Raspberry Balsamico - Teavana - herbal/tisane

I have a love/hate relationship with Teavana.  They're very expensive, much like their parent company, Starbucks.  However, they really do have tasty teas and quality products.  I've actually been a Teavana fan since before the Starbucks acquisition, when a friend took me to one of their stores in Nashville.  Even though they are expensive, I've managed to spend a few hundred dollars there in the last couple of years.  

One of my most recent buys from Teavana is the Raspberry Balsamico herbal blend.  They had a blend of this tea and their Limeade Twist herbal tea in their sample station.  Though I'm not a huge fan of lime, I found the blend very good.

I ended up purchasing a few teas and accessories and my purchase entitled me to a free store-made beverage.  I decided to try the Raspberry Balsamico by itself, iced.  WOW.  All I can say is amazing.  SUCH a delicious beverage.  After the first sip, I immediately added a 4 oz bag of the blend to my purchase.

I had heard in the past that some Teavana customers had a hard time replicating the flavor that the store's baristas make when brewing at home, so I read some tips online and gave it a whirl.

I brewed it in 208 degree water and used 1 1/2 teaspoons of tea and 1 teaspoon of rock sugar per cup.  I sipped it hot and freshly brewed, but this tisane's star power comes out when it's iced.  The raspberry name is kind of a misnomer.  Sure there are raspberries in the tea, and the flavor definitely comes out, but it's a perfect berry blend.  Blueberries, grapes, strawberries, currants, elderberries and even juniper berries feature in this blend, and they all marry wonderfully.  I especially love the inclusion of currants...just enough to give that bright currant flavor, but not so much to make it sour.  

As the name implies, there is also a touch of balsamic vinegar in the blend, which is outstanding.  I am one of those people that shops at oil and vinegar stores to get the latest and greatest balsamic and olive oil infusions for my recipes.  I love balsamic vinegar, and the slight addition of it's earthy twang just caps off this near-perfect blend.

If you hadn't realized, this is pretty much my Holy Grail of herbal teas.  So delicious.


Rating:
5/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Raspberry Balsamico

Price:  $9.98/2 oz

Passionberry - Cameron's Handcrafted Coffee - herbal/tisane

I stumbled upon this tea in my local grocery store's bulk section, and decided to give it a whirl.  I noticed the nice berry aroma, and thought it would be a good tea to try.

Cameron's website states that it has the aroma and taste of passion fruit and raspberry.  I could not find a list of ingredients on Cameron's website, and the bulk tag on my package does not list ingredients, so I could not tell exactly what is in the tea, or if there are any added flavoring agents in it.

I brewed the tea my usual way, approximately 1 teaspoon per 8 oz of water and a teaspoonful of sugar per 8 oz cup.  When I sweeten teas, I usually use raw sugar or rock sugar, never refined sugar.

The tea smelled delightful as I brewed it, bright and fruity.  I took a taste and had to spit out my first sip.  It was incredibly sour, like biting into a lemon.  I highly suspect that there was less passion fruit and raspberry in the tea and more cranberry.  I kept adding sugar and by 4 teaspoons of sugar in my cup, it was still too sour to drink.  I was very disappointed, and disappointed that I had bought a full 5.5 ounces of this stuff.  I might add a bit of it to teas that are flavorless or too sweet tasting.  This one is just not good by itself.

Rating:
1/5 stars

Buy this tea here:
Passionberry Tisane
Price:  $1.29/1 oz