Tealyra (formerly Tealux)

Sipdown! (5 | 54)

This one wasn’t bad, but I feel like the name is misleading. The ginger in this is quite strong, and it ends up tasting more like a ginger beer sort of tisane than a pineapple one, and I don’t taste any lemon at all. It’s still refreshing, and the pineapple flavor is noticeable, just not what I was expecting given the name.

Sipdown! (4 | 53)

This sounded good, but ended up being just okay. I don’t think I would’ve known it was raspberry or pomegranate, as it was just a bit generally fruity and sweet. There was an odd hint of soapiness to it for some reason, not sure if it’s just the flavoring or what.

I ended up adding a spoonful of hibiscus to the second pitcher, and it added some much-needed tartness. I don’t notice that soapy taste anymore either. So it ended up being nice, but not one I would reorder.

Sipdown! (30 | 33)

This one was just not a good candidate for cold-steeping, in my opinion. It came out bland and watery, just slightly sweet and a bit peachy.

I added some hibiscus to the second go-around, and it’s definitely better with the tartness giving some dimension. But still a bit on the bland side (other than the hibiscus) so not something I would order again. I only tend to cold steep fruit tisanes, so maybe it’s tasty hot, I dunno! :P

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 15 (my pick)
Theme: All Is Bright
Her pick: Blood Orange Smoothie from Spice of Life & Variety Teas

I thought this would be a fun one to send to Marjorie, as I know she drinks a lot of iced/cold steeped tea, and this is one of my favorites for that. I thought I would try it hot tonight, since I’ve never had it that way. And it’s nice! It came out a little bit weak with the amount I used, but just as lovely as it is cold. Tangy, but not too much so, and such a bright sea buckthorn and orange flavor. There’s something a little bit apricot-y about it as well, or maybe even persimmon? Which adds nice richness and dimension. Yummy!

Sipdown! (18 | 31)

Cold steeped. This was sort of a wildcard selection from Tealyra, it sounded so unusual and I do tend to like sea buckthorn (at least, in my limited experience). It actually ended up being possibly my favorite of the several fruit tisanes I chose.

The color is alarmingly yellow ha ha, and the flavor is tangy and tart, but not overly sour. The sea buckthorn is actually the main element to me – unsurprising, given the amount of peels present in the mix. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor of sea buckthorn really, other than to say it’s sweet and tart and almost like an intersection of citrus and some kind of tropical fruit? Needless to say, it pairs perfectly with the citrus here and is lovely as an iced tea.

Will definitely reorder this one next time!

Sipdown! (16 | 29)

Cold brewed. This one is quite nice actually, it has a good amount of tartness to it, even though there isn’t any hibiscus. I assume it’s from the apples. I don’t know that I would go “aha, this tastes like guava!”, but knowing that’s the intention, I can see it. It almost tastes a bit like passion fruit as well. The strawberry is nice and doesn’t taste like candy, which I guess makes sense given there’s no strawberry flavoring, so it must be coming from the dried slices.

Really nice and refreshing, and doesn’t need any sweetener. Will definitely consider ordering more, though there are still a lot more Tealyra fruit blends that I want to try. :D

Sipdown! (9 | 22)

Cold steeped. Honestly, it’s a bit bland? I was surprised given it’s a hibiscus-heavy tisane. It doesn’t really have a strong berry presence either. It’s an interesting looking blend, with elderberries being the first ingredient. I guess they must not be contributing much in the way of flavor though.

Anyway, they can’t all be winners! Happily, there are other berry-hibiscus tisanes that I like more.

Sipdown! (7 | 20)

I bought several fruit tisanes to cold brew from Tealyra, as they carry wholesale blends at more reasonable prices than a lot of other places.

This one wasn’t my favorite. The coconut ruined it a bit for me, and I was surprised how much I could taste it in the first bottle I steeped. I ended up removing most of the coconut shreds for the second try, and I like it much better. It’s a fairly raspberry-forward berries & hibiscus blend, with a hint of coconut on the backend.

I did enjoy it this way, but I’m certainly not going to buy a blend that I have to “edit” before steeping ha ha. :P

Iced Latte!

Made this one today to drink during the afternoon and I was… kinda into it? It’s very earthy and pu’erh forward, but even more buttery and I found that the sheet intensity of the butterfly flavour was a little too much for me and not especially balanced out. The pistachio really just comes through in the finish. While that smooth, nutty note is authentic and tasty I feel like it’s too little of the profile in comparison to everything else going on. That said, I did drink the whole thing pretty quickly so it wasn’t all bad!

Interesting tea. It seems more fitting to drink this tea on a ship in the 1800’s. Something about the smoky undertones takes me back in time to when spices and teas were not readily accessible without trade.

