Earlier this month the delicious duo announced the availability of their blends at Bigg’s stores, Jungle Jim’s and the Keller’s IGA locations in the greater Cincinnati area.

That just happens to be my neck of the woods! I took a trip around the corner to my local Bigg’s right after receiving the good news from the sisters’ marketing agent and what did I find? Fantastic placement of their teas on a short shelf (harder to get lost on than taller shelves)!

From the press release:

Fully Loaded Tea continues US expansion into “The Buckeye State”

Gourmet tea blends now available in select Ohio locations

Mississauga, ON – Fully Loaded Tea (FLT) is proud to announce its first distribution partnerships with Ohio retailers.  Starting in Early October, select bigg’s hypermarkets and Jungle Jim’s International Market will join the growing number of key locations throughout the country carrying FLT’s distinctly different product.  This continued expansion ensures that residents of Cincinnati and Fairfield will now be able to enjoy the bold and opinionated blends, already extremely popular with young professionals and celebrities.   

Katya Popoff, co-founder of FLT explained: “We are extremely pleased to be working with bigg’s and Jungle Jim’s International Market.  Bigg’s has been a supporter of Fully Loaded Tea since our inception, so we are particularly delighted as this distribution partnership confirms our immense progress, and gives us further momentum going forward. We continue to be overwhelmed by the support received from retailers such as bigg’s and Jungle Jim’s International Market – our blends are popping up on shelves throughout the US, and this is certainly a most rewarding feeling.”

The brainchild of sister-duo Katya Popoff and Olga Lenova, since the company’s launch in 2007 FLT has experienced unprecedented success and momentum with an increase in sales by more than 400 percent in 2008. The unique combination of berries and tea blends results in bold, opinionated flavors rich with vitamins and antioxidants.

FLT’s distinct blends continue to garner invitations to participate in high-profiled, celebrity events, including the Primetime Emmy Awards, SXSW Film Festival, and the Much Music Video Awards.

Ohio gourmands can look forward to purchasing Fully Loaded Tea blends at:

bigg’s hypermarket located at 5218 Beechmont Avenue and 5022 Delhi Road in    Cincinnati, and Jungle Jim’s International Market at         5440 Dixie Hwy in  Fairfield.

For more information about FLT, to purchase the blends online, or to find locations around the country where FLT is available, please visit www.fullyloadedtea.com.

Friday is Black Tea, Floral Tea, Fruit Tea, Chai and Pu’erh Review Day!

Vegetables in tea!?! You heard me right. This white tea blend from Fully Loaded Tea is interesting and enticing from the packaging to the flavor!

I’m not sure if Katya and Olga woke up one morning and BAM! they just knew to use cucumber in a tea, or what. But what I think is that they’re pure genius!

This blend is in a pyramid tea bag (sachet) and looks to have a mix of floral leaves and  carrot pieces, but I didn’t see any cucumber. It brews a beautiful tangerine-orange color. Nice and bright.

The aroma has Cucumber tart, hints of safflower, some spice and carrot and is slightly pungent.

Flavor-wise you deffinitely catch the cucumber, carrot, spice and safflower. Though marigold is on the ingredients list I certainly didn’t catch it. It is slightly sour and clearly vegetal. It reminds slightly of spinach.

The flavor is well balanced, but the aroma is the draw here. Not too bold, not weak, just a well balanced tea. Great for a change of pace and worth a try. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys trying different teas.

Please Support This Advertiser

Wednesday is Green Tea, White Tea, Rooibos, Oolong and Tisane (Herbal) Review Day!

Goji berries are an understated flavor accessory. I’m of the opinion they’re not used frequently enough. From the wonderful female duo over at Fully Loaded Tea comes this Goji Force Green Tea.

This tea comes in pyramid sachets. Very popular in the industry for a few years now. Fortunately, Katya and Olga also found a way to use big berry slices and larger leaf sizes than I usually expect, all in one of these little silken wonders.

The liquor infuses to a light amber gold and provides an aroma with notes of light spice and light hints of grassiness expected with green teas.

With notes of honey some berry taste and an easy finish this tea is extremely comforting to drink. There is a slight spiced bit, almost like pepper, in the tail… but it’s subtle and not at all overpowering.

I recommend this tea to drinkers of spiced beverages, fruit teas and medium to light bodied green teas.

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

It’s been a week since the end of the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and I’m still a little heady from the experience. Here’s a recap of my time at the Expo and my takeaway from the event.

Like most people, I don’t work in the tea industry. I make my living doing something else. For me it’s in technology in one form or another (I get around). For others it might be banking or retail work. Regardless of our backgrounds we all have limits on the time we can spend away from the office. You can imagine the general level trepidation I had in spending half my yearly vacation allotment (not to mention the monetary costs) to attend this industry only event almost an entire continent away!

Let me start by stating that Las Vegas has never been my kind of town. No offense to those who enjoy it. I’m not one for gambling, unless I’m starting a business… which is a gamble all its own. And while I can certainly get into pretty lights… all the sex advertising is overkill for me. So Vegas is clearly a bit absurd for me. But I follow the tea… and there the tea went.

