Tea Drops

Grabbed this from a TTB. It was shaped like a flower and was so cute! I expected I’d have to help break it up, but it dissolved by itself immediately. It tastes pretty perfumey, but not in a bad way. The flavoring is definitely milder than it could have been, and the black tea itself doesn’t make much of an appearance. It doesn’t taste much like an EG at all. It’s not bad, but much too mild. I suspect that proportionally the little flower was more sugar than tea since the packet mentioned it having 35 calories. I still had to add more sweetener since I’m a monster.

Tea Drops seemed like such a gimmicky way to sell tea, but I am very tea curious so I wanted to try. First ingredient in this is sugar, second is matcha. It dissolved easily in my cup of warm water. It just tastes like match. Sweetened matcha. It’s not particularly good. It’s boring and not that convenient for a mediocre cup.

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Actually I dumped this. It’s too sweet and doesn’t taste like blueberry or açai. Just sugar. Not a fan so down the drain it went. Much like the other Tea Drops I had.

Strange VariaTEA TTB – Tea #8

Ooh, I’ve been wanting to try the unsweetened Tea Drops! So I was excited to find a bag of these in the TTB. It didn’t say how much water to use, so I went with 8 ounces.

So, this mostly just tastes like ginger. There’s maybe a tiiiiiny bit of citrus going on, but it needs a lot more IMO. It’s pretty spicy at this dilution, and the ginger makes my tongue and throat burn a little bit.

Anyway, this is a bit of a let down because I was excited for the citrus part, which is almost nonexistent. Oh well! It’s still nice that they came out with an unsweetened version.

Result: Tried

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Trying to get in some last minute sipdowns before the month ends. Trying to make up for the lack of tea drinking earlier in the month. This was an easy sipdown. It was especially easy because I dumped most of it.

While this was actually one of the better tea drops I’ve had and it did have a touch of a ginger burn, the sugar in these are just too much. Sugar is actually the first ingredient in the list and it definitely tastes like it. Since I don’t usually add sugar to my drinks, I find this overly sweet for my tastes.

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My last Tea Drops!

I’m actually enjoying this one. One of the drops was smaller than it was supposed to be, and because of that this came out weaker than anticipated and the sweetness isn’t completely overwhelming.

It still has a strong enough peppermint flavor, and the honey-like flavor of the raw sugar goes well with it. So it mostly tastes like a mild peppermint tea with a swirl of honey. I’m used to drinking spearmint green tea with honey as a cold brew, so maybe that’s why I’m enjoying this one even though it’s sweetened.

I’m not saying I would buy it, but it’s a pleasant enough nighttime tisane.

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I prepared this one iced, as I figured I would enjoy the sweetness more that way. So I dissolved my two drops in a bit of warm water and then poured over ice and topped with cold water.

It doesn’t really taste like matcha to me? It does taste like a Japanese green tea, but it’s very heavy on the grass and seaweed-like umami, and doesn’t have the richness or the bitterness of matcha. It’s closer to drinking some kind of iced sencha IMO – a very, very seaweedy iced sencha.

That being said, it’s not the worst thing ever. Yes, it’s quite sweet, but it doesn’t bother me as much iced, which is nice. Definitely not something I would purchase though…

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Another one from an Instagram swap! I used two drops for a 16-ounce Nordic mug.

This super gingery! It’s tongue-tingly in its spiciness. I barely get any citrus notes because of how strong the ginger is.

It’s also sweet, but it doesn’t bother me as much here as in the Rose Earl Grey version.

But it’s just too gingery for me. I don’t want to feel like I’m eating a raw ginger root… XD

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Yay, I’ve been wanting to try these! I’m sure I won’t love them due to the high sugar content, but I’m still happy to try them for the fun/cute/novelty factor alone.

An Instagram tea friend was kind enough to send me four flavors in a swap. Thank you, friend!

The flower shape here is super cute! I used 200-degree water, as is my custom for black teas. I added about 8 ounces to start, and didn’t end up adding any more because I didn’t feel it was too strong. I let it rest for a bit after stirring it to dissolve the sugar, and that seems to have kept most of the sediment at the bottom of the cup, where I can avoid it.

It’s extremely sweet, as I would expect. However, I actually like the rest of the flavors here. I’m not a big rose person, but I feel I taste more bergamot than rose, which helps temper it a bit. The base tea is fine, inoffensive, but has nice body and makes a good foundation for the other flavors.

I’m actually getting a nice honeyed note as well, likely from the raw sugar. It’s nice that they at least used raw sugar instead of processed for a nicer flavor.

