Fruit | Russtea's

Ultimate Flavoured Matcha Comparison, Find Out Which Are The Best!

4th May 2017

I love matcha! it’s the best breakfast boost I’ve ever found, there’s nothing better to get you through that groggy morning feeling.
I’ve noticed flavoured matcha popping up more and more, my collection keeps on growingso I thought I’d do a flavoured matcha comparison post!

I won’t actually rank them or anything, don’t wanna be mean! 😛 I’ll just give you a general run down of my thoughts about each one and they’ll be in no particular order.

I made sure I used my matcha measuring spoon to ensure all the flavours were made with an equal amount of matcha. I really recommend it if you want to enjoy your matcha at it’s best, it’s really good quality and still looks great after a couple of years use!

T2 Tea Cinnamon Matcha

T2’s unflavoured matcha is really good, I find T2 products always deliver! I was excited to find that they’d made flavoured matcha and I reached out to them to see if they would like to be included in my comparison. First impressions were good, amazingly presented and smells awesome. The flavour was just as good as the smell, with a perfect blend of matcha and lusciously sweet cinnamon. Also incredibly frothy which is something I always enjoy in my matcha! Read my full review of T2’s Cinnamon Matcha. Can’t wait to try some of their other flavours and add them to this comparison! 😀

Bluebird Tea Co. Orange Matcha
The first thing I noticed upon opening the tin is the smell, it’s mind-blowing, like freshly squeezed orange juice. This must be because it actually has orange peal and orange oil in it, which gives it an intensely refreshing zesty flavour. It’s good because it’s not over flavoured, you still know it’s matcha but it just has the lush addition of the orange flavour.

It’s really really frothy, I mainly use an electric milk frother rather than a traditional whisk and the froth is wonderful. It’s very reasonably priced at £15 for 30g (at the time of writing), making it one of the cheaper options and you do get a lot of drinking for that £15.
It’s a good choice for anybody that wants the health benefits of matcha (you must of heard about them by now!), but aren’t fond of the natural taste of it.

Tea Shop Strawberry Matcha

I found this while travelling when I stumbled in to a tea shop we randomly found in Barcelona. It has a really nice strawberry flavour that is just right, it’s not so sweet that it overpowers the matcha flavour but it’s definitely strawberry flavoured. It has a bit of a pink hue to the froth, which I assume is from whatever they use to flavour it. This is possibly the one that still has the natural matcha flavour the most which could be a good or bad thing depending on your preference.

It’s got a slightly powdery feeling to it, I’m not really sure why, it possibly doesn’t blend as easily as others. Tea Shop make pineapple, cherry and caramel as well as a couple others that are included below!

Adagio Teas Raspberry Matcha

Adagio were awesome enough to send me their raspberry matcha and their chocolate matcha (more on the chocolate further down! ;). This is the first Raspberry flavoured matcha I’ve found and I sure was glad to find it! It smells amazing and the tins Adagio use for their flavoured matchas are stunning.
The raspberry scent explodes from the tin before the lid is even removed and multiplies as you fully open it. What I liked most is that the raspberry flavour doesn’t taste artificial at all, it’s really impressive how genuine the succulent raspberry flavour has been captured in this matcha’s dry powder form. Full review here.

Yunomi – Azuma Chocolate Flavoured Matcha Latte

This isn’t technically flavoured matcha, it’s a flavoured instant matcha latte mix. I love matcha lattes but I find them hard to get when I’m out and about and I’m a bit too lazy to make them at home much. This is where these matcha latte mixes from Yunomi come in, simply add water and you have a matcha latte!

I’ve been a fan of the unflavoured matcha latte mix that Yunomi have for a while now so I was super excited to try the flavoured ones. The chocolate one is definitely my favourite, it smells simply amazing and really does add a nice milk chocolate sweetness to the latte and the convenience of these mixes is amazing! Full review of chocolate, ginger and yuzu matcha latte mixes here.

Pure Chimp Lemon Matcha

This is one of the most reasonably priced flavoured matchas I found as you get 50g which is more than most others. The smell is crazy strong, I was expecting a zingy lemon scent but it’s actually a really nice sweet lemon fragrance.

The flavour is also very sweet lemon and the matcha flavour is lost quite a bit as a result, the reason for the sweetness is Pure Chimp’s lemon matcha contains stevia to sweeten it. I’m a bit undecided about the stevia that’s been added, it does make the lemon flavour sweet and very different to the other flavoured matchas.
Personally I’d prefer it to not contain any sweetener so I could add it if I wanted, plus I LOVE the flavour of matcha which is lost a bit. The addition of stevia makes this the perfect matcha for people who aren’t accustomed to the natural taste of matcha, a great way to get the health benefits in a sweeter form. This matcha is insanely frothy, one of the frothiest I’ve found and blends really quickly which is always good.

