Ovation Teas

My Ovation Teas order arrived today! Yay! I wrote my review on the experience of shopping with Ovation here: http://steepster.com/places/2941-ovation-teas-online-federal-way-washington?visit=1898

This is really tasty. The black tea is a blend of Assam and Ceylon so it has a deliciously rich character. The cherry flavor is not as strong when the tea is hot, but, as the tea cools slightly the cherry flavor emerges somewhat. The coconut is the strongest note of the cup (other than that of the tea!) and the almond is subtle but distinguishable.

Yummy!

Steepster has been giving me a really hard time tonight. It’s up, it’s down, it’s up, it’s down. Ugh. But it looks like it’s finally working again. After an underwhelming first experience, I decided to give this tea another shot. So, I bought a 2 oz. package from Ovation and here we are!

The dry leaf aroma is very strongly citrus. Have you ever had Airborne, the orange-flavored vitamin C supplement you drop in a glass of water? That’s what this smells like. It’s heavy on the orange and tangerine with something else detectable, but not discernible, underneath. I really hope the jasmine pops through once it’s steeped.

Following the recommended steeping parameters on the package, I brewed this for 4 minutes at 185 degrees. I did use a little more than 2 tsp because of my Green Tea Fruit Smoothie experience. That tea has an intoxicating dry aroma but brews up very subtle tasting. I had a feeling this might act the same. Ah yes, I can tell freshness is paramount with this tea because the brewed aroma is awesome! There’s that jasmine I was missing earlier!

The flavor is, again, mostly citrus. The jasmine comes out in the aftertaste. It seems to me like the jasmine is taking a backseat to the citrus, and I wish it were the other way around. I’ve never ever ever ever had the urge to add sugar to a green tea before. Well, I not only had the urge but I indulged it too! This really needed the extra bit of sweetness. The citrus was just too much for me.

Overall, this was much better than the first time I tried it. I raised the rating from 50 to 59. But it’s still not a favorite for my palate. Of course, you never know till you try! It’s good, but not great.

This sounded like the perfect tea for tonight! I love jasmine teas, and I think they are complemented well when paired with citrus flavors. One of my favorite teas is Jasmin Mandarin by Lupicia. So, I have high hopes for this one by Ovation and kindly provided by Mercuryhime!

The dry leaf is very interesting. There are short, flat green leaves, rolled jasmine pearls, marigold petals, and little bits of fruit. Some of the fruit appears to be orange peel but there are these other little things that I swear look like orange seeds! But I’m guessing from the description of the ingredients that it’s little pieces of tangerine. I can’t imagine you’d get much flavor from an orange seed, so I don’t know why anyone would put it in a tea blend.

Anyway, the brewed tea aroma is a lot gentler than I expected. I often find that jasmine teas are overpowering in their aroma, very in-your-face. But this smells more like a citrus-y green tea with subtle hints of floral jasmine. Maybe I didn’t use enough leaf? I followed the directions on the package and brewed this with 1.5 tsp in roughly 8 oz. for 2 minutes at 175 degrees.

The flavor is soft and subtle like the aroma. There’s very little jasmine in this. Maybe the ratio of pearls to green tea was off. Or maybe this tea sat in my cupboard for too long waiting to be brewed, and the pearls have lost most of their jasmine flavoring. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely still good! Just a lot less jasmine than I would expect from a tea called Jasmine Citrus Blossom.

The most prominent flavor is the marigold petals. I’ve gotten used to the way marigold petals taste because of their frequent appearance in 52teas’ blends. It’s a very comforting, soft, floral flavor, and I think it’s a good addition to this tea.

Maybe I should try adding a few of my Teavivre Jasmine Dragon Pearls to the rest of this sample. That will give the added jasmine punch I’m looking for. Those little pearls are practically intoxicating (if one can become intoxicated from sniffing jasmine; uh oh now I’m just giving people ideas)!

Yes, it’s decided. I’m going to add ½ teaspoon of dragon pearls and another ½ teaspoon of this tea to the second infusion. I’ll be back in a few…

The flavor is much improved now. But I can’t say I’m not disappointed. I wanted this tea to stand on its own merits. Maybe I just need a fresher batch. I didn’t exactly store this in ideal conditions. But I’m willing to give it another chance. There’s still enough left to try again, and I might add this to an Ovation tea order. In fact, they’re having a free shipping deal right now. So, this may be the perfect opportunity to try out more of their teas!

