Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Black tea from the Yunnan province of China, the birthplace of tea itself. Yunnan black tea is easily identified by its abundance of soft golden tips, and savory cocoa and black pepper flavors. It is a very forgiving tea; will not taste bitter when over-steeped. Our Yunnan Jig has a sweet, almost creamy aroma. Rich and savory flavor, with a slight cocoa powder finish. Earthy and spicy and soft, smooth mouthfeel and finish. Classic Yunnan.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op program here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! Now this is the kind of tea that I like to wake up to!
The dry leaf is beautiful. The aroma is very leather-like, evoking thoughts of an old library with lots of old, leather bound books. The leaves are long and curly, looking a bit like thick pieces of wire in colors of chocolate brown and gold. When I see golden leaves like this, I immediately think of autumn and the leaves. I love this time of year with the beautiful leaves!
And I am loving this tea!
I brewed the tea in my Breville One-Touch. I poured 500ml of freshly filtered water into the kettle/jug. Measuring this tea is a bit of a challenge, because of the long, wiry leaves! I measured out what looked to me like 2 bamboo scoops of tea. I guess with teas like this, a scale would be really handy to have, but again, you probably won’t ever find a tea scale in my kitchen because I live by the ideal that tea should be simple and more gadgets don’t make it a simpler process to me. I set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and the temperature for 212°F.
The brewed tea has more of an earthy fragrance than a leathery one, although I do still pick up on some subtle leathery notes as well as a gentle spice-like note. It’s a very masculine aroma.
The flavor is delightful. And as I typed the word “delightful” I found myself questioning the word, because I don’t think that delightful is enough of a word to describe just how lovely this tea is! It is rich and smooth from start to finish. There is next to no astringency. I only pick up on mere hints of astringency – a slight dryness – toward the very tip of the tail of the sip. It is very slight. It’s not bitter and while the description above states that it’s a very forgiving tea, I didn’t try to overbrew it to test that out, but based on what I’m tasting, I’d say that’s probably very true. I’m not even tasting the slightest insinuation of bitterness here.
Notes of cacao and warm spice notes. There is a sweet caramel-y note that offers a nice contrast to the savory notes of this tea. It’s an amazing balance between sweet and savory which is what gives this tea it’s smooth character. It is so well-rounded and palate pleasing. It certainly has an invigorating quality to it, but this isn’t the tea that will give you that jolt that you might look for in that first cup of the day, instead, this will give you a warm caress that will gently nudge you awake and make you much happier to be alive and kicking!
White Pear Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf here.
Tea Description:
Premium white tea from Fujian region of China infused with the taste of ripe pears. Warm and sugary aroma, like a freshly baked pear, with a pear skin crisp finish. Wonderfully smooth and rounded, perfect hot or iced.
Ingredients: White Tea, Apple Pieces, Natural Pear Flavor
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op program here.
Taster’s Review:
Recently, Simple Loose Leaf announced some changes to their program. This month’s teas will be the last of the “Selection Club” teas and next month is their flagship month of their new (and improved!) Co-Op program/membership.
How this plan will work (or at least, how I’ve been made to understand that it will work!) is this:
- Every month, you receive a box of samples of the latest teas that have been added to the Simple Loose Leaf store. Each monthly box will contain somewhere between 4 – 6 teas and these will be sample size (1/4 of an ounce. I like that size!)
- If you like what you taste, you can shop with Simple Loose Leaf to receive a full-sized package of the tea at a 50% discount off of Simple Loose Leaf’s regular retail prices. (That is to say that all your purchases outside of the sampler box each month will be sold to members at a 50% discount! I like that!)
- The membership price is $15/month and you can cancel at any time. There’s no contract or requirement outside of the $15/month. No annual fees. (Hey, that’s better than the deal I’ve got going with my cell phone! And I like tea better than I like my cell phone.)
- You can also buy gift memberships. (Nice gift!)
- To join or learn more, click here.