Pure Chimp donate 5% of all profit to charity which is absolutely fantastic and really admirable. So if you prefer your matcha sweetened, love it frothy and would like to donate to charity this is the one for you. You can buy a jar here or a smaller pouch to try.

Bloom Teas Tropical Matcha
The first thing I noticed about the tropical matcha from Bloom is how nicely presented it is. A glass pot and a little mini spatula attached to the side are a welcome addition. This matcha smells heavenly, it’s like fresh cut mango, I love it! It seems to have little tiny white balls in it which I assume is flavouring, they dissolve completely and I only noticed them because I sieve my matcha so no biggy. Overall this is definitely in my top three, it might even be my favourite, I’m on my third jar now so it must be good, you really won’t be disappointed with this one! 😀

Adagio Teas Peach Matcha

I’m not really that much of a fan of peach as a flavour but it does seem to be a flavour that blends well with tea and the other Adagio flavoured matchas are so good I decided to give it a try. The smell explodes from the tin before you even open it (largely because the tins leak a bit in the post :p), it’s a mouthwatering sweet peachy fragrance that I really enjoy waking up to. Adagio’s matcha is always a bright vivid green and this is true for all of the flavours of theirs that I’ve tried.

On to preparation! It froths up really well and the smell gets stronger when water is added, I found myself excited about a flavour I usually don’t enjoy all that much which has to be a good sign! I have to say it really does taste fantastic, it has a stronger flavour than a lot of the matcha I’ve featured here but it works really well with the green tea flavour. This is definitely one to try if you like peach and/or prefer your matcha to be more strongly flavoured 🙂

Bluebird Tea Co. Blueberry Super Matcha

Next up is Bluebird’s super matcha, I heard so many good things about this so I had to give it a try. It’s a little bit more expensive than the orange matcha from Bluebird but you do get the added health benefits of Blueberry and Acai, which add even more antioxidants to the mix!

It’s a beautiful bright green colour and is clearly very good quality. It’s just so fruity and tastes fantastic hot or cold so will definitely be enjoying this all summer!

Adagio Teas Chocolate Matcha

Chocolate is without a doubt my favourite food and matcha is easily one of my favourite drinks so I was overjoyed to find that the amazing people at Adagio Teas have combined the two! I must admit I did wonder at first how the two flavours would be blended together and which flavour would take centre stage, so I was thrilled when I found that the two flavours happily share the stage!

This blend isn’t too chocolatey and is still clearly matcha but the chocolate flavour floats alongside the vegetal matcha goodness! Full review here 🙂

Tea Shop Mango Matcha

This is another flavour I found in Barcelona along with the strawberry flavour above. I loved the strawberry matcha but its downfall was it didn’t blend very well and tasted slightly powdery. Luckily their mango matcha isn’t powdery at all and is really addictive!

The mango flavour isn’t as strong in this matcha as the Bloom tropical matcha so I have to say I prefer the Bloom matcha but if you like a more natural flavour in your matcha this is for you.

Bluebird Tea Co. Cocoa Matcha

One of my more most exciting finds is Bluebird’s cocoa matcha, I loved Adagio’s chocolate matcha so I was excited to see how Bluebird’s compared. I have to say it’s really awesome! Although the chocolatey flavour in Bliebird’s cocoa matcha isn’t as sweet as in the Adagio chocolate matcha it does have more of a natural flavour to it, which is equally as enjoyable.Bluebird’s is flavoured with raw cocoa powder so it does have a brown tint to it, like anything chocolate should! 😀

I really love both approaches to chocolate matcha so it really depends whether you’re more in to a natural approach to flavouring or a sweeter flavour. Chocolate has to be my favourite food so I’ll definitely be devouring this Bluebird cocoa matcha!

Thanks for reading!

I’ll add to this post as I find more flavoured matcha, I have a few lined up and have had a few companies contact me so this post will surely grow! 😀

Comment below with any flavoured matcha I’ve missed or email me if you’d like your flavoured matcha included in the list, I’d love to add it!

Bye for now! xXx

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Green Tea Iced Tea Rooibos Tea Reviews

New Bluebird Tea Co. Summer Blends Reviewed!

1st June 2016

Not much beats waking up to a surprise delivery from Bluebird! They’ve launched their new summer blends this week and were nice enough to drop some in the post for me 😃

So the first thing I wanted to do, apart from drink them, was get a review written up for you guys!

