Herbal Infusions Tea Co.

GCTTB 2.

This one smells so good. Like watermelon candies or bubblegum.

The brewed tea tastes just like watermelon candies or bubblegum. I added a few pieces of rock sugar before I tasted it, and it seemed to work.

I would love to have this one iced!

This is my first taste of Herbal Infussions and I am impressed so far.

Backlog from this morning. Thanks are owed to courtney, who sent me this sample!

Honestly, I would have written a review for this sooner, only I just wasn’t feeling inspired to write. There isn’t anything wrong with this tea; it’s a light combination of a creamy strawberry flavour and a thin black tea, and not much else. It tastes good, but compared with ruby pie (my gold standard for strawberry tea), it just didn’t measure up.

Thanks again, Courtney! I still have enough left for another cup, and certainly enjoyed it enough to keep it in my sipdown pile :)

Sipdown (190/194)!

From VariaTEA. I know she’s a fan so I was really hoping to like this one but I’m finding myself kind of fighting to finish off the cup. It smelled really yummy too, so that just kind of adds to the disappointment.

I’m getting a lot of bitterness in the cup and it’s really hard to push through it, though when I do I get fleeting notes of strawberry. The one redeeming quality is that the bitterness doesn’t hang around in the aftertaste but there is a faint vanilla creaminess sort of like a Campino that does linger and that makes fighting through the cup at least somewhat worth it.

Oh well; one less in my cupboard and I’m thankful to VariaTEA for sharing and for the chance to try something I likely wouldn’t not have picked out for myself.

EDIT: Hmm, I seem to be the only one to have experienced such extreme bitterness. I’m confidant I didn’t oversteep though – I was very diligent about the time after how long I let Checkmate sit unattended today…

I served this hot to go with after brunch conversation. Our guests are not generally tea drinkers, so I was looking for a few blends that would be fairly universally appealing. This one brewed up with tons of great watermelon flavour. I still think it really best suits cold steeping, but it was nice to try it hot for once.

We brewed this up cold to try yesterday. My fiance is absolutely crazy about melon drinks, but not a huge fan of more fruity teas, so I wanted to see how this would go over. Long story short, he adores is, loves it, is so enraptured with it we had to order more, like right that minute. To be honest, I really like it to. The watermelon is nice and light and naturally sweet and the tea has a good strong flavour to the cup. I am really impressed with this tea and can see it being drunk a lot at our house in the summer.

This smells more like Strawberry than it tastes. Nice black base with just a hint of strawberry. I wanted more based on the scent of the dry leaf.
This was just ok for me. There are other HI teas that I prefer.

I have been holding off on finishing the 1.5t I had left for awhile because I was hoping to find some marshmallow root to add and see how it was. I don’t need a $15 pound of marshmallow root. Maybe someday I will be able to find a smaller amount and try it.

This is smooth and creamy, neither the bergamot or vanilla smack you in the face. I would get this again if I was placing an order and was running low on EGC. I’m not playing favorites yet.

Thank you for a sample of this one, MissB! Always up for trying a EGC! This one was steeped at 2 1/2 minutes at just boiling. I like it, but there are other EGCs I like more. I don’t think the bergamot is prominent enough or the cream is prominent enough. At least the black tea base isn’t overpowering the flavors. But I like a stronger tea with it anyway. The elements that are there work together and I can see many people not usually liking EG liking this one. I appreciate trying it!

I don’t know what to say about this one, for once. It brews up quite dark and there’s a bitter edge to it, but it doesn’t taste oversteeped. It’s reminiscent of coffee, in a way. The actual flavor is more like French toast than crème brûlée. I’m not getting any creaminess, and the spices aren’t very assertive like I hoped they would be from the “chai” in the name. Oh, well, to the swap pile with it.

And we have another glorious sip down. Good stuff, but not 50g-worthy. I’m coming to the end of my HI samples and so far, it seems like the cacao teas are the only ones I’d repurchase.

