Monday, November 28, 2011

The Earth Burger


The Earth Burger (makes about 8-10 burger patties)

1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 medium red beet, peeled and grated (about 2 cups)
1 large carrot, peeled and grated (about 1 cup)
1/2 medium onion, peeled and grated or finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, uncooked
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, shelled
3 cups hot water
1 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup natural BBQ sauce
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp chili powder
salt and black pepper to taste


In a large bowl mix all the ingredients, except for the oats and hot water. In a medium bowl mix oats and hot water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Place wet oats in a blender and blend into a thick paste. Stir the oat paste into the vegetable mixture. If you use your hands the mixture will blend together much better. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Let sit at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a large baking sheet with oil or spray it with cooking spray.
Form round burger patties with wet hands. Place patties on baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 15 minutes, flip and bake 15 more minutes. Flip again and bake 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with your favorite burger toppings. Enjoy!

Note: Spray your spatula with cooking spray before flipping burgers, it will prevent the burgers from sticking to your spatula.




Sunday, November 27, 2011

Manna Organics Bread Review and Giveaway

Picture source


Manna Organics company contacted me a few weeks ago because they wanted to do a giveaway on my blog. They kindly sent me 4 loaves of their artisan, all natural bread to try. I was quite impressed with their tasty, moist, dense and sweet sprouted breads and their pleasantly sour, dense Bavarian sourdough bread.





From left: Cinnamon Date, Fig Fennel Flax, and Carrot Raisin

All of these beautiful sprouted Manna Breads were super moist, dense, rich, sweet and delicious. The dried fruits made these breads quite sweet without added sugars. I would never guess that these breads were made without added sugar, salt, yeast or oil, since they tasted pretty much like sweet cakes. I served them as a breakfast treat and after dinner dessert. The Fig, Fennel and Flax bread had a slight hint of licorice and a pretty, crunchy seeds topping. I liked the addition of poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds for extra health benefits. The Carrot Raisin bread tasted almost like a carrot cake, minus the icing.

There are 9 flavors of sprouted Manna Breads: Banana Walnut Hemp, Carrot Raisin, Cinnamon Date, Fig Fennel Flax, Fruit & Nut, Millet Rice, Multigrain, Sunseeed, Whole Rye – and 3 flavors of Bavarian Sourdough Breads: Bavarian Whole Rye Sourdough, Sunny Sourdough and Multigrain Flax Sourdough.
Frozen Manna Organics breads are sold in most Whole Foods Markets and quality independent health food stores nationwide and in Canada. They are also available online on Manna Organics website.




I enjoyed the Bavarian Style Sourdough very much! That was probably my favorite of all (that and the Carrot Raisin). It reminded me of German Rye bread that I buy at Whole Foods often. The slices are thin, but the density and great taste is just perfect. It only has a few ingredients: Whole rye flour, filtered water, sea salt, caraway seeds, fennel seeds and coriander seeds. Despite the fennel seeds, this bread does not taste like licorice at all which is a big plus.


I made an after Thanksgiving sandwich with this bread, leftover Tofurky roast and cranberry sauce. Yummy!



I enjoyed it toasted with vegan butter and Marmite.


And I enjoyed it with vegan butter and red currant jam.



Do you want to try 4 Manna Organics breads for free? Manna Organics has generously offered to give 4 loaves of bread to one giveaway winner. The winner can pick the flavors :-) They will ship 4 loaves directly to the winner. This giveaway is only open to continental USA addresses only.


You have several ways to enter this giveaway. I will pick one random comment on December 9th, Friday evening. If you want extra entries, you have to leave a comment for each entry option to count, if you leave one big comment with everything in it, it will only count as one entry. The more comments, the better the chances are to win.

Mandatory entry:

# Leave a comment telling me which Manna Organics bread would you like to try the most.

Extra entries:

# Become a follower (member) of this blog and leave a comment that you did or that you already were a follower

# Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Follow Manna Organics on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment that you did (1 tweet per day is allowed). Include @CzechVegan and @MannaOrganics in the tweets.

