Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Persimmon Tree Tea Company (On Hiatus)
Tea Description:
Lychee Burst tea is a fruitful blend of lychee essence and organic, black loose-leaf tea. It steeps a sweet infusion; with delicate notes of apricot, osmanthus and ripe pear. Bring out the flavor with rock sugar, and pour over ice for a refreshing change to regular iced tea.
Learn more about this tea on Steepster!
Taster’s Review:
Recently I received a sample of this tea from a tea friend in the mail! I didn’t even realize that The Persimmon Tree Tea Company offered a black lychee tea, but I was certainly excited to learn that they do and be able to try it. The last black lychee tea I fell in love with, The Tea of Kings, was from RiverTea so I can’t buy it anymore. I need a solid replacement.
My thoughts about this cold brew are that the flavor level of the lychee and black base are pretty equal, which is how I feel it should be. The black base is brisk, clean and full bodied with malty notes and slightly more floral notes. It reminds me vaguely of a high grown Ceylon? The lychee is juicy and realistic and doesn’t taste overly floral or chemical which is a trap that flavour often falls into with lower quality lychee teas. I taste the pear notes a little too, but they’re fairly flat and certainly not the focal point of the blend.
I don’t think this is my new lychee black to keep on hand, but it’s definitely one of the better ones I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. If you’re looking for a black lychee tea, my suggestion would be to start here after The Persimmon Tree’s hiatus is over.
Dark Chocolate Oolong from Liquid Proust Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Liquid Proust Teas (No Longer Listed)
Tea Description:
Ingredients: Roasted Oolong, Cocoa, Flavoring
Learn more about this tea on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of Andrew, from Liquid Proust Teas, crazy ideas but one which certainly looked interesting to me. I can’t actually remember ever trying a mind blowing chocolate oolong and so the possibility of this tea filling that whole intrigued me a lot! The dry leaf looks really interesting; and it has a soft, sweet cocoa smell and some floral notes too.
Hmm, this didn’t brew up to be the most appetizing smelling or aesthetically beautiful. It’s very murky/cloudy looking, and I get the impression it may have an oilier mouthfeel. However, the really concerning thing is the aroma of the liquor coming from the cup: it’s like the most floral oolong smell I’ve ever come across mixed with mildew and wet dog? And I know that’s harsh – but honestly that’s what I’m smelling and it’s making me gag just a little bit.
The weird thing is that it actually doesn’t taste bad; and I don’t know if I’ve ever come across a tea with such a disconnect between the taste and smell since those two senses are so incredibly intertwined. I mean it’s certainly not the delicious cocoa tea I was expecting but it’s actually nice enough. There are very strong nutty notes and then more medium notes of burnt toast and cocoa in the body of the sip. There are also subtle moss and floral notes. I don’t really like the way the more natural/floral notes pair with the toasty notes and sweet cocoa – it’s kind of like some sort of unholy Frankenstein’s monster of tea.
I’m gonna call it; this is the first offering from Liquid Proust that I dislike – I could probably handle it if, when I went in for a sip, I didn’t have to smell the steeped tea but that just kills it for me. That said, every other review I’ve read has been favourable so if you get the chance to sample this I encourage trying it and forming your own opinion. It’s just not for me.
Spiced Apple Tisane from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Tisane
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
What does comfort mean to you? It might be a favourite sweater, an old family recipe or a perfect cup of tea. For us, it’s all about capturing warm and cozy flavours – like this sweet and spicy blend of apple, figs and chai spices. Laced with cinnamon and star anise, it brings back memories of apple picking, piping hot cider and fresh-from-the-oven pies. Basically, it’s like a hug in a cup. And whether you pair it with a good book or some great company, we guarantee it’s as comforting as it gets.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Spiced Apple was DAVIDsTEA’s September Tea of The Month though from the looks of it this tisane could seamlessly blend in with the Fall Collection. As it stands, every season is seems like DT finds a way to incorporate yet another new apple tea into the mix (this season Honeycrisp Apple). Personally, I feel like that’s a played out idea and each new one that they come up with excites me less and less. This season in particular feels especially saturated; but nonetheless here I am trying this newest tea regardless so I suppose I can’t complain too much.
Dry; this tisane smells more like those little cinnamon heart Valentine’s candies to me more than anything else – but I get apple too; it’s like some kind of mulled cider but heavy on the cinnamon. I wish I could smell the clove more. I can tell it’s gonna be sweet; star anise kind of instantly does that to tea. Now to try the hot brew.
Oh! Instant cinnamon hearts. Now that I’ve gone there mentally it’s hard to taste something else. With the level of anise-y sweetness and concentrated cinnamon (but not hot or dry cinnamon) you’d expect the liquor to look as bright, vibrant red as those little candies leave your tongue looking. I can taste clove, but it’s secondary to cinnamon and by quite a lot. The more I’m drinking, the more I taste the other components of the tea: apple, anise, and sort of a cardamom note too. I’m not really getting and distinctly fig tasting notes, and lowkey that’s what sold me on this tea in the first place.
