Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Our Chocolate Mint tea is an after dinner mint in a tea. Why risk cavities? Drink tea!
Made with all natural flavorings.
Taster’s Review:
OH … yummy yum yum yum!
This Chocolate Mint Tea from Culinary Teas had me at chocolate. But, as I’ve said before, I am a chocoholic, so even when a tea says it’s a chocolate tea, I am skeptical until I’ve tasted it, because their idea of chocolate tea may not be equal to my idea of chocolate tea. I’m sure that fellow chocoholics understand where I’m coming from there.
But this has a pleasant level of chocolate to it. Granted it is not as strong as some chocolate teas I’ve tasted, but, it has a nice balance of chocolate and mint and tea. So while I would normally balk at the amount of chocolate here, I am not going to do that, because as it is, it is quite harmonious and palate pleasing.
The black tea base is strong and brisk without being too aggressive. It doesn’t attempt to overpower the flavors, but the flavor is not lacking either. The chocolate is a sweet chocolate which is beautifully complimented with the crisp, fresh taste of peppermint. What this tastes like to me is that someone dropped a peppermint patty in a cup of Black Ceylon.
This is absolutely delicious. It is sweet but not cloying. No additional sweeteners are needed with this one, making it the perfect dessert tea that can be enjoyed any time. This tea not only gets passing marks from the chocoholic in me, but the seal of approval from my sweet tooth.
Lapsang Souchong Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where To Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
A superior leaf Lapsang Souchong offering a smooth, crisp, and heady aroma of an oak wood fire. A popular and certainly unique black tea.
Taster’s Review:
I have never been fond of Lapsang Souchong. There was a time when I couldn’t even have it in my house because the smell repulsed me so. Since that time, I have come around and gained some appreciation for this tea. It will probably never become a favorite tea of mine, but, I have come to a point where I can sip on a cup every once in a while and actually enjoy it.
This is a strong Lapsang Souchong. The dry leaf is very dark, and there is a deep smokiness to the aroma. Some might liken it to a campfire scent, but, I can’t recall the fires at camp smelling like this. This smells like it’s been slowly smoked over oak.
That slow-smoked essence translates into the flavor. It has a very deep, smoky taste. I agree with the above description – it does have a certain crispness to the taste, as well as a smoothness that I didn’t expect. With such a smoky essence, I might have expected more of a rustic feel to it; however, this one is more of a sophisticated smoky taste with its smooth character.
Beneath the smoky notes, I taste subtle notes of oak and even the faintest hint of dark cocoa. It’s really quite nice. I can also detect a lovely caramel-like sweetness. The discovery of the caramel-y undertones in a Lapsang Souchong has been its saving grace for me, because I actually really like the combination of the smoke and the caramel.
This Lapsang Souchong from Culinary Teas is a top-notch Lapsang Souchong, with a beautiful complexity just below its smoky surface. I am glad that I have been able to come to gain some appreciation for Lapsang Souchong tea, otherwise I may have offered this one to someone else without giving it a taste – and I would have missed out on all this fabulous flavor.
My first cup of this tea I first tasted with no additions and decided it needed a little bit of turbinado sugar to help bring out those caramel undertones. For my second cup, I decided to try it as a latte, and it really is good. The milk subdues the smokiness and plays to the caramel sweetness – giving it a creaminess. It’s wonderful!
Long Island Strawberry Sencha Green Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
This sencha based tea is the best strawberry green we have ever tasted! Tart and sweet and as strong as a strawberry puree. Incredible iced and delicious hot.
Taster’s Review:
I can see why this is one of their best selling teas. It is yummy. The Sencha green tea base tastes sweet, fresh and slightly vegetative, but, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it grassy. It sets the tone for the delicious strawberry taste that reminds me of a fresh, juicy berry.
Nothing really says SUMMER to me like plump, ripe strawberries, and the strawberry flavor here is so authentic. It’s almost as good as eating a bowl of freshly picked strawberries. And while this tea is tasty served hot, it tastes best iced. So refreshing!
With this tea, I recommend using just a little more leaf than usual. If you usually add 1 teaspoon of tea per cup, try 1 1/2 teaspoons of this tea. I find that the flavors really come to life with just a little more leaf. It is still delicious with the usual 1 teaspoon, although I found the cup to be a little too light for my liking. By adding a bit more leaf, the flavor really improved.
