Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Mountain Witch Tea Company
Tea Description:
This light and fruity blend combines notes of delicate champagne and real pieces of sweet & tart apricots in a base of our finest black tea. Delicious hot or iced.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Who wouldn’t love a Champagne & Apricot tea? The name alone sounds delicious.
I adore Kelly’s blends @Mountain Witch Tea Company. And this one is no exception. I think Mountain Witch Tea Company is one of the only companies I would blindly buy 4 oz of tea without hesitation. I adore her blends that much.
Brewed up like a traditional black tea (212F-3 min), this tea had a pretty high astringent factor. You could taste a stonefruit like flavor but the astringency was a bit overwhelming.
Where this tea sparkled and shined was when I cold brewed the tea for a few hours in the fridge. Yummy Nommy Nom! This tea as a cold brew was bright, refreshing, and down right tasty. The apricot flavor is vibrant and very distinguishable. The black tea is smooth and the astringent factor is gone. I have already been told I need to pick up more of this tea for the upcoming hot days of summer. This blend cold brew is just that good.
Do yourself a favor, take advantage of Kelly’s 3 for $24 sale on her teas. You won’t regret it!
Georgia Peach from Tiny Bubbles Tea Bar
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tiny Bubbles Tea Bar
Tea Description:
This bright Ceylon black tea flavored with sweet peaches is our best seller year round! It has a very juicy, ripe peach flavor with sweet aromas. Delicious both hot or cold. Simply peachy…
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It is officially iced tea time! I love summer. I am a “cold” blooded person so when the weather starts getting warmer out- I love it. Even in 80-90 degree weather you’ll find me with a sweater on . I get made fun of quite a bit, but I’m told it is all in good fun.
Besides making iced tea, I’m currently addicted to cold brewing tea. Threw some tea into a pitcher and the next morning-VIOLA! you have amazing tea. What I have found is that when you cold brew a tea, you can take a tea blend that was ok or so-so to a tea that is full of flavor!
That is the case with this tea for sure. I brewed this peach flavored black tea as a traditional black tea-212F-3 min. Took a sip and to be honest, the flavor was ok. The peach flavor was nice and the black tea base mixed well, but this hot cuppa didn’t give me the “Wow” factor I was looking for. The flavors were subtle and the cuppa didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
Cold brewed this tea and wow- did my opinion on this tea completely change. This tea reminds me of fresh peaches. The cold brewing really helped draw out more of the flavor. The black tea base is slightly astringent but I liked the contrast. Sweet juicy fresh peaches. So perfect for the summer!
My only thought would be to add a touch of vanilla and this tea would be amazing! A cold brewed peach vanilla iced tea? Yes please!
CTC Assam Exotic Black Tea by Golden Tips
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Golden Tips
Tea Description:
Even though Assam produces some exquisite orthodox teas, its CTC (Cut, Tear,Curl) grade of teas are cherished for their extremely bold character. They are known to have relatively bigger round granules which make for a bright red liquoring cup. Strong, robust, full-bodied and rich with a unique malltiness, this tea pairs up with your breakfast like bread does with butter.It goes perfectly with milk and sugar and can also be enjoyed as a pure black tea when brewed in freshly boiled water for 3-5 minutes. Harvested in the peak second flush tea growing season, this exclusive offering will add a new aspect to your love for Assams. The perfect wake-up tea!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is the Crush-Tear-Curl (or CTC) version of Golden Tips Tea’s signature blend Exotic Assam. For those unfamiliar, CTC is a method of mechanised tea processing, during which the tea leaves are passed through cylindrical rollers lined with tiny “teeth” which shred and roll the leaf into tiny pellets. The dry leaf smells very strong – malty with an edge of bitterness. It’s a smell I associate with the supermarket tea bags of my childhood. The leaf itself is a uniform black, formed into tiny balls.
I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it a scant 1.5 minutes in boiling water. This one brews FAST, and the resulting liquor darkens to a deep chocolate brown mere seconds after the leaf is added to the water. The scent at this stage is powerful, too – it’s readily identifiable as “tea” in the best builder’s sense of the word. Like the dry leaf, it’s malty with a bitter edge. I added a good splash of milk.
