Fusion Teas

Oh how I missed drinking mate! I’ve been chugging through my The Persimmon Tree stuff that I haven’t been drinking mate. This is the last Fusion tea sample that I haven’t tried yet.

I ordered this tea because pistachio tea just sounds crazy! I do like pistachios and spumoni ice cream. Is there a spumoni tea? /checks steepster. No? /checks google. No. OMG SOMEONE GET ON THAT!

DRY: Very weird smell. Weird as in it took me awhile to figure out what I was smelling. Lime and lemongrass. All other smells I have no idea.
As I was scooping out my tea, I got a huge 1" long by 0.5" wide lime slice. I removed it and put it back in the bag, I figured I’ll save that huge lime for another steeping.

STEEPED: Mysterious roasted or nutty smell mixed with other smells I can’t ID.

TASTE: An unusual strong, mellow and smooth nutty taste with a background of lime and lemongrass. Green mate comes through strong. Crisp lime aftertaste. No tart or bitterness. There is supposed to be coconut in this tea but I do not notice it.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Adventurous tea drinkers and green mate lovers.

COMMENTS: WHOA, this tea is WEIRD! I’ve never drank anything like this and it’s so wild and I can’t figure out whats going on!

Um, yeah. I’m not able to number rate this tea at this time because I just can’t tell you if I like it or not or compare it to other things I’ve drank. Yeah, I’ve drank green mate plenty of times, but this adds a weird addition with mystery nut taste (that I can’t ID as pistachio. Unless this is what pistachio is supposed to taste like steeped?). The lime is quite good in this, not tart or bitter like I said earlier.

Back to the spumoni tea.. SOMEONE BLEND THIS! Chocolate pieces, pistachio, vanilla bean. I dunno what kinda tea to stuff in it, stuff something in it, but make it taste spumoni. Of course, slide me some of this tea for free.. ya know, for coming up with it.

FINISHED an article with an October 1 deadline that was a dickens to write. I can (temporarily before I plunge into another assignment) see the surface of my desk!

While I was working I guzzled enough heavy-caf stuff, I needed something a little lighter to celebrate the “done” feeling. This selection from the illustrious K S was just perfect. The fruit flavor is round and sweet, not thin and tart as in many fruited green teas. Not a bit of tartness.

Put my feet up while I was drinking, watched a Downton Abbey episode, and basked in the brief leisure.

It smells like FROOT LOOPS! Which brings back all kinds of wonderful latent church nursery memories—-blocks and the toy kitchen and play doh and those cool Fisher-Price pull-along phones with the goofy goggly eyes and my teacher Miss Lenora who bought me a Peter Rabbit book…

All that to say, this has the most pleasant and fragrant fruit scent of any green tea I have tried in recent memory, hands down. And the scent doesn’t let up once it’s steeped; you can just bury your nose in it. The berry-pom flavor is lighter that the scent, but still strong and sweet. Not a hint of tartness, which makes this a winner as far as I’m concerned.

My thanks to K S for providing this goofy and relaxing trip a few years backward! (Then there was the room that was so small the piano could only face the wall and rather than turn her back on a bunch of four-year-olds while we were singing, the teacher with the beehive hairdo would play piano, and sing while c-r-i-n-k-i-n-g her neck towards us as far as it would go. I still remember all the lyrics.)

This is the first tea that I’ve tried and just thought NO at the first sip. It might be good hot,I’ll have to try, but cold brewed seemed to bring out the wrong flavors.

The dry smell seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite think of it. After it was done cold brewing, it still had that smell. It didn’t hit me until I tasted it. LICORICE. I don’t remember seeing anything licorice in the ingredients, but perhaps something else has a similar flavor. The flavor is a sorta licorice medicine taste. I gave it to my mom, but she didn’t like it much either. I won’t rate, because it just seems to be a flavor I don’t personally like.

