Tealyra (formerly Tealux)

ICED. Brewed as directed, at double strength, then added an a tablespoon of white sugar, an equal volume of cold spring water, and chilled in a sealed jar 24hr. Result: Cloudy pale yellow liquor with very floral fragrance, but tastes like apple juice with a hint of berry. Flat apple juice, without any bite or zing. Really boring and not recommended—just drink real apple juice! Rating this style a 20, as it may have utility as an alcohol mixer, but choose something high-proof!

COLD BREW. Put 3 tsp dry tisane in a pint jar and added a cup of water. Sealed and let sit on counter overnight, then 12 hr in refrig. Added a cup of cold spring water (no sweetener) and tasted. Result: Cloudy golden liquor. Cidery aroma and the most foul tasting somewhat sour and slightly bitter infusion I’ve ever had. Yuck! Don’t do this! Had an appley aftertaste, but not worth the trouble or nastyness to get there. Rating this style a 5, for a average rating of 31 for the hot, iced and cold brew concoctions together.

Upon opening the pouch of “Organic Pomegranate Raspberry” tea, I immediately noticed two things: an incredibly pungent aroma and major stratification of the ingredients. So I tumbled the pouch around a bit to re-blend the contents to uniformity. The dry aroma was so very artificial, and it took me a while to identify it as the exact smell of Wrigley’s Juicyfruit Chewing Gum! Now I happen to like the smell & taste of Juicyfruit Gum, regardless of the artificiality of it, so I was optimistic. Note this contains no Camellia sinensis, so it is not actually tea, but rather is a tisane. Also, it contains papaya with added sugar.

I brewed it up as directed, western style: 1-2 tsp tisane with 8 oz boiled spring water, in a stainless micropore infusion basket for 5 min. The resulting liquor was golden colored and the juicyfruit fragrance had been driven off and replaced by a rather offputting vegetal scent, likely due to the papaya and drumstick tree leaves (Moringa oleifera). As it cooled, the fragrance shifted toward pleasant raspberries and apple, which remained through the rest of my sipping and lingered in the empty cup. While hot, the taste was reminiscent of apple dumpling (without cinnamon), and though inoffensive was not my favorite. As it cooled, the berry flavors reasserted themselves and I enjoyed the improvement! I never really noticed anything like pomegranate flavor, nor pomegranate flowers. I will prepare iced tea with my next infusion and report back on it. Overall, I would give this a Rating of 68, and recommend it to those who like strong fruity flavors. I’m not sure why the ingredient lists both raspberries and raspberry! Maybe for the same reason the description uses the word “perfect” twice in the same sentence?!

One other issue I note: The tea is labeled (but not on the website) as “organic”. I do not believe it, because of the papaya content. Virtually no papaya in commercial global production can be correctly labeled as USDA Organic. Same under EU regulations. (Though the package omits the term “USDA”.) Personally I don’t give a rats tail about organic foods, but I do care about misleading labeling. So take that label cum grano salis.

I will admit to having been swayed by the Tealyra description and reviews posted on their site. And I had not seen eelong’s tea note here on Steepster — a note that might have dissuaded me from purchasing Rosy Earl Grey. However, I have been captivated by roses and rose scents since childhood, and was eager to try this blend. And I liked it! Mostly. I do also enjoy jasmine scents (and have before remarked on my memories of summertime play amongst the Star Jasmine bushes as a kid in California).

I do wish tea purveyors would be more strictly precise in their claims and ingredients. When a claim of “bergamot essential oil, jasmine, lavender” is made, I expect to find those precise ingredients listed, and not obscured behind the anonymity of “natural flavors” or a vague compound ingredient like “jasmine green tea”. The dry leaf was nicely fragrant of rose petals (not rosehips), and I was optimistic.

