Tag: Citizen Tea

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Citizen Tea’s Cactus Fig Green

Cactus Fig Green by Citizen Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$6.50 for 50g

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Citizen Tea has provided me with Cactus Fig Green for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I’ve had aloe juice before – it’s delicious and has little chunks of jelly in it (at least the brand I buy does), so when I saw that this green tea blend had aloe vera in it, I was both intrigued and confused. Mostly because I know there wouldn’t be little chunks of jelly in this tea, so I was curious about how it would taste. On first smell, I can tell you that it smells sweet, which is the first thing I would tell you about aloe juice as well. I can smell the sweetness from the aloe and the figs.

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Cactus Fig Green is made up of: green tea, fig pieces, aloe vera pieces, sandalwood, orange flower petals, and flavouring. I’m not entirely sure what sandalwood is supposed to smell like, but I can definitely see it in this blend and there’s something that reminds me a smoked wood aroma from this tea, so it might be that.

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Preparation

Citizen Tea suggests steeping Cactus Fig Green in in 80°C (176°F) water for 2-3 minutes, which I followed. My initial steep was for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Cactus Fig Green steeps to a pale yellow, there was some little bits of the tea that made it through my stainless steel infuser so I would recommend steeping with a drawstring teabag if that bothers you. The tea itself has a very fresh smell to it, which is honestly the best way that I could describe it. The aloe aroma is a very ‘clean’ smell, it’s bright and fruity. The taste of aloe vera is very much present in this green tea blend. I found the tea to be light and smooth, no bitterness to note. There was a sweetness to this tea that I attribute to the aloe and the figs. The sweet fruitiness of the figs was tasty, but I think the aloe was just a little bit more in the forefront of the flavour profile. The green tea base has a light grassy taste to it that is complimented well by the flavours of the aloe and the fig.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Cactus Fig Green once, at the same water temperature for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I found the flavour to be a lot lighter, with more grassy notes. The overall flavour felt a bit flat to me, but the green tea base was starting to reveal itself more so I think it’s worth a resteep to have a different flavour experience.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Citizen Tea’s Cactus Fig Green. As I mentioned at the beginning, I’m a huge fan of aloe and I found that the flavours of the aloe and the fig played really well together with the green tea base that Citizen Tea used. It’s quite a refreshing tea, the flavour is sweet and light with a bit of fruity goodness in it. I think this tea would do really well if cold steeped or iced, which makes it a good summer time tea. I don’t even think you’d have to add any sweetener to it because the aloe and fig provide enough sweetness to this blend.

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Citizen Tea’s Milk Oolong

Milk Oolong by Citizen Tea
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$10.50 for 50g

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Citizen Tea has provided me with Milk Oolong for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I love a good oolong, so I was really excited that one of the teas that Citizen Tea sent me was their Milk Oolong. I’ve had a few milk oolongs in the past and I really love the creamy and buttery flavour that a lot of them have. When I opened up this sample packet, I smelled a floral fragrance first followed by a scent that reminds me a lot of condensed milk. If you’ve never had condensed milk, it’s a sweetened and thickened milk that comes out of a can. It’s delicious, and it’s a bit of a treat to have (and so good – bad for me because I have an epic sweet tooth!). Sweet, floral, and milk scents. It’s an interesting combination because the floral aromatics are stronger than the milk fragrances, which I feel should be the opposite given that it is a milk oolong.

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The ingredients in Milk Oolong are described as oolong tea and flavouring. Natural flavouring? Artificial flavouring? I do wish there was a bit more information about the flavouring that went into this tea. Naturally, I assume that it is some kind of milk/dairy flavouring. If I was lactose intolerant I would have steered clear of this one though, without more information. Thankfully, I am not so I went ahead with steeping this flavoured oolong.

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Preparation

Citizen Tea recommends steeping Milk Oolong for 3 to 4 minutes in 90°C (194°F) water. I did my initial steep of Milk Oolong at 3 minutes.

