apple – Here's the Tea

Hello hello, we have been inactive far too long! So we’re back with a vengeance and a lot of teas. Today, you’re stuck with a Geeves coming off an anxiety high, which includes subpar photography.

Today’s tea: Purple Summer Fling! This tea comes to us courtesy of my Seattle trip, from Steepologie teas. I have to be honest, this is one of the nicest stores I’ve ever been in. The walls are lined with shelves of canisters, equipped with tiny bottles to sniff the tea! When you find your tea, bring the canister to the counter and they’ll pack it out for you. They also offer individual cups of any tea! I was the only person in the store, along with one employee, so I felt like the service was good, although she didn’t know very much about the tea I chose, which is understandable because a) she was new, b) there’s like 500 teas, and c) I know a lot more about tea than many people. A word of caution: I have heard that online orders don’t always go well, and customer service RE: shipping is not great. But mostly people like the business, so here we go!

Geeves’ Tasting Notes:

Maggie has never had this tea. So these are me, purely on my own here (ahhhhhhh)
8/10
This tea is a fruity purple tea. Purple tea is from Kenya, is a new thing, and more info can be found on our technical site, teastory.home.blog.
So I came into this thinking it was gonna be like a vibrant purple, but it was a lowkey light pink. Which, for a leaf that looks like black tea, is cool! But it is pink, so the farmers need to learn colors.
My qualms about this tea is the ingerdiants: apple, pineapple, rosehips, blueberries, cranberries, orange peel, strawberry slices, elderberry, caledula, lemon myrtle, pina colada extract. It’s A LOT of stuff. So much stuff, I can’t even get individual flavors.

Purple Summer Fling

And actually, I fully believed I was getting a strong apricot flavor. There’s not even any apricot! On second consideration, it tastes like canned fruit cocktail in tea. Which I personally would be very interested in having…
Anyway, since I gave up drinks with sugar for Lent, this is the sweetest thing I’ve tasted in a while. The tea does give it a little of a sour/bitter note, but not in a bad way. Although it could just be fruit. (I swear to god, the bag is like 50/50, tea and fruit)
It’s $16 per 2oz, so that’s steep (because it’s steepologie) but whatever. I’m cool with it, it was a noveltea.
In all, it tasted more like a tisane than a tea. But you know who loves tisanes? THIS GIRL. So, I liked it quite a lot.

Here is your link, if you should be interested.

Thanks for joining us!

XO, Geeves (Maggie currently is singing in a concert, whoo!)

Hello, it’s Geeves again! My next stop on my tea trip (I wasn’t there for tea, I was actually in town for a symphony) was to Perennial Tea Room. They were very easy to shop; a small store, pretty empty on a rainy day, but very cute with knowledgeable employees. I asked the man what teas were special to their store, and he recommended a few black teas as well as some fun fruity ones.

I chose Turkish Blend because it smelled great and seemed new and exciting for me! Apple, rose petal, and apricot are apparently all common in Turkish teas, and this one had no shortage of those ingredients on a black tea base.

Geeves’ Thoughts:

7.5/10
For a fruit tea, I’m tasting more blackness than fruit, so I’m not a big fan of that.
As a hot tea, the rose flavor is an aftertaste and the fruit is weak. Three hours later, the fruit actually becomes much more powerful, so I’d say I prefer it cold. I need my flavors really strong because my taste sensors are damaged (I can’t tell regular crackers and bacon flavor crackers apart), and sadly this one wasn’t quite that.

Maggie’s Thoughts:

6/10
I’m a HOE for apricot. I got a little bit of aaaaapricot, and some ROSE!!, but not very much apple. like a silent polite apple maybe vibe
I will say though that I really enjoy this tea iced (an odd thing coming from me you might come to find)
Over Ice: 8.5/10; when it’s cold (like one you can crack open with the boys) you reaLLLYYY get more of the promised fruitiness and the rose takes a step down from her spotlight. Regretful, but neccccesssssary (attempts to spell necessary and fails miserably)
It wasn’t too light though. The tea base was sufficient to carry the flavors, and got a little bit stronger when left to sit. All the more reason why ice is the ‘Way To Go’ with this one. (Cue Ice Ice Baby)
It was still a good price for the quality of tea. $8.5 for 2oz is definitely not bad, and I’m sure the more you buy, the cheaper the cost.
One place I really see this tea shining is at a spring party over ice for everyone, which is probably why I’m not super digging it. As I am on Winter Mode (it dropped below 60F and I’m a delicate San Diego flower), I think this is a tea that will deserve a revisit come the Spring Times.

TLDR:

Rating: 7.5/10
Tasting Notes: black tea with a lot of fruits and hint of floral, and fruitier when cold.
Pricing: Fair, $8.5/2oz
Recommendation: Would reorder in Spring!

Purchase here from the most organized small business in Seattle!

Happy drinking!

Geeves & Maggie