Teapigs

Considering how much I loathe hibiscus, this was….surprisingly good. Still not quite something I’d reach for given a choice of other good teas, but not cringe-worthy. Admittedly I put a bunch of sugar in it and also some milk like the packet recommended (well cream), although it curdled immediately so that wasn’t so nice. Still, overall this is more berries than hibiscus by a tiny tiny margin. I’ll have no trouble drinking this cup.

This was the third tea of my July Sipsby Box. I’m a bit behind.

Sipdown 111/395

Metallic. Musty metallic grossness. Nope. There is a pretty decent fruitiness which comes out more with sugar, but the weird metallic note – which I think probably comes from hibiscus – it the first and last thing I taste.

One of my favorite teas to drink!

Teapigs Chilli Chai is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons.

One being the flavor, and secondly, the heat from the chilli when it goes down the back of your throat.

Overall, you get two flavors that blend well together. None of which overpower one another.

Green March! I’ve been using my gravity-well infuser at work to make Margaret’s Soother tea for a coworker with a terribly swollen throat, and haven’t felt like swapping the leaves out to make tea for myself when I want a cuppa, so I brought one of my last Teapigs samplers, since they come sachet-style. Like the Up Beet tea, this tea tastes more like an herbal blend but has a bit of green tea included in the blend.

I’m really enjoying this on a rather cold, dreary windy March morning. It tastes like a lemon ginger tea, with a nice lemony base and a warming gingery note that isn’t overly spicy and doesn’t leave too much heat behind in the mouth, which has been my problem with many lemon ginger blends (seriously, why do so many have to go so crazy with the ginger?) What I’m really enjoying here is there is a lovely noticeable sweet burst of coconut on the top sip that lingers in the aftertaste, that adds a new dimension to the flavor profile. I’ve never had a lemon ginger tea with coconut, and I’m loving the flavor combination! It works amazingly well. Though the tea includes licorice root, I actually can’t taste it at all; there is no pop of sticky sweetness (I’m a huge licorice root fan) so it must be used very subtly here; perhaps it is just enough to mellow some of the ginger out or bring out some of the sweetness of the coconut, which are both things I can’t complain about.

This is a nice tea, and for the coconut alone this is one of the best lemon ginger-style teas I’ve ever tried!

Green March! Granted this tea reads more like an herbal fruit and veggie blend; one wouldn’t even notice the inclusion of green tea unless reading the ingredients! I’ve been feeling a bit of a craving for hibiscus (my body could probably do with the extra Vitamin C, being on the mend from that food poisoning a week ago, so I’m not going to question that craving!) and I was surprised I actually had this blend tucked away under the Green Tea section of my (far too large) tea list. Sounds good to me!

Mmm. This tea delivers sweet, tangy, and savory notes all in one. I can really get behind this! It has that satisfying punchy hibiscus base that I really enjoy, but the beetroot and carrot give it this slightly savory flavor. There is a spicy, gingery top note, but it isn’t overly strong; I have some other hibiscus-ginger blends where the ginger is very spicy, but here it is a mild spiciness, adding a gingery tones to the veggie notes but not enough heat to leave a lasting aftertaste. The tea is tangy, but pleasantly so; Teapigs uses whole leaf in sachets, not crushed hibiscus petals, so it doesn’t have the strong tart notes that the crushed hibiscus so frequently used in bagged teas causes. It’s a very rounded tea; the sip starts out with a tangy fruit punch note, and ends with a more savory flavor of spiced beet and carrot juice. It feels warm and satisfying, and full of vitamins that I feel like I need right now. I’m going to try to get a few steeps out of my bag, and really make the most out of my two teabag sampler!

I think I drank too much caffeinated tea too late into the evening tonight, because it’s 3 a.m. and I just can’t get my sleepy on… I was tempted to pull out Bluebird’s Cat’s Pyjamas, but I ordered some lemon-infused honey from Etsy to try to help me get over the fact it tastes of nothing but super-strong chamomile, a flavor I don’t particularly enjoy, and I’m still waiting on that to arrive. So I decided to dig into my stash for some other sleepytime teas.

I got some Teapigs samplers not long ago, so I decided to try this one out. Snooze is a blend of apple pieces, chamomile, and lavender, and I am quite a fan of apple and lavender, and hoping those things will balance out the chamomile flavor, though it really all comes down to how the tea is blended. The first thing I notice, looking at the sachet, is that the chamomile is not whole flowers, but shredded flower, while there is quite a bit of chunky bits of apple, and there appears to be a pretty decent lavender-to-chamomile ratio. Things are looking decidedly up for me already!

