Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Tea Description:
Sourced direct from Greenland Organic Farm, who are very much at the forefront of a burgeoning Nepali tea industry dedicated to producing high quality artisanal teas. Greenland Organic Farm are completely pesticide and chemical free farm dedicated to producing tea in an ethical and fair manner.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I placed my last What-Cha order, Alistair thoughtfully hand picked out this as an extra sample for me to try. It’s definitely a very interesting looking oolong, visually it reminds me of another very lightly oxidized oolong from Camellia Sinensis I tried not all that long ago; the same kind of pale silver/green tea leaves with a fine fuzz and down on them. They both remind me strongly of moonlight! But I don’t have expectations this will taste all that similar given this is from Nepal, and the other tea I’m reminded of aesthetically was from Darjeeling.
Every review I’ve read of this so far has been for some variation of hot tea; some of those really thorough reviews can be found on Steepster. I like to do my own thing though, and try teas in a way that’s a little different than the obvious approach, and often that leads to my cold brewing or icing tea; and that’s exactly what I did with this tea!
I found the cold brew was so interesting, with a very diverse range of flavours! The immediate and obvious ones to me were floral notes, sweet hay/grass notes, and a fruity flavour that reminded me a little of white grapes/white wine! It had that very slight sourness/acidity that wine has, but softened and contrasted by those other dominant flavours. Once I scratched the surface with the more obvious flavour notes I also noticed notes of citrus, almost a grapefruit-like flavour but also a touch lemony which probably contributed to that little bit of sourness and acidity I initially attributed to the winey/grapey notes.
Also interesting and different, I tasted a note that reminded me strikingly of the green ‘peel’ part of a cucumber? Just in that it was vegetal, crisp, refreshing and juicy in that cucumber sort of way – but with that very slight bitterness that comes with cucumber peel over cucumber ‘pulp’. In this case that bitterness is just present enough that it becomes a very pleasant quality. The overall feel of the tea is this fruity, fresh ‘Spring time’ kind of drink that reminds me of April showers, and helping me Grandma in her flower garden when I was a little kid. The presence of both sweeter fruit notes and more green/vegetal ones creates a very refreshing flavor.
So overall, this actually did end up tasting a little similar to that Camellia Sinensis Darjeeling! Not exactly the same, sure, but comparable anyway. I wonder why that’s so; possibly the terroir shared between both growing regions? Or possibly the way the leaf itself was processed. Either way I find that kind of fascinating and it’s something I’d be interested in learning more about.
San-Te-Ria from Lemon City Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lemon City Tea
Tea Description:
You forgot to make an offering to your orishas today? No wonder you’re feeling so tired. Have a cup of San-té-ria. This blend of premium black tea will get you so awake, it’ll seem like divine intervention..
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is sipdown #13 on my epic journey to sipping down my tea stash before I can buy more.
What a great tea too! This tea is very well done and is giving me the pep in my step for the rest of the afternoon. This tea can be bought as a loose leaf tea or tea bags. I had the tea bag variety which is lovely for when I’m at work. Boil some water and plop in the tea bag. A few minutes later, TADA! Lovely tea.
This particular tea is a blend of different black teas. From what I’m seeing on the back of the package this is Premium Whole Leaf Nilgiri Tea-Hand-Blended with Yunnan Golden Buds. Well, whatever it is blended with, it is good!
San-te-ria hits all the right notes that I like in my black teas. Not overly malty with a hint of dryness, but by no means overwhelming. A smooth sipping tea. This one definitely has those trademarks and more. I’m really liking it and before I knew it, the cuppa is gone. (Insert sad face here).
I can tell this tea would be amazing iced. I think I’ll try that with the next infusion. And if you wanted this to be more flavored like, I bet throwing in a vanilla bean would be amazing. This tea has that flavor profile of slightly woodsy. Just thinking of adding vanilla beans makes me crave cuppa.
This tea does its job. It has such a nice cleansing taste to it after drinking a few flavored teas. Gives my taste buds a nice break.
Strawberry Genmaicha Green from ESP Emporium
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: ESP Emporium
Tea Description:
Here, we have two green teas, which were combined to an exceptional premium tea blend. The characteristic of Japanese Genmaicha is supported wonderfully by our smooth green tea. This creation is perfected by the added strawberry pieces and a finely balanced flavor composition.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Since I’ve tried a few ‘unconventional’ Genmaicha blends lately I wanted to do something different with this one, which is why I cold brewed it. I’m not even sure if I’ve ever done that before with a Genmaicha blend; I can’t easily bring an example to mind.
