Pom Wonderful Bottled Teas Review

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Pom Wonderful Bottled Tea Review

Okay I’ve been super super super busy so my sincerely apologies. Today I’m reviewing 4 bottled Pom Wonderful teas. I decided to review them while having my pomegranates :) . Ever since I first discovered pomegranates in university at Sobeys, I have been buying them by the case every winter ever since! At one point my friend was even going to buy me a case as a Christmas present, but he opted against it because he didn’t know how to choose them… *tear!*

These are my set of guidelines for picking the perfect pomegranate – look for darkly colored pomegranates without brown on the outside (that means its bruised) with as little white as possible. They should be quite heavy and be firm to the touch, not hard. If it’s hard it means the skin is dry! Eww! Anyways back to tea!

Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea

The first tea I am going to try is the Pomegranate Peach Passion White Tea (Far left in the Pom Wonderful photo shoot in my office). You can’t tell but there is some serious debris going on inside this tea when you shake it.

I think it’s little flecks of peach?? Let’s look at the ingredients:

Medicinal Ingredients: 100% pomegranate fruit juice from concentrate 4.7ml, POMX pomegranate fruit extract 1.4ml, standardized to 25% of total pomegranate polyphenols as punicalagin.

Non-Medicinal Ingredients: Gently brewed white tea (water, Superior white peony tea leaves), fructose, peach fruit juice from concentrate, passion fruit juice from concentrate, natural flavours, critic acid.

Oh yes before I get onto the tea I just want to say that when I first saw Pom Wonderful teas in the States they were packaged in these beautiful round glasses that you could reuse at home (I did), but because they wanted to cut costs we now have these Plastic #1 bottles. :( I hope they bring back the glass!

Okay after some shaking, I cracked the bottle open. There’s some serious bubbles going on at the top, I think I shook too hard. Oops!

WOW. This smells soooo good. It smells like wild cherries, peach, a hint of apricot and a hint of white wine. The color is a pale watermelon. Taste test! Okay um… my drink is fizzy! Lol I don’t know if it’s suppose to be fizzy. Errr….. It tastes like sparking fruit wine! I cannot taste the tea FYI. I would love to say ooooOo I can really taste the white peony, but I don’t. The bottle is stamped 11 DEC 09 umm… Today is the 14…. Shit. Let’s try the next one..

This is my fault, after I got the Pom Wonderful from the supermarket I waited too long. But still! It shouldn’t be fizzy!

Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea

I’m gently shaking this one. There’s lots of debris in here as well. Expiry date 23 Jan 10. Sounds good!

Medicinal Ingredients: 100% pomegranate fruit juice from concentrate 4.7ml, POMX pomegranate fruit extract 1.4ml, standardized to 25% of total pomegranate polyphenols as punicalagin.

Gently brewed green tea (water, pan fired green tea leaves), fructose, lychee juice from concentrate, natural flavors, citric acid.

WOW. This smells even better than the last one. I love the color of this tea. It’s a dark golden brown with hints of orange. Okay the last tea definitely went bad.

This tea is smooth, and flavourful. You can definitely taste “the tea” in this one. Lychee is so overpowering though that I can’t tell that the tea is green tea. You definitely can taste the tannins in here.

Pomegranate Blackberry Tea

Expiry date 25 Nov 09. Dammit! I got duped by the supermarket.

When I cracked this bottle open it started to fizz meaning it fermented like the first tea. Next…

Pomegranate Wildberry White Tea (Light)

Okay I just want to say that I do not like light foods. If you’re going to make a food go all out. What’s with this light beer, light juice, light anything! People are too obsessed with losing weight and using the word “light” as an indicator of healthy, less calories and better for them. Damn marketing.

Expiry 11 Dec 09… Seriously this was like 3 days ago! Nothing should be fizzing!

Medicinal Ingredients: 100% pomegranate fruit juice from concentrate 4.7ml, POMX pomegranate fruit extract 1.4ml, standardized to 25% of total pomegranate polyphenols as punicalagin.

