Fusion Teas

Sipdown!! (169)

This week has been kind of crazy for me. It started Sunday which I spent writing a paper that continued on throughout the night and took me until 8 pm Monday to finish. This was my first all-nighter of the week.

Tuesday, I slept in because I woke up early and felt so sick, I doubted anything would get finished. Luckily, I woke up at noon feeling fine and then proceeded to study until 6 am. The plan was to sleep in Wednesday but at 9 am I woke up and could not turn my brain off long enough to fall asleep.

Wednesday meant more studying and at 6 pm I started my last final. Three hours later, good or bad, the semester was over. I returned home to a meal prepared by my roommate and I hung out with her and her family (they are visiting for the holidays). Then at midnight, I started packing for Florida and cleaning my room so when I returned home, all would be nice and organized.

I arrived at the airport at 3 am (after some major issues due to unclear detour routes) and at 6 am I got on my flight. Unfortunately, the plane left an hour late and was so incredibly uncomfortable that I could not sleep a bit so I sat as the minutes slowly ticked on. The end result was getting to see my mom though so that is worth it.

Anyways, since arriving in Florida, I came home to the condo and dropped off my suitcase then went to a farmer’s market to buy produce and Publix to buy everything else. My mom and I brought the groceries back and then had to look up an address for Jenny Craig so I could go get my food. The Jenny Craig was close to The Spice and Tea Exchange so, of course, I had to drop in there. I left empty-handed, not really impressed by any of their teas but ended up in a store called “Sur la Table” because apparently despite leaving Montreal, I am still drawn to the French. There I picked up a Finum Brewing basket and a leaf tea infuser.

After getting home from running all our errands, I promptly started the kettle and put my infusers to work. I threw this tea from Veronica into the leaf infuser and Vanilla Orchid Oolong in the basket. Remembering that I felt this tea was a bit watered down in flavor, I dumped the whole 2 tsps I had left. Unfortunately, that has done very little to enhance the cinnamon for me. Instead it amplified the taste of the black tea which is emphasizing the bread-y notes and almost drowning out the cinnamon flavor. Consequently, I think this tea and I just are not a match and so now that it is gone it will most likely be forgotten. However, thank you Veronica for helping me mark this one off my shopping list.

This is one of the teas that Veronica shared with me and I was very excited to try it. This would be my first fusion tea ever and with a name like “Cinnamon Roll”, I thought what could be bad? The answer is nothing is bad per se. I am definitely getting thick bread-y notes so they got the “roll” part down. There is also a sweetness that could be icing. However, when it comes to the “cinnamon”, I am finding that I am a bit underwhelmed. It is really lacking the bold and gooey cinnamon flavor of a real cinnamon bun which is leaving me quite disappointed. You never know unless you try, so thank you Veronica for letting me try this tea. I have enough for one more cup so hopefully I can bring the cinnamon out.

Yeah, this is better. Floral, strawberry, green oolong.

I prefer Butiki’s and Teavivre’s to this one, but this is pretty darn good.

Last little bit is cold steeping in the fridge.

Thanks!

“Very velvet. So wow.” – Doge

Umm, sorry. I think.

This one is from Veronica. I opened the package and smelled pineapple and strawberries, and decided to try this one first.

It’s like candy, or some amazing fresh juice. The flavour is a little over the top, but it’s so good. I’m doing small volumes, and drinking from a lovely tea cup. There’s so much strawberry in this, and the oolong is also intensely floral. I don’t know what to say about it, really.

I quite like it, and would consider picking some up.

Thanks, Veronica!

I just acquired two teas named Cinnamon Roll. This one and a free sample with my Della Terra order. I will try the other soon! This one is EXACLTY how I wanted it to taste… an unassuming black tea that doesn’t detract from the lovely sweet and spicy cinnamon (plenty of pieces of cinnamon in the blend!), while also having a flavor here that IS like a cinnamon roll. The only thing is, I would have wanted a black tea base that is very bready like… it can be done! Maybe I’ll mix some of this with a bready tea I have. If I did a blind taste test and had to name this one myself, I would have also called it Cinnamon Roll! When the cup cools, it has even more of that flavor. I’m so glad it tastes like I wanted it to! Not the best tea ever, but that it met my expectations, it gets a higher rating.

