Revolution Tea

Bought this during the very beginning of my tea journey. Earl Grey with lavender is a nice change from EG Créme, but it’s not something I necessarily seek out.

Brewed one bag in 6 oz of water. Added a bit of lavender syrup to bring it out over the bergamot (not such a fan of citrus alone in tea). Added 3 ounces of milk for a latte-style cup. It lacked the strength I look for in a wake-up tea.

It is Green Tea Tuesday around here – Dragonwell, Hojicha and Genmaicha. Time to get some flavored greens in the mix!

I found one individually wrapped bag of this and realized that I’ve been hanging on to it for 5 months now. I picked it (along with a few other of Revolution’s individually wrapped teabags) up from a gas station between seeing my family and driving 5 hours north to see the husband’s family.

In an effort to continue today’s green tea consumption I made this. Dry bag smells mostly like a minty green tea – strange. No where on the packaging does it say “Mint”. But I push forward. Brewed at the below parameters with 8 oz of water, all I taste is a slightly minty green tea. There’s no chocolate; no orange in my cup. Oh, the disappointment… Revolution you lured me with the orange and chocolate left me hanging with a green mint. :(

Last time I had tea with lavender (White Lion?) I was underwhelmed and I’m not sure whether that was because I didn’t know what I was doing or it really wasn’t well done. Now I am inclined to go on a lavender-tea quest as a parallel to my Earl Grey adventures.

I also used to think all Earl Greys were alike. There was “tea,” and there was “Earl Grey” tea, and much, much later, there was “green tea” and — you get the picture.

I also had trouble figuring out which log to put this tasting note under. There’s another labeled for the 16 individual infusers, which is what I actually have, and which doesn’t look much like the tall tin box in the photo attached to this one! I finally went with this because it had more tasting notes attached and because, after visiting the Revolution site, it looks like they put all their teas into pyramid-shaped cloth (polyester? Silk?) sachets. I like the idea of the re-sealable foil envelope inside the box, too.

ANYWAY: I used one sachet, probably could have used less water or steeped longer, and probably will try one of those next time. I still am getting a nice subtle bergamot/floral scent and flavor, though. I added half-and-half and am very happy.

We jokingly call Revolution varieties Truck Stop Teas because we first found them at the local Flying J/Denny’s and were surprised to see such a sophisticated selection rather than food service grade stuff.

Revolution has made this one deliberately fruity and peachy. I have often compared the flavor of good oolongs to Juicy Fruit chewing gum, but this one is so sweet, I’d call it Fruit Stripe Gum flavor — you know, the 30 seconds of flavor you get until it goes away. Very tasty and pleasant.

This, however, does not make the husband cut. Way too fruity. His oolongs must be toasty and oversteeped enough to bite your tongue. So far, his only consistent request is for inexpensive Bigelow bagged oolong. Eh, I tried.

Elsewhere, a friend of mine has been posting “daily joys” as a reminder that there is still joy to be found when you ponder it. Mine yesterday was a few hours of bona fide sunshine to walk in and watching neighbors try to pose their six-week-old husky pups for a photo session. I’ll be watching for yours.

After completely ruining a pot of loose green tea yesterday, I crankily dumped the whole mess and decided to go for simplicity in a sachet. This is a nice bagged oolong; I didn’t get much on the fruit/apricot side, but the safflower and marigold gave it a nice sunny disposition. Which helped mine a bit.

After a couple of really positive first experiences with Revolution Tea, this was a bit of a letdown. Couldn’t coax any caramel out of it at all. Just honeybush.

This smells heavenly dry. I thought it might be a little tricky to steep it strong enough to get the chocolate without bitter-izing the green, especially with hot water out of McDonald’s tap, but it balanced out nicely. Extremely tasty—I’ll hunt this one down again.

What’s funny about this one, at least to me, is its source: the Flying J Truckstop on I-44 just east of Joplin MO. (Revolution just seemed a little upscale for the venue.) And be ready for a long wait if you ask just to buy the teabag…that really throws the clerk!

No particular standout characteristic, but it’s smooth and pleasant. Nice on its own, didn’t need dairy to tone anything down.

I was hesitant to try this since I’ve tried “chocoate” flavored teas before and did not like them. This one was pretty good though. I actually didn’t taste chocolate in it, but that helped me like the tea.

Well I couldn’t find an ingredients list so whether there’s actually any caramel in this tea will have to remain a mystery for now. I’ve noticed that adding a few squirts of agave nectar does give the tea more of a sweet, honeyed flavour – although I half-think that’s just the natural sweetness of the honeybush talking.

I’m a bit daunted by all the negative reviews this tea has – well at least I’m not going into this with ridiculously high expectations. The smell is quite nice, though more of a honey scent than caramel. The taste of the liquid isn’t anything remarkable, it’s basically like a blend of un-flavoured honeybush and rooibos. A thought occured to me that maybe this tea isn’t supposed to be flavoured at all and the ‘caramel’ in the title is just refering to the natural sweet flavour of the honeybush. Hmm…

*goes to look for an ingredients list *

I steeped it on the low end of the recommended time, because I’m not a big fan of Earl Grey (full disclosure), but I wanted something different for breakfast.
I popped in some milk and sugar, because — again — not an Earl Grey fan, and was disappointed when, instead of lavender and bergamot, I got a dominant smell of burning paint.
What? Burning paint?? This is going to be so yummy….
Um…
The taste is pretty inoffensive. I get a little bit more of that flowery herbiness on my tongue than in my nose, which is unusual.
Just tastes like airplane tea to me.
Oh well.

This was on my shopping list for a while, but I’d pretty much given up on actually getting it.

But somehow! Tealicious happened to be selling them. I’ve never seen them selling any other teas but their own. But either way, it was buy one get one free, so I picked up a box of this and white pear.

Dry, I could only just make out a whiff of lavender. The bergamot was the centre stage. Brewed, the lavender was much stronger, mixing with the bergamot, and giving it an oddly… ginger smell. Huh. I think it’s because both lavender and ginger’s smells are classified as “pungent”.

I get floral notes, and only a little bergamot in the first sip. Very little of the actual tea. This is my first time tasting lavender, and it’s much different from any other florals I’ve tasted. Again, more pungent, although it has its own sweetness. The bergamot comes back as the tea cools.

I followed the time/temp parameters to the letter, but it tastes bitter and oversteeped :-(
I guess I’ll put it in the fridge and see if chilling will save this cuppa…