Non-Medicinal Ingredients: Gently brewed white tea (water, Superior white peony tea leaves), fructose, erythritol, blakberry juice from concentrate, natural flavours.

Okay what the heck is “erythritol?”. Checks Wikipedia… a natural sugar substitute, does not affect blood sugar, made by fermenting glucose with a yeast. Not a fan of anything unnatural. But let’s try this.

No fizzy when I crack open the bottle, woo hoo! It smells strongly of raspberries and strawberries. Love it! The color is a beautiful reddish hue with a tinge of purple. This tea is extremely light. The blackberry juice comes on quite strong, there’s just a hint of tea and a bit of tannins on the tongue on the aftertaste. I think lots of women would like this tea.

In summary, please read the expiry date on all your products before you consume them, or else you will end up with sparking fruit juice/wine instead of what you were hoping for! Wonderful Pom tea!

I love Pom Wonderful pomegranates, but out of the 2/4 teas I tried they don’t really do their line of Pomegranate pure pomegranate juices justice. Those are AMAZING. Seriously try them. Oh and Pom Wonderful pomegranates are the best in the industry. Get a case and have fun cracking them open. :) To learn more about Pom Wonderful check out their website here.

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Zhena’s Gypsy Tea – Biodynamic Green Tea – Caramelized Pear Review

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From the Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Website:

Regarded by some as the first modern ecological farming and gardening system, biodynamic agriculture is modern science integrated with ancient wisdom that preserves the land by upgrading and nourishing soil and plant life through special processes and emphasis that exclude the use of chemicals in the soil. Biodynamic is the oldest non-chemical agricultural movement in the West, predating the organic farming movement by 20 years. The biodynamic approach looks upon the maintenance and furtherance of soil life as vital to the production of high-quality, pure and healthful food. Biodynamic speaks to the healing of the environment with consideration for future generations.

Implementing holistic practice and an understanding of ecology to the care and vitality of soil and plants, this ultimate pure experience of health-enhancing leaves, fruit and botanicals, is grown and processed according to the highest sustainable agricultural and environmental canons. Zhena’s Gypsy Biodynamic Tea is the result of one of the smallest carbon footprints of any agricultural method.

I love anything organic and green, so this tea already gets brownie points in my book for being organic and having a smaller carbon footprint than other teas.

The ingredients in this tea are: Organic fairtrade biodynamic green tea, organic pear pieces, organic pear flavor, organic caramel flavor and organic marigold flowers.

I steeped the triangular teabag (or couture tea sachet as they call it) for about 3 minutes in my Ovo mug at just under boiling point. The tea immediately became a nice dark golden color. Right away you could smell the sweet aromas of the tea wafting through the tea. The tea literally smelt like caramelized pears! Amazing! I could smell this tea all day and not even drink it.

At first sip, you could really taste the caramel. It wasn’t a sugary sweet, but you could definitely taste the caramel. The taste reminded me of candy apples actually! Yummy. The aromas of the pear arrived afterward lingering on the tongue as a soft gentle undertone. The tea had lots of complexity and character. It is definitely on the medium side of green teas in terms of body. The strong smell of the tea is always there to remind you of what you are drinking – dessert in a cup!

Don’t steep this tea for too long though, or the tea will become heavier and bitter as more tannins are released. Steep for 1, 2 and then 3 minutes and/or more to get the experience you want. For iced tea, double the sachet and add honey!

Sweet, fragrant and inviting, this tea is perfect as an after dinner snack or to share with friends. Or if you need a caffeine boost, you can always take a bath in this!

PS. Yes I saw Cirque du Soliel’s Ovo in Toronto and yes it was amazing!

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I Won A Steepster Prizepack!

