The NecessiTeas

Very sweet and somewhat syrupy. Spicy, full flavour. Not so strong it overpowers, but rich and unsubtle. Cloves mostly in the finish, which I like. One of the better cinnamon teas I’ve had.

Check out our video-review here: http://healthyprofessionals.blog.com/2011/07/06/the-tea-show-episode-18-the-necessiteas-strawberry-lemonade/

Check out my video-review here: http://healthyprofessionals.blog.com/2011/06/20/the-tea-show-episode-14-the-necessiteas-cafe-latte/

Check out our video-review here: http://healthyprofessionals.blog.com/2011/06/15/the-tea-show-episode-12-the-necessiteas-strawberry-cheesecake/

One of the teas I sometimes want, it’s got a nice creamy strawberry aroma, and a nice strawberry flavor, although it’s a bit of a heavy flavor. Holds up very well with cream and sugar.

This might be the first green tea I’ve tried that I like. A really, really nice, sweet strawberry aroma, and a mellow strawberry flavor that overrides the bitterness of the green tea. (Also tried with honey powder, but didn’t affect the sweetness.)

One of my new favorites: Smells delicious, like a peppermint pattie. Liked it even better when I added half and half and sugar to it; brought out really creamy milky chocolate notes and a lovely subtle minty aroma.

I love Earl Grey; it’s my favorite blend. I also enjoy it when blended with lavender or vanilla / creme notes. I enjoyed this blend as well; I steeped mine for 5 minutes, and in the future would add 2 teaspoons per 8-ounce serving. Really nice Earl Grey and cream aroma; held up well with milk and sugar.

The blueberries are so huge. I absolutely love the fresh juicy flavor I get. I think the green tea base allows the creaminess and the blueberry flavor to shine so much more. This will make it into my permenant tea cabinet. Delicious!

As far as teas that taste exactly like what they are intended to mimic, this one totally hits its mark. The package says no additional sweeteners are necessary, but I’m the habit of adding milk/cream and sugar in everything. I did sip it first, and was mostly overpowered by cinnamon but not a lot of sweetness. I think it would actually be better without the milk, but my picky tastebuds love some extra sugar.

I can taste hints of clove that remind me of a strong chai, but overall I think this reminds me most of Celestial Seasonings “Tiger Spice” (which I’ve taken to calling tiger blood, lol) only taken down a few notches on the strongness front. Tiger spice is way more overpowering and so strong it makes me feel the need to sneeze. Cinnamon bear gives me a nice mix of that cinnamon flavor without being too overwhelming. It’s definitely not subtle by any means, but with a couple spoons of sugar it’s pretty awesome. next time I’ll do without the milk, because I think it adds a weird flavor note that doesn’t go well with the cinnamon, but for those who may find this too strong, a bit of cream or milk might help. I’m not sure if a different kind of milk might work better with this tea (almond? coconut?) but I will experiment a bit.

Overall, I like it and if you’re a fan of tiger spice but think it may be too strong, try this one. Its totally like biting into a cinnamon bear gummy.

Continuing on my quest to find all the wonderful milk oolongs that are hiding out there…

Today’s Milk Oolong was from The NecessiTeas. It’s scent isn’t quite as strong as other milk oolongs, however, the characteristics are there. This is a milk-infused oolong, which I like because I’d be ever so happy to have a tea that can be reproduced instead of relying on serendipity to provide me with a brilliant milk oolong producing weather event somewhere in Asia. It smells buttery, nutty and somewhat like popcorn.

195/3.5 minutes – For a milk-infused oolong, this is pretty good! It’s not as intense as some of the others I’ve tried, but it’s still really nice. It’s a medium oolong, nutty, buttery, and fairly rich. I think a bit of additional time would make it much more solid. The second steep is pretty good, too. The milkiness hasn’t faded too much and the popcorn taste that I’ve come to love is also present. I did increase the time by 1.5 minutes over the first steep, though.

