Lime Jello Salad Green Tea

Limey marshmallowy deliciousness. Another tea I’m restraining myself from re-purchasing. Sigh.

Cold brew of this today for my 52 tea of the day – still trying to manage to get a cup in every day when I can. I need milk from the store so that I can have the last of my caramel pumpkin cheesecake tomorrow. …or Monday. I have another sil cup or so left of this one and its been good to me so no complaints here. I prefer Della Terra’s lime chiffon, but this one is still super tasty :) just not always available. Heh

I think I’m gonna leave for a couple hours and see how that makes the parakeet feel. He hasn’t budged since I uncovered him this morning. I held seeds to him and he wouldn’t eat them. Arrrgh. I’ll just leave the classical music on and go to the tea shop, haven’t been there in ages.

I made this to go with my lunch. When Publix has top sirloin on sale I always buy some. So I had it on a panini and later I am going to have fajitas! I’m so cold, I had no idea it got down to near freezing this morning because I have no concept of time anymore, so I thought hot tea would go nice with a hot sandwich, and this one is light enough to not mess with my tastebuds while still having flavor.

It’s been awhile since I had it too, but I still really enjoy it. I like lime flavored things, but I rarely ever have any. I think I may only have one other lime flavored tea, and this one is infinitely better because of its additional creaminess. And as I’ve stated in past reviews, it really reminds me of holidays.

I think I like it better hot than iced. I have to drink it a bit more often to really decide.

Successful sip down. I ripped through my last pouch in not even a week. Kept cold brewing a 2L jug every day.

I’ll truly miss this refreshing, smooth lime marshmallow cloud. It’s always been one of my favourite 52teas blends, but as mentioned last time, I found this last batch to be a little more bitter than previous ones, so I think I won’t bother ordering it again.

Day seven

So, you really like hot liquid jello. You like it so much that whenever you see someone making jello you wait until their backs are turned and sneak a few of the freshly prepared cups out of the fridge before they can “solidify”. Of course, you can’t be around at the beginning of every jello-making process; that’s what the microwave is for. Sadly, your loved ones have started to catch on. They don’t understand your preference of jello. They’ve begun to judge you, even openly scorn you.

Luckily, this tea exists. It tastes and smells exactly like lime jello with a touch of cream. Unlike jello, however, people actually admire you for drinking this cup of hot sugary liquid. They say tea is “sophisticated”, “health-conscious”, “adult-like”. They have no idea. None at all.

Ha… no.

I’ve never had lime jello with pineapple bits, like this tea, but strawberry jello with pear is one of the many staple desserts that makes an appearance at Christmas and Thanksgiving. My Grandma was usually the one who made everything up but she doesn’t bake and cook as much as she used to. This tea makes me feel all warm and nostalgic, and remember all the good times from childhood. Thank you for that.

Yet another tea with marshmallow root in this neat advent. This one definitely asks to be iced. I guess I should try that at least once.

This tasting note has the distinction of being my 2500th tasting note! What that says to me is that I’ve been drinking a lot of tea, and not doing much else other than writing about it.

Anyway, when I opened the pouch of this, I was amazed by the aroma. There was always a jello salad at family holiday meals, it was usually a “7up salad” in which the jello was made using lemon-lime soda instead of cold water, and of course, there was always canned pineapple in there, and mini-marshmallows too. When I opened the package, I could smell that memory of 7up salad.

It tastes amazing too. I can taste the marshmallow, I can taste the lime and the pineapple, and it even has that jello sort of flavor to it. I am not sure how Frank managed to do this, but, it really is a remarkable tea… I shouldn’t be surprised because Frank is the best at what he does, but, this tea still surprises me. A little lemon-lime soda is all it is missing, which tells me that I should save some of this for the next time I have lemon-lime soda in the house, and steep it extra strong, and dilute with some lemon-lime soda. I’ll have a 7up salad in an iced tea glass!

I completely understand that Jello is supposed to be a “fun food”, but I’m guilty of sucking the fun right out of it. For me to eat it, it must not have anything in it, or on it. No fruits mixed in, no ice cream, no whipped cream and especially no custard topping- yuck! AND it must be either : strawberry, red raspberry, cherry or purple grape flavor. If not I will scrunch up my face, shake my head “no”, stick out my tongue and refuse to even taste it. So it probably goes without saying that Jello salad is a definite “notta chance!”

YEP! I’m a Jello fun-sucking-snob.

When I tore open this morning’s 12 days of tea packet and saw LIME jello SALAD I automatically had a case of my scrunch-faced, head-shaking tongue sticky-outty protest.

