Sometimes I try out unflavored teas with one kind of leaf, and a flavor that all about the purity of the process. And sometimes I try out teas that are exactly the opposite– just like today’s blend, Sir Stuart Black and Green.
This tea has both black and green tea leaves, three types of flower petals, and rich spices like cardamom, fennel and ginger. Visually, this blend is full of diverse colors and shapes, and the smell of the dry leaf is luscious and complex. It smells like someone lit floral incense in a kitchen, where other smells like fennel or orange peel are being mixed together as someone starts cooking.
The flowers are most prominent in the scent of the tea, with bergamot and sweet orange dominating the taste. The flavors of the tea leaves themselves are minimal: no grassy greens and no bitter blacks. Instead, the varied ingredients list really dominates the flavor spotlight.
As I drank the tea, more of the unexpected herbs like fennel or cardamom popped up in the taste and smell, though the ginger was slow in arriving. I finally got some of my favorite buzzy, spicy mouthful from the ginger after I let the teabag steep beyond the recommending steep time. Overall the blend is sweet without being cloying, and the bright citrus lingers on the tongue without being to tart.
According to Tea & Coffee, this blend is named after the well-travel Sir Stuart Cleary of Cranbrookshire. With all the varied treasures and eye-catching beauties hidden within this tea blend, it feels like a bounty gathered from exploring the reaches of the world.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black/Green
Where to Buy: Kent & Sussex Tea Co.
Description:
Sir Stuart a fine Black Tea and Green Tea. A flavoured Tea with hints of Bergamot and Orange. Named after the explorer Sir Stuart Cleary of Cranbrookshire following a trip to the Orient. A beautiful looking loose leaf tea with magical flavours when brewed. A Fruity aroma combined with Spicy Ginger and Fennel create something special and fresh tasting. Ingredients Black Tea, Green Tea, Ginger pieces, Fennel, Cardamom seeds, Natural flavouring, Rose petals and Cornflower blossoms.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Jasmint from Chash Tea . . . . .
When the weather gets warmer, I feel a resurgence of my love for all things minty and cool. Iced mint tea on a hot day helps me cool down and refresh like nothing else. After getting a taste of Jasmint from Chash Tea, I’ll have to add this blend to the rotation.
This tea came to me in well-designed little package, and when I looked it up online, the Chash website is equally enticing. The stylish package makes me feel extra classy when I brew up my tea.
The dry leaf of this tea is everything you want in a minty tea, fragrant and cool and crisp, as popping and fresh as mint right from the herb garden. When brewed, this tea shows off its other ingredients, with a dominant bloom of jasmine, and a nutty, barky undertone from the tea leaves. The spearmint is at the back of each sip: minty and slightly creamy, with a touch of vanilla. I always find that peppermint is a little too harsh on its own, and it needs the softer creaminess of spearmint to help balance it out. The sweet-mint taste of spearmint in this blend is no exception.
My go-to summer mint tea has always been some variety of Moroccan Mint with peppermint and black or Darjeeling tea blended together. Jasmint is a lovely departure from this usual mix. The flowery jasmine and creamy mint are a great combination of both floral and cool. This tea feels like the ideal summer night, with open windows blowing in cool air with the fragrance of garden blossoms.
Stay cool and classy this summer with a cup of Jasmint from Chash Tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Chash Tea
Description:
When blending we occasionally find one so obvious we can’t quite believe we didn’t think to blend it earlier! One afternoon it occurred to the team that Jasmine might support Spearmint and Peppermint. Counter-intuitive? Very much s0! The rest is history!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Lola from Sicilian Tea Company. . . .
This blend will makes you feel like singing, or humming along to your favorite pop song, comforting, pleasing, and drinkable. It’s a rooibos blend, so it’s decaf and full of feel-good antioxidants. There also warming cinnamon and a hint of relaxing lavender. Licorice root brings smooth, natural sweetness, almost fruity, like apples, which compliments the caramel tones of the red rooibos.
