Category: Review

Posted on

Teavana’s Flowering Pineapple

Flowering Pineapple by Teavana
White Tea / Flavoured
$18.98 for 2oz

20151127-teavanafloweringpineapple1

First Impressions

Flowering Pineapple smells pretty was the first thought that went through my head when I first smelled it while at Teavana. I had yet another Starbucks/Teavana reward to use and I wanted to try one of their blooming teas. Flowering Pineapple has a beautiful delicate pineapple aroma to it, and it is quite the hefty tea. For the free reward, I get 1oz of any loose tea, and that 1oz equated to just four balls of the Flowering Pineapple tea. Considering how pricey it is per oz, it’s not very many balls. But it smells amazing and I really wanted to try it, so I got it!

Flowering Pineapple is made up of: white tea, marigold blossoms, and artificial flavouring.

20151201-teavanafloweringpineapple2

Preparation

Teavana recommends steeping Flowering Pineapple in 82°C (180°F) water for 3-4 minutes. If you noticed on the label, it also recommends using 1 ball. I opted to steep it in a tea pot so I could see the blooming action a little bit better.

First Taste

Flowering Pineapple has a very light fruity smell to it when it is steeping. It does have the pineapple aroma, but it’s not as strong as it was when it was dry. The ball opens up quite a bit, as you can see in the photo. The tea leaves really add to the overall beauty in the way it circles the flower. It is a very pretty blooming tea, and it is fun to watch the petals unfurl.

20151201-teavanafloweringpineapple3

The pineapple taste is very light, more of the natural white tea flavour comes through. Make sure you watch your water temperature and steeping time with this one. I prepared it according to the directions and had a lovely cup of tea with no bitterness or astringency. I find that the taste is very light though, compared to the white tea base. I wish more of the pineapple was present in the taste of the tea since it was there when the tea was dry.

A Second Cup?

Many white teas can be resteeped, so I was hoping that Flowering Pineapple would not be an exception. It does fairly well with the second steeping. I can barely taste the pineapple, but the natural white tea taste comes through better. It does okay with the third steeping, but it’s not exceptional, and was beginning to have a very thinned out flavour.

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked Teavana’s Flowering Pineapple. While the pineapple taste was gone after the first time I steeped the tea, as I was expecting since it was an artificial flavouring, I like the white tea base. I do wish that there wasn’t the pineapple flavouring at all though, because the white tea base is quite nice and will hold up to a few steepings. It’s a fun tea to steep because it is a blooming tea and it is very pretty. But I do think that there are better white teas out there at a more affordable price. Assuming you could get 8 balls of Flowering Pineapple in 2oz, that works out to be ~$2.25 per ball/cup. That’s a fairly expensive tea when you think about it and the fact that there are better and less expensive white teas out there, even if you can resteep it again. If you are interested in trying it out, it might be a nice tea to use your free Starbucks/Teavana rewards on.

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

Posted on

DavidsTea’s Mulled Wine

Mulled Wine by DavidsTea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$9.50 for 50g

20151127-davidsteamulledwine1

First Impressions

I decided to try Mulled Wine from DavidsTea’s 2015 winter collection because of the amazing smell that the little sample cup of dried tea had in store (yes, I’m lucky enough to live close enough to get to go in person – it’s pretty awesome!). The tea has a beautiful citrus smell, which I quite like. I’m a big fan of a lot of citrus fruits, so the bright aroma of orange is quite welcoming. Despite this being an oolong tea, I really cannot make out the fragrance of the tea. What I can make out is oranges, cinnamon, and ginger.

20151127-davidsteamulledwine2

Mulled Wine is made up of: oolong tea, apple, orange peel, cinnamon, clove buds, ginger, and natural flavouring. The ingredients are really quite visible, the oolong seems a little overwhelmed with all of the other ingredients around it though. Hopefully the oolong taste comes out when the tea is steeped!

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Mulled Wine in 85°C (185°F) water for 4 to 7 minutes. I went for the lower end of the spectrum of time because I find that most oolongs do pretty okay with being steeped again, so fingers crossed for Mulled Wine!

