SerendipiTea

Michael got this in his summer swap with Missy&Dylan!

Guh, thank you for sharing you guys!!! This stuff is amazesauce! Or… amazetea!

Ginger Peach from RoT was one of my first tea loves – I would drink it every day, but this is a whole other flavour story. Seriously – Mike made some iced to go on our trip to the zoo – the black base is so so smooth and isn’t shy – and I love that the peach flavour takes the forefront with just a hint of ginger for the perfect balance of flavour.

A seriously awesome iced tea – this is Mike’s fave so far you guys! he also loved the Moroccan Mint – we’ll review that later ;)

Okay, the zoo was also awesome! Watching a gibbon tease 2 lemurs and play with it’s teddy bear is seriously calming activity. And there was a baby goat born 4 days ago! So wee!! I really love the ambience of this zoo (mostly farm animals)- the animals seem super well taken care of and happy, it’s clean and calming and there’s so much room to breathe – large habitats and spread out over a large area. I couldn’t have asked for a better Sunday!

This is a lot like once upon a tea, except that one is good and this one is skipper of the failboat. I’m really surprised because I think of SerendipiTea as really good at these types of flavors.

For the most part this was just sour, creamy rooibos, which does not make for a pleasant cup. After my cup had cooled down quite a bit I did pick up hints of vanilla and chocolate but they weren’t strong enough to redeem the sourness. Maybe the yogurt bits weren’t quite right.

This is delicious! Thank you Missy and Dylan for sending me a sample of this!!
You know I have not had the best of luck with coconut flavored teas – with the exception of several good coconut oolongs and pouchongs. This however is a really good tasting tea! I like that it is a mix of rooibos and black as I enjoy a soothing morning cup now and then.
The flavors are vanilla, coconut, and cocoa.
Not over powering, very smooth, just YUM!
Steeped the same way that Missy had in her notes and while I was skeptical about the short steep time it works perfectly!

I made a cup of this for my youngest daughter too, her ballet recital this year was an interpretation of the Secret Garden, so she was excited to try a tea called “Secret Garden.”

This is actually much better than I anticipated it being. The rose is strong, but I like the combination of rose and peppermint, it is quite agreeable.

This actually reminds me quite a bit of one of my own tisanes called Meadow Nocturne. Mine had a few different ingredients: honeybush instead of rooibos, and I also added a little bit of hibiscus and rosehips to enhance the body of the cup a bit. I also added a light amount of vanilla flavoring to the tisane. So this is lighter, a little earthier, and a little less sweet than mine, but, they are very similar otherwise.

And I am finding that I really like this. This is one that I could see keeping on hand for when I needed some help to relax and fall asleep, because I enjoy the flavor. It doesn’t taste overly medicinal, it just tastes delightfully floral and sweet and quite lovely.

With my first order from SerendipiTea, they sent me a sample of Persian Nectar, which is their peach black tea. It was good, remarkably good, as I didn’t really consider myself a fan of peach flavored tea. But it was sweet, and tasty, and… well, it just seemed right coming in to summer.

So, I decided to hit up Amazon for this one, which is their peach ginger tea. And it totally paid off.

The peach flavor of this tea is just at the perfect level… it definitely knows who is boss, and saunters its way all around the house while it’s steeping. But in the flavor, it isn’t too overpowering. Oh, it’s dominant, but it doesn’t offend. The black tea rounds out the soft sweetness of the tea, with just a hint of the ginger at the end to add a little spice. Truly a fantastic tea.

I’m on my second glass of this iced, I grilled some burgers, topped with swiss, some fresh tzatziki sauce, and sprouts on a toasted whole wheat bun, paired with this iced tea… it was heaven. Neither the burgers nor the tea lasted very long. So now I’m taking my time with the second glass…

…maybe.

This is a super chocolate tea. It almost looks like I’ve brewed tea then added some hot cocoa. For the most part, I taste chocolate, chocolate and chocolate. I see the description says deep and earthy. I agree with these descriptors. I’ve struggled with a way to describe the flavor underneath the chocolate but I’ve not come up with some thing that fits it better than those two words. It does feel very smooth and mellow but they aren’t quite right. Now I just have to get Dylan to give it a go. Cookie bribes are in the near future.

I had this one last night right before bed time. I really like this one. totally deserves a spot in the cupboard. Soon I’m thinking I shall have to upgrade to a tea room instead of a tea cupboard. ;)

Mint is decently strong as it’s the first thing I notice. I feel it’s a completely natural flavoring and I see quite a bit of mint in the dry leaf. The spices (cinnamon, cardamom and clove) chase the mint and are pretty well balanced. The ginger and orange peel seem to be a bit more mild than the other three spices but not by much. The tea is a bit hidden here. It really just adds a bit of depth to the over all flavor.

This is another tea that didn’t come off so well for me today. I really surprised by it since SerendipiTea tends to do the chocolate and/or creamy teas very well so far.

This feels like a rooibos with apple cider and creamer. The chocolate and vanilla are MIA. The spices (cardamom, clove, cinnamon and ginger) are coming through pretty well. It might just be the creamy apple cider association I’m having trouble with. I like my apple cider naked.

I let it cool a bit and did get a hint of chocolate. Over all not as impressed as I was expecting to be.

This is a strange chai. I feel it’s more savory than what I would normally expect. I’d swear there is salt in here with the pepper. The pepper seems to dominate every thing else. I pick up just hints of cinnamon, cardamom, clove and ginger. The tea peeks out but really this feels like I infused pepper and then added a bit of salt to my cup. For those of you who enjoy savory pepper tea, this is your chai.

