Sencha Naturals

I’m coming off being sick and remembered I had this with my freebies from the SF Tea Fest. I taste strong citrus and ginger, feels good on my throat, even though it burns a bit. I don’t know how nice it would be if my throat weren’t a little sore, but it’s nice enough now.

This was in my freebie bag from the San Francisco International Tea Festival. My coworker is back to work after being out with strep throat, so I figure it’s a good time to start hitting the Vitamin C… especially since I woke up with a slightly sore throat this morning. This is a powdered tea mix that can be mixed into hot or cold water, so I opted for cold, since I usually drink my green tea iced these days, plus the whole concept of this stuff made me think of those Emergen-C packets, which I usually mix into cold water and down like a shot. I sort of regreted my decision to not use hot water as the mix was very clumpy (there was one very large “mass” of mix in a clumped up chunk and I wish I’d thought to break up the powder with the back of a spoon or something before dumping it into the cup!) so it didn’t dissolve really well… I had to really work at it with the spoon to try to break it up and get it all dissolved.

The smell was a bit like Emergen-C — powdery artificial tangerine? — and matcha. The flavor… tasted pretty much like that too, very much like the orange/tangerine Emergen-C packets, only with a lot more sweetness (these include stevia, which would account for that), and a bit of a slight spiciness that hits the back of the throat… and that actually feels a bit soothing on a slightly sore throat, I’ll admit. For as matcha green as the tea appears, I don’t taste any matcha grassiness at all, though.

I would definitely prefer this to an Emergen-C, since this tastes almost the same as the tangerine ones, but slightly better due to the added sweetness and soothing ginger on the back of the throat. But honestly, since I like hibiscus and rosehip, I’m more likely to just make myself a strong hibi-hip/ginger blended tea to get a quick infusion of Vitamin C anyway, which would be more cost-effective than either Emergen-C or these Green Tea +C packets, and (at least for me!) tastier, too. So final conclusion… these taste better than Emergen-C, but I still prefer to get Vitamin C in other ways than instant dissolve packets, especially considering the price.

Another freebie from the tea fest bag.

This is the same concept as Emergen-C but contains green (closer to brown) tea powder. I prepared it with room temp water and had to stir it a bit to get the clumps to break up, no big deal. It looks unappealing with a brownish-green murky tint – my mind went to algae-infested pondwater. That, combined with the very sour taste from the acerola cherry powder, made me down this as quick as possible. The warming ginger comes through in the aftertaste.

Meh. It tastes ok, but I prefer tea in a traditional way and wouldn’t purchase this because I think products like this are frivolous. If you’re a fan of Emergen-C packets and want some green tea, give it a try.

I’m genuinely surprised that this one was actually already part of the database; I’d so expected to have to add it that I already had Sen Cha’s website loaded up and the appropriate information copied to paste into the information fields…

Anyway; my friend/coworker Laura bought three different tins of these mints because they’re vegan and she’s been looking for a good vegan mint for a while, apparently. She offered to let me try one and I of course said yes both out of politeness and curiosity. The flavours she’d grabbed were peppermint, mango, and dragon fruit and to me dragon fruit was the clear choice. I didn’t realize until after I’d tried the mint that they were also green tea infused.

The flavour was nice, though! I think it was a little sweeter than I’d typically peg dragon fruit to be; natural dragon fruit has a mellow, supple flavour and this was definitely a bit more in your face and “punchy”. You can tell they’re using a concentrate and that it is essentially a fancy vegan “candy”. It was still delicious though, and I liked that little hint of refreshing mint at the end of a really fruity initial flavour. Apparently there’s ginger in this one? I couldn’t taste it, nor could I really taste the green tea. Honestly I’d probably buy myself a tin of these if the price was right (sometimes vegan stuff is stupid expensive) but it’d be more for the taste than because of any “tea” in them.

I tried this product at the LA tea festival and had to take it home with me! It is a sweet mango green tea matcha mix with a mega backing of creamy. The ingredients has organic coconut oil, which I think is the reason why this mix has a thick creamy feel to it! The mango flavor is quite strong and maybe too sweet for some. The matcha in this is pretty light (the mix itself is kind of yellow pea green than vibrant grass green), so the green flavor is on the low side. This mix is more of a sweet treat or for types that don’t like grassy matchas.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/sencha-naturals-tropical-mango-green-tea-latte-mix-tea-review/