Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
The Irish love strong black teas, so be ready! There’s an enticing aroma of cream and a malty, earthy, creamy sweet flavour. It’s brisk and full-bodied. And organic to boot.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!
This is the first tea that I am sampling from this month’s Amoda Tea Tasting Box. This box seems to be focused not only on St. Patrick’s Day, but also on spring.
When I first brewed this Irish Cream Black Tea from Shanti Tea, I thought it might be an Irish Breakfast type blend that has been flavored with a vanilla cream flavor … but as it turns out, it is more like an “Irish Cream” flavor … and I taste very subtle hints of cream liqueur along with the overtones of vanilla cream. YUM!
And this is indeed yummy! The cream note is well-defined, and it enhances the overall cup really nicely. It adds a pleasing creamy taste, eliminating the need to add dairy to the cup for that desired creamy note. The vanilla also accentuates the malty tones of the Assam tea in this blend. (At least, it certainly TASTES like Assam is in this tea!) The liqueur note is subtle, but, I like how it weaves its way in and out of the sip.
Because of what I believe IS Assam in this blend, it’s important not to over-steep this tea. I steeped my cup for 2 1/2 minutes and I’d say that is just about perfect. Any longer and I think this would have a slightly bitter tone, but, as it is, this is tasting just right. There is a moderate astringency to the cup.
This is an extraordinarily rich cup of tea – a great tea with which to start your day. Just enough sweetness to it … and a whole lot of gusto!
White Cherry Tea Blend from Aromatica
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green & White
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
Don’t fear the strong cherry aroma, it steeps up nicely balanced with subtle
jasmine and rose floral notes. You’ll still taste the earthiness of the white & green teas before the last hit of cherry that lingers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf of this White Cherry Tea Blend from Aromatica is extremely aromatic. As the description above suggests, it has a very strong cherry fragrance … it almost smells a bit like cough medicine. Personally, I’m not one to be put off by that, because, I kind of like cherry flavored cough medicine. It’s better than unflavored cough medicine, anyway.
But, I don’t want my cherry flavored teas to taste like cough medicine. So, I remained hopeful that the description is right … and that the tea steeps with a balanced flavor. Fingers crossed!
Wow! This tastes very much like cherry! But it doesn’t taste like a medicinal cherry flavor … it tastes like a sweet, ripe Bing Cherry, bursting with flavor! Seriously, with my first sip, it was very much like I had just bitten into a juicy cherry. YUM!
The sips that follow allow the other flavors in the cup to develop on the palate. I notice hints of jasmine in the distance. I taste the lush, “green” taste of the green tea, as well as hints of earthiness and hay from the Pai Mu Tan. The rose starts to come through after my fourth or fifth sip.
This tea definitely tastes more like a green tea than a white tea, but there is a lightness to this too, the white tea has lightened the overall flavor of the cup. The white tea is not a strong flavor, but it certainly does its part to influence the overall flavor of the cup.
The floral tones are subdued but offer a nice contrast to the sweet cherry flavor. The cherry offers a sweet overtone, but there are hints of tartness to the cup as well. The coconut is not a prominent flavor to this cup, but there is a gentle creaminess that I attribute to the coconut. I like this hint of creaminess … it adds just the right touch to the drink.
Overall, this tea blend really IS well balanced. Sweet? Sure. But there is so much more to it than just sweet cherry flavor. It is that complexity that makes this tea well worth trying.
Lychee Black Tea from King’s Zen Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
The dry leaf smells incredible. Lychee fruit is unique and distinct. Hopefully you’ve tasted lychee before, because it’s flavor is tough to compare. It has a natural sweetness that is present in this tea. Mixed with the smoky Chinese black tea, you get something a little exotic, sultry and sweet. This tea is smooth and light-bodied.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
Lychee teas are often hit or miss with me. Sometimes the Lychee is just too much – way too fragrant, way too over-scented, and the cup ends up tasting like someone spiked my tea with artificial tasting, nasty chemicals. Then there is sometimes the opposite side of the spectrum, where the tea is lacking in scent and flavor.
But this Lychee Black Tea from King’s Zen Tea – a tea I received in my Amoda Tasting Box for February – is really fantastic. The black tea base is nicely pronounced here – it isn’t hidden behind the Lychee flavor. It tastes rich and smooth, with a hint of smoke and I think that this smoky tone interacts quite well with the sweet, exotic flavor of the lychee fruit.