It’s really fun adding a new tea to Steepster. A) It makes me feel like I’ve uncovered some lost treasure of the Sierra Madre by buying this tea that no one else has reviewed. B) When you add something like this tea, you just get to click so many boxes! It’s a Chai, it’s a Rooibos, it’s a Maté, it’s SUPERTEAAAAA!

ahem.

I bought this with a little bit of giddyness (read: spite) that it might replace Teavana’s Samurai Maté. Close Colonel, but no cigar.

It’s a very good blend, and I’m so far ecstatic with the quality and flavor from my Ovation purchases. Definitely a company I will buy from again.

To me, the standout flavors are the cardamom and the rooibos. The fruit blends a little bit behind those two, and gives a little bit of a… lift, for lack of a better term, to the flavor. The cinnamon and anise are noticeable in the blend, but take a much more subdued backseat than I’m used to for either one of those two spices. These are typically strong, domineering beasties, and they’re comfortably waiting their turn on this one.

Overall, the smoothness of the flavor here really impresses me. It just feels like silk gliding over your tongue, and none of the flavors are overtly grabbing for your attention. It is very relaxing… which is probably a bad thing for a maté blend. This could very easily be one of those awkward moments where you had to explain to your boss that you were up all night drinking tea. Try it with a straight face sometime.

So why no bell and no cigar? I really do have a big love on for my cassia cinnamon. To me, the most disappointing thing about this blend is that the cinnamon is so passive. I think this has to do with Ovation using cinnamon chips instead of cinnamon/cassia flavoring. It is also possible that Ovation is using ceylon (true) cinnamon, which is supposed to be less ‘HI I’M CINNAMON LETS BE FRIENDS’, and my ignorant American tongue just doesn’t know what it’s missing.

Definitely a good brew, but it isn’t going to dethrone my Samurai. There’s got to be a better joke there than that. Oh well.

Yummy Yummy Yummy! Notice those are all capitalized. This one has to stay in the tea cupboard.

I was really surprised that the cinnamon and clove didn’t over power the vanilla. Nice medium tea base here. I wondered if a vanilla chai was truly out of reach for me. Vanilla seems to hide when other flavors are used. I’ve tried several just vanilla teas where the tea over shadowed the vanilla. I thought the chai spices were going to be too strong for vanilla to show through. However this is a wonderful balance of flavors.

Yaaaay, it’s new tea day! It’s new tea day everyone!

So… I got my Ovation Teas order in today, and it has this Vanilla Chai in it. Oh em gee, is it good.

Like most masala chais, the tea in this blend takes a backseat. Both cinnamon and clove are a tough roadmate to contend with, and this blend is no exception (nor do I want it to be!). The vanilla adds just the perfect touch of sweet, creaminess alongside the spices. Man, Ovation did a really good job on this one. The flavor combination is perfect.

This was my first order from OvationTeas. It consisted of this, a maté chai (to compete against Teavana’s Samurai), and a custom blend that smells really, really good (and has figs!).

If nothing else, I have to say that the price is competitive. At $9/4oz, this is going to be a fairly difficult tea to beat. Plus, it really helps that Ovation is about ~10 miles away from my house. I feel like my ridiculously good, moderately priced tea is contributing to my local economy. The shipping was fairly quick, considering that I had a custom blend in there (so excited!).

This one came as a sample from LiberTeas – so thank you very much for letting me try it!

Ovation Teas has not even been on my radar until now so I just went to their website to check them out, they have a lot of interesting looking stuff.

I’m not really sure about this tea though. I thought the black tea base was fine for me personally (others remarked on the bitterness). I think it’s more the flavoring here that did not strike a chord with me. I do like figs, and brown sugar of course. I’m not even sure what this tastes like to me, a slightly sweet raisin-esque kind of concoction? I didn’t hate it but something was missing. I liked the flavor a bit better after adding soymilk but I don’t think I would purchase this. A little sad because I was hoping it would be fantastic…

I opened the package and was hit by a powerful ginger and lemon smell. Luckily, this extreme aroma does not transfer itself into the tea. There’s a nice amount of ginger in the brew, with some undertones of lemon. The darjeeling provides a wonderful base here.

