Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
Bvumbwe white tea is harvested in Africa in the country of Malawi! Similar to a Chinese Shou Mei white tea, Bvumbwe white tea offers something different than the usual White Peony (Bai Mudan) or Silver Needle Chinese white teas. With a lovely caramel note that lingers on the tongue, this Malawian tea offers tea drinkers (experienced and beginners alike) a different experience and will open the door to the world of Malawian tea!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was excited to try this Bvumbwe Malawian White Tea from M&K’s Tea Company. I’ve tried many different white teas, but very few of those are from Africa. In fact, I think I’ve only tried one other white tea from Africa so I was excited to have the opportunity to try another.
This is really nice. The flavor is delicate – like I’d expect from a white tea. It has a really pleasant, soft mouthfeel. It has a flavor similar to what I might experience from a Chinese white tea – it’s a gentle flavor with notes of hay and a crisp, airy sort of flavor. I’m also picking up on soft notes of fruit. It has a very clean and refreshing sort of taste. Soothing and mild.
As I continue to sip, I start to pick up on some flavors that I wouldn’t normally expect from a white tea: a hint of caramel! I don’t think that I’ve ever encountered a pure white tea with a caramel-y sweetness like I’m experiencing with this tea.
Then I notice gentle notes of warm, peppery spice. Like white pepper and a hint of cinnamon. It’s warm and a rustic sort of flavor. For such a delicate taste, there is a whole lot of dimension to this cup!
A really lovely white tea – one I’d recommend to any tea drinker. The complex flavors of this cup are something to be experienced!
Honeysuckle Oolong Tea from Dachi Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Dachi Tea
Tea Description:
With tea making methods borrowed from the Sun Moon Lake style, the Honeysuckle Oolong’s deep cocoa and plum aroma eases you into a baked fruit flavor with a lasting honey nectar finish. With its natural sweetness and full-bodied flavor, this is one of those teas which has you constantly sipping and subconsciously craving more.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the time when I could review this Honeysuckle Oolong Tea from Dachi Tea! This company was launched thanks to a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign that ended at the beginning of January. I managed to do one review of their four teas from their inaugural collection before their Kickstarter campaign reached it’s deadline. Once the campaign had come to a successful close, I held off on doing a review until they launched their new website so that people could get their hands on some of these fantastic teas!
And this Honeysuckle Oolong Tea is amazing. It’s reminiscent of a Sun Moon Lake black tea – in fact, given that this says that it’s fully oxidized, I think this might actually BE a black tea. It’s a little lighter than a typical black tea though, it doesn’t have a really strong, robust, kick your butt into gear type of flavor that say an Assam or even a high quality Ceylon would have. It’s lighter, sweeter and more reminiscent of an Oolong in that way.
The flavor is sweet with notes of flower, so I think that the name “honeysuckle” is quite appropriate. Those sweet, honeyed flavors mingle beautifully with a deep, stone fruit flavor. The description above suggests plum and I would agree with that assessment. I even get a slight ‘sour’ note that arrives about mid sip – similar to what I might experience if I were to bite into a fresh, tree-ripened, juicy plum.
The description above also suggests a chocolate/cocoa flavor and I do get hints of that. The hints of cocoa are hardly something that this chocoholic would call ‘chocolate’ but I do understand the comparison. It’s a subtle insinuation of chocolate and makes me hope that subsequent infusions would lead me to a stronger chocolate-y taste.
Yes! My second cup (infusions three and four) was certainly more chocolate-y than the first. I also noticed, though, that the texture was a bit thinner than the first cup which lead me to surmise that while this tea is certainly a spectacular tea – it’s not quite as ‘go the long haul’ as a typical Oolong. This is more ‘black tea’ in that respect. You’ll get a really lovely cuppa for the early infusions but the flavors begin to wane pretty quickly with this one.
Don’t let that sway you from trying this tea – it’s a lovely Sun Moon Lake type black tea and I’d recommend steeping it as such so that you can get that rich, amazing flavor as a Sun Moon Lake type black, rather than steeping this like an Oolong (in a gaiwan). Next time, I’ll be reaching for either my Kati Tumbler or brewing it in my Breville One-Touch instead. The gaiwan efforts – while absolutely LOVELY – seem a bit more intensive than necessary for a wonderful cuppa when the flavors aren’t going to go for more than a few infusions.
Yet another lovely tea from Dachi – I look forward to exploring the other two with you!
Earl Grey Tea from Pipers Loose Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Pipers Loose Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Made with the finest China teas including a large portion of white tips (the most prized leaf of the plant) and blended with the highest quality Sicilian oil of bergamot available.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is the last of the four teas that Pipers Loose Leaf sent to me, and it would appear that I saved the best for last. I liked a couple of the teas that they sent me and I really enjoyed the Red Grey that I tried which kind of surprised me because I don’t usually think I’ll enjoy a ‘rooibos’ Earl Grey. That one was quite nice.
