Organic Vanilla Bean Black Tea from Arbor Teas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Arbor Teas

Tea Description

This organic, Fair Trade Certified tea offers a delicious synergy between excellent North Indian tea and rich, creamy vanilla. Organic vanilla beans were added in the Fall of 2008 to make this blend even more decadent than before! Excellent with milk, this tea is great for dessert. We recommend adding a bit of sugar or honey to satisfy a sweet tooth. This Vanilla Black Tea, as with all of our flavored blends, uses only the highest quality teas, essential oils and botanical ingredients, insuring an excellent cup every time!

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Even though I don’t usually get too excited over a vanilla tea, I do consider vanilla to be among my favorite tea flavorings.  There’s just something so irresistible about a good cup of vanilla tea – so rich, smooth and creamy!

And this is a good vanilla tea!  The black tea base is strong but not what I’d call aggressive.  It is earthy and pleasant tasting, and there is a hint of bitterness toward mid-sip.  This is not that “oh no, I oversteeped the tea” kind of bitterness, but instead, it is a savory note that offers a contrast to the sweetness from the organic vanilla bean.

And while this IS a rich and creamy vanilla tea, it isn’t quite as creamy as some other vanilla teas that I’ve tried.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a smooth and creamy, decadent tasting vanilla tea, but sometimes, its nice to find one that is a bit more focused on the black tea than the vanilla, like this one is.  I think that this would be the ideal vanilla tea for those who typically find vanilla teas to be too cloying, because this one isn’t too sweet or creamy or anything verging near “cloying” at all.

Barely a hint of astringency, I don’t know if that’s the work of the vanilla there, smoothing out the astringency of the tea … but I just know that I hardly notice astringency as I sip.  Aftertaste is softly sweet.

A lovely cuppa.

Organic Huang Shan Hair Tip from Arbor Teas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Arbor Teas

Tea Description:

Our organic Huang Shan Hair Tip Green Tea (also known as Huang Shan Mao Feng) is grown in the mountainous regions of China’s Anhui province, in the vicinity of the picturesque Yellow Mountain (Huang Shan). This tea is one of the top ten most legendary teas in all of China. Mao Feng teas are usually plucked when the buds are swollen from rain but still young and tender. The medium-green leaf sets yield a pale, straw-colored infusion with light body and a smooth, somewhat sweet and lightly vegetal flavor reminding of fresh garden zucchini.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I like to taste the tea – drink about half the cup – before I start my reviews, so that I can get a good idea of what I want to say about it.  I also like to drink about half the cup before I start writing the review because, I like to wait before I read the description of the tea from the vendor so that I can formulate my own opinion about the tea without the influence of the purveyor’s description.

So, when I did get around to reading the above description, I have to say YES!  That’s what I’m tasting.  Especially when I got around to the zucchini comparison.  This tastes very much like zucchini:  mild tasting, and with a hint of butter, as if the zucchini has been either lightly sauteed in butter or perhaps steamed and then lightly buttered.  There are also notes of hay and some very faint fruit tones to the cup, somewhat apple-esque.

When I took my first couple of sips, I could have sworn I was sipping on a yellow tea … because it has some similarities in taste to my beloved yellow teas too, although I must say that this is definitely more green tea tasting than yellow tea.  But, it was quite nice to discover some yellow-ish taste to this!

Overall, I’m really loving this tea… certainly a good one.  But, as I’ve gotten to know Arbor Teas over the past couple of years, it’s become somewhat expected!  They have some of the best teas available anywhere online!  I highly recommend them!

Organic Shui Xian from Arbor Teas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy:  Arbor Teas

 

Tea Description:

 Our organic Shui Xian Oolong hails from the Wuyi mountains in China’s Fujian province. This exquisite oolong is produced using the top three to four leaves on the branch. After wilting and bruising the leaves, they are hand-rolled into their final shape. When brewed, these dark green-brown leaves create an amber infusion with an exquisite floral fragrance that complements the tea’s sweetness (in fact, Shui Xian translates directly into “narcissus”). The taste is smooth and lightly sweet, with a subtle dryness reminding of pear skin, followed by a lightly baked aftertaste. As with most oolongs of this type it is moderately oxidized, ranging from 40% to 60%. Like other fine oolong teas, our Shui Xian Oolong may be infused a number of times, with each infusion revealing a new nuance of this tea’s complex flavor.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

This tea offers a very fruity flavor and is quite juicy. The roasted woody flavor is one of my favorite notes in oolong but it is so well complimented by the lighter plum flavors. I get far more plum in this cup than peach but regardless I do enjoy the juiciness of this tea. I actually almost choked on my first sip because the juiciness exploded like biting into a ripe plum! I was not expecting this out of such a darkly roasted oolong.

The aroma is lovely with nutty and earth notes working their way up to my senses. There is something in this aroma of must notes and forest floor.

The after taste lends toward the drier notes but it never quite gets so dry that it leaves your throat parched – the juiciness of the tea keeps that from happening.

I love roasty toasty oolong teas especially when they have that backed good flavor in them. The light and subtle sweetness does bring about a bakery essence to the taste.

Of course you have your rock mineral notes in here that are lovely and I do love mineral notes in tea. It comes over as quite refreshing along with the juicy plum flavors and reminds me of sitting along side a fresh running steam watching the water run over the rocks and pebbles within it.

A pleasing tea and from a company that also cares about the environment – can’t get better than that!