# Like Manna Organics on Facebook and leave a comment that you did

# Mention this giveaway, with the link, in a blog post, and leave a link to the post in a comment

# For extra 5 entries-make any recipe from Czech Vegan blog, and blog about it. Leave 5 separate comments for the entries.

Good luck!


Saturday, November 26, 2011

Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Seafood Giveaway winner



Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Seafood Giveaway winner is a comment number 25 (via www.random.org). Congratulations to Tammy with the comment "I Follow Sophie's Kitchen on Twitter babymasongrant"
Tammy, you won 2 coupons for Sophie's Vegan Seafood of your choice. I will contact you via Twitter to get your address.
Thank you everyone who entered my giveaway. Stay tuned for a new giveaway next week.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all had a wonderful day and that you ate some amazing cruelty-free Thanksgiving dinner. I had a Tofurky Roast, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans and peas. What did you have?



My sweet Shelly in her Thanksgiving bandana.


Vegan pumpkin pie (I cheated this year and bought one already made from Whole Foods). I made homemade coconut whipped topping that was better than any soy whipped cream :-)


Monday, November 21, 2011

The All American Vegan Review



Several weeks ago my friend Seth showed me his video featuring Nathan Winograd, one of the creators of the All American Vegan cookbook, speaking at World Vegetarian Festival 2011. Nathan's speech was very interesting and I got curious about the whole All American Vegan project and their new cookbook. Nathan and Jennifer Winograd have been vegan for over 20 years (That's pretty impressive!). They both work in the animal rights movement, promoting the No Kill philosophy not only when it comes to farm animals, but also cats and dogs. They try very hard to end the systematic killing of animals in the American shelters. Thanks to Nathan, Tompkins County in New York became the first No Kill community in the U.S. history, saving not only healthy animals but all treatable sick and injured animals as well. That is wonderful! I have been volunteering at various cat and dog shelters for years and I care very much about the No Kill Movement. Nathan and Jennifer believe that if we end the killing of dogs and cats, the animals that are closest to us, we can get people to care equally about the welfare of other animals as well. I was very happy to receive a copy of their cookbook for a review.
The All American Vegan cookbook is not just a cookbook, it is so much more. It is a wonderful book full of awesome recipes, vegan substitutions to meat, eggs, and dairy, helpful baking and cooking tips, and other useful and fun information (such as important moments in vegan history, trivia, list of animal-derived ingredients, the No Kill Movement in dog and cat shelters, new vegan menu planner, and things vegans should never say when discussing veganism with non-vegans).
This book is written in a fun, informative, and easy to read way. I can see this book becoming the new vegan resource book for newbie vegans. I have been vegan for over 5 years and still learned a lot of new stuff while reading the All American Vegan.
The main mission of this cookbook is to make vegan versions of the most popular foods that Americans like. By veganizing traditional American comfort foods (such as tuna melt, lasagna, hamburger, pizza), fast foods, desserts and everything that people used to like growing up in the USA, they eliminate the biggest barrier preventing people from giving up the consumption of meat, diary and eggs-not wanting to sacrifice taste. Food is closely tied to family traditions and one of the issues that many new vegans have is that they feel alienated when celebrating holidays with their family or having weekend dinners together. Food is tied to memories and many people like comfort foods because it can wake up some of their memories and traditions that they used to love. Take that away from them and they can become bitter and sad. By veganizing their favorite foods they don't have to give up their favorite, familiar foods and will be more likely to stick to a vegan diet.
Let's face it, not everyone who wants to go vegan is a vegetable, seeds, quinoa, and other health foods lover. Yes, there are many people who become vegan for health reasons first and eat a balanced, plant based diet that is mostly raw or has minimum processed mock meats, fried foods, sugar, white flour and other ingredients that I used in most comfort foods. But many new vegans want to eat the same way they used to, minus the cruelty of animal products. I am personally in between. I love comfort foods, especially veganized versions of traditional Czech and American dishes and sweet baked goods, but I also love "healthy" foods such as kale, quinoa, fresh vegetable juices, seeds, nuts, legumes, beans and most fruits and veggies. I was not always like this though. I had to slowly build my desire and taste buds for "healthy", unfamiliar foods. I wish I had this cookbook when I first became vegan, it would make my life much easier when I cooked for my American non-vegan family. A lot of the recipes from this cookbook are something that I made in one way or another over the years. Some things are new to me and I was happy to try them and I am planning on making many more soon.

