Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: BeauTea Studio
Tea Description:
Chamomile Rose Tea ~ Always Organic ~ Herbal Goodness…Organic Whole Chamomile Flowers hand blended with Organic French Rose Petals to create a fragrant and ultra calming tea. Delicious with just a bit of honey.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Today was one of those days where I needed a bit of a relaxing tea. Catching up from being off on vacation for a week and some change wasn’t too bad, but I still had a few stressful moments here and there.
I was looking thru my tea stash and stumbled upon this delightful little tea. A simple Chamomile Rose Tea. Sometimes I feel like some teas have too many inclusions and sometimes you want something simple. This fit the bill perfectly. Chamomile and Rose Petals. The dry leaf had that old familiar loving smell of relaxing chamomile and the rose petals added a hint of floral aroma.
I decided I wanted to cold brew this beauty instead of enjoying it as a hot brew. I threw the sample into my cold brew bottle that was filled with cold water and let it steep on my desk while I continued to plug along.
A few hours later, I took my first sip. On yeah. . .that was exactly what I needed. The sweetness of the rose and the mix of the chamomile baked flavor just hit my taste buds right. I’m sure this tea is nice when brewed hot, but brewed cold I feel like the flavors come out even more. The rose petals really sang and the chamomile was fresh and bright. You couldn’t ask more for this herbal.
Simple and done right.
Green Mint from Chi Whole Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Chi Whole Leaf
Tea Description:
A cleansing blend of Chinese Green Tea, Mint Leaves, Indian Eucalyptus and Milk Thistle Seed from Bulgaria.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Thanks again to Will at Chi Whole Leaf for the samples!
I’ve decided I’m going to review 3/5 here on the blog, though all five will be reviewed on my Steepster account. If you’re interested in learning about the 2/5 I’m not reviewing on this blog here they are: Ginger Chai & Chamomile. I had a few biases going into those tastings, which is why I’m leaving them out on this blog.
This was one of the samples I was pretty stoked about; I really like eucalyptus (if I could be reborn as an animal it’d probably be either a Sloth or a Koala) and the pairing of eucalyptus, mint, and green tea makes me think of a day of being pampered at a Spa or hot spring; cool, refreshing and very stress relieving.
Normally I think this is a blend I’d have opted to try cold, but since I’ve made the other three blends I’ve tried hot I did the same with this one just to have some consistency. I thought dry this smelled pretty minty, but as I was tasting it the green tea base was actually the strongest flavour with both the eucalyptus and the mint providing a refreshing, cooling aftertaste. It was very pleasant and did have a calming “Spa” sort of affect. However I personally didn’t feel totally satisfied with the flavour either; I liked the level of grassy, vegetal green tea notes but I really craved a stronger more “menthol” feeling mint notes, and a touch more eucalpytus. I think both were a little light handed for what they could have been.
That said; I enjoyed the blend and I did feel like my hope of a refreshing hot spring-esque tea was met. And again, I can’t stress enough how much I really like the convenience of these powdered teas; it’s a huge part of why I’m so drawn to matcha as well. But unlike the flavoured matchas I enjoy, these ones a more nuanced and layered instead of fairly monotone flavours!
If nothing else, I’m a big fan of the concept.
Lemon Elation Yerba Mate from Guayaki
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Guayaki
Tea Description:
Lemon Elation has a brisk lemony mate flavor. It’s easy drinking and clean tasting, and not too sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Well, this is the third and final canned Guayaki Yerba Mate drink I picked up.
I was excited about this one; one of my favourite mate blends is a citrus based one so out of the three flavours I thought that this was the one that would be my favourite. Obviously I should have read the ingredients though; had I I’m sure I would have had much different preconceptions. Instead I got to taste the ingredients first – and it was definitely a shock.
