Teavana

I thought I’d tried this tea before, but according to Steepster I have not. It must be one of those teas that is just so infamous that I feel like I know it inside and out even if I’ve never tried it. I really wasn’t into this cup though; flavour wise I struggled to pinpoint exactly what the hell it’s trying to taste like. I got this mix of fruit punch, tutti frutti, perfume, and oranges – but all artificial tasting. Really hard to actually finish the mug of it; it was just so weird and unpleasant.

I purchased the tea in sachet form at my local Starbucks and drank it with nothing else added. My expectations were not especially high for the well known coffeehouse chain. However, I was surprised by the amount of rolled whole leaves within the sachet as opposed to leaf bits and powder. The taste was notably weaker than other green teas I’ve tasted. A lot of the more robust flavors I would expect from sencha or gunpowder green tea are noticeably muted. It had some of the same sweet, grassy and vegetal taste with slight bitterness and astringency I would expect from green teas, but none of the “gentle smokiness” as advertised. It seems to me like it was selected to be a green tea that an average American’s palate would accept, especially if it was mixed with some cream and sugar. Overall it was not unpleasant, but still a below average green tea for someone who appreciates green tea.

The tea gift of Plum Harvest, Rooibis Sweet Amore: Teavana. A most pleasant fragrant with an assembly treasure collection of: plum, red rose petals, apples, cinnamon, hibiscus, peach, pear, mallow flowers, rhubarb bits, red currants, almond slices, vanilla and even beetroot. So refreshing and a delight morning & evening. Now we are searching for the same blend again.
beetroot pieces.

It’s fun being the person everyone gives their extra tea to. I’ve got a big tin of this now! I had it cold, and it tastes decent, but a bit light and artificial. I steeped the leftover fruit, and the second steep tastes pretty similar to the first. Maybe this blend would have benefited from a stronger chamomile presence. It’s also now a few years old, so it’s possible the flavors have broken down a bit. There are definitely Teavana flavors that I miss, but I’m okay with this being the last I have of this one.

Sipdown! 109/365!

Regretfully, I didn’t sample this one in its prime. However, I think I would have enjoyed it – the only issue I had with it when I finished it recently was that there was that gross stale flavour that I’ve noticed in multiple older fruit teas. Otherwise, the flavour was pretty pleasant. Not overly tart, somewhat melony, quite generic fruity. No mint except for perhaps a cooling sensation when drinking it. Likely a good iced tea choice.

Thanks for a sample of this, Ost! Though I’m not usually a fan of Teavana, the name was too intriguing. I hadn’t actually had any macarons until last week, my grandma had some while traveling, so they might have been a bit stale but I was thrilled to finally try them anyway. I also just had to look up macarons and macaroons because I was confusing them. I got to try macaroons a couple years ago — my cousin made them. I really should make more cookies. I love cookies. Cookies go with tea.
Anyway, I used three teaspoons for one giant mug. I didn’t want to leave one teaspoon hanging and also thought 1 1/2 teaspoons wouldn’t be enough. It looked like a really good smattering of all the ingredients listed. Except for one tiny marshmallow. The flavor is actually pretty accurate to the name. It’s sweet with hints of marshmallow and fruit. A marshmallow macaron! There is a hint of something that might remind me of playdough but nothing too bad. Though there is coconut here and this is an older blend, I wasn’t tasting the oldness. I do like this blend and that is surprising with a Teavana blend, especially when the Steepster rating is already so low.
Steep #1 // 3 teaspoons // 10 minutes after boiling // 5 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 15 minute steep

Transports to you to an elegant world of class

I believe I bought this at some point shortly before Teavana closed… it doesn’t feel like I had 50g of it, though I thought they forced you to buy that volume. Anyhow, picked it out of the box I opened up because presumably there’s coconut. Luckily, it’s completely fine. It’s actually not a bad herbal tea – very desserty, sweet chocolatey caramel with a bit of coconut. Don’t really taste any sea salt. It’s actually one I wouldn’t mind having a bit more of, as I feel it’s one of the better teas to kick cravings for sweets, because it is actually sweet.

The thing about this tea is that you have to make sure you steep it right. I fail at it frequently and will often forget to lower the temperature on my kettle and end up ruining it. If you’re not burning it or letting it steep forever, it’s not astringent at all. You just have to be careful. You can get about three cups from one tea bag. This is one of my favourite teas, and I’m sad to see it go. I bought over a pound of it before Teavana closed, and I’m lucky it’s still good since I’m not going through it nearly fast enough. It’s difficult to balance not wanting to run out with not wanting it to go stale.

Tried having this earlier, but it came out bland and fairly metallic. Smelled great – the peach was full and very tempting on the nose – but just didn’t follow through to the flavor.

First tasting: Prefer stronger tasting teas, so either 5 min 45 seconds isn’t enough brewing time or I didn’t add enough tea leaves. Still, I can tell this has a nice flavor, especially with the smooth coconut in there and I guess that “spice” is the ginger. I’ll definitely be trying this again, though perhaps with another minute or two of brewing time.

Good aroma. Taste not as full.

The flavor is pretty light. It’s basically a light lemon with not much else going on. It seems like you may have to overleaf this in order to get a decent amount of flavor. This was part of an iced tea sampler selling for a huge discount when they were closing, so not much was lost!

I really love blueberry bliss but don’t prefer pineapple kona pop, so since this is a mix of the two, it’s an interesting clash of feelings. Basically I can taste both, and it leaves me wishing it were only blueberry bliss with no strange pineapple flavor in it. I found this to be rather unpleasant hot, but it’s decent cold. I’ll probably make a pitcher with the rest of this package to bring to work cold.

Wonderful tea. Smells of grass. It reminded me of matcha green tea. There’s also a sweet note to it.

This tea has a wacky amount of ingredients in it. I wish it was more simple, and that the lavender was more prominent. It’s not bad as it is, though, just feels a little unnecessarily messy.

Always fun to come across some Teavana out in the wild! This one is from the tea box. It’s pretty strongly perfumey both in scent and taste. The pear flavor is definitely there, but the flowery flavor is a little too strong for me. It’s kind of like squirting perfume in your mouth. It’s so strong. I don’t think I can finish this.

Sipdown 139/395

I am always wary about drinking this, because I got it in a swap with Hapatite at the same time as DAVIDsTEA’s Tropicalia, and I can never remember which one of those makes me want to throw up. It’s Tropicalia! This one is fine. Both sound similar, but this is for sure the winner of the pair. There are a lot of tropical fruits listed as flavours in this blend, along with hazelnut and walnut, but all I can really taste is pineapple and walnut. There’s a whole walnut in my scoop, so that could be why it’s so prominent a flavour. It’s surprisingly sweet, with a very nutty body and a hint of sour pineapple at the end of the sip. I’m pleased the pineapple isn’t more prominent as I’m not a fan of it in tea. As the liquor cools down a lot of the flavour is lost, and it is becoming a lot more sour. I better finish it quickly before it gets undrinkable.

So, this was a light, fruity tea, but a bit of a disappointment. It wasn’t a bad cup, but I probably should have added more or steeped it longer (it was a 5 minute steep). My very educated tea mentor mentioned that I should have done one of the two things just mentioned…I should have listened. I did add a little sugar, and it seemed to spruce it up a bit. Overall, I’ll finish the sample, but not go back to this particular flavor (convenient, since Teavana is out of business).