Woo, I just took a 45-minute walk in the rain and it soaked through my MEC raincoat. Go figure! This calls for some hot tea. As crazy as it sounds, I kind of want to go back out there for another walk. I love the rain. :)

I wasn’t expecting too much from this. I don’t know why exactly. Perhaps because strawberry can sometimes be a little boring and HI’s black teas have been meh so far.

This is pretty good, though. Truly does taste like dried strawberries, and the flavour is strong enough to compete with the more robust base. I get a “hint of cream”, which I do realize is what it says in the description, so I guess I’d be a jerk for whining that I wanted a bit more. I added some half and half , which has helped bring out the strawberry a bit more.

Yeah, pretty good indeed. I’ll enjoy my sample while it lasts but I can’t see myself ordering a full 50g+. Steeps’ Chocolate Dipped Strawberry is still my favourite strawberry black, methinks.

1.5 tbsp

Nice blend of flavours- makes the mint much more interesting.

Many thanks to Kittenna for sharing!

This is good, I like it, but I don’t love it. I think I want Creme Brulee OR chai – I don’t need them both in the same cup. Something about the “burnt sugar” and the spices doesn’t quite work for me. Oh well, 100’s of other teas to try…

Sipdown! Just saw that I did write a note on this haha totally forgot that i logged this lol, well this note should be the more detailed one I guess haha. I overleafed a bit as there was not quite enough left for another cup.

The dry smell reminds me of that tea Della Terra put out last fall..darn I can’t remember the name..some sort of apple tea, and it also contained nutmeg, so I think that’s mostly what I am smelling in the dry leaves. It’s definitely a blend of chai like spices. This cup I steeped for 2 minutes with boiling water, I can’t remember how I did the others haha. The steeped smell actually smells much better than the previous cups, if my memory serves me correctly. It’s very spicy, but with a definite caramelly undertone, a brown sugar sweetness. I can actually liken the scent of this cup to creme brulee a bit! Maybe it’s the different water at this place haha.

As for the flavor, wow, this is spicy tonight. Not as much caramel and not much of the flavor I disliked previously, a different spice is showing itself tonight lol, very peppery and strong. It could be from overleafing too haha. I much prefer this cup to the others, but it still is not my favorite chai. It needs more chocolate and caramel notes to make it a favorite, and a bit more variety than just strong spice. There is a hint of caramel in the aftertaste, but I don’t think it’s enough to make this a reorder. Still was a very nice tea to try though, I am very glad I got the chance to! Also want to try more teas from HI in the future, I enjoy their cacao teas and the marshmallow EG (heavenly). So yes, decent cup, just not a complete favorite! Chai fans should give this one a shot though! See previous notes as well :)

ETA – I should have tried this stovetop, it might be amazing and make me need it haha. Oh well, maybe another sample will find its way into my future cart and I can give it a go :)

So I have internet and TV! So happy internet is back, and we haven’t had TV for 2 years so it’s nice to actually be able to watch hockey at home again :D this is my night, as I’m still sick and slept most of the day and am now cozy under a blanket with the game on and my cat to keep me company. Had a mini house-warming last night (will probably have another when the bf is back from working in the field) and it was good, 4 good friends, pizza, beers, and Pulp Fiction. Fun night, even with my cold.

But I digress haha, onto this tea! I had my first cup of this when I wasn’t sick and wasn’t the biggest fan, but had some today that was better and my sense of taste is returning so I’m happy about that. A caramelly, gingery chai, I think it’s the nutmeg in it that I’m not a fan of, but it was a decent warming cup of tea. I will have to do a more in depth note when I am not sick with limited senses haha. Not too bad though, just not my favorite chai.

I sipped this down yesterday morning, with half and half and a bit of brown sugar. It’s pretty good but not amazing. I wouldn’t order more.

Trufax.

Quick note before heading out. This is a surprise. When I ripped open the packet, I got a waft of nutmeg, followed by ginger. Reminds me of a pumpkin spice chai I had somewhere at some point in time.

The flavouring is also heavy on the ginger and nutmeg, followed by coconut and black pepper. I added some half and half, and this appears to make a pretty good chai in a pinch. Definitely not your average chai that you get from companies, since I find that most of them are very two-dimensional with their cinnamon and clove tag team.

