Cusa Tea is a fairly new name in the tea industry and they are making a name for themselves through developing an instant tea that taste like a high end hot tea without the steeping process. Through a unique cold brew and dehydration process, Cusa Teas taste just like other flavorful teas, but without a tea bag. The idea stemmed from when founder Jim Lamancussa spent time with friends in mountains and didn’t like the idea of having to pack out a wet tea bag. He thought to himself, there had to be a better way to get good tea without the hassle while out in the backcountry. Fast forward years of research and a few trial and errors and Cusa Tea is born.
Cusa Tea Flavors
Tea Taste
In their current state, Cusa Tea has a total of 5 flavors of organic tea. These flavors include; English breakfast, oolong tea, mango green tea, and lemon black tea (my favorite). I’ve tried each tea a number of times and I’ve also had a number of friends and co-workers try the various flavors out, since taste can often times vary from person to person. Each time I received a response on taste and flavor of all the teas, I got a “taste great” response each time. Having been a tea drinker for the past 20+ years, I’ve tried some great and not so great teas. Each of the five tea blends mentioned above have flavors that awaken your taste buds while going down smoothly.
Cusa Instant Tea
The convenience of instant drinks at this point isn’t anything new for most of us. There are offerings of instant coffee from a number of brands like Stoked Roasters, Starbucks and the list goes on. For tea, I’ve only really come across Lipton which has never really made a quality tasting tea in my opinion. If you want a good tasting tea in a hurry, Cusa is the main player at this point in the game.
Hot and Cold
I find when putting Cusa Tea packets into a hot cup of water, the tea mixes into the water within seconds. When putting the tea into a cup of cold water, the particles don’t break down well and you get clumps of instant tea floating around your cup. If you happen to drink one of these small clumps, it’s extremely bitter and doesn’t taste good. To prevent this clumping and allowing the tea to dissolve, I find that putting the tea in a tiny amount of warm or hot water and mixing in the tea works best. After, you can add cold water to your hearts content.
Final Thoughts
At the cost of $9.99 for a packet of 10 tea packs, Cusa Tea is one of the more expensive tea options on the market. I find that tea companies using the standard steeping process such as Stash make a comparable tasting tea at less than half the cost and are a better option for drinking when you aren’t worried about the extra tea bag bulk. I personally save the Cusa Tea packets for camping and backpacking where I want to reduce trash I need to pack out. For more information on Cusa Tea, head on over to amazon.com/cusatea.
