My friend's personalized tea blend for me

My friend, Carmela, and I finally exchanged Christmas gifts. (It’s late, I know.) One of my favorite items was a tea blend she customized especially for me She even wrote up a description for it!:

This mango-inspired tea is blended with two different mango teas, mango green tea and mango melange herbal tea, and a third complementary tea, white tropics white tea. The mango green tea is the base of this blend, lending a creamy texture, juicy sweetness, and delicate floral aromatics. The mango melange herbal tea with its fresh mango and apple pieces and hibiscus flowers adds a sweet and tangy flavor to the blend. The white tropics white tea rounds out this fruity floral blend by adding natural pineapple and coconut flavor and rose petals.

This is my favorite part:

The Blue Mango Blend was inspired by my good friend who loves mangoes. I decided to create a special tea blend for her as a gift.

It’s nice-tasting tea blend. Since most of the blend is white tea, the flavors are quite subtle. During my two (separate) steepings, I was able to taste the apple-y sweetness and the floral taste of the hibiscus. Unfortunately, the mango taste didn’t come through for me. But, then again, I’m not an expert tea taster. I’m thinking of steeping it for longer the next time, hoping that more of the mango flavor will come out. If you’re interested in trying it, you can buy it here.

I’m not sure when I turned into a loose leaf tea fan, but it went full-blown when my ex-friend bought me a glass teapot with infuser. I started going to tea rooms in the city and near Carmela’s work. Coffee never appealed me like it does to everyone else (blah blah mocha frap blah blah Starbucks!). I’m just not a fond of the taste. However, I love the different varieties of tea offered, especially herbal teas, which are pretty much dried fruit infusions. Those are my favorite :!: and I typically lean towards tart & sweet fruits, like strawberries, passionfruits, blueberries, mangoes, etc.