The NecessiTeas

This tea was really, really tasty, so I really, really hope it wasn’t what gave me such an awful stomachache last night….

1st infusion: 4 1/4 minutes, near-boiling water
Liquor a bright amber and the smell is very floral and fruity. The taste however…while I am getting floral and fruity I am also getting smoke. Probably shouldn’t have used the yixing pot for this, this oolong is too different from the Amethyst I last used in the pot.

2nd infusion: 5 3/4 minutes, near-boiling water
The liquor is a bright honey-gold and the smoke has nearly disappeared leaving a pleasantly fruity, floral flavor.

3rd infusion: 6 minutes, near-boiling water
Whilt the liquor is the same color as before the taste is much lighter and the fruit has nearly disappeared leaving the floral note to dominate.

I’m not going to rate this until I can try it without the yixing pot.

I thought that this seemed like a fun tea to drink with my toddler and since this is caffeine free I jumped all over it during iHeartTeas’ selloff sale (thanks go to her for getting it to me so quickly!) My son took his first sip and his eyebrows went up, then a few seconds later the entire 8 oz cup was gone. This tea is officially toddler approved!

I was impressed when I opened the canister and it smelled like root beer with a hint of rooibos. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I purchased this, especially since I don’t care for rooibos. I was shocked and amazed that I actually enjoyed this myself, the rooibos worked really well with the root beer flavoring.

I did decide that it seemed a little odd to drink warm so I didn’t bother, this one was immediately served over ice, which in my opinion was a very wise move. I think this could have easily made it on the ‘teas I don’t really care for’ list had I started with it warm.

This one comes from TastyBrew! I figured I’d brew some of this up as a little celebration of being done with midterms!

This one smells heavenly! I love cheesecake and I love blueberries, and both of these aspects are present in the smell. The cheesecake aspect is dead on…I have no idea how they managed that, but it’s so good. There is also a buttery scent which is delightful! The blueberry is nice and sweet smelling, and the green base adds to this sweetness while providng a slight vegetal scent. I want to eat this tea!

Taste: The first steep was very sweet and creamy. Nice buttery notes, as well as cream cheese notes. Yum! The blueberry is very light here, but the notes I’m picking up are sweet and fresh! The vegetal aspect of the green tea is also subtle, and adds an interesting aspects to the flavor profile. Overall, I’d say this one is a win – it’s definately cheesecake-y!

The second steep is rather diluted, and definately more green tea based than the previous one. The blueberry seems absent here, but the cream cheese/cheesecake aspect is still present. This one is more savory than sweet.

Thanks again, TastyBrew for sending this nice blend my way! I’m really enjoying it!

I’m anxiously awaiting some tea from Butiki that the USPS site says will be here tomorrow. Yay! In the mean time, I’m kind of bored with all my flavored teas. I had another Sweet Almond Tea with a bit of steamed milk and honey simply because I haven’t had it all that often. But it will be going back on the shelf for awhile. Two days in a row is a bit much for that one. On the plus side, I had a ton of left over steamed milk so my 3.5 year old asked if I could make him a “tea” drink. I added some honey to the milk and a lot cinnamon and we had a little tea party. With the little Bean pouring us some pretend tea out of her fisher price tea pot. All in all, a great way to have tea.

I just made this. A nice afternoon treat on a rainy portland day! If you like almond, you can’t go wrong with this tea. It really does have sweet flavor to it, but doesn’t taste fake either. I really enjoyed it. I added a little raw honey and some steamed milk and made a latte out of it. Really good stuff. If you like almond, of course.

I believe this one was from Keen Thanks so much! It was a nice change from a straight-up colada as well as a nice twist on Tropical and Cherry! The flavor goes well with the green base and the colada or the coconut is upfront with the cherry as a close 2nd. Satisfying!

I received this in a holiday swap from KittyLovesTea. Thank You!
The dry tea smells like rich, fresh coconut and is quite pretty to look at as well! It smells pretty sweet too.

The first sip wasn’t as sweet as a expected which is a nice change from the usual flavored teas. It tastes like buttery smooth coconut fresh from the shell!This would be a good afternoon tea to sip at work.I drank half and put the other half of my cup in the fridge. I can’t wait to see what it tastes like iced!

My first reaction to this tea was “Wow look at the size of those blueberries!”. The tea itself is green based and as Geoffrey Norman pointed out it looks like Sencha with massive blueberries mixed in.

