was the only Lov Organic tea I requested from her in our most recent exchange, and that was definitely because of the pineapple in it. I love pineapple; and this seems like an especially weird/outside of the box flavour combination on top of having my favourite tea related ingredient in it.

I think I had a much different experience than she did because I thought the pineapple flavour in this was actually quite strong; and it was very familiar to me as well. It almost, in a way, reminded me of bubblegum and I think what I’m comparing it to mentally is 52Tea’s Pineapple Bacon Rooibos of which I was definitely a fan of. There’s something similar, to me, about the pineapple flavouring used in each tea.

I just read my tasting note on Pineapple Bacon and now I really, really want more of it again…

In addition to a strong pineapple flavour I also picked up on the mint, though it was much, much milder than I was anticipating it being – definitely more of a background flavour just adding some coolness/freshness overall. And, peculiarly I noticed a relatively tart/sour flavour that reminded me of Granny Smith Apples. And no, I’m not mistaking the tartness of pineapple for that weird flavour note – this was definitely something else separate from the tartness of pineapple. The base was well masked; I didn’t even notice it really. Green rooibos usually does a good job of that.

Overall this was definitely weird in a mostly good way and I think falls under the category of “one of those flavour combinations you sort of just need to try”. Definitely not a bad way to introduce myself to this company.

Ah, the last untried tea from Løv Organic. I guess I find these herbal blends boring, it seems they always get passed over for something a little more exciting. Poor herbal blends! This one actually sounds quite lovely, as I enjoy both mint and lemony herbs. The sachet smells mostly of mint with a slight fresh scent that reminds me of cucumber.

I can smell much more lemon in the steeped tea, along with the mild mint. That light cucumber-y note is still there as well. This is a tasty one. It’s a nice, refreshing blend of mild peppermint and just a touch of lemony herbal flavor. There’s also that little bit of light cucumber taste coming from somewhere. I especially like how the mint pops out at the end and cools the inside of my mouth as I breathe.

More Løv Organic! I think after this one, I just have two herbal blends left to try. I really like their packaging – the colors are lovely and happy, and the little bird is super cute. Just from looking at this tea and its ingredients, I didn’t have high hopes for it. It’s basically a mix of spices and licorice root, I guess I would call it an herbal chai. Dry scent is strongly spiced, I can definitely smell fennel/anise and clove.

Hmm, this is not what I expected. It’s actually quite mild in flavor, and not at all sharp. The strongest flavor is definitely the fennel/anise combination and the licorice root, which adds a mild sweetness that doesn’t bother me here. I can taste a little bit of the cardamon and ginger (which always seem similar to me) along with the cinnamon and clove. Perhaps the tiniest bit of peppercorn? It’s hard to tell with this many spices together. Overall, I actually don’t mind this one. Surprising!