I make my own herbal blend of lavender, chamomile, peppermint, and red rooibos. It’s a lot like this blend minus the rose petals, but it’s so much different. I feel like there is almost too much rose in this one. If you like rose then by all means go for this, but if you don’t I wouldn’t go near it.

One thing I do with my personal blend is keep all the ingredients in separate containers so that way I can put in a decent ratio as compared to this tea where everything is thrown together. I feel like if I would buy rose petals and put into my own blend at a different ratio that it would be so much better.

Alas, I know it doesn’t make sense to send all the ingredients separately, but I feel that it’s just better that way. I will stick to my own blending instead of buying this. I may buy rose petals and add as necessary though to mimic this blend eventually.

And now, for something slightly different!

You know, I really do like that SerendipiTea does things a little different. For example, this is the only chai I’ve ever seen with Allspice.

Now you may say to yourself: “Self, do I consider Allspice a typically Indian spice?”

And you would probably respond to yourself: “Of course not, Self! That would be silly!”

But it works, it really truly does. The allspice, clove, and cinnamon are the dominating spices in this tea. Towards the end of the sip you start to taste the pepper. It’s a little bit sweeter, overall, than most other chais I’ve had, but that works really well with the allspice. This is definitely unique, and quite enjoyable.

I also have to give SerendipiTea another nod due to their ridiculously large samples. I think we ordered another 8 or 10 samples with this last order, and we’ve started to measure them. See, for $2.50, you’re supposed to get a half ounce sample of tea (14 grams, for you metric folks). Our last order, and this order, we started to measure these so-called half ounce samples… and not a single one of them has been less than 30g. I think the largest was 57g. So, you’re getting far more than your money’s worth if you order samples from them… so I recommend it highly :)

There is a lot going on in this chai but it seems to be working out well enough. Cinnamon and clove lead the way to cardamom and allspice. I’ve totally lost the ginger here all together, but I’m not a big ginger fan any ways. The tea seems to be a well behaved malty fellow. I was a bit surprised that the tea did come through. The spice fu on this one is strong. That leaves us with pepper tying things up. It isn’t my all time favorite chai but for some thing different this is what I shall pick up.

This is a pretty good desert tea but not what I expected. It’s very creamy with a very strong nutty flavor. It reminds me of hazelnut or walnut. Chocolate seems to come in last with hints of vanilla to tie things off. I wonder if cacao beans plus the rooibos makes for a nutty tea. I should add it to my lack luster hazelnut tea so I can feel like I’m drinking a nutty tea at least.

When I opened up my steepster box I was a little underwhelmed with this tea. It smelled like perfume. Sadly it taste like it too. I wanted to give this a chance but it was to floral for me.

If anyone wants to trade for this let me know.

Sipdown! Although regretting brewing this a) at work and b) in a teabag. Poor abused tea. At least it doesn’t taste too bad (Checkmate is worse), so once it cools I should be able to gulp it down reasonably well. This is definitely more…. fruity than I remember, which I think is actually the rooibos, since this doesn’t have fruit in it. Not really tasting the cocoa, but the coconut is present as a nice creaminess.

10 teas to go!

Welp. Steepster ate my tasting note, but that’s ok, because it was only three lines long. Something about how this was better the first time, but was still tasty. Probably a byproduct of underleafing + hard work water. And something about how I should have made a tea with more caffeine, haha.

So, learned tonight not to judge a book by its cover… or a tea by its appearance! Definitely had initially dismissed this one as just being a flavoured red rooibos… until I read about it about on here and got all intrigued! My bad!

Steeped, it smells slightly like rooibos, coconut, chocolate. Oh yum! I can taste the creaminess and sweetness, a suggestion of chocolate, and a hint of rooibos – but it’s not medicinal. This is actually a pretty good rooibos blend! Too bad there’s black tea in it too otherwise it would be great for the evening. Definitely like this one a lot more than I expected to :)

Thanks for sending me some of this, Missy & Dylan!

Today we decided to compare Morrocan Mints in our cupboard. This one falls a bit short because the Market Spice rules supreme in the mint department. This may be a case of artificial flavorings vs natural flavorings. It could, also be the Market Spice has a lot more mint in the mix as well. It appears that way.

My expectations were fulfilled as far as the mints go. Sweet spearmint rounding out the crisp, refreshing bite of peppermint. I feel this tea is stronger in the gunpowder fu. The gunpowder being more prominent causes the mint to take back ground until the tea has cooled. Gunpowder here hints at roasted veggies with a bit of smoke. It is very smooth like a creamy butter. I’ll have to ice it soon and see what happens with it then.

This is a very pleasant white tea and lavender blend. It is sweet and gentle, with a mild lavender flavor. It’s very soothing and relaxing. A nice tea with which to end the day.

I received this in a swap. I forgot from who though :( I need to write it down on the tea containers, who I had swapped with. Any how, THANK YOU!!! This tea… ehem.. tisane… is absolutely amazing. It smells like cocoa and creamy. I love the large bits of spices mixed in this blend. So pretty and so real!

I am still sick.. ugh! But I could really taste the flavor. I could have drank this alone without any additives, since it is sweet and creamy. However, the flavors and creaminess really stood out once I added a little brown sugar and milk. The yogurt bits definitely helped, and each of the flavors stood out. I was getting caramel, cocoa, cloves, creamy, cardamom notes from this. I could tell there was no black tea in this blend as there wasn’t another strong taste to counter these spices. Overall, this is a wonderful, caffeine-free blend. Absolutely delicious!