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I am happy to say I won a Steepster prize pack out of hundreds of entries and it arrived in the mail today! It was a beautiful Art of Tea gift set. It came with a delicate 3 piece glass teapot, a sample of the teas Chocolate Monkey, Iron Goddess of Mercy – Green and Mandarin Silk.

I immediately washed the pot and brewed Chocolate Monkey in the kitchen, I’ve actually been itching to try this tea for months now.The law of attraction finally brought the tea to me with a beautiful new teapot. ;) I am happy to say everyone who tried the tea loved it!

The infuser within the teapot actually had tiny little slits at the bottom for the water to filter down without the leaves being mixed into the brew. It a great teapot if you have very fine tea such as roobios or yerba mate and you don’t want it to fall through the cracks, but it was very difficult to get the water to come out because all the tea was blocking the holes. I used a fork (pictured above) to stir up the tea and open up the holes. I absolutely LOVED the no drip pouring spout on this teapot. It was a nice surprise, because I was not expecting that to be incorporated into the design.

The Chocolate Monkey tea was divine. I’ve been so busy with moving, getting a dog (I adopted an abused puppy, but more on that in the future), and working that I have had absolutely no time for tea. This was the first cup of tea I have brewed in a long time. I’ve been drinking teabags for days and weeks now. Yesterday I had 3 cups of Pau D’Arco from teabags! I love it, this anti-fungal tea is one of my favs. You got to try it if you haven’t already. Click here to learn more about Pau D’Arco.

Anyways on the packaging of Chocolate Monkey it says that there are flavours of chocolate (duh), bananas, pink peppercorn, and fruit. The exact ingredients of this tea are: Organic Fair Trade Rooibos, Organic Cacao Nibs, Organic Apple Bits, Organic Banana Chips, Pink Peppercorn, Chocolate, and Natural Flavors. The color of the tea reminded me of brandy and came out sooo nicely from the teapot. I’m going to use this teapot for all my future tea reviews! The aromas were gentle and so fragrant. I had the opportunity to enjoy my tea while listening to Chakra Suite by Steven Halpern, so it made the experience that much more enjoyable. :)

If you get your hands on this wonderful tea I highly recommend you take a few moments to really smell and enjoy the aromas of the tea before sipping it. This is an excellent dessert tea that I highly recommend with a bit of dark agave nectar. This tea actually gets bonus points in my book because it contains organic cacao nibs. Cacao nibs are actually crushed raw chocolate in it’s purest form, uncooked and without any sugar added. Click here to learn more about cacao nibs!

Upon second steeping, the aromas were still there but not as potent. The tea lost its luster and didn’t appeal to me as much anymore. I let it cool down and drank it cold as a digestive after my fettuccine primavera pasta dinner. The picture you see above is actually the tea upon second steeping. The color with the first steep is a lot darker and brown in color. Excellent tea, great start and end to my day.

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Wellness Teas To Boost Your Immune System

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Boost your immune system with David Wolfe’s Sunfood Nutrition wellness teas!  This tea package includes four powerful immune boosting wellness teas:

Combine these herbs in the following ratio to boost your immune system:

  • 1 teaspoon Pau D’Arco tea
  • 1 teaspoon Chuchuhuasi tea
  • ½ teaspoon Chanca Piedra tea
  • ¼ teaspoon Cat’s Claw tea

Add these herbs to four cups of water. In the morning, upon rising, heat this mixture in a small saucepan on the lowest heat with the lid on for approximately 1 hour. As the mixture simmers, the essence of each herb is extracted in higher concentrations and the flavor intensifies. Strain the tea into a glass jar. Glass is preferable because it retains the heat longer and the glass will not react to the herbs. Please note that Pau D’Arco is sweet; Chuchuhusasi and Chanca Piedra are mild and Cat’s Claw is quite bitter. Experiment with the ratios to find what best suits your personal preferences. Let the mixture cool to body temperature and ENJOY!

The recipe will makes 4 cups of tea.

