With rain pelting down since before dawn and the forecast predicting more of the same for the whole day, I decided to try something new. This sample was sent to me by the Sisters a while back and it seems a good day to try it!
I always try to look up a new company and read about the tea I am going to drink if it is new to me. I wasn’t sure if this was puerh, dark tea, or black tea. When I went to the puerh tea heading this wasn’t listed. I checked under black tea and again, not listed. There was a heading for floral teas and there it was, but the description still didn’t tell me for sure what my base was. Let the nose decide!
I took the tiny pressed heart out of the package and sniffed. Based on the sniff test, I would have guessed it was puerh. Tea that is processed more or less like puerh but is not from Yunnan is called dark tea in China, so perhaps that is what I have here, and that is how it was labeled, but I wanted to be sure. (Black is called red tea or hong cha in China which is confusing to some because red tea in the west is what a lot of people called red rooibos.)
I placed the heart in a large infuser basket from my Curve teapot and set it in a large mug. I pouring boiling water over it and watched as the heart softened quickly and lost shape. The water was rapidly turning a deep shade so puerh or dark tea is still my guess.
The rose is nice but not overwhelming if you are not into florals. The tea base is dusty/musty and earthy with a gentle scrape of unsweetened cocoa on the tongue – the sensation of cocoa but not the flavor.
This doesn’t have the oily body of my favorite shu puerh teas but will do for breakfast. There is a hint of dry cedar, especially in the aftertase. The rose is a peppery rose flavor and may add a slight sweetness, but not much. I am finding it slightly medicinal somehow.
Although grateful to try it, this is not one that I would re-order. There are other rose puerh teas that I would prefer.
They have an adorable tea for two set on their site and some nice accessories and other interesting things to browse.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Little Woods Herbal
Description
This dark tea is medium to full-bodied and smooth.It has a delicious sweet, dusty rose flavor and aroma.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Sakurambo/Lupicia – ashmanra –
A good friend surprised me with a box containing a Lupicia green rooibos blend and two sample sachets. I couldn’t wait to try them all! This was first pick.
A quick peek at google to find out whether it was a black or green tea so I could set the kettle to the proper temp told me it was cherry scented and I did not look any further. But it was a conundrum. Go ahead and make a fruity tea even though I was having waffles and maple syrup for breakfast, or rummage through my stash to find a plain black? My experience with Lupicia was that their fruity teas are SUPER fruity and it might all be too sweet together, but I decided I really wanted to try these sooner rather than later!
Then rats rats rats! I tasted the waffle before sipping the tea! I like to try a new tea unadulterated to get the full flavor. Nevermind, a few sips would clear the palate to give me the true taste.
And that’s where it got confusing.
Nice black tea base…yes, a hint of cherry but not super fruity, rather…..smokey? What is that? What is happening? Not smokey….SAVORY. And then…..warmth from a little spice starts to glow. Is that pepper? I don’t like peppery chai and this wasn’t offending me so what was it? Was the syrup messing with the true taste of the tea too much?
Here is where I had to stop everything and look up the tea to find out what was going on. The savory was coming from rosemary! And the spice was pink peppercorns, which I couldn’t see in the sachet at all but when I tore it open it was there. If there is going to pepper in my tea, I highly prefer pink peppercorn to any other kind.
This tea was a great pairing with the sweet syrup and waffles. The rosemary gave deep herbal notes and enhanced the black base while the pink peppercorns gave warmth and spice and a nice, lingering aftertaste that cut the sweetness of the food without the raw heat of black peppercorns. The cherry wasn’t cough syrup cherry or candy cough drop cherry, but a nice, realistic Japanese cherry that was not too sour.
This gets a thumbs up from me! In future I would buy it loose leaf so I could see those adorable bright pink/red peppercorns looking like tiny cherries!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Description
SAKURAMBO is A fresh, intriguing blend of black tea scented with juicy Japanese cherries, one of our best-selling flavored teas of all time. The tea is topped with crisp rosemary and pink peppercorns imitating the ripe fruit. Visually appealing, this tea will make a great gift. Try its delicious sister product, SAKURAMBO VERT, which is a green tea blend.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
(photo credit: Lupicia)
Veritaserum/Adagio -ashmanra-
This tea blend designed by Robert Pirlot came in a sampler. There are six different teas in the box, housed in slide-top tins with each tin holding 1/2 ounce of tea. There are more than six Harry Potter fandom blends available, though, and you can choose your own sampler set. I love that!
Veritaserum is a black tea with raspberry, chocolate, and hazelnut flavors. The black tea base is fairly strong with a light briskness, but it is not astringent or unpleasant at all.
Raspberry is the prominent flavor to me, and the chocolate aspect is of the unsweetened variety, not milky and sweet. It lends an additional bottom note to the tea, emphasizing the briskness, making it great for breakfast – I had it today with an Everything Bagel – or to pair with sweets and “cut through the sugar.”
I don’t add milk or sugar to this, but it could definitely handle it and would be delicious that way. Then it would be very dessert-like on its own!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Veritaserum is clear, colourless, and odourless and is almost indistinguishable from water. The potion must mature for a full lunar phase, and is quite difficult to produce. It can be mixed with any drink, and three drops are a sufficient dose to make the drinker ‘spill out his innermost secrets’. Thus, the potion forces the drinker to tell the complete truth to any question asked to him/her.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Summer in A Cup/CuppaGeek Teas -Ashmanra-
The tea blend I bought last year to use to make iced tea while the weather was still hot has turned out to be one of our favorite evening hot teas this winter. Technically it is not tea, as it contains no camellia sinensis, but you know what I mean!
