Category: Review

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Starbucks’ Via Instant Refresher Cool Lime

Via Instant Refresher Cool Lime by Starbucks
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$6.99 for 98.9g (20g per sachet)

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First Impressions

I was given a carton of the Via Instant Refresher in Cool Lime by a friend a while back and recently got a chance to try it out. It comes in a cardboard carton, with five individually portioned sachets of the beverage powder. I love the fact that it’s individually portioned and that makes it easy to use. The powder isn’t mixed with hot water, so it’s good for people who are on-the-go.

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Via Instant Refresher Cool Lime is made up of: cane sugar, natural flavours, white grape juice powder, erythritol, citric acid, ascorbic acid, stevia leaf extract. The powder smells very sweet and has a strong lime fragrance. The description on the packaging says that it contains green coffee, which isn’t listed on the list of ingredients.

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Preparation

The instructions are to mix 1 sachet with 475mL of water and to mix/stir, with the option of adding ice. I mixed up the sachet of powder with the suggested amount of water, stirred, and added a couple of ice cubes.

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First Taste

Via Instant Refresher Cool Lime has a very light greenish colour that reminds me of pale lime juice. I sipped it and it was very sweet with light citrus/lime taste. I can taste the stevia though, with that unfortunate aftertaste. It tastes delicious cold/iced, which I would highly recommend it iced. It fully dissolved in room temperature water, which was nice to see. I would add extra water on top of what the packaging recommends, because it’s very sweet and could be further diluted.

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A Second Cup?

Because all of the powder fully dissolved (surprise!), I wasn’t able to remix the Via Instant Refresher Cool Lime.

My Overall Impression

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I liked Starbucks’ Via Instant Refresher Cool Lime. It lives up the name of being cool and refreshing, with a great lime taste. I thought it was on the sweeter side, which was weird because I generally enjoy sweets and desserts. The stevia aftertaste was dulled a bit with the presence of ice, so if you easily taste stevia I would add more ice. I think the amount of water that they recommend on the packaging is too little and it could be diluted further. It’s a great option for people on-the-go and want to have something to flavour their water The nice bonus is that despite the presence of coffee, I really cannot smell or taste it (which is a major plus for me). They are a bit expensive though, given that it’s well over a dollar per sachet – it’s still cheaper than buying a cup to go at a local Starbucks store.

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Grand Tea’s Keemun Black Tea

Keemun Black Tea by Grand Tea
Black Tea / Straight
$30.00HKD for 25g

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Grand Tea has provided me with Keemun Black Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

The teas I grew up loving were all black teas, so whenever a tea company asks if I want to try black teas I’m always game. Grand Tea sent me some Keemun Black Tea and I was so curious that I just had to try it. According to Grand Tea, Keemun is a high quality black tea that is loved by the British Royal family. Keemun was exported to Europe as a “high class beverage”. Well, if it’s good enough for the Queen, it’s certainly good enough for me!

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Keemun Black Tea is a straight black tea. The tea leaves themselves are fairly uniform in colour. They’re short, dark, with light twists. There are hints of red in the tea leaves that may be a bit difficult to see in the photo. The dry leaf has a beautiful aroma – it’s a nice mix of flowery and fruity aroma that reminds me of lychee.

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Preparation

There were no preparations on the Grand Tea website at the time of writing. Because it’s a black tea, I opted to steep at 100°C (212°F) at 3 minutes.

First Taste

Keemun Black Tea steeps to a deep orange, and it has floral and fruity aromas that waft up. It has a beautiful aroma that’s quite inviting. If you’ve never had a cup of tea that just invites you in, this is the one. It felt like it took a while for the tea to cool down before I could drink in, but when I sipped at the Keemun, I was greeted with some bold flavours – there was a sweetness, the floral notes, and a touch of refreshing fruitiness. I found it to be well-balanced. This straight black tea has a great mouthfeel to it, it’s very smooth but just a touch of astringency at the tail end of each sip.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Keemun Black Tea three times, adding an additional 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the flavours were not as strong as the initial steep, and got a little bit weaker with each steep. The sweetness got continually weaker. The additional steeps are still drinkable though, and I found them to be enjoyable.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Grand Tea’s Keemun Black Tea. The tea is bright and strong, I think that the tea would be a fantastic replacement for a morning cup of coffee – the initial steep is that strong. I really enjoyed it though, and found that the mixture of fruity and floral flavours was delicious. I wish it resteeped a little bit better, and it’d be a nice tea for an afternoon tea option.

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Fox Tea Club’s Chocolate Tea

Chocolate Tea by Fox Tea Club
Black Tea / Flavoured
$9.98USD for 2oz

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Fox Tea Club has provided me with Chocolate Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I will be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about seeing a Chocolate Tea in the goodies that Fox Tea Club sent me, but I’m game to try just about anything as long as it doesn’t contain coffee. Chocolate Tea actually does smell like milk chocolate, which always a good start. I found that I couldn’t smell much of the black tea base, but given the name of the tea and the fact that the smell matches the name, all is forgiven.

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Chocolate Tea is made up of black tea, cacao beans, caramel, foxberry, and sea buckthorn. One curious thing is that the sprinkles aren’t mentioned in the ingredients list at the time of writing, but are very much present in the black tea blend itself. They remind me a lot of snowflakes, so perhaps this an early winter-themed tea review for you all.

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Preparation

There were no steeping instructions on the Fox Tea Club website, but the label suggested steeped in 205°F (96°C) water for 3 minutes and that the tea could been steeped twice. I followed the steeping instructions for my initial steep of Chocolate Tea.

First Taste

Chocolate Tea steeps to a beautiful reddish-brown colour, very much like a regular black tea. There’s small flecks of oil across the top which I’m attributing to the snowflake sprinkles that melted in my tea. The steeped Chocolate Tea stills smell remarkably like milk chocolate, which I am pleasantly surprised by because usually teas that smell like chocolate prior to being steeped don’t necessarily smell like chocolate post-steep.

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I found on first sip, this tea was like a watery hot chocolate. It does taste like hot chocolate, but I can also taste the black tea base which is quite bold in comparison to the chocolate flavours. There’s a nice sweetness to it, which I think can be easily attributed to the sprinkles.

I did add some evaporated milk to this tea, and found that the taste was a lot more to my liking. Straight, I found the chocolate flavour be quite watery. With the addition of the milk, I found the tea to be more of a creamy chocolate flavour and it tasted more like hot chocolate.

A Second Cup?

I did attempt to resteep Chocolate Tea, but found the flavours were lacking compared to the first steep and I didn’t enjoy it. I would say that Chocolate Tea is good for one steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Fox Tea Club’s Chocolate Tea. If I were given a cup of this tea straight, I probably wouldn’t finish it because it tastes like a weak and watery hot chocolate. I would highly recommend adding some cream or evaporated milk into this tea to make it more creamy and it gets to be a lot closer to a hot chocolate flavour. It does smell a lot like chocolate both with the dry leaf and when it’s steeped, which is a nice quality about this black tea blend.

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