To taste, this one seems a little generic. It’s sweet and malty, as Assam typically is, and it has a thick, almost syrupy mouthfeel because of that. There’s a tiny hit of bitterness right at the end of the sip, although this intensifies as I continue to drink until it’s ultimately a little drying and astringent. My teeth actually feel a little “furry” after about half a cup, assumedly from the high tannin levels. This is definitely a full-bodied tea, but it’s a little one-note, and lacks some depth and complexity. It’s malty, for sure, but that’s about all I can really say.
This is a great convenience tea. It brews up quickly due to the CTC method of production, and it makes a strong, full-bodied cup that would readily assist the morning wake-up process. It’s perhaps a little heavy-handed, but a good slosh of milk smooths its rougher edges for the most part, with the exception of some bitterness. I think it’s fair to say that it lacks some subtlety, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad tea. It’s an excellent choice if you’re looking for a strong, everyday tea that’s both convenient and consistent, and sometimes that’s just the thing. There are other teas for other days.
I’m not huge CTC fan personally, but I appreciate that they have their place in the tea world, and they’re certainly well suited to some situations. This one is one of the better ones I’ve tried, and definitely worth a look if you’re in the market for this kind of tea. I like the fact that you can also purchase the full-leaf version of their Exotic Assam, as this affords the opportunity to compare (should you wish to), and ultimately to decide for yourself which option you prefer, or which suits you and your lifestyle best.
Yorkshire Bold Organic Black Tea from AmiTea Organics
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: AmiTea Organics
Tea Description:
Bold, smooth and delicious, this is the perfect, soothing, “start your morning” tea. This is my version of the famous Yorkshire tea. Of course the actual ingredient ratios have long been a secret, but I feel I have unlocked them, and now it is in an all organic version, just for you.
I have blended malty Assam and Nilgiri teas from India, A warm, rich Tanzanian tea and a smidge of smokey Chinese Yunnan, together they make a fabulous tea, hot with milk, or even iced for sippin’ on a hot day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is just delicious.
The malty goodness and rich well balanced flavor of this fantastic unflavored blended black tea is just perfect. Perfect for that first cup of tea to wake you up in the morning or in the afternoon when you need a pick up to get you thru the rest of the day. I really enjoyed this one.
First infusion was strong and rich. Brewed up like a traditional black tea, this tea was such a delight. I didn’t pick up any smoky notes like the description says, but I am fine with that. I have had a lot of smoky teas lately and was happy for a break. Second infusion, the strong malty touch was still there. Not as strong, but still discernible.
I have yet to have a tea from AmiTea Organics that I haven’t just adored.
I didn’t try this one iced. Next time I will. I would love to try this as an iced tea. I couldn’t help but keep brewing this up hot. It was hitting the spot, giving me that warm and cozy feeling.
The best part of this tea was how there wasn’t a high astringency factor. I thought for sure there would be, but this was just smooth black tea deliciousness.
Another winner from AmiTea Organics!
Yun Nan Dian Hong Black from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Dian Hong black tea, also known as Yunnan black tea, is one of China’s most famous black teas. This is the highest grade Dian Hong generally available in China – called Golden Tip Dian Hong. It has lots of orange pekoe in the dried tea, and brews into an absolutely great tasting, golden coloured tea, with very rich taste and aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea really wowed me from start to finish. You begin the cup with such attractive, even dry leaf that has a breath taking proportion of golden tips to it. I would agree that you can see the orange pekoe quite clearly in the leaf and I can’t help but wonder what the grade is – I’d guess at least TGFOP? It’s easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing black teas I’ve gotten to try in a long time.
Of course, the grade really has very little to do with the actual taste of the tea; it only describes physical aspects of the leaf and not the taste of the brew – that said, this brewed up bammin’ slammin’ delicious.
There were a lot of flavors going on but they were all so harmonious; the big one for me was the sweet taste of stonefruit that gave the tea an overall jammy quality. It was very much like overripe dark cherries and it easily stood out the most to me. Cocoa, molasses malt, and honey/light caramel notes were all present too – mostly as top notes, with the exception of the molasses which I thought was a bit stronger near the end of the sip. The body was, in addition to being quite fruity, rather starchy as well but in a sweeter way, like from yams.
This easily stands out among the majority of pure black blends I’ve had in the last month – if not longer. There’s no need for sweetener either; Yun Nan Dian Hong has such a solid and nuanced flavor profile all on its own. I absolutely recommend this tea to just about anyone and I look really forward to revisiting it.
