Unusual Teas

Hi, I am new to this group. I think it is great to see so many tea drinkers. So often I am around people who only drink coffee.

What is the most unusual tea that you have tried? Was it good or is it to be avoided?

The most unusual tea I've tried is banana flavored tea. It was very good and I was unhappy when the store I got it from closed. I haven't been able to find it since.

You might try Banana Dulce from the Art of Tea (check online). It has chamomile, red tea, and coconut also for a tropical sort of groove, but very nice.

You'll find a zillion recommendations and tasting notes from amateur tea-ophiles at www.steepster.com.

Personal most unusual---a bagged chrysanthemum tea. Bleccch! Tasted like...dead flowers!

In Autumn, I buy a Stash brand black tea with pumpkin pie spices. Very nice (not overwhelmingly pumkpin pie) and a good cool weather tea.

Os.

Japense Gemicha - bis of toasted rice in with green tea! very odd. The rice overpowers the green teaness.

I've quite liked the chrysanthemum teas I've tried. But a similar one consisting of just dried rose buds was even nicer.

I love Gemicha! I am always on the lookout for unusual blends.. I have found some with Matcha as well as the green tea and rice, some that included soy beans or popped corn (or is it popped rice?) and some that included what look like little green peas. I once found a malted version as well. It can be hard to find Genmiacha that is not just rice and tea :)

As a result of looking at this thread, I visited Steepster, then headed over to 52teas.

I bought some Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Black Tea. Should be very interesting, to say the least.

Tazzo Passion Tea is amazing. The flavor just pops out with passion fruit. I like to sweeten it a bit with Agave. Starbucks sells it as well.

And the Passion tea turns such a beautiful purple; I like to drink it in a glass mug to admire it while I sip.

Dunno how unusual this is, but I thought it was fun---I bought a "Birthday cake" tea from somewhere, once. It was a black dessert tea with rainbow sprinkles in it :)

8: I would love to find a tea version of passion tea! My main problem with it right now is that it contains no real tea :( I need the tea part! :)

The weirdest tea I ever had is one I am still drinking and loving. It is a mixture of two blends, one containing white and green tea, the other based on mate and green rooibos, with a sheaf of spices and flavours including cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise, red peppercorns, and lemongrass. Our local Teavana store had it out for customers to sample, and I couldn't resist it.

>10 Bcteagirl:- I fully agree!

I had a box of Korean tea made from solomon seal root. I have used it as a decorative garden plant, but didn't know you could drink the toasted roots. It is apparently a traditional Chinese medicine treatment for something. The flavor was quite bland and slightly toasty.

That's a new one for me. I will have to check that one out at the Asian market. Thanks!

>10 Bcteagirl: I can't drink caffeine after 4 pm or I'm lying in bed at 11:30 wondering why I'm not sleeping. So I keep some decaf and tisane items like Passion around for late cups of hot goodness. Gracious, that last bit sounds naughtier than I intended.

I can understand that. Past about 10 I try to avoid caffeine as well. Usually I go for decaf tea, but I also occasionally enjoy Rooibus as an herbal infusion.

"I bought some Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Black Tea"

In some countries that would be a flogging offense.

Does anybody have any experience of "White Tea"? What's up with that?

I've had white pomegranate tea and it was quite bizarre to my taste. I've also had plain white tea and I have not figured out what makes it so special. It was very tannic for one - perhaps I let it steep too long. But then if I did not let it steep I found that it had very little of the taste I expect from tea.

17 > "Does anybody have any experience of 'White Tea'? What's up with that?"

White tea, black tea, and green tea are all leaves from the same plant. White tea is made from the bud of tea plant, black tea are heat dried leaves, and green tea are the leaves, steamed as they're dried so that it retains it's green colour. White tea is the mildest tasting of the three varieties and has the lowest caffeine content.

My favourite white tea blend is Numi's Orange Spice White Tea but to get a taste of what plain white tea is like you could try unblended white tea or "Silver Needles". Silver Needles is a select white tea from China that is unoxidized and uncured. Twoleavesandabud.com carries both varieties.

The most unusual tea I've ever had was Lapsang Soushong: a smoked black tea. It was so strong smelling I could barely get it past my nose. Never again!

The most unusually named tea I've had is "Better than Sex" from Tay. It's herbal - a rooibos with chocolate and mint. It IS amazing.

I've had some really good white teas, but it definitely takes some care to brew them. I've seen some white teas come with instructions to brew for 7-8 minutes. I usually brew mine for less than 2, with the same temperature water I'd use for green tea. I love silver needles, and Adagio's white blueberry.

So, ladygata, was it better, or wasn't it?

I almost forgot about flowering tea I had at a restaurant once. It was "Golden Jasmine and very tasty.

http://www.numitea.com/Golden-Jasmine/p/NUMI-20830&c=NumiTea@FloweringTea@Lo...

