Wegmans

I had three steepings of this gungfu style, with times of 30, 30, and 45 seconds. I enjoyed the lightly sweet and toasty flavors this had. I’ve heard the sweet described as a caramel flavor, but I would have to disagree. This was my first experience with Wegman’s tea, and for a grocery store tea, I was pleasantly surprised.

Today I am reviewing a tea by Wegmans, one of my grocery stores that sadly is not in the Midwest, so I have to get my friends to send me the teas I love so much. This tea is a new one to me, Apple Pie Chai Rooibos Herb Tea. It is made from Rooibos, Apple Pieces, Hibiscus Flowers, Rosehips, Orange Peel, Orange Lemongrass, Cinnamon Chips, Alfalfa Leaves, and Natural flavors of some sort. I have to admit other than the Rooibos, Apple, and Cinnamon those ingredients do not immediately bring pie to mind, and why do people insist on putting Lemongrass with Rooibos? I never enjoy that combination, but I am always willing to try a new tea!

The aroma of the dried leaves is pretty potent! One of those teas that on first sniff it feels similar to a smack in the face (I swear that is not a bad thing) The first thing you notice is the earthy and slightly alien aroma of the Rooibos. I say slightly alien because I have never run into anything that I can compare it to, Rooibos smells like Rooibos! I love it too, I find myself frequently just sniffing the Rooibos for a while before I get around to drinking it. The next thing you notice is the green, tartness of the Lemongrass. I almost want to use this tea as an air freshener or some sort of Victorian fainting remedy, it is very refreshing.

The aroma of the tea is much more mellow, the Lemongrass and Rooibos calm down and you get to smell some of the other ingredients. Rosehips, oranges, and cinnamon are the main smells that accompany the Rooibos/Lemongrass blend. The aroma is very tart and earthy.

The flavor took a little getting used to! I was expecting apples and spice with earthy notes from the name, but the taste is nothing like apples, spice, or chai. Instead it is very tart, slightly bitter, and not exactly pleasant. It was at this moment my mom (who got the 2nd brew of this tea) came in the room announcing how much she loves it. I gave her a look and tasted her cup and was amazed. It is a completely different tasting tea!! Now don’t get me wrong, I have had plenty of teas that taste different on the 2nd or 3rd brewing (greens taste more vegetal or oolongs taste more floral) but never have I had a tea taste like a completely different tea.

So let’s go for take two on the flavor of this tea! So there is where the apples and cinnamon were hiding!! On the second brew the flavor is much more mellow and quite delicious. First you get the subtle earthiness and sweetness of the Rooibos, then the flavor of apples and cinnamon, and lastly the tartness of the rosehips and green of the lemongrass.

I am not really sure I can recommend this tea. On the one hand the second and third brews are delicious, but the first brew is probably only good if you like really tart teas. So I leave that up to your discretion. I personally wish that it had less lemongrass, but I really don’t like lemongrass (or lemons for that matter) in my tea. Will I be drinking this again, sure…though I might just dump the first brew down the drain.

Any time I pop by Wegman’s, even for “just a few snacks”, I can’t help but drop through the loose leaf tea aisle…especially when visiting with my parents! The Wegman’s nearest to their house is stocked with 3-4 times the tea of mine (my guess is due to the large Asian population there?).

Anyway, on my most recent trip, I stocked up on some delicious Blueberry Green, added a little Earl Grey to my collection (as I pretty often crave it in the mornings and evenings now)…and of course, couldn’t resist the new seasonal teas they had out. I thought it was kind of odd that they’d just now offer a tropical flavor when summer is at its tail end, but had no complaints and decided to give Tropical Black a try! A little over 50 cents got me enough tea for 2-3 small steepings in my yixing, and I left pleased.

