Blueberry Fruit Tea

This tea was generously provided by Teavivre!

Oh man, this tea.

Seriously, guys. This tea.

But first, a story.

My wife and I ran out to pick up this package today and decided to stop for lunch too. You know that while I was waiting, I had to rip into the package. Oh tea, glorious tea! There was tons of it. I open the first pouch – TGY. My wife’s favorite. I sniff it, sigh happily, and then sniff it again before looking up at her and turning the pouch upside down, dumping it all over the table.

What I forgot to mention to her (and to you, dear reader) is that the tea inside the pouch was individually vacuum packed. Yeah, I’m evil. She nearly had a heart attack.

Anyway, on to the tea. This is delightful. It needed 2-3 teaspoons to seem like enough, but oh, it was worth it. The dry tisane smells like, well, blueberries!

Knowing about the hidden hibsicus (aka Roselle), I only let it steep for four and a half minutes. It is plenty strong with just that steep time.

The smell…well, to be honest, the smell worried me. It smells like hibiscus, and overly hibsicus teas make me ill. I girded my tea-loins and took a sip anyway and made a little sound of happiness that I’m sure worried my wife. I took another sip and immediately rushed over here to add this tea to my shopping list. Mmmmmmm.

It’s juicy and sweet like a berry, a touch tart but not overly so, and overall amazing. If you’ve ever had that blueberry pomegranate juice found in the funky bottles, this tastes like that, only without massive amounts of sugar. So much yum. When my bottle of Goji Pop that’s currently living in my fridge is gone, I’m so making a bottle of this to try cold. It’s practically begging for it. I need to have some of this in stock by summer, end of story, y’all!

I have to admit, I did not have high hopes for this tea. After googling roselle and learning that it’s hibiscus, I was ready to hate this drink. Then my husband requested an iced tea for dinner. So I brewed this up sort of light hoping to mitigate the overwhelming tartness I was expecting, poured it over ice and sugared it up. Wow. This is good. Is that really hibiscus? Is it because I made a light brew? Is it the sugar? Whatever it is, it’s good. It’s softly tart. But mostly, it’s fruity and delicious. Lightly blueberry and more grapey. The juiciest fruit tea of all time.

I ate the berries after brewing. They were tasty and very sweet. I would have eaten more of them, maybe saved them for oatmeal the next day, but they were full of seeds. I probably could have made a second steep. I have enough for a cupful another time. More experimentation laaater. I usually don’t buy fruit teas because they tend to disappoint, but this is certainly one I will consider.

Thank you, Teavivre, for this sample!

This is a very nice blueberry tea. Not too tart, but not so sweet that it taste like Kool Aide. I could taste the grape at odd moments which I thought added to the fun of the tea. Definitely enjoyable and something I would try again. Next time I’ll also try it iced.

Sample from my first Teavivre order! I do love me some blueberries, so fingers crossed!

Dry: This smells like sweet blueberry, black currant, and maybe because I had grape tea earlier – grapes. I’m also picking up a bit of the roselle. It’s sweet, tart, and bursting with fruitiness!

Brewed: The blueberry scent has pulled back a bit, and I’m smelling mainly black currant. Don’t get me wrong,t he blueberry is still there. It’s just not standing out as much. Hints of grapes and other berries are present. It’s more tart smelling this time around, but maintains the sweet scent as well.

Taste: Very tart in the front, and slightly sweet at the back of the sip. I’m tasting more black currant and roselle than anything else. The blueberry is very faint. The grape is gone. I don’t think I’m diggin’ this one. I don’t know if it was me and my brewing or what, but this one is just too tart, not enough sweet. It’s almost sour. =(

I’m glad I tried a sample instead of buying a bag of it. Maybe I just don’t like fruit tisanes? Not something I’d repurchase, unfortunately. Wish it tasted more like it had smelled. Not undrinkable, but not somehting I want to finish, either.

How is it already August 8th? Time is flying! My daughter is over six months old now. She’s getting her first two teeth. They’re coming in together and I think it’s causing her a lot of grief. They’re taking their sweet time too. Only the tips have been visible for the past few days.

I held on to this tea for years thinking I could enjoy its caffeine-freeness during pregnancy. Well, pregnancy came and went a while ago and this tea is still around. There’s no time like the present! Might as well enjoy the rest of this now.

The brewed tea aroma is mouthwatering and tart. Yes, I can smell the tartness. It smells like blueberries, raisins, and hibiscus. The flavor is SUPER tart! Think about the tartest hibiscus tea you’ve ever tried and this is probably tarter. The flavor gets stronger the cooler the tea is. This is somewhat wine-like too.