I got a huge amount of this tea from SimplyJenW. Thanks so much! I love having caffeine free options for night time since I find tea drinking so relaxing before bed. THis particular tea does sound luscious. I think nuts and chocolate are a match made in heaven. And pecans are definitely overlooked as delicious nuts. I make an awesome pecan pie. :)

I find that this tea tastes mostly like rooibos with a subtle flavor of chocolate and a hint of pecan. The flavor of this tea comes out most strongly once my cup has been emptied. WHen I sniff my empty cup, I even get a caramelly note. yum. I ‘d enjoy this more if the flavor was stronger in the drink, but overall, this is pretty good. I’m happy to have this large pouch of tea to drink through. :)

This tea is so light and delicate. I’m not getting very much fruit flavor from it; I suspect I haven’t quite brewed it the right way. But regardless, it’s delicate and delicious and isn’t bitter in any way. I wonder if steeping it again will help at all.

I opened the package and was blown away by how good the dry leaf smelled. It’s deep, vegetal and a little smoky. I added a little sugar to my mug, because I wasn’t entirely ready to give myself over to the vegetal taste, which I was afraid was going to be really dominant. There’s a little bitterness, but for the most part, the sugar cuts it out. There’s a little bit of vegetation, too, but it’s more part of the tea. If you’re in the mood for it, it’s quite good. And the leaves expand so much on the second steep; it’s kind of amazing.

Thank you SimplyJenW for some of this tea! I figured it was the same as your honeybush so I just used that description on here.

I actually just ordered a custom blend from Ovation that is shipping out tomorrow so I am really excited. This tastes really good!

I love the sweetness that the caramel adds. It gives the aftertaste this supersweet chocolate taste. The pecan adds just the right amount of nuttiness.

This is something I would totally give to someone who hasn’t had much success before with rooibos. It’s the perfect base for this, it doesn’t take away from the flavor and adds a nice, subtle woody flavor to offset the sweetness.

This is much much better than the black tea, I prefer this sweeter than the black tea.. I will keep this tea, doesn’t need milk.. I can taste the apple pie… not as pie as I had hoped but all in all it is a lovely tea to drink again and again,,

I have to admit I am glad to finally be drinking the last of this one. I have been cold brewing it and finished it off today. I had to do this one carefully: half as much leaf as I would normally use, brewed for no more than 8 hours. Then it was quite tasty, although the jasmine and passion fruit never really came out strongly in the flavor. This was an old tea in my collection, and I’m happy to have finally cleared it out.

I went poking around in my stash of teas that I haven’t drank in forever, and plucked this one out. I quite enjoyed this tea at one point, and only after I chose it did I realize it would also be a good test of my recent dislike of flavored green teas.

Turns out, yeah, there is something about flavored greens that is really not doing it for me. I mean, this was pretty tasty. It was definitely better than many of the other flavored greens I’ve had lately. I mean, it’s fruity and floral and those flavors are all nice, but they just don’t come together for me. I think its the base tea that is probably a lower quality chinese sencha and I just don’t like that flavor much anymore. This is partly saved by the fact that it also includes jasmine pearls, and they are always tasty.

Maybe (hopefully) this is just some taste-swing and I will come around to enjoying flavored greens again, but right now I will likely avoid them!

Another one from my recent order from Ovation. I couldn’t resist the combination of jasmine and passion fruit, even with some ingredients that sounded odd (juniper berries?). The tea is what looks like a sencha with a scattering of jasmine pearls and a lot of jasmine blossoms, orange peel, some cornflower petals, and yes, a good number of juniper berries. It smells kind of similar to some other jasmine/fruity teas I’ve come across, but way more natural. There’s an interesting herby hint to the aroma too that I’m going to guess is the juniper berries.

