Pineapple Orange Cooler - Steeped Tea - herbal

It's no secret that I love fruit teas, and this one is no exception.  Like most fruit teas, this is best iced, with a bit of sugar to bring out the flavors.  It's citrusy without being too tart.  In fact, it tastes like a classy sangria that I would expect to be served at a party.  This is also a great tea for kids.  It tastes like fruit juice, but even if you add a bit of sugar, it'll still have a lot less sugar than juices and Kool-Aid.

If you like fruity, refreshing drinks, this one is for you!


Rating:
4/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Pineapple Orange Cooler

Price:  $8.00/1.76 oz 

Passion - Tazo - herbal/tisane

My first introduction to this tea was the Passion Tea Lemonade that Starbucks used to serve in the days prior to the company acquiring Teavana.  I remember the drink being just the right amount of tart, and refreshing.  So when I saw the Tazo Passion tea in the store, I decided to buy it to try on it's own.

Big mistake.

First of all, it's supposed to have a passionfruit flavor.  I don't taste it at all.  All I taste is tart hibiscus, and if that wasn't enough, there's added citric acid to make it even more tart.  It's so tart that I doubled my usual amount of sugar, and it was still too tart.  So I added more sugar...still not drinkable.  I might keep it around to try to blend with other teas, but I honestly think that I can find much better teas to blend with more subtle teas.

Just...gross.

Rating:
1/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Passion

Price:  $2.98/box of 20 bags

Price:  $2.98/20 bags

Dragonfruit Devotion - Teavana - herbal/tisane

On my most recent trip to Teavana, this particular tea caught my eye.  I love dragonfruit, though it is a subtly flavored fruit, and I wondered how it would work in a tea.  The aroma of the dried leaves from the can was sweet and tropical.  I smelled notes of mango and lemongrass along with the dragonfruit.

I decided to brew this up strong for a pitcher of it iced.  At first, I didn't like it.  The tartness of the hibiscus was all I could taste, but after a few more sips, it grew on me and I could taste more of the dragonfruit flavor.  I don't love it, but I no longer hate it like I did at first.


Rating:
2/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Dragonfruit Devotion

Price:  $7.98/2 oz

Perfect Peach - Bigelow - herbal/tisane

This is another one of those grocery store herbal teas that I actually really like.  It has a strong peachy flavor, but unfortunately some of that flavor is artificial.  Also, like a lot of cheaper fruit teas tend to do, they use hibiscus to add a tangy flavor.  Aside from all of that, it's peachy and refreshing.  This tea is great blended with a non-flavored green tea for the flavor punch while getting the health benefits from green tea.

Rating:
3/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Perfect Peach

Price:  $17.75/6 box case, 20 teabags per box

Strawberry Cream - Teavana - white tea

I had high hopes for this tea.  It smells divine, both dry and while steeping.  But it really is all smell.

The aroma is what you'd guess, a creamy strawberry fragrance, reminiscent of strawberry ice cream or strawberries and whipped cream.  But both the strawberry flavor and creamy flavor ar absent in the brewed tea.  Instead, there is a strong tart flavor of hibiscus, and not much else.  It becomes a little more palatable with some sugar and vanilla almond milk, but it still doesn't taste nearly as good as I had hoped.  The tart hibiscus makes it taste like a green, unripe strawberry, instead of a sweet and ripe one.  Since the tea leaves still smell good, maybe I'll use this one as a potpourri.

Rating:
2/5 stars

This tea is no longer available from Teavana.

Strawberry Grapefruit Xue Long - Teavana - green tea

I tried this tea on a whim.  I have a lot of various strawberry flavored teas, and I really didn't need another one.  However, I am thrilled that I tried this one as it has jumped to the edge of the pack among strawberry flavored teas.

I love this tea because the pink grapefruit and hibiscus give it a tartness that shines when the tea is sweetened.  This tea is amazing iced.  It tastes like a glass of summer.  The apples mellow the tartness just enough, and the tea itself is a refreshing, herbal xue long green tea.

This is one of those teas that I will keep going back to for a long time.  It's just lovely as a summertime drink.  Try blending it with lemonade for a crowd-pleasing, refreshing picnic drink!


Rating:
5/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Strawberry Grapefruit Xue Long

Price:  $12.98/2 oz