Tea Revv

Another of the 12 teas of Xmas I didn´t manage to drink in December. When I see “spiced orange”, I tend to avoid it, as it´s often over-spiced, over-orangey, over the top with fragrances which can be everything apart from subtle ;-) and I love spices, I love orange…in a delicate, balanced way!
So, first nice surprise was the aroma of the loose tea : one can tell the orange, and the spices, nothing too overwhelming or agressive though. Actually, it reminded me of “peperkoek”, a soft sweet treat typical for our celebration of Saint Nicholas (6th December)…definitely a positive point. Then, the brew : it´s OK, although a lot of the subtle aroma´s have been lost. As far as I am concerned, this is a lot better than what I expected (a gluewine-ish tea with straight-in-your-face clove), but quite a disappointment after the nose of the dry, loose tea.

This is another of the “12 teas of Xmas” I´m only now drinking, and this one only had one previous review, and a seriously bad one! So, very weary…although I´m quite happy with the result. Dry the tea only smelled “maple syrup” with a lot of imagination ;-) …and in the ultimate finish of the smelling experience. When brewed, the leaves open up nicely, and make for a yellow varnish coloured drink with a kind of caramel aroma to it, not too overwhelming, and not up front, so at least the blend was made being moderate with the flavourings (what I can appreciate). Then, the drink itself : the grassy character of a lot of green teas has been softened by the floral and sweet additions. I´m not too familiar with the real maple syrop to be able to tell this tea really contains it (and I honestly am not too concerned, as like in other drinks with good – but “foreign” – ingredients, e.g. coffee stout, I tend to prefer the good ingredient on its own or in a “traditional use”) : it seems like something caramel-like, but only in the finish, and continuing for quite some time in the back of the mouth. That´s OK by me (to drink this once).

I´m finally getting through my “12 teas of Xmas” I bought last December! I shared with my husband who likes apple-based desserts (I prefer the fruit itself as it is).
A lot of caramel coming through in nose dry, and once steeped the apple comes in and softens everything up, and only in the finish the toffee gets you, so this tea actually works. I´m not a huge fan of sweet brews, but I do understand that this might be a hit over Xmas.
When I saw the tea taking coulour, I knew the hibiscus might be overwhelming the blend, but it actually stays quite subtle – apart from the colour.

Iced Latte Sipdown (291)

This tastes like low quality black tea and flavouring. It reminds me of an adagio blend that doesn’t really taste like much. Happy it was just the one serving and now I can say bye to all the last of my Tea Revv teas.

Another one of the 12 teas of Xmas I hadn´t opened yet…and will never again open, I think. I love Earl Grey, but I couldn´t find it here; also the “ice cream” part is a mystery to me : is it that slight touch of vanilla creeping in at some time? This was mucky water, nothing more, so not at all enjoyable.

Velvety smooth rooibos with a rich chocolate flavour. Caffeine free treat.
As such it says on the pouch. Wouldn´t exactly call this tea velvety, but I´m quite sure that in a blind tasting session it would be hard to tell the difference with a chocolate drink made by dissolving powder in boiling water. I thought the rooibos base was perfect for this use.
This is one of the pouches included in the 12 teas of Xmas pack I didn´t finish last December, but it´s perfectly alright to have it now.

This tea smells sort of gross. The flavor is fine. It has a fake sort of sweetness. It’s more fruity than caramel though. I really wouldn’t be able to guess what flavor it’s supposed to be, but maybe I could see that it’s caramel if I’m concentrating. The rooibos is decent.

The flavor here isn’t great. The black tea is a little bitter and astringent in a pretty artificial way. The fruitiness is there too, but it doesn’t taste very good. My mouth is just filled with a metallic flavor. Not very pleasant.

Somehow this tastes fruity even though there aren’t any fruity ingredients. Maybe I’m tasting anise. It’s not very chai-like, mostly just lightly sweet. Not a bad tea, but it doesn’t match its name. Really it’s so fruity. Though other reviewers aren’t noticing this. Maybe I got a weird batch..

The pear flavor here is pretty good. The rooibos is a little musty. The spices are mild. It’s not a great tea, but it’s enjoyable enough. I get where the cinnabon flavor is going.

Like many other chocolate rooibos teas, this one doesn’t taste like too much until you add the milk. Then it tastes pretty great. Mildly chocolatey, mostly desserty and pleasant. The rebrew is mostly just rooibos. It’s hard to decide how to rate teas that don’t taste good until you add milk. It seems like a tea should taste good without adding it.

