Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Our Lapsang Souchong is a black tea smoked to perfection. This tea is savory, smoky, slightly cool with a hint of menthol. Look for a crisp sweet pine flavor as you are vrewing this excellent black tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership here.
Taster’s Review:
When I received this month’s Co-Op package from Simple Loose Leaf and found this Lapsang Souchong Black Tea among the five teas inside, I thought that I had already tried (and reviewed) it, but as it turns out, the tea I’m remembering is the Russian Caravan from Simple Loose Leaf. I knew I recalled tasting a smoky tea from them! (And I’m relieved that my memory is better than I thought it was.)
And this is definitely smokier than I remember the Russian Caravan being. This is a very heavily smoked Lapsang Souchong, so if you’re one of those who enjoy a very strong, smoky Lapsang Souchong – this is the tea for you.
Me, I’m not so much into the smoky notes, although I’m still enjoying this.
To brew this tea, I used my Kati Tumbler. One bamboo scoop of tea goes into the basket of my tumbler and 12 ounces of boiling water is poured over it. After 15 seconds, I discarded the liquid and poured a fresh 12 ounces of boiling water over the partially infused leaves.
The rinse! I find that this step is crucial for me because it helps to eliminate some of that smoke so it doesn’t overwhelm me. I’d find this far less enjoyable without the rinse.
After the rinse, I infused the leaves for 2 1/2 minutes in 12 ounces of boiling water. The result is a smoky cup – but not so overpoweringly smoky that I’m not able to bring the cup up to my lips to take a sip.
Actually, this is quite enjoyable. The smoke is strong, but the rinse really helps. For anyone who finds the smoky notes to be off-putting in a Lapsang Souchong, I strongly recommend doing the rinse of the leaves. It turns an otherwise undrinkable tea (for me) into quite a lovely tea experience and had I not discovered just how valuable a good rinsing of the leaves is to certain teas, I’d be missing out on a whole lot of tea enjoyment!
It’s got some lovely sweet notes to it. I taste notes of sweet plum and I love the way the plum and the smoke mingle. It’s very interesting and quite pleasant. I taste notes of honey too, and again, I like the way the honey and smoke flavors mingle. Imagine a plum, drizzled with honey, and then smoked over a smoldering fire. Yeah. That’s what I’m tasting.
It’s a remarkably smooth tea – I’m not tasting bitterness and while there is some astringency to this, it’s very slight.
It’s wonderful to curl up to on a chilly afternoon. (We’re not really experiencing a lot of ‘chilly’ at the moment, but it’s chilly enough to make me want the heater on, so I find this to be quite a cozy, comforting tea.) This one gets a thumbs up from me!
California Sweet Peach Herbal Tea from M&K’s Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
Sweet orange peel roasted in honey, real grade-A Madagascar vanilla beans, actual peaches! California Sweet Peach is our signature herbal infusion. We are proud to roast our own orange peel in local honey and use peaches straight from California! Our natural peach flavor is supplied by Silver Cloud Estates and is a blend of different natural extracts and oils, enabling us to boost the taste of peaches. This blend is part of the Original 20 M&K’s Blends. Note: California Sweet Peach contains no tea, as it is an herbal infusion. We chose to include the term “herbal tea” in the title due to its categorical popularity.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This California Sweet Peach Herbal Tea from M&K’s Tea Company is an interesting tisane. As I sit here, sipping it, I’m trying to determine whether or not I like it. I can’t say that immediately upon taking my first few sips that I was blown away by it. At the same time, I can’t say that immediately upon taking my first few sips that I wasn’t intrigued. I felt the need to keep on sipping. It’s interesting enough to keep me sipping but there’s something about it that hasn’t yet ‘won me over’ – at least not yet.