Ugh just got home and I am soooo tired. Sorry all for the hasty and short reviews. I ended up trying a bunch of new ones today by chance so bear with me!
This tasted like regular mate to me. The lime came through a little but not enough to identify it if I didn’t know it was there. Or maybe that was the pistachio? shrugs
Anyhow thank you Kristaleyn for this sample!! I have more than enough for another cup, maybe it will reveal some secrets ;)

Got this as a free sample from Fusion Teas. I dunno if this is anything like DAVIDsTea cake teas, but if it is…man, good stuff. Smells sweet and chocolatey, but not like other straight up chocolate teas I’ve had. I guess that’s the cake part. Mmm. I wish I knew how to mix teas. Maybe someday!

Mmmmm, thank you Fusion Teas Opened this bag up, was hit with the actual, real life smell of chocolate cake. Yum. The smell of the dry leaves was strong and wafted all around my desk. The tea itself was very mobile as it brewed, little flecks floating around everywhere in my ingenuiTEA. Tastes really lovely, but the chocolate seemed to be more muted while the honeybush grew stronger as it brewed. Still, super excellent tea.

Nom, thanks Fusion Tea! Smells really strongly spicy, in a lovely way! Lots of exciting pieces in the blend. There’s melty, caramelly looking stuff in the used leaves. Mmmmm. This is going to sound super weird, but the smell of the cup reminds me kinda of….pipe smoke? An interesting and complex cup o’tea.

Last of my Fusion Tea Room samples (thank you again!) that I am trying out. I have been curious about this one for a bit, although I have since had other teas with yogurt bits. This one has not created any weird surface on the top of the tea so that’s a plus.

It smells like blueberry muffins and yogurt together. I am just really on a breakfast kick today too, so this is a great way to end my day.

It tastes as advertised: very blueberry! There’s a bit of a tangy taste thanks to the yogurt, and I think it makes it taste a bit creamy, compared to how most other fruity rooibos blends I’ve had have tasted. It’s nice and sweet, and it almost tastes like blueberry cheesecake instead.

I love how well blueberry goes with rooibos, I’m amazed this is only the second time I’ve had it because I REALLY enjoy it. Since the other one I had was an iced tea, I will have to try this one out iced too. I bet it’ll be even better.

Adding this to the “when I have less tea, I will get this” list.

This is my first time having tulsi, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and was pleased by this sentence: Recent studies suggest tulsi may be a COX-2 inhibitor, like many modern painkillers, due to its high concentration of eugenol.

A painkiller is just what I need right now after trying to find out how I could get in-state tuition despite living in Georgia for nearly 3 years now. You’re supposed to make a “self-sufficient” amount of money in order to get non-ridiculous tuition rates. Not sure how you might do that with no college degree, so congratulations on your continued failures, Georgia.

So at this point I’m probably not graduating until I’m 30. I should get three degrees at this point it feels like.

So, lots of pain.

In the bag, this tea smelled like apple pie. Steeped, it smells like lollipops that have been sitting around some cloves.

I actually really like it a lot. The herbal taste of the tulsi is a nice aftertaste from the sweet, fruity flavor. I can taste both the apple and the pear, but it is still somewhat reminiscent of apple cider. Not a bad thing, though.

Thanks so much to the generous Fusion Tea Room for sending me this free sample.

I’m not even gonna bother rating it, I know fruit teas with hibiscus are not my favorites by far. This was better than I was thinking it would be, it’s gingery with strawberry notes and I think the strawberry/blackberry leaves lend to it a slightly herbal quality. I felt it was too tart for me and I had to add a bit of sugar. It isn’t really to my taste but I am sure some other folks out there would love this. LMK if you’d like a sample.

I really wanted this one to be better than it was. I am a huge chai fan, so I was excited to try this. It smelled pretty good in the package, but then was so-so in the cup. Seemed like there was too much anise in the mix, for my taste anyway. The rest of the spices were good, i would just like to taste them more.

I’m not going to give this a numerical rating because I don’t often like fruity teas, nor do I usually like green mate, and so I feel unqualified to rate.

I got this tea as part of my huge sample order at Fusion and as one of many attempts to try teas I don’t usually like. There have been surprises before, Fusion’s Blueberry Rooibos, for example, where I didn’t expect to like a tea but ended up LOVING it.

But alas, not this time. The mate and the raspberry were quite dominant, and I didn’t get much of the cocoa. If you like mate and raspberry, this tea is for you.

