Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Darjeeling Tea Lovers
Tea Description:
CASTLETON AUTUMNAL TULIP, as the name suggests is an AUTUMNAL TEA or THIRD FLUSH tea from the estates of CASTLETON TEA ESTATE.
This tea comes with Malty, Muscatel & spicy notes smooth yet complex in flavour. “LIGHT & BRIGHT” is an ideal way to describe this tea. It has a very smooth cup with plenty of sweet muscatel notes. An ideal tea for your breakfast.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of the dry leaf is sweet with some spice notes and floral tones. The brewed tea has a fruitier fragrance, smelling a lot more like fruit than flower. I still pick up on sweet and spice, but mostly, I’m picking up on a delightful grape-y scent! You know what that means, right? Muscatel!
Oh yeah! And this tea has the muscatel that you’re looking for! It has a very wine-like taste, with bright, fruity notes that taper to a slight dryness at the finish and the aftertaste is sweet and fruity, with notes of grape and black currant.
The sip starts with a sweet yet spicy note. The malty notes of this tea accentuate the sweetness, although I’m not finding this tea to be overly sweet. I think that the spice notes add enough contrast to the overall flavor to keep this from tasting like your average Darjeeling. This is – in my humble opinion – head and shoulders above that average Darjeeling. I love the muscatel notes here, and I love the crisp, light flavor of the cup.
This is not a heavy tasting black (not surprising, it is a Darjeeling, after all!) and it would make a great tea for mid-morning or early afternoon. The above description suggests this as a breakfast tea, and I could see that too, there is a certain briskness to this cup that is quite invigorating. Although, I wouldn’t add milk to this cup – it would overwhelm the fabulous flavors going on. So, if you’re one who wants milk in your breakfast tea, save this one for the second cup of the day when you are ready for some unfettered tea flavor.
As I continue sipping, I’m picking up on some bright citrus notes that arrive just after mid-sip, and re-emerge in the aftertaste. I don’t usually associate citrus flavors with Darjeeling, but this tea has some sunny notes of lemon! Nice!
There is some astringency to this cup, but, it’s a fairly mellow astringency. It isn’t leaving the insides of my cheeks feeling puckered or dry, although there is a gentle “clean” feeling to my palate.
Another delightful autumnal flush from Darjeeling Tea Lovers!
Taiwan Sun Moon Lake Formosa Black Tea (Competition Grade) from Cameron Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Cameron Tea
Tea Description:
Region: Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan
Type: Black Tea
Oxidation level: Fully oxidised
Taste: Strong and refreshing flavour.
Terroir: Sun Moon Lake is located at altitude of 700m, surrounded with mountains and lakes with remarkable environment and typical climate for growing black teas. Heavy moist and stable yearly average temperature make the tea trees grow thick and rich tea leaves which produce carmine and perfectly clear liquor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve got to tell you, every time that I’m preparing to brew one of these black teas from Cameron Tea, I get really excited! The tea is simply superb!
And this competition grade Taiwan Sun Moon Lake Formosa Black Tea from Cameron Tea is no exception. The leaves are dark chocolate in color. They’re long, slender and wiry, but they aren’t so slender that it looks like they’ve been slivered down to size. They appear to be whole leaves that have been rolled lengthwise.
The dry leaf doesn’t have a strong aroma, it smells a little bit like warm leather and earth. It’s a very light scent … barely there. The brewed tea has a stronger fragrance, offering warm notes of leather, molasses and maybe even a gentle spice note here and there. It’s not a particularly strong scent, but it’s pleasant.
But it’s the flavor that wins me over with this tea. It’s a warm, rich, robust flavor. It’s not robust in the way that … say an Indian Assam black tea would be. It’s not the kind of black tea that I’d turn to to get me up and running for the day. It isn’t a strong “gusto” kind of tea.
Instead, this is more of the kind of tea that I’d want for my second cup of the day. After I’ve already got my jump start, and I’m looking for something to keep me going and something that is going to inspire a positive outlook on the rest of the day – this tea is THAT tea!
It is sweet with notes of cacao and caramel and yes, even some notes of molasses. It’s a sweet tasting tea, but it doesn’t taste cloying. There are subtle hints of earth and leather. It has a thick, buttery, smooth texture to it, although it doesn’t taste overly “buttery” the way a green tea or green Oolong might. At the start, there is very little astringency. It does build as I continue to make my way to the bottom of the cup; I start to notice a sort of dry “pucker” in my mouth after the sip. But it is a subtle sensation, and even those who tend to be sensitive to astringency would probably find the astringency of this tea acceptable.
As I continue to sip, I start to pick up on notes of stone fruit. Imagine a ripe plum that’s been drizzled with molasses and then lightly roasted. That’s the fruit note I’m experiencing. Not so much of the “tart” or sour notes of the fruit, it’s all about the sweetness of life in this teacup!
I love this tea! Then again, I’ve been overjoyed by everything that I’ve tasted thus far from Cameron Tea. If you are looking for exceptional black and Oolong teas … you need to check out Cameron Tea!
Peach Brulée Black Tea Blend from Tea Forté
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea Forté
Tea Description:
This refreshing black tea offers a masterful blend fragrant with floral and fruit. Mango and marigold blossoms embrace the lushness of sweet juicy peaches with a lingering finish of tropical cut coconut.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
While shopping the other day at Chuck’s Produce, I stopped by the tea section (as I usually do) and this tea caught my attention. Maybe it was the slick, black “Tea Noir” tin that drew me in, or perhaps it was just the name: Peach Brulée … um, yes please! That sounds amazing. I also liked that this was a loose leaf selection, rather than the tea pyramids that Tea Forté is probably best known for. So, maybe it was a combination of the three things, but there was something that came over me and told me to put that tin into my cart.
