Tea tasting: David's Tea Pink Flamingo

David's Pink Flamingo herbal tea is a tisane composed of hibiscus blossoms, apple pieces, carrot flakes, blackberry leaves, eucalyptus leaves, lemongrass, beetroot pieces, and freeze-dried tangerine/orange slices.  It is, as advertised, bright pink when brewed.

The aroma is extremely fruity, very reminiscent of pink grapefruit.  The flavor has a similar citrus bite, although less obviously grapefruit-like.  There was something slightly off about the plain brewed flavor -- the fruits just didn't balance out in a way that made my happy.

Adding a teaspoon of honey, however, righted the balance.  The touch of honey smoothed out the grapefruit-like sharpness and left a tasty, slightly sweet, blend of several fruits with a predominant citrus note.

I think this tea would be spectacular iced, where the tangy sharpness would play better.

Tea tasting: Stash's Christmas in Paris Herbal Tea

I'm generally not a fan of Stash brand teas; there's always something slightly off about them, at least to my palate.  But I decided to give Christmas in Paris a try in the spirit of the season.  Because remember, I drink bad tea so you don't have to.

All in all, it's not bad.  The flavor is a blend of lavender and peppermint with slight overtones of cocoa.  The cocoa comes out far more strongly in the aroma than in the taste.   It's an interesting flavor but there's something missing.  I want something more assertive, maybe some stronger cocoa tones?

Honey doesn't do anything for it.  However, when I'm out shopping tomorrow I'm going to pick up candy canes -- I bet melting a candy cane in this would be awesome.

Tea Tasting: Zhena's Lemon Jasmine Green Tea

Zhena's Lemon Jasmine Green Tea was terribly disappointing.  Maybe it was just an old sample package.   But there wasn't much in the way of either lemon or jasmine in the tea flavor.  It was just insipid -- a sort of vaguely sweet green without much in the way of character.  If there's jasmine in there anywhere, it's not enough that I noticed it.   I'd drink it if it were the choice between this and, say, Lipton, but I would not go out of my way to buy or drink this tea otherwise.

Tea experiments: Tea and booze, part the first

Inspired by the Canadian "blueberry tea," I decided to try some of my own tea and alcohol combos.   Today's experiment is Celestial Seasonings' Cinnamon Apple Spice, a tea I generally find slightly too sweet, mixed with ice cider.  Ice cider (also known as cidre de glace) is a liquor made by fermenting the juice of frozen apples or frozen apple juice.  It's a big thing in Montreal, which is how I discovered it.

Ice cider is smooth, sweet and not fizzy, all of which really work for me.  The combo of the ice cider in the hot apple tea is excellent.  The slight bite of the cider blends well with the sweetness of the tea.  The apple flavor very strong, but it never descends into the cloying sweetness of apple juice.   This combo is definitely a keeper, assuming my minions bring me back more ice cider from Canada.

Tea Tasting: Zhena's Gypsy Tea Ambrosia White Plum

I've been putting off my write-up of Zhena's Ambrosia White Plum tea because it is a very hard tea to pin down.   I can smell the plum and rose elements in the aroma.  It's hard to taste them, however.  I get an initial sweet flavor, but as the tea settles into my mouth the tea flavors themselves overwhelm any sweetness or fruit flavor.  The rose petals supposedly mixed in the tea are completely undetectable.

I don't like it or dislike it.  It's simply odd.  I don't object to drinking it, but I am unlikely to buy it again after I finish the sample I was given.

Thanks to +Rachel Wertheimer for this sample!

"Arabic Mint Tea"

+Christine Dalessio and +Stacey Rothrock Steinfeld  tried out a restaurant on Wednesday that billed itself as "Lebanese Fusion Cuisine."   Among the drinks advertised on their menu was "Arabic Mint Tea."  Of course, I had to try it.

My former favorite restaurant, Pamir, now unfortunately closed, had an excellent mint tea drink made from a good black tea with extra muddled mint that had to be strained off unless you wanted mint leaves in your teeth for three days.  This "Arabic Mint Tea" did not live up to that.

It was good, don't get me wrong, but its potential to be so much better made it disappointing.  First of all, the base for the tea was regular old off-the-shelf Lipton black, which nearly made me cry right in the restaurant.   Rather than muddling the mint, they stuck a mint sprig the size of my hand in with the tea bag, and then added hot water.   While I love mint well enough that it was a nice drink on a cold, damp night, it could have been done so much better with a decent black tea.  Muddling the mint in the glass (like they do for mojitos) would have enhanced the mint flavor far more than just dumping half a mint plant into a mug.

For those curious, the restaurant in question was La'Mezza in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.   The appetizers were better than the entrees, and the menu was smallish.  Of the last two "not-Pamir" restaurants we've tried, this one is very much in second place.

Canadian "Blueberry Tea" is not really

During our trip to Nova Scotia this past weekend, I encountered something called "blueberry tea."  It was described to me as standard black hot tea mixed with a combination of liquors that caused it to taste like blueberry.   I didn't have occasion to try the blueberry tea at Friday night's dinner, but I couldn't pass it up when we saw it a second time on Saturday.

So, along with +Lisa Goldthwaite , +Jody Livingston and +Clark Wright , we ordered the blueberry tea as an experiment.  It was an experiment of dubious success.

The liquors added to the tea in this instance were Grand Marnier and Amaretto.  In no portion of this universe should the combination of Grand Marnier and Amaretto taste anything like blueberry.   And, for the most part, it did not.   +Jody Livingston  and +Clark Wright noticed some blueberry aftertaste and a little blueberry in the aroma.  I caught the slight hint of blueberry in the aroma, but the taste was all tea and almond from the Amaretto.   The drink was improved by icing, but it still did not taste like blueberry enough to qualify as "blueberry tea."

In hindsight, I likely should have steeped the tea for longer.  It was Tetley, so I probably could have steeped it for 5 minutes instead of 3, without its becoming undrinkable.

The failure of the blueberry tea experiment led us to a discussion of what other types of alcoholic teas might be worth concocting.  We have a few ideas that we will test out over the course of the winter.