Everyone once in awhile I will drink a tea or have a matcha that is the unfortunate victim to poor packaging.
The grey unassuming bag looks like it would be well suited for the job of protecting this matcha but I fear it failed. The dry aroma is nil.
It’s part of matcha that I love, so smelling a staleness, a sort of packaging type of smell was disappointing. Surprisingly the wet aroma immediately filled my nose with vegetal and slight nori notes. Gave me hope.
But that was dashed with the flavor. It tastes like the aroma. Not at all what I expected.
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Leaf Type: Green Tea/Matcha
Where to Buy: Rishi
Description
Our top grade of organic matcha is made from the first springtime harvest of tencha, savored for its umami sweetness, creamy taste and enlivening energy
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Island Heritage/teakruthi -skysamurai-
The dry aroma and the visual aspect of this tea scream Darjeeling.
The way Darjeeling smells, the slightly mineral, fresh, like a clean rainfall. It is a unique smell that I can only attribute to Darjeeling. Kinda like saying something tastes like chicken.
But what is the taste of chicken? I Don’t Know it just is! Oh, fudge… Now I’m tasting chicken. That’s a weird mix with tea.
Speaking of taste considering how it smells I don’t quite get those muscatel notes I’m looking for. And the aroma Darjeeling aroma disappears completely. This one is utterly perplexing.
I have tried both infuser in cup style and gong fu style but I feel both lack the Darjeeling punch I was looking for. If steeped too little there is no flavor. Steeped too long and it’s astringent with a bitter woods flavor.
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: teakruthi
Description
Grown in the hub of the largest Dimbulla tea-growing area in Sri Lanka, our Island Heritage tea offers a flowery, mild taste and boasts an orange appearance. This tea was plucked from tea bushes that were planted during the coffee era, around 1884-1885, so you can taste true Dimbulla tea-growing history in your cup. The blend features two distinctive leaves and a bud subjected to natural withering and then gently rolled in a well-type miniature roller. Afterwards, the tea is sun-dried and passed through a conventional dryer to eliminate moisture. The last step, of course, is finding its way to your cup.
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Veritaserum/Adagio -ashmanra-
This tea blend designed by Robert Pirlot came in a sampler. There are six different teas in the box, housed in slide-top tins with each tin holding 1/2 ounce of tea. There are more than six Harry Potter fandom blends available, though, and you can choose your own sampler set. I love that!
Veritaserum is a black tea with raspberry, chocolate, and hazelnut flavors. The black tea base is fairly strong with a light briskness, but it is not astringent or unpleasant at all.
Raspberry is the prominent flavor to me, and the chocolate aspect is of the unsweetened variety, not milky and sweet. It lends an additional bottom note to the tea, emphasizing the briskness, making it great for breakfast – I had it today with an Everything Bagel – or to pair with sweets and “cut through the sugar.”
I don’t add milk or sugar to this, but it could definitely handle it and would be delicious that way. Then it would be very dessert-like on its own!
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Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Description
Veritaserum is clear, colourless, and odourless and is almost indistinguishable from water. The potion must mature for a full lunar phase, and is quite difficult to produce. It can be mixed with any drink, and three drops are a sufficient dose to make the drinker ‘spill out his innermost secrets’. Thus, the potion forces the drinker to tell the complete truth to any question asked to him/her.
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Master’s Supreme Blend/Matcha Project -skysamurai-
I’m a matcha enthusiast.
I love being able to try out different matcha from different regions and companies to see the unique differences that each one holds.
I was a little surprised that there was no aroma in the dry powder but the liquid holds nice vegetal and umami notes. Those notes also help develop the deep umami notes in the flavor along with some unique vegetal notes. Cut green beans and other fresh vegetal notes.
Deep and soft notes on the tongue mostly but the initial touch is sharp. Somewhat metallic.
Almost ruins the rest of the experience for me but the smoothness of the powder transfers over to a nicely balanced cup with very little silt and some astringency.
This will make an awesome Molotov Matcha.
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Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: Matcha Project
Description
Produced from the very first harvest of Spring in Japan, our organic Master’s Supreme Ceremonial Matcha is crafted using only the most prized and tender baby tea leaves of Spring.
Our Master Blender has selected tea leaves from two different regions (Shizuoka & Kagoshima) in order to create a flavor profile that is perfectly balanced, smooth, and exceptionally delicious.
These baby tea leaves undergo a strict shading schedule prior to harvest where they are covered by black tarps for three weeks. This blocks nearly all sunlight in order to increase the richness & umami flavor of the matcha, while eliminating any unpleasant bitterness.
The leaves are then harvested, processed, dried, and finally ground into powder using the traditional and extremely time consuming stone grinding method, which has been used for 100s of years.
The result is this truly incredible and enjoyable matcha blend!
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Summer in A Cup/CuppaGeek Teas -Ashmanra-
The tea blend I bought last year to use to make iced tea while the weather was still hot has turned out to be one of our favorite evening hot teas this winter. Technically it is not tea, as it contains no camellia sinensis, but you know what I mean!
Quite often we want a tea to wind down with, and we reach for Draught of Peace or Parker’s Evening Blend. Spiced Fall Evenings and Baked Apple Pie (With A Dash of Rum) are other wind-down favorites to carry to the rocking chairs before heading off to bed.
But sometimes we want a caffeine free cup to go with a snack and a tv show or game. We want something that tastes good with food, is a little bit lively, doesn’t scream BEDTIME!!! but still has no caffeine. Lately Summer In A Cup has been our go-to.
It took me by surprise that we like it so much hot. The ingredients are all about sweet summer fruit – green rooibos with mini marshmallows, freeze dried peaches, freeze dried strawberries, orange, marigold flowers, and natural peach, strawberry and orange flavoring.
Summer, right?
But something about the green rooibos base makes it so darn drinkable. I have an intense dislike for red rooibos. But green rooibos is delightful, and it carries these flavors so well. I have had it by itself and paired with cheese and crackers or chips and dip or toast and jam. When we drink it hot, we add nothing at all – no sugar and no milk. Delish!
I have made it as iced sweet tea, too, as I originally intended. My pitcher holds 48 ounces. Here is what I do – I use four teaspoons of the blend, steep it three times in a small teapot and pour it into the pitcher. Add 1/3 cup sugar and stir. Adjust to your taste. Depending on the size of your steeping vessel and your teapot you may need to add additional water. Chill and enjoy!
I first started with just three teaspoons of dry blend and resteeped three times and it was fine for me, but my husband said he would like for it to be just a little stronger. Naturally, adjust the leaf and sugar or your choice of sweetener to your taste.
Get some now to treat yourself to a peek at summer to come, and to have on hand for those first spring picnics! This would also be a lovely caffeine-free option for a children’s or adults’ tea party that should appeal to most anyone’s taste!
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Leaf Type: Fruit Tisane/Herbal
Where to Buy: CuppaGeek Teas
Description
Summer In A Cup- A delightful way to honor summer all year round! Delicious green rooibos mixed with summer flavors like strawberries and peaches and a few mini marshmallows thrown in for fun!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!