Garden of Eden on Ice

Scent in package: Citrus, vanilla, and floral…very fresh and yummy!
Brewed in: triniTea maker from Adagio
Steeped: 5 minutes @ boiling x 2
Container: Decanted into pitcher of ice, then tall iced tea glass

I tried this hot last winter (see review under Art of Tea topic), and liked it well enough, though I over-steeped it twice and noted that it wasn’t anything terribly spectacular. I planned to try it as iced tea this weekend, and did just that yesterday. I have to say the results were, indeed, “spectacular”!

At home, I do tend to use the triniTea maker for flavored teas, and it’s incredibly handy for iced tea, since that’s really the only time I re-steep black tea leaves. It takes about 1 ¾ triniTea pots to fill my tea pitcher, and I don’t have to bother with paying much attention to it while the tea brews…I just listen for those three magic “beeps”, pour the pot over ice into the pitcher, and voila! Fresh iced tea.

Garden of Eden is Art of Tea’s iced tea blend, and it’s comprised of Nilgiri black tea (which I tend to like anyways), along with tropical flowers like mallow and safflower (they sent me a book with a description of each tea with my last order – very helpful!!). The blend is beautiful and colorful, and the brew is a lovely dark golden brown.

When I took my first sip, I was blown away. Icing this tea really does bring the flavors right to the forefront, with the Nilgiri tea a wonderful backdrop for them all. It’s naturally sweet – even without sugar it reminds me of a lightly sweetened tea, and when I had my hubby try it, he thought it tasted like peach. We both agreed that it’s just as good as the Cranberry Blood Orange we normally drink, so I definitely plan to keep Garden of Eden on hand to switch off with that. It brewed up very nicely in the tea maker, and truthfully, I probably won’t drink this tea hot ever again, simply because it is so delicious on ice, and the coolness really brings out all the tropical fruity flavors.

If you’re looking for a great iced tea this summer, I highly recommend this blend from Art of Tea. It’s $10.00 for a quarter-pound ($7.00 for 2 oz.), which should last a while, and I’m planning on ordering a larger bag as soon as I’m out of my 2oz. size. It’s wonderful…order some, and taste for yourself!