Variations:

  • After straining the tea, place a few raw cacao beans into the tea. Raw cacao is actually raw chocolate. This will add a hint of chocolate flavor to the tea as well as add additional antioxidants contained in the cacao.
  • After straining the tea, place a few goji berries into the tea. This will add a hint of berry flavor to the tea as well as add additional antioxidants contained in the goji berries.
  • To extract more of the healing elements of each food and to increase the taste of your tea, include the cacao beans, goji berries and/or a vanilla bean before you start to heat the teas. (all of these ingredients are available here)
  • You can also use this wellness tea as a base for your smoothies. Yum!
  • For each cup of tea, stir in 1 tablespoon of yacon root syrup
    for an extra boost to the immune system without raising blood sugar levels. It is best to stir in the sweetener after the tea has cooled to body temperature.
  • Take one capsule of Sunfood Nutrition Blue Mangosteen capsules with your tea or stir in the contents of one capsule into (1) cup of strained tea. A powerful combination to help relieve inflammation.
  • For a truly healing and energizing drink, combine two teaspoons of Sunfood Nutrition’s Sun is Shining™ superfood, one teaspoon of Sunfood Nutrition’s red maca (or for an extreme experience, substitute ½ teaspoon of Sunfood Nutrition’s Maca Extreme) and one capsule of Sunfood Nutrition’s Blue Mangosteen – stir into each (1) cup of your tea blend.  This will definitely cause you to have the best day ever!

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The New Tea Companion by Jane Pettigrew and Bruce Richardson Book Review

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256 pages

I received this book as part of a birthday gift from one of my friends this year, and I was delighted very shortly after to have the pleasure of meeting Jane Pettigrew and seeing Bruce Richardson at the World Tea Expo. This book is a wonderful book to have for the beginner as it is filled a rich history and background to tea with a plethora of images to accompany the descriptions of over 120 different teas around the world. I particularly love how Jane and Bruce illustrate both wet, dry leaf and the color of the cup after it is properly brewed.

I’ve flipped through the old edition, but I haven’t read it, so I can’t compare the books for content. But here is what the publishers have to say, “London’s Jane Pettigrew has joined American tea writer Bruce Richardson in creating the updated guide to teas throughout the world. Beautifully illustrated, this 2008 edition gives detailed information and brewing instructions for over 120 teas from every major tea producing region. Chapters on the newest information about tea and health, tea production, tea blending and tea hospitality are included. This book is a valuable up-to-date addition to libraries of both tea novices and professionals. If you have ever wondered about the time and temperature to brew your teas – white, green, black, or oolong – this is the book for you.”

Every tea connoisseur and newbie needs to have this book on their bookshelf. Because as we all know, when it comes to tea, we can always learn more and this book teaches a lot.

TESTIMONIALS

“This is a good basic review of the different types of tea with high-quality color pictures of the tea, the tea leaves dry and the tea leaves wet. The book also briefly covers the production areas, the culture of different tea ceremonies, the business of tea production and processing techniques of the different types of tea. Highly recommended.”

“‘The New Tea Companion’ turns out to be a useful and informative little handbook, not exhaustive, but certainly helpful. After a section describing the various available teas, a brief history and a walk-through guide to modern production, the authors share with us their thoughts on specific teas from each tea-producing nation and region. These descriptions and recommendations can be ever so helpful in choosing the next sort of tea to explore. Each entry provides photos of dry leaf, wet leaf and cupped tea. It is sad, however, that the editors or printers did not catch the world map printed backwards on page 90.”

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW


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The Most Disturbing Teapot Ever

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Seriously?

I found these teapots off the internet and there’s not much information about it except it’s from someone’s private collection. The one on the left is more for the adventurous tea connoisseur I guess. Could you image drinking a fine oolong or puerh from that? Eww.

The one on the left right, although super creepy, is usable. It would definitely make a nice conversation piece during tea time. ;)

Well, if you have any spare doll parts lying around the house, now you know what to do with them.

Source

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