Tea Pot Specialties

Enjoying Rose Tea

Rose tea is one of the most delicate and light teas that can be enjoyed. Not only is it delicious and aromatic, it is very healthy for your body. The essential oils that are featured in rose tea are known to help with encouraging heart health and improving circulation within the body. Certainly, you'll discover that drinking this tea is an easy way to enjoy the benefits of improved circulation with just a cup a day.

It has been said that the best rose tea is made out of the most fragrant roses that are available. Additionally, it is ideal to make tea from young rose buds, because this is when they are their freshest and have the most potency. To make your own tea, you should use fresh rose petals. Ideally, you should choose a rose that will have a sweet flavor to it -- if you are uncertain about which roses are sweet, consider asking your local horticulturalist. It is also very important not to use roses that are from a florist or have been sprayed with pesticides as this can be dangerous to your health.

When you have the correct roses, measure one and a half cups of rose petals. Rinse them under cold water to ensure that they are clean and then set them in a pot of three cups of distilled water that is set to boil. When water has come to a boil, lower the heat on the stove and then allow the petals to simmer in the pot for several minutes. The petals should begin to darken in the water as the tea becomes ready. Afterward, simply strain the petals out of the water and serve the tea with honey or sugar as needed.

How Much Caffeine Does Each Type of Tea Contain?

Many people do not realize how many types of tea there are with varying caffeine contents. Many people shy away from caffeine, and others love a high-caffeine beverage. Here is a guide for people who are new to tea and would like to choose a tea variety with an appropriate caffeine content for their needs:

1. Black Tea. Black tea contains more caffeine than any other type of tea. Although it does not have nearly as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, it does have enough caffeine to provide a good morning pick-me-up or an afternoon energy charge. Black teas also come in many delicious flavors.

2. Oolong Tea. Oolong tea has less caffeine than black tea, but more caffeine than green tea.

3. Green Tea. Green tea contains less caffeine than black tea, but I still would not drink it before bed.

4. White Tea. White tea contains very little caffeine. While low in caffeine, it is believed to contain the highest level of antioxidants of any variety of tea.

5. Rooibos Tea. Rooibos has no caffeine because it is not made from traditional tealeaves, but has a more similar flavor to traditional tea than herbal teas.

6. Herbal tea. Herbal tea does not contain leaves from the actual tea plant. It contains various herbs, flowers and fruits. This means that it does not contain any caffeine. This makes it great for drinking right before bedtime. There are several varieties of herbal tea, such as chamomile, that can also relax you and aid you in falling asleep faster.

Wild Card: Yerba Mate. Many people regard Yerba Mate as the ultimate pick-me-up tea and compare its caffeine content to coffee. I find it relaxing and can fall asleep after drinking even a few mugs of it. Experiment with it and see what type of effect is has on you before you drink it before bed.

Tea Review: Teavana Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate

Since I was up-sold into purchasing more of this tea than I originally intended, I was really hoping that I would love it. Thankfully, I do. Although this is another of the Teavana Mate teas that fall very short in their energizing properties, I have to say that this tea is delicious. Being newish to loose teas, I was very surprised when she pulled out the bin that contained this tea and it contained very large pieces of dried apple, flowers and other fruits. The actual mate is dispersed very conservatively throughout, which makes this tea fall very short of the "100 percent of the caffeine content of coffee" claim that Teavana makes. Here are some more of my thoughts on Teavana Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate:

I first brewed this tea double-strength, since I purchased this to make iced tea. I then poured this strong tea over ice and added a little Splenda. It tasted great. It has a fruity flavor with a little bit of floral taste. The description of this tea does not list any floral components, but trust me, they are there. This is a very tasty tea, and the mate in it very sparse, so you can enjoy it any time of day or evening without worry of it keeping you up past your bedtime.

I have yet to try this tea hot, as the flavor profile just seems like it would not taste very good hot. I may be wrong, so try it hot and let me know what you think. I can imagine that the iced version of this tea would be amazingly refreshing during the summertime. Being winter, I still enjoy it, but not to the extent as I would on a hot summer day.

My advice to Teavana is to start marketing their teas for what they are. This tea as a "coffee alternative" is extremely deceiving and I find pretty hilarious. If you are not expecting an energy blast from it, and enjoy the flavors of lemon and raspberry, you will enjoy it.

Tea Review: Teavana JavaVana

Since I love coffee and I also love tea, I thought that JavaVana might be the perfect hybrid beverage for me. Teavana sells several tea blends that they say can be the perfect substitute for your morning cup of coffee. Most of these "coffee substitute" teas are mate based, so I was already skeptical, given my previous experiences with mate. Mate is said to have as much caffeine in it as coffee, but it tends to relax me instead of energizing me. I decided to try this tea on a weekend morning instead of drinking my usual coffee so that I could compare the two. Here is my experience:

This tea smelled very delicious in the bag, which was a good sign. I brewed a cup of JavaVana much stronger than the label said, increasing the tea to about three teaspoons for one cup of hot water. I also steeped it a bit longer, increasing steeping time to eight minutes. I added some splenda and a bit of milk after I strained the tea, and I was extremely surprised as to how this tea truly looked and tasted very similar to coffee. It also had a chocolaty flavor that I loved.

