Steeped Tea

First off, thank you to Kristal for sending me a sample of this tea. It’s the first one I’ve ever tried from Steeped Tea. Ironically, it’s packaged in Ancaster/Hamilton— and you sent it to me from Northern Ontario. How fun!

I tried this tea tonight because I wanted something non-caffeinated before bed. It’s been so long since I’ve had a rooibos.

First steeping was lovely. It was sweet, slightly berry-ish, and had an incredible flavour when inhaled. It’s funny how that inhaled flavour doesn’t translate much to sipping. The steeped tea smells much more fragrant than it tastes. What I like most about rooibos is that it has that overwhelming almost alcohol/almond flavour to it. I haven’t had it in so long that I think I really missed that about rooibos. The tea starts off sweet, and then turns woodsy and hay like. The colour is a beautiful copper red as well.

There’s not a ton of added flavour, which is nice. I find that many rooibos teas have an artificial aftertaste. This one lacks any sort of artificial-ness. It tastes like a basic red rooibos with a gentle berry finish.

The second steeping was hay-like and earthy. There was no real berry flavour or sweetness to it. The colour changed to a much paler yellow-copper. I don’t think this tea is suited to multiple steepings.

I would probably get this tea again if offered. I’m unfortunately a little iffy about the whole catalogue-ordering style of shopping, especially when their head office is right near me. It would be nice to feel less pressured to buy at least 50g of tea, and to receive samples instead.

Well this one is exactly what it says it us. Lemon and ginger. It’s citrus with some spice. Not my favourite, but okay. It’s good for someone with a cold which is what I Have… lucky me

4.5 tsp for 1L water @85C, steeped 3 minutes.

Dry leaf: lots of big, unfurled leaves, light and dark green, plus bits of dried fruit and some red and white blossoms (pomegranate and sunflower). Strong scent of papaya that sort of resembles peach. Sort of.

Wet leaf: dark green, slightly less-scented.

Liquor: bronze. Dark for a white tea.

So the dried fruit is mango, papaya, and pineapple coated in sugar and citric acid. There’s also “natural flavours.” Don’t be frightened off — this one works. The scent is a bit strong on the first steep and may lessen on a second. Lots of peach-like taste, though I can tell it’s not peaches. Decent white-tea taste as well, with lots of tea oils released into the water. Very nice mouth-feel.

While this is not a tea I’d want every day, it does deliver a peachy aroma and taste, and the flavouring does not overpower the white tea.

I’ve had this tea before and steeped it too long then. Treat this one delicately, no warmer than 85C on the water and a short steep, and you should get a pleasantly peachy white tea. With hotter water or a long steep time, this blend can get bitter fast.

2tsp for a 300mL pot at 85C. Steeped 3 minutes 30 seconds.

Don’t oversteep this beautiful tea — it will get bitter. I can taste a faint bitterness in the finish. Shorter steep next time.

Dry leave is very pretty: long pai mu tan leaves with blossoms. Strong but not cloying scent of peaches and papaya.

Liquor is dark for a white tea, verging towards bronze.

Juicy pai mu tan with peaches and papaya dominating, with some mango notes. Delicious.

Two things that annoy me about Steeped tea are the facts that I cannot read an entire ingredients list of one particular tea before ordering and the fact I cannot order anything less than 50 grams of a particular type of tea (unless it is part of a collection, in which you may get 25g of 6 types of tea). I decided to order this tea because it sounds like it would make an amazing latte. I pictured a tea that was rooibos base with chunks of dried strawberries and dehydrated yogurt pieces (think strawberry rhubarb parfait from DAVIDs without hibiscus). Unfortunately, what I received was a tea that was rooibos based with different flavourings. When I opened the bag up I certainly smelled the strawberry flavour, but after making this tea two ways (Way 1: 15grams steeped in 8oz of boiled water, mixed with frothed milk and a hint of sugar as a latte. Way 2: 1.5tsp steeped in 8oz of boiled water plain) I can concur that maybe a hint of the flavour is in the taste of the tea, but that’s it. It’s basically just the taste of rooibos.