But this Earl Grey Tea from Pipers Loose Leaf Tea is the best one that I tried from them. First of all, the dry leaf! It’s beautiful! The leaves are whole and large. They’re chocolate brown and wiry and there are several ‘white tips’ in there too. Beautiful. The aroma is strong and distinctly bergamot and you know that I loved that.
To brew the tea, I used my Breville One-Touch and measured 2 bamboo scoops of the tea into the basket. Then I added 500ml of water to the kettle and set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and the temperature for 205°F.
No real reason for choosing 205° over the boiling temperature of 212°F except that I felt more comfortable using a slightly lower temperature with all the white tips in the tea. I don’t know that the slightly lower temperature would make all that much difference, and really, there were probably 4 white tips that were among the many chocolate brown leaves in the basket, so I doubt that their presence in the basket would have deemed necessary a slightly lower temperature. But I also didn’t figure that seven degrees below boiling would have made all that much difference to the ability of the black leaves to release their flavor fully. So I just went with my gut and my gut told me to use 205°F. So that’s what I did.
Nice. The bergamot flavor is a bit on the subtle side. The aroma was quite strong and led me to think that this would be a very bergamot-y cup. Don’t get me wrong, the bergamot is THERE and it’s quite wonderful. It’s just a bit softer than the dry leaf aroma would led me to believe it would be.
What makes this particular tea so nice is the way the black tea comes through. It’s a rich, malty black tea. It has a pleasantly thick texture to it and it has a solid, full flavor. Nicely round. And really quite smooth! There is very little astringency to this, even as I focus on trying to find the astringency to this tea, I find very little. Just a very slight dry note toward the finish. It’s so very slight that when I take the sip, I don’t notice it unless I am trying to find it. A smooth, robust delivery from start to finish.
The bergamot is softer, as I mentioned, but it’s a pleasant sweet-tangy citrus taste. It’s bright and invigorating. I know that Earl Grey is a popular tea to go ‘latte’ with, but I don’t know that I’d suggest doing that with this particular Earl Grey, because I think that the milk or cream might overwhelm the bergamot flavor. I find that the bergamot develops as I continue to sip and now that I’m just past the halfway point in my cup, the flavor is stronger than when I first started.
It’s still not as strong as some of the more boldly flavored bergamot teas I’ve had in the past, and not quite as strong as the aforementioned Red Grey that I tasted a few days ago. But, even though that Red Grey was stronger – bergamot wise – I find myself still preferring this tea to that one because I like the way the bergamot plays with the black tea notes here.
This is lovely. My adoration of a good Earl Grey is no secret by now, I’m sure! And this is a good one. I don’t know that it would be able to eek it’s way into my ‘top 3’ or even my top 5. But, I’m enjoying it and I’d be happy to drink it again.
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, Volume 17 (Part 1)
I received my Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club package the other day and I was excited to get started! This month, the teas are focused on ’tisanes’ – herbal blends from various Japanese tea companies.
Since this is a tisanes package and not Camellia Sinensis, I won’t be featuring part two of this series tomorrow night. This is because I don’t usually drink more than 1 tisane per day, so I need time to consume these teas and write about them!
This month’s package included Yomogi herbal tea which is a Japanese Mugwort tea, Longevity herbal blend which is a blend of 18 Japanese herbs, Mulberry leaf tea which has been prepared Sencha style, Organic hatomugicha which is also called “Job’s Tears” and finally, Organic mugicha which is a barley tea. Of the five, the Mugicha is what I look forward to most, as I’m quite fond of barley tea.
Also in this month’s package was another cute origami Crane … I’m getting a little collection of these! The usual booklet which offers some information about each of the teas was not included but we received an email from Yunomi explaining that the booklet would arrive separately a little later.
The first tea that I’m going to try is the Longevity Herbal Blend from Nakazen. I was happy to see that this tea included Camellia Sinensis in the form of Oolong tea. Here is a list of the ingredients:
Barley tea, job’s tears, sicklepod seeds, cat’s whiskers (herb), dokudami (herb), oolong tea, tumeric, guava leaves, biwa (loquat) leaves, mikan (Japanese mandarin) peels, brown rice, pine leaves, ohbako, benibana, persimmon leaves, amachazuru, sarunokoshikake (fungi), cinnamon
The aroma of the dry leaf is very herb-y. It sort of reminds me of walking into one of those apothecary shops. The brewed tea has more of a ‘medicinal’ type of fragrance, still smelling very apothecary-ish but the herbal notes are medicinal smelling.
The taste is actually quite enjoyable. It has a roasted flavor to it. It’s toasty and warm. Very nice on a chilly night!
The roasted flavor I attribute to the barley in the tea. I also taste the brown rice, it lends a warm and nutty flavor to the cup. I taste the resinous notes of pine leaves and I taste the warm spiced notes of cinnamon. I taste hints of tumeric and I don’t know if I actually taste the Oolong, but I can feel it’s contribution – the texture of the tea has that wonderful, thick Oolong-ish mouthfeel.
