SpecialTEA Brew

Smells strongly of cinnamon, which I was not expecting, but little cinnamon taste. I can see it vaguely resembles a cappuccino, and it is a nice caffeine free tea before bedtime.

This is in my review box for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, so I’ll save my thunder for there. Just wanted to log it and announce that any thunder in my part of the world is accompanying a welcome, heat-breaking rain that I am observing blissfully from my Shabby House rocking chair. A real Sabbath rest.

A gracious good morning to you.

Oops! I think I neglected to watch this one while it steeped! It was still incredibly fruity and floral despite the fact that it was slightly bitter.

I will miss this one, it was a green tea I actually enjoyed. Thanks QuiltGuppy for the sample!!

Thank-you QuiltGuppy for this sample.

First off, I am so happy that I reviewed how to heat of the water to steep green teas, because I know that scorched leaves would really suck with this tea.

I could smell the fruitiness of the leaves as soon as the pouch was opened, and decided that despite the time I would have a cup of this.

I agree with QuiltGuppy the fruit scent is still there once steeped, but the taste is just green tea, or sencha, or the like. I am not familiar enough with the varying flavours of green teas, but I will admit this was tasty.

This is an all around pleasant tea that I received as a sample from SpecialTEA Brew. Dry, the pineapple stands out the most. It’s a pleasant and clean scent.

165/2 min. Once steeped, I can now smell the green, which is very slightly vegetal. It transfers through to the taste as well. It’s nice, but the pineapple has become much sweeter and tastes very much like pineapple candy. It doesn’t have the tartness that I usually associate with it. The green is very pleasant and somewhat vegetal, which is lovely in a Dragonwell. It’s a very pretty tea with the pineapple and mango bits scattered throughout. I had hoped to taste more of the mango, but I think it may have been engulfed by the sweetness of the pineapple. This is a fun tea that I’d recommend as an afternoon or early evening cup.

The leaves are long, slender and bluish green. The way they weave themselves together is quite nice to look at. As much as I love the way this tea looks, I couldn’t have imagined enjoying a green tea, allow me to clarify, a vegetal green tea, this much. The scent of the dry tea evokes images of Halloween with pumpkins freshly scooped. I’m surprised. There’s a sweetness to the scent that is intriguing and I must have spent at least three minutes just breathing it in and trying to put my finger on it. Once steeped (165/1.5 min.), the aroma is still there and the flavor is divine. Yes, it’s definitely vegetal, but the most intriguing flavor of pumpkin and perhaps nutmeg emerges. It’s so lovely! This tea completely blew me away. I really enjoy green tea and have become accustomed to cups of asparagus and artichoke and even the occasional broccoli, but never something so delightful and unexpected. There is no grassiness to this tea, perhaps slightly leafy, definitely plantlike. The green is definitely present. It’s savory through and through with just a hint of sweetness. I will most definitely be adding this to my tea cupboard.

I notice that this tea is no longer on SpecialTea Brew’s website, instead, the new Lemon Ginger Snap is an herbal blend with honeybush – while this lemon ginger snap is a green tea with ginger, lemongrass and lemon myrtle.

This is very nice, though. The green tea is a little bit on the grassy side, but, I don’t mind that. The lemony flavor and ginger pair very nicely together – the result is a flavor that is citrus-y and gently peppery, it has a very soothing and calming effect. I like it!

What a delightful tea! This tea scented the entire package with its delectable peach scent. The coconut, while present, isn’t the dominant aroma. It is, by far, the peach.

175/3 min.

Mmm. The taste is really nice. It’s sweet with a coconutty finish. I have to admit that when I first saw this tea, I assumed it was an oolong. It’s a dark tea for being a white, but when it is steeped, it’s a light golden yellow. It’s difficult to make out the white tea. In fact, I can’t. The peach assaults my senses and, other than the finish of coconut, I can’t make out any other flavors in this tea. I do think that it’s a novel combination of flavorings and appreciate the sweet and nutty approach. This is a tea I will buy for serving in the summer at night. It would make a great entertaining tea.