I like this tea, but I find myself wanting more from it. There is the a light note of pineapple and something else… I’m thinking it’s the mango… which is nice, but it’s almost too subtle. I can’t taste the base tea at all. To be fair, I did a two minute steep which was the shortest recommended time on the package. Next time I’ll start with a three minute steep and go from there. Also, adding sugar to my cup really boosted the fruity flavors, but the base tea still could not be tasted.

I think this one has promise. I ended up sending quite a bit of this out in swaps, but there’s still plenty to play with. I might even try making an iced tea out of it just for fun.

I decided to go with this tea as my first tea of the day. A beautiful day, I might add. I must have had it before but I don’t remember anything about it. I really have to sip this one down, it’s one of the older teas that I own (5 months old?).

However, as soon as I opened the tin, I realized why I am so reluctant to have this one… Because it smells godawful. There’s this extremely artifical smell that the leaves and, subsequently, the steep have. I tried not to smell it. It was like… a bunch of lime zest that you just found under an old carpet.

The flavor was slightly better but there was still so much of fakeness to it. On the whole it tasted like some kind of earl grey cream gone very wrong. Because you get this lime that tastes like a really nasty bergamot and then there’s some creamy notes – which was the only thing that positively surprised me about this tea.

Fusion Teas have some really awesome offerings (Caribbean Nectar Rooibos, Raspberry Champagne White) but this, IMHO, is not one of them.

I think I’m gonna hang in the towel after this one and just drink favorites for the rest of the night. Nothing new is tasting great to me, and I think it might be me today, not the tea.

This is tangy-orange more than sweet-orange, though it does have a creamy softness to it (not over-the-top, lightly so). It’s ok but I need to find my “screaming straight-up creamy sweet kiddie creamsicle” tea at some point. They’re all either too bright/zesty or too refined/soft to sate that particular craving. Hm.

I was craving a tea that was grassy today. I thought of this one and it was perfect even though I’ve never had it before. It was actually a free sample in my smallish Fusion order (sale!) and it’s the first I tried. Go figure. The dry leaves certainly smell like dry hay! I’d say the teaspoon and a half and five minutes is way too much though. I went with a teaspoon and 1/3 and around four minutes steeping and it was a bit too astringent. I needed the briskness anyway! It has that grassy slightly malty taste… full flavor! The cup is a deep red color. This was nice to try but I feel like it is too similar to the Ovation black teas I have a ton of. I adore Fusion’s blends though. Just beware of Fusion’s recommended steep time. Perfect for my craving though!

And sorry Steepster, but I think I’ll avoid you until my Butiki Amoda box shows up! (I don’t want to know the surprise until they are in my hands and I promise I won’t talk about the specifics until way after everyone else has been talking about them.) I couldn’t resist special Butiki holiday teas so I just got the Amoda box for this month. Can’t wait!

The bergamot is STRONG dry, and still pretty assertive in the taste but less over-the-top. I’m seeing now lots of other Steepsters recommend a lower temp (I already cut the time from my normal 3 or 4 minutes to 2 based on the smell of the dry leaf). I will try that next time and see if it softens it. As it stands it’s not bad, but also not a favorite.

Got a little nervous about the clove in this one given that recent incident with Sleepy Hollow Chai, but this was pretty good! No one element is super strong or off balance with the rest, and it’s not wimpy either. I don’t know that I’ve found my perfect all-purpose chai yet (I love Townshend Tea’s Dark Forest Chai because it tastes like an old fashioned cinnamon sugar cake donut, but sometimes that’s not what you want when you want chai, y’know? It’s its own thing), but this is one of the better ones I’ve tried so far this year.

Tried this last night while watching A Little Princess (I’ve been on a holiday season “feel-good classic movies from my youth” bender before bedtime). This was quite enjoyable—it really does have a sweet carrot flavor (it takes a while to emerge; it built up enough to be quite noticeable around the middle of the cup), and you even somehow get cream cheese icing (!). It does taste rather sweet especially by the end of the cup. But I was pretty impressed; carrot cake seems a hard thing to pull off, and somewhat unusual.