Pistachio is such a strange nut flavor. I love it, but it’s not as common as almonds or cashews and it seems like different parts of it are prominent in different uses for it. This tea for example tastes way different than pistachio baklava or pudding, but they all still have flavors of the nut. I feel like I need more pistachio in my life to feel this theory out.

This tea smells delicious. The pu isn’t as murky and wet tasting as some that I’ve had and that works well in not overpowering the other flavors. The pistachio is nice and light, but present here and holds it’s own with the pu. The flavor is well rounded and has depth. It’s a good tea, fun to try, but probably won’t be a reorder.

Have you ever placed an order for tea, received your order and wondered why you ordered a particular tea? Something that doesn’t fit your usual flavor preferences or sound exciting in any way? Maybe you wonder if it was a mistake, check your email and see it was indeed on your order? That is this tea for me. Wild berry chai doesn’t sound like something I’d be drawn to. Did I think I was selecting a different tea and didn’t pay attention? I have zero recollection on finding this tea interesting or adding it to my cart. Weird.
ANYWAYS… The flavors in this are very light. I do taste some fruitiness in there and the fruit seems well balanced. The spices are really faint for a chai. The flavors are not bold enough to have this with milk and have much come through. It isn’t a bad tea, it’s just not something I’m into contrary to what 5pm January 24th 2024 me thought. I need to have a talk with that version of me before ordering more tea.

This is my first time trying this blend from Tealyra, but I’ve purchased it from other companies in the past (it’s a catalog blend) so ultimately this was more of a revisit than a new experience. Definitely very cinnamon forward, but also strong notes of clove and a peppery undertone alongside that rich, jammy apricot note.

In the past I’ve likened the combo of fruit and spices to ketchup, and I think kind of stand by that. Maybe, though, in hindsight it’s a little more chutney than ketchup!? Despite being a wholesale/catalog blend, I think it is one of the more unique chai profiles I’ve come across and many, many years later it continues to be a favourite.

Sipdown (1379)!

Made this one as a larger Western style teapot because, well, that’s what you do with flowering teas. I have a box of these flavoured ones from Tealyra that feels like it’s constantly staring at me from the shelf it’s on, and I never want to brew them up because I’m never in the mood to commit to a full pop of one on my own – but I just bit the bullet today to get that sipdown in.

It’s… Well, it’s conflicting. Flowering teas are sort of always terrible; the quality of the tea used isn’t typically all that exceptional and they keep steeping all the way up until you finish the pot so they’re usually very bitter and gross by the end – which was the case here too.

All that said, the first half of this pot was actually shockingly lovely. Though very much on the grassier side, that slight green edge played in really well with the banana. It was super authentic banana with a mellow sweetness and a bit of a starchy sort of finish. With the base, it felt like eating a banana just a day off from being perfectly ripe. Not too sweet, and not at all candy or “banana runts” like. Not baked, banana bread style banana either. Really fresh, and just simple yet balanced.

And then it got over steeped and yucky. Alas, the curse of blooming teas.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzhTjaPufba/?img_index=1 (Fifth & Sixth Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb5dnC3Fm70

This isn’t a great tea. Fake berry mixed with sort of murky rooibos, a combo I’ve encountered many times before. I received four teabags from Sips by, so I’ll drink those as cold work teas, but I wouldn’t want this again. It’s just fake and okay.

I THINK this is the last I have to review from my summer order.  Despite being a few months old, I forgot that THIS is the color of what matcha SHOULD look like!  It’s such a bright green!  I really needed a matcha genmaicha in my tea collection again, as I really love the combination of the two — better together for a super power amount of flavor in one mug.  The toasty goodness of genmaicha wisping around with matcha in the mug.  So good.  I used a teaspoon and a half for a big mug, which might have even been a little too much.  Maybe one teaspoon is enough. I’m glad I have this in the cupboard and was hoping Tealyra’s version would be good — it is!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 33 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  30 minutes after boiling // 2 min steep

Sipdown! This one didn’t survive very long, I got tired of fiddling with temps and steeping times for this old ass tea, so I cold steeped a jug and finished it off today

Suprised that there isn’t a tasting note from my old account on here! This was an exciting find when I discovered it on Tealyra’s website. I mean, I had never even heard of white sencha. I wonder if it’s the cultivar that produces a ‘white’ leaf or if the processing is like white tea. I wanna say the former because the steeped leaves were a soft lime green with a few ghostly white buds sprinkled in. Much lighter than what is usually expected from a sencha. So far, the cups that i’ve had are lush vegetal green like a lot of trad senchas I’ve had, even if it’s hella old. Because it’s a little long in the tooth, I’m not going to be able to judge it too harshly. Hence no numerical rating. It’s nothing special at this point in time, but it does remind me that sincha season is coming up, and I am excited to get some fresh japanese green tea.

