Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
Soothing lavender, sweet cinnamon, adjective ingredient! You get the idea. But this herbal infusion is a special one, with a taste that is all its own. You’ll have to try it to describe it! But, as far as we can tell, it tastes something like lavender, chamomile, licorice, and a hint of cinnamon. This blend is part of the Original 20 M&K’s Blends. Additionally, this is the first M&K’s blend officially invented.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Usually when I find a lavender tisane like this Lavender Daze Herbal Tea from M&K’s Tea Company, I expect it to be a combination of lavender and chamomile – and this is such a blend. But what makes it different from other blends is that M&K’s didn’t stop at just lavender and chamomile. They added honey roasted licorice root, star anise, ginger, lemon verbena and cinnamon! Most of these ingredients are not ones you’d find in the average “nighttime” lavender and chamomile blend.
So I didn’t know what to expect with this tea. I brewed it in my Kati Tumbler, using 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tisane and 12 ounces of near boiling (195°F) water and steeping for 8 minutes.
As I surmised based on the list of ingredients, this isn’t the typical nighttime lavender/chamomile blend, and it certainly doesn’t taste like it either.
The licorice is really strong with this blend. Maybe too strong. I love licorice, but the licorice notes here overpower the other flavors a bit too much because I’m tasting mostly just licorice. The sip starts out with a soft cinnamon-y note, and then the licorice hits and it lingers throughout the rest of the sip and into the aftertaste.
Just after I notice the cinnamon, I pick up on the subtlest of hints of lavender, ginger and citrus. But again, they are so faint because bam! The licorice hits and overpowers the rest of the blend. I do taste whispers of honey, but mostly, I taste licorice.
And as I’ve said, I LOVE licorice, but I think that with this combination of ingredients and what seemed to promise a really interesting fusion of flavors, I find myself just a wee bit disappointed because I would have liked to experience a more balanced cup.
It’s good, don’t get me wrong. If you like licorice, you’re bound to enjoy this and I am enjoying the licorice notes here. I just think it would have been more interesting to taste more of the other components to this blend.
Jasmine Mist Green Tea from Sloane Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
Classic green tea leaves possessing a natural honeyed sweetness blossom with an even sweeter aroma of freshly plucked jasmine.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had a few questionable jasmine teas lately. By questionable, I mean jasmine teas that were flavored with jasmine oil instead of scented with jasmine blossoms. When a tea is flavored with jasmine oil, the result is usually not good. I’ve tasted a few flavored jasmine teas that turned out alright but for the most part, they’re just far too perfume-y for my liking.
Fortunately, this Jasmine Mist Green Tea from Sloane Tea Company was not flavored with jasmine oil. Instead, it was scented with jasmine blossoms. This is the best way to impart jasmine essence onto the tea leaf!
The dry leaf smells like jasmine and it’s a pleasantly strong fragrance. Not too overwhelming. I also noticed that there were no jasmine petals in the blend. This is a sign of a good quality jasmine tea! The aroma of the brewed tea is a gentle jasmine note with notes of fresh, light green tea.
And that’s what I’m tasting too. The jasmine note is distinct without tasting of perfume or soap. It tastes like beautiful, exotic jasmine! It doesn’t taste like perfume oil that’s been poured over tea leaves and then brewed into a liquid that’s much more suited for bathing than it is for drinking.
The green tea is a sweet, delicately grassy taste. It’s soft and buttery and complements the lightly sweet, exquisite flavor of jasmine.
In other words, this is the good stuff, folks! I’m happy that Amoda Tea chose to include this in this month’s box – if for no other reason than to remind me what a good jasmine tea is supposed to taste like!
Thank you, Amoda!
White Chocolate Lemon Shou Mei Tea from 52Teas
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Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
As popular as our White Chocolate Raspberry Shou Mei was, I expect this one might even be more popular. Our premium shou mei white tea blended with white chocolate chips, lemon myrtle and organic white chocolate and lemon flavors. This is a gorgeous blend of sweet and tart that suits the hay-like shou mei beautifully.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! I must admit that I wasn’t as much a fan of the White Chocolate Raspberry Shou Mei from a couple of months ago as I thought I would be. I thought I’d love that blend and it was just alright for me. My daughter – with whom I’m going into business – loved it. I expected her to because that’s probably her favorite flavor combination, or at least one of them.
But this White Chocolate Lemon Shou Mei Tea from 52Teas – I’m loving this! Similar to the White Chocolate Raspberry, this is primarily a lemon tea. That is to say, I taste more lemon than I do white chocolate. But I taste enough white chocolate to satisfy me, and I like the way the sweet, creamy notes of the white chocolate soften the tangy notes of the lemon and highlight the creaminess of the Shou Mei base.
And the Shou Mei isn’t hidden behind the flavors either. I taste the light, slightly earthy, slightly hay-like flavor of the Shou Mei. This tea has some really wonderful layers of flavor.
This tea is best if you let it cool slightly. After pouring the piping hot tea into your cup, let it set for just a few minutes. This seems to let the flavors come forth and now that I’m nearly finished with the cup I notice even more lemony notes as well as a stronger white chocolate presence.