Strawberry Split

First up is strawberry split, a wonderfully fruity, pretty pink blend. It’s green tea that’s absolutely packed with freeze dried strawberries with a fruity but slightly floral scent, it’s literally summer in a packet!

The tea is so pretty to look at before it’s even steeped, it’s full of floral summer colours that will wow your guests. Once the tea’s steeped it produces an equally pretty pink liquid that also smells fantastic, another plus for entertaining with this tea.

It’s incredible iced with a little bit of honey or agave to sweeten it. I find a lot of teas aren’t that great iced, they always seem not sweet enough and I feel like I want to put way too much sugar in. This is the place this tea really excels beyond it’s competition, it so damn good iced! 😃

Jelly & Ice Cream

This is a rooibos based blend which is great for night time drinking and just avoiding caffeine in general, if that’s your thing 😉 The smell is really sweet and took me right back to jelly when I was a kid, I actually always hated adding the ice cream so I’d just eat the jelly but with this tea I welcome both flavours 😊

One of the things I love about Bluebird Tea Co. is their ability to capture a non-tea flavour in their tea. You’d think jelly and ice cream tea would be a fad and you’d get it and find it tastes nothing like it pretends to, but this is different. It really does taste of jelly and ice cream, the sweet flavours combine with the rooibos base perfectly.

This is another blend that’s great iced and will probably be my drinking buddy on the rare days it’s too hot in the UK to drink tea.

Review Complete!

So that’s my review of these two new teas from Bluebird Tea Co. There are another two summer blends from Bluebird; Red Velvet and Sangria. Both look fantastic but Red Velvet is definitely on my list of teas I need in my life!

You can find these summer blends on the Bluebird Tea Co. website here, or roll in to one of their stores in Brighton, Tunbridge Wells or their new Bristol store!

I’d like to say a big thanks to Bluebird Tea Co. for sending me these teas, it was an awesome surprise to wake up to and very much appreciated😊

Bye for now xXx

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Fruit Tea Green Tea Reviews

A review of Sencha Spring Melody tea from the fabulous Gently Stirred

21st March 2016

I LOVE Gently Stirred and their passion for good tea. The first thing I always notice is the care that’s taken to produce a beautiful, personal moment with every purchase. They go above and beyond with hand wrapping in stylish brown and green packaging, that has a wholesome and friendly feel to it.

Onto the tea! Recently I was lucky enough to try the aptly named Sencha Spring Melody, a super sweet smelling strawberry green tea. Before I even opened the package I could smell the smell of fresh strawberries, when I was a kid me and my mum would always go strawberry picking and the smell of this tea takes me right back to those trips 🙂 As always this tea from Gently Stirred is made up of super quality loose leaf tea with succulent dried strawberry in abundance.

When the water hits the tea things step up a gear; the strawberry smell erupts out as the water turns an inviting golden colour. The taste is fantastic, really sweet but with a definite green tea flavour as well, with absolutely no bitterness. This is a great tea to drink after dinner if you’re trying to steer clear of the calories that pudding brings!

Sencha Spring Melody is also awesome iced, I’m really looking forward to drinking it in the Spring and Summer, although I’ve been drinking it iced in the winter too 😛

Anyway I’m guessing you’ve realised by now that I like this tea, A LOT and I’d definitely recommend taking a look at Gently Stirred’s website and trying it for yourself.

Comment with any teas you’d like me to review or that you recommend I try and come say hi on Twitter, Instagram etc.

Thanks for reading! 🙂 xXx

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Fruit Tea Reviews Tea Reviews Teaphernalia

Review of Bora Bora & Double Walled Glass Cup from The Tea Makers

25th June 2015

Last week I was sent some tea by The Tea Makers. I received Bora Bora, White Peony and Tangerine & Coconut Green Tea and also an amazing double walled glass cup. I’ll be reviewing these over the next few weeks, starting with my first review today. I decided I’d start with a fruity review of Bora Bora.

Bora Bora is described by The Tea Makers as a “Sensational Flavoured Exotic Fruit Tea Blend”, read on to see if I agree! 😉

The Look
I’ll start with the packaging which is phenomenal, the overall quality and presentation is exquisite with striking red text set against a matte black background. It’s really nice to see a change from the usual brown and relatively plain packaging loose tea is traditionally sold in. The back of the package has a really cool zip opening the first time you open it, a nice touch that furthers the feeling of luxury.

Looking at the tea for the first time I can certainly see why the tea is described as exotic, there’s all kinds of fruit in this blend, from raspberries and blackcurrants to strawberry pieces and papaya cubes. The smell is beyond words, the first inhalation transports you to white sands and bright blue sea, if paradise has a smell, this is it! The fragrance just bursts out of the packet, with a fun and bouncy vibe.

