Watermelon Mint Chiller White Tea

I am very torn on this tea. I liked the taste when I had it hot but it was thick and oily and that was off-putting so I avoided it. Then I thought it would make a great cold brewed teas. The oiliness is not an issue nor the thickness. However, there is a bitterness that emerged in the flavor that is unpleasant. I guess there is no winning with this one :(

Had this iced with half a teaspoon of sugar, it’s alright. Reminds me of watermelon gum, probably because of the zing from the hibiscus, the mint and the rock sugar. Mint isn’t too heavy, wish I knew what eucalyptus tasted like so I could find it in here, but I am amused that the photo pictures sage, which isn’t an ingredient. Oh hey look they have videos for each of the featured six teas online: http://www.teavana.com/tea-info/watermelon-mint-chiller Also watermelon isn’t an ingredient, not even in flavoring. There is cantaloupe, pineapple, forest berry, blackberry, raspberry, tangerine, peppermint, lime flavoring and their are candied cantaloupe, honeydew and many other fruit pieces. But I guess they have been working on getting this flavor for five years and watermelon and I’m sure watermelon is a very hard flavor to capture without tasting artificial so kudos for that. Saved some for the husband, I’m sure he’ll like it better than me.

Wheee, our teas came today!

“Unlimited staff drinks,” right? So I took a cup’s worth of leaves of all the new ones home in little snack baggies to taste and review, and marked them all off as staff drinks. (So now it looks like me and the other three people who worked today drank 20-some drinks on our shifts. Yep, that’s all we did today – drank tea and peed. Also sold about $1200 worth of tea and merch, but mostly just drank tea. And peed. Hey, nobody gave me a limit on “unlimited”!) I mean, there was no way that I’m buying 50g of 17 new teas when I’m already so full up on teas at home!

I’m starting with this one – a white which is considered part of the “top 6” out of the new teas. (I’m honestly not entirely sure what that even means yet.)

I will admit that I didn’t have high hopes for this one at all. Not sure why, but I was having trouble imagining this flavour combination being done well. I will also admit that I was wrong, because out of the couple I’ve tried so far, this one is the best!

A co-worker and I first sampled a few sips of this hot the other day in the store, and agreed (and were surprised) at how good we thought it was. “Watermelon is a tough taste to achieve in a tea,” she said, but we also agreed that the melon taste here is pretty legit, and that it seemed like it would be amazing iced. This is especially interesting because it is a white, and isn’t getting much of a lengthy steep, so you’d think the melon flavour would be a bit of a letdown, but I didn’t feel particularly let or down after trying this one.

Also, we noted that it was pretty passable without sugar. Okay, “pretty passable” may not be the highest praise, but it’s usually the most I can bestow on even the best flavoured blends. And it’s rather surprising to note this about a Teavana blend, because even the staff have to admit that many of our teas need sugar (which might be considered inept blending, but which just as often seems like it might actually be a German-rock-sugar-selling tactic). It’s so much better with sugar (if you ask me), but I didn’t mind it at all unsweetened.

So of course I was actually pretty excited to get this one home and ice it. And wouldn’t you know, I botched it! I’m not entirely sure how I messed up the proportions, but I ended up with ice cubes and watery tea all over my counter. Siiiigh. Long past week, okay?

It’s still pretty good though, and really refreshing. Not as good as it was in the store, but that’s probably because I screwed it up! I notice more mint coming through in this cup, it’s got this nice chilling bite to it at the back of the sip that I really like. Makes me think of some sort of summery mixed drink! Actually, it’s weird that this tea is coming out now, because it clearly seems like some sort of “summer collection”-type tea. Still, if you tend to miss summer in December (I don’t, but you know, that’s because I despise summer), this would be a good summer-in-December tea to remind you of sun and fruit!

If you aren’t personally boycotting Teavana for…one reason or another…this one is a must-try.

