Bottled Iced Tea: Pure Leaf's "Tea House Collection"

During this weekend's road trip, I discovered a new brand of bottled iced tea.  Pure Leaf (otherwise known for its perfectly adequate commercial iced tea) has a "Tea House Collection" in heavy glass bottles.  Intrigued, I picked up the Black Tea with Wild Blackberry and Sage and the Green Tea with Fuji Apple and Ginger.  I must say, both were pretty darn good.

The Black Tea was definitely the better of the two.  It had flavor and character without being sweet.   It's a rare bottled iced tea that is worth tasting, rather than simply chugging for caffeine content, but this one tasted like it was decent quality tea.

The Green Tea with Fuji Apple and Ginger was interesting.  The mix of ginger and tea was odd, and the apple tone kept fighting the ginger and tea flavors for dominance.   But I want to drink it again when I'm not also focused on driving so that I can take the time to analyze the taste more closely.  It was definitely a vast improvement over 90% of bottled tea choices, however.

I definitely approve of the "Tea House Collection" and of the easily recyclable glass bottles.

Tea tasting: Adagio Black Teas

I ordered some Adagio samples again: This time I bought some very basic black teas as a change of pace from the more exotic blends.

The Irish Breakfast was everything I could want out of an Irish Breakfast tea.  It was strong, black, hardy, basic and an excellent caffeine delivery system.   It was still the tea equivalent of a punch in the face after two brewings.

The Assam Melody had more subtlety without losing its essential tea-ness.   A good Assam is still my favorite way to start the morning.  Adagio bills this as a "friendly" Assam for people still new to drinking good tea with layered flavors.  I tend to think of all Assams that way -- they are the tea for people who like black tea for its own sake -- and the Assam Melody did not disappoint.

Commercial iced tea: Wendy's Green Tea

I drink bad tea so that you don't have to.

While on a recent road trip, I stopped at Wendy's in need of something to drink.  Wendy's black iced tea is a perfectly acceptable caffeine delivery system.   Given that I had few other choices while in the middle of gorram nowhere, it seemed like a reasonable stop to make.

But -- and there is always a "but" isn't there? -- I didn't want too much more caffeine that particular day, because the insomnia has been kicking my butt of late.  So I ordered Wendy's iced green tea.

Don't.  Just Don't.   Learn from my mistakes and never let this swill pass your lips.

To begin with, it was way too sweet, in that artificial bug juice sort of way that stops being appealing about the time one hits puberty.   After the sweetness smacked around my palate for a bit, the cloying, almost chemical, aftertaste kicked in.  I wanted to scrape the roof of my mouth to get that taste out of it.  There was nothing natural about this concoction and certainly nothing remotely connected to tea.

Tea tasting: Tea Forte's Blueberry Merlot

After some deeply disappointing tastings of late, Tea Forte's Blueberry Merlot herbal tea is a nice return to form.   It's got a rich, rounded blueberry flavor, quite fruity.   Adding honey brings out the richness of the flavor, but might make it overly sweet to some people.

I don't know where the merlot comes in.  I don't taste anything wine-like.  I suppose the aroma might have some wine-like qualities if you went looking for them.  This is not a disadvantage, in my world.

Tea Tasting: Republic of Tea's Downton Abbey Estate Blend

I admit, my first cup of Downton Abbey Estate Blend disappointed me deeply.  It's grown on me since then, with some careful handling.

Downton Abbey Estate Blend is essentially a combination of Earl Grey and vanilla: black tea, bergamot orange oil and vanilla.   By all rights, this should work for me, right?   On the first up, it Did Not Work.  I accidentally let it steep past 5 minutes and, unlike most other kinds of Republic of Tea teas, this long steep pretty much ruined it.   The bergamot became too perfume-y, the vanilla became gag-inducingly bad potpourri.  I didn't think there could be a vanilla flavor that I didn't like, but I should know never to say never.

Undaunted, I began to experiment to see whether the full package of tea could be salvaged.  Fortunately, it could.   Limiting the steeping to no more than 3.5 minutes keeps the bergamot and vanilla in line.  Adding some honey after the 3.5 minute steep manages the flavors to the point where they are a feature, not a bug.   With some attention and patience, it has become decently drinkable.

This is one of Republic of Tea's limited edition Downton Abbey-themed teas.  Unlike the sublime Downton Abbey English Rose, this one should stay "limited."

Tea tasting: Tea Forté's Cherry Cosmo

Tea Forté's Cherry Cosmo is a darn peculiar tea.  In addition to the cherry fruit flavor, there's a weird, almost fizzy over-taste.  It's not quite lime.  It's not quite hibiscus.  Looking at the ingredients, I can't quite account for it:  organic rosehips, organic hibiscus, organic apple pieces, organic raspberries, natural cherry flavor, other natural flavoring (berry).

As a hot tea, the over-taste is borderline unpleasant.  As an iced tea, however, it more or less vanishes; what's left is a flavorful tart cherry taste.

As between Cherry Cosmo and Adagio's similar Dewy Cherry, I like Dewy Cherry better as a hot tea, but this one better as an iced tea, although neither is ideal.  Honestly, the best cherry tea I've tasted so far is good old reliable Celestial Seasonings' Black Cherry Berry.

Tea tasting: Tea Forté's Tupelo Honey Fig

I've been trying to finish off the tea I have before acquiring any new tea, hence the radio silence for a bit.  However, in the midst of today's awful weather, I did manage to find my white tea sampler and try something new: Tea Forté's Tupelo Honey Fig White Tea.

Tupelo honey is a type of honey made from specific trees (white tupelo trees) that bloom in the Southeastern U.S.   Apparently it's considered a gourmet honey.  As with everything, you can find it for sale on the internet (http://www.teavana.com/us/en/tea/tea-sweeteners/tupelo-honey-011046728.html).

This is a very very lightly sweet tea, with a strong minty and herbal finish.  The sweetness is definitely the sweetness of honey, not sugar (and certainly not the taste abomination that is high fructose corn syrup).  There's a smokey quality to the sweetness, if that makes any sense.   In addition to fig and the honey, the tisane contains licorice root, fennel, myrtle and peppermint, all of which combine to make a fascinatingly complex flavor.    To be honest, I really don't taste fig at all amid all of the other stuff going on.

This is not a delicate white tea.  Because it's got strong flavors, I tried icing some of it, which worked surprisingly well.   If I were to plan on serving it iced, I'd make sure to have fresh mint to add to the glasses.