I steeped (a single cup) western style, according to direction: 1 tsp leaf in 8 oz (boiling alpine spring) water, for 3-1/2 min, in a stainless microscreen infusion basket. The jasmine aroma was more pronounced in the tea vapors, though I also detected scents of rose and bergamot. While sipping, I found it easy to identify each of the named ingredient flavors, largely in my sinuses, but with bergamot on the sides of my tongue, and with the lavender arriving late to the center back of my tongue in the finish of each sip. I only saw the green tea leaves and smelled their jasmine, but couldn’t really parse out a distinct taste of green tea. Perhaps the green tea accounted for the slight bitterness and bite with a little astringency that I noted (and which Tealyra described, too). The clear amber color undoubtedly came from the black tea content, though it was only barely detected as a flavor. Finally, in the last few sips of the cooler tea, I got a powdery floral hit on the roof of my mouth. Overall, this was a satisfying springtime bouquet that I would recommend and continue to enjoy from time to time, giving it a rating of 75 today, mostly docking points for the use of generic flavorings rather than actual biological components. I prefer a cup of plant origin, rather than the cheating of chemistry, which steals the magic.

I did not detect any notes of bubblegum, as reported by eelong. Thankfully.

My recent acquisitions from Tealyra included Surajamukhi Assam Orange Pekoe. I find it rather pleasant to sip, even if it doesn’t knock my hat off. 1.5g in 8 oz boiling spring water for 2 min produced a deep amber infusion with the expected Assam flavor profile. Notes of malt and raisin, with a caramel nose, enough astringency to tickle the tongue, decent aroma, pleasing aftertaste and a little stewiness as the cuppa cooled. Reasonably priced and better than grocery store CTC Assams. I’ll rate it as 75 and recommend it, with the caveat that there are richer and smoother Assamic options out there.

Okay, it’s been a long time coming, since I bought this sheng in the summer of 2017, and kept it in a dark, vented jelly jar for the past 7+ years, sipping along now and then, waiting for it to improve before putting words on paper. Alas, it has not gotten much better than the bitter, woody, leaf-litter flavor it has had all along. I’ve tried gong-fu as well as western style as directed by the label, all to no avail. It’s pretty dang WEAK, too. No idea when this tea was produced, other than before 2017. It was never pressed into a cake, and I know of no special treatment or storage. Just that it is from China. I get nothing but disappointment from it, and now it’s headed to my garden compost heap since it’s not worth the cost of the spring water I steep with. I rate it a 40, and wouldn’t recommend it — it’s no longer listed for sale by Tealyra, either, though “topproteastore” out of Miami still lists it (along with a bunch of other stuff identical to Tealyra’s offerings, right down to the photos and verbatim descriptions.)

A lovely tisane from Tealyra. I sipped the brew straight and hot and unsweetened, and got no hint of the titular cream. Chamomile was also absent in aroma, flavor, and appearance. Zooming-in on the scoop-ful in the saucer photo I’ve uploaded, I see no evidence of the reputed chamomile. I don’t know the flavor of nettle, “blue mellow flowers” or corn flowers, so I can’t say that I noticed them, either. I do think I got a good hit of rose hip, along with hibiscus, as their bitterness was present & pleasant, contrasting with the sweetness of peach, apple, and orange peel. I suppose if one really wanted a creaminess, one could always add milk or cream. The peach appears mainly as an aroma, but I liked the way the other flavors enveloped my entire mouth, stimulating much salivation! In the last 1/3 cup, I dumped in a yellow packet of sweetener, and the brew opened up wonderfully into a thick, syrupy swill that I could drink all evening! It felt like I was drinking the heavy syrup from tinned fruit salad. Very nicely balanced to my senses, so I’ll rate it strongly at 88. With the rose hip, this is bound to have a good dose of vitamin C.

This night has been a dark, cold, damp one and I find myself unable to slumber here in the wee hours, so I looked for a soothing tisane. I’ve had this one sealed up in my tea cabinet for a few years (time flies!) so I pulled it out and got to brewing. And I find that mastressalita added a note on it much more recently. Well, she did a fabulous job of reporting, so there is little more for me to add. I used 1-1/2 heaping tsp of material in a steel infusion basket with 8 oz boiling spring water, and let it steep for 5 min, as recommended by Tealyra. I also found the hibiscus very subtle, and to give a nice gentle tartness to an otherwise sweet-tasting cuppa. Though it really wasn’t very sweet, only giving the impression of sweetness! I did not discern any piney aroma or flavor, mainly just berries – berries – berries! Yes, there were notes of blackcurrents, but there was no such ingredient: it must be the reputed flavor of the buchu leaf. I really did enjoy the tea while hot, and I found as it cooled that the berry notes in aroma and flavor intensified, as did the sensation of sweetness. I loved how the sweet aftertaste wrapped itself around my tongue for many lingering minutes. I am resisting the urge to spike some sugar into the brew, because it seems like cheating — and unnecessary! I’ll rate this as an 85 for the pleasure I got out of the cup. Gonna brew a second cup right now…….
EDIT: Second cup was also good, but I wonder if the ingredients were truly caffeine/stimulent-free, because sleep did not finally arrive ’til 5 AM.

