Mighty Leaf- Green Tea Tropical

So I picked this tea up at the supermarket because my mom had raved about this brand and I'd heard that it was a good supermarket tea. Read my review to see why I don't think I'll be getting this tea for myself again. Maybe for my mom who's still trying to get used to the flavor of green tea- the fruit flavor might help her.

Tea Box and Sachet

Sachet w/ Dry Leaves

Name: Green Tea Tropical

Company: Mighty Leaf

Price: $7.66; Sachets

Suggested Amount: 1 Sachet for 8oz

My Amount: 2 Sachets for 16oz
Caffeine: Not very much

1st Steep: 

• Time: 3 Minutes
• Temp: 175°F

2nd Steep:

• Time: 3.5 Minutes
• Temp: 175°F

Ingredients: 
Green tea, natural tropical flavors, natural flavors, flower petals, pineapple bits

Dry: Smells wonderful, you can definitely pick out the pineapple smell. Nice full leaves and very minimal tea fannings. You can see the blue cornflowers, some red flower, but I didn't see the pineapple bits that others have talked about.

Tea Liquor:

• 1st Steep: Very nice deep golden colour.
• 2nd Steep: Dark Yellow

2nd Steeping

1st Steeping

Flavor: Fruity, Weak

Notes:
 On first taste I unfortunately found this tea to be weak and lacking in any tropical flavors. With some previous experience with teas that have artificial flavoring, I knew that a tiny bit of sugar might help bring out the tropical taste I was looking for. After a teaspoon of sugar I found that the tea did get much better, but as the tea cooled instead of getting less bitter like other teas, it actually got more bitter. I wouldn't suggest a second steeping because its just weaker.

Overall, I guess I would suggest this to someone who isn't used to Green teas and wants to slowly get into it.

Rating

Teavana- Youthberry Wild Orange Tea

 This year, my christmas list for my mother had a few tea products on it. My mother took this to mean that she should buy out our local Teavana store (including 3 POUNDS of german rock sugar). I absolutely LOVE Teavana and needless to say, I was quite happy with my christmas gifts (I love you mom). Besides the tea products, the teas themselves were all expected- except for one. The biggest tub of them all was a 16 oz. canister of Teavana's Youthberry Wild Orange Tea blend. I was very excited because I'd tasted a few small sips of it because its the tea that Teavana sets out as their sampler, and the dry leaves smelled like PARADISE. Alas, all was not as it seemed...

Tea Tin

Dry Leaves and Fruit

Name: Youthberry White Tea & Wild Orange Blossom Herbal Tea (BLEND)

Company: Teavana

Youthberry Price: $12.00; 2 oz.
Wild Orange Price: $6.80; 2 oz.

Suggested Amount: 1.5 tsp for 8 oz.
My Amount: 3 tsp for 14 oz.

Caffeine:

• Youtberry has no caffeine
• Wild Orange Blossom has 1% of the amount of caffeine in coffee

1st Steep: 

• Time: 2 Minutes
• Temp: 175°F

2nd Steep:

• Time: 2.5 Minutes
• Temp: 180 °F

Steeped Leaves

Ingredients: Apple pieces, white tea, hibiscus flowers, rosehip peels, candied mango pieces (mango, sugar), candied pineapple pieces (pineapple, sugar), flavoring (pineapple, orange, mango, grapefruit), beetroot pieces, citrus peels, red currants, rose petals, orange juice pieces, sunflower petals, pomegranate blossoms, acai fruit powder (acai, maltodextrin)

Dry: It smells very citric and fresh. Its actually quite beautiful with large chunks of dried apples and oranges, but they vastly outnumber the white tea leaves and herbs. 

Tea Liquor:

• 1st Steep: Orange/Red/Pink (I think it would be called coral), probably from the hibiscus.
• 2nd Steep: Dark Orange

Second Steeping

First Steeping

Flavor: Fruity (White tea flavor is pretty much lost), Smooth, Sour/Tart

Notes:  
 The sampler at Teavana is a lie. Well, that may be a bit dramatic but I'm pretty sure they douse that stuff in sugar. This tea was pretty weak and while I usually put NO sugar in my teas, I had to put 1 tsp of their german rock sugar (which I actually love) and 1 tsp of honey (Teavana White Gold Honey, which I also love) for this to taste good for me. I know a lot people say that this is too sweet already, but its almost like an artificial sweetness that needed more natural sugar to accompany it. While this teas biggest sell is the huge chunks of orange, I didn't really taste much citrus. I mainly tasted the hibiscus, and the tartness usually associated with hibiscus. While I initially loved the fruitiness of this tea, I quickly grew tired of its mildness. I guess it would be a good special occasion tea, because I see this as more of a hot fruit juice than tea. I bet this would be good for children who haven't really grown their palate for teas. Apart from the weak body, a few good things about this tea is that it is very smooth and you can easily tell that it is very fresh. 

 Once again (to my surprise) I found that the second steep on this tea was better than the first.  It had less of that overwhelming fruity tartness and I found that the white tea was now more prominent. I imagine that the first steep was almost pure fruit juices and the second steep was leftover fruit juice with white tea.

 While I would accept an occasional cup of the stuff, I won't be buying this one with my own money. Like I said before, this would be good for kids and non-tea drinkers.

Rating

I seem to always have this type of problems with flavored white teas. Anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for a good flavored white?