I am like a kid sometimes when it comes to books and cookbooks. I love pictures, not just photographs but illustrations, too. The inner child in me jumped for joy after opening this cookbook because it is full of beautiful, cute and funny illustrations. And the recipes are great! Imagine a vegan diner style recipes in a fun package :-)

Some of the recipes that you will not want to miss: Cinnamon Rolls (page 70), Danishes (page 72), Glazed Donuts (page 74), Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich (page 86), Corndogs (page 95). Matzo Ball Soup (page 104), Parmesan (page 126), Coconut Cream Pie (page 131), Golden Cream Filled Spongecakes-aka vegan "Twinkies" (page 136), Thanksgiving Menu featuring Stuffed Not A Turkey with maple Glazed Root Vegetables (pages 152-159) and the recipes that I tried bellow.


This is a lovely Banana Cream Pie (page 130) with Chocolate Sauce (page 146). This no-bake pie was amazing! Creamy, silky banana with smooth and decadent chocolate sauce. It was not overly sweet or heavy and it was made pretty quickly with no baking required.
I made Coconut Whipped Topping (page 148) but unfortunately I experience a major kitchen fail with the topping. Not because of the recipe, but the quality of my coconut milk. I usually buy one brand and make coconut whipped topping with great results, but this time I wanted to save a dollar and bought a cheaper brand that was full fat, same as the other brand, but for some reason the fat did not solidify in the fridge. That resulted in liquid topping instead of nice and fluffy whipped cream. Lesson learned there-stick to what you know that works, saving a few pennies on an ingredients that will ruin your recipe is not worth it. I did not throw the liquid coconut topping away, I made an ice cream out of it. I added orange flavoring and froze it. That created a nice orange-coconut ice cream.





Let's have breakfast! Blueberry Muffins (page 71) and a cup of hot tea, that is all I need to have a good breakfast. These muffins were very good. I used fresh blueberries. The recipe calls for maple syrup and I used mixture of half maple syrup and half agave nectar to cut down on the cost and they turned out great! Moist, sweet and dense. I will be making these again soon.



These Peanut Butter Cups (page 140) are a perfect vegan alternative to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I could not wait to try this recipe. The recipe calls for sturdy paper candy cups but I wanted more authentic look so I splurged on peanut butter cups candy mold and candy brushes. It was much more work but the results were worth it! And the taste was very close to the non-vegan peanut butter cups. Very good!



Fried No Chicken (page 96) was way better than the KFC chicken that I remembered from when I was a teenager. It was almost scary how realistic my seitan "chicken" tasted. The spices and herbs made this crispy fried no chicken a very flavorful experience. I wish I made some mashed potatoes and gravy at the same time, that would be perfect!




I love creamy soups so I made Cream of Mushroom Soup (page 103). Mmmmmm. Creamy, buttery and silky mushroom soup with a nice touch of thyme. I served it sprinkled with more thyme and a handful of croutons and it was awesome!




Some of my favorite quotes from All American Vegan:
"If it is edible, it can be made vegan."
"Some people may be uncaring, but most people are concerned about animals and will support efforts to improve their lives. make it easy for people to do the right thing, and they will."
"Quite simply, we can more effectively persuade people to be vegan if vegan food becomes as familiar, widespread, and appealing as the competition."
"Veganism can accommodate your palate and your appetite too."
"Had animal products not been available, our ancestors would have experimented with other sources that served the same purpose and end they were seeking and today those ingredients would be in widespread use instead."



Friday, November 18, 2011

17 Bean and Barley Soup


Look at this beautiful assortment of beans! I love all the different shapes, beautiful colors and textures of this "17 Bean & Barley Mix" by Trader Joe's. It is a bag full of beans and barley, great for making stews or soups. There is no seasoning so I added vegetable broth, bay leaves, extra barley, carrots, leeks, garlic and spices and made a very healthy, comforting soup. It was the perfect dinner for this cold autumn evening.



