Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls with Rooibos Tropica

This was the first Teavana tea I’ve ever tasted. Everywhere down here, they keep huge amounts of this one in sample containers and so as a first tea to try, its a pretty good one.

First, the smell. I ignored the Teavana sales person when he told me not to store my pearls with my rooibos because I love the way it smells blended. I can see their point in that if you keep them separated, you can blend your pearls and rooibos, yada yada. Whatever for them. If I want some pearls to brew with something else, I’ll go buy some. Nope. I keep my r/p in the same tin and man, I am not sorry I did.

When you store some teas together, especially teas that compliment each other as much as these two do, they take on a lovely blended flavor. I love to smell them together before I brew them.

Today I used my kettle for brewing since I’m at the boy’s house and I found that the Rooibos bits have traveled a bit more than they do when I’m at home and use a finer mesh strainer, but its ok. A few tea leaves never hurt me.

Over all this is a high 80s tea for me. Its one I use as an old standby and usually the one I bring with me when I’m introducing a new tea-drinker to the wonders of loose tea. But also, its a good ‘Hello Day! I am gonna kick your butt!" tea. It has a great jasmine flavor at the first of the sip with the Rooibos just filling out the back of the sip. I brew it at the temperature for Roobios, but I don’t let it steep too long at risk of making the pearls bitter. I have tried this tea sweetened and unsweetened and I prefer it sweet. (But that’s not a real surprise for me!) I use all sorts of sweetners so I really don’t care how it gets sweet, though I do prefer the brown rock sugar. However white sugar cubes do well when you’re using it for an English Style tea ceremony. :D

Anyway, if you’re looking at this tea and wondering if you should get it, I’d definitely recommend it. Its full and delicious and just right for new people coming into loose teas and blending.

Relaxing, calming combination of flavors. The aroma is heavenly, with the mix of tropical breezes and jasmine flowers.

Monday Feb. 28, 2011
2nd Steep of The Day.
Got this as a Gift from a Good Friend at Church.
Great Teavana Blend Good Green Jasmine with Tropica Flavors
This Is gonna be a Flavorful Gift to Continue to Enjoy.
Keep On Steepin

I went to Teavana this weekend to get some tea for my girlfriend and this was one of the samples they had out for tasting. We both drank the samples and fell in love with the taste.. naturally we dropped 16$ for 4oz of the blend (Um a little expensive for 4oz? or is this just me), took it home, and here we are. In the store, it tasted amazingly sweet and bright; reminded me of fruity tootie gum. Then they wafted the mix into our faces, you know, the lid waving “technique” all the employees learn to do, and it just smelled SO GOOD.

Now here we stand. 16$ later and this tea sitting in my cup. Will it live up to my expectations or will it be sitting in dust for the next 6 months? Find out next time…

No but seriously here we go.

I poured a good 2 heaping teaspoons of the mix into my infuser, poured on my water, and let it steep for a little over 3 minutes (prolly around 3:30?). The rooibos tropicana (i like that better than tropica) smell is present throughout, but very light tasting. Jasmine is there. I would best describe it as a light taste of fruitiness with a Jasmine base. It’s not badddd… I don’t know. I think they sugared the crap out of it in the store because it tasted like candy. I didn’t toss any sugar in and didn’t conform to buying the sugar they pressured us into buying along with our tea. Then again, I never put sugar any of my tea so yeah, nothing is ever like crazy sweet. I will say that this tea isn’t dull, but it isn’t very busy. Nothing real complex going on. It’s nice. That’s about it.

I finished this cup about half an hour ago and my mouth and throat still feel extremely dry. I have no idea what exactly is causing the reaction but since I tend to run toward dry mouth naturally, I am not enjoying it.

The tea itself wasn’t bad. I didn’t get much jasmine (which is good since I don’t enjoy it) and the tropica flavour is nice. But the tea as a whole wasn’t memorable for me. Considering how pretty it looks in the cannister, I expected more from the steep.

Have to use 1.5-2 tsp to get the right amount of flavor, but it’s great when I get it right. Also, this smells AMAZING.

I always make a pot of tea in the morning to drink along side my breakfast and to wake me up. I bring the same tea to class with me in my ever so handy thermos.

This morning the tea was the roobos tropica with some jasmine pearls because I was in the mood for something a bit fruity this morning.

This was a tea given to me for my birthday last year. I only have about a 1/3 of the tin left and I can’t wait to reuse the tin for another tea because it’s very pretty.

Now that I’m properly brewing green tea at the right temp I’m loving this. Only enough for one cup though :(. Ill have to buy more when I work my way through some others (no more room in my home,lol)

I can’t believe I haven’t logged this blend yet. It’s one of my favorites and goes quickly once I finally get around to buying more of it. You can of course add more or less of which ever tea you want to predominate the taste if you buy them separately, which is what I do. I’m very particular – I like about a 1:2 ratio of the tropica to the Jasmine pearls. This way, it’s more of the flowery taste with fruity undertones that don’t dominate the taste. I also prefer it sweetened. I also enjoy this tea because I can make it more mellow or strong depending on how I feel that day. Today I’ve made an entire pot of it in my beautiful purple cast iron teapot covered in vines and am loving it.

Smells terrific. Tastes pretty good with sugar. But you could probably get something pretty similar with a (much) less expensive type of jasmine tea. I don’t think you’ll be getting many of the subtleties of the JDPP out from underneath all that rooibos.