I have to disagree slightly with the description above, I don’t think I’d categorize this as a “light-bodied” tea. The lychee taste is light (when compared to a typical Lychee Congou tea) but the tea itself is what I’d categorize as a medium bodied tea … or even a medium to full bodied tea. It has a nice richness to it, it certainly isn’t as thick or rich as … say, an Assam tea or a Yunnan tea, but, it has an understated yet satisfying richness to it that is a bit more than what I’d call “light.”
The lychee fruit flavor is indeed subdued compared to some of the other lychee scented teas I’ve experienced. But I think that’s what I’m digging so much about this cup … it doesn’t have that overwhelming lychee taste that almost tastes of chemicals. This tastes light, sweet, and naturally fruit-y, while still maintaining that rather unique lychee taste.
A very nice cup. Thank you Amoda, for including it in this month’s box!
Chiran Sencha from O5 Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
Sweet, thick and full-bodied. A grassy and vegetal green tea with refreshing astringency and light cream aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Chiran Sencha from O5 Tea is the second tea from my January Tea Tasting Box from Amoda Tea. I won’t be reviewing the third tea from this box, because I’ve already reviewed it here. However, I certainly didn’t mind receiving more of that tea in this month’s box, because it is a tea that totally rocks my socks!
And … this Chiran Sencha is rockin’ my socks too! It has a surprisingly thick, full body for a Sencha, which are usually a little lighter than this. This has a very smooth, rich mouthfeel, and a lovely grassy note that tastes very refreshing. It isn’t a bitter grassy note, instead, it is pleasantly sweet. The thick mouthfeel adds a sense of creaminess to the cup without tasting “buttery.” And while I do like those buttery notes … sometimes, it’s nice to have something that is different!
And this is a different Sencha than what I usually drink. And I am really enjoying it. My first cup, I brewed at 160°F for just 1 minute, and I’m getting so much flavor! With the second infusion, I added 15 seconds to the brew time, and find that no flavor has been lost, in fact, I think the second cup was my favorite. It was a little lighter, but still very smooth and lightly vegetative. It had a very refreshing and invigorating quality to it. It seemed to renew me from the inside out.
A very lovely Sencha, I am happy this was in my Tasting Box this month. (And … a note to Amoda, I love that all three selections were TEAS this month. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the tisanes, but when two out of the three selections are tisanes, it’s a little disappointing. No disappointment this month, though!)
Oolong Crème from Sloane Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
True luxury tea. Sloane Tea exudes elegance and old world charm and has a line-up of premium teas, beautifully packaged. Their teas are sourced, selected and blended by in-house certified tea sommeliers. The director studied perfumery in France, so her blends are amazingly aromatic and skillfully scented and flavoured.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea was the first that I tried from this month’s Amoda Tea Tasting Box (Yes, I’m actually trying a tea from January’s box… in January! Maybe I am getting caught up!), and it is a good one! Oolong Crème from Sloane Tea is a milk Oolong that has been lightly flavored to enhance the naturally creamy notes of the milk Oolong.
I brewed this the way I brew most Oolongs – in my gaiwan. Using short steeps, I produced three very lovely cups (combining the first two infusions for cup one, infusions three and four made cup two, and infusions five and six made cup number three). I suspect I could have gotten a fourth cup from these leaves too, because the third cup was still very flavorful (and to tell the truth, it may have been my favorite of the three!) but my time was required elsewhere, so I wasn’t able to work on a fourth cup.
But the three cups I did enjoy were lovely. The first cup was very much like a milk Oolong (which it is, so, I guess that should be expected!) the flavor is sweet and creamy and delicate in this first cup. This first cup is so creamy, it is difficult to discern any floral or fruity notes, they seem to be somewhere in the background … almost lost but not quite. The creaminess makes up for it though, because it is so wonderful!
With the second cup, I found that the flavor had intensified. Still sweet and creamy … but less delicate. The mouthfeel is remarkably smooth and silky. Now I taste a little bit more flower. A hint of fruit begins to emerge in the background reminding me vaguely of plum. Very soft and pleasant overall. I find this second cup to be extraordinarily soothing and peaceful. A perfect cup with which to unwind.
I notice a crispness to the third cup that I didn’t find with the first two. The creaminess has waned somewhat, making way for a lighter flavor that is refreshing and crisp. A slight astringency comes forward here too. It is still creamy though, and certainly sweet … just a little less creamy than the first two which allows some of the other characteristics of the tea to appear. I almost taste … a minty note here … the crispness gives off a minty kind of note, and although it’s not a strong and obvious note, it’s certainly a surprising element.
This was a very enjoyable milk Oolong, certainly worth a try for those who love milk Oolong – and I know that there are a lot of you out there!