A really good tea. One of the better white teas that I’ve tried from 52Teas!
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Organic Black Gold Tips from Treasure Green Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
Organic Black Gold Tips is an excellent black tea for every morning. It has visible golden tips that provide smoothness and sweetness. Enjoy alone or with milk.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve noticed a sort of trend in my tea drinking and I think that Amoda Tea has helped me fully realize this trend. I guess that I’ve always been aware of it, but I have a strong preference for black tea and when I’m given a selection of several different teas, if there is a black tea among the selections, that’s the tea I will usually reach for. Such is the case with this Organic Black Gold Tips from Treasure Green Tea Company – one of the four teas featured in this month’s Amoda Tea Box.
This is a really lovely Black tea. I love that it’s organic. But even more than that, I love that it’s rich and full-flavored. It’s deliciously smooth and pleasantly sweet with notes of caramel and cacao. It’s full-flavored and robust without a lot of astringency and no bitterness.
I brewed this in my Breville One Touch tea maker. I eyeballed it – but by the looks of it, the sample from Amoda was just enough for 500ml of tea! So I poured 500ml of freshly filtered water into the jug and emptied the pouch into the basket. Then I set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and the temperature for boiling (212°F).
This created a perfect pot of tea – and with my awesome tea mug (a Christmas present from my daughter, Amethyst) – it’s actually a full cup of tea. This baby holds 16 ounces of tea!
And this tea is quite lovely. The kind of black tea that I like to start my day with because it IS rich and malty and full of flavor. It’s smooth. It’s not bitter. There is very little astringency. It’s all those things that make me so happy when I drink a cup of tea.
As I continue to sip, I start to explore beyond those notes of cacao and caramel. There are notes of leather and almost a tobacco-ish sort of flavor. Molasses. Hints of warm spice. There’s a lot of complexity to this tea.
A really lovely tea – I’m glad it was part of this month’s box from Amoda Tea.
Honeysuckle Pu-erh Tea from The Persimmon Tree
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
The Honeysuckle pu-erh tea delivers a deep red infusion with a sweet woodsy, floral aroma. The finished brew is mild and earthy, with a lingering hint of honeysuckle. This honeysuckle tea can be steeped multiple times in a sitting without becoming bitter. This particular pu-erh is cooked and has been aged for about 4-6 years.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first opened the tin of this Honeysuckle Pu-erh Tea from The Persimmon Tree, I got worried. The earthy aroma was STRONG and this is the kind of earthy that I find very unappealing when it comes to pu-erh tea. But, I tried to keep an open mind. So I brewed the tea.
To brew it, I grabbed my gaiwan. I measured a bamboo scoop of tea into the bowl of the gaiwan and heated the kettle to 190°F. I poured just enough of the hot water to cover the leaves and I let that steep for 15 seconds and then poured off the liquid and discarded it. (The rinse!) Then I filled the gaiwan with water and let it steep for 30 seconds. Usually, I let my first infusion steep for 45 seconds, but the tea had gotten really dark by 30 seconds, so I decided to stop at 30 seconds. I strained the tea into a teacup.
The fragrance of the brewed tea is softer than the dry leaf. It still has some of that unpleasant earthiness to it. I’m not getting a “sweet woodsy, floral aroma” as the description above suggests. I’m getting a damp wood and earth aroma. So, the worry that I felt before when I first opened the tin, it was returning.
But I took a sip and hoped for the best.
And fortunately, this tastes far less earthy than it smells. I’m getting those sweet, woodsy elements and hints of flower that I’m missing in the brewed aroma in the flavor. It’s a mellow tasting pu-erh with notes of earth but not overwhelmingly so. Mostly what I taste is a nice, sweet caramel-y undertone with a top note of flower. I don’t know if it’s honeysuckle that I taste during the sip, but I do taste a distinct floral note. And the aftertaste, yes, I do taste the honeysuckle there.
The aftertaste is my favorite part of this tea because I am really enjoying that lingering flavor of honeysuckle. It’s sweet, floral and really quite pleasant.
I only steeped my second infusion for 30 seconds as well, because it had already become even darker than the first cup was at 30 seconds. This is a tea that I recommend keeping an eye on while it’s brewing!
This infusion was deeper in flavor. The earthy qualities were a little stronger but not so strong that I found it off-putting. In this cup, I noted flavors of leather, mushroom and raw cacao. I still got that honeysuckle note in the aftertaste. I’m tasting a little less of a caramel-y taste and a little more of a molasses flavor, instead. Very deep flavor, very mellow and pleasant to sip.
Later infusions got deeper in flavor until they weren’t. When I started to realize that the flavors were becoming lighter, I stopped steeping. I lost count after six, but if I had to guess, I’d say I got nine infusions out of one measurement of leaves.
So this tea started out questionably with a rather unpleasant dry leaf aroma and even a slightly uncertain brewed tea scent, but the flavor is quite enjoyable. I’m happy that there wasn’t a briny, fishy or overpowering earthy flavor to this pu-erh. Nice.