This tea was a letdown. It’s not gross, just underwhelming. Definitely not a repurchase: I will use it up by mixing it with other teas and drinking it at work when I do not pay attention to what I’m drinking really. The one thing I’ll say is that I’m glad I used up a third of the tea already through the latte and simple cup…

Sip down
This was an ok tea but there are a lot better earl grey teas out there. I found it too pricey for low to mid range quality loose leaf tea

I have always been curious about Steeped Tea. An acquaintance of mine sells it, but I didn’t really want to buy it from her just in case I didn’t like it, because then I would feel like I would have to continue buying from her, even if I didn’t like the tea. I have also thought about being a consultant. So many of my friends are into the “sell from home” type of thing….maybe I should give it a try. So I guess I needed to try the tea to see if I was really interested. And then years went by and I never got around to sampling some of the tea.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a trade/craft sale and there was a lady selling this. I asked her what her fav black tea and she suggested this one. I thought, here’s my chance to try this company, and I like earl grey generally, so I will give it a shot.
On to the tea….the bergamot is a little strong in this blend. There is a hint of vanilla but not “creamy” enough in my opinion. The base seems to be a tad astringent but maybe I should lower the temp next time I brew.
Overall, I like the cream earl grey from Zen tea and the blend from my local tea shop more than this offering.
The price point of $10/bag is a little too high to pay (in my opinion). But maybe that was just what this particular lady was selling it for, I’m not sure what price they usually are.

I will have to try the other tea that I bought from the company, but I think I will pass on becoming a consultant for this company…..maybe I should sell my own hand crafted items instead!

Not too bad. Has nice caramel and toffee flavours to it, but it’s not one I’d grab for very often. Will probably try as a latte next.

This is one of my favorite iced fruit teas. I make a pitcher of it and usually add a small amount of sugar to the pitcher (about 1/4 cup) and it adds a hint of sweetness to offset some of the bitterness that it can taste like on its own. Very refreshing!

very minty. really nice when mixed with lemonadee or lime juice and soda, rum optional.

The best Cream of Earl Grey I have had. super creamy and has the right balance of bergamot. I have tried a lot of other companies version of this tea and nothing measures up to it. Definitely an earl grey lover’s staple! (You can buy it here: http://www.mysteepedtea.com/TEAWITHKAYLA/shop/PRODUCTDETAIL.aspx?prod=1011 )

Wow, this is the last tea in my cupboard I had yet to try! Won’t be trying anything new for the next several weeks: I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t buy any more teas until September and until my cupboard reaches less than 40 types of tea (when I made this promise a little over a week agoI had about 52 teas, now I have exactly 40. So I’m well on my way :)).

I cold brewed this tea overnight. It’s interesting that a lemon tea is red, but that is obviously due to hibiscus. When I tried it I got a mix of mildly tart and sour, which is the hibiscus-lemon combo. Pretty decent and standard flavour I’ve been having all summer in terms of iced tea. One of the better iced teas I got from Steeped tea, I think the lemon flavour is done well. I’ll have no problem using this one up, but like a broken record I have to say that for $4ish for a pitcher, I can probably make a similar tasting iced tea using Meyer Lemon and Strawberry Pomegranate tea bags from Stash for a quarter (or less!) of the price. I’m always mentioning the price, which I hope isn’t tacky, but budgeting is on my mind a lot and I think the taste/quality of a tea needs to merit the price

Surprise, surprise: more iced tea. I brewed this by steeping 30 grams of this tea in 2L of near boiling water for about 30 min then removed the filter and popped the pitcher in the fridge. The taste is dominantly apple with a hint of other fruits at the end. It kind of reminds me of forever nuts from DAVID’s, but not quite as strong or good. Still refreshing, and I may add some cinnamon to the mix. I won’t be repurchasing though because I don’t even get 2 full pitchers out of the 50 gram bag I bought (the 30 grams I used to make the pitcher cost me $5.40, which is a little crazy if you ask me) and If i was looking for an apple tea I’d go for Forever Nuts. I was kind of expecting more from this tea considering the mix of fruits to be honest.

Yet another iced tea since its been so warm!

I actually used all 50 grams today between the 2 pitchers I made. I made the pitchers differently. Pitcher one I used a little over half of the bag in 2L of near boiling water, steeped it for 30 min, and let it cool off in the fridge. Pitcher 2 I cold brewed what was left in 1.75 L of water for about 5 hours.

The reason I did the second pitcher so differently was because after tasting the tea from the first pitcher I thought I had brewed it a little too strong with the hot water because all I could taste was the tart elderberries and no mango at all. I figured the cold brew might help the mango flavour come out a bit more but I’m not getting it in the second pitcher either- All I’m getting is the slightly tart elderberries and hibiscus. This is really disappointing since mango is second ingredient (Apple is first), not hibiscus blossoms or elderberries. Just like Stash’s mango tea, I cannot recommend this tea since it does not taste as advertised. It’s not terrible, but i have to rate it poorly for that reason

Wow it’s a warm day! I got called in early to work and I was glad to do so because they have air conditioning and I don’t. Most days it’s fine in my apt but today it’s quite gross.

