Orange Glam is a green tea accented with orange peel and lily blossoms. The tea is from Steep City Teas.
Blarg, I really want pu’er but it’s FREAKING HOT outside. It’s the end of August, it’s Southern California, and ewww so hot!!! Hot tea is not appealing right now, however the Oolong Owl must drink something!
I did a huge Steep City Teas order recently and I purchased Orange Glam purely on their Ginger Zinger having a really nice orange flavor to it. Since Steep City Teas is a Florida company, I figure their orange tea has to be good. That drinking this tea would lead to iced tea – I need something cold!
Dry leaf: After opening the bag of tea, I got hit with a candy orange smell. The smell reminds me of fruit snacks, but the good kind with actual fruit in it (somewhat) and no freaky waxy smell.
The green tea is pretty good looking quality, long twisted leaves mixed with some chunky orange peel, deep orange lily blossoms and the odd blue cornflower. Very pretty.
Enemy Crab has joined us today for the tea session. I associate Steep City Teas with crabs. Why? Steep City Teas = Florida. Florida = Dexter (TV show). Then when I think of Dexter, I think of the first episode where he’s on that date with Rita and they were eating at a crab boil. That crab boil eating made me excited because man, I want to eat there! Let me at it! /flails around with a hammer
Steeping Instructions: The packaging states to steep the tea for 175F for 2 minutes, which I did using a gravity steeper.
Orange Glam steeps up to light yellow (turning green) tea with the scent of orange fruit snacks.
Taste: The green tastes light, soft, fresh and slightly grassy, but slowly develops into an orange flavor. End of sip the orange perks to a slight candy twang mixed with orange peel flavor. The entire tea sips “refreshing!” without any flatness in flavor. To elaborate on the orange flavor, I’d say it does have a mix of natural and candy like taste. There is no tart or bitterness in this tea.
Sweetened: I added some german rock sugar to Orange Glam. Wow, the orange flavor really popped into something special. The orange does move more candy like, however the tea tastes like orange juice with a background of light green tea to add interest. There is a natural orange aftertaste. I normally prefer my hot teas unsweetened, but Orange Glam tastes great sweetened!
Iced: yay, iced tea time! I’m sweating and I’m sure Enemy Crab is hot too. We made a nice strong batch of Orange Glam and poured it over ice. I used a little german rock sugar during the steep.
At first, this tea is quite green tea tasting – good, crisp, slight grassy green with a hint of orange at the end. I then added more sweetener and the orange came out much more. As a final touch, I added a lemon slice, which made this iced tea enter awesome zone as it has more tart and freshness. I could drink this all day!
Comments: I’ve had a number of orange tea blends and many of them can be too tart, not taste like orange, has bitterness with peel use or taste completely fake. Orange Glam does a great balance of orange flavor with a nice green tea base without any tart or bitterness!
Orange Glam tastes great both hot and iced, sweetened or unsweetened! Simple, yet flexible tea! I think I need to make an ice tea pitcher full for later.
Bonus:
Hey, get out of my tea!