I’m personally really excited at this new plan because I’m a taster. I like the new sampler size of the teas that will be sent each month as part of the subscription.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I loved their Selection Club, and this month’s Selection Club box was filled with many exciting tea selections. Like this White Pear Tea. It’s awesome!
By the appearance of the dry leaf, I would speculate that the base used for this tea is a Shou Mei base. The leaf looks like other Shou Mei teas that I’ve had and among the tea leaves are chunks of dried apple.
Why dried apple? Well, I don’t know for sure but here’s what I think (and my opinion is based on my experiences that I’ve had as a tea blender): the dried fruit that is added to a tea like this adds relatively little flavor to the brewed tea and basically the purpose of the dried fruit is not to “flavor” the tea but to add some visual appeal to it. And dried apple is much easier to find than dried pear and apple and pear look very much alike. In my experiences with blending teas, dried apple adds very little to the overall flavor of the brewed tea. It might add a delicate sweetness to the cup but not a lot of true apple flavor.
To brew this tea, I grabbed my Kati brewing system and scooped out a heaping bamboo scoop into the basket of the Kati and then I added just a wee bit more tea leaf. Not quite a half a scoop … not even quite a fourth of a scoop. Just a wee bit. Then I heated the water to a low temperature (170°F) and poured the water into the tumbler and let the tea steep for 4 minutes.
The brewed liquid has a really delightful aroma. It smells like warm pear with delicate notes of white tea. It’s a sweet, fruity and really quite delicious fragrance!
The flavor tastes as good as the aroma! The white tea is a delicate flavor: sweet and hay-like. It’s smooth, not bitter and if there’s any astringency to this, I’m having a hard time finding it! Maybe a twinge or two of pucker in my cheeks at the very end of the sip. It’s a very flavorful white tea.
The pear is also quite flavorful and I’m happy to say that it has an authentic pear-like flavor. It reminds me of the flavor of a baked or poached pear (not the spice part but the sweet, soft part of the fruit).
Having tried quite a few pear teas in the past and occasionally being disappointed by the pear flavoring, I am happy to say that this has a really amazing pear flavor. If you’re looking for a really good pear tea – this is it!
Original Herbal Chai Rooibos Blend from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf here.
Tea Description:
Chai is a type of tea typically served in India with milk and sugar. Our Herbal Chai is comprised of rooibos herbal tea along with a combination of ginger root, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and black peppercorn. This herbal version offers a remarkable authentic chai flavor while remaining naturally caffeine-free.
Ingredients: South African Rooibos, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Ginger Root, Cloves, Black Peppercorn
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club subscription program here.
Receive 25% savings on the Selection Club from Simple Loose Leaf. Just type in SISTERSELECTION25 in the coupon field and save 25%! This discount is applicable only to the monthly Selection Club subscription and not the retail selection of teas.
Taster’s Review:
This Herbal Chai from Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club Sampler Box is a very finely ground rooibos! The rooibos leaves are chopped finer than I’ve typically seen in most rooibos blends. It’s almost like a fine, “instant” powder … almost, but not quite. This still needs to be steeped.
So I steeped it using a T-Sac. I don’t usually reach for a T-Sac when I’m brewing tea, but with a tea/tisane that is as finely ground as this is, I usually choose a T-Sac to steep the tea because I don’t like loose, floating leaves in my brewed tea. I’m not in to floaters.
Additional parameters used to brew this tisane: with freshly filtered water heated to 195°F and 1 tsp. of Herbal Chai in the T-Sac, I steeped the tea for 10 minutes. Because this is a finer chopped chai, you don’t want to use a little extra leaf – as I often do with chai because I want a little stronger flavor with all the spices that are in the blend – but with this blend, the fine chop means that there is a lot of surface area and this is going to get plenty strong with the 1 tsp of leaf to 12 ounces of water ratio.
