So earlier this summer this company (Tea Gems) went very viral on Tik Tok and instagram. Basically, this is a one woman operation where she hand makes what are essentially “tea bombs” but themed around different kinds of crystals/gems/stones. They’re more compact than a typical tea bomb and very, very aesthetically pretty.
I was obviously obsessed and needed to order one of each.
Now, I placed my order in the middle of July and I finally received it on Thursday this week. I want to be clear that even though that’s a veeerrryyyy long wait time, I am not upset. When I placed my order it was in the height of when she had blown up on TikTok and I had the understanding/knowledge that this is a handmade product done by a singular person. So, the fact she was able to keep up with so many orders without sacrificing quality is something that deserves patience and empathy.
The other thing worth noting is that when I received my order several of the gems we (Marika and I) tried after unboxing were kind of melted and/or very tacky in texture. That’ll probably be something that comes up across my reviews of this brand. However, it should STRONGLY be noted that the order was packed with ice packs so there were steps made by the owner to mitigate melting and I had placed my order right in the middle of the hottest few months in Canada and these gems had to travel across the US/Canada border in a Fedex truck to make it to me. Like, I knew the risk of melting when I made this order and there is ZERO criticism on my part towards this company for the fact several of the gems ended up effected by the summer heat. That’s just the reality of ordering a sugar based product in the summer and, had she not taken steps to mitigate melting, it would have been much, much worse.
SO! That said…
This was the first gem that we decided to steep/brew. It’s a lovely deep red colour and placing it in our mug and pouring hot water over it we could pretty quickly smell a soft sweet berry aroma wafting up towards us. We were a little unclear if we should just let the gem sit undisturbed or if it would be better to stir it to agitate the sugar/accelerate melting. In the end we ended up stirring it which was a bit messy; the sugar exterior had melted to the side of the cup so it wasn’t easy to stir – we ended up abandoning the idea and just waiting.
Eventually the sachet of tea inside the gem floated to the top though, and from there we divided up the mug of tea to share with all the people who had stopped in the office to look at what were were doing/brewing.
Personally, I think this was the nicest tasting of the gems we’ve tried so far. Really berry forward and not too tart from the hibiscus. I kind of thought it had a cherry Kool-aid vibe but maybe mixed with like, raspberry or strawberry? Not particularly creamy but still really good. It was very sweet but I think that’s to be expected given this is a sugar casing around the sachet. It’s gonna be a constant throughout all the gems, I’m sure. The colour was DEEP red with a subtle shimmer to it from some of the gold mica pigment that had been swirled throughout the sugar. Very pretty.
These are cute! I’ve seen tea bombs made with just sugar ball but the gem shapes and colors are a fun take on it.