As a side note, this tea was a huge hit with my French class. My students kept coming up to my desk asking questions. I found out later that hour that they were all coming up to smell my tea, which was in an open cup on my desk. I have a growing interest in which teas I’m brewing in that class. :)

Refreshing, that’s the definition of this tea. I received this tea as a sample from SpecialTEA Brew. Having tried and enjoyed the teas previously, I was looking forward to seeing what’s new.

The dry leaf smells like citrus. It’s a mixture of the tiny green rooibos with small dehydrated pieces of what I believe is lemon. It smells very nice, fresh and clean. I’ve never tried green rooibos before. 205/4 min. The taste is interesting. It’s not as citrusy as I would expect from the name, however, it’s good. The best part is that the lemon is not overwhelming. I can taste some of the mint in the tea, but the interesting part is the slight taste of cloves that I’m picking up. I think if I were naming this tea, based on what I’m finding, I’d have gone with a Slightly Spiced Citrus Green Rooibos. (Okay, so naming teas isn’t my talent.) I wonder if it’s the green rooibos that is giving it this flavor. Who knows? The end result is pleasant.

I’m upping the rating on this one. This retains its flavor well over time, and, after sampling other vanilla teas, I have to say this is my favorite (so far).

Bold and hearty. Just what I need to wake me up this foggy Turkey Day Eve in Maryland.

EDIT: This went very well with my In Flames music choice this morning. :)

Backlogging – had this the other afternoon. Thanks for sharing, SpecialTEA Brew! This is a delicious, satisfying cup of vanilla tea. I tend to prefer vanilla over chocolate anyway. The interesting feature of this vanilla tea is the flavor: it actually tastes like vanilla beans versus just the artificial vanilla flavor that is in many other teas. I’ll need to test it out iced but hot is a satisfying cuppa!

It’s early morning and I’m enjoying the peace that only comes with two sleeping children and a quiet house. So, naturally, I wanted a tea that would complement my zen moment and I went for Lemon Ginger. I hadn’t tried this tea before, but was hoping it would suit the moment. Out of the bag, the dry leaf smells very slightly lemony. I can’t pick up much more. (Must be the toast I just made…)

165/1.5 min. I can now smell the ginger as well. After letting it cool just a moment, I take a sip and any remaining stress melts away. This tea is so good! The ginger stands out the most for me, but it’s subtle, too. Not that overpowering, poke-your-tongue ginger taste, but just the flavor of it. Lemon is there as well, but thankfully, it’s very muted. Many a good tea has been overtaken by too much lemon. Because it is so well-balanced, I can also taste the green tea with a hint of grassiness. It’s a beautiful mix and a wonderful addition to my peaceful time alone, snuggled on the couch, waiting for the day to begin.

From my It’s All About the Leaf review, found at: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/1771/tea-review-special-tea-brew-pink-grapefruit-2/

I really like grapefruit. As a small child, I always wanted my mother to get me those sweet smelling grapefruit bath products from the overpriced but immensely-fascinating-to-children bath product shoppes (whose quality could be told with the extra, pretentious “e”). And as an adult, I continue to gravitate towards grapefruit scented items and grapefruit flavored things. To me it combines the juicy satisfaction of an orange with a little extra edge, that little hint of sour. If a grapefruit were musical, it would not be top 40, but a harder rock, maybe tinged with punk. A Gwen Stefani of No Doubt as compared to the more sweet and Miley Cyrus-eqsue orange.

So, it was with great anticipation that I got this tea sample. I had some amazing luck with the Blood Orange Black from Drink the Leaf (the blood orange – another edgy citrus relative), and I was hoping to repeat it with this tea. The packet I got however, left me a little concerned. The tea was not in an air-tight packet. And when I opened it to sniff, you could very much tell; no aroma other than the glue for the sticker. I steeped my two teaspoons of tea (which did have visible chunks of peel, getting my hopes back up) in 2 cups of boiling water for 3 minutes, and the resulting brew was a light amber color.

