Thanks as always to Chapters Tea & Co. for having me on board as an affiliate! If you want to try any of their custom tea and coffee blends, be sure to use my code KARAD15 for 15% off your order!
I am a sucker for a special tea blend, and Chapters Tea & Co. always has me covered. This small business has been running for a year and is still my favorite purveyor of very good tea blends. As a bonus, they're all book themed!
For summer, Chapters has released a trio of fruit-flavored teas and tisanes. While many blends are inspired by specific books or authors, these encapsulate the joy of lazy summer days with a book. I've tried all three—and, once again, we have some winners.
The best part: these are not labeled as limited-edition teas, meaning you can enjoy them year-round!
Poetic Peach Refresher
Kicking off with a caffeine-free fruit tisane, Poetic Peach Refresher is pretty much made for iced tea. Inspired by summer picnics with a good book and a cool drink, this tea blends peach, apple, rosehip, orange, and hibiscus for a lovely pink brew.
Hibiscus is a bit of a touchy ingredient, in my experience. Use it right, and it adds nice color and flavor; go overboard, and you taste nothing but hibiscus. Fortunately, the peach is frontmost in this blend, and it's excellently balanced without being too sweet or too bitter. It's fine hot if you prefer, but the flavors are at their best iced. Personally, I'd recommend giving this a try cold-steeped in carbonated water for a nice soda summer alternative.
Porch Reads
Porch Reads is another peach-centric blend in the batch, but peach is great so there's nothing wrong with that. This black tea brings to mind lazy afternoons reading on your porch, and blends peach, apricot, and other natural flavors with black tea.
When served hot, this is a very subtle tea. The peach and apricot are more an aroma than a flavor, but that can be nice for a summer morning. Iced with some sugar, the flavors really pop. This is a great alternative to the Poetic Peach Refresher if you prefer black tea over fruit teas.
Summer Sunshine
All three new summer blends are great, but Summer Sunshine is (at least in my books) the MVP. This papaya and floral blend balances the fruit and tea flavors perfectly with the help of jasmine, marigold, and calendula. It's good hot or iced, but the fruit and floral balance is peak when it's served hot.
This one has the surprising smoothness of their Second Breakfast blend (a standard and one I regularly pick up) with that additional summery brightness. While I highly recommend you pick up all three to have your summer tea arsenal ready, if you only get one, make it this one.
About the Author
Kara Dennison is an author, journalist, anime enjoyer, reader, guinea pig owner, and tea drinker. Not necessarily in that order.
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