I recently received an offer of a sample from Raizana Teas. When I first checked out their site, I was intrigued by the array of mood-based herbal teas (technically tisanes, but that’s  neither here nor there). Each and every one listed, as part of the ingredients/flavors, some form of tropical fruit.

Uncertain what to try, I simply requested a popular blend and promptly received a generous package of the Mood: Happy Tea. (Thanks again for the free sample!) The package states it is a Mate Hibiscus Tropical blend – a mood enhancer and herbal supplement.

My first impression was, “My god, there seem to be a lot of chamomile in that sucker!”

I opened the bag and was immediately hit with a wall of aroma. It was so sweet, it nearly knocked me off my feet. Don’t get me wrong, I have quite the sweet tooth. But this was a little too much.

Upon more careful scrutiny, I was able to detect a hint of chocolate in the aroma (though there isn’t any in the blend itself). Once I picked up on this scent, it helped to alleviate some of the harshness that first assaulted mine senses.

I won’t lie to you – this herbal tea simply did not appeal to me.

With a generous helping of the stuff in my teapot, I poured on the prescribed hot water and allowed it to take care of its business. Briefly lifting the lid after a few minutes, I was assaulted afresh with the smell of it. Brewed, it is much milder, but still rose my hackles somewhat.

The liquor was a translucent amber (courtesy of the hibiscus). My first few sips, well… not my favorite tea drinking experience. Vastly outpaced my feelings for lapsang souchong (seriously… like drinking liquid campfire… gross), but ranked low on my charts.

Despite this, I felt the need to really give it a full shot (and mug, for that matter). With continued sips, soon to be followed by gulps, the chamomile flavor really began to make itself known in the background. Grasping to that familiar flavor like an anchor, I pressed on.

I think it’s perhaps the St. John’s Wort that I’m so unused to. Orange peel, yerba mate, stevia, and even natural guava flavor are all things I’ve encountered in the past. But St. John’s Wort is a bit of a newbie without a lot of appeal.

Yet at the end of my full mug, I came to the conclusion that, while I’ll prefer not to drink this when hot, I might like it iced. So, come the next brief warm spell before Fall truly sets in, I’m going to give it a whirl and I’ll let you know how it goes.

But I never answered my initial question, did I? What the heck IS Raizana? According to their own postcard, it “combines delicious flavors and the herbal properties that help promote good health.”

It’s herbal teas inspired by the herbal remedies the founders were fed as children by their mothers and grandmothers. With everything from the mood enhancing Happy Tea to a DigestTea for upset stomachs.

So if you’re into holistic healing and natural remedies and don’t mind a somewhat sweet flavor (especially tropical flavors), then this is the brand for you.

For me? Not so much. I feel like it could be fine every now and then, but won’t be regularly stocked in my cupboard.

So, on that note… haha. I’ve decided on a slightly new direction for Fun and FlirTea! I’m going to be a bit more focused on specific teas, reviews, etc. But in a fun way!

Sorry to keep this short just now, but it’ll be fun and we’ll get some good descriptive stuff up soon!

Instead, let’s focus on the little things that bring that extra bit of joy to your day to make it better.

To me, that has already been accomplished with the second to last cup of Scottish Breakfast from a tea company that has since gone out of business. Sad to see the end of the tin, but boy is it delicious!

Source

My heart simply melts!

Source

When I find myself in times of tea-rouble,
My sexy teapot comes to me,
Pouring cups of wisdom,
Let it tea…

I feel like I need to share this Woot Shirt with you all before it is no longer available for sale! If you’re a Tea-tles fan, then this shirt may just be for you.

You can find the original page for it right here. And while you’re at it… why not enjoy the Reckoning of other awesome t-shirts from Woot?

When I first heard from The Persimmon Tree, I admit I thought they would be another “tea” company that doesn’t actually carry tea, but some weird persimmon-based herbal remedies. I don’t have anything against persimmons, per se, but they aren’t my favorite fruit and I wasn’t exactly interested in soaking dried persimmons and flowers in hot water and drinking the result.

Thankfully for me, The Persimmon Tree really is a legit tea company with a pretty awesome variety available. There were more than a few teas I was interested in trying, so I provided a short list and let my contact decide which one to send out for review (thanks so much for the free sample, by the way!).

The 2 oz. sample tin of the Green Pomegranate tea is not only adorable, but will work wonders for any future refills.