Sunday, November 13, 2011

Smokey White Bean Chili


Smokey White Bean Chili

1 Tbs olive or canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 15-oz cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 28-oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes in juice (or regular)
1 cup vegetable broth
1-2 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp liquid smoke
pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Mash 1 can of beans in a bowl with a fork, set aside.
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir chili powder, garlic and optional cayenne pepper into the onions, cook 1 minute stirring. Add broth and simmer 10 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juice, whole and mashed beans and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in liquid smoke. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with bread, vegan sour cream and fresh cilantro if desired.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Dirty Vegan Foods


Few days ago I received a wonderful package from a cool vegan bakery "Dirty Vegan Foods" that was founded by two animal lovers with a goal to veganize all the snacky junky food that you loved as a kid. They make freshly baked "naughty Food with none of the Guilt!". I am very thankful for their sweet samples :-)




Do you miss Twinkies from your pre-vegan days? Now you can get a vegan version that is, in my opinion, much tastier and healthier than the popular American Twinkie. This sweet vegan miracle is called Winkie (Vegan Marshmallow Creme filled Canoe). The Winkie was born February 1st 2010. I wanted to compare the ingredients with Twinkies and I was horrified to find out that there are 37 ingredients in a Twinkie!
That is crazy! And most of the ingredients are horrible! Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour [Flour, Reduced Iron, B Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Folic Acid)], Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable and/or Animal Shortening (Soybean, Cottonseed and/or Canola Oil, Beef Fat), Whole Eggs, Dextrose. Contains 2% or Less of: Modified Corn Starch, Glucose, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Sweet Dairy Whey, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium and Sodium Caseinate, Salt, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Soy Flour, Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Yellow 5, Red 40. (source Fooducate)


Bleached Flour? High Fructose Corn Syrup? Partially Hydrogenated Animal Shortening-Beef Fat? Eggs, Whey, chemicals and artificial flavors and colors? GROSS! As you can see, Twinkies are not vegan or even vegetarian.

On the other hand, Dirty Vegan Foods Winkies have only few ingredients: Unbleached flour, water, sugar, canola oil, corn syrup, non-hydrogenated shortening, tapioca starch, powdered soy, potato starch, barley malt, vanilla, baking soda, sea salt, natural flavors and gums.

None of these ingredients scare me or disgust me.

I loved Winkies! Super moist, dense, sweet canoe shaped cake that was generously filled with creamy marshmallow filling. I caught myself smile as I was eating these bad boys. I wish I had a whole big cake made into a giant Winkie!


Rocky Cookies Bites (photo source)

Oooooh, buttery chocolate chip cookies! A dozen of perfect little cookies with a generous amount of chocolate chips. I loved the balanced sweetness with a touch of salt that brought out the chocolate flavor. I put some in the microwave and heated them for a few seconds (20-30 seconds) and they came out almost like freshly baked out of the oven. They disappeared shortly after the Winkies.


Blizzard Balls (photo source)

This beautiful dessert was delicious! A dense chocolate cake (almost like a brownie), was filled with creamy vanilla filling, that was nice and fluffy, and frosted with marshmallow cream frosting and covered in coconut. I LOVE chocolate and coconut combo! Anytime, anywhere and in any form and shape. Blizzard Balls rock!



Between me and my husband the goodies were gone in two days............. I am still in a sugar coma now, a few days later :-)

If you want to find out more about this company and their delicious baked goodies, or want to order some freshly baked vegan junk food:

"Like" Dirty Vegan Foods on Facebook. Follow them on Twitter and visit their online store

Friday, November 11, 2011

Sophie's Kitchen Vegan Seafood Review and Giveaway


Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets with boiled potatoes, caraway seeds and fresh parsley