Another from the summer order — I bought this because it seems like a healthy no-caff chai that also happened to have marshmallow root.  Always on the lookout for more teas with marshmallow root.  Sadly, the flavor is most LIKE stevia, reminding me of stevia, probably a combination of the licorice, fennel and turmeric.  Visually, the blend sure looks healthy.  Lots of goodies in there.  I’m not seeing as much marshmallow root as I would like.  The second steep is much the same – a very healthy tasting brew! Some of the spices make more of an appearance.  Hopefully there are some health benefits since the flavor isn’t winning me over.  I thought this would be a nice change of pace from sweeter nighttime options, so it’s a bit disappointing that the flavor most reminds me of a replacement for sugar.
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 //  just boiled // 6-8 minute steep

I super oversteeped this, but it turned out just fine! It’s a little tart and fancy, but mostly fruity and refreshing. There’s a hint of herbaceousness in there too, though I’m not sure which ingredient is the culprit. I got this from a Sips By box, and it’s certainly one of the better lemonade-inspired teas I’ve had. The herbaceous flavor works with the tart fruitiness. I’d consider purchasing more.

From my summer order! I thought this sounded quite unique with mango, barley, roasted rice and maca root powder on an oolong base. It sounded both fruity and whatever barley might bring to the table. The description said the maca root powder might taste like butterscotch — which probably enhances the mango flavoring. The flavor is mostly mango! Which is too bad as I wouldn’t mind more of the barley or roasted rice coming across to balance the mango. The brew color in the mug is bright yellow. It could ALMOST taste like stevia, but I think that is the mango flavoring, or maybe even the maca. I’m starting to think that tea makers just find a generic fruity flavor and say “we’ll just call this mango”. I do miss the starchy quality of mango in some mango teas. But this tea could have been worse. It is very thirst quenching and disappears right quick.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // many minutes

A good, classic Moroccan mint! Subtle mint flavor paired with a clear taste. Delicious!

A leaf from the Sanxia District of northern Taiwan, this tea is crafted from the same leaves as a Bi Luo Chun green, and picked when the leaf is young. The dry leaf is long, twisty and black with twinges of maroon and a touch of gold.  The dry leaf certainly has a fruity fragrance!  And in a blind taste test, I would certainly guess this is a Taiwanese tea.  It’s very close in appearance and flavor to Premium Taiwanese Assam.  An explosion of lingering mouth feel, very fruity.  That lychee again, but also strawberries.  A bit of a drying mouth quality.  Second steep, it tastes more like a Ruby 18 varietal.  The third steep seemed a bit weak and not sure if it was worth a third steep, mostly tasted like a faint Ruby 18.  The first steep was definitely the best.  Maybe I needed to use lower temps and less steep time in the steeps to recreate that first cup of amazing flavor. It’s odd this tea is VERY similar in flavor to the other black tea from Tealyra I had the other day, the Wen Shan Bao Zhong black.  
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 18 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min

A sample! I was very intrigued by a tea named after my favorite oolong, Wen Shan Bao Zhong, but as a black tea! I had to try it. The leaf is huge and wirey. The fragrance of the dry leaf had such a scent of added fruit flavor, that I thought there was flavor contamination from something else. But steeping up the tea, I don’t think there was scent contamination. The brew is very light for a black tea — it almost looks like a roasted oolong. The flavor is mostly like a Ruby 18 varietal (which is what the dry leaf looks like, now that I think about it, including that hint of scarlet in the leaf). But it’s also fairly fruity, like plums, or maybe something even odder like passionfruit, and also a bit starchy, the second steep is actually very tangy. It’s very clear in the lingering mouth flavor. Or a better word than “clear” might be vibrant, which the description mentions.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 3 minutes after boiling // 4 min steep

I left the above note in a draft for a while, long enough to forget what I said… so here is a second steep session a while later, without peeking at the note above: there is a sort of tangy fruit scent to the dry leaf and flavor of the first steep: tamarind + lychee or something. It reminds me how a Taiwanese Assam tastes like strawberries. Maybe these varieties with huge leaves usually taste like mostly fruit. The second steep is mostly tangy fruit again, then as it cools is like tomato soup with some starch. The third steep is a deep red and tastes like mostly like hot tomato soup! It’s definitely a unique tea. Though it’s a light brew which I normally wouldn’t like, I DO like the complexity of flavors. And it certainly doesn’t remind me of any oolong, Wen Shan Bao Zhong or otherwise. Now that I typed up all that, I read the note on the first steep session above and I’m amazed the flavors have seemed to evolve THIS much already in only a couple months. Second steep session: no thoughts of plum, passion fruit or Ruby 18! Tea is weird! 
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min