Smells wonderful, reminds me of the chocolate cake liqueur my girlfriends were on about a couple years back. You’d think the rose element might be kind of weird, but it makes it seem like a fancier chocolate cake flavor, a more feminine one. It’s not strong, just a backdrop that gives the thing some soft complexity in a welcome way. Such a nice guilty pleasure. I could definitely turn this into a nighttime staple when I have a sweet tooth—it is quite a sweet tisane, yum! Yeah, I think I’m marking this in the “could definitely reorder” category.

BTW, I love that Fusion Teas puts the individually tailored steeping directions for their teas right on the bags, even for samples.

So far so good with Fusion Teas, a company I’d not tried until Black Friday sales but had been curious about for a while. I’ve been impressed and pleased with how carefully and flavorfully blended their stuff is.

I am DROWNING in tea. I have a feeling my logs for a while are going to be brief and to the point, simply marking for posterity whether I like something or not. Just so many to go through. Lord, no more tea for a year! But it’s nice to have so much to try…

This has that soapiness I’ve learned happens when you put lemongrass in tea, but it’s light, and the rest of the blend makes up for it. Got the husband-approved “mmmm!” response. It is excellent at what chai’s good for, warming you from the inside out, but without the heaviness and clove-iness some chai blends have, instead a brightness and freshness from the Thai ingredient profile. Just unusual enough to stand out. I like!

Oh I do like this one! It is my first mate tea ever too… That’s probably not good since it means I don’t know what the base mate tastes like. I feel like it will always be associated with pumpkin flavor for me from now on. This tea is creamy and yummy. A wonderful pick-me-up with a dessert quality to it.

Tea of the morning. Still getting cinnamon but no bread or icing notes from this one. It’s tasty, but I wouldn’t call it Cinnamon Roll.

I’m taking a break and celebrating getting a large Christmas order completed today. The project was way more time consuming than I expected, so I’m glad that it’s finished. Plus, the customer should have it a full week early which will make her happy as well. Yay! This calls for tea!

The tea… I’m not getting cinnamon roll from this. There are no bread or frosting/glaze flavors, but it is a yummy cinnamon tea. The spice taste natural which is nice since so many cinnamon teas have that weird artificial flavor, and even thought there is a lot of cinnamon it isn’t completely overpowering. The Ceylon tea is distinct and delicious. It has a richer taste than I was expecting and is very smooth. Yeah, this is a keeper.

sipdown! (215) Another cold brew and this one is also tasty good. I erally enjoy fruit tisanes a lot. Even in winter, it’s like a taste of summer! :) This one is like tasty cherry koolaid…without being as sickly sweet or as artificial haha

….50 days until black friday. 65 teas + 6 from ttc + 3 from verdant brings me to needing 1.5 sipdowns each day. or one a day and an extra 4 on the weekend. EVEN if i ignore my vacation week, that’s still less than 2 sipdowns a day ( or 1 + 5 each weekend) This is looking like i can manage it. i think.

I wanted to try this one hot first….thank you Dexter3657! No tealogs on this one yet, but so far, this is pretty good as a hot brew. It’s not exactly “wild” cherry, but it IS cherry…and much closer to wild cherry than that medicinal cherry syrup flavour that is just WRONG in anything but medicine lol I actually think this would be a pretty decent one in summer, especially against a splash of lemonade!

I haven’t written about this? I’ve had it for a long time and it’s almost gone.
This is really nutty, seems more like a roasted mate than a honeybush – maybe roasted honeybush? Whatever it is it’s really good. Nice and sweet and nutty. Thumbs up.

CTTB!

I opted to try this one even though i’m not a fan of yerba mate. Turns out this may be one of the few blends that it actually works for me. This is a really nice pumpkin blend and if you don’t mind yerba mate i can see how this could sky rocket to near the top of pumpkin blends. For me though, the yerba mate makes this less desireable. The spices are really nicely balanced in this though – so i recommend folks give it a shot if they’re looking for a good pumpkin blend. I’ll hold off rating this since i know i don’t like mate but for me this would sit around a 65 – so still decent.