I’m not giving up on this yet. I will now try it iced. Hmm…can you ice mate?

I have tried 874 different teas (roughly since i’m sure there are a few i never bothered to log); i have 2101 tasting notes; there are 235 teas in my cupboard with a mandala order, tea spot order and a travelling black tea box on the way (possibly a tea box from TEB as well); i have 2 swaps in the works and i’m looking at placing 2 butiki orders in the next month period (roughly) and would like a few teas from american tea room. I managed to go a couple months only placing 1 small order. I think i’m sliding again LOL

I forgot that i wanted to brew this cold and i ended up making it warm this morning. Strangely this tea doesn’t come across as overly floral even though there’s rose and jasmine going on in this. Still happy with this one, though today it tastes a lot less like “lychee” and is creeping more towards the floral side. Maybe Fusion needs to have their teas shaken up a bit more before pulling tea up? Glad to have tried it, will not be a reorder but i’d drink it if someone made me some :) Thanks NXTDOOR!

(edit: oh yeah..sipdown 234)

steepster ate my note. it sucks. in summary yaynxtdoor not as “lychee” as the one i had from lupicia, but still pretty good and not floral!! i am going to try this hot brewed, cold. as that might make it a bit fruityier :)

Sooo uh pretty sure this was indigobloom again but if not, i apologise. This smells a lot like lime…or in the case of my other half – cloves? haha Theres a taste here there that i can’t identify…mostly this tea leaves me full of questions. Why does is taste like this? Does all mate taste like this? lol in all seriousness, leaving a raiting off this one because i’m just not sure what to make of it. I don’t hate it, but i don’t love it. :)

Thank you Shelley_Lorraine for sending me a mate.
and such an exotic one too!
my preference is always black tea. but my boyfriend’s and my best friend’s is always mate.
so i never buy it but i always wish i had so i can make it for them.
i love pistachio things. and i like coconut in almost any tea so far. so this is a winner. though i’m not sure it’s very pistachio, but it is limey! and great for the summer.

more backlogging and a sipdown!

Thanks again to nxtdoor for sending this my way. I am not a fan of green oolongs but this tea not only smells delicious but tastes wonderfully fruity and pretty good. I drank this yesterday both cold and hot and it’s got a nice smooth green oolong taste that blends nicely with the fruity acai/berry taste. it’s also not overly floral which is a plus for me. Over all not a bad little tea, though nothing i need to keep in my cupboard always. It was nice getting to try it though, and i did enjoy drinking it :)

SIPDOWN! (191) thanks again nxtdoor I cold brewed this overnight and i’m sipping on it this morning while i impatiently wait for my kettle to boil. I actually like this a bunch as a cold brew – moreso than most greens that i’ve cold brewed. There is no bitterness in this brew and the fruitiness of the tea complements the sencha nicely.

Good morning hump day!

Thank you*nxtdoor* for sending me this sample. I’m not overly a fan of green teas but I do like fruity teas, so I was looking forward to trying this one out. Al in all not a bad fruity sencha. It’s a pretty tea to look at in leaf form and it smells lovely. I’m a fan of teh lack of floral notes in the brew as well. I think ill try cold brewing the last bit of my sample to see how that works out. I’m hoping it’ll make the fruity flavours pop a bit more.

Sipdown! Thank you nxtdoor this is a tasty treat tonight. I steeped it extra long to see how it held up and this is just a good cup of hazelnut delicious! Glad I got to try this one out!

forgot i had this one yesterday as well. Thanks nxtdoor I think i rather like this one. i think it would probably make a really good tea latte. The hazelnut taste in this one is pretty nice and i do like that it’s a honeybush. I don’t think i would like this as much as a rooibos as there would be that danger of the woodys taste coming through. instead the honeybush here adds a bit of depth to the hazelnut taste. thanks nxtdoor!

SIPDOWN! So i was right…this IS tasty as a cold brew. I think i like this better than H&S in both hot and cold forms which is good to know. But this is also for sure a much fruitier blend than H&S – the focus being on the flavour rather than the tea base. thanks again nxtdoor for this one!