I made a pitcher of this tea: 2L of near boiling water and I thought I did 6 perfect spoonfuls but I think I may have only put in 5 because it tastes a little weak. I put the pitcher in the freezer for 2 hours to cool down quickly then poured myself a bottle of it for work and put the pitcher in the fridge (and removed the filter at this time). The bottle of iced tea was still warm so I put it in the work fridge to cool down further for later.

Finally when I got to drink it, as mentioned, it’s a little weak but still tasty. I can def taste the apple, followed by lemongrass and coconut. Overall it’s refreshing and a little sweet. Next time I will brew stronger though.

I love the look of this one. It has lovely dark, flat green tea leaves. It looks lovely.
But upon smelling it… yuck… It smells like lemon cleaner to me. Like Pinesol! Gross.
So onto tasting… I feel like they really tried here, but they really missed the mark. I get some floral from the rosebuds, which is such a weird addition to a citrus tea. And I’m getting the lime but it’s in such an artificial way. It, again, tastes like what I would think Pinesol would taste like.

I’ve had a few lime teas before and they have always managed to make it sweet and juicy lime but this isn’t that way at all. It’s almost dry and fake. I’m so sad. I’m going to throw the rest of this one out. I’m pretty sure I got this one for free so I’m not too concerned that I’m letting it go.

Before I actually review this tea, let me express my annoyance:

This tea costs $8.50/50 grams, which is already overpriced if you ask me (granted if you buy 100 grams it’s $14, but anyways…). I then get the tea and the package tells me to remove the bubblegum out because it’s just for aesthetic purposes only, so I weigh the tea before and after removing the gum. The gum weighed TEN GRAMS. That means I actually paid $8.5/40 grams of tea, which would have meant without the gum, if I got 50 grams of tea it would have been $10.63. That’s bullshit if you ask me considering this tea is just fruit pieces, hibiscus and some different flower pieces. Wayy overpriced.

Anyways, onto the review:

I steeped about 15 tsp of tea in 2L of boiling water for about 15 or so min (hibiscus was lower on the ingredients list so I wasn’t considered about it being overly tart). Afterwards I pulled out the filter and let it cool off in the fridge. The taste of this tea is mildly tart with fruity undertones. Pretty standard flavour I’ve been having all summer with different teas. I may try steeping it a little less to see if any other flavours come through, but as mentioned, it’s not really unique in anyway.

Overall the tea is alright but I will not be repurchasing. After removing the bubblegum I get less tea than what I pay for, and the 40 grams of usable tea will only get me 1.5, maybe 2, pitchers of iced tea (which is more than $4 per pitcher). The flavour is nothing unique, and I’ve been very impressed with some celestial seasoning’s fruit teas (which equal out to $1 or less per pitcher). Also, for a tea that’s called bubblegum, this has no bubblegum taste. Just 5 cent bubblegum pieces I get to throw away.

I got this tea free from my consultant from my most recent Steeped Tea order :). It seems like when I spend over $50 or so she throws in a free 50 gram bag which is very nice. I was asking about a tea (Bergamont Sencha) a few weeks back and she figured this would be the closest thing currently available.

I steeped about 1.5 tsp in 175 degree F water for 2 min. I thought I may have over leafed the tea because it turned a darker yellow colour, but actually this tea is very light. I’m getting a very light vanilla (and perhaps bergamot?) taste with a mineral green tea base that has no bitterness.

Side Note: This is the first tea I’ve had from Steeped tea that’s actually a decent price for quality. $8/50 grams or $13.50/100 grams and the leaves appear to be whole with little breakage and unravel beautifully. I’m reading up on different types of green tea and I think this is a gunpowder tea. Really nice.

My mom got a pouch of this in a mixed basket of various home business products and forwarded it to me. I sniffed it, thought it smelt tasty enough, but was pretty disappointed. I’m surprised by comments that say this was heavy with vanilla because I’m barely getting any, it just turned out like a general Earl Grey, perhaps a bit bitter, but I’m a chronic oversteeper so I won’t fault the tea for my tendency to get distracted and forget about it. Not bad, not great, but drinkable. I’ll finish the baggy but it won’t be replacing my staple cream Earl Grey.

Another one that I only had 7-8 perfect spoons left so I’m making popsicles. Hopefully they taste okay ’cause they smelt flowery.