How It Tastes

As the kettle boiled I felt sheer excitement and literally couldn’t wait for the tasting to begin. Pouring the water creates a whole new smell, the initial fragrance becomes softer and sweeter, sweeter is GOOD.

I take my first sip, probably before the tea is even cool enough, the taste is fresh and succulent, with a rich quality to it. I often find tropical type fruit teas a bit sickly, usually pineapple is the ‘go to’ fruit, but there’s no pineapple to be found in this super tropical blend! Bora Bora has a deeply satisfying fruity flavour, with slight floral undertones that create an aftertaste that dances on the roof of my mouth.

Final Thoughts on Bora Bora

Overall I’ve gotta say this is one of my favourite fruit teas of all time. Fruit tea was my first love but in all honesty I was getting bored, bored of every fruit tea tasting the same! Bora Bora has reignited my love for fruit tea, I now cannot wait to try more fruit tea from The Tea Makers 😃 Bora Bora excels because it avoids the tart sharpness often found with fruit tea and steers bravely away from adding pineapple.

The Double Walled Glass Cup

I was also lucky enough to receive a beautiful doubled walled glass cup with the tea, which is pictured above 🙂 The cup is beautiful with perfect curved sides on the outside wall and matching contours on the inner wall. It’s a really nice size, as it fits in my hand just right, you can just slide your fingers round it and curl up with it. A few of these would be a gorgeous choice for a dinner party, pair your favourite blend with these cups and you’ll have a perfect finish for your guests.

The double walled finish is not only easy on the eye but is very functional and keeps the outside cool for your hands and your tea warm for a lot longer than a mug. The smooth rim of the glass is blissful to sip from and the cup has a steady base when placed on my coffee table. The glass looks like it would be really fragile but after a week of using it and washing it, I haven’t felt that it would break easily which is a massive plus. Overall I really love this cup, from the look to the functionality and the ease of use, it’s all good.

I’ll be reviewing the other 2 teas sent with the Bora Bora in the next couple of weeks so please do check back soon or join my newsletter to read it first!

I’m always looking for new and exciting fruit teas and I’d love to hear any suggestions you guys have in the comments below 😊

The Tea Makers London have a large range of teaware and beautiful glassware, with great prices which are really worth taking a look at.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my review of Bora Bora from The Tea Makers London. You can check out their online store here.

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Black Tea Fruit Tea Green Tea Tea Reviews

Gently Stirred Tea Tasting! Russtea’s Review

19th May 2015

A few days ago I was sent some samples from Gently Stirred.

I opened my package and I was blown away by the care that had gone in to packing this for me. It was beautifully wrapped in green tissue paper and had a string tied in a bow. It looked like a present you’d receive from a good friend and I really fell in love with the presentation and attention to detail of the package. There was also a printed catalogue and small information sheets for each tea, you just don’t get such a personal service anywhere else!

The Flavours

I received Cucumber & Orange Marmalade, which is a black loose tea with character! I was also given a tea bag of Uki Uki which is a black tea with a tropical fruit flavour, amazing or what?! The third tea I sampled was Saint Clement’s Green Tea, this was also in teabag form.

The Taste

Cucumber & Orange Marmalade

I decided to get stuck in straight away with the cucumber and marmalade, I was a little hesitant about the cucumber but also really excited to try something different. The smell of the tea is very strong, it overpowered the smell of the others. The pieces of cucumber and orange are HUGE, I’ve never seen such big bits of fruit in tea before!

I began steeping the tea and watched as the water turned a beautiful amber colour, the cucumber and orange erupted out of the mug. I steeped the tea for 2-3 minutes using one teaspoon of tea and it was just the right strength.

Saint Clement’s Green Tea

This is a gently fragrant tea made using Gently Stirred’s popular Pai Mu Tan as a base. Added to the Pai Mu Tan are oranges, lemons and bergamot oil. Green tea is renowned for it’s health benefits which is an added bonus with Saint Clement’s. It has a slightly floral taste, which usually I’m not a fan of but this was different, it was there just enough to sweeten the blend, without feeling like you’re actually eating flowers.

The tea turned a slightly pink colour and smells fantastic every time you take a sip. I used my teabag 3 times and all three mugs were different, the first was sweetest and then the other 2 were more savoury but just as delicious. The other thing I could detect was a herbal taste which was really lush!

Uki Uki

The third tea was a black tea with tropical fruit called Uki Uki, this was an absolute dream. Instantly it smells like a tropical paradise, or at least how I’d expect a tropical paradise to smell :p . It tastes so sweet and is so addictive, unbelievably fruity, even to the point where the fruit is stronger than the black tea, which is really rare. There’s also no bitterness, even if it’s steeped to quite a dark strength, I assume this must be due to the sheer amount of the succulent fruit flavour that’s packed in.