Steeped it smells mmmm very nice. Lovely jasmine, sweet passion fruit, and some aroma that reminds me strongly of asian grocery stores. Actually, the whole thing kind of does; I was just in my local asian market not long ago, and it’s definitely reminding me of that. In any case it’s a pleasant aroma, and amalgamation of a lot of scents and flavors. The flavor of this is quite tasty, and fairly similar to the aroma. I put a little more leaf in than I would usually use (because that’s what the bag called for, 2tsp per cup), but I think I wouldn’t do that again because it does seem a little strong for me. But otherwise I enjoy it a lot! I don’t like gin so I was worried about the juniper berries, but they seem to just give it a pleasant, grounding, herby taste.

I have more than once bought jasmine, passion fruit & citrus flavored green teas (actually the same blend from different companies but I didn’t realize), only to be sorely disappointed by poor quality flavorings that tasted like fake fruit candy. This seems like the flavor profile that those teas were going for, but it actually succeeds. I can still pick out the jasmine and separate it from the passion fruit and a hint of citrus. It definitely works. Even if Ovation’s black tea base isn’t for me, their green & white blends have been great so I definitely see myself ordering more of those in the future.

Thankyou Kristen for this tea!! I must say I was a little disappointed… I couldn’t really taste apple ‘pie’.. Next time I’ll try it with a dash of milk and something sweet? maybe honey… and then I’ll see… on it’s own.. It was too bland for me..

Why don’t I drink this tea more often?? It is delicious. Although this is an older tea it has been stored in an airtight pouch and so it’s still very flavorful. The bergamot, orange and jasmine are awesome together, and the white tea adds a nice depth to it. For some reason in just the past week I have been enjoying white tea more and more than I ever used to.

It’s also a shame that I will never be able to get more of this tea now that Ovation is gone. I do think I could probably come close with Harney’s Winter White Earl Grey and some jasmine pearls, though.

Another older tea, and one that I was curious about given my recent distaste for flavored greens. But! This isn’t a flavored green, really… it’s a flavored white with jasmine pearls in it. So no yucky (to me) sencha, maybe it will suit me better?

Indeed it does. I’m not totally in love with white tea, but it’s lightly honeyed, hayish notes go well with the bergamot and jasmine in this blend. This is a nice light green/white blend that I enjoy hot, which is pleasant to have in my stash now.

When I was trying to pick my teas from Ovation on my last order, I was thinking about getting the Jasmine Citrus Blossom blend that has gotten really good reviews here on Steepster because I do love jasmine and citrus. When I was looking at all the blends, though, I came across this one, which is very similar to the Jasmine Citrus Blossom except it has white tea instead of green (still has the jasmine pearls, though), and bergamot instead of tangerine. I like to have a green or white Earl Grey around, and I’m actually just about out of the one I had before, so I’m excited about this one, especially with the addition of jasmine.

The dry leaf is a mix of long, fuzzy, twisted leaves, larger flatter leaves, and nice little jasmine pearls. It smells like citrusy bergamot approaching lemony with an underlying sweetness… kind of like a really tart, fresh lemonade. I think the jasmine is contributing to that sweetish scent but it’s hard to pick out on it’s own. Steeped, the tea does remind me of some of the other green/white Earls I’ve had… bergamot just interacts in a certain way with green tea aroma and has a particular aroma. There’s also that darker, sweeter aroma that I think is the jasmine but can’t really pinpoint as such. I’m definitely really enjoying the flavors in this. It’s like a white Earl Grey, but with a little something extra that just make it that much more awesome. I’m not sure what’s causing it (perhaps the jasmine pearls) but there’s a great light sweetness at the end of the sip. It’s bright, sharp, citrusy bergamot that mellows into a warmer floral, sweet jasmine. That sweetness is such a fantastic addition to the white Earl Grey, it’s like sipping candy. Or rather, it gives you the sensation after you drink it that you have eaten candy, even though the sip itself isn’t actually sweet, but rather there’s the feeling and aftertaste of sweet. If that makes any sense. Anyway, this blend is awesome and I’m really glad I got it!

backlogging and sip down…ahhhhh…

Thanks to Kristin for this one! It’s darn aromatic! Awesome smell!
It’s sweet and lives up to it’s name of Apple Pie but also has that spice! It’s like Apple Pie and Spiced Cider all in one! YUMMERS!!! Thanks for this! I enjoyed it a lot!