Organic Shui Xian Oolong Tea from Arbor Teas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy:  Arbor Teas

Tea Description:

Our organic Shui Xian Oolong hails from the Wuyi mountains in China’s Fujian province. This exquisite oolong is produced using the top three to four leaves on the branch. After wilting and bruising the leaves, they are hand-rolled into their final shape. When brewed, these dark green-brown leaves create an amber infusion with an exquisite floral fragrance that complements the tea’s sweetness (in fact, Shui Xian translates directly into “narcissus”). The taste is smooth and lightly sweet, with a subtle dryness reminding of pear skin, followed by a lightly baked aftertaste. As with most oolongs of this type it is moderately oxidized, ranging from 40% to 60%. Like other fine oolong teas, our Shui Xian Oolong may be infused a number of times, with each infusion revealing a new nuance of this tea’s complex flavor.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Arbor Teas is one of my favorite companies.  I realize that may not seem very special to you if you’ve read many of my articles as I do have quite a few “favorites.”   It’s true, I do have a number of favorite teas … and each are my favorite for a different reason.  Arbor Teas is one of my favorites because they are dedicated to protecting the environment while promoting fair and ethical  business practices within the tea trade.  Their teas are organic, fair trade, and packaged in 100% compostable packaging to help minimize their carbon footprint.  I really respect that about this company.

Furthermore … their teas are remarkably good!  And when it comes right down to it, that’s what really matters.  If you had a company that was environmentally sound and dedicated to fair practices, that would certainly be a couple of steps in the right direction, but, it wouldn’t mean much if the tea wasn’t of high quality and excellent taste.

Well, Arbor Teas brings it all to you.  Great tasting, high quality, organic teas that are fairly traded and are packaged in compostable packaging.  Arbor Teas is a whole package kind of company!

This Shui Xian is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.  This tastes really awesome!  The overall flavor is sort of woodsy, with lovely fruit notes and a delectable honey-esque tone.  In fact, had I not prepared this cup myself … if someone else had brought it to me, I would have sworn that they added honey to the cup.  It is so deliciously sweet, and the honey notes meld so deliciously with the toasted nut top note.

The tea is remarkably smooth.  There is no bitterness and very little astringency.  Just excellent taste!

Organic Thai Iced Tea Blend from Arbor Teas

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Arbor Teas

Tea Description:

Thai Tea (also known as Thai Iced Tea) is a popular drink hailing from Thailand, commonly found in Thai restaurants across the US.  Our Organic and Fair Trade Certified Thai Iced Tea is a traditional blend of strong black tea, vanilla bean, cardamom and anise.  It can be enjoyed hot or cold with a twist of lime as a self drinker (without milk).  Or it can be brewed to create a traditional, restaurant-style Thai Iced Tea when combined with ice, milk and sugar!

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

If any of you have read my foodie reviews for various Thai restaurants in the Portland area, you are probably already aware of my fondness of Thai Iced Tea.  In fact, now that I think about it, Thai Iced Tea is probably the first real tea that I fell in love with, because I had discovered it long before I started on my journey with tea in general, and for me, Thai Iced Tea was love at first sip.

So when I was asked to try Arbor Teas’ new Organic Thai Iced Tea Blend, I was excited!

The leaves and spices are very finely cut.  This is perhaps the finest tea leaf cut I’ve seen, it is almost like dust.  The dry leaf smells delicious, with notes of anise, cardamom and vanilla tantalizing my olfactory nerves.  Because of the fine chop on these leaves, I recommend being careful when you measure it … a little goes a long way!

I brewed my first pot of this to try as a hot tea, because I personally think that all teas should at least be tried hot.  It has been my experience that chilling often mutes some of the flavor of the tea, so I think to try it properly, all tea should be tasted hot first.  Then I brewed more at an intensified strength so that I could add either sweetened condensed milk or coconut milk to it to try it traditional Thai Iced Tea style.

Served hot, this tea is really tasty.  It has a good, strong black tea base which gives me a lot of hope for the iced tea version, because one of my biggest complaints about some of the restaurant Thai Iced Teas that I’ve had lately is that the black tea seems weak and is overpowered by the thick, creamy sweetened condensed milk.  It is still tasty as a sweet, latte style iced tea, but, I found myself missing the black tea flavor in those other Thai iced teas, the strength of this black tea gives me reason to believe that I will TASTE the black tea in the iced tea I’ll be enjoying over the next day or two.

The spices are also accounted for in this hot cup, with the vanilla providing a sweet, creamy taste that accents the warmth of the cardamom and the zesty anise.  This isn’t an overly spiced blend, I think that the spices are in good balance with the black tea and will make a stunning iced tea!

I went on to brew some double strength tea for the fridge.  Tomorrow, I’ll be sipping on Thai Iced Tea!  I can’t wait!

~The Next Day~

This is really good served as a traditional Thai Iced Tea.  I first tried it with coconut milk, which gave it a nice creamy taste and a hint of tropical flair.  But I must admit that I prefer it with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.  Not a lot of milk, but just enough to give it that sweet, creamy taste that you’d find in a Thai restaurant.  YUM!

Since I brewed this at double strength, I thought I’d do a little experimentation.  I had some ginger ale in the fridge, so I decided to add a little bit of ginger ale to the glass before I poured the iced tea, and held off on the milk.  This made for a very interesting “soda-like” taste.  It was not quite as carbonated as a soda, but, it had a little bit of carbonation to it, and a sweet, crisp taste that was a little citrus-y, a little ginger-y and very refreshing.  I could still taste all the elements of the tea, and it managed to cut through some of the sweeter elements of the soda that I often find to be a bit much for me.  It was – to me – a perfect alternative to the traditional soda pop.