The dry leaves smell tantalizing; not so much ‘tropical’, but very fruity with a soft citrus scent, underlined with the earthy smell of the black tea. 3 minutes at just-below-boiling water seemed to make the perfect brew, and whereas the fruit was the dominating scent of the dry and wet leaves, the taste took a backseat once brewed. The black tea is slightly acidic (but not unpleasantly), and the fruit is the second flavor detected that leaves behind a trace of tanginess. This would probably be a great tea to serve iced in the summer, or made as sun tea! It’s one of those that I don’t mind taking forever to drink, as its profile seems to change throughout the cooling process.

Overall, I’d consider this as a repeat buy, but probably not in large quantities unless I was making iced tea. It’s a nice, light-hearted treat when taking a break from the (sometimes) seriousness of high quality tea.

I was quite surprised by this tea! I wasn’t expecting much for a Wegman’s brand loose leaf that involved matcha, but this is one I always keep stocked on my shelf along with some more top shelf teas.

Any time I remove the lid, I HAVE to take a big whiff. The smell is quite deep and creamy, and not at all ‘dry’, with lots of vegetal fragrance to go along. While it’s not a ‘true’ match experience, I absolutely love having the powder mixed in. The result is a wonderful ‘any time of day’ tea that has the lovely grassy taste that just barely comes in second to the creamy, substantial matcha.

I had some genmaimatcha from Wegman’s also laying around, and tried experimenting with blending the two – with fantastic results! So, admittedly, my jar of Sencha/Matcha has been combined with its rice-inclusive sibling. Overall, just great for the price!

This was my first experience with dragonwell, and almost turned me off of it forever. Luckily, Verdant’s restored my faith. This dragonwell tasted fried, bitter, and unpalatable no matter how I steeped it.

Once upon a time, I thought cheap, generic tea bags were good stuff. Then, I began dabbling in the art of loose leaf, by way of my local Wegman’s. The few selections there became my new tea heaven, and couldn’t imagine much better! After making my way into high-quality loose leaf, there are only a select few teas that I still drive all the way there to enjoy. The Masala Chai is one of them.

After I was introduced to better tea, I came back to the Masala expecting disappointment…but had none. I have bought more expensive, well-known chai that seems very underwhelming compared to this. I consider it a perfectly balanced chai, the black tea base being slightly masked by the VERY potent spices. This tea has a real kick to it, and is just divine when mixed with a little sweetened condensed milk, or made as a latte. I truly miss having this tea every day I’m without it.

Being someone who absolutely loves apple pie, chai, and rooibos, I was really excited to find this on a recent trip to a new Wegman’s.
The tea tasted mostly of rooibos with some cinnamon dashed in, and that’s about all there really was to say about it. Very underwhelming.

When I first began drinking loose leaf, this was a staple in my collection! Over time, though, my opinion of it has changed quite a bit. After drinking more high-quality teas, I could no longer ignore the ‘fishy’ smell and lack of depth to the pu’erh itself. The ginger flavor is a bit overpowering, and I’ve yet to detect any trace of orange. It was always a welcome treat on cold winter mornings, though!

Once upon a time, I thought cheap, generic tea bags were good stuff. Then, I began dabbling in the art of loose leaf, by way of my local Wegman’s. The few selections there became my new tea heaven, and couldn’t imagine much better! After making my way into high-quality loose leaf, there are only a select few teas that I still drive all the way there to enjoy. The Coconut Oasisis one of them.

Does it blow me away? No, not quite. But I often find myself opening my jar of it just to breathe it in for a while. The taste comes through after steeping very well, and isn’t one of those teas that only smells good. The coconut taste is very evident but not overwhelming. My only complaint is that the white tea could be a bit stronger, as the resulting cup sometimes tastes like watered down coconut. This tea only gets better with add-ins! A little dollop of sweetened condensed milk really sends the tastebuds to heaven.

No matter what steep time/temperature I tried with this tea, I could never seem to escape some odd, off-putting undertone/aftertaste. Other tea friends agree. There are much better options at Wegman’s for the price!

Once upon a time, I thought cheap, generic tea bags were good stuff. Then, I began dabbling in the art of loose leaf, by way of my local Wegman’s. The few selections there became my new tea heaven, and couldn’t imagine much better! After making my way into high-quality loose leaf, there are only a select few teas that I still drive all the way there to enjoy. The Blueberry Green is one of them.