I have to say, it started out alright but the flavour of both the ‘cinnamon hearts’ and apple cider really builds as my mug gets emptier and by the time I was on the last few sips I was already sick of this tea: it gets very cloyingly sweet despite having spicy elements working against that. I could never justify adding sweetener to this. I’m wondering how to best finish off the sample I got – currently I’m leaning towards cold brewing because that’s just what I do. My theory is that cold brewing would balance the flavours a little better.
Not bad, though. Certainly worth a try and worth taking the time to tweak it.
China Fujian Cinnamon ‘Rou Gui’ Wuyi Rock Oolong from What-Cha
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Tea Description:
Rou Gui has a great cinnamon taste combined with a thick texture and sweet taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love Rou Gui and the reviews I’ve read for What-Chas have all be positive so I thought it was about time I bought some to try for myself. Usually, I like to do Gong Fu sessions with Rou Gui and I’m sure I’ll try this that way eventually, but when I showed this to my mom what she said was that it smelled like it’d be good cold; and since she so rarely weighs in on how I prepare the teas I share with her I decided to honor her suggestion and make my inaugural tasting a cold brew.
I have to say, this was definitely an interesting blend to me. One of the things I most like about drinking Rou Gui Gong Fu is the progression of flavours and drinking a cold brew with an extended six or seven hour steep time really makes that progression of flavour blur together. So, I tasted qualities I think I normally would have in the first few steeps of a Gong Fu session as well as ones I probably only would have noticed in the last few infusions.
The most obvious taste was, of course, the sweet flavour of cinnamon. I find ‘cinnamon’ has such a varied flavour; it can be spicy like you’d find in Chai or very drying (have you ever done the cinnamon challenge?) or it can have this lovely pastry/baking sweetness. Of all the ways cinnamon can express itself, I definitely get the latter example here.
Other dominant flavours are honey, wood, leather, and floral notes. Maybe just a hint of cream as well. It’s a weird contrast between bold flavour notes and delicate ones too; the overall affect is a medium bodied, smooth tea with a very rich, thick mouthfeel and clean taste with a pleasant, lingering finish. One of the nice things about cold brewing this is that I got to skip the more ashy/char notes and biting astringency that usually accompany the first few infusions of a Rou Gui; but I still got leathery, wood notes! No additives are necessary. In fact, they’d probably detract from the taste more than anything else.
If there’s one thing I’d have liked to see which I didn’t it’s more of a fruity note – but maybe that’ll come out more when I inevitably Gong Fu this.
Cranberry Orange Muffin Tisane from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Tisane
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
We don’t care who you are or where you’re coming from. No one can say no to a muffin. There’s no cuter – or more delicious – way to start your day. Even the name is a delight. And with cranberries, orange slices and cinnamon, this warm and comforting blend has all the taste of a freshly baked muffin…at next to no calories. Meaning you can get that warm, fuzzy feeling every time you steep a cup. Does it get any better? Muffin can compare.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I feel like DAVIDsTEA actually came up with some really interesting flavours this fall – this one in particular is very strange and I don’t know how on board I am with a muffin flavoured tea. Actually, in fact I know I’m not totally on board with a muffin tea. I know people were weirded out by a peanut butter tea, but this is so much stranger to me. For whatever reason.
Again, this appears to be another really heavy herbal blend. There are a lot of big cranberry chunks in the leaf that look as impressive in size as the ones in DT’s black Cranberry Pear blend that I’m accustomed to seeing. The smell of the dry leaf is really weird though: it’s got a really strong orange flavour, but in an off-‘orange peel’ kind of way rather than a sweet, juicy orange. I also smell cinnamon, oat, and something… else. Dandelion I guess? Whatever it is does NOT appeal to me. I mean, the smell isn’t gross but there’s just really no appeal. I cold brewed my sample; the liquor is pretty foggy and this weird orange/brown colour. The smell is quite fruity, with more orange/citrus notes than anything else. I also smell a lot of cinnamon, and a whiff of bran.
The first, most noticeable thing about the flavour is the fruity top notes. The cranberry is very piercing, and this lovely balance of sweet and tart. Somewhere in the mix, I can taste mango too. The orange follows quickly behind, but I can’t say I’m a fan of the flavour. It’s very semi-sweet bordering on not sweet at all and the combination of sourness/tartness and slight bitterness makes me image I’m chewing on an orange peel. Yuck! Unfortunately, those orange notes are really long lingering, well into the aftertaste. I’d love to swap out the intensity of the orange for cranberry.
The muffin taste is alright; I’d say it’s more of a weird starchy oat flavour and bran than a complete “muffin” taste, and there’s cinnamon peppered in there as well. Similar to the orange, the cinnamon is also very lingering. Once the initial fruit flavour subsides you can really taste the “muffin” element of the tisane quite well. I actually don’t mind the overall flavour, but it is strange to be tasting it in chilled, liquid form. Something else comes into play – probably the dandelion, and it’s putting a damper on the flavour too though. If anything I think that it (the ‘muffin’ and dandelion) would work better hot. However, with the unpleasant orange flavour I don’t know whether I want to experience a hot mug to test that theory out.
For me, this is a big mug of nope. Despite how accurate I think it is to the name, this is definitely NOT the tea for me. However, I do encourage people to give at least one cup a shot because it’s a unique flavour.