Would I buy more? I’m not sure. I have a couple servings left to think about it.

Hmm, the more I drink this, the more it reminds me of 52teas’ Gingerbread chai, but much better.

I went through my samples earlier and put them into some little craft drawers to give me easier access to them. I still need to make room on my shelves for my Christmas and birthday teas, but first the samples might as well be sampled.

A eucalyptus grapefruit tea doesn’t sound that nice to me, I don’t like the taste of either particularly, but it smells so fresh and fruity…a nice surprise. The blend has some beautiful orange colours that must be the carrot flakes and/or freeze dried tangerine pieces and large pieces of of dried sliced orange. I can also note the lemon grass and some hibiscus petals. Other than that the other ingredients blend in very well.

The eucalyptus smells lighter than I imagined it would (which again is to my surprise and happily so) but everything else smells sort of herbal like, just generic, but with a citrus freshness. No grapefruit as such.

Once steeped the tea is red in colour (must be the hibiscus) and it has a bizarre savoury scent. I say bizarre but it’s not in a bad way, just one that I’m finding hard to describe. Lets start down with the basics…ingredients… Eucalyptus? Hmmm.. sort of. Grapefruit? Can’t say it does. Citrus? Yes but more like orange. Herbs? Ding, ding. ding. very much so. Anything else? It has some sweetness and what I believe to be the lemongrass present. But the blend as a whole just has a very savoury feel about it.

Flavour is refreshing with some sour citrus fruits and herby sweetness. It’s rather pleasant but still unusual. The more I drink the more I can taste the grapefruit like flavour, it’s not pure by far (which is probably because this blend doesn’t actually contain any grapefruit) but it’s similar. Still getting savoury vibes from it though.

It’s a pleasant and unusual tea but I don’t think it’s really for me. Not something I would buy or likely crave but was nice to experience something new.

Backlog:

I love a good chai this time of year (well, actually at the first sign of a chilly night back in September, I start thinking about Chai!) because I love how it warms me from the inside out. And this is definitely a tasty chai!

Spicy but not over the top. The spices are strong … stronger than the tea … but they don’t overpower the tea. I taste clove and cinnamon strongest, followed by cardamom. I love the licorice-y note from the anise, as well as the creamy, custard-like creme brulee flavor. I would like there to be a tad more creme brulee flavor to this, and that would be my only real complaint is that while I can taste the custard notes, they aren’t as strong as I’d like them to be.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/01/20/creme-brulee-chai-blend-herbal-infusions/

I just opened the package, and it smells exactly like David’s Luscious Watermelon. Looking at the ingredients, I think it may just be exactly like it too.

I could see most people enjoying this one cold it is good cold. Though I prefer it hot. The mix of ingredients is pretty bang-on watermelon-like.

http://s770.photobucket.com/user/courtneyns/media/Steepster/91a703a3-d77d-4db7-9e19-a3b906111348_zps4b53f248.jpg.html?state=copy

Updating my cupboard and realized I already finished my sample size bag last week. I need to remember and shake the bag up next time, my last cup tasted like a lot of pepper. It was still good and left me wanting more.

I made many lattes with this tea for me and the husband. I sweetened it with brown sugar and ground Trader Joes cinnamon and sugar on top. I think the combination enhanced the creme brulee taste and smell. I look forward to getting more before eggnog is back in season and trying the recipe for a Chai Nog Latte they posted on YouTube.

Sipdown!! (166)

Thank you TraceyC for sending some more of this delicious tea my way. I enjoy it but dealing with HI’s customer service is not the best experience so I am dissuaded from ordering. However, I am grateful to all the wonderful steepsterites who have sent some of this my way so I didn’t have to. Now I think I am satisfied for the next little while. In time, this might reappear in my cupboard but for now I am comfortable saying so long.

Some cups are better than others and this is one of those good cups. No base, just tasty strawberry milkshake goodness. Thank you TraceyC!