Red Leaf Tea

This smells like carpet/refresher powder! But don’t like that scare you! This tastes great! If you like EG and you like mint – this is RIGHT ON! It’s everything you would expect and it’s pretty intense! A Mission Accomplished sort of flavored tea! Hooray!

This isn’t overly chocolate nor is it overly spicy. But it IS sweet and semi-smooth and fiarly tasty! Pretty good!

backlogging from yesterday and another cuppa today…yay!

Ahhhhh! This is NICE…smooth…sweet-floral flavors! A non-astringent darjeeling that is very pleasant and comforting.

I can taste the honeysuckle likeness and something that resembles subtle hints of lemon.

This is FAB!

This one didn’t last long in my stash! A great morning tea! Backlogging…

First cuppa the day earlier today…followed by the 2nd cuppa the day!

I love to ‘play’ with flavored Earls! This one is really nice! It’s everything you would expect from a Raspberry flavored EG…you can smell and taste the stereotypical Earl Grey flavors and then there is the awesome raspberry – or should I say RADberry! It’s really sauve! It’s really nifty! It’s down right tasty and fun! This is a great flavored Earl! YUM!

Thanks to twing for sharing this tea! This is a decent black tea, flavored but not flavorful. There are some teas that offer up a true medley of flavors and spice but this isn’t an example of that. I do enjoy the playful citrus and muted spice, but want something a bit more spicy… I did follow this with a Chai (from Teavana) cuppa.

However, a side note, I gave one bad to a friend who is just testing the waters of flavored tea. She loved it and wanted more. So I guess this is good for tea rookies.

I got this from a generous new friend. Had to try it out. I like the black tea flavor with hints
of spice and a bit of orange. It compares favorably to other holiday spiced teas I have tried.

I really love this as a green tea. If you are not a “green tea person” you should try this one!
The lemon does stand out but you can taste the undertones of roses and sage, not a bad morning detox tea I think. Steep for under 60 seconds for a balanced cup. You can find this tea at chioftea.com

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending this tea my way!

I am really enjoying this. It is delicious and comforting. Smooth and sweet, with just the right amount of tart (that is… not too much!) It tastes fresh and inviting! Nice!!!

This is a good mango and passion fruit flavored black tea – not as strong with the flavor as I might have liked. The delicious black tea base is front and center with this blend. The pretty flowers are there primarily for appearance sake, but, there is a faint, generic floral note to the cup.

Overall a really nice blend. Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending it my way!

I really like Red Leaf Tea as a company. They have the widest, wonderfully weird collection of stuff around. And one of the most extensive (and encyclopedic) Earl Grey collections out there. That’s why it pains me to say that I didn’t enjoy this as much as I wanted; even with the “Organic” label (which – more often than not – does make a difference on taste). Brewed as light as I did it, the leaves still lent a strong but bitter brew. Some like their Earls like that, but I’m not one of them. A second infusion at five minutes fared better but not by much. I did finish it, yet its not as superb as some of their other wares.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/12/09/review-red-leaf-tea-earl-grey-organic/

This is definitely a morning Earl Grey. Even at only a three-minute steep, it brews a deep copper-to-brown like an Assam or Keemun. It’s like someone took an English Breakfast blend and machine-pressed orange juice into the batch. It smells more citrus than bergamot, even tastes that way too; because of that, it’s not as sour. However, this is in no way a detraction. It’s a very good morning cup without any sour dryness. Does the trick on the wake-up, too.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/12/05/review-red-leaf-tea-citrus-earl-grey/

I’ve never had Champgane before so it is hard for me to fully evaluate the wine aspect of this tea. Overall it has a very light and delicate flavor where even the raspberry blends in well so it comes off more as light flavor notes and not overwhelmingly fruity.

Pink Sonama is a very wonderful fruity white tea that comes off as being more like white wine than a tea in some ways. If you love White Zinfandel wine than you will love this tea as it has the same sweet light fruitiness and melon like flavor notes.

The “fancy” title for this tea was earned – according to the tea notes – for its whole leaf black tea base. Meaning, if an orange pekoe was used, it was likely an FOP as opposed to a BOP. The difference in flavor might not be noticeably detectable to some, but it might be noticeable in color. Whole leaf teas tend to have a lighter infusion.

The infusion on this was definitely lighter, but the flavor was exceptionally bitter and dry when paired with boiled water. Two traits I can’t deal with in a black tea. Once I lowered the temp to 190F, it yielded a more positive Earl experience. However, still not the best I’ve tried.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/12/11/review-red-leaf-tea-earl-grey-xtra-fancy/

The bergamot is gentle – and the vanilla bean adds a lovely compliment and gentle sweetnets. The thing that most impressed me was that it was a wonderful high quality black tea base that stood up to the flavoring and was not overpowered.

This was the first Earl Grey variant I encountered that didn’t taste like something other than Earl Grey. Most bergamot-scented alternates have a flavor “like” Earl Grey, but still retain some of the trappings of whatever base was used; a White Earl Grey still tasted like a white, a Honeybush Earl Grey still tasted like honeybush. With bergamot. Good but not Earl Grey.

This was an Earl through-and-through. So much so that I didn’t even taste the Formosan oolong base. Jasmine flowers were added to this as well. Why? I dunno. But they add a mild floral touch to the bergamot…but only minor.

It’s a splendid afternoon Earl. I should know. That’s when I had it…in my pajamas.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/11/30/review-red-leaf-tea-oolong-earl-grey/

While they don’t say on the Red Leaf site whether or not this is a Lapsang Souchong, it certainly smells like one. It smells like campfire. I like that smell…and I hate camping. The taste was much smoother than the average Lapsang. Instead of instantly tasting “burning”, it went down smooth. It betrayed a malty/floral note along with the smoky attributes.

The second best smoked tea I’ve ever tried.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/11/29/review-red-leaf-tea-double-smoked-tea/

A very interesting floral white tea, that outside of the clear lack of alcohol in some way comes off as a bit more like a white wine than a white tea. A light more floral taste that blends in nicely with the wine flavor.

Normally Assam is not a favorite tea of mine as it comes off as way too malty in a bitter way but this one is actually very good. The tea comes off as lighter for an Assam with a wonderful Cabernet aroma and taste that goes with it. Even if you don’t think you like Assam tea, if you enjoy Cabernet red wine then this is a tea that is really worth trying.

Sure, there are decaf Earl Greys out there, but for the caffeine sensitive folks, an “O’Doules”-ish substitute won’t do. Especially at night. Most of those still have some caffeine. This may not taste like the sour-citrus Earl to a “tea”, but it offers something unusual; the feeling like your tasting a mint-laced tangerine, dipped in honey, then lit on fire.

Full Review:

http://www.teaviews.com/2010/11/20/review-red-leaf-tea-honeybush-earl-grey/