LR...I would say that's a matter of personal opinion. I enjoyed it...that's what she said!

I just ordered a sleeve of Hojicha from twoleavesandabud.com. It's roasted green tea leaves blended with the young stems of the tea plant. It's supposed to have a sweet but smoky flavour to it. I can't wait to try it.

The most unusual tea that I've had so far is Art of Tea's Amore, an organic white tea blend that contains white tea, wild roses, organic peppermint and other "natural flavorings." The peppermint scent is predominant upon brewing but the taste is absolutely wonderful. This used to be my go-to-tea when I suffered nausea from migraine headaches, but since I'm no longer allowed any teas (including decaf), I fondly sniff the tea canister from time to time.
I'm wondering if a herbal tisane blend with peppermint, rosehips and rooibos or honeybush would be as nice? Does anyone know of something close in the herbal tisane category? BTW, I also am prohibited from having any citrus, mango, papaya, pineapple, banana, grapes, plums, raisins and a host of other fruits due to the same dietary restrictions so even finding herbal tisanes that I can enjoy is limited (no more herbal Earl Grey)...bummer!

Ouch, BookDivasReads! That must be a real nuisance to deal with! I thought my list of restrictions was bad, but I can still have some of the ones you listed.

The list of restrictions is 2.5 pages long...the list of allowed food 1 page. Needless to say I'm finding it very difficult to find herbal tisanes to drink as most include ingredients I can no longer have (including chocolate...this doctor is a sadist!). I jest! I'm more than willing to try it for a few more months if the migraine episodes diminish. I'm anxiously awaiting any possible suggestions from my fellow tea drinkers; openly accepting loose-leaf and bagged tisane suggestions.

Is chamomile allowed, or to your taste? My sister hates it, but I like it, and it's been a godsend this last year.

Regrettably I cannot drink chamomile due to severe ragweed allergies. If an herbal tisane has a small amount of chamomile blended with other herbs I seem to tolerate it reasonably well but I can't drink only chamomile.

Upton Teas has a lot of nice rooibos blends.

Thanks ladygata...I'll have to give them a second look. I've purchased green tea from them in the past but haven't looked at them for rooibos blends.

Ah, too bad.

Well, Republic of Tea has some nice rooibos tisanes, including a green rooibos that I like, and Mariage Frères has a lovely vanilla flavored rooibos called Bourbon.

Orange pekoe is a traditional grade of black tea in southern Asia: it has nothing to do with orange flavour.

"The tea industry uses the term Orange Pekoe to describe a basic, medium-grade black tea consisting of many whole tea leaves of a specific size; however, it is popular in some regions (such as North America) to use the term as a description of any generic black tea."

So what you got is probably a good quality black leaf tea, either Indian or Ceylon: perhaps it was King Cole brand, which is sold both loose and in teabags.

>9 LipstickAndAviators: LipstickandAviators that sounds like an amazing tea!

I am about to drink (just trying it) a fennel and nettle tea which sounds weird but the other day i also had a strawberry and peppermint tea which was bizarre! Not sure I'll have it again

The nettle and Fennel tea is ok, not a strong tasting as I thought it would be, maybe it needs to brew for longer.

Egg nog tea its actually pretty good, taste almost like the real thing

Kenya’s Purple Tea Finds Buyers, Popularity (Voice of America)

Purple tea is starting to become popular in Kenya and in other countries although it is twice the price of traditional black tea. Kenya is the largest producer of black tea in the world. But black tea prices are low right now. Kenyan researchers developed the purple tea and released it to farmers in 2011. Tea farming is one of the largest industries in the Kenyan economy. The farmers hope purple tea, and other new varieties, can help them make more money from their land...

>39 John5918: - I Tried some of that a while ago. It was quite strong, but adding milk didn't work with the purple colour.

Blue butterfly pea flower tea has an amazing colour, incredibly vibrant blue.

https://theuklooseleafteacompany.co.uk/products/blue-tea-butterfly-pea-flower-te...

Doesn't taste like much on it's own, so you'd probably have to blend it with something gentle.

>40 reading_fox: There's supposedly some additional butterfly pea flower alchemy that happens when you add lemon, but I have not yet attempted it on my own.

This is a really nice blend that features pea flower along with some other very gentle herbal ingredients: https://cuppageekteas.com/shop/ols/products/parkers-evening-blend-st-jude-fundra...

>40 reading_fox:

I was in a mid-upmarket supermarket today doing the weekly grocery shopping and I spotted the purple tea so I bought a packet of teabags. I'd never seen it before, probably because I never knew it existed and the supermarket has put it with the herbal teas which I never bother to look at anyway. I've just brewed a cup. You're certainly right about the strange colouring when you add milk. I can't say I'm impressed. It's drinkable (but then any tea that is warm and wet is "drinkable") but I find it very weak and bland.