This tea is lovely! I’ve always really liked the flavor combination of peach/apricot with lavender but rarely find teas with this profile (the only one that comes to mind is a now discontinued Plum Deluxe blend). I’ve been preparing this as a cold brew, and it is very sweet, with a really soft peach flavor which leans a little toward candy due to the sweetness. The lavender is prominent in the flavor and blends beautifully with the peach, but doesn’t taste overly floral or perfumy. There is no tartness/tanginess in this tea, which would make this more approachable to the hibi-hating crowd. I personally wouldn’t have minded a little tartness to the peach, but the soft candied sweetness can be nice too, and works especially nice as a cold brew (no extra sweetener necessary!) This is a flavor combo that is simply a keeper for me, and I will have to get more of this sometime! (Though I would say this is more of a spring/summer sort of tea, so it may not be the most seasonally appropriate at the moment… I guess I’m just ready for the winter to be over already!)

Though this is marketed as an immunity blend, I’ve actually been holding up well this winter and managed to dodge the sick bullet that went through another department here at the library. But I am in pretty bad pain today (the menstrual double-whammy of migraine + cramps… my fellow migraineurs out there know exactly what I’m talking about!) so I made a big thermos of this at lunch to hopefully help boost the anti-inflammatory drugs. While I’m pretty skeptical about purported herbal health benefits, it at least can’t hurt anything…

Honestly, this tastes very on par with one of my earliest teas, Celestial Seasoning’s “Tension Tamer.” Which makes sense, both being very echinacea/mint heavy. The flavor is a sort of grainy dry hay mixed with mint, with a touch of herbaceous citrus from the lemongrass. Most cups of this I’ve made had a slightly weird tangy note at the end of the sip which I assume is the elderberries and rose hips, but I’m not getting that with this cup, so maybe it’s a “luck of the scoop” issue or something that only comes out with a really long steep (I’m known to just “leave the bag in” on herbals when I’m sipping at home in the evening, but today I did a 10 minute steep and then removed the leaves).

It’s not particularly exciting, but are sick teas ever, really? It’s a bit herbaceous in the taste which isn’t my favorite, but I’ve definitely tasted healthy herbal blends that were way worse. The mint does a good job of hiding a lot of the weirder notes.

Opening the bag, this tea has such a strong and pleasant nutty aroma, which thankfully carries out into teh brewed aroma and flavor. I get a strong sweet nutty flavor which stands up well to the earthy pu’erh and really drowns out a lot of the dirty notes in shou that I don’t care for. The earthy tones of the pu’erh do come out a bit more as the tea cools and is very present if the cup goes cold… for me at least, this is a “drink it while it’s hot!” tea. I decided to experiment with a latte, using 400ml of brewed tea and 100ml warm frothed sweet vanilla almond milk with a teaspoon of maple syrup, and it is outright decadent. More work for the preparation but it really pays off… the added sweetness and creaminess really makes the tea taste like a nutty dessert. For anyone worried about the rose petals in the blend, don’t be. They seem to be just for asthetics and I don’t get even a hint of rose in aroma or flavor. Personally, because I’m a fan of florals I’d love to see a strong rose note incorperated into this flavor profile… perhaps I’ll have to experiment and steep this tea with a bag of rose-scented black tea and see how it goes. But it’s really a treat as-is, and I’d happily grab more of this.

