Tag: Herbal/Fruit Infusion

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Adagio Teas’ Blue Mango Iced Tea

Blue Mango Iced Tea by Adagio Teas
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$8.00USD for 6 pouches (2.1oz)

Adagio Teas has provided me with Blue Mango Iced Tea for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

It’s still summer weather here (hello, tail end of another heat wave!), so having some iced tea in the fridge is always a good idea. When Adagio Teas asked me about trying out some of their iced teas, I wasn’t able to turn it down. I do enjoy something thirst quenching. Blue Mango Iced Tea comes in a sealed, resealable pouch.

Blue Mango Iced Tea comes pouches filled with the herbal tea blend. There are 6 pouches per bag, making it 2.1oz (~60g) of tea (it’s approximately 0.35oz, or ~10g, of tea per pouch). Blue Mango Iced Tea consists of: lemon grass, butterfly pea flower, rose hips, chamomile flowers, natural mango flavour, mango pieces, marigold flowers and lychee flavour. The aroma is very heavy of lemon grass and chamomile. The mango is more of a background aroma.

Preparation

Adagio Teas’ steeping instructions for Blue Mango Iced Tea are to place in refrigerator over night, with 1 pouch per quart (1 quart = ~1L). I opted to pop the pouch into an pitcher with room temperature water and then into the fridge overnight.

First Taste

Blue Mango Iced Tea cold steeps to a deep blue colour. The aroma is mostly lemongrass and chamomile. The mango is more of a background fragrance. The flavour is primarily lemon grass, chamomile, with hints of mango in the background. It does have a refreshing quality to it, beautiful blue colouring from the butterfly pea flower, and the mango is just lingering in the background.

A Second Cup?

As the pouch of tisane was steeped overnight, I opted not to attempt a resteep given the nature of it being an herbal infusion. But look at how the beautiful the butterfly pea flower is when it opens.

My Overall Impression

I liked Adagio Teas’ Blue Mango Iced Tea. It’s easy to use as it’s measured out already, steeps to a beautiful blue colour, and has a refreshing flavour to it.. I liked the flavour of the lemon grass and the chamomile, but I do wish that the mango was stronger. It’s quite a background note in comparison the lemon grass, which is a much stronger flavour than the mango. I did enjoy Blue Mango Iced Tea, and the colour is a lot of fun.

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DavidsTea’s Tropic Tango

Tropic Tango by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Tropic Tango was an online exclusive that I had purchased a while ago from DavidsTea. Like quite a few people, I no longer super close to several retail locations, which honestly bums me out! But it just gives me an excuse to pick up exclusives that aren’t available in store since, why not? Tropic Tango comes in a familiar sealed, resealable silver pouch with a bright yellow product label across the front. The thing that really made me want to try it was the ingredients list when I read it (mostly because it includes mango and coconut and just sounds delicious).

Tropic Tango consists of apple, candied papaya, candied mango, hibiscus blossoms, natural flavouring, beetroot, carrot, coconut and cornflower blossoms. The ingredients are fairly identifable. Tropic Tango smells primarily like the coconut because it’s just such a strong aroma that it overtakes the other ingredients fairly easily – papaya and mango are just milder in comparison. I do smell the mango in the blend, but the papaya is definitely a bit lost compared to the coconut.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Tropic Tango in 95°C (200°F) water for 5+ minutes. I followed the recommended water temperature and did an initial steep of Tropic Tango for 7 minutes.

First Taste

Tropic Tango steeps to a really pretty peachy pink (although it is much deeper in my teapot!). It has a great coconut aroma to it. The flavour is sweet and fruity with just a hint of tartness. I really taste the coconut and mango, there’s some sweetness to it that likely comes from all the candied fruit and the apple. There’s a bit of an oil slick across the top, which comes from the natural oils of the coconut itself. The tartness I attribute to the hibiscus, and I think it’s lovely. This is definitely a blend made for having iced, and I’m looking forward to warmer temperatures as I start getting my iced tea pitchers on regular rotation in my fridge.

A Second Cup?

I did attempt to resteep Tropic Tango, but like most tisanes, Tropic Tango does fall a bit flat in the flavour department during the second steep with the same leaves. I would recommend Tropic Tango for just the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Tropic Tango. The aroma of the dry leaf, the colour of the steeped tea, and the cup of tea that I got from this tisane was tasty – I think Tropic Tango will make a great iced tea for this summer and I’ll likely mix it with a splash of lemonade from some added freshness and brightness to help quench the thirst. The thing that really didn’t make this a favourite off the bat was the fact that the coconut was just so overpowering compared to the other tropic ingredients (papaya and mango) – I would have enjoyed it a lot better if the mango was more forward, either just being more plentiful in the ratio compared to the other ingredients, or just the coconut cut back on.

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DavidsTea’s Blueberry Muffin

Blueberry Muffin by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Blueberry Muffin was a tisane that caught my eye when I was putting in an order online with DavidsTea. I figured that I’m always on the look out for new fruit tisanes to try out iced, so why not? I do like berries, so Blueberry Muffin was hopefully going to tick the boxes. Blueberry Muffin comes in a sealed, resealable silver pouch with a bright label on the front. I’m not sure if I’m the only one, but I’m not a fan of the super tiny print on the labels because I just find them hard to read at times, especially if I don’t have the best lighting available when trying to look at what’s in it.

That said, Blueberry Muffin was very fragrant when I opened the pouch and scooped some out. There’s a lot of fruit in this blend, and it has a very berry-forward aroma. I can even pick up on some dairy notes, which I attribute to the yoghurt in the blend. Blueberry Muffin consists of: apple, raisins, carrot, hibiscus blossoms, beetroot, artificial blueberry muffin flavouring, yoghurt bits, blueberries and cornflower blossoms. Before reading the label, I had zero clue that “blueberry muffin flavouring” was a thing – but I guess we learn something new every day! I wonder what other type of products an artificial blueberry muffin flavouring goes into?

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Blueberry Muffin in 95C (200F) water for 5+ minutes. I opted to do an initial steep of 7 minutes.

First Taste

Blueberry Muffin steeps to a nice pink colour, it reminds me a bit of the colour of watermelon juice. I would attribute this particular shade to the carrot, hibiscus blossoms and the beetroot. The aroma of the tisane is definitely fruit forward, and it smells sweet. It does actually taste like a blueberry muffin, which is both surprising and not considering that a blueberry muffin flavouring is in the blend somewhere. There is a subtle tartness at the beginning of each sip, which I would think is from the hibiscus.

I tried it both hot and iced, and I would say that I preferred it iced over hot. Having Blueberry Muffin hot just didn’t do it for me, but iced was certainly a treat. It tastes like a muffin with a nice level of sweetness to it.

A Second Cup?

As with most tisanes, resteeping Blueberry Muffin did not work out as it just didn’t have that flavour. I think that that flavouring was really sapped out with the initial steep, which is a shame since it was surprisingly good.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Blueberry Muffin. Part of me really wants to love this tisane, because it really does taste like its namesake, but at the same time, how much of that flavour that I enjoyed was from artificial flavouring? And how is blueberry muffin flavouring even a thing? It’s definitely a mystery to me, but I did enjoy the flavour and wish it was more natural than artificial. I think I’ll be using this as iced tea for sure, and perhaps mixing it with some lemonade since blueberry and lemon is such a delightful flavour combination and I think the sour of the lemonade will balance well with the tartness of the hibiscus.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.