Another backlog:
This was a gift but from what I can tell, it is no longer available. I think I know why… I like Jasmine tea when the mood strikes me and more often, I like vanilla teas. So, I have nothing against these flavors. However combined, they formed an unholy alliance that seems to explain why the blend is no longer available. I have given high marks to so many teas I really wondered if I would find any I just did not care for. Now I have…
If anyone wants to try it, send me a message, you are welcome to the remainder of the sample.

This is a truly great tea. Very creamy and buttery tasting. I am definitely getting the toasted coconut flavor from it. It’s kind of like a milk oolong with coconut. I may need to buy some of this when my sample runs out. Prepared with stevia.

I really like this one. The aroma from the dry blend is VERY SWEET. However, the prepared cup is quite nice. The name of blend says it all. Think candied almonds or syrupy ones like you might find on a sticky bun. Good plain, with milk, and with or without a touch of sugar. I found it to be rich, sweet and satisfying. A great dessert tea to curb a sweet carb craving.

This tea smells very tart and tangy, which I kind of expected anyway considering it’s pomegranate.
195/2min
Now, the scent is stronger and when I taste it, it’s very, very tart. A bit too tart. I can’t really taste the tea as much as I would like to. It’s definitely overwhelmed by the flavoring. I think it would be improved by strengthening the tea and lightening up on the flavor.

When one looks for a tea, the last thing they’re thinking is “I want to drink CAKE!” Well, NecessiTeas will help you rethink that leaning. Then again, I’m always thinking about cake, so I’m probably not the best judge. That said, this green tea blend is exactly as it purports to be. The pineapple chunks are huge, and the natural flavors don’t mute on spashdown. Tall praise for a blend.

Full review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/03/16/review-the-necessiteas-pineapple-upside-down-cake-4/

The taste of carrot was actually hard for me to detect. Sweetening this, however, gave a flavor reminiscent of the natural sweetness of carrots. The spice of the cinnamon and clove is predominant, but I actually did not find the spiciness to be overpowering. In similarly spiced teas I’ve tried the cloves usually take over and mask everything else. Here the spices are well-balanced, especially once the brew is sweetened. After swallowing there is a syrupy aftertaste, like molasses. I am actually reminded a little of raisin, even though there aren’t any raisins in this blend as far as I could tell. Actually, as a whole, this tisane reminds me more of oatmeal-raisin cookies than it does carrot cake. Not that that’s a bad thing; I like oatmeal raisin cookies!

Definitely let this steep for a good long time, and enjoy with a splash of milk or cream and your sweetener of choice!

This was also part of a swap, thanks Mel!

This is a very enjoyable rooibos. I didn’t taste the cake flavor, but all the spices are there. Adding a bit of milk even hinted at the frosting. A clever idea for a tea, and I give it a thumbs up.

This is a really interesting flavored tea! I first tried an amaretto-flavored custom bend from Adagio, which has inspired me to hunt down other teas with almond flavor. I’d heard good things about this company, so thought I’d give this a shot.

The dry leaves smell like sweet, strong marzipan. I notice the previous reviewer mentioned seeing what look like coconut flakes mixed in with the leaves. I’m not 100% sure what they are – wish The Necessiteas mentioned them in their description – but I suspect they might actually be bits of dried marzipan.

At any rate, this tea does have a nice almond flavor. The aroma of the dry leaf was a bit too strong, but it calmed down once the tea was steeped. This is definitely a cream-and-sugar tea; without the sugar the bitterness of the black tea clashes a bit with the almond.

Worth a try if you like marzipan.

Wow, is this strong or what? As soon as I poured this tea I was bathed in the aroma of jasmine. Normally I have to put my nose almost to the cup to get the full of aroma of the tea, but from this one the jasmine was just wafting from the cup. The taste was similarly strong; the jasmine lingered in my mouth after I was done sipping.

I can imagine that some people might complain about not being able to taste much of the green tea. It’s true, the jasmine is a little overpowering. But honestly I’m not complaining. This is kind of something I would need to be in the mood for, but when I do have a hankering for a good floral tea I’d be happy to reach for this.