While I tend to not get that nasty “papery” teabag taste from sachets, out of principal I cut the sachet open and let the ingredients infuse in my gravity well infuser (not that herbals do much expansion, but I liked the idea of all that apple fully floating around in the water!) Surprisingly, for so much apple in the tea, I didn’t get a very pronounced apple flavor… but what I did get, was a much sweeter flavor, with a much more subdued and less overwhelming chamomile taste, which is exactly what I was hoping for! I don’t mind when chamomile is in a blend, I just don’t really like the taste of it when it’s the dominant flavor and stands out in the foreground; I really prefer it as a background note. I can still make out that it is there, but it doesn’t have that strong (and to me, often oddly soapy) floral presense, and instead a sweet, apple note comes through in the finish. There is also a strong lavender flavor in this tea which helps (for me!) a lot, as I’m a huge fan of lavender; it hits in the aroma immediately, and that somewhat floral/minty flavor is strong in the sip and follows through right to the finish. That, for me, is probably my favorite part, so if you don’t like lavender, I can assure you aren’t going to like this one.

I really like this one! I wouldn’t say it knocks me out like Cat’s Pyjamas does (must be the valerian root!) but this is certainly soothing and tastes wonderful.

I was totally unaware of what this tea was, until I looked it up :). I like it – but would not go crazy over it. It does have the roasted flavor which is nice. Overall, okay tea, I think if you like this kind, you would like this version.

I really like this tisane. I enjoyed it after dinner tonight, tastes refreshing. I read the reviews and there was lots of talk about iced, I bet this is amazing as iced tea in the summer.

Good chai, I really like the first taste of cinnamon and ginger, the spicyness of the ginger is delicious.

I wanted a different herbal tea for the evening and decided to try this one, I love fennel and I love licorice root, so it would seem that I love this tea, and I do. It tasted good without sweetener, I also tried it with some monk fruit, my natural sweetener. I think I prefer it unsweetened, it tastes sweet enough. I think I will be re-purchasing this one.

chocolatey and delicious. I enjoyed this sample but wouldn’t buy it – good, not great.

I received a sample satchel via Taste the World and decided to give it a try today.

I’m not a fan of liquorice but curiosity got the best of me today and I gave it a whirl. The tea is rather sweet, and the peppermint was a nice touch, but I couldn’t finish the cup.

This is the first chai tea I had that I actually liked and the tea that made me think maybe I can enjoy chai tea. It’s spicy and sweet at the same time and with a little milk just tops the whole thing off if you don’t think you like the heavy spice of chai try this one!

Tea pigs: chilly chai. Pyramid mesh bag.
review:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYBRI2egzej/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYBRMlyAc6W/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988
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I’ll keep this short

I taste: cinimon, pepper, red wine, spices, spicy. Black tea, ginger, chilli peppers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYBRyHyga-u/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

A yummy tea! I rate a 90/100. I suggest you try it too!

Where to find: https://www.facebook.com/teapigs

Although enclosed in tea bags, this jasmine tea is not finely cut leaves, but fuller, high quality leaves that have been rolled into “pearls”. There are pros and cons to selling these quality pearls in teabags. Teabags are more accessible and inclusive to the average tea drinker, therefore less daunting than loose leaf, if one should fancy a change from the standard black tea. Therefore, these teabags are great for introducing newbies into the wonderful world of good quality tea. However, the teabag isn’t quite big enough to let the pearls fully unfurl and agonise without over steeping. Luckily though, you can actually buy this as loose leaf from the Teapigs website! They taste really good, with just a hint of green tea being detectable and a very strong, pungent jasmine flavour, that has an incredibly dry finish.

For more on jasmine green tea: https://www.tastethetea.co.uk/2017/06/24/ttjasmine/

Super Fruit is one of my favorite teas. It is extremely flavourful, cranberry and blueberry being the primary tastes. While some berry teas tend to be more sweet, I definitely find this one to be more tart. I’ll sometimes add a teaspoon of sugar, however lately I have been drinking this particular tea without sugar at all. I really like the tartness of it, as it feels very rejuvenating. I also love the fact that it is so convenient, being a bag tea. I do have an array of loose tea, but whenever I am running short on time, I turn to this one!

A few quick notes: A bottle is 330ml which is 23 calories per 100ml. Making a whole bottle approximately 76 calories (to my calculations and admittedly maths is not my strong suit). It contains spring water, apple juice from concentrate and Matcha green tea.

A shake and big gulp later… It tastes like a less sweetened version of apple juice. The Matcha isn’t noticeable until the end where it leaves a bit of a dry after taste, otherwise it doesn’t really carry any other Matcha characteristics at all. It’s rather disappointing actually as I really wanted it to be more Matcha flavoured than apple, but it’s the other way around. I suppose it’s good for those that dislike Matcha but still want it’s health benefits.

Don’t get me wrong, it was certainly pleasant to drink and if I was in a shop I may buy it in the future for a road trip; but I wanted more Matcha in there. I actually like the taste of Matcha and the only resemblance of it was in the last few sips in the bottom of the bottle.

A nice try but I also bet this is something you could replicate at home yourself.

https://kittylovestea.com/2017/01/19/tea-blogs-best-100-list/