I got this when I went in to get 4 to go cups, one for me, mom & my girls. I ended up buying 50g of each Wonderberry Truffle & Spiced Mandarin Oolong (Damn lack of will power). I wanted some Jinja Citrus Twist (which was discontinued :( cries), so my friend who worked there recommended this, & gave me a good 25g or so of it for FREE!

I decided to brew up a whole pot of this on Saturday. It smells very fruity, & brews up to a light redish-pink colour. And it tastes fantastic.
Very fruity, with some melon flavours, followed by the cooling effect of the eucalyptus. I love the lingering coolness/tingle. Almost like gum, but WAY better!!
This would be so wonderful iced, so now I gotta go buy some of this too!

1st smell: barely anything
1st taste: same
Now this is the 1st time I’m having this, and it maybe that I did something wrong in the prep. But got to say….I am not in anyway impressed with this tea. It would probably taste alright as an ice tea….I’ll let it cool down and then see how it tastes. But at any rate, since my Dad has been showing mild interest in fruity teas, I think I will give him this. Truthfully I expected a more dominant taste from the fruit. I can definitely taste the mint, and I am glad it doesn’t over power…of course considering the fruit is barely there, over powering mint wouldn’t be that big of an issue, would it?

I picked some of this up today on a whim. I so LOVE watermelon, and I’m slowly coming around on mint, thanks to Jessi.

The dry scent of this was a mix of appealing and not so appealing (I’m thinking the scent of the eucalyptus threw me off), but the reviews seemed so great so I just decided to go for it. And you know, watermelon!

I was a little thrown there’s not actually watermelon in the ingredients but it does capture the watermelon flavour. The mint is there as well, but not overwhelming at all. I think the eucalyptus and mint come together nicely to even each other out.

The taste mostly reminded me of Nerds. A watermelon flavoured Nerds candy. But not in that sugar, fuzzy teeth way. Just the best flavour part of Nerds, minus the sugary sweetness. I really enjoyed it hot and I could see it being pretty tasty chilled as well.

The only downside is the actual amount of tea. There are next to no white tea leaves and it’s expensive. This may as well be sold as a herbal tea so the price could be cut.

I put the resteep of the leaves in the fridge to cold brew, so I’ll update that tomorrow.

Update April 19/13: This is delicious chilled, but nearly completely different then hot. The raspberries really, really come through in the cold brew. I can also taste the eucalyptus but next to no mint. I’m not getting much of a watermelon flavour chilled but it’s still great.

Cinnamon, strawberry, watermelon, ginger, chestnut. It seems we like to flavor our hair colors similar to our tea. I’m trying to decide what new hair color I will be getting with the “new me” on Friday. Decisions, decisions.

While I’m pouring over the google-verse of flavors of hair, I’m trying to also come to terms with this tea.

First time I tried it, I did a flash cold brew. It was ok, kinda-ho-hum. I could make out the watermelon and a bit of the mint, but although I could see drinking it in summertime, it didn’t really strike me as remarkable.

Tonight I tried a 2 minute infusion blended with Wild Orange Wulong tea from Teavana. I think the shorter steep plus the citrus really enhanced the overall profile. I could taste the tea, but the melon was also much more noticeable up front. It reminds me of Jolly Ranchers Watermelon which I loved as a kid, but not so much in my tea. Still, I liked the blend better than the two separately, so maybe there is something here to explore.

Oolong hair color? Now that could be unique.

I love this tea. The watermelon provides such a nice fruity, refreshing background to the mint notes that are predominant. I have drank this tea both hot and cold steeped, and both times the flavour is nicely balanced. I think this would make a wicked iced tea in the summer though!

One of my favorites. Super refreshing in either hot or cold weather. If I don’t know what I want to drink, I make this tea. It’s great blended (standouts are Blackberry Mojito and Dragonfruit Devotion for mixing), but it’s also pretty capable on its own. I’m trying to drink more white tea due to a need to limit my caffeine intake, and this is one I’m pretty happy with.