First Taste

Mulled Wine steeps to a lovely golden yellow, but the aroma isn’t that impressive compared to the dry leaf. I can barely make out the smell of any of the citrus, cinnamon or ginger. It actually smells a bit like oolong tea, which is quite nice considering that is the tea base. The taste of Mulled Wine is a bit confusing. There’s some notes of citrus, a little bit of the cloves comes out, but the tea itself doesn’t wow me. It’s hard to make out the oolong taste because it’s been muddled with all of the other ingredients. The citrus notes are nice, coupled with the cloves and a spicy note from the ginger. The actual oolong is underwhelming.

20151127-davidsteamulledwine3

A Second Cup?

While Mulled Wine can be resteeped and it tastes pretty much the same as the first cup, I was just not interested in it.

My Overall Impression

1cup-2

I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Mulled Wine. It’s not something I particularly enjoyed drinking. As an oolong, it doesn’t do anything for me. As a tea with notes of ginger and cloves, I think it would make a great tea for someone with a sore throat or wanting something to warm up with. For an oolong tea though, it is underwhelming and I think there are a lot more better oolong teas out there. I will probably keep the rest of my little bag around as a tea for when I’m sick because I do like the ginger taste, but it falls flat for me.

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

Posted on

Murchie’s Princess Blend

Princess Blend by Murchie’s
Black Tea / Flavoured
$5.95 for 2oz

20151125-murchiesprincessblend1

First Impressions

I asked to take a look at Princess Blend when I was at Murchie’s because of the name. I was very intrigued because it sounded like a great name for a tea that would be well suited for tea parties. While I was there, I was told that the blend was created in honour of the birth of Princess Charlotte which made me doubly interested in trying it out. The lowest amount that I could buy, as it isn’t a “top shelf” tea, is 2oz but the price wasn’t outrageous and curiosity got the better of me. Princess Blend is very pretty – it has a great floral aroma to it that mingles with fruity undertones that reminds me a lot of a mixed berry smell.

20151125-murchiesprincessblend2

Princess Blend has a great list of ingredients: Ceylon, Keemun, Darjeeling, and Himalyan teas, rose petals, pink cornflower petals, white cornflower petals, raspberry leaf, natural & artificial flavourings. Murchie’s webpage for Princess Blend also mentions bergamot in the description, but I don’t really smell it.

Preparation

As a black tea blend, Murchie’s recommends steeping in 96-100°C (205-212°F) water for 3-5 minutes.

First Taste

Princess Blend steeps to a really nice amber colour. The tea smells quite fruity and floral, that raspberry leaf definitely does the trick! When having a first sip of the tea, I’m a little taken back by the astringency. It just makes my mouth pucker when drinking this tea. The black tea blend taste almost overwhelms the fruity and floral ingredients to the tea, which is a bit of a shame since that’s what I smelled before, during, and after steeping the tea. I added a bit of white sugar to my cup of tea and found that it really helped to bring out the floral and fruity taste of the tea. Not that the sugar tempers the astringency of the tea, but the tea is far more enjoyable when the taste matches the fragrance.

20151125-murchiesprincessblend3

A Second Cup?

I found that Princess Blend did really well for the second steeping. It was beginning to wane in flavour by the third cup, so if you’re not interested in a sub par cup of tea (and who is interested in bad tea?!) I would stick to steeping it twice. The third cup just isn’t that great and was more a hint of what Princess Blend could taste like. I did use sugar in my second cup as well.

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked Murchie’s Princess Blend. It’s a very tasty tea with a beautiful fragrance, and I love the name! I think it’d a great tea to have when having a tea party because it’s delicious and would probably pair well with sweet desserts or with a berry preserve. It’s not overly expensive, so it makes for a nice treat to have in the tea stash. I think it’s better that the bergamot does not stand out in the fragrance because the tea has such a beautiful floral and fruity taste to it that the bergamot would just add something to the tea that wouldn’t taste that great. My recommendation is to add sugar to really help bring out the raspberry flavours in Princess Blend.

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