The other herbs of this tea, I’m not sure what flavor profile to fit with which herb because they are herbs that I am – for the most part – quite unfamiliar with. I would like to say, though, that even though the aroma strongly suggests an herbaceous, medicinal flavor, I smell more of that herb-y medicine-y flavor than I taste. For the most part, what I taste is the barley’s contribution to this tea – I taste that warm, roasty-toasty flavor and that’s quite fine with me – I’m really enjoying this!
The second tisane that I’ll be sampling – and the last for this, part 1 of the Yunomi Discoveries Club, Volume 17 review – is the Japanese Mugwort Tea from Yomogi-Cha. The word “Mugwort” makes me think of Harry Potter and Nightmare before Christmas. It sounds like something that Professor Snape would put in a potion or something that Sally would put in Doctor Finklestein’s soup.
This particular herbal doesn’t appear to be available on Yunomi’s site at the moment.
The dry leaf looks a lot like a dried salad. The leaves are large and fluffy and there are some stems in there too. The steeping parameters suggest using 1 tablespoon to 2 cups of water. I brewed this in my Kati tumbler which holds 12 ounces (so 1 1/2 cups of water) so I figured, close enough. Because these leaves are so fluffy and large, I eyeballed what looked like a tablespoon of leaf and put that in the basket of my tumbler and poured in 12 ounces of water heated to 195°F and let it steep for 4 minutes. (The suggested parameters are 3 – 5 minutes.)
Having never tried Mugwort tea (at least, not to my recollection), I was not sure what to expect. The aroma of the brewed tea is very grassy/leafy, evoking thoughts of what it might smell like if I were to steep some fresh lawn clippings.
The taste is very much like what the aroma suggests. It’s an interesting combination of bitter and sweet. It’s very herbaceous but not so much in an herbal sort of way, it’s more a grassy sort of herbaceous. There is a light buttery note which is kind of nice. There is some sweetness. Overall, it’s not an unpleasant tasting drink, it’s just quite different from what I’m used to tasting and I’m not finding myself really enjoying it.
In other words, I don’t hate it but I don’t really like it either.
From what I understand, Japanese Mugwort tea is useful for detox and weight loss. I don’t know if that’s true or not because I’m just drinking one cup of the stuff and that’s hardly enough to gauge whether or not it will work in this capacity. I am noticing a warming sort of effect though.
Overall, it’s alright. If I were going to drink this on a regular basis, I think I’d want to add something to it, perhaps a thin slice of lemon or some mint – something to perk up the flavor a little bit so that I’m tasting less of that strong grassy sort of flavor. Not my favorite.
Mankota Exotic Assam Second Flush Black Tea from Golden Tips
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Golden Tips
Tea Description:
Mankota produces some excellent second flush black teas every year. This tea in particular boasts of all characters of a premium Assam tea. The tea is robust, bold and extremely malty. The full-body of the tea finishes on a slightly sweet note which makes it an absolute prized possession. Sprinkled with golden tips all over, the dark red liquor shimmers in the cup.A fantastic breakfast tea and a must-try if you love Assam tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After taking my first few sips of this Mankota Exotic Assam Second Flush Black Tea from Golden Tips, I found myself in complete agreement with the last sentence of the above description. This is definitely a fantastic ‘breakfast tea’ – it tastes great straight up, but it would take the additions of milk and honey very well too. And I would put this on the ‘must try’ list of anyone who enjoys a good Assam.
I brewed this tea in my Kati tumbler, adding 1 bamboo scoop of tea to the basket and pouring 12 ounces of nearly boiling water (205°F) and steeped the tea for 2 1/2 minutes. The reason I lowered the temperature slightly is because Assam teas tend to be somewhat temperamental and can become bitter. A little lower temperature and a little less time in the steep can do much to help avoid a bitter cup! It’s a little extra effort that’s well worth the investment because the payoff is a wonderful, malty cup of Assam!
This tea is indeed delightful! It’s rich, malty and has a satisfying, thick texture. It has notes of freshly baked bread, evoking thoughts of a warm loaf of French bread with a crisp, chewy crust. The caramelized sweetness of the crust of that loaf of bread comes through in the undertones of this tea.
Fruit notes! I didn’t pick up on them right away but by mid-cup, I started noticing notes of raisin and wine-like grape. Sweet. Notes of plum and even a hint of citrus in there too. I’m not sure how I missed these flavors at the start because they’re so abundant now, I can only think that I was so enchanted by the warm, freshly baked bread notes that my palate was ignoring all else! But now, I am enjoying the way the sweet, malty notes marry with the fruit tones. Quite lovely, indeed.
It’s an invigorating tea – it’s got gusto! It’s a bold cup of tea, but it’s not an overly aggressive cup. It isn’t bitter and it doesn’t have a lot of astringency to it either. It’s actually quite smooth. There is some astringency toward the finish, a slightly tangy effect. The aftertaste is sweet.
A truly rewarding tea. I highly recommend this those who love a good Assam!