First Taste

Milk Oolong steeps to a pale yellow. I found that the dry tea aromatic mixture of floral and condensed milk followed through to the steeped tea. Surprisingly, it doesn’t taste as floral as it smells (a bonus since I wasn’t really expecting flowery notes in a milk oolong). The condensed milk flavours do carry over fairly well, and it has an aftertaste that reminds me of artificial sweeteners (like stevia). I’m not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners, as I prefer to add my own to teas, but it’s not incredibly off-putting. There is a bit of a buttery cream quality to this tea, although the taste of condensed milk does ring more true than a cream/buttery flavour.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Milk Oolong quite a few times (seven resteeps in total). I found that the flavour of this oolong drastically improved by the second resteep (third overall steep). The artificial sweetener aftertaste was gone, and the flavours were more in line with what I expect in a milk oolong (buttery, cream, mild sweetness). The floral fragrance became a distant memory, and I found that the straight milk flavours gave way to the buttery goodness.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Citizen Tea’s Milk Oolong. I was not a huge fan of the first two steeps that I did of this tea – there was too much artificial sweetener taste, and the floral aromatics of the dry leaf weren’t appealing to me. However, once I steeped the leaves a couple of times, the flavours began to change to what I was looking for in a milk oolong – butter and cream. If you’re not into the artificial sweeteners, I would recommend steeping (and pouring out) the first two steeps of this oolong and then drinking the rest. Luckily, this tea resteeps very well (I did 8 steeps total with the same leaves), so there is still a lot of flavour left even if you discard the first two steeps.

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Citizen Tea’s White Cranberry

White Cranberry by Citizen Tea
White Tea / Flavoured
$11.00 for 50g

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Citizen Tea has provided me with White Cranberry for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

This is the first of a few reviews from Citizen Tea, which I was really excited to receive in the mail. White Cranberry was the first I tried because I was feeling like having something light – which I typically find white teas to be light. This white tea blend consists of: white tea, bamboo leaves, snow white tea, pomegranate leaves, and flavouring.

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The description of this tea on Citizen Tea’s website states that there are cranberry blossoms in it somewhere (perhaps that is in the flavouring?). This tea smells amazing, I’m not going to lie. It has a very bright, fruity smell to it. The smell reminds me exactly of dried sweetened cranberries – do you know what craisins smell like? It’s just like that, and I love craisins so it’s a great smell to me.

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Preparation

Citizen Tea recommends steeping this white tea blend in 80°C (176°F) water for 2-3 minutes. The initial steep I did of White Cranberry was for 2 minutes in 175°F water, because that is the white tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle.

First Taste

White Cranberry steeps to a lovely yellow colour, it smells strongly of cranberries. On first taste, the flavour of the tea is muted compared to the fragrance of the steeped tea. I find that the tea has a mild sweetness, even though it does smell a lot steeper than it actually is. The white tea base isn’t overpowered by the fruity taste. I do think it tastes like cranberries, with a hint of something else that reminds me a bit of raspberries. I find the tea itself to be smooth and free of bitterness. It’s enjoyable, and two minutes was a good length of tea time.

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A Second Cup?

I steeped White Cranberry a second time (for 2 minutes 30 seconds) and I found the colour was signficiantly lighter. The taste of this white tea blend was considerably more tea base and less cranberry. The base itself is delicious – it has a very mild sweetness with light vegetal taste to it. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of berry flavours the second time around, but it was a bit of a treat to be exposed to the white tea base in this blend.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Citizen Tea’s White Cranberry. I really liked it during the first steep – the fruity taste of the cranberries in this white tea blend is delicious. I think it smells really good (both dry leaf and steeped), but I do wish that it resteeped a little bit better. That said, the price of this tea quite reasonable for a white tea blend. I find white teas are generally more expensive, and the price point of this tea (and others) on the Citizen Tea website are quite competitive. I think White Cranberry works really well for the first steep, if you’re in love with the fruity taste. The second steep is a good experience with the white tea, I just wish that the cranberry taste carried over better – but both steeps are good.

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