Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
Organic Black Gold Tips is an excellent black tea for every morning. It has visible golden tips that provide smoothness and sweetness. Enjoy alone or with milk.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve noticed a sort of trend in my tea drinking and I think that Amoda Tea has helped me fully realize this trend. I guess that I’ve always been aware of it, but I have a strong preference for black tea and when I’m given a selection of several different teas, if there is a black tea among the selections, that’s the tea I will usually reach for. Such is the case with this Organic Black Gold Tips from Treasure Green Tea Company – one of the four teas featured in this month’s Amoda Tea Box.
This is a really lovely Black tea. I love that it’s organic. But even more than that, I love that it’s rich and full-flavored. It’s deliciously smooth and pleasantly sweet with notes of caramel and cacao. It’s full-flavored and robust without a lot of astringency and no bitterness.
I brewed this in my Breville One Touch tea maker. I eyeballed it – but by the looks of it, the sample from Amoda was just enough for 500ml of tea! So I poured 500ml of freshly filtered water into the jug and emptied the pouch into the basket. Then I set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and the temperature for boiling (212°F).
This created a perfect pot of tea – and with my awesome tea mug (a Christmas present from my daughter, Amethyst) – it’s actually a full cup of tea. This baby holds 16 ounces of tea!
And this tea is quite lovely. The kind of black tea that I like to start my day with because it IS rich and malty and full of flavor. It’s smooth. It’s not bitter. There is very little astringency. It’s all those things that make me so happy when I drink a cup of tea.
As I continue to sip, I start to explore beyond those notes of cacao and caramel. There are notes of leather and almost a tobacco-ish sort of flavor. Molasses. Hints of warm spice. There’s a lot of complexity to this tea.
A really lovely tea – I’m glad it was part of this month’s box from Amoda Tea.
Prickly Pear Black Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Tea Description:
Prickly Pear is a cactus fruit native to Mexico and the Southwest Desert of the United States. Its succulent flavor compliments our Indian black Nilgiri tea to create an astoundingly rich and delicious regional tea. This tea serves wonderfully hot and creates a beautiful iced tea to sip on those warm, Southwestern afternoons.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this Prickly Pear Black Tea from Simple Loose Leaf some time ago but I put off reviewing it in favor of the teas in their subscription program. As I was going through my stash of teas, I found the unopened, still sealed package of tea so I decided that NOW was the time! I apologize to Simple Loose Leaf for the length of time it took me to get to reviewing this tea!
And now that I’m tasting this tea, I’m really sorry that I put off trying it until now – this is fabulous!
There’s a really pleasing balance between tart, savory and sweet. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a prickly pear tastes like, it has a sweet-tart taste that reminds me of a raspberry. More accurately, it tastes like a combination of raspberry and melon, so it’s a little sweeter than a typical raspberry and a little more tart than a typical melon. And this tea has captured the flavor of prickly pear quite well!
The sip starts out sweet and fruity. As the sip progresses to mid-sip, I pick up on some of the robust flavors of the Nilgiri black tea base. It’s a sweet, malty tasting tea. It’s smooth with very little astringency, and what astringency I do experience at the tail plays really well with the tartier notes of the prickly pear flavor. It’s not bitter. It has an invigorating quality to it but it’s not overly aggressive.
As the sip approaches the finish, I taste more of the sweetness of the cactus fruit. At the finish, I get some of the tart notes. The aftertaste is tart and tingly, sort of like what I’d experience if I ate a raspberry: that tingly sensation on the tongue.
As the above description suggests, this tea tastes great served hot or cold. I had a glass of it over ice with dinner and found it very refreshing and thirst quenching. For a mid-day cup of tea, I enjoyed this hot and found that the flavor was much more defined served hot. So for a more pronounced flavor, serve it hot – for a sweet, delightful glass of refreshment, serve it iced!
This is a tea that Simple Loose Leaf isn’t carrying at the moment, I do hope they’ll bring it back because I’d love for my readers to get an opportunity to try it! It’s really tasty!
Lemon Grass Herbal Tisane from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Lemon Grass is a native herb of Southeast Asia. It is said to help with digestion, calms the nerves, and helps with high blood pressure. Our Lemon Grass has a delicate Meyer lemon flavor with a hint of sweet ginger and an uplifting floral aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a little while since I’ve had pure lemon grass. It’s not something I drink often but I do enjoy it when I drink it, so I wasn’t at all disappointed to find it in last month’s Co-Op box from Simple Loose leaf. It’s a lovely herbal tisane: soft, soothing, and uplifting.
I brewed this in my Breville, using three bamboo scoops (I usually use more leaf when I’m brewing an herbal than when I’m brewing a tea) to 500ml of water. I set the temperature to 195°F (my go-to temperature for herbals) and the timer was set for 10 minutes. Because this is a pure lemon grass, I didn’t have to worry about tannins making it bitter.