On another note, I’ve finally started to lose weight after the birth. I’ve lost 20 lbs so far and have about another 20 to go to be able to fit back into my wardrobe. I’ve hit a big milestone this week. I’ve lost enough weight that I can wear my wedding rings again! Yes, I was literally so fat that my rings didn’t fit. I forgot how beautiful my engagement ring is. I really really missed it! I can’t stop staring at it. Now that I can wear my wedding rings again, I feel so much more like my old self. Losing weight is a necessity for me. I’m so glad I’m halfway to my goal!

In the bag, you get a blueberry muffin at your service, or better yet, a blueberry granola bar. The cup takes this and mellows the aroma out even more, bringing in an undertone of raspberry and maybe apple as well, for an earthy kind of fruit tea.

Berry teas especially can be a flavor blast to the mouth, some verging on jam-ish sweetness. This one, however, does well in maintaining its distance. The currant in here serves to hold all the other berries in check, cooling off any tartness that could otherwise show up. You’d probably hit sour if it was oversteeped, of course, but who knows… Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/05/25/snooty-tea-review-teavivre/

Cold brewed overnight. I only had one packet, but used it to make 1L of iced tea. It was mostly tart hibiscus with a hint of blueberry this morning. Good, but not delicious. I think I’ll stick with Juicy Blueberry from Zen Tea as my blueberry herbal tea. Oh, or the Blueberry Rooibos from SOKO.

Hmm.

I have to agree with the others that while the roselle is a bit tart, it isn’t the punch in your face from hibiscus tart. I did add some sugar to this, and I’m sure that helped mellow it out some. I got interested in this one when I saw aislingoftea write about it, and I knew that I wanted to try this in my next batch of samples from teavivre. So thanks to Angel for sending this one to me.

The smell in the bag is simply intoxicating. My palate isn’t as refined as some to be able to pick out the individual fruits, and as the roselle offers that bit of tartness, it masks the other flavours a little bit for me. But I can say that the fruits all blend seamlessly into a nice fruity concoction. I can only imagine how awesome this will be as iced tea come summer. I wonder how it would be cold brewed. This tea makes me want one of those clear tea tumblers so I can show off my cheeky fruits!

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this one. I had a feeling when I first requested this that the roselle might be a bit hibiscus-like, so I was a little nervous, but the other fruits just sounded so yummy, how could I not try this? :P

Thank you Angel for this generous sample. :)
I’m in a fruity mood today during my lazy Saturday afternoon and I’m hoping that this will quench my fruit thirst.

The tea itself smells sweet and fruity in a way that reminds me of jelly babies. Yum Yum. The hardest part is to leave this brewing for the whole 9 minutes. The tea soup is a very dark purple in colour with a berry fragrance.

The tea itself is heavy berry without being too tart and fruity whilst remaining quite light and refreshing. Usually with fruit tea’s I am reminded of cordial with hot water but this tea is different, the fruit tastes natural which brings that fresh and slightly sweet characteristics alive. It picks up strength a little the more I drink but it still remains with the same balance of flavours.

Overall I think this is surprisingly tasty and pleasing. I would recommend this tea to any fan of Teavivre or fruit tea, perhaps even to someone who just wants to wash their pallet between other tea steeps.

Second review for TeaVivre’s samples.

I guess I should share how I brew my tea. Most of the time I brew it in my Noble travel mug from DAVIDsTEA (http://www.davidstea.com/accessories/travel-mugs-2/noble-glass-travel-thermos) and sometimes I brew a teapot using just a regular mesh tea ball (I don’t have a tea pot with a built in infuser, unfortunately). Anywhoo, on to the tea.

This was another sample I got from TeaVivre. After drinking the Pi Lo Chun I was in the mood for something a little sweeter, so I decided to have a cup of this. The dry "leaves"smell very sweet, almost like fake blueberry bubblegum that you get for a dollar at the store. The leaves are BEAUTIFUL, a vibrant pop of blue and maroon-y purple.

The brewed tisane is a lovely deep purple and has retained its scent. I added a little bit of sugar to avoid any tartness.

I LOVE THIS TISANE! It’s tart (but not overly tart to the point of puckering) with a little tang and a small punch of sweetness. It tastes EXACTLY like the description, and none of the pure fruit flavor is sacrificed like it is in so many fruit blends.

Very nice, this will be a cupboard staple from now on.

I used about 4 tsp. for about 12 oz. of water and steeped for 8 minutes and 30 seconds with boiling water.