The rooibos is the dominant flavor, and if brewed strong, it will overwhelm the other flavors with the almost-medicine floral taste. This blend strong enough that it’s best brewed twice, for two full cups of flavor. This is a versatile tea, and can also be brewed ice with a splash of milk for a creamy, faux-caramel latte.
This is the perfect cup for when you need something sweet, easy, and comforting. Not to mention is will get the pop song stuck in your head… lalalalala Lola…
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Sicilian Tea Co.
Description:
Lola is a sweet treat that’s safe to have before bedtime. South African Red Rooibos is rich in antioxidants. Organic lavender, licorice root and cinnamon make for a yummy treat (without the guilt).
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Himalayan Musky Thunder from Terroir Tea Merchant. . . . .
Not long ago I conducted an Oolong-a-Thon and did back-to-back tastings of all the oolong teas in my collection. Somehow I missed this Himalayan Musky Thunder from Terroir Tea Merchant. That’s because it didn’t look like an oolong at first glance. Apparently, Himalayan Musky Thunder is a “dark oolong,” meaning it is more heavily oxidized than its greener oolong cousins. Like other oolongs, I brewed this tea with cooler water (190 F) and steeped it a few times.
Upon brewing, the scent and taste of dark chocolate were very forward. When you taste a chocolate bar with a high cocoa percentage, there’s an almost-floral note to the earthy chocolate flavor, and that note comes through in this tea as well. There’s a rich muscatel, red grape flavor right after the chocolate tones, making this tea winner for any dark chocolate, red wine drinkers out there.
If the package didn’t inform me that this dark tea was actually an oolong and not a black tea, the mouthfeel would have given it away. There’s a silky smoothness to how this tea falls on your tongue that is reminiscent of milk oolong teas, without any of the mouth-puckering sharpness you find in black teas.
Upon further steeping, the sweet chocolate tones evolve into earthier notes, like a vegetable garden after a fresh rain. The tannin richness of red wine and unsweetened cocoa linger as an aftertaste.
All the tasting aside, I love the name for this tea, Himalayan Musky Thunder, and I think it is aptly chosen. This is one of the boldest oolongs I’ve tasted: deep and romantic like the smell of the air and earth after a thunderstorm. The next time you find yourself caught in the rain, wait out the storm with a cup of this tea and a bar of dark chocolate.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Terroir Tea Merchant
Description:
With qualities of a black tea and no astringency, this strip style dark oolong is surprisingly light and full of flavour.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Give in to Temptation with a Picture of Earl Grey from NovelTeas
If you’re easily distracted by cute packaging, be warned that blends from NovelTeas can come shipped in beautiful, book-shaped, metal tins. At first glance, these tins can sit amongst your real books, undetected until someone realizes the titles are full of tea-related puns. Today, I’m tasting Picture of Earl Grey, also called Wilde’s Rosy Tea Blend on the Novel Teas site.
This blend is like a garden in a cup with lush rose petals and jasmine-green tea. All those flowers are a perfect match for the showy, vanity of this novel. Like Dorian, your tea will have eternal beauty since the dried flowers last much longer than fresh ones. Mind your steep times with this brew or else the roses might get a bit overpowering. Among the rose and jasmine there is just enough tart, earl grey to give the tea a backbone and remind you of the staunch and proper Victorian Era.
Any of NovelTeas blends would be a great addition to a book club, adding themed scents and tastes to the literary discussion. Picture of Earl Grey is a great blend for a garden party, or when you want your kitchen to be as fragrant as a spring garden in bloom. Just a sip of this lush and verdant blend across your tongue and you’ll feel as poetic and witty as Oscar Wilde himself.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Blend of Black and Green
Where to Buy: NovelTeas
Description:
The delicate flavorings and novel-inspired decorations of The Picture of Earl Grey™ may deceive you at first. This tin and tea provide for an exquisitely deceptive and Wildely elegant experience for any new collector. Organic jasmine green tea and a rose-blended bergamot radiate hedonism and reflect your eternal beauty as you sip.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!