I like that the hibiscus is not a strong presence in this cup. Normally, when I am about to taste a tea or tisane with hibiscus, my thought is “why?” Why hibiscus? But, after drinking about half a cup now, I can see why the hibiscus is in this blend. It adds a little bit of body to the cup (but I wouldn’t recommend steeping it longer than 6 minutes or so to avoid having a thick or syrupy body) and the little bit of tartness that it brings to the cup adds balance to the warm notes of the licorice and the sweetness of the peach, honey and vanilla notes.
The star of this cup is – obviously – the peach. I like the flavor of the peach here and I think that’s what’s keeping my interest. The peach is a genuine peach-y note. It doesn’t taste chemical or artificial. It tastes true to the fruit. I also like the orange in this. The orange adds a touch of bright flavor to the sweet peach notes.
Now that I’ve finished the cup I can say that I enjoyed this. It had a strong peach flavor but there was enough other stuff going on in this that it didn’t end up being all about the peach. I liked the different flavors going on. And even though this does have hibiscus in it – like so many other fruit/herbal tisanes to – this is not your ordinary tisane.
Just as an aside: it’s something when I finish the tea before I finish the review. Take that for what it’s worth, but it doesn’t happen often. I must have enjoyed what I was drinking!
Yeah. I’d drink this again. I enjoyed it. This one has earned my approval. Even if it does have hibiscus in it!
The Time is NOW!
For those of you who are waiting for the right time to check out my Kickstarter Campaign and contribute, that time is NOW! We are nearing the end of the campaign, and we still have a LONG way to go to reach our goal!
So, I thought I’d take a moment to answer some questions that you might have.
If you have other questions, please feel free to ask them in the comment section!
Why have we launched the Kickstarter campaign? What’s it all about?
A couple of months ago, I was approached by Frank from 52Teas (aka the Chief Zoomdweebie!) and he asked me if I was interested in taking over the 52Teas line. He wanted to focus his efforts on his iced tea business. You can check out his Indiegogo campaign to support his iced tea endeavor here! And please do!
Anyway, he wanted to focus his efforts on his passion, which is iced tea. My passion is hot tea. So, I was very interested, but also a little hesitant, until I talked to my daughter, Amethyst, who told me that she wanted to do this thing with me!
So, we have the passion for tea. We have Amethyst, who is very detail oriented and all about making sure things are done right, right on time! She’s going to be the one keeping the numbers crunched and the orders fulfilled and the inventory in stock so that I can do what I do best: tea.
But what we don’t have is equipment or inventory. That’s where the Kickstarter campaign comes in. If we’re successfully funded, we’ll have the funds we need to buy the equipment and the inventory we need to be able to get this business off to a running start.
But we can’t do it without you and your support!
Why do you need so much money?
Because, as I said, we need the equipment and inventory to get started. We need tea, we need the ingredients to create the unique flavors of teas that 52Teas is known for.
We need the equipment to make the business go. We need the pouch sealer, we need the pouch filler. Oh, we’ll need the pouches too. We need the shipping label printer and labels for it too. We have the passion and the ability to make the business go, but without the inventory and the equipment, we won’t get very far.
What do I get in return?
TEA! And seriously, is there any better incentive than that? You get tea. How much tea and what kind of tea is totally up to you. Check out the incentives list on the sidebar of the campaign for more details of what kinds of teas are available.
What happens if the campaign isn’t successfully funded?
Well, according to Frank, if we’re not able to take over the business as of March 31st, 2015, 52Teas will be no more. So, if the campaign isn’t successfully funded – if we don’t get the money we need to take over the business, it will wither and die. It will cease to be.
We can’t take over the business without the startup capital that we need to get the equipment and inventory.
I know it seems like a lot of money. But it’s for a good cause – it’s to support a small business and to support a mother and daughter team to help them realize their dream. And it’s about TEA.
Please support our campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/497705217/the-great-52teas-take-over
Also, please support Frank’s Indiegogo campaign to help him build his iced tea business: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/southern-boy-teas-organic-flavored-iced-teas
Every little bit helps! Please take a moment to help spread the word. Tweet about this blog post, tell your friends and neighbors, post it on your facebook. But most of all, take a moment to contribute because without the contributions, we simply won’t reach our goal!