The aroma of both the dry leaf and the brewed tea is so delightfully spicy. It reminds me of the smell I would experience when I visit the spice shop in Portland. Notes of cinnamon, clove and pepper are prominent. I can also smell the cardamom and ginger.
Mmm! This is a perfect tisane to send out for September. As the air becomes crisp and the weather turns cooler for the coming season (Autumn!) this tea serves me as a reminder of what is to come. As I’ve said many times before, fall is my favorite season of the year. And … yes … the reason is TEA! Tea just tastes better hot. Yeah, there are some teas that taste better iced, but for the most part, I find that teas just taste better when they’re served hot and I find that hot tea tastes best when the weather is chilly.
And my favorite kinds of teas to sip during my favorite season of the year are chai blends like this because the warm spices are just so cozy and comforting! This is a perfect autumnal blend!
The finer chop on this blend makes for a very strong tasting chai, so don’t go overboard when you’re measuring out the leaf! You might want to even use a little less leaf because it does get very strong.
The spices are robust. The clove and ginger and pepper are the strongest flavors that I’m tasting. After these flavors are recognized by my palate, then I begin to pick up on the cinnamon and cardamom. The rooibos doesn’t offer a strong flavor to the cup, it’s more like a slightly sweet, nutty background flavor that is quite complimentary to the earthy notes of the spices.
I’ve got to tell you that when I saw that this is a rooibos chai, my thoughts were “Oh, another rooibos chai.” I wasn’t all that thrilled with the prospect. But this is one of the better tasting rooibos chai tisanes that I’ve tasted in some time. The finer ground on the blend makes for a deliciously pungent, spicy chai and that’s just fine with me!
This tastes great with a dollop of honey or a half a teaspoon of sugar. I find that the sweetener accents the spices in a chai (sugar and spice makes a chai taste real nice). Add a splash of milk or cream for a tasty latte … it’s a wonderful, caffeine-free treat to drink any time of day.
Product Review: Tea Box Express Monthly Subscription!
Product Information:
Where to Subscribe: Tea Box Express
About Tea Box Express:
Tea Box Express is more than a box of tea. It’s an experience. Each month brings a new box brimming with surprises that always include quality brand-name tea and three or four fun tea-things. We are dedicated to bringing you the best teas and the niftiest tea goodies. Our mission is to bring a tea party to your door every month.
Save 20% off your first month’s subscription! Just use the code SORORITEA20 in the coupon field at check-out to save!
Review:
This is a review of Tea Box Express’s debut box – October 2014 – which hasn’t yet begun to ship. The box came to me early so that I could review it and share my thoughts with you so that you can get in on the goodies right from the very beginning!
This box is near PERFECT for people like me. As some of you may know, besides writing about teas, I’ve also written about other subscription boxes (specifically, foodie/yummy goody boxes) on my Hungry in Portland blog. I’ve pretty much discontinued those reviews mostly because I find that my time has become limited and tea is more important to me than the goodies, so, I devote my time here. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped getting in on the goodies!
What’s so great about this box is that it combines the best of both worlds! It’s a tea of the month box and it’s a goody box, plus there are some really neat accessories to go along with it. For the October box, I received a tube of Teatulia Black Tea, a jar of “Tea Honey” from Savannah Bee Co., an adorable bee shaped, festively frosted sugar cookie from The Decorated Cookie Co., plus a bright yellow, ceramic teapot-shaped teabag caddy and a tea honey dipper/server which allows you to drizzle honey no-mess-style into your cup of tea. I’ll be reviewing the “tea party” including the tea later, but, for now I wanted to review the experience of receiving this box!
Let’s see what these items would have cost me if I bought them separately:
- Teatulia Black Tea: $8.99
- Tea Honey: $5.50 (although to get the 3 oz. jar, you need to buy 2 at $11.00)
- Bee Cookie: $5.62 (approximately)
- Teabag Caddy: $4.50
- Honey Dipper: $4.98
Total retail price would be approximately $29.59 if these items were purchased separately, although some of the items can’t really be purchased separately, and these prices do not include shipping charges. To subscribe to this box, you can pay month-to-month $25.50 plus $5.99 for shipping, or if you pay for 3 months, the monthly cost comes out to $24.67, or for a six month subscription, the cost works out to be $23.17 per month.