I’m not sure if this is the best pumpkin tea I’ve had, but it’s right up there. I really like how well the pumpkin and spices work with the mate base. The spices are present without being overwhelming, you can taste pumpkin (I might like a little more). The ingredient list says that there is rooibos and honeybush in here, I’m not really tasting them (I think that’s a good thing).
All in all this is making me happy tonight, and that’s really what the whole tea experience is about.

Leftover sample snagged from momo yet again. :)
Smooth and creamy blueberry with a floral, woodsy rooibos finish. What’s not to love?

Sample package label:
“Fusion Teas, Premium Earl Grey
1 tsp. per 8 oz. water @ 203*
Steep 2-3 min. Sweeten to taste
Ingredients: premium black tea with bergamot
Black Tea Collection”

Per: http://www.fusionteas.com/Premium-Earl-Grey.html:
“This soft, highly aromatic bergamot black tea is of the highest quality. The excellent basis of Ceylon and Yunnan is perfectly in tune with the flavoring. A light and pleasant smokey nuance accompanies the typical bergamot citrus flavor. Experience a top-class Earl Grey Tea

Ingredients: Ceylon and Yunnan Black Tea with Bergamot.
1.5 tsp., 203*, 2-3 min.”

Technique: Tea mug with Finum brew basket. 1 Teavana tsp. (2.5 g – My Weigh Durascale D2 660), 8-oz water with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 26 ppm, heated to 212*F and allowed to cool to 203*F – verified with DAVIDsTEA thermometer/timer. No sweeteners, milk or cream were added.

Introduction: The typical Earl Grey tea has a 100% Ceylon base. Some Ceylon teas used in E.G. can be quite astringent. This E.G. is different in that it also includes Yunnan tea.

Most E.G. teas are also light- to medium-bodied. While my wife loves the aroma and flavor of a well-balanced EG, she typically does not find them to be strong enough. To compensate, she will increase the amount of tea leaves and/or the brewing time. However, you can only increase those two parameters so much.

Fragrance: This black tea has that wonderful classic EG bergamot fragrance.
Dry leaf: Uniform moderate length, dark brown leaves.
Liquor: Clear & coppery

2-min.: Medium bodied – I’ll give it another minute.
3-min.: The subtle aroma follows the character of the dry leaf’s classic bergamot fragrance. The flavor definitely follows both the fragrance and aroma. This full-bodied E.G. is expertly balanced. The bergamot does not overshadow the base black teas. There was no hint of tartness. The addition of Yunnan provided a very smooth sip as there was no bitterness. There was a mild drying effect on the finish of the sip, which slowly developed into a mild sense of astringency as I finished the cup.

I then tried 1.5 tsp. (3.8 g – My Weigh Durascale D2 660) / 8 oz. / 203 F / 2 min.
Using 1.5 tsp. provided a very full-bodied cup of E.G. with and an enhanced aroma at only two minutes. The sorter brewing time also reduced the astringency. How to have your cake and eat it too! (However, you’ll use up your Premium E.G. stash faster.) The mild drying effect on the finish of the sip was still present.

Lastly, we tried: 1.5 tsp. / 8 oz. / 195 F / 2 min. Now we’re talking! – Very smooth, rich, and strong without any bitterness or astringency.

Impression: This is a smooth, very well-balanced, full-bodied Earl Grey with a pleasing bergamot fragrance that does not overshadow the Ceylon/Yunnan base tea.

My wife enjoyed this E.G. enough to have four cups. She very much enjoyed the fragrance of the dry leaves. To her sense of smell, the aroma was not as strong as the fragrance. The flavor to her was not as bright as her regular classic EG. She also appreciated Fusion’s attractive high quality packaging.

Suggestions: We’d like to suggest a greater percentage of this very fine Yunnan in the base tea may further minimize any astringency and just a little more bergamot for a brighter flavor.

Thanks to Thomas Egbert of FusionTeas for kindly providing this free very generous sample.