Tea Review: Bingley’s Teddy Bear Tisane

First impressions: I was so super excited to try this tea.  I love gummy bears and all gummy candies, so being able to try a tea that tastes just like gummy bears made me feel like a kid again!  I just got the sample pack of the Teddy Bear Tisane from Bingley’s Teas, so right off the bat I used 3/4 of the package in making an entire pot for myself (it was one of those days).  I made it in my lovely Tardis teapot, as you can see above.

Positives: This tea tastes exactly like red gummy bears!  It is just sweet enough to be delightful, but still a bit tart.  The berries and lemongrass are in a battle for the top note of this tea, but they work in harmony.  This is perfect for the younger tea drinkers in your family.

Negatives: The flavor can be very overpowering if you oversteep.  Because it is an herbal tea, it doesn’t go bitter, but it does get extremely flavorful, so be prepared to cut it with water if you accidentally oversteep.  On the other hand, don’t under steep, either.  My first cup was under steeped and it was not as flavorful as I would have liked.  The lemongrass can also, at times, be a bit overpowering.

Overall: 4 cups out of 5.  This is a very good berry tisane!

Tea Review: Bingley’s Teas Emma’s Perfect Match

First impressions:  Bingley’s Teas never disappoint, so I jumped at the opportunity to try Emma’s Perfect Match when at my friend’s house.  I’m not typically a fan of green tea, simply because I prefer a robust cup of black tea.  I usually find the flavor of green teas to be too weak for my liking, and I therefore stay away from them.  However, I had nothing to lose when I was at my friend’s house, so I decided to try this tea!  This tea is a China green tea with roses and strawberries.

Positives: The tea is excellent!  It has a rosy top note with underlying strawberry.  This is the perfect Valentine’s day tea.  It’s very light (as one would expect a green tea to be) and the strawberry flavor is not at all overpowering.  In fact, one would only be able to taste it if her or she was looking for it.  I sweetened it with a little bit of sugar and it was perfection.  Plus, the leaves are beautiful (this is just an aesthetic thing, as leaves obviously don’t have to look good to taste good.)  Just look at them!

Cons: I think I didn’t put enough leaves into the pot, because the flavor came out a little too weak.  Also, I probably could have steeped it longer, but I didn’t want to scorch the leaves.  User error all the way, there is nothing wrong with the tea!

Overall: 4 cups out of 5.  It was a lovely tea!

The Best Tea Company Ever: Bingley’s Teas

Whenever a person asks me what my favorite teas are I pause.  The answer is difficult.  There are so many great teas that I’ve been able to try.  There are my regular teas that I drink all the time.  Then, there are the teas that I don’t indulge in much but enjoy greatly when I do.  Then, there are teas that I simply tolerate.  However, my answer to my favorite teas is always Bingley’s.

I came into contact with Bingley’s early in 2012 through their website.  I heard that they had a Jane Austen themed tea series, and being a Regency era reenactor and lover of all things Jane, I simply had to try it out.  My friends told me that they would be at the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville in July, so I held off purchasing anything until then.  And trust me, it took a lot of self control to do so!  My friends had samples of Bingley’s Teas at past JA fests, and they said that the tea was phenomenal.  I couldn’t wait to try it myself.

The time of the Jane Austen Festival finally came, and I walked away with a chest of 4 different Pride and Prejudice teas (probably my best purchase to date).

The teas are, from left to right, Compassion for Mrs. Bennet’s Nerves (a chamomile, mint, rose hips, lavender, and passion flower tisane), Miss Elizabeth (a cranberry black tea with blue mallow), Mr. Darcy (a Da Hong Pao Oolong), and the Longbourn Wedding Tea (a champagne silver needle white tea with rose buds and raspberry).  All of them are absolutely amazing, and I’ll be reviewing them very soon here!  So, of course, I wasn’t satisfied with just one chest of Bingley’s tea, so I had to get more.  I just got this shipment in and I am super excited to try them!

From left to right, Sweet Jane (vanilla ceylon and jasmine tea) and Bingley’s (a signature blend of classic afternoon tea).  And can I say, the packaging is absolutely wonderful!  I took these pictures as I opened the box, right after picking it up from the post office.  Adorable!

From left to right, Wicked Wickham (a pomegranate Pai Mu Tan white tea) and Miss Lucy Steele (an apricot and vanilla black tea).

I also ordered a sample pack of the Teddy Bear Tisane (dried apples, berries, lemongrass, and gummy bears) and Julia from Bingley’s Teas threw in two free samples for me!  One is Mrs. Jenning’s Delight, a green tea that has not yet been debuted on the website, and Peppermint Party, a pure peppermint tisane (she knows me so well!)

Each one of the Jane Austen teas is packaged in a lovely book box.  Here’s a look inside of one of them:

The tagline of the Jane Austen Tea Series is “Jane Austen was a loose woman, too!” (meaning loose tea, of course).  Clever, right?  Anyway, I’m going to be reviewing all of the teas that you see here one by one, so stay tuned.  And, if you’re looking to purchase more tea, definitely, definitely check Bingley’s teas out.  They’re a nice, small company run by an awesome woman that makes amazing teas.  And, if you’re wondering, Miss Elizabeth and Longbourn Wedding are tied for my favorites 🙂 Happy sipping!