Revolution Tea

Delicious, everyday tea. Very comforting. I get a lot of osmanthus in this. I have a soft spot for osmanthus tea, it’s a tea I always drank to relax in college, so I really like this.

I got this through a fundraiser so at least so ex good came from it. I had purchased tropical green blends before from my local tea shop and figured it would be similar to the green mango that I enjoyed so much. Sadly, I was wrong. I tried shorter steep times, longer steep times, blending it with a plain green tea to cut the flavor a bit. Nothing worked through the whole dang box. As several people have said already it has an odd minty flavor to it that overpowers the green flavor and whatever tropical was they were going for. I finally made a few lattes to kill off the box and they weren’t awful but next time I try to support my cousin’s school I’m getting something else.

There would’ve been a much easier way for me to drink soap during my afternoon break, if that’s what I had intended to do.

I rediscovered this tea a few weeks ago after neglecting it for a long time. That happens when you have more tea than you really should have at one time.

When my daughter started college, she mentioned that one of her professors was drinking tea. I got excited and told her to ask their preferences and I sent tea goodie bags to them.

This semester she saw her Trig professor drinking tea, and knew I would want to send him something. She saw that he was using sachets and asked what he liked. He said that his mother-in-law had given him a lot of tea and Revolution was the best he had come across.
I wrote a little note about how to steep it and sent this one along to him. He told her at the next class that it was AMAZING. Next I am hoping to lead him to the loose leaf side.

Now I am trying to drink a lot of this so I can get a fresh batch. It tastes like the spray that hits your face when you peel an orange or tangerine, not like orange candy. The white tea has a decent amount of body to make this enjoyable, and I like to make it the way they do at PF Chang. Leave the sachet in the tetsubin for about three minutes, pour into cups, and immediately add more hot water. That next steep is a little forgiving but I don’t like just leaving it in like they do at the restaurant. The second steep is really quite good.

I can’t believe I didn’t have this listed in my cupboard, mostly because this is the special large sachet that is specially made for PF Changs and I called their wholesale division and offered to buy a case if they would sell it to me even though they don’t list it as available to the public. They sold me the case and I divided it among friends and family.

The instructions say to pour boiling water over and leave the bag in, encouraging customers to go ahead and fill their cups when you get it to the table, and then you resteep. Whatever they did at the restaurant worked, but those parameters did not do well at home.

Today I gave it three minutes in 180F water. It was beautiful. So very citrus-y. I agree that the white tea looks quite dark for a white tea. I only did two steeps because it just didn’t seem like it could handle more.

I noticed that the sachet was big and crunchy, so I cut it open to pour in the compost and the leaves were a very nice size! It was pretty much whole leaf tea in a sachet, with good sized bits of something – probably peel – but I didn’t have time to investigate much.

I am really enjoying this. Had three pots total today of just this one.

I am very sure this is what I had at P. F. Chang’s tonight. There was one tea bag that looked pretty large to me in a little tetsubin that was so cute my daughter wanted to slip it in her purse. (Not the sort of thing any of us would actually do, by the way.)

It was pretty golden yellow for a white tea, but tasted really good with our food and had a fresh, lively tangerine flavor. I would buy this if I saw it in the grocery and knew it wasn’t artificial. I will have to look into their flavorings.

This was my first caramel tea when I tried it years ago. This is a smooth, sweet, flavorful tea. Equal parts caramel and t tobacco. It is an excellent replacement for after dinner coffee. I sometimes have it without dessert in place of the sweet. The Insfuser Bag is simply elegant. The stay fresh packaging is a wonderful idea.

My only criticism is of the brewing instructions. Revolution uses the same instructions for black, red, green and white tea. Any research will tell you that there are differences in the brewing processes.

Kind of hard to describe the taste – but it definitely pear-y. Very sweet yet calming. I’m not usually a white tea drinker, but I liked this one.

A well meaning coworker got me a cute little 6 sachet tin of this for Christmas. I am SO picky about earl grey and lavender usually tastes soapy to me :(

It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but definitely not something I enjoy.

The tin is really kind of cool though, it reminds me of one of those old cigarette cases. If I can get the scent out of it I may reuse the tin for on the go tea stash, since it would fit nicely in my purse.