Once brewed the tea soup is a pale yellowish green that smells of very much like blueberry cheesecake. No idea how but it truly does.

First sip and I can taste the blueberries which are sweet and slightly tart but there is something in the background that does have a cakey/pie effect. A sort of biscuity flavour, slightly buttery and toasty and sweet. I would agree that this is blueberry cheesecake in smell and taste and the best thing is it’s all natural and I have not had to add any sweetener to complete the flavours.

The buttery effect becomes stronger but the gentle blueberries remain to compliment it. A very nice tea and possibly one of the nicest dessert tea’s I have tried.

I have a small sample of this tea (around 4 cups worth) thanks to an iheartteas sampler pack.

The raw tea smells like natural coconut (sweet and fresh) and the colour combination of ingredients is pleasant to look at. I note seeing curls of dried coconut in the blend.

Once brewed this smells very similar to Whittard of Chelsea’s – Pina Colada instant tea drink. For those of you who have not had that tea before it’s very sweet smelling and very coconutty, it adds a touch of tropical sunshine to an otherwise dull and rainy day.
The colour is dark golden red.

Taste wise this is very nice but is not as sweet as the smell. The coconut is somewhat creamy and fresh, slightly buttery too. There is an edge of strength when you take a sip but it gets over ridden quickly, like a sharp bitterness at the back of the throat that lasts a second before it vanishes.

The coconut gets a little stronger with each sip but still remains creamy and fresh. One of the better coconut flavoured teas that I have tried as it keeps it’s flavour throughout the cup. I think it would be a completely different tea with a little sugar but in a yummy way, to suit a particularly sweet mood. For now I am happy to have it virginal (no sweetener, creamers etc).

Overall a tasty blend. I am on a break from work so I will sit back, close my eyes and imagine I am laying on a warm beach and sipping from a coconut shell…better than the cold, wet and dark England weather approaching for winter.

Here’s proof that I’m not a hoity-toity, oolong orthodoxical tea purist. I loved the smell of this stuff right on opening the bag. It smelled like Vanilla Coke. No joke. (Cheesy rhyme WIN!)

However, I could not – in good conscience – prepare it like a normal rooibos. No sir. I had to latte the s**t out of it. And it worked quite swimmingly that way. A great capper to a busy (and tea-filled) day.

Full review: Pending on www.teaviews.com

Thank you again Rachel for this delightful sample. This one smelled exactly like root beer float! I love it! I also love that this is rooibos blend. I added some milk and sugar to it to see if it would enhance the flavor and it did! They brought out the creaminess and flavor. Delicious! I need to buy a large size of this tea and try this cold!

A while back, I had tried a vanilla cola-flavored rooibos. A tea (in the loose sense of the word) replacement for soda? Absurd, but maybe it would work, as it was quite good. Well, The NecessiTeas has done something along those same lines…now tea can replace our deserts! Much more healthy and just as tasty…or is it? Time to find out!

One teaspoon of this in eight ounces of water, freshly boiled and steeped for five minutes. The smell is incredibly spicy, almost sharp. But after the steeping, the spiciness is very smooth. I take my first sip, and while I don’t feel like the taste is as strong as the smell, it definitely goes down very smooth. Not only as tasty as carrot cake, but it makes the flavor easy to enjoy (no chewing!) This tea is definitely worth checking out. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it an 89/100.

Wow…the smell of this tea is great! It truly does smell exactly like vanilla cola. Yet this is the part where my mind catches up with my nose and hits me over the head, telling me to stop and think for a moment: Vanilla cola tea? As in…a hot liquid that tastes like vanilla cola? (I must be careful here to not call rooibos “tea,” for the sake of the tea-political correct.) While my mind is still trying to make a judgement call about whether or not it likes the idea of hot vanilla cola, my body forges ahead into the unknown to investigate and make some of this interesting mix.

It truly is a mix, according to the label. Rooibos, vanilla chips, and “natural flavors” come together in some magical manner to emulate the smell of this carbonated drink…minus the carbonation! Steeping is incredibly straightforward. 1 teaspoon per eight ounces of boiling water. I double this for my teapot and steep the blend for the recommended five minutes.