Although the expo started on Saturday, I spent Thursday travelling to Vegas. This would give me time to rest up before the expo and explore the town a bit more than I’d had on my only previous visit to Vegas. I spent Friday walking up and down the strip photographing the architecture and window shopping in the stores. There’s plenty to see, even if you’re not out for the gambling or the gratuitous nudity everywhere.

Friday night I picked up my badge and packet for the expo to avoid the morning lines. I missed the opening ceremonies Saturday morning… something I’ve never really enjoyed much at other gatherings. I hear there was a very good breakfast there, and that would have been appreciated versus the $9.70 I ended up paying for a bowl of fruit and some yogurt at the Red White & Blue restaurant in the Mandalay Bay hotel where the expo was held.

Right off the bat I had a session Saturday morning. The first was held by James Norwood Pratt on the Myths & Legends of Tea. Of the six sessions I had at this year’s expo this was probably my favorite. Mr. Norwood clearly and entertainingly discussed the real world drawbacks of concentrating too heavily on the oft complicated and confusing (not to mention long and growing) list of health benefits of tea. Also covering modern societies’ general loss of the ability to tell and listen to stories, Mr. Pratt was captivating and educating all at once. If you have the opportunity to read one of his myriad of books, I highly recommend it.

Also on Saturday I had a panel called “Educating Your Customer,” hosted by Michael Harney of Harney & Sons. If you frequent this site you’ll note a number of Harney & Sons reviews here for both hot and iced teas. After Mr. Pratt’s amazing presentation I had very high standards for this followup. However, as much as I admire Mr. Harney and what he and his family’s company have done for the industry over the years, he needs some improvement in the presentation skills arena. Looking past lots of “umms” and “ahhs” flowing through the presentation, Michael Harney gave a good presentation discussing the intricacies of staff training and engaging customers in their education process.

I hit the show floor after this and spent a whole lot of time (6+ hours) networking and meeting people. I’m a bit of a talker, so I got stuck at several booths discussing their teas, company histories and other things along the way. You would think so much time would have allowed me to meet lots of people, but I don’t think I even finished a full row of booths on Saturday out of the seven or eight total rows.

I ended up visiting with ITI (International Tea Importers) right through the door, then moving on to the Harney & Sons booth and speaking with both Michael and John Harney. Both gentlement are uniquely and fantastically knowledgeable about tea and I had been very much looking forward to interacting with them. I also ran into Tea Escapade, another blogger, while at this booth.

I also met with Rona Tison of ITO EN and learned they have been recycling their used plastic bottles and used tea leaves to make other goods. While I found making their business cards of these materials to be a natural extension of things… they also fashion pens, park benches and vending machines out of the plastics and tea leaves! Completely fascinating!

Saturday evening brought the World Tea Championships out. Far and away Rishi Tea took the most awards… walking away with NINE (9) first place wins and numerous runner up positions across multiple categories. I was most excited to see a relative newcommer with Puripan taking away a win. I’ve long been upset at the seemingly clear bias against Korean teas in the industry. I’m very excited to these teas to receive recognition!

Saturday brought many new relationships into my life… but Sunday and Monday were yet to come. Visit back next Monday for a recap of the final two days of my time at the World Tea Expo (WTE).

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Friday is Black Tea, Floral Tea, Fruit Tea, Chai and Pu’erh Review Day!

I stumbled upon Fully Loaded Tea when looking for methods of liquoring up my favorite cuppa. The story of this young company is inspiring and invigorating in itself, but their blends are of an uncommon breed. While reviewing brands as a whole is certainly something I do, it’s not what this post is about. No, instead it’s on the most interesting blend the delectable entrepreneurial duo has to offer!

I’d not thought of combining a black tea with basil let alone tomato, but that’s just what Katya and Olga had the inspiration to do. The aged disagreement on how to classify a tomato (fruit or veggie) had me a little giddy to see how its flavor would adjust to joining a light black tea. I was both curious and worried how it would turn out.

The primary flavor is definitely tomato. The taste comes out as a light spiced tomato soup at first, which is oddly comforting as a beverage. Savoring each sip is remarkably easy with this blend. On the finish I can deffinitely taste the basil and the hints of both marigold and cornflowers. I’m surprised tomato isn’t used more frequently now that I’ve had it.

The aroma is light. I found it almost too light actually as I couldn’t really notice it past the edge of my mug. Disappointing to say the least given the remarkable energy the flavor extended to my palette. I’m not sure what I could recommend differently here, except to say I’d like the tea to beckon to me lest I forget about it as I work or eat.

The tail of this brew is also light. I wouldn’t mark that as a negative at all in this case. Frugal on the bitterness Tomato Rebel is alluring in more ways than one. The finish does ask you to drink ever more, but the addition of desirable aroma would make this brew irresistible.

Refreshing as a brew, I never imagined tomato would be so good as a flavor in a tea. My worries were certainly appeased upon the first sip. Something about the tomato just helped me relax… and maybe even crave some grilled cheese. I have to recommend this brew to anyone who likes tomatoes, tomato soup , a good tomato bisque or even a V8 veggie drink. This tea is absolutely better than I thought it would be!

One last note is that I do wish this tea were offered loose. Instead Fully Loaded only offers their teas in “pyramid” sachets. While certainly better than using paper tea bags, it’s not as freeing as having it loose. Either way, this brew is worth your time.