Vegan Prawns with cocktail sauce and lemon


Vegan Calamari with homemade vegan tartar sauce


When I first saw the selection of vegan seafood on Sophie's Kitchen website, I was thinking "No, way! This "seafood" looks way too real for it to be vegan......"
I grew up in a country that is so far away from the sea that we never have any fresh seafood. Seafood in Czech Republic is something foreign and we only serve it at fancy restaurants, or you can buy it frozen at specialty grocery stores. I had many opportunities to try seafood when I traveled around Europe as a child and as a teenager, but I never dared to eat any "creepy ocean crawlers".
I accidentally ate some fried Calamari when I was in Spain. I was about 11 years old and thought that they were fried onion rings or some kind of french fries.......But I liked it :-)
I had always wanted to overcome my fear of eating seafood, but by the time I got to the USA where seafood is plentiful I no longer ate meat and did not want to start eating meat. I make my mock tuna salad with chickpeas, but it does not taste or look like tuna salad. I never thought that there would ever be vegan seafood that would look or taste just like the real stuff. Well, recently, a miracle happened and Sophie's Kitchen revolutionary vegan seafood was born! Thanks to their little daughter Sophie who loves seafood, but unfortunately is allergic to it! Sophie's parents developed a line of delicious vegan seafood for her daughter and for the rest of us who are vegan, allergic to seafood or care about the ocean's resources and the environment (or all of the above). Sophie's Kitchen has the cutest website :-) By the way, they won the Best New Vegan Product award by VegNews magazine at Expo West 2011 :-)
Their line includes: Vegan Calamari, Vegan Shrimp, Vegan Breaded Fish Fillets, Vegan Squid Rings, Vegan Prawns, and Breaded Vegan Shrimp.
I was very fortunate to receive some coupons from Sophie's Kitchen for their awesome vegan seafood. I redeemed the coupons for Vegan Calamari, Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets and Vegan Prawns.
I liked the Breaded Vegan Fish Fillets a lot. I baked half of them at first, but the breading was not as crispy so I fried the other half and it was awesome! I served them with boiled potatoes and a squeeze of lemon juice. Yummy!
The Vegan Prawns had a bit rubbery texture, but a very interesting taste that I could not compare to anything that I ever had. I enjoyed them warm in my Vegan Paella recipe and cold with a cocktail sauce. I love how realistic the prawns look. I even fooled my family with them when I posted pictures of the Paella with vegan prawns on my Facebook wall.
I fried the Vegan Calamari and served them with my homemade vegan tartar sauce. Very good!

Vegan Prawns in my Paella Recipe



I know that you want to try this new vegan phenomenon so Sophie's Kitchen generously offered 2 coupons for their vegan seafood to one lucky reader. Yay!!!

So, who wants to win some cool vegan seafood? You have several ways to enter this giveaway. I will pick one random comment on November 25th, Friday evening. You have to leave a comment for each entry option to count, if you leave one big comment with everything in it, it will only count as one entry. The more comments, the better the chances are to win.

Mandatory entry:

# Leave a comment telling me what would you like to try from Sophie's Kitchen

Extra entries:

# Become a follower (member) of this blog and leave a comment that you did or that you already were a follower

# Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Follow Sophie's Kitchen on Twitter and leave a comment that you did with your Twitter name

# Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a comment that you did (1 tweet per day is allowed). Include @CzechVegan and @VeganSeafood in the tweets.

# Like Sophie's Kitchen on Facebook and leave a comment that you did

# Mention this giveaway, with the link, in a blog post, and leave a link to the post in a comment

# For extra 5 entries-make any recipe from Czech Vegan blog, and blog about it. Leave 5 separate comments for the entries.

Good luck!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Vegan Paella


I wanted to create a paella recipe for a long time. As a child I visited Spain numerous times and liked this beautiful dish. Sophie's Kitchen, plant-based vegan seafood company, sent me a few coupons for their vegan products just in time for my Paella recipe :-) I used their vegan Prawns, but you can use their vegan Shrimp, or leave the vegan seafood out. The dish looks really cool with the vegan seafood garnish, even my family was freaking out asking me if I started to eat meat again because those prawns look very realistic. The sausages that I used for this recipe were Field Roast Frankfurters which are their newest creation. So far they are my FAVORITE vegan sausages! Nothing beats it! I am seriously in love with these sausages, they are awesome cold (they are fully cooked, ready to eat), or warm in recipes or in hot dogs. They remind me of my favorite Czech salami-sausage. Very flavorful, juicy, a bit smokey, but not too spicy. I can eat these everyday and would not get tired of them. By the way, Field Roast Classic Meatloaf is pretty awesome, too! I eat that stuff cold in sandwiches or hot with mashed potatoes and gravy :-)
Saffron is a very expensive spice that gives paella recipes beautiful yellow color, but you can use turmeric if you don't have saffron. Turmeric will give it a nice yellow color for much cheaper (or free if you have some at home already).