And I’m glad I did. This is yum!
The black tea base is a very BOLD tasting black tea. And the reason it’s so bold is that this tea has a pan-roasted Assam to serve as the base. Awesome! I can taste the richness of the Assam, notes of malt, and I’m getting a really nice roasted flavor from the pan-roasting. It has an almost “coffee-like” flavor to it. This would make an excellent alternative to those who are trying to switch from coffee to tea, but miss that rich, robust coffee flavor. This tea has that!
And the flavoring here doesn’t overpower the rich, roasted flavor of the tea. This is a tea that has been flavored with notes of peach and hints of mango and a very subtle kiss of coconut … and not the other way around. That is to say, that this doesn’t taste like a tea where the flavors have been overdone. The flavors are right on point, allowing me to enjoy the really flavorful Assam tea first, and then celebrate the juicy, delicious fruit notes.
The peach is the most prominent flavor after the roasty-toasty notes, and then the mango sort of weaves its way in and out throughout the sip in a very soft, subtle way. The coconut is very delicate, and I notice it more in the aftertaste than I do in the sip itself.
It’s a really flavorful, unique take on tropical fruit flavored tea, and with all this bold, hefty flavor, it’s a great way to start the day. It also tastes outstanding as an iced tea – in fact, I’d find it difficult to say which way I like it best. I think right now, seeing as we’re experiencing the hottest part of the summer thus far, I’d go with iced. But, in the cooler weather, I’d probably say that this is better hot!
Banana Pudding Flavored Genmaicha from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
I know how much you loved our Banana Pudding black tea, so I decided maybe we should try it with a genmaicha, and let me tell you, the toasted rice element of the genmaicha combined with the sweet sencha green tea takes our banana pudding flavor recipe to a whole new level of yummmmmm.
Like with the black tea version of Banana Pudding, we’ve added freeze-dried bananas, coconut and organic flavors. I think this one is going to be very popular. Can’t wait to hear what you guys think of it.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
I usually like to do my reviews of the 52Teas in order from when they were released, but I skipped over this one. I’m not sure exactly why, except that I forgot that I had this tea in my stash. Usually when I brew a 52Teas tea for a review, I go to the website and see which tea I should review next. But I sort of skipped over this one because I thought, Banana Pudding? Oh, I already reviewed it. The tea I was thinking about was the Banana Pudding Black Tea. I forgot that Frank (the chief Zoomdweebie from 52Teas) had more recently created a Banana Pudding Genmaicha!
Then I realized as I was going through my tea stash that I had this tea just waiting for me to review it!
And YUM! This is good.
I think I might like this one even better than the black tea version, if for no other reason than the delicious, roasty-toasty flavor of the Genmaicha seems to add something nice to the banana flavor. It’s sort of like a banana flavored rice pudding with delicious, toasty vanilla wafer cookies. Mmm!
The sip starts out with a sweet banana-y flavor with a subtle grassy note from the green tea. There is a light, buttery note that accentuates the “wafer cookie” like flavor. Then I taste the toasty notes of the roasted brown rice, and this adds a sweet, nutty dimension to the cup that melds beautifully with the banana and the creamy vanilla notes. As the sip nears the finish, I pick up on more of the sweet, “baked” notes of the wafer cookie.
It’s a really delightful combination of banana and vanilla custard-y flavors, nutty tones, buttery notes with just a hint of grassy/vegetal notes from the green tea. The flavors all work together very well. A really tasty flavored genmaicha!
Two thumbs up for this one!
Paradise Tea Tisane from Eden Grove
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black & Green Teas
Where to Buy: Amazon Trading
Ingredients:
Black Tea, Green Tea, Passion Fruit, Pineapple, & Natural Flavors of Passion Fruit & Pineapple.
Learn more about Amazon Trading here.
Taster’s Review:
This Paradise Tea Tisane is an enjoyable blend of black and green teas flavored with passion fruit and pineapple. I brewed the silky sachet for 3 minutes in 185°F water. The result is a yummy cuppa!
As I’ve said in the past, when it comes to blends like this – where there is more than one type of tea, in this case, there is both black and green tea leaves – I usually opt to infuse the tea at the lowest temperature requirement for the tea to avoid scorching the green tea. This would result in a bitter tasting tea. So, I went with a lower temperature and steeped it for 3 minutes. This seemed to be the perfect setting for this tea, because the flavor is really nice.
The black tea isn’t particularly robust or even brisk. It’s more like a smooth, mild black tea flavor, lightened by the soft, silky taste and texture of the lightly vegetal green tea notes. It doesn’t taste like “black tea” or even “green tea” … it tastes like something totally different, but with similarities to both of these tea types.
And then there is the luscious tropical fruit notes of passion fruit and pineapple! These two flavors add a sweet, juicy taste to the cup without overwhelming the tea base.
The way I would describe this tea is that some mad scientist (a scienTEAist?) brewed a cup of black tea and a cup of green tea and added equal parts of each to a new cup, and then added the nectar of passion fruit and pineapple. I can almost taste the sweet pulp of the fruits! It’s really quite refreshing and tasty. Not too fruity though, I think a nice balance has been achieved. (Insert mad scienTEAist laugh here)
Really tasty served hot, but even better when it cools!