Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Aftelier Perfumes
Tea Description:
This delicious full-bodied tea is flavored with Aftelier Chef’s Essences: the perfect marriage of mouth-watering blood orange and the spicy warmth of cardamom. Organic Red Pearls Black Tea, a rare tea from Fujian, is fully-oxidized Mao Feng tea leaves that have been rolled into small black pearls. They are then pan-fired where they develop a burnished sheen, toasty caramel-like aroma, and spicy, assertive — yet wonderfully sweet — flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Orange Cardamom Black Tea from Aftelier Perfumes is a truly unique tea offering from a company that started making natural perfumes over 30 years ago! Here at Sororitea Sisters we’ve posted other reviews about Aftelier Perfumes Tea offerings and have enjoyed our past experiences with their teas. Orange Cardamom Black Tea from Aftelier Perfumes certainly stands up to Aftelier’s quality and creativity that we have come to learn and love.
Mandy from Afterlier Perfumes uses Organic Red Pearl Black Tea which is a Mao Feng rolled into tiny black tea balls. The tea itself is slightly caramelly and sweet. She pairs that with luscious blood orange and spicy cardamom in a fascinating way!
The flavor combination is very nice and perfectly done. When I first heard that Mandy was sending us some of this new offering to try I was hoping the cardamom wasn’t going to over power the actual tea. After one sip I knew that she took a good amount of time to get the orange and cardamom ratios ‘just so’ and for that I am truly grateful. I will never question her brilliance of evening out flavor levels again! This was a remarkable offering that’s for sure! If you or someone you know are into trying different flavors of teas don’t pass this one up!
Spiced Apple Tisane from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Tisane
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
What does comfort mean to you? It might be a favourite sweater, an old family recipe or a perfect cup of tea. For us, it’s all about capturing warm and cozy flavours – like this sweet and spicy blend of apple, figs and chai spices. Laced with cinnamon and star anise, it brings back memories of apple picking, piping hot cider and fresh-from-the-oven pies. Basically, it’s like a hug in a cup. And whether you pair it with a good book or some great company, we guarantee it’s as comforting as it gets.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Spiced Apple was DAVIDsTEA’s September Tea of The Month though from the looks of it this tisane could seamlessly blend in with the Fall Collection. As it stands, every season is seems like DT finds a way to incorporate yet another new apple tea into the mix (this season Honeycrisp Apple). Personally, I feel like that’s a played out idea and each new one that they come up with excites me less and less. This season in particular feels especially saturated; but nonetheless here I am trying this newest tea regardless so I suppose I can’t complain too much.
Dry; this tisane smells more like those little cinnamon heart Valentine’s candies to me more than anything else – but I get apple too; it’s like some kind of mulled cider but heavy on the cinnamon. I wish I could smell the clove more. I can tell it’s gonna be sweet; star anise kind of instantly does that to tea. Now to try the hot brew.
Oh! Instant cinnamon hearts. Now that I’ve gone there mentally it’s hard to taste something else. With the level of anise-y sweetness and concentrated cinnamon (but not hot or dry cinnamon) you’d expect the liquor to look as bright, vibrant red as those little candies leave your tongue looking. I can taste clove, but it’s secondary to cinnamon and by quite a lot. The more I’m drinking, the more I taste the other components of the tea: apple, anise, and sort of a cardamom note too. I’m not really getting and distinctly fig tasting notes, and lowkey that’s what sold me on this tea in the first place.
I have to say, it started out alright but the flavour of both the ‘cinnamon hearts’ and apple cider really builds as my mug gets emptier and by the time I was on the last few sips I was already sick of this tea: it gets very cloyingly sweet despite having spicy elements working against that. I could never justify adding sweetener to this. I’m wondering how to best finish off the sample I got – currently I’m leaning towards cold brewing because that’s just what I do. My theory is that cold brewing would balance the flavours a little better.
Not bad, though. Certainly worth a try and worth taking the time to tweak it.
Flaming Prince Charming White Tea from T-We Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: T-We Tea
Tea Description:
Have you ever met the man of your dreams; that perfect guy who you want to spend the rest of your life with… only to then have him introduce you to his husband? Ugh… Happily Ever After is SO hard these days! We completely understand. Don’t worry, gay BFFs are way more fun! Introducing the deliciously desirable Flaming Prince Charming. This soft and delicate White Peony is the perfect balance of milky coconut ribbons and refreshing cardamom spice. It’s like a fairy tale for the modern princess.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Sometimes when I try new tea companies, it can be a gamble. It’s hard out there for peeps in the tea biz. We are all united by our love for the beverage, but a lot of us need part time jobs. Not everyone has the attention grabbing thing to get new customers on board. Coming across T-We’s website, I definitely found it. It came in the form of the tagline for this tea:
Spoiler Alert: All the Good Ones are Gay
I was not expecting the hilarious tea names and their corresponding descriptions! I can’t decide if I like The Worst or Scandalous Manfriend the best. All of their teas are handblended, and uproarious and very youthful. I’m really glad to have stumbled past this small store.
On to the tea! The dry leaf is has a LOT of coconut. There are some scattered large green cardamom pods, as well as thin fuzzy silver needle. I used to be obsessed with coconut teas, but somewhere along the line, I grew tired of the taste, and even grossed out at times. But inhaling the steeping leaves, it smells fresher that other coconut teas I have tried, and the aroma is like fresh coconut milk exactly. I am still a coconut freak. I go crazy for coconut in all of its forms in anything I can get my hands on, candles, beauty products, food… except tea. Will this be the coconut tea to win me back? Let’s find out!
