Teas of Root Beer & Grace

During that recent trip to Florida, I came across several new teas. Among them were these two bottles of SteaZ brand teas. On the left is the Key Lime flavored green tea soda, and at right is the Root Beer sparkling green tea. Now I have to say, I happen to like root beer, but the mere idea of sparkling green tea root beer struck me as pretty disgusting. The combination was bound to be just terrible, but at least I could say I tried it, right? Well imagine my surprise when I loved this tea, which tasted like really, really good root beer. DH tried it too and said he liked it but could taste a little something strange which he assumed was the green tea. I didn't detect anything odd, just a very nice root beer flavor with a teeny bit of zip to it. The Key Lime? It was just your basic mildly fruity drink, and nothing I'd bother to try again. The root beer, however, is another story!

I also found this Garasha Japanese Sencha I got primarily because I love the design of the package. According to the information on the back, "Garasha is the Japanese pronunciation of the Latin 'Gratia,' which is equivalent to the English word 'Grace.'" I like a tea with grace!

The back of the package had an interesting little tab to help you open it. Very thoughtful, that. The inside of the package has the type of sealing strip you find on Ziploc baggies. (I have missionary friends in Japan, and I don't know why it hasn't dawned on me before that I need to ask about their tea-drinking habits. Maybe this type of package is the norm?)

The dry leaves were a very bright green, and when steeped, I couldn't help thinking they looked just like collards! (Do my northern friends eat collard greens?) This Sencha tea brews in just 60 seconds, and the flavor was quite enjoyable and not too "grassy" at all. Maybe it's just grace-y!