Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Forest Witch Teas – Sailor Venus blend. This blend is the last of the Sailor Moon blends Mia (the founder of Forest Witch Teas) very kindly sent me to try and then feature in this series. I’ve enjoy all of the blends I’ve tried from that collection so far and some have even chance my opinions on certain ingredients and base teas like rooibos and green rooibos. Some have inspired me to create tea recipes that I now drink regularly and I’m really thankful that Mia very graciously gave me the chance to try them through this series of collaborations. Hopefully we will have the chance to carry on collaborating for a long time to come.

Forest Witch Tea’s – Sailor Venus blend is an orange an raspberry rooibos inspired by warmth and sunny personality of Minako (Sailor Venus). In the past I would have been a little bit hesitant going into trying a blend like this with it having both a red rooibos base and hibiscus but Mia is magic and she’s managed to change my opinion on a lot of ingredients I thought I didn’t like so rather than going into this tasting session worried I was actually rather excited and couldn’t wait to see what the blend was going to taste like.Here’s what Mia the founder of Forest Witch Teas has to say about this blend on her website: Sailor Venus, Soldier of Love, Hope, and Beauty; Minako’s tea is deliciously juicy sweet, and berry tart. Woody and caramelly rooibos blends with juicy oranges and tart hibiscus and raspberry flavours. A little sprinkling of calendula reminds you of the warmth and sunny personality of Minako.

Ingredients: organic rooibos tea, organic hibiscus, organic orange, organic calendula, flavour | CAFFEINE FREE

Tisane Tasting Notes

For this tasting session I tried this tisane both hot and iced as is my go to for fruity blends especially ones that contain hibiscus as I can never normally stomach it hot. The hot version I tried both on it’s own and with a little honey and for me I think it needs that little bit of honey to balance out the tart note of the hibiscus and raspberry and let the orange shine through as well as the naturally woodiness of the rooibos both were nice but I really do think that if you are going to choose to have this hot I would make sure you add just a little bit of your preferred sweetener to make sure it doesn’t have too much of a tart bite for you. I was surprised by this blend because even thought it has hibiscus in it I actually still enjoyed it hot and would have it hot time and time again. I think that hot with maybe a little added cinnamon this blend would make for a great non alcoholic mulled wine at Christmas time so I’ll give that a try when winter returns.The cold steeped version I did overnight and I didn’t add any sweetener at all I never do with my iced teas and tisanes because they just never need it. The cold steeped version was much lighter and the tartness was there but it wasn’t a harsh tart bite like it was when I had it hot before I added a little honey. Instead the red rooibos shine and the raspberry & orange complimented it’s natural woody and caramelly notes perfectly. Much to might delight in the iced version the hibiscus was much more muted and was way more of a background note which made me see this blend in a completely different light. I think that having this tisane iced with some fresh fruit in the summer would be the perfect non alcoholic replacement for sangria which would be a hit at garden parties, bbq’s and picnics with adults and children alike. All in all both hot and iced this blend is delicious and has clearly had a lot of thought, hard work, love and magic go into creating it.

Overall Teacup Rating: 4.9/5  | The only reason I didn’t give this blend a 5/5 was because I wish I could have had it hot and not had to have any sweetener to balance it out a little.

If you want to find out more about Forest Witch Tea and purchase some of this blend for yourself, you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll do my best to answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley