Pique Tea Review: My Experience!

Pique Tea is an innovative brand of instant tea crystals that dissolve in hot (some also in cold) water. With the many health benefits that come from drinking tea on a regular basis, I could not resist to give their teas a try and see what the hype was all about.

Lucky for me, the company sent me a sampler pack of varieties to try with no strings attached, so I am going to share my unbiased Pique Tea review in this post.

Pique Tea offers a range of black, green, caffeine-free herbal teas and even TCM mushroom elixirs. You can purchase individual flavors or save by getting an assorted flavor collection.

The gut health bundle includes these flavors:

• English Breakfast (black)
• Miss Grey (black)
• Mint Sencha (green)
• Jasmine Green
• Hibiscus Beauty Elixir (jamaica/roselle)
• (and now also the Ginger Digestion Elixir)

I am reviewing each of those flavors individually below, but the health benefits of this bundle were geared towards gut health (as the name also implies). Which is something I have become a huge advocate for in recent years!

What are Pique Tea Crystals?

At first I thought Pique Tea Crystals was just a fancy word for instant tea. Actually, Pique Tea is instant tea in a sense, but it is made very differently from - say - instant coffee.

Did you know that instant coffee is simply freeze-dried coffee beans? Nothing else. So my first thought was that this may be freeze-dried tea leaves that dissolve in hot water.

But no, from their website I learnt that Pique Tea starts with the highest-quality organic tea leaves and herbs that are then cold-brewed for up to 8 hours. Apparently this brewing technique gently extracts antioxidants and phytonutrients, resulting in tea with up to 12x the antioxidants of other teas.

After that the water gets separated from this super-concentrated brew using pressure and low heat to create the tea crystals. Pretty fancy, right? I thought so too!

How to use Pique Tea?

Once those Pique Tea crystals are in your hands, all you have to do is dissolve the contents of one package in 8 ounces of either hot or cold water.

The green tea varieties dissolve in either hot or cold water.

The black and herbal teas - however - require hot water to dissolve. My easy way of still enjoying these cold quickly, is to dissolve the contents in just 1 ounce of hot water and then to fill up the remaining 7 ounces with cold water.

How much Caffeine is in Pique Tea?

There are 2 ways to figure out the caffeine level of each Pique tea flavor. The first is by checking the back of a box.

There the caffeine amount is rated on a 5-point scale. The more points (tea leave symbols) are filled in, the higher the caffeine level.

For even more detailed information you can check each tea's listing on their website. Towards the bottom of the description you'll see the active ingredients listed.

The sample of the box pictured above lists this:

Active Ingredients
Energizing Caffeine: MEDIUM (31-37mg)
Vitalizing Antioxidants: HIGH (223-273mg)
Calming L-theanine: HIGH (11-14mg)

From this you can tell that the ⅗ rating stands for a medium caffeine level. More specifically of 31-37mg.

And furthermore, you can also find out the detailed antioxidant and L-theanine levels down to a specific milligram range.

Pique Tea Flavor Review

English Breakfast Black:

This was the first Pique Tea flavor I tried. I was surprised to see how quickly (instantly really) the tea crystals dissolved in hot water without any stirring even.

I don’t enjoy over steeped black tea flavor. Unfortunately, that happens all to often with me when I use tea bags or loose leaf tea.

I get distracted doing other things in the kitchen or tending to by daughter while brewing tea, and in no time the tea is over steeped and bitter. Usually I have to dilute it with more hot water to fix my cup of tea.

So I was very pleasantly surprised when tried my first cup of the English Breakfast tea that I made with the suggested 8 ounces of hot water, that it was bold in flavor but not bitter at all. And absolute pleasure to drink even without adding milk.

However, I now am using this English Breakfast tea mostly for making myself Iced Chai Tea Lattes to keep cool and refreshed this summer. The strong (but not bitter) flavor lends itself perfectly for making spiced and milky chai that still has a pronounced and delicious black tea flavor.

Sacred Lily Oolong:

Oolong tea is somewhere between black and green tea. It is only partially fermented and semi-oxidized.

According to the back of the packaging this Lily Oolong has less caffeine (⅘) but I found the flavor quite strong and slightly bitter. So I always added more than the suggested 8 ounces of water. Probably closer to 10 or even 12 ounces.

With a higher dilution I found the flavor quite enjoyable. I mostly had this Oolong tea hot.

Jasmine Green Tea:

The Pique Jasmine Green Tea is hot and water soluble. I made my first cup with hot water and used the recommended 8 ounces.

Before even having a sip the flavor Jasmine scent was filling the kitchen, which I usually love in a garden. But when I went to sip the tea the Jasmine flavor was too overwhelming for me.

And the green tea flavor was there, but too bitter for my taste. But I found an easy solution to still be able to enjoy this Jasmine tea flavor.

When I increased the water amount to at least 12 ounces (for cold water I could even double it to 16 ounces) the Jasmine and bitter green flavors mellowed out.

Mint Green Sencha:

This was definitely my favorite of the 2 Pique green teas I tried. The caffeine level is lower in this Green Sencha tea (⅗) so it is a great afternoon pick-me-up tea that doesn't cause me any troubles with falling asleep (as coffee or black tea in the afternoon always do to me).

The green tea flavor is very pleasant and smooth. The hint of spearmint is mild and gives the tea a slight refreshing kick without overpowering or dominating the green tea flavor.

These green tea crystals are cold and hot water soluble. Which makes it a great tea to have in your purse and add to your water bottle on-the-go whenever you need a pick me up.

Hibiscus Beauty Elixir:

This hibiscus tea is the only caffeine-free Pique tea flavor I received. So it was the only flavor I could enjoy in the evenings or share with my preschooler.

Although the hibiscus tea crystals are only hot-water soluble, I actually enjoyed this hibiscus tea best when iced. For that I dissolved the tea crystals in just a little hot water (maybe about 1 ounce). Then I filled it up with cold water and added ice.

The floral hibiscus flavor is slightly tart and refreshing, which is further emphasized by the mint flavor that is added to the mix. It is perfect for hot summer days.

Looking at the website now, it looks like the formulation changed now. In addition to hibiscus and mint, there is also licorice listed as ingredient. I am not sure if I would like as much now. I am not usually a licorice fan, but have never tried it as tea.

Earl Grey Black Tea:

I recently got to try a few more Pique tea flavors. One of which was this Earl Grey, which is by far my favorite black tea variety. And the Pique Tea version did not disappoint one bit.

The flavor is strong (without any bitterness) with refreshing bergamot notes. I love this tea as my midday energizer, when I am done with my morning coffee.

I've also tried out using the Earl Grey tea crystals in my popular Earl Grey Cake recipe. It was a BIG success! Faster prep time (no steeping) and pronounced flavors all throughout. Absolutely delicious.

Benefits of Pique Tea Crystals:

• Convenient:
  Pique Tea crystals dissolve instantly in hot or cold water. Having a perfectly brewed cup of tea has never been quicker!
  Furthermore, the individual pouches of Pique Tea crystals are perfect for carrying along in your purse. Add the contents to either hot or cold water and you can save yourself a stop at the local coffee shop (and money you would spend there) for a flavored beverage.
• Consistent:
  I love that with the Pique tea crystals I can always rely on the same great flavor. No bitterness from oversteeping because I forgot about the tea bag/leaves.
• Energizing:
  Black tea is a perfect morning wake-me-up. And I love the green tea varieties for an energy boost in the afternoon that doesn't interfere with my bedtime (coffee in the afternoon definitely does that to me)

• Appetite-suppressant (for fasting)
  If you are into intermittent fasting (IM) you know that skipping a meal (be it dinner or breakfast) is definitely easier if you can at least enjoy a comforting beverage.
  While water or black coffee won't take you out of fasting either, having flavorful tea that actually supports appetite-suppression help sticking to the fasting window even more.
• 100% Organic
  I am very happy to see how serious Pique Tea takes the quality of their ingredients. From choosing organic teas and herbs sourced from family-run farms (black tea from Uva, Sri Lanka; matcha from Kagoshima, Japan; green tea from Mogan National Park, China; Hibiscus from Aswan, Egypt) to triple and quadruple toxin screening for pesticides, heavy metals, and mold.