I had mentioned that the loose blend smells entirely of vanilla cola. Upon removing the infuser from my teapot, I catch my first whiff of the prepared drink…and now I get more variety to the aroma. The rooibos smell is much more prominent, the cola scent itself is there, and the vanilla laces the whole of the aromatic profile. Still charging onward with this endeavor, I pour my first cup and sit back to sip.

The taste of the brew is not as strange as I had anticipated. The rooibos comes through heavily in the flavor, causing this tea to be better described as “vanilla-flavored rooibos with light hints of cola.” The first thought that comes to my mind is “Well, this is fun.” The spiciness (meant, theoretically, to emulate the cola) adds a nice touch. Having experienced great vanilla rooibos in the past, this twist was novel and tasty.

Overall, this rooibos definitely made for an enjoyable and fun experience to try. If you like vanilla rooibos, or even rooibos in general, I highly recommend checking out The NecessiTeas Vanilla Cola. I would give it an 83/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

This black tea blend is a delight. The quality of the peppermint is obvious from the moment the hot water touches the tea and leaves. But on the tongue, the mint is so crisp, clean and fresh tasting that it made me remember what a huge difference there really is between natural fresh ingredients and the mass produced, boxed and processed “flavorings” we’ve become so accustomed to drinking.

The soothing mint is the predominant flavor, but it does not hide the lovely cocoa flavor. This is not, however, a “hot chocolate” drink, it is a rich black tea with a heady aroma and flavor of real peppermint, supported by just the right amount of chocolatey warmth.

It has become one of my very favorite morning teas, especially on cold mornings. The mint opens my eyes, the black tea revs my metabolism and chocolate makes me smile. A good way to start a day!

When I was growing up, my father loved cheesecake-flavored ice cream. Specifically blueberry cheesecake ice cream. So this aroma makes me nostalgic. And drool. Because oh my goodness! This tea smells amazing! Creamy, cheesy, and fruity. I almost want to nibble on the tea leaves it smells so amazing. And there are GIANT blueberries included in the leaf. It’s beautiful!

Brewing it, it turns into a very light yellow brew, with a light, beautiful aroma. It’s the same blueberry-cheesecake-y goodness as the leaf, albeit a lot more delicate and light. Unsweetened, I got a lot of the bright, berry flavor. Sweetened, it was lovely. To me, the green tea flavor is, not particular strong or stand-out, but the blueberry, and a cakey/cheesy flavor are there, and they’re lovely. It was a lot lighter and more delicate taste than one might anticipate from the aroma of the leaf. But it’s very very yummy. And I got a second brew out of it, which is surprising for a flavored tea.

Lovely tea. I think I’ll be seeking this out again.

from http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2571/tea-review-the-necessiteas-blueberry-cheesecake/

OMG, how do these people do it? This tastes just like strawberry cheesecake! No joke! I can pick up the green tea base, and that unmistakeable strawberry cheesecake flavour! The NecessiTeas rock, and so does Jenn for including this one in my care package.

ETA: I even over-steeped this one by accident (shiny thing) and it is still ok! And I love how big the leaves get when steeped!

Sip down…I used the last bit of my sample to make iced tea with yesterday. I either had too much tea or steeped it too long or the water wars too hot as I found it a bit bitter at first. I sipped enough of it down to add more ice cubes to melt in the hot tea and dilute it some. That helped. It was pretty good for an iced tea…I just have trouble properly brewing green tea in general. Theres always something wrong and it is bitter. Or too weak.

I’m glad I had this last bit iced. It was refreshing and I can’t get over how much like sherbet it actually tastes like. A-mazing!

OMG, this smells, just like the real thing! It’s incredible! It’s just like the fruity sherbet from the store. I’m trying it initially without sugar, but I usually take tea with some level of sweetener. Still a bit too hot, but I can smell it for a little longer before I try this…I don’t want to burn my tongue again.

Be back in a bit with more on the taste, but if it smells this good in the cup, how can it not be good in the mouth? :P

EDIT:

Ok, so…SO DELISH! Thanks to Jenn for thinking to send this one to me!

I decided to try this one tonight, on a whim, because I have my H&M sweater on today, and it is sort of lime sherbet green in colour, and I thought this might be a nice mental pick me up today, after having had a rough patch recently. Friday was so horrible, I fired it.

I can only imagine how AWESOME this tea is in the summer, iced. I am totally into how summery I feel drinking this in winter. It sure is a cheery mood brightener!