(Aside: I must refuse to even look at Jello salad whenever it’s around because I didn’t know there were marshmallows in it)

This Jello snob was pleasantly surprised.

this is the most hysterically ridiculous tea!! (in the very best way possible).

i have biases against bananas, nuts in baking and orange peel that has dug into the pith placed in tea… but unlike many i have nothing against jello. it was an awesome dessert when i was a kid… i remember being lectured as i tried to taste it while i was stirring.

‘no james, see the powder at the bottom? it isn’t dissolved yet.’ and later ‘no james, see? it’s still soup— it has to stay in the fridge longer. you know i can still see you, right? put it down!… … don’t make me count to three…’ (invariably i wound up in my room).

jello evolved into salad mixed with whipped cream when i was a teen, and later still jello shots… now we entertain our teenagers by stabbing vanilla cake with a fork and pouring jello over top, finishing it up by covering the whole chilled mess with cool whip (we encourage healthy eating in our house? lol).

this tea is all of those things, AND it makes me smile. it caught me offguard. i swear i’m eating jello, and my mother is back to lecturing me for sipping it out of a mug. it meets my flavoured tea requirement of still being able to taste tea within the inventive flavoured convection. the green tea is definitely there and perfectly balanced with the other ingredients there.

in conclusion: dammit, i’m going to have to review my profile and list this vendor in amongst my favourites (it seems i’m constantly editing)!!! very nicely done 52teas. and a ginormous thank you to CHAroma for the boxful of samples from this company.

my only sad note is that it’s a one hit wonder, or in other words the first steep is awesome, but the second it becomes a shadow of its former self. STILL! this is a win. can’t wait to try the rest.

52teas 12 Days of Christmas Sampler 2012 – Day 7

Time for tea! The dry leaf aroma is very LIME. The brewed tea aroma is unexpected: sweet, sugary, & citrus-y. First sip is lighter than I expected too. I probably could have used more leaf. It feels like the lime is punching me in the tonsil though. Wow, that is some strong lime!

The sugary sweetness is only in the aroma. The taste is much more lime green tea than sugary candy treat. This is an interesting tea. It’s probably suited well as an iced tea. Maybe I’ll use the rest of the sample that way if I can remember to do so.

I gave the cup to my fiancé to try. He took several sips and said, “I have no idea what it is, but I like it a lot. It tastes round, if I had to describe it as a shape.” Interesting description, my love. I wouldn’t have any idea what it is either. Well, if I hadn’t cheated and read the description. :P

It is yummy! But just not a flavor I think I’d want all the time. I like lime on salmon and in margaritas. That’s probably about it. It’s weird in tea. I prefer lemon tea. Hmm, now to come up with a rating. This is hard! I feel like I have to reserve judgment until I try it iced.

I waited for the cup to chill and it does taste different cold. More of the marshmallow root comes through now. It actually reminds me of the Rainbow Sherbet from last year. It’s still not going to be a favorite of mine though. When it came out, I debated whether or not to buy it. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t. But I’m happy for the chance to try it and gotta’ give props to Frank for creativity!!

EDIT: Uh oh, just found some slimy gunk in the bottom of my cup. Yuck. I don’t know what that is, but now I’m really freaked out. Did that come from the tea, or did I not clean the cup properly in between teas? Either way, yuck. I’ll leave the rating alone though because I’m not entirely sure this is the tea’s fault.

I have said this a hundred times already but I really do prefer fruity flavoured tea for the most part. There are noteworthy exceptions to this rule, but what it all comes down to is that these various cake-y blends don’t really appeal to me. I can’t really seem to find the ‘cake’ bits either so they just strike me as rather gimmicky and bizarre.

Jello falls in that same category, if I’m to be completely honest. However, I have learned from previous experience to just disregard the jello bit and focus on the lime bits. Which neatly makes this a fruity flavoured green tea and there you are!

Due to various activities before Christmas and then being away over Christmas we’ve been rather stuck on these for a while. I’ve opened the rest so I know what’s to come, but I’m not allowed to drink them out of order, so we’re still on it.

It smells sweet and tart at the same time, and once again the thoughts stray towards the sweetie shop. We’ve had one earlier that was very bubble gum-y, and this one has the same sort of quality. A bit more winegum-y, though. Which I suppose fits relatively well with the whole jello concept.

Sort of.

The flavour isn’t so much a sweetie as the aroma, though. I can clearly detect an ever so slightly astringent and rather vegetal green tea underneath the flavouring, and I have to say that while the aroma wasn’t really pressing any of my hopeful buttons, the flavour rather makes up for it.

It tastes like a green tea with flavouring, not flavour with tea. The flavouring is fairly mild here, a little bit tart and a little bit sweet, but above all fruity. To my vast surprise, I’m rather enjoying this.