Anyway, would I buy this? Definitely not, as the sweetness is very over-the-top. But I’ll finish the cup at least, which is a surprise given the rose…

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I think of the Tea Drops so far, this is the one that dissolved the least. That means its the most gritty cup yet. It’s on point for a Valentines tea and it looked cute in my rose tea cup but its not great. The bergamot is not overly offensive here but that is because its drowned out by a super sweet rose flavor. Overall, not a fan and that seems to be how I feel about all these Tea Drop teas. At least I got them for free so no harm done and they’re a fun concept so they’re enjoyable in that sense.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #45 overall / Tea #12 for February

Saturday 2/6 A week ago (1/30) I got my lovely box of random tea goodies from @briannadrinkstea in Australia! Some were larger packages, some just a single cuppa but most inside never had before. Tried this first as never had a tea drops before. Dropped it in approx. 10-12 oz of hot water and used a spoon to stir it up. It was just turmeric and coconut palm sugar, just tasted as a lightly sweetened turmeric.

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

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I don’t like these tea drops. I have yet to find one that wasn’t overly sweetened. This tastes like sugar and then grass. Not the worst matcha flavour I’ve had, which surprised me, but the sugar is just over the top.

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When they say sweet peppermint, they really mean sweet peppermint. Like this is a cup of minty sugar…with sugar being the focus. I like mint and I like sweet but this is a bit over the top.

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This came as a free sample with my Instagram giveaway. The giveaway I won in 2019 and only now received the prize thanks to Tea Drops. Sipsby was the reason for the delay but its arrived and so that’s fun.

I thought I turned the kettle on to boil but apparently I didn’t so this was made with only warm water. I am hoping that mistake is the reason for this to be so messy and for the sprinkles to not be dissolved.

If I get past the chalky/grittiness from the tea not properly dissolving in the warm water, I get a not great flavor. So not great texture and not great flavor. It is cinnamon hibiscus, which is not a combination I particularly enjoy. A flat cinnamon hibiscus as well.

I got this one in my SipsBy box for this month. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of Tea Drops for awhile. The flavor was very nice and well-spiced, with a good sweetness. However, I just couldn’t get past how gritty it was. The silt is supposed to settle to the bottom, but I had to put it through a tea filter in order to tolerate it, which kind of defeats the purpose of tea drops.

This is one of the few Tea Drops teas I like. It’s still outrageously sweet like the others (who at Tea Drops decided this was “lightly sweetened”??) but I expect Thai iced tea to be pretty sweet. I think it helps that the Thai tea has stronger flavor than most of the other Tea Drops so it feels a little less like you’re just drinking a mug of simple syrup.

I don’t follow the instructions exactly when making this one. The tea is really sweet by itself and if I add the whole packet of condensed milk it’s too syrupy for me. I like to dissolve the tea cube in a small amount of hot water (I’m lazy so I just swirl it around in my cup instead of stirring), add about half a packet of the condensed milk, swirl it around some more, then fill the cup the rest of the way with water and let the majority of the sludge settle to the bottom (it’s not instant tea or as finely powdered as matcha). After drinking maybe 2/3-3/4 of the cup I add more water and the other half of the milk packet. The second cup doesn’t have as much tea flavor but it gives me a little more tea and helps use up the open milk packet. While I enjoy Thai iced tea, I’ve always made this hot.

I think Tea Drops are rather gimmicky and overpriced and I’m not sure I’d buy another box of these unless there was a really good sale but I’d drink more of it if I was given a box as a gift. They’re okay for a quick sugar fix but there are probably tons of better (and cheaper!) options for Thai iced tea that don’t require much more effort. I’d only recommend this tea if you like REALLY sweet tea and don’t mind a big pile of sludge in the bottom of your cup.

This tea is a big no for me. I blame the sugar — it is truly very sweet (8 grams of carbs, of which 7 grams are sugars) per one flower? Don’t get me wrong, but it is hardly drinkable when I have dissolved it in my 300 ml mug. And they wrote you can drink the dust on bottom. No, no thank you Tea Drops. Moreover, it looks like, as my brother suggested — only partially digested food. SIPDOWN 74

Luckily, he have no idea how sweet it is. But it is way too much. No base noticed and no rose. Artificial bergamot. But hardly to detect anything but sweet drink.

Finished it. But bleeeh. Shae, as it is from you, thank you I could try it. But I won’t try it again. And I wouldn’t seek for it when “shopping”.