Quite often we want a tea to wind down with, and we reach for Draught of Peace or Parker’s Evening Blend. Spiced Fall Evenings and Baked Apple Pie (With A Dash of Rum) are other wind-down favorites to carry to the rocking chairs before heading off to bed.
But sometimes we want a caffeine free cup to go with a snack and a tv show or game. We want something that tastes good with food, is a little bit lively, doesn’t scream BEDTIME!!! but still has no caffeine. Lately Summer In A Cup has been our go-to.
It took me by surprise that we like it so much hot. The ingredients are all about sweet summer fruit – green rooibos with mini marshmallows, freeze dried peaches, freeze dried strawberries, orange, marigold flowers, and natural peach, strawberry and orange flavoring.
Summer, right?
But something about the green rooibos base makes it so darn drinkable. I have an intense dislike for red rooibos. But green rooibos is delightful, and it carries these flavors so well. I have had it by itself and paired with cheese and crackers or chips and dip or toast and jam. When we drink it hot, we add nothing at all – no sugar and no milk. Delish!
I have made it as iced sweet tea, too, as I originally intended. My pitcher holds 48 ounces. Here is what I do – I use four teaspoons of the blend, steep it three times in a small teapot and pour it into the pitcher. Add 1/3 cup sugar and stir. Adjust to your taste. Depending on the size of your steeping vessel and your teapot you may need to add additional water. Chill and enjoy!
I first started with just three teaspoons of dry blend and resteeped three times and it was fine for me, but my husband said he would like for it to be just a little stronger. Naturally, adjust the leaf and sugar or your choice of sweetener to your taste.
Get some now to treat yourself to a peek at summer to come, and to have on hand for those first spring picnics! This would also be a lovely caffeine-free option for a children’s or adults’ tea party that should appeal to most anyone’s taste!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane/Herbal
Where to Buy: CuppaGeek Teas
Description
Summer In A Cup- A delightful way to honor summer all year round! Delicious green rooibos mixed with summer flavors like strawberries and peaches and a few mini marshmallows thrown in for fun!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Blue Mountain Pea Flower/Tin Roof Teas -Ashmanra-
A new tisane to try! This comes from a tea shop a couple of hours away. They were kind enough to allow me to sniff tin after tin of tea and answer my questions when I was a new tea drinker many years ago.
They had really educational tea flights before the pandemic, and hopefully those can happen again one day! If you live near enough to participate, I highly recommend that you sign up for their newsletter and look for a flight that addresses teas that interest you. They even gave out information sheets when I attended and it was fun to meet other people who are passionate about tea. They do ship at reasonable rates, too.
This blend contains apple pieces, mountain blueberry leaves, rosehip, orange & lemon peel, sweet blackberry & melissa leaves, lemongrass, blue butterfly pea flowers, mallow blossoms, and natural flavor.
Butterfly pea flowers are popping up everywhere because of the pretty color they give to food and beverages. I have some on the way to make my lavender syrup more appealing to the eye and to play with in sweet hibiscus drinks! It is also said to be full of antioxidants (like blueberries and purple tomatoes) and is adaptogenic if the internet is to be believed. Lemongrass is often recommended for its anti-inflammatory benefits. Some people pooh-pooh any measurable health benefits from tea and say just enjoy it! So let’s see if we do.
What does it look like in my spoon? Lots of leaves! I see the straight pieces of lemongrass and the soft, dried pieces of leaves and blossoms. I see at least a piece or two of orange and lemon peel in each spoonful. (I have already made this several times and once as a large pitcher of iced tea.) There are a few small apple pieces, too. It is well mixed and distributed and I don’t need to add lots of extra spoonfuls because of big chunks taking up lots of space. I stick with an actual teaspoon per cup. I prefer this to tisanes that have huge clumps of sticky dried fruit that defy measuring. But that’s just me.
The steeped tisane comes out blue, leaning toward a purple haze. The flavor is soft and mellow with nice, light sweet orange flavor and a pleasant little zing from the lemon and rose hips.
I do not care for rose hips and hibiscus much unless they are heavily sweetened to make essentially an adult version of Kool-Aid. But this doesn’t have any mouth puckering sensation at all. It is very pleasant to drink and needs no sugar to be enjoyable. This is the right amount of rose hips for me!
For the iced tea, I did add sugar because I live in the South and that’s what we do. It was good and did keep me from reaching for that carbonated, caffeinated soda I wanted and knew I shouldn’t have. I was glad I chose wisely. So there’s one health benefit I got from it!
I am thinking now, though, that the next iced pitcher will be unsweetened, because drinking the hot version again I feel like it really doesn’t need the sugar to be enjoyable unless I am just in the mood for something sweet.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane
Where to Buy: Tin Roof Teas
Description
Apple pieces, mountain blueberry leaves, rosehip, orange, & lemon peel, sweet black berry & melissa leaves, lemongrass, blue butterfly pea flowers, mallow blossoms, natural flavor
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!