Well, I bought a big bag of this some 8 yr ago, in early 2017, and didn’t care for it as much as I liked other TTES #18 teas, so it has been sitting in my tea cupboard ever since. Now that I am re-exploring this variety from Taiwan (also known as Hong Yu, Red Jade, and Ruby 18), I’m giving it another shot. There is still experimentation going on in Taiwan as far as what to do with this variety of tea, which (according to Teapedia) is a large-leaf “cross between Taiwanese wild tea tree (B-607) and a Burmese assamica (B-729)”. Some will make a delicious dark black tea, others a heavily oxidized oolong (“Brandy 18”), and still others will process it as an awful white tea in cake form, hinting that it could be aged like a pu-erh. Some will encourage leafhoppers to feed on the plants as hey do for certain Oriental Beauty oolongs higher in the mountains, and call it “Honey Black”, whilst others will do the same in the Sun Moon Lake vicinity, all with varying success from year to year.

What I’m reviewing now are large, spindly black dry leaves that unfurl to milk-chocolate brown colored leaves after the second steeping, labeled as “organic” but with nothing about leafhoppers. Tealyra doesn’t list it anymore on their site but, thankfully, user eastkyteaguy captured their description when making the entry for it here on Steepster. The same product was also listed here under the company’s former name of Tealuxe, with a somewhat more detailed description captured by user Jason, along with additional reviews. There is concurrence that it is a Sun Moon Lake area product.

I used about 3g in a stainless infusion basket with 8 oz boiling spring water for 2-3 min in both steepings. I got a strong flavor of honey, with notes of apricot, malt, dates and floral fragrances. The dry leaf had little fragrance. I find it good, but not as satisfying as Brandy Oolong 18 by the same company. I’ll give it a rating of 78.

This is a sweet strawberry-leaning hibiscus fruit tea. There is a lot of juicy strawberry flavor, it’s a little candy-like though the tanginess of the hibiscus helps with that a bit. There is a sweet almond flavor in the background. I don’t taste the lavender in the blend at all, despite the fact it is pretty prevalent in the ingredients listing… maybe it was luck of the scoop and it all fell to the bottom of the bag? Will have to reassess as I work my way through this. It is a pleasant tea, but there is nothing really unique or remarkable about it… I know I’ve tasted strawberry hibi fruit teas from T2 and Adagio and probably other places that pretty much had this same sweet strawberry flavor on a hibi fruit tea base. It is a Dethlefsen & Balk blend so I’m sure the deja vu is warranted.

This is one of those “hibiscus and spices” teas that I know are pretty universally disliked on Steepster, but happen to pretty much be my favorite thing ever. While I normally prefer my hibi/fruit teas coldbrewed, I just find something incredibly cozy about warm and syrupy hibiscus mixed with spices… and the extra hydration and Vitamin C at a time of year where my nose seems to constantly drip for three months straight is an added bonus. The hibiscus base is very prevalent in this one with a pleasant tartness, but the pear flavor keeps it from tasting like a generic fruit punch like many hibi/fruit teas. It’s a decent pear flavor, even if a bit subdued. There is a lot of sweet, warming cinnamon that lingers after the sip. I’m really enjoying it, but could not recommend it to those that find hibi “too tart”… there is some apple and pineapple in the blend but I don’t find it adds a lot of sweetness. It’s more akin to a “mulled wine” sort of tea, just with a pear-leaning direction.

It seems the trend lately is caffeine-free coffee teas (which, don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoy!) but sometimes what I am really craving from a coffee tea is the stimulation of coffee as well as the taste, and I have to say this one holds up pretty well. It has a very strong black coffee flavor, which mimicks the flavor well but also comes off just a tad artificial. The dry leaf smells strongly of the cocoa elements but I don’t really taste that in the cup… it just tastes like black coffee with a roasty undertone, as well as a strong hit of cinnamon. I really like the cinnamon, and somehow paired with the black coffee flavor it tastes more like nutmeg to me on the tongue (still very pleasant!) I also like that the base is a combination of roasted yerba mate and black tea, doubling down on the caffeinated potential.

I’ve mostly been drinking this tea plain, but this morning opted for a sweetened vanilla almond milk latte since I’m trying to use up the carton. Adding the sweetened vanilla almond milk really brings out the cocoa notes that were hiding otherwise. Very delicious! A very good coffee alternative for those that like the taste but may have other issues preventing a morning cup o’ joe (for me, the acidity of coffee beans really does a number on my GI!)

Happy New Year, everyone!

