Lemon Pepper Mélange

Sipdown! I cold steeped this last night in a new cold steeping jug (http://www.teavana.com/tea-products/tea-accessories/tea-tools/p/iced-tea-pitcher-with-orange-lid). It’s pretty delicate, but I will NOT be pouring anything hot in here. Just cool water and tea leaves, and into the fridge. The strainer in the lid looks pretty good, although I don’t think it’d catch everything rooibos.

I did 4 tsp in about 1.5 litres for this cold steep. And it turned out so well! The tea is delightfully lemony, almost candy-like. Didn’t really need sugar.

I’m going to have to keep this on my list of “teas to cold steep”. I might end up getting more in the summer. If it’s available…

I am rather partial to lemon teas and I really appreciated that they didn’t try to artificially sweeten the lemon in this one. The apple does so naturally and it’s a very pleasant mix of flavors. I also love the spiciness of the peppercorn and ginger. It paired perfectly with the ginger florentine cookie I was eating! :-)

This is up there with my fave of Della Terra Teas! It’s so crisp, lemony, and peppery. It’s a unique flavor for a tea, but familiar for anyone who likes lemon pepper. I bought this more out of curiosity but I’m pleasantly surprised. Very delish!

Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ later today but here are snippets:

I won an ounce of Lemon Pepper Melange from Della Terra Teas on their Facebook page. If you do not follow Della Terra on Facebook I suggest that you do. They often run drawings for tea, and always post their most current sale there. Anyway, I was the lucky winner of this tea and I love it, not because it was free, but I really love it. So what is wrong with this picture? Well the fact is, it has lemongrass in it! Some of you may know how much I despise lemongrass. This is not a tea I would have ever paid for in a million years, so it is a good thing I won it because I would have been short changing myself from a stellar tea!

You know, really the lemongrass does not bother me at all in this blend. I really do not notice it is there and trust me I have tried to find it! In a way, and this may sound bizarre, but I believe it is the lemongrass giving tea blend an almost bubble gum like flavor at the very end of the sip. Not that I have ever thought lemongrass, on its own, taste anything like bubble gum. But with all of the fruits, the spices, the black tea, somehow at the end of the sip I get this bubble gum type note that I really feel comes from the lemongrass. Maybe I just convinced myself of that. Anyway, for someone who has literally sworn off ALL lemongrass teas, Della Terra has opened my mind, my eyes, and my taste buds. I tell you what though, if anyone could do this it would be Della Terra as they have some of the most stellar tea blends.

sipdown!

not a fan of this one. It’s sort of lemony and has a bit of a pepper bite to it, but it’s nothing amazing or wonderful.

Thank you scribbles for sending me this sample. I was intrigued by the description of it, but still a bit wary. I don’t always do well with lemon teas, I find a lot of them really astringent. Not sure what’s wrong with me, but I seem to have an issue with them. This was one of those. Almost bitter astringent. There is definitely some spiciness to this, I’m getting more pepper than ginger. I’m not going to rate this, I’m not a fair judge, but this one isn’t for me. Thanks anyway scribble, really appreciate the thought and generosity.

I’m out of practise with timing steeps so I wandered off and did other things until I remembered I had this tea on. K liked it, too. It’s not as peppery as it could be but it is definitely yum.

PS. HI!

This smells really good… mostly like lemon, but I get hints of other fruit. The flavour is lemony with a bit of spice. I kinda want to try this cold with lemonade now.

This poor poor tea! I never wrote a review for this ancient blend and it’s actually quite good. The citrus and peppercorns are the perfect flavor combination. So the name is very accurate. It’s lemon. It’s “pepper” as in peppercorn. I think it would have been interesting to have other pepper in it. There is something effervescent about it — it could be a lemon soda tea. It must be the precise spices to make it seem like soda, melding in with the lemon and peppercorn. The black tea seems darker than a typical Della Terra base. I can’t believe it has any flavor at this point.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 23 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

A pleasant, lemony tea. The dry leaves in the packet smelled fabulously of citrus. When it was steeped, I was a little surprised that I couldn’t really detect much of the other ingredients, except for lemon. And I couldn’t find the bite from the pepper. Maybe it was all there, but too subtle for me. It was a nice tea, though, and I was glad to try it. (Thanks, Starfevre.) Maybe I’ll keep sticking my nose in the bag and inhaling.

I tasted it with a bit of sugar, and it seemed a little flat, so then I added some lemon juice and more sugar, and it was better.