The brew is a mellow golden sunshine color, and smells like coconut cardamom heaven. The mouthfeel is nice a heavy, it’s quite easy to drink. The hay and honey notes of the white tea are definitely on the back burner of this tea, with the coconut and cardamom taking over. I am loving how sweet this tea is, as well as the lack of astringency. This is definitely not one of those toasted coconut flavor profiles, this tea tastes like thick and creamy coconut milk, just as it is about to hit cooked white rice for coconut rice pudding. I am definitely a fan of this kind of shredded coconut, it delivers a fresher punch than any other coconut tea that I have tried. (On a side note, this tea goes great with the talented Harry Belafonte song of the same subject matter. If you are feeling fruity.)
I suggest that you go take a look on their website! T-We tea is a fun site to browse, whether or not you plan to buy tea from them, or just laugh uncontrollably, it’s a solid choice on a small scale tea shop!
Sherlock Holmes Black Tea by Adagio
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio
Tea Description:
All at once exotic and mysterious and perhaps a little bit insane, with a lingering hint of smoke.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of Cara McGee’s Sherlock fandom blends, inspired by the character of (who else?) Sherlock Holmes. It’s a blend of Adagio’s Lapsang Souchong, Assam Melody, and Oriental Spice, all of which are black teas. The dry leaf smells reasonably strongly of smoke, with a hint of spice underlying. Exotic and enticing! I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a medium golden brown, so no additions this time.
I will freely admit to being more than a little scared of smoky teas, and particularly Lapsang Souchong. One early experience with a very strong Lapsang really, really put me off, and I’ve been very wary ever since. I’ve tried a few lightly smoked teas since and not been repelled, so I’m hoping that I can perhaps gradually build up an appreciation of smoky teas, given time. My forays into this territory are still fairly rare, though, and this will be the first in a while!
The first sip was taken with a little trepidation! I’m pleased to report, however, that this is palatably smoky. The initial flavour is, of course, the Lapsang Souchong. It’s quite a gentle smoke, though, reminiscent of a just-beginning barbecue rather than a raging bonfire. I think this is owed at least in part to the assam, however, which adds a sweet malt undertone that seems to temper the smokiness a little, rounding off what might otherwise have been quite harsh edges. There’s a spiciness in the midsip that’s very welcome, adding a third string to this particular bow. I can taste cinnamon, clove, and maybe a touch of ginger, although none are particularly strong or overpowering. Mostly, I’m struck by how well balanced this blend is between its three elements – smoke, sweet, and spice. Each flavour can be tasted individually, but they also work well as a cohesive whole to make this an interesting and enjoyable tea. It’s certainly frames each of its constituent parts in a new way! What surprised me most is how smooth this tea is. I’m really pleased that it didn’t turn out acrid or bitter, especially since I’ve not added any milk.
With regard to the fandom aspect of this tea, this blend seems like a fairly fitting tribute to Sherlock. It’s a dark and a little mysterious with its background of almost hidden spice (shrouded in smoke, perhaps?) It tastes like I imagine Sherlock’s coat might smell. This would make a good introduction to smoky teas for someone uncertain (or just plain scared, like me!), or for a fan of flavoured blacks looking to try something a little different. This one’s a winner in my book.
Happily Headless (Custom Blend) from Adagio Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Green
Where to Buy: Adagio
Tea Description:
You’ll lose your head over your loyalty to this kingly brew!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
WARNING: POTENTIAL GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS
(But really this is season one so if you’re not aware of this you might be living under a rock…)
I have to say, I’m quite happy I watched enough GoT to understand the character reference here! I’ve really only seen the first two seasons and part of the third. I think the ingredients picked out by this blender are pretty well thought out too; though I do think there might just be a bit more “Fire” than “Ice” – although to be fair there certainly are a lot of very visable candy cane pieces in the dry leaf. Aun-Juli Riddle is a pretty good blender; in particular her Doctor Who blends tend to be pretty good and well thought out.
This is essentially a Chai, though an unconventional one, so I wasn’t the most excited about this blend because I’m not a Chai fan myself, but it came out pretty tasty! The clove is easily the strongest flavour here, and since that’s the one ‘conventional’ Chai spice that I personally feel you can never have too much of that works very well in my favor.
The rest of the flavour is pretty nice too; there’s an even dispersal of ginger, cardamom and cinnamon with just the faintest little touch of smoke from the Lapsang. It’s not enough smoke for people who are fearful of Lapsang to be worried about, though. The candy cane isn’t as strong as I expected given how much I could see in the leaf and the fact that this is inspired by Ned Stark which obviously ties into the whole “Winter Is Coming”/Ice thing. It is present, but subtly so and it’s more acting as a sweetener than really contributing any strong mint flavour. The finish is a little bit peppery, with maybe a touch too much cardamom.
Overall I think this is better than most Adagio fan blends though; they tend to get pretty muddled because blenders pick out ingredients that are either too similar so there’s no contrast or playing off one another or they pick ingredients that fit the ‘character’ but clash with one another/don’t compliment each flavour. This kind of avoids that for the most part, while still being fairly thoughtful.
I definitely wanted more “ice” – but maybe it’s poetic irony that the “fire” was the most dominant thing…