I drank my first cup of the morning, and I enjoyed it greatly. It tasted very good. I did not notice the energy that I normally had with my morning coffee, so I then brewed another cup. Then another. Then another. After four or so cups of this tea, I was ready for a nap. It tasted good and had the taste and mouth feel of coffee, but definitely not the stimulating effect. I planned to write that day, but instead ended up napping. I knew that mate had this effect on me in the past, but JavaVana is a blend of mate and black tea. I thought that maybe this blend would be more energizing for me. Unfortunately, it was not.

Now, someone who does not drink coffee ever may notice some stimulation from this tea. I drink about two strong cups of coffee every day, so this just did not compare for me. If you just want a tasty, chocolaty flavored tea, then you also may enjoy the flavor of JavaVana as I did. Tasty? Yes. A good coffee substitute? No.

My First Teavana Experience

"I will review the actual teas soon, but I wanted everyone to know what to expect at Teavana."

I was hesitant to purchase tea at Teavana after all of the horror stories I had read on the Internet. It seems that everyone who visits this tea warehouse is pressured into purchasing much more tea and many more tea gadgets than they had originally planned. I am very good about telling a salesperson a simple "no" when they are trying to up sell me, so I wasn't too worried about spending more money than I expected. I have also read many horror stories on various websites about how badly the employees are treated at Teavana.

This I do not agree with, but I decided I would go there just this once so that I did not have to wait a week for my tea to arrive in the mail. Once the tea I purchased there runs low, I will order from the Internet since I do not like visiting establishments that treat their employees badly. Anyways, I trekked out to the local mall to purchase a couple of teas that I have had my eye on. I wanted to try JavaVana and a Raspberry Lemon flavored mate. Here is my experience:
Because it is the busy holiday season, I lucked out that employees were very busy and did not have the time on their hands to try to talk me into purchasing over-priced tea accessories in the store. That was a nice surprise, since I am waiting on a teapot that I mail ordered that was much more reasonably priced than Teavana's tea gadgets. When it was finally my turn at the counter, I told the sales girl which teas I wanted to purchase. She did suggest one more mate for me, but I really cannot blame her for that, the employees do have sales goals to hit. I politely declined, and she did not push it any further.

She asked how much I wanted of my first tea choice, the JavaVana. I told her two ounces, which is the minimum that they will sell at a time. I had never even sampled it to know if I even liked it, after all. She then proceeded to put the tin onto the scale and pour the tea into the tin to weigh it. She poured 3.6 ounces of tea above the weight of the tin and asked, "Is that okay?" I politely said no. I had asked for two ounces and that was double what I had asked for! She poured some off. Now the weight was down to 3.2 ounces. Again, "Is that okay?" No, that is not okay. She proceeded to pour off the tiniest bit several times until the scale finally hit 2.2 ounces. I agreed to that, because it was reasonably close. 3.6 ounces? That was almost double what I had asked for.

It was a similar ordeal with the second tea with trying to get her to actually sell me the amount of tea that I had asked for. This time I settled for 2.6 ounces, because I was simply tired of haggling. I guess that was her goal, but I did not care at that point, because I simply wanted to get my tea and get out of there. I will review the actual teas soon, but I wanted everyone to know what to expect at Teavana.

My First Delve into the World of Loose Leaf Tea: Yerba Mate

I have been a coffee drinker my entire life, but have recently developed an infatuation with tea. I have always loved my morning coffee, but lately I love to have a nice cup of hot tea in the late afternoon. This is about the time that I try to taper off my caffeine intake for the day, and tea is a great lower-caffeine pick-me-up. I have been growing much fonder of tea lately, and my latest visit to the new (gasp!) Teavana in my area has me even more intrigued. I am getting ready to visit the store as we speak to pick up a couple of varieties of loose-leaf tea to try out. I am going to purchase one for my new late-night habit of having a cup of tea before bed -- this one is going to be low-caffeine -- and one to try as a coffee alternative for the morning.

I am debating between the JavaVana tea and the My Morning Mate tea to serve as my coffee replacement. I will be posting reviews of these teas for everyone after I try them. I do not have a proper teapot yet, but am planning to order one this week off the Internet. Until then, I plan brewing my tea in a cup of water, and then using my tea strainer to pour it into another cup. Not fancy, but it works for now. This leads me to today's topic: Yerba Mate. I actually tried this about a year ago, and have been meaning to try another variety of mate ever since. I bought my first bag of it at GNC, and I do not believe that they carry it any longer. It was made by Guayaki, and is still available from many online retailers. Here is what I thought of it:

I heard that many love the taste of yerba mate, and many hate it. Thankfully, I ended up falling into the “love” category. I heard that it was a bit "grassy" tasting, for lack of a better word, and it was, but in a good way. I also heard that it was high in caffeine and great for a morning pick-me-up, much like coffee is -- this is one thing that I disagree on. I first tried it out in the morning, brewing it very strong as I was told. I used one part mate to two parts water, steeped for several minutes and then strained it. It tasted good, yet did not energize me as coffee did.

Since I was working a day job at the time, I decided to drink my usual morning coffee the next day, and then drink my mate after work. I have to say that this was a great idea. The mate actually really helped to relax me after a stressful day at work. I even indulged in this tea in the late evenings, and it did not impair my sleep whatsoever. A late evening cup of coffee would have me up all night. So, for me, mate worked as a great relaxation beverage and tasted good. I give Guayaki mate two thumbs up in this aspect. I am hoping JavaVana has a more stimulating effect on me, or I just may have to stick to drinking my tea only later in the day.