Backlog:

Before opening the package, I expected this to be a pure chamomile tea, but it wasn’t: it’s mint, chamomile and marigold. Of course, the marigold offers very little flavor to the cup, but, I wasn’t anticipating the mint when I first opened the package. It was a nice surprise. I’m not particularly excited over chamomile, I’d prefer mint over chamomile so I’m glad that I’m going to have a minty flavor to enjoy here too.

A really tasty blend. The mint is strong and the chamomile tempers the minty tones just enough so that I’m not tasting “mouthwash.”

A pleasant blend. I’d drink this one again – don’t think I’d buy it, but, I’d drink it if it was offered to me.

Just the right amount of mint and awesomeness.

I just finished off this cup of caramel. It is a very sweet, dark flavor that is quite soothing and tasty. I will definitely be hitting this one up after a good day of skiing or a salty dinner.

Smooth and robust flavor unlike the ordinary Chamomile teas I have had. Excellent quality in a pyramid bag infuser.

Dark liquor worries
Aroma tantalizes
A delight to sip

This little treasure was given to me by a woman in my steampunk club. No explanation, just “You like tea. Here, take this ziplock baggie of random teas”. It came in an adorable little box with no brewing instructions and I brewed the heck out of it (I’m at work; distractions are par to the course).

I was surprised at how dark the liquor was, like a mahogany varnish. The smell is delicate and definitely full of pear. When I sip it, I can tell it’s oversteeped, but its just the barest edge of…bitter. I agree that it tastes like a light black, without the grassy earthiness of green. (Is that what white tastes like?) And I do get some of the pear flavor coming through, definitely at the front and end (breath) of the taste. It’s light, and I enjoy that it’s sweet and not overwhelming. I would love to try this again with a shorter steep time. But, for now, This is a nice wake-me-up-on-a-cold-afternoon tea.

This was fun to try! I haven’t had lavender in a tea before. I think the Darjeeling in it lightened it up a bit, while the lavender made it smell good and feel more complex. I definitely wouldn’t mind drinking this often. Now, if only I could find an Earl Grey that had a naturally caffeine-free base that still fulfilled all of my Grey hopes and dreams so that I could drink it at night, too……

I have an Earl Grey with a white tea base coming this week…perhaps that will at least be going in the right direction?

I had a pyramid bag of this tea in my travel mug for breakfast. It’s not bad.

The tropical fruit flavor hits right up front in the sip. I got pineapple and mango. There’s no mango or mango flavoring in here, but that’s what I tasted. The fruitiness gently fades into green-tea-ness. I had trouble figuring out how to describe it. Not vegetal, grassy, or seaweedy, but definitely very green. Each sip left my mouth feeling slightly dry. This tea is better as it cools because the tropical flavor lasts longer through the sip. It would probably be good as an iced tea.

My work has a giant tea stash (which I suspect is a “The in-laws really think I like tea and won’t stop giving it to me” collection from the office), so I was going through and really liked it. It’s loose-leaf, and if you look closely you can see what I assume are dried peach and/or ginger bits mixed it. I just used the water office heater and steeped for 3-4 minutes (any longer and it gets bitter quickly, unfortunately.) Also for disclosure, I just checked the box and it expired over a year ago, but was still enjoyable to me.

The peach is really strong, but that’s not necessarily bad. The ginger is subtle but still there. It’s my go-to morning tea for sure.

Sorry to disappoint Ost, but I do not hate this tea at all. It’s really good! If I had any criticism it would be that I need more oolong taste from it. I also probably used too much water for the size of the sachet. However the peachy apricot goodness that shows up and lingers at the end of the sip is very pleasant and also subtle in a good way. Thanks Ost!

I got a sample of this in my monthly Love With Food box. The package says to brew “just under boiling.” I’m no green tea expert, but that seems too hot to me. However, it didn’t matter either way, since I’m at way work and only have one “hot” setting here. I think I may bring my thermometer and find out exactly what temperature it is. Whatever it is, it worked out well enough for this tea. Brewing, there was a strong pineapple scent. I’m almost not getting that in the taste though. At the very beginning of the sip, its almost as though a pineapple just rolled by my face; the tiniest hint of pineapple is there. Then it’s all green tea. And I’m not getting any of the mint everyone else mentioned! Overall not terrible, but not great.