This grapefruit? This is repressed grapefruit. This grapefruit was teased in elementary school and ignored at home. Whether the result of exposure to air or something else, drinking this tea is… well… boring. There is no grapefruit flavor to the tea. The tea itself tastes like it just remembered an important appointment somewhere else, and gee, sorry, it’s got to run. There is a slight hint of sweet behind the mild tea flavor, but I couldn’t discern if it was from the leaf or a very light citrus sweetness. A second steep with sweetener didn’t bring out any additional flavor. Either way, I have no other way to say it – I’m disappointed.

When I opened the package, I was blasted with a tropical wave of fruitiness. It was amazing and promising and it delivered.

When brewed, I could still smell the tropical fruit scent of pineapple. (So happy! Most of the time, it disappears once steeped.) 165/2 min using the Breville. It tastes like a nice fruity green. The Chinese sencha is strong enough to maintain its flavor in the tea, and the tropical fruit flavor does not overpower it in any way.

This is a really nice tea for any time of the day. My only complaint is that when I went back to the website to find it, it was no longer listed.

This is really nice! I prefer this one iced to hot, but it is quite good either way.

It is mild in flavor with the green tea being the strongest flavor tasted. The tropical notes are difficult to discern, although I definitely taste pineapple. The flavors are very light here, but, I like that I can taste the sweet, buttery Sencha.

A very nice tea – a good one to have on hand for summertime! Refreshing!

From; http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/1775/tea-review-special-tea-brew-lemon-ginger-snap-2/

I wish I was at home, reading a book on a nice summer afternoon, because this tea deserves that. Or at least it deserves a little more than sitting in my boring cube at work in the middle of winter. A nice light tea, with strong ginger and lemon tones. While mild, this cloudy sage-green brew is not subtle. It is definitely GINGER and Lemon. Ginger is the strongest element, and comes out more in the flavor while the lemon flavor comes out more in the scent. The herbal element here is more to the fore than the tea element; it really feels more like a herbal than a flavored green tea. The blend works well both sweetened and unsweetened. I also bet this would be lovely iced.

The dry leaf of this tea is really beautiful. So colorful! Lovely! The aroma is berry-like… but I have to admit that I’m a little worried about the hibiscus… I have my fingers crossed that it won’t be too overwhelming…

Wow… this is TART. I tried brewing it for a shorter than usual brew time (normally I brew fruit blends like this for 8 minutes, but I steeped it for just 5), but I still got that sort of thick hibiscus-y syrup when I started to strain the tea. After some sweetener and some ice cubes, I find that it is much better – this tea should be iced. It is still on the tart side, but it’s much better this way.

Fortunately the hibiscus is not the only taste in this cup, I can taste the berries… in fact, it tastes like a tart berry… and it is tasty. Not something I would drink on a regular basis though… I think it would be better blended with honeybush, or maybe green or white tea like it was suggested on TeaEqualsBliss’s tasting note of this tea.

A very good mint green tea.

The green tea base tastes a bit like gunpowder green, it’s smooth, vegetative and a little sweet. The mint is strong, sweet, minty and crisp! The mint is the dominate flavor here but it doesn’t completely overpower the green tea base.

Too Hibiscusy-Tarty-Fruity-Puckery for my liking. But if I were to try and look past that…the notes I might make are the orange/Citrus notes are nice…but still overly tart

This is straight and to the point…a solid Moroccan Mint. Much like a Gunpowder type taste with the mint over power jumping up and down on it! It’s very good if you like mint!

This is green and tropical…hence the name I suppose. Not bad at all….good both hot and cold altho I think I like it a little bit better iced!!!!

NomNomNom

A very pleasant Assam.

I usually drink my Assam tea with a splash of milk but this one doesn’t really need it. I’m sure it would be really tasty with it, but, it doesn’t NEED it to curb that edge that I often experience with Assam.

Brisk, strong with lovely malty highlights.

A very nice way to wake up.

This is the first of SpecialTea Brew’s teas that I’m trying and I really like it.

The vanilla flavor is very prominent and it is smooth and sweet (yummy). The black tea has a pleasant taste and is fairly robust – it doesn’t hide behind the flavor. It would make a really nice alternative to the typical breakfast blend or a good tea to enjoy in the afternoon.

I like this one a lot.

Finishing up my last little bit…nice and strong!