Yes, whole leaf tea is gorgeous and nuanced and complex, but sometimes a flavored tea is a fun mini adventure. I tried some amusing novelty teas from Yorkshire Tea and Tazo tea that were like sweets in a cup! Yorkshire Biscuit Tea - Make it SubtleBefore #YorkshireTeaGate, I remember seeing pictures of this tea on Twitter and thinking I must try it. Yes, I dunk tea biscuits in my tea when I’m in the mood. The thought of a tea that tastes like a biscuit has already been dunked in it sounded a bit weird and a bit interesting. I had a mild tantrum when I found out they don't sell these in the US. Thankfully though, there’s Amazon. The box arrived looking like someone had played soccer with it but the bags were unharmed. I brought these intriguing tea baggies over to my tea drinking bandmate. We often have tea biscuits with our tea. Side note for all of the Americans that are not Anglophiles: we’re not talking about dunking a southern style doughy biscuit in the tea. We're also not talking about a chunky chocolate chip cookie. These tea biscuits are a lightly sweet, malty, very thin cookie. Okay so this is a much more subtle flavored tea than the other ones in this post. It had a mild sweetness that was accentuated by adding honey or sugar to it. If you've ever dunked a tea biscuit into a basic black tea, you know what that tastes like. This tea does approximate that pretty well. My bandmate agreed. In the end, we both decided we prefer choosing our black tea and dunking our favorite biscuit in it. But it was fun to try and I recommend the adventure. Tazo Dessert Delights - Tastes Like the Real ThingTazo Dessert Delights Glazed Lemon Loaf Herbal Tea
Tazo Dessert Delights Butterscotch Blondie tea. I can't remember when I first saw pictures of these teas but it did make me wonder: awesome or gross or somewhere in-between? Flavored teas are not a go-to for me, but these were really wild. They actually taste like they smell and are dead ringers for the desserts they represent. I think I would prefer having the dessert because there's something to be said for texture. Still, these were really fun and surprising. Everyone in the room who smelled the teas were intrigued, and agreed that they taste like the desserts. The glazed lemon loaf tea is herbal. There is no camellia sinensis in it, so if you like having some dessert before bed but don't want a whole lot of caffeine, calories or sugar, try this. It has a green rooibos base with apple, chamomile, orange peel, rose and licorice root. (Note: Licorice root is often included for a bit of natural sweetness. It doesn't taste like licorice at all.) The butterscotch blondie is a black tea base with chicory root, cocoa peel, licorice root, cinnamon, cardamom, and natural flavors. GOING DEEPER I believe it's important to do your due diligence about whatever you put into your body. This isn't about being afraid but rather about being informed so that you can make the best choices that fit with your values and lifestyle. Generally I find loose leaf teas to be of better quality than bagged teas, but that isn't the case across the board. As many ingredient labels read “ingredients: tea”, we as consumers have to do a lot of work to know the quality of tea we’re drinking. Even then, without knowing the importer or the company in detail we often don't know which countries, plantations, harvests, elevations, shading, etc. (all of which impact flavor, caffeine and compounds) we’re dealing with. Here are the smartlabel links for the Tazo teas: Blondie: https://smartlabel.labelinsight.com/product/4890841/ingredients Lemon loaf: https://smartlabel.labelinsight.com/product/4857147/ingredients The smart label information doesn't go into detail about where the tea is sourced or the harvest. It does give a description of what the FDA means by things like “natural flavors." Tazo is owned by Unilever, which is the largest tea company in the world when including all of the brands it owns, like Lipton. Unilever has more information on their tea sourcing, Rainforest Alliance and sustainability initiatives on their website. Have you tried any of these teas, or other dessert teas you would recommend? Let us know on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TeaDeviant/and Twitter https://twitter.com/teadeviant I wish you tasty adventures in great tea! This is not a sponsored post. |
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