Shae’s ADVENT CALENDAR, December 18

Oh, it is puerh hidden in today envelope? Apparenly not. Tea Drops. I remember tasting notes from Roswell Strange maybe? I like the concept…

Well, I saw lots of crystals when I took it from the plastic packaging. I thought it will be very sweet. I was playing with the photo — behold my bamboo tweezers from Tangpin as a gift with tea order. I have tried to use it with the tea, but I need to learn it I guess :D

Anyway, lets dissolve this flower.
It dissolves quite quickly and I got just a cloudy brown colour reminding me a bottled iced teas. Not a bad thing necessarily; but I knew it isn’t great. I took a sniff and I noticed roses and sweet note of the tea.

When sipping, when it was warm-hot it was rose-y, but quite weakly. Sugar was overpowering everything and yep, it was soo sweet to me. I didn’t get ANY bergamot in this, rose was quite weak, base was “killed” by sugar and overall it was bit weird experience.

I am surprised that you guys were liking it. I wasn’t. But finished the cup!

Photo: https://flic.kr/p/2khZFWW

Leaves: heart shaped cube

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: instant

Aroma: not sure

Color: burgundy

Clarity: Good

Taste: Unlike the other teas this one had much better clarity as I could see the sediment at the bottom of my cup. As for the aroma I’m not sure exactly what it smells like. As for flavor it was very light and bland this time around even the sweetness wasn’t really there either but imo I feel it had more flavor than the matcha drop. This is the last of my Tea Drop flavors I had to review. Overall, I think the company concept is really cool & makes it easier to have a cup of tea anytime. But in terms of the taste within the varieties is where it’s lacking. Also sometimes you might want that last sip of tea but might not be able to have it due to the sediment settling at the bottom of the cup. For ease of use and visual (shapes) 5/5, Taste overall 2.5/5 with citrus ginger being the best flavor

Leaves: flower shaped cube

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: instant

Aroma: classic earl grey

Color: brown

Clarity: Cloudy

Taste: When I first opened this tea I immediately noticed the aroma of earl grey before it even made it into my cup! Upon adding hot water the aroma remained but I didn’t notice the floral note from the rose. For the taste it was like a mild earl grey with a hint of sweetness. Overall not perfectly good or bad just somewhere in the middle. The sediment also make it more gritty if swirled, so it’s best to let it settle at the bottom. A better experience than the previous two teas

*update upon finish the cup, my mouth has a dry feel that I didn’t get with the others. I had to adjust the rating

Leaves: square shaped cube

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: instant

Aroma: matcha

Color: murky swamp green

Clarity: Cloudy

Taste: The matcha aroma was there but as for the taste it reminded me of sugar water with a pinch of matcha. So far this one has the least flavor.

Leaves: heart shaped cube

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: instant

Aroma: peppermint

Color: murky swamp green

Clarity: Cloudy

Taste: I had made this one before with 10oz of water & it was too much so this time around I decided to go with 8oz. The aroma wasn’t strong like other peppermint teas I’ve tried in the past I found it to be quite faint. The first few sips I found it to be bland & watered down, with little peppermint flavor. Overall, It’s alright & lacking. I couldn’t see myself purchasing it in the future, giving it more stirs didn’t help the flavor profile as it did w/ the citrus ginger.

Leaves: flower shaped cube

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: instant

Aroma: ginger & citrus 

Color: dark golden yellow

Clarity: Cloudy

Taste: Upon making this one I immediately noticed the scent of ginger with a hint of citrus when I poured over boiling water, giving it a stir. As for the flavor it’s sweet as it does already have sugar within the flower cube. I noticed more of the ginger then the citrus notes there was even some spiciness from the ginger. Giving it another stir to mix the sediment at the bottom of my cup, it awakened the citrus flavor! This was my first time trying the flavor and I could see myself buying it in the future! I also found the sediment to be more drinkable compared to the other flavors I’ve tried where I would just leave it at the bottom of the cup. Overall, I haven’t had many new teas in a while and thought why not write reviews again. I won the Blueberry Acai in a giveaway & they surprised me with some extras I haven’t tried!

I’ve recently become obsessed with Copper Cow Coffee. I’m not really a coffee fan, but I was intrigued by the brand and got a sampler. I also got a sampler of flavored sugars from Milk Street that I am also obsessed with. So, I’ve been making myself incredibly iced lattes for the last week.
In terms of the tea drops, Copper Cow sells them as a partnership with Tea Drops. I love Thai iced teas, and really liked the idea of making them at home. I found the flavor really authentic, but there was just way too much sediment for me, even having strained it. Also, $15 for a box of 5 is a bit too costly, as I can get a Thai iced tea (that is much larger in volume) from a local restaurant for $2.