I have to admit it was a little weird tasting a cold brewed Genmaicha; the green tea wasn’t anything exceptional nor was it disappointing but the strong, drawn out notes of roasted brown rice – which took on a near barley taste, were more intense than I would expect from Genmaicha. More like a good mugicha than anything else, to be honest.
The strawberry certainly is not the most vibrant strawberry flavour though. I wouldn’t even call it all that realistic to be honest; what it does taste like it strawberry candy. Some kind of cross between those fluffy strawberry marshmallow five cent candies you see in gas stations and a really nice strawberry gummy candy? I like the taste itself, but the pairing with the green tea/roasted notes doesn’t work for me.
So overall; I’d say there were definitely high and low points to this tea and if I revisit it I’ll definitely be trying an alternative prep method (perhaps something more traditional) than revisiting this one. It’s not worth a second taste.
Happiness Rooibos/Green Blend from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Green Rooibos
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Tea Description:
Rose petals, marigold and small mallow decorate this green tea and green rooibos blend scented with energizing grapefruit and luscious white peach. One sip and you will find happiness.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
In Canada Lupicia teas are fairly hard to get a hold of without swapping with someone else, which is what I did in order to try this sample. I’ve only tried a handful of their teas, but generally speaking I’ve enjoyed most if not all of them. That said, I’ve read almost entirely negative, or at least relatively critical reviews about this particular blend so know I have some expectation bias prior to trying this blend. With the sample I have, I decided I’d cold brew this tea because I thought it would work well for the fruity aspects but also the dual bases used.
My first thought upon trying this was that it tastes very familiar. I realize I drink a lot of tea, and so it’s no uncommon for new teas to bear a resemblance to ones I’ve tried before but I’m talking serious Deja Vu with this tea; I was convinced I’d had the experience of drinking this one before even though I know I haven’t.
As for the actual flavour of the blend I do have to say the peach element comes through the clearest to me: I made a recent discovery regarding peach, actually. I’ve always thought of peach as a flavor that I could go either way with but someone at work recently pointed out to me that I’m actually very consistent with some peachy things and that’s either “Peaches & Cream” or “White Peach”, both of which I regularly like. So I did a little bit of research (I asked one of our produce clerks the difference between white and yellow peaches; that counts, right?) and it turns out the main difference is the acidity – yellow peaches have a much more noticeable acidity that only levels out as they ripen while white peaches are more delicate and naturally sweet, ripe or not. They’re also a little more floral. Makes sense to me.
So in addition to the clear and enjoyable flavour of white peaches, I tasted a few other fruits – however one fruit I didn’t observe was grapefruit which is actually the flavour that’s supposed to be present. Instead I tasted a more mellow strawberry flavour which was a great compliment to the peach notes. Chef Darcy, at work, tried a little of the cold brew and said he tastes peach and green melons and while I didn’t taste that melon flavour myself I can see where he was coming from: there was a sort of “bubblegum” sweetness, and as I’ve observed from honeydew teas sometimes the flavor of of those two things can be similar. As for the bases, visually I know there was more green tea in my sample but the taste of the green rooibos was a lot stronger in my opinion. I really like the green rooibos that Lupicia uses though – it’s one of my favourite of any company’s.
Overall, this was a really great experience – not just for the flavour, but for the little journey of self discovery that it took me on.
Organic Mango/Pear Deluxe White from ESP Emporium
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: ESP Emporium
Tea Description:
The natural friendship of “East meets West” is portrayed when we look at the flavor composition mango and pear in this organic blend. Any possible early shyness as to whether this is really the perfect match was gone the minute these two fruits met on the delicate white peony tea. A must have organic creation!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mango isn’t always a flavour that appeals to me, but I’ve tried a few paired with a white base and they’ve all been pretty enjoyable. On top of that, I really like pear though honestly I’m unsure how the pairing will do. It’s not one I’ve seen done often, and I’m worried that the mango may mask the pear if it’s not over the top.
I made this one as a cold brew, and honestly I’m not loving it though I don’t hate it either. The white base is acting as a very good blank canvas for the flavour; you can hardly taste any contributions from it except for maybe some lighter honeysuckle notes. Whether that’s good or bad would I guess depend on your personal tastes. The main reason I’m not all over this is that it might as well just be a mango tea; I can’t taste the pear at all. The mango is nice though; it’s got a light ‘spritzer’ kind of vibe to it, and is tropical but almost in a citrusy tangerine sort of way. I’m enjoying what I’m tasting, it’s just totally not what I was hoping for.
That’s alright though; you can’t love every tea and somewhere out there someone’s looking for an organic mango tea on a white base and this is probably perfect for them.