Vegan Paella

1 cup white rice, uncooked
3 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup white wine (or extra vegetable broth)
2 bay leaves
pinch of saffron or 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 Tbs olive oil
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Field Roast Frankfurters (or other vegan sausages), cut into 1/2 thick rounds
1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 6-oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup frozen green peas
2 tsp paprika
1 lemon, cut into wedges for garnish
salt and black pepper to taste

Combine rice, 2 cups vegetable broth, saffron (or turmeric) and bay leaves in a medium saucepan with a tight fitting lid. Bring to boil. Turn heat to low, cover with a lid and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaves and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet or paella pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic, sausages, paprika, red bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook 3 minutes. Add rice, 1 cup vegetable broth and white wine (or more broth), artichoke hearts, frozen peas and vegan prawns (if using). Cook 5 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with lemon wedges.


NEWS! I won a recipe contest with this dish recently :-) I won a Kindle :-)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Tiesta Tea Review

I have been exchanging tea samples with several of my Twitter friends and fellow bloggers. My vegan friend Jenn at Cookin' Vegan blog is an awesome cook who shares my passion for tea (or I would dare to say a tea addiction). We exchange tea samples and some of the ones I received from her were from Tiesta Tea company. She mentioned to me that they started their company after visiting Prague (the capitol of Czech Republic). That got me very interested in Tiesta Tea. I started following them on Twitter and recently won one of their Twitter contests. My lovely prize was a tropical rooibos tea "Beach Bum Colada".
Tiesta Tea was founded in 2010 in Illinois after a trip to Prague the previous spring. They loved the fairy-tale looking city. After visiting a Czech tea house they fell in love with fruit tea called Granny's Garden and bought a few bags to take back to the USA. They realized how important coffee and tea shops were in Europe and decided to start something very beautiful, meaningful and fun in the USA, they started Tiesta Tea company. They provide high quality custom-blended flavored teas with a purpose.
Based on the main ingredients and health benefits their teas are divided into 5 groups:
*Energizer
*Relaxer
*Immunity
*Slenderizer
*Forever Young

All their teas are vegan :-) Their teas are beautiful and flavorful. I love that they use real pieces of fruit, seeds, veggies and herbs in their teas instead of artificial or natural flavoring.
Here are the teas that I tried. I liked all the samples that I tried.
There are many teas that are on my wish list: Peaches n' Cream, Chunky Watermelon, Fireberry and Red Rose Rooibos.
Follow Tiesta Tea on Twitter for cool tea giveaways.
"Like" Tiesta Tea on Facebook and receive 20% on your first order.



Gojiberry Superfruit (Forever Young) is a green tea with an extra healthy gojiberries and pomegranate seeds boost. The tea is mildly grassy with luscious fruity taste and a mild astringent aftertaste. I could only have a few sips because I don't do well with caffeine, but I wished that I could have the whole cup, it was very good for a green tea.



Beach Bum Colada (Immunity) transported me back into summer with the first sip. The aroma is very tropical, almost intoxicating. I love the large pieces of banana, coconut, pineapple and orange slices. All these tropical fruits together make a lovely addition to a rooibos tea. The banana and coconut are the dominant flavors in this fun tea. The only thing that is missing is a tiny beach umbrella sticking out of my tea mug.




Kiwi-Cherry Bonanza (Immunity) is an irresistible, refreshing, herbal blend that bursts with flavor. This tea is full of kiwi and cherry flavor, with almost lemony aftertaste. Some cherry teas can taste like a cough sirup, but this tea does not have any of this weird, fake cherry flavor. This tea also has a very slight ginger kick. The pleasant sour taste is very refreshing. It makes an excellent ice tea.



Berry Pear-adise (Relaxer) is a very nice melange of pear, apple, papaya, hibiscus, raspberries and acerola. It's like a garden in a cup :-) Very sweet, berry experience! This tea also makes a great iced tea.