This is a fine quality lemon grass and it tastes very much like I’d expect a good quality lemon grass to taste. It’s smooth and buttery with a sweet, lemon-y note. The lemon taste of lemon grass isn’t a pucker-y tart, it’s more like a lemon curd. The description above suggests a Meyer lemon, which tends to be a little sweeter than a typical lemon, but I think that it’s even a little sweeter than a Meyer lemon.
The description above also suggests a sweet ginger note and I can pick up on a hint of spice. I don’t know if I’m tasting ginger but it is a subtle note of spice, reminiscent of white pepper.
It’s a really nice tisane to drink after I’ve had several cups of tea – it’s a nice change of pace to the caffeinated beverage. It’s naturally caffeine free and it’s quite soothing to sip. I like to keep lemon grass on hand for times when I’m starting to feel a sore throat come on because it’s very comforting to my throat. It’s also makes a refreshing cold beverage – my daughter loves it!
Serene Herbal Tisane from The Honest Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
This tea does exactly what its name promises – brings serenity to your day. Ingredients like chamomile, jasmine and lavender really do have that affect. We taste the apple-like flavours of chamomile, a perfect lemon squeeze and smooth mint. There’s tart and sweet florals playing off one another and hints of relaxing lavender that come out mid-sip.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After my first few sips of this Serene Herbal Tisane from The Honest Leaf, I found myself contemplating whether or not I actually liked it. I didn’t dislike it but I wasn’t too sure whether or not I was enjoying what I was tasting.
That is to say, it’s quite unlike other teas I’ve tried.
Now that I’m about halfway through the cup, I can say that yes, I do like this. It’s different, it’s tasty and I like it.
The flavor starts out quite subtle. I notice a soft lemon-y note from the lemon peel and flavoring. This flavor develops over the course of the sip – starting off with a delicate whisper of lemon. The finish is bright with lemon notes and the aftertaste is quite lemon-y, as if I had just taken a sip of lemonade. The aftertaste lingers a while.
After the subtle introduction of lemon, I pick up on flowery notes of jasmine, lavender and passion flower just before mid-sip. These floral notes are also quite subdued. They don’t develop the way the lemon does, but I do pick up on a few more floral notes mingling with the lemon notes in the aftertaste.
Just after mid-sip, I notice the crisp peppermint. I like that the peppermint follows the example set by the flowers and lemon and is understated. The cool peppermint is a nice contrast to the lemon-y flavor, but the mint doesn’t slap you in the mouth with it’s minty presence. It’s just a slight ‘peppy’ sort of flavor that perks up the flavors of the tea without tasting like someone spilled a little bit of mouthwash in my teacup.
I didn’t really notice the chamomile until I reached mid-cup. The chamomile is more of an undertone, offering a indistinct apple note and hint of honey. I can smell more chamomile in this than I can taste. After the mid-cup point, the chamomile notes develop somewhat, but they never become a strong, prominent profile to the cup.
Happily, I notice no hibiscus in this, unless the hibiscus acts as a ‘tart’ agent to help amplify the tartness of the lemon, because the aftertaste does have a tartness to it. Not too puckery, though, but as I said, I do get a lemonade-y sort of experience in the aftertaste.
Overall, I found this to be a relaxing, enjoyable cup. It’s certainly different than the typical ‘nighttime’ type of tisanes, and different is good!
Avonlea Honeybush Tisane from Lemon Lily
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Lemon Lily
Tea Description:
Organic ingredients: Honeybush, cinnamon, ginger, hibiscus, Canadian Maple Flakes.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I had high hopes for this Avonlea Honeybush Tisane from Lemon Lily. I mean, cinnamon, ginger and maple together with the honeyed, nutty flavor of honeybush actually sounds pretty tasty. Even with hibiscus in there. But as I taste it, I’m finding myself disappointed by this.
I don’t like the combination of honeybush and hibiscus. This just isn’t working for me. You might think that the sweetness of the honeybush would help even out the tartness of the hibiscus, but the honeybush sweetness isn’t enough to soften the tartness of the hibiscus and the result is just a weird, funky taste.
And it’s a weird taste that even the warm spice of the cinnamon and ginger can’t offset. Even the maple – which is a favorite flavor of mine – even the maple does very little to improve the flavor here. In fact, I’m tasting relatively little maple flavor here. Very disappointing.
As it cools, this does taste better. The honeybush and hibiscus don’t seem to be battling it out to create that weird taste anymore, but the hibiscus is still too tart for my liking. It’s drinkable now and I don’t think I would have described it as such while it was hot.
Served hot, it’s a very weird cup of tea. As it cools, it becomes drinkable but it’s still quite tart and I find myself wishing the hibiscus wasn’t there.
I have enjoyed many of the teas that I’ve tried from Lemon Lily (thanks to not just one but two boxes from Postal Teas that has featured them), but this one just isn’t bringing a smile to my face.