Cons of Pique Tea:

• Flavor:
  I wasn’t a huge fan of all the flavours I tried. I totally get that individual tastes vary. And I was able to find a way to enjoy all of them by either using more than the suggested 8 ounces of water, switching from hot to cold water, or using flavorings.

• Price:
  Pique Tea is definitely more expensive than regular tea bags, much more than loose leaf teas, and even other instant tea varieties. Individual packages with 14 pouches run around $11.99 - 15.99. Which brings the cost of individual servings to about $0.85 - 1.14.
  However, comparing this to the cost of a tea at any coffee shop ($3-6), you are still saving a lot of money by having a pouch of Pique Tea crystals in your purse for on-the-go and skipping the coffee-shop tea. Pique tea pouches are definitely much more convenient to make quickly while you are out and about than any other tea that requires steeping.
  And you can save even more by using my special code LEELA to get 5% OFF your first Pique Tea order.
• Packaging:
  Each individual serving of Pique Tea is wrapped in a plastic pouch. I understand that this is great for the convenience factor of taking the tea to go. For having each serving already portioned out, and also for keeping the tea fresh. (I once only used half a pouch to make Hibiscus tea for my daughter. Then I forgot the remaining tea crystals for a few days. When I finally remembered, I found they were all clumped together (probably from absorbing moisture) and it took a LOT of stirring to dissolve this clump of tea crystals.)
  So I understand that individual packaging must be necessary to maintain freshness.Using loose leaf tea would be much more environmentally friendly. But each individual Pique Tea pouch doesn’t seem to produce any more waste than individually wrapped tea bags. And definitely a lot less waste than a disposable tea cup from the coffee shop.

In summary, I really enjoy Pique tea - especially the English Breakfast, Mint Sencha, and Hibiscus flavors. I highly recommend them to fellow tea drinkers who want to try something new.

Actually, a Pique Tea collection would make a perfect gift for tea lovers.

And even if you are not usually a tea drinker, I think you still would enjoy the convenience of Pique tea crystals, even if just to flavor your water.

Where to buy Pique Tea

Pique Tea Crystals are available from the Pique Tea website. Through the navigation on top you can learn more about how their teas support gut health, fasting, and calmness. Or go straight to the shop listings to see all the flavors on offer.

Be sure to use my special code LEELA to receive 5% OFF your first order!

Conclusion: Pique Tea Worth it?

Pique Tea products are more than just packets of refreshing additions to your daily routine. They embody the fusion of innovation and tradition, capturing the essence of high-quality ingredients and the power of cold brew crystallization. Crafted through Simon Cheng's dedication and expertise, Pique Tea has redefined the way we experience tea yet preserves its purity while unlocking its full potential.

The cold brew crystallization process, unique to Pique Tea, enhances the absorption of active compounds such as catechins and EGCG, which support metabolism and provide a calm energy boost. Triple toxin-screened for toxic mold and other contaminants, Pique Tea products offer not only clarity in taste but also peace of mind in knowing you're consuming a safe and pure beverage.

Whether you savor the soothing notes of Elderberry Liposomal Vitamin C or the invigorating Sun Goddess Matcha Latte, Pique Tea's range caters to diverse preferences while promoting radiant skin and cravings for more. The inclusion of elderberries, licorice root, and other healthful ingredients reinforces your quest for a healthy immune system.

With Pique Tea, you're not just sipping on tea; you're embracing a full-spectrum isolate synthesis of wellness. These conveniently packaged tea crystals fit seamlessly into your daily routine, optimized to support immunity, vitality, and overall well-being. Every sip tells a story of dedication to excellence and a commitment to elevating your tea-drinking experience.

In the world of tea, Pique Tea stands as a sun goddess, illuminating the path to a healthier, more vibrant you. Embrace the calm energy, the radiance, and the benefits of Pique Tea's cold brew crystallization. Elevate your tea time and discover a new level of vitality with Pique Tea products, where tradition meets innovation, and healthy living finds its home.

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