I’m not so sure that the green tea is the greatest quality, but it’s wonderfully countered by the dried blueberries in a way that doesn’t make the tea unpleasant. I actually prefer drinking it without any add-ins because of how great it is by itself! The green tea can be a little bitter if it isn’t brewed carefully, but I always look forward to my cup of Blueberry Green.

This is good as an iced tea. I like the citrus flavor that comes out in it. It’s pretty light and refreshing, I definitely think that cold is how I’ll be using the rest of this. I’ll have to see how it goes cold-brewed (more time for me to sleep in on the morning before packing for work). Thanks again to Jude. Now I should find a yuzu tea that I can get easily on my own :)

I have been slacking on coming on steepster and doing the tasting notes. Part of it is starting up the new school year and the other part is trying not to buy new teas! It is so hard when I see the sales and discussions… This is the first time trying this yuzu sencha green tea and it’s a nice green tea. I don’t get yuzu strongly but there is a little something there. I’ve been obsessed with yuzu since I got a yuzu honey in Japan last year. It was awesome and I can’t find an online store that I can understand that I can buy it from :(. It’s a rare rainy day here so I could drink this hot. I’ve also been sick so this feels great to drink, very comforting and mellow. Thanks to Judy for swapping with me for this, I really wanted to try it!

I’m getting a tension headache, and I feel like this tea helps relieve the tension and eases some of the pain. Plus it taste good. Yay tea. Boo headache.

I have been trying for years to stop drinking diet soda. My success has ranged from a few days to two months, but I always end up reaching for a Coke Zero or Diet Dr. Pepper at some point. I know it’s unhealthy, and I need to stop, but I’ve accepted that just stopping won’t work. I’ll need to replace the diet soda with something else. So, I’m keeping cold brewed teas in my fridge so I can reach for those instead of chemical filled carbonated water when I want something cool to drink.

I really enjoy this tea as a cold brew. The flavor of the green tea is very crisp and clean with a slight grassy flavor. The blueberry is more much more subtle in the cold brew than when it’s steeped in hot water, but it is the perfect amount of fruit next to the base tea.

I woke up this morning craving something that wasn’t an Assam. This might be a sign of the end times, people. Instead of something rich and malty I wanted something green and fruity. This tea fits the bill nicely.

There is a wonderful blueberry flavor here. I’m also really liking the grassy notes in the green tea. It’s sweet and clean reminding me of grass that has been freshly mowed. The combination is undeniably spring-like and perfect for a warm, slightly humid morning.

I’m glad I made a pot of this one rather than a single cup. It’ll be nice to sip on while catching up on emails.

I was almost out, so I picked up some more of this last night. As soon as my daughter saw me pouring it into a tin she asked if we could have it as our morning tea, so this is my tea of the morning. The blueberry flavor is sooo good, and it’s nice to have a lighter cuppa to start off the day every now and then.

Woke up with a sore throat and feeling rather achey all over. Good times. I’m sipping on this hoping it will help my throat a bit. The blueberry is really strong today. I don’t remember it being this strong in previous cups. Not that I’m complaining. In fact, I’m really liking it.

I’m close to the bottom of my tin of this, and I wasn’t planning on restocking it until summer. Now I’m thinking it might be worth it to keep some on hand.

This is a very good blueberry green, but the water temp and timing have to be exact. If the water is too hot or the leaves are allowed to steep for longer than 90 seconds the tea becomes horribly bitter. Brewed properly this is a wonderful tea. Lots of blueberry with a great green tea base. I like how the vegetal flavor of the green tea pairs with the blueberry flavor. I tried it with and without sugar, and I prefer it without because the tea is wonderfully balanced on its own.

Very fragrant, smells very chocolate-y, coconut-y, and spice :) Straight up, taste is a very mild dark chocolate chai. Sweetened, you can definitely taste dark chocolate and coconut. When I added milk, the chai spices becomes more flavorful.