This is fruitier than I expected. It’s not spicy at all, though you can sense a bit of what seems like ginger. It turns into a mild fruit/spice blend like a cider. Not too exciting, flavors rather muted, but it was decent.

I enjoyed strawberry achoo, but this one is a bit herbaceous for me. It doesn’t taste bad, it just tastes quite herbal and doesn’t have much berry flavor. It’s light and not sour, at least. In some sips you get the fruitiness, but it gets more herbaceous as it sits. So it’s not really for me, but maybe if you like that sort of thing.

It’s been amusing drinking these teas at work because these Tea Revv packets aren’t labeled, so it’s always a surprise what tea I end up with in my mug. This one is actually really tasty. The fruit flavor is super light and yummy. I definitely get that it’s strawberry. I love strawberry teas, and this is an especially good one. No sourness, just sweet ripe strawberry. And it’s so much lighter than blends that include hibiscus.

Hot, this was rather sour, earthy, and unexciting. Cold, it’s still pretty earthy and needs lots of sugar to be tasty. So it was all right, but far from my favorite fruity tea. I just needed it to be sweeter.

Followed the bag’s recommendation and added some milk. Had whole milk leftover from cooking and it made it really creamy and eggnoggy. I don’t know how it tastes without milk but this is a definite win for me because I love eggnog :)

#adventageddon Day Twenty Four – 6/7

I was excited when I opened up the package of this one because the loose leaf had a very large, completely intact star anise and I really love the flavour of star anise. I wasn’t totally sure how it would play into Gingerbread but damn if I wasn’t stoked to find out! Unfortunately, and weirdly, the steeped cup of this tea was SO weak and watery and I didn’t really taste any star anise, or much of anything else, at all…

Overall there were a few winners in the Tea Revv advent, but they were few and far between. I think this was probably my least favourite of all the advents I did this year.

#adventageddon Day Twenty Three – 3/6

- Started off rather nice; smooth mouthfeel and creamy sweet caramel notes
- Comboed with warming cinnamon and other more generic spice notes
- And a peppery rooibos
- DOES feel like a caramel chai, pretty well executed!
- However the finish is a bit off? Has a sort of waxy taste mixed with a hint of rubber!?
- Didn’t ruin the cup but wasn’t great in it either…

#adventageddon Day Twenty Two – 4/6

I feel like I can kind of see where they were trying to go with this blend, and it did loosely remind me of the Frosted Fruit blend from earlier in the advent that I quite liked. However, aside from a light but pleasant cranberry note I found this was REALLY assaultingly drying in the mouth and bitter. I actually dumped the last half of the mug.

#adventageddon Day Twenty One – 5/6

Snore.

Honestly this tasted just fine, but I’m soooo sick of orange spice/orange and cinnamon teas at this point that I kind of just mind numbingly chugged it back this morning without devoting much energy or thought to it. Average tea, but this is probably like my ninth tea with this profile for the month and I’m just done with it.

#adventageddon Day Twenty – 5/6

Really fun concept but poor execution of it. I believe this is essentially just intended to be a vanilla or cream flavoured Earl Grey, and it does taste a little bit creamy but it’s a REALLY floral tasting bergamot oil that’s been used in the blending and the cup finishes almost painfully soapy. I had two EG teas in my advent picks today and this was by far the worst of them…

#adventageddon Day Nineteen – 3/6

I was really excited to see this tea; my favourite Tea Revv blend so far has probably been the Strawberry Achooo and I’ve noticed that any time Tea Revv’s tea has been a more herbaceous blend it’s been well executed. I’ve relieved to say that I liked this one a lot! I do think I prefer the strawberry, but this had a nice sweet and kind of mixed berry flavour atop a lovely mix of soothing herbs – namely the tulsi!

12 days of (Christmas) tea (Tea Revv) – Day 5

What it says on Tea Revv´s website : A rooibos and fruit blend with sweet cinnamon, pear and apple. Try this Cinnabon as a lattea with hot frothed milk and a drop of Honey.

My experience : firstly, this is a rooibos based tea, so not that easy to drink when using a ceramic filter for the loose tea (the rooibos goes straight through the holes of the filter); the dry loose tea doesn´t have a nice smell, more like an artificial wine flavour coming through. Fortunately, this changes – for the better – when steeped : it reminds me of pears prepared in wine, with some cinnamon…a dessert I really like. In mouth I cannot find the pear anymore, it´s a kind of mulled wine taste according to me. Not bad, and certainly in line with the season, but lacking elegance. Although Tea Revv recommends drinking this tea with milk, I cannot really see its interest.