My boyfriend said that he felt that the tea had a slight spicyness to it which I didn’t really detect, it became less sweet when we made additional mugs with the same teabag but that’s to be expected, and all of them were immensely pleasant.

Conclusion

Overall I was thrilled with these teas, I love it when I find something a little different and these flavours really are unique. There’s just a handcrafted pleasantly warm feeling to all of three of the teas Gently Stirred sent me. I’d like to thank Gently Stirred for giving me the chance to try these three teas and I urge you to go and check them out!

If you’ve loved this review then you’ll have a lot of fun with my newsletter!

You can check out Gently Stirred’s website here.

What teas have you found that are a bit different? 🙂 xXx

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Iced Tea Recipes Tea Reviews

10 Iced Tea Recipes To Celebrate The Sun!

5th May 2015

1. Mango Iced Tea

I LOVE mangos and this mango iced tea looks fantastic. Courtesy of Veg Recipes of India

2. Lemon, mint and passion fruit

I found this one on taste.com

3. Strawberry Basil

This looks awesome and I’m sure the basil will make it immensely refreshing. You’ll find this on MarthaStewart.com

4. Matcha Mint

The mint in this will really cool you down, throw in some Matcha and you’ll get a health boost too! You can find the recipe here.

6. Bubbly Mint Lime Iced Tea

Nothing will feel better on a sunny day than mint and lime, super refreshing. You can find the recipe here.

7. Blueberry Iced Green Tea

This looks lush, I love blueberries and often drink ceylon blueberry tea from Tea People. This recipe gives you all the health benefits of green tea but with a super sweet blueberry flavour! The full recipe is on Closet Cooking.

8. Vanilla Matcha Iced Latte

The matcha craze is spreading fast so I couldn’t resist including a matcha iced latte. The recipe is from Bluebird Tea Co. and they sell top quality matcha!

9. Strawberry Chocolate Iced Tea (OMG!).

This courtesy of Melissa Hartfiel, full recipe on her blog.

10. Sparkling Raspberry Iced Tea, the lazy way 😉

If you don’t have time for the above recipes you can cheat here! :p

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and have some great weather so you can try out these recipes.

As always you can join my blog below for a regular flow of tea related goodies!

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Fruit Tea Tea Reviews

Find Out Why Tea People’s Tropical Burst Was My Biggest Surprise At VEGFEST

15th April 2015

Recently I attended VEGFEST in Brighton with my boyfriend, I’m vegetarian and he’s vegan so it’s quite a heavenly event with a ton of free samples. I expected to only find vegan food but I was joyfully surprised when I stumbled upon Tea People.

Tea Peoples inspiring ethics:

Tea People are a great company that donate 50% of all of their profits to educational and social projects in underprivileged tea growing areas. So even if the Tea was average it would be worth buying to help a good cause. Tea People’s tea is far from average!

I bought 5 flavours which I’ll be reviewing over the next few weeks as I get a chance to taste them all a few times. I decided to go with their Tropical Burst flavour first.

The Flavour:

Tea People’s Tropical Burst is an all fruit caffeine free blend which primarily tastes of Mango. Immediately upon opening, the mango smell really does “burst” from the packet. You know the tea is high quality by the size and quality of the enclosed fruit.

As I made my first mug of Tropical Burst I waited in anticipation for the kettle to boil, as soon as I poured the boiling water in to the mug I knew it was something special. The taste is sweet but not sickly sweet, the mango flavour feels almost smooth like mango juice. To balance the sweetness of the mango there’s a slight spicy taste that lingers in the background, offering a comforting warmth.

Bang for Your Buck:

A little goes a long way with this tea, half a teaspoon for 5-7 minutes and you’re good to go. If you’re using a teapot or flask that allows the fruit to continue to infuse, the yield per teaspoon will be even better.

What I LOVE:

What I love about Tea People is not only their ethics, but most of all the taste! I also like that small tester packs are available on their website so you can try the flavours without investing in a whole box, a sure sign of their confidence in their product.

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Hi there, welcome to my blog about my biggest passion, tea!

My name’s Russell, my lifetime nickname has always been Rusty or Russtea as my friends now call me (my surname even begins with T!).

Not much beats the feeling of taking a moment at the end of a busy day and relaxing with your favourite mug, filled with sweet fruit tea, or waking up with black tea infused with vanilla shortbread.

Why not take a moment now, make your favourite tea and join me as I share my tea related experiences?