While I enjoy turmeric, that enjoyment is typically based around the accompanying spice blend, which often times is far too ginger-heavy for my liking. But this tea is quite nice, with a sweeter cinnamon coming forward on the nose and in the flavor, so the tea isn’t an annoying cup of mouth-burning. The rooty/earthy turmeric note is there and is definitely an acquired taste, but there is a nice orangy note in the background and the cinnamon and licorice root tame any aggressive spiciness of the turm or ginger without being too sweet. And though it may not be marketed as such, this is a pretty effective sleep tea, with lavender, valerian, and passionflower, and it works pretty well for me. It’s both a good and a bad… bad if I just want a turm/ginger-heavy tea for tummy troubles but don’t want to be knocked out, but great for a wind-down before bed (and tastier than I often find “sleepy teas.”)

There’s probably too many contentious ingredients in this blend to really recommend it, but I’m that weird person that likes most contentious ingredients and have been pretty happy with this tea, as a non-aggressively spiced turmeric blend and as a sleep aid.

I think at the time I ordered this I was thinking this would be a hibi/fruit tea with a lignonberry leaning, which appealed highly to me. It is actually something very different, but still incredibly tasty. The base, while including some hibi, is actually composed more of fluffy green blackberry and buchu leaves, but it isn’t really sweet. Sniffing the tea, it has an aroma of berries (leaning towards currant or grape on the nose) with a sort of bright pine needle aroma, and the flavor matches that pretty well. I have no idea exactly what it is in the blend producing that pine note, but I assume it must be the buchu leaf since I’m not particulary familiar with it. It is sort of crisp and a little savory leaning… a bit like rosemary but with a sort of piney finish, and since I love pine/evergreen notes in tea, I really like it! The berry note is rich and tangy, leaning a bit more toward the blueberry/black current line than brighter and sweeter red berries… the name of the tea had me thinking along the lines of cranberries or lingonberries, but it doesn’t really go there. I do really like the fresh pine flavor with the thick black currant notes, though. I don’t find the tea particularly tart (though I’m a terrible judge since I love hibiscus and can drink it plain), but I do think the sort of savory element of the tea would require a certain palate. Definitely a winner for me, though!

This is a Dethlefsen & Balk sourced blend, and I’m uncertain if I’ve had it elsewhere, but I’m really enjoying it. I tried it warm and thought it was fine (I liked the hibiscus/cardamon combination) but it shines more as a coldbrew. It has a nice rich cherry flavor, in the vein of Kool-Aid/Popsicle and lacking any weird medicinal notes. The hibiscus is adding a lot of thick fruit punch notes. That little pop of cardamom in the background is nice even cold. Very quenching. It’s a nice enough cherry-leaning hibiscus fruit tea.

I usually don’t gravitate towards “sleepy time” tea blends because they tend to be chamomile-heavy or an overly-pepperminty herbal concoction to mask valerian foot-stink. But this tea, despite having both chamomile and valerian root got me interested, since the other ingredients seemed to lean in a sweet caramel apple sort of profile.

It smells really strongly of caramel, in both the dry leaf and the brewed cup. The flavor is very nice, too… it’s very sweet and has a nice caramel flavor, better than I find in a lot of caramel rooibos teas which tend to have a heavier red rooibos flavor than I’m getting here… I think the sweetness of the apple, blackberry leaves, and coconut is lifting it a lot (I’m also surprised that the coconut has held up nicely, I tend to avoid teas that have it like the plague not because I don’t like it — I love it! — but sometimes it is years after my purchase date before I finally get around to drinking a particular tea). There is a milder apple note that goes hand-in-hand with the caramel. I get a very subtle more herbaceous aftertaste (which is probably the valerian) but you’d really have to focus to pick it up. I’m really surprised how nicely all these ingredients have come together to make a “sleep” blend that actually appeals to me.

I’d recommend giving this a try, even to those that may find things like red rooibos, chamomile, or valerian unappealing (but do be warned this is not vegan/lactose-intolerant friendly due to the caramel/toffee in the blend). I bet this tea would also do well on gmathis’ “Will It Milk?” gameshow.

Peculiar name notwithstanding, I enjoyed this tea. The dry leaf has a wonderfully fruity and peachy aroma, which carried through into the brewed tea. It was really peach-forward! Sweet tasting as well, likely from the apple content, but I added a strong dose of Splenda, too. While the apple and ginger were discernible, I can’t say that I was aware of safflower, dandelion, turmeric, or even the pu’erh itself. Does safflower even HAVE a flavor?