So there is a savings benefit to subscribing, but to me the real benefit is the joy of receiving the box. The fun part of these boxes is that they’re curated for you. This month’s theme (if it’s not obvious with the Bee and the honey), is “Bee Happy”! When you first open the box, the first thing I saw was this card (to the left) that says, “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” ~Abraham Lincoln.
Inside the lid of the box is a “theme card” that offers some suggestions on how to be happy. Nurturing our positive emotions like joy, gratitude and serenity can make us happier, and I love the suggestion on starting a happy list!
My happy list:
Tea.
Yeah, there are a few other things that I’d add to that list, but tea is right up there at the top of the list. Tea is joy. And this box is all about TEA. Receiving a box like this every month would be like getting joy in the mailbox!
Green Pekoe Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf here.
Tea Description:
Green tea from the Fujian province of China. Green Pekoe is famed as an everyday tea, and is among the most popular teas consumed in China. Its thin, wavy leaves appear almost black when dry. Once infused, however, our ‘Green Pekoe Blues’ reveals its true color. And produces a light cup with a smooth, mellow taste and a gentle, soothing aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club subscription program here.
Receive 25% savings on the Selection Club from Simple Loose Leaf. Just type in SISTERSELECTION25 in the coupon field and save 25%! This discount is applicable only to the monthly Selection Club subscription and not the retail selection of teas.
Taster’s Review:
Oh wow! This is just what I needed today. As I write this (which is a few days before it will actually publish), I am feeling kind of drained. Everyone in the household is getting sick! Ugh! I don’t feel it yet … except for that weak, sort of drained kind of feeling that I feel. Lackluster … no energy. You know what I’m talking about, right?
Today, my box from Simple Loose Leaf arrived, and it came just when I needed something to pick me up and bring a smile to my face. (Receiving these boxes from Simple Loose Leaf every month always DO bring a smile to my face!) And this Green Pekoe is the first tea that I’m trying out of this month’s box.
The dry leaf smells very vegetal and a little earthy – like something between freshly cut grass, kelp and the leafy green section of the produce market. It’s a green tea, so I brewed it at my “go to” temperature for green tea, 180°F. I measured two heaping bamboo scoops of tea into the basket of my Breville One-Touch.
Well, I sort of “guessed” that it was about two heaping scoops. These leaves are long and curly like a bunch of tangled up wire! So, it’s difficult to actually get a heaping scoop out of the package. You either get more than a heaping scoop … or you get less, as in much less. Like a few leaves. This is usually the case. These leaves are very *independent* and don’t want to hang with the crowd on the bamboo scoop – they want to do their own thing!
So I measured out enough leaves to where it looked like two heaping scoops in the basket. Then I poured 500ml of freshly filtered water into the jug (fortunately the water is not as independent as the tea leaves and just goes with the flow), finished assembling the jug and set the timer for 2 minutes at 180°F.
And we have green tea deliciousness!
The flavor is sweet and mild. It’s not an overbearing “green tea” taste – it doesn’t taste too much like vegetables of any sort, nor does it taste bitter or grassy. I do pick up on hints of steamed artichoke, but it’s not an overwhelming flavor.
It’s smooth and feels soft on the palate. It has a very satisfying, soothing kind of taste – just the pick-me-up that I needed on this afternoon that was starting to feel kind of down-and-out! This tea got me out of that funk.
I like the light flavor here, it’s sweet with delicate notes of flower and fruit. The finish is slightly dry but not overly astringent. The aftertaste is pleasantly sweet. This would make an excellent everyday sort of green tea because it has a very enjoyable flavor and it is very relaxing to sip.
This tea helped turn my whole day around! Thank you, Simple Loose Leaf!