Thank you!
Tulsi Green Indian Chai Tea from Teabox
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea & Tulsi
Where to Buy: Teabox
Tea Description:
This Organic Herbal Tulsi Green blend is one of the first products aimed at combining the health benefits of green tea with Tulsi (Holy basil) leaves.
A work of art and science as it is a classic India-style masala (spice) tea with the best of all worlds: Darjeeling tea, fresh Indian herbs and spices.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Hmm … different. This Tulsi Green Indian Chai Tea from Teabox isn’t exactly what I think of when I think “chai” but it’s still pretty tasty.
The base is composed of a Darjeeling green tea and tulsi. I definitely taste the tulsi in this – it’s warm and has distinct peppery notes with notes of basil and whispers of crisp mint. The tulsi gives this cup a distinct herbal flavor.
I find that the green tea flavor is a little less discernible. It’s definitely there and I can taste it, but it’s not a strong presence and has a difficult time asserting itself in the presence of the tulsi which seems to really dominate the cup.
The same is true of the spices. I can taste warm spices but they’re difficult to really pick out and say, yep, I taste this or that spice. I can taste notes of clove. Every once in a while I taste a note that reminds me of cardamom and every once in a while my palate detects nutmeg. Because of the strong tulsi notes dominating the rest of the flavors, it’s difficult to determine with certainty what spices are in this blend and Teabox doesn’t mention on their website or on their ingredient list, which mentions only “green tea” and “tulsi.”
This is a warm and comforting blend though. It’s not particularly spicy – again, the tulsi is probably the ‘spiciest’ of the flavors that I taste. But it’s a cozy sort of blend with which to unwind. I do wish that the green tea was a little more assertive and the spices more expressive in this cup, but, as it is, I enjoyed what I drank.
Gopaldhara Gold Darjeeling Black Tea Autumn Flush from Golden Tips
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Golden Tips
Tea Description:
Among the most sought after invoice’s from the years pre-winter harvest, the Gopaldhara Gold is an autumnal beauty. A delicate yet rounded black tea with intricate flowery notes. The tea brings about a subtle and sweet profile with hints of fine muscatel and an slightly earthy roundness. The lingering aftertaste brings in sensations of dark bold chocolate and cocoa. A fantastic leaf tea texture with golden tips spread evenly, this is definitely among our better autumn Darjeeling’s.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Nice! This is Gopaldhara Gold Darjeeling Black Tea Autumn Flush from Golden Tips is a beauty! It’s not your typical Darjeeling – and that’s a very good thing!
This has a richness to it that I don’t often find in a Darjeeling tea. It’s very satisfying and well-rounded. It is almost robust! Almost. It has a very rich, pleasing flavor that I might find in a stronger tea. It’s not quite as ‘light’ or crisp as a typical Darjeeling, but it does have that familiar mustcatel that I look for in an autumn harvest Darjeeling. It’s like the best of both worlds in one teacup!
While it’s not quite as thick or strong as I would want for a morning cuppa, it does have a strong enough flavor that I’d enjoy it as a later morning or early afternoon cup. It’d make a really good pick-me-up when you’re looking for that boost mid-day.
It’s wonderfully smooth with very little astringency. I notice just a hint of dryness as the sip progresses into the aftertaste, but it’s very slight. There’s no bitterness to this cup. It’s sweet with notes of fruit and a wine-like quality without the astringency of the wine. And as suggested in the above description, I’m even picking up on a chocolate-y note. (I’m thinking that this tea would be a fabulous accompaniment to a chocolate bar. Then again, who needs an excuse for either good tea or chocolate?)
I’ve tasted quite a few teas from Golden Tips now, and I think that this one might be my favorite thus far. It’s just so spectacular.