Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where To Buy: The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants
Tea Description:
Licorice root, fennel, anise, and gunpowder green tea, with a touch of cloves brews up sweet to the taste and full of licorice loveliness.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
I know I’ve mentioned Chuck’s Produce several times on this blog. I love this store! It not only offers great produce, but other high quality foods as well, including some great teas from local vendors like The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants.
In the bulk section of Chuck’s, I can get these teas bulk, which means I can get as little or as much as I want. I like that flexibility, because as I’ve said before, I’m a tea taster. I like to try a little bit of every tea rather than having a large quantity of a favorite. And the bulk section lets me get just enough for a pot full of tea, but not so much that I’ll have more than I need.
So, when I noticed this Licorice Green Tea from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants, I was excited! I love licorice!
This has a powerful licorice flavor from not only licorice root, but also fennel and anise. It tastes licorice-y, reminiscent of a strong black licorice candy. The clove comes in and cuts through the licorice a little bit to keep it from tasting like those licorice cough drops. The clove is just the right touch for this blend.
With my first couple of sips, I found myself wondering where the green tea was in this blend, because I really couldn’t taste it. All I was tasting was licorice and clove. But after a few sips, the smooth flavor of the Gunpowder green tea came though. The green tea notes are a little overwhelmed here. I taste the nutty flavor of the green tea, and a soft buttery note which is something that I don’t usually note in a gunpowder green. I find it interesting how different ingredients in a blend like this can bring out different qualities in a tea that I haven’t really experienced (or rarely experienced.)
Even though I feel like some of the green tea flavor is lost here, I really do like the licorice-i-ness of this tea. This tea is a licorice lover’s delight, but this isn’t that wimpy fruit flavored licorice stuff that they sell at the concession stand in a movie theater. This is REAL licorice flavor, so if that’s not your thing, this is not the tea for you.