I don’t always care for flavored teas. Most of the time, they are too sweet or have a weird after-taste or just have a weird flavor to begin with. When I opened this tea, the sweet pomegranate scent was pretty close to over-powering for me. On the plus side, it didn’t smell like a sugary, fake pomegranate flavor. And you can see the actual pomegranate bits mixed in with the green tea itself. So as much as I was worried, I wasn’t too concerned it would turn out to be a failure for me.

To get in the mood, I popped The Little Mermaid into my DVD player and started heating the water. Now, I can’t begin to explain why The Little Mermaid is a mood-setter for me, but right now it totally is. I’ll just say it has something to do with under the sea and water being good for making tea….

In any case. ONTO THE TEA! After brewing it, my fears of it being over-sweet were assuaged. With natural pomegranate flavoring, it mellows out very nicely once it’s been brewed and produces a generally solid flavor to enjoy.

Being a flavored tea, the taste of the actual green tea is somewhat hard to tease out, but it was pretty good. I wouldn’t say it’s the highest quality green tea I’ve had, but they certainly aren’t using a crappy tea and masking it with crappy fake flavor (something I’ve definitely come across before).

What I’d really like to try is making the Green Pomegranate tea as an iced tea. I think the sweetness will be especially nice and refreshing in that style. I may even infuse it into some vodka, since flavored vodkas are generally quite tasty when not made of sugar…

And then I could start coming up with fancy cocktails with it…

And then I could maybe even write a tea-infused liquor cocktail book…

And then I could TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

…Or not. Maybe I’ll just leave it at time to enjoy some more tasty tea!

Please, take a moment to sit back, relax, and enjoy my personal favorite Calming Manatee.

It’s been a while. I’m aware! Shit has gotten real with my work life and even picked up in my personal life (go me!). So I’ve been distracted. However, I’m going to be doing some updating to the site over the weekend that will allow me to get more awesome stuff posted again in the near future.

Plus! The actual website design is ALMOST done and the goal is for it to go live by the end of September at the latest! So look forward to that as well!

AMIRITE!?

In honor of the U.S. rebellion against Britain, I’m combining the heart of part of that rebellion with a key factor of what it means to be an American today. Getting hammered!

So here’s a step-by-step guide to making your own tea-infused vodka!

1. Start with a fifth of nice, unflavored vodka (750 mL) and 6 teaspoons of your black tea of choice (flavored or unflavored). I used a bottle of Absolut and a very nice Yunnan black tea I picked up in Dali, China. The nicer the vodka and the tea you use, the cleaner tea flavor you’ll get in the finished product. I’m totally going to try this again in future with a flavored tea and will definitely let you know how it is.

2. Pour the tea into the bottle of vodka. If you’re like me and don’t see the point in owning a funnel, use any old piece of shit junk mail you’ve got lying around. In my case, I fucking hate Comcast and their (lack of good) customer service, so I picked up one of their adverts without regret!

3. Let that sucker sit and stew for around 18 hours.

4. Strain that shit. Like a boss.

5. Clean out the bottle and pour it back in.

6. Optional: You can keep it straight up or add some simple syrup to taste. I prefer to keep mine unsweetened, because it’s easy to sweeten each drink individually as you make them.

7. Mix it up with some lemonade and enjoy what I like to call a Drunk Golfer!

The best part about it is how straight easy and cheap it is to do this. The bottle cost under $20, and the tea, well… you know just as well as I do that the pricing can vary depending on which tea you landed on. The time it takes you to put this together (not counting the 18 hour infusion time) is super minimal and anyone can do it!

After tasting it and agreeing that it’s delicious with a clear, tasty tea flavor, Briana and I have decided that our next step will be to make “Moroccan Tea Rum” for the best mojitos ever. More on that when we’ve had a chance to make it happen! In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy my black tea vodka!

Photography
First two images by Dinah, the rest are by the fabulous Briana Morrison.
For more photos from this experiment, check out Briana’s post here.

Bahaha! I’ve always loved that joke. At least I didn’t tell you the one about the interrupting starfish and smack you in the face, right?

Anyway, this is probably the single coolest Tea for Two I’ve ever seen. Once I get my hands on this set, I will have so many tea for two parties, it’ll be ridiculous. Also, thanks to Foodbeast for alerting me to the existence of this awesomeness!