Shepherd's Tea (AKA The Shepher'd Garden)

Paired with a 3 1/2" tall Rushmore-sized slab of lemon cream pie from Big R’s barbecue, the cranberry-orange flavor really pops. Proof that pie makes everything better.

This is a nice, gentle, bagged rooibos. Not too tart; leans more to the cranberry side. Just a little hint of orange. Was perfect with a slice of lemon poppyseed bread and a Saturday night bluegrass gospel fix with the wind rustling the leaves outside.

I just flew several thousand imaginary miles with a pack of 7-year-olds, and boy, are my arms tired. (Sorry, couldn’t resist. We went everywhere with our wings up and that’s not as easy as it sounds ;)

Fortunately, I have the afternoon off, have my feet up in the back yard—it’s a chilly 89 today—and have this good fruity herbal to chill out with. Did an overnight steep in the fridge, and it came out tangy rather than painfully tart. Maybe a little more cranberry than orange, but it’s a pretty even contest. I may sleep on it and decide later…

Since I made Shepherd’s Pie I thought some Shepherd’s Tea would be a fitting pairing!

This is really good! The white tea steeps to a nice light orange color, which always amazes because in my head white tea=almost clear tea. The peach flavor is natural tasting and the bit of licorice root is really, really nice.

Thank you, GMATHIS, for this surprise tea that came to my house day before yesterday! :)

Review’s posted: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2716/tea-review-shepherds-tea-organic-peach-white-tea/

White teas are, on my wishy-washy and consistently inconsistent rating scale, my lesser favorites, but this one was surprisingly pleasant and flavorful.

Just wrote this one up for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, so I won’t repeat, but it’s nicely done. I’m usually a little leery of teas marketed largely on the basis of packaging—in this case a Scripture verse on each tag—but this is tasty and would be a nice and thoughtful gift tea, especially for a newbie or non-teaophile.

The box provides steeping instructions for sun tea, which I have none of (warm sunshine) to try. But for now, it’s fruity, naturally sweet, and a little bit of spring in a cup. Spring is coming, yes?

The name of this tea brings to mind memories of Christmas fruit cake. While fruit cake tea would be a wild concoction, the focus now is on this Cranberry Orange Rooibos from Shepherd’s Tea.

I have commented in the past on the uniqueness of Shepherd’s Tea and how they include Bible verses on the paper tab of each teabag. Thus, I shall not again comment on this, though I nod to the originality of the idea. Out of its packaging, this tea almost smells like a spiced cider, such as one might find around the holidays. Adding the bag to a cup of freshly boiled water releases the aroma of much orange peel and perhaps a few other spices.

Giving the tea five minutes to steep, I enjoy the warm scents wafting from the cup. There is a certain tang, from the cranberry, more than likely, that arises from this brew. Too hot to drink immediately, I wait a few moments for the liquid to cool slightly. The flavor is intriguing. While the cranberry and orange tastes do not seem overwhelmingly strong, the flavor of the rooibos itself certainly takes a backseat to the fruits. The certain spiciness that was quite apparent in the aroma has also found a subdued place within the flavor of the brew.

While this cup relaxes and satisfies, I feel as though something is missing from it. The flavors are all in place and taste great, but it seems as though this tea aught to be more bold than it is now. On my personal enjoyment scale, I give it an 80/100.

Milk and sugar!

This was meh-okay, and I am not terribly sad that it is all gone now.

Drink-down!

Feels like a chai morning! Also feels like an I’m-about-to-fall-asleep-at-my-desk morning.

Chai green tea sounded very intriguing when I first heard of it. It is definitely not something that is very common, at least in my area. I like chai pretty well, so I figured this was worth a shot. The box says to steep one teabag in nearly-boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Hmm, that does not sound like normal green tea to me. This is exciting! I love that the side of the box gives all sorts of suggestions for how to add zest to this tea: agave, other sweeteners, pumpkin pie spice, using half water and half milk, etc. I choose to go with just water to begin, and I steep the single teabag for four minutes in eight ounces of water that might not have been “nearly boiling,” but was definitely of the right temperature for green tea.

So much spicy aroma wafts up from the cup. It smells delicious, almost reminding me more of a traditional American Thanksgiving more than another chai. The scent is definitely less heavy than a chai with black tea. The first sip reminds me of pumpkin pie…and not much else. I get a lot of spicy flavors, which are delectable…but no tea. It is a decent drink, but it seems to be lacking some major components in the taste department. I think I will try steeping it longer and adding some sugar.

The second time, I steeped the tea a few minutes longer and then added in a bit of honey before quaffing the cup. The addition of honey just stacked the mild flavor of honey on top of the blandness. This was really disappointing. I might continue to use this tea as a mixer with other green tea, just to add in some spiciness, but it is hardly worth drinking on its own. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give this tea a 47/100.

On the go!

I must admit that I love the smell of peach teas. This peach white tea is no exception. After removing the teabag from the plastic packaging, the whiff of peaches hits my nose, and I inhale deeply, enjoying the, thankfully, not-perfume-y aroma of fresh peaches.

Heating some water to the proper temperature for white tea (not near boiling, as the website for this tea suggests, I take a look at the packaging. Relatively simple with little flair or flash, each teabag tag has a Bible verse on it. While this may work well for serving tea at church luncheons, my past experience has suggested that such teas are more novel than actual quality. Hopefully, this one will not be the same!

Four minutes of steeping, as per the website’s suggestion, provides an aromatic cup that smells much less strongly of peaches than did the dry, bagged leaves. The smell of white tea blends with the smell of peaches and actually complements it quite nicely. I found the taste of this tea interesting. It is quite crisp and clean, again hinting that the peach flavor is not overwhelming the flavor of the white tea. That in and of itself definitely gets major bonus points from me.

This is one peach white tea that I will certainly be recommending, especially to people who still enjoy using teabags. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it an 83/100.

Funny coincidence: My 666th tea tasting note on Steepster was for a teabag with a Bible verse on it…

Meh.

This smells artificial and almost sour. The flavor of the fennel, cinnamon, and nutmeg are NOT tasty. I cannot taste the vanilla at all. I can’t taste the black pepper either but that’s ok because the spices I can taste aren’t very good. I can’t taste the green tea either…just a weird combo of the spices. Thankfully the spices aren’t too intense.

Not really my cup. Sorry.

This brews darker for a stand-alone herbal peppermint tisane. The bag out of the package is potently-peppermint. The aroma is still alive but not as strong once steeped. It tastes like green peas and mint. It’s a lovely mint at that. It’s a satisfying cuppa!

Just as Yogi Tea features Yogic Wisdom and Insight…these bags have King James Version Bible Verses on them. The one I am drinking at the moment is from Hebrews 4:12.

One other thing I did pick up on was that it’s a warming peppermint. The warm lingers…like a spice spice would warm on a cold night…

Yes…this is a good peppermint bagged offering! Tasty!