It was not disclosed whether it was a shou or sheng puer, but there was none of the compost/ woody/ forest/ fishy/ camphor notes that might be expected. And the steeped brew was fairly light in color, too. Not bitter nor mushroomy, non-astringent. So my guess is that it is a soft, young sheng. Anyway, pu’erh aficionados may be disappointed, but those afraid of typical pu’erhs can sip this without hesitation. I was only sipping on a friends supply and don’t think I’ll buy it myself, because the peach was just a bit overwhelming for me.

Perhaps if it had been real peach pieces rather than flavorings, I might have enjoyed it more. But it’s definitely not bad, and if the good comments I’ve made here intrigue you, then I’d encourage you to try some! I brewed one sachet western style in 8 oz of 95°C alpine spring water for 4 min, as directed.

This tea is cocoa shells mixed with chai spices. The preparation instructions on this tea say to use 1-1.5 teaspoons but prepared this way, the tea is really weak… since the base is cocoa shells, it just comes off a bit watery and the flavor came off really strong on the anise, tasting like the much cheaper and more accessible Stash “Licorice Spice” teabags from the grocery store. I really needed a stronger “base” and it was pretty decent brewed with an additional plain breakfast black teabag, or a teabag of Sobacha to keep it herbal for an evening drink.

To get anything close to “dark chocolate” like the name, you need to use a lot of leaf per cup, which used up the 50g within a few servings, making it not a very economical tea. But when there is an over-abundance of cocoa shell, left to steep for a hefty time (I just leave the bag in the cup), it does get pretty chocolately and less licorice-y. The pepper is pretty strong though, which adds to that “bittersweet dark chocolate” flavor but feels like just a bit much.

A nice, rich cup is very nice, but for how impractical it is to get a good flavor it isn’t anything I would recommend or seek out again.

Just received this tisane today and have been eager to try it! Have been looking for some chamomile and fruity blends. Steeped a heaping teaspoon of leaf in 8 oz. 95°C alpine spring water for 4 min., as directed by Tealyra, western style using a stainless infusion basket.

The aroma is pungently pleasant, of fruit salad, with discernible chamomile and citrus and a touch of ginger and hibiscus. The flavors are wonderfully proportioned. The chamomile was there without dominating, and the tangerine & orange oils gave a great citrus accent and sweetness, while the bite of ginger announced itself as well. I was glad to find the hibiscus was tame, and present at just the right level to round out the flavors on the tongue., without being overly tart. Probably residual sugars in the schizandra berries and the licorice root helped keep the ginger, hibiscus, and rose hips from being too sharp, though I had difficulty identifying the flavor elements of the berry, which is new to me. I’ll have to pick out a few of the dry berries and chew on them a bit to see what they have to offer. The licorice root was undetectable to me, even in the finish, and that was my only disappointment. Nor did I taste anything rose-y, though the hips may have added to the floral aroma.

I did not sweeten this cup, though I sometimes do add splenda or raw sugar to herbals like this, and I’m sure it would be nice too. The aroma and the lingering finish are the winners with this concoction, which will be nice on cold, snowy winter evenings to come!

Just the basic Long Jing offered by Tealyra, not “westlake” or “supreme” or any of the other superlatives that they occasionally market. And over the years, I’ve found this to be just as good as their fancier versions anyway, though those are long gone from my tea cupboard. This 100 g mylar bag has been sealed up in my darkened tea cabinet for about two years. Nice long unbroken, brittle flat blades of tea leaf, with an almost waxy feel to them.

Today I over-infused 2.5 g in 16 oz boiling spring water for a half hour. You could call that Wild-Western Style! And I ended up with two cups of quaffable (golden yellow) green tea having a little astringent bite (“wild”) and plenty of the very typical Dragon Well vegetal flavor and aroma. Savory, nutty (more like pecan, less like walnut or hazelnut), grassy with hint of steamed edamame, nice long finish… exactly what we expect from a cuppa Long Jing! If I’d stopped the steep at 6 minutes it would have been perfect! And, modestly priced, while being unfussy at the same time. Satisfying!