This tea has its own sweet taste, so taste it before you sweeten. I found it to be perfect, without any sweetener. A really wonderful tea – hot or iced!
Blueberry Vanilla Cream Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Our blueberry Vanilla Cream tea has juicy blueberries with a dollop of vanilla cream. This is a guaranteed favorite.
Taster’s Review:
Freshly baked blueberry muffins – that was the image that came to mind the moment I tore into this pouch and took in the fragrance that filled the air. It is a strong berry aroma with hints of vanilla. It smells really delicious, and my mouth began watering.
When the tea is freshly brewed and still steaming hot, I found the taste to be a little harsh. The flavors were there, but the black tea just came off a little too intense. As the tea cooled to a drinkable temperature, though, the flavors began to come alive and I could taste the blueberry and vanilla cream. YUM!
The black tea base is the strongest flavor and as a tea lover, I think that’s just how it should be. It has a bracing flavor to it and a fair amount of astringency, but I notice that the astringency isn’t overly drying. It cleanses the palate, though, allowing the drinker to enjoy a sweet aftertaste of berries and cream.
The blueberry and vanilla cream combination is delicious and sweet with a slight berry tartness that is softened with the vanilla notes. At the start of the cup, the overall flavor reminds me of a blueberry muffin, and the black tea contributes a slight bake-y kind of taste to enhance that experience. But as I near the bottom of the cup, I found that the blueberry and cream flavors developed and it tastes a bit more like vanilla ice cream that’s been topped with hot blueberry sauce. Both tastes are very delicious, indeed.
As an iced tea, the blueberry and vanilla cream seem to meld (quite harmoniously, I might add) with the taste of the black tea flavor and create a very seamless taste that is a little berry, a little creamy, and a little brisk black tea. The flavors are less defined, although I’m finding this united flavor to be extremely refreshing and delicious. So good, in fact, I’m finding it difficult to put the glass down long enough to type! I guess that’s a sign telling me it’s time to stop writing about this tea and start drinking it.
Cheers!
Cold Brew Mint Green Tea from Culinary Teas
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Two all natural mints, peppermint and spearmint were cut and blended with our Sencha tea leaves. The mint has a relaxing and calming effect and is a great thirst quencher.
These large 5 gram teabags contain specially steamed and fired Sencha leaves which have been blended with a hint of Matcha. Specially processed to brew in cold water, just add a bag to a 20 oz bottle of water shake and you’re ready to go!
Taster’s Review:
I must admit that I’ve been skeptical about cold brewing. I guess I just always thought that you had to brew tea in hot water for it to taste good… but then, that doesn’t explain sun tea tasting so good. And let’s be honest, sun tea is essentially a cold brewing method because the water never gets hot enough for a hot steeping process, and if it did, the tea would become bitter from overbrewing.
There has been some controversy about whether or not sun tea is actually good for you, as it promotes bacterial growth. I don’t know how much it will hurt you, but it would seem that cold brewing in the refrigerator is the perfect solution if that bacterial growth concerns you. 
And Culinary Teas makes cold brewing so easy with their new Cold Brew Green Tea Collection. I did not do as suggested, and pop one of these pyramid bags into a 20 ounce bottle of water. Instead, I added four of the bags to my half gallon pitcher and filled it with cool, freshly filtered water, snapped on the lid and stuck it in the refrigerator overnight. I knew it was finished the next morning when my husband took one glance in the fridge and said it looked like a science experiment (really, it didn’t – he likes to tease me about my tea obsession).
The result of my “experiment”? This tea is fantastic! The peppermint and spearmint flavors are strong. The Sencha has a sweet, buttery note to it that I find very intriguing and the combination of minty and buttery keeps me sipping on this tea. It tastes really good. Sweet, slightly creamy, and somewhat savory too. I can also taste a distinct Matcha flavor to this too, it isn’t a strong presence, but it is just enough to give this a very pleasing dimension.
I love it when sweet refreshment like this is so easy to attain – and this Cold Brew from Culinary Teas is the key to the simplicity. So good!