Apparently this uses roasted mate and, of all things, ginger. Now, ginger and lemon is a pretty common pairing so I know I’m in the minority for disliking it – ultimately that boils down to my own personal distaste for anything with a strong ginger flavour. And man was it strong; arguably stronger than the lemon for which the drink was named after! As well, I don’t like the pairing of roasted mate with lemon; for me a green pairing with a brighter grassier earth tone is more preferable. The lemon also tasted kind of like furniture cleaner to me – I was very turned off.
That said, I shared the portion of the can which I could not finish with a friend who, while never having tried yerba mate before, absolutely loves lemon and ginger and she really enjoyed the whole thing; which again goes to point out that it’s not that this is a bad tea it’s just that it’s composed of ingredients that I personally do not really like at all.
As a whole (out of the three flavors I purchased), I think that Revel Berry was my favourite and the one that would most widely appeal to people. I’m happy I took the time to explore these tisanes though, and I hope that if these become more widely available that will lead to a more mainstream knowledge of yerba mate. Because let’s face it, as a ‘hardcore’ tea nerd there’s never enough people to talk tea with.
Almond Matcha from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
The well recognized and much loved taste of sweet almonds can be heightened and made vibrantly unique by adding the exotic Matcha blend. Almond Matcha makes a slightly sweet treat that can be perfect for those looking for a combination of the nutty flavor combined with an interesting twist of oriental Matcha. Almond Matcha is perfect for many desserts, cakes and any other snack because of its naturally sweet taste that blends well with most snacks. This makes it a very popular treat for young kids anytime of the day or night.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The final flavour from Red Leaf Tea’s sampler! Like the penultimate flavour (Cotton Candy), this is one I’ve tried before – however it’s been over a year since I first had it. Just like Cotton Candy matcha, I also prepared this one in cold milk but for the purposes of this tasting I’ll be doing it in cold cashew milk to stay consistent with the rest of the teas in the sampler.
Here are some snippets from my Steepster review to see if my old observations are in line with the observations from this tasting:
“…really strong … very rich and marzipan like“, “I found that there was a faint chemical edge to the aftertaste“, and “almost too much almond concentrated into … one cup“.
Remarkably, I made almost the same observations this time as well. Even before opening up the sample packet and measuring out the matcha I was sure I could faintly smell the almond aroma – and once that packet was cracked I couldn’t smell anything but. This matcha is very strongly flavoured; I didn’t taste any vegetal or grassy notes from the matcha itself and for, I think, the first time since starting this sampler the flavour of the matcha completely eclipsed the taste of the cashew milk.
The one part where my observation from last time differs is that I didn’t think it tasted chemical or artificial at all; just really, really strong. Of course, like often comes with concentrated almond flavour, I did think this was quite sweet with definite marzipan notes – but apart from that I think this is just a very true, accurate and BOLD flavour. Fans of almond will love it, and people who dislike almond to start will cringe because of the intensity.
Personally, if I didn’t already own a large quantity of Pistachio matcha I’d probably add this to my list of flavors to buy in my next order – but you really only need to own so many nutty matchas at a time.
Final rankings of the five flavors of matcha from the sampler:
1. Almond
2. Butterscotch
3. Coffee
4. Cranberry
5. Cotton Candy
Getting Lei’d Green Tea by Luhse Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Luhse Tea
Tea Description:
STORY:
Tommy Gunns and Lulu’s first island trip was unforgettable. After too many cocktails and too little sun screen, ego shattering surf lessons, and a severe lei allergic reaction, the sparks were still flying. Life doesn’t always go as planned. The couple’s advice is to take the road less travelled, laugh in the face of adversity, and drink tea.
TEA DESCRIPTION:
A party on the palate, pineapple, mango, and papaya make the perfect threesome.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I ordered a bunch of samples from Luhse a while back, because I’d long been curious about the company and their tea. Their branding is fairly unique – I like the 20s, prohibition theme, and the use of characters to give their teas a backstory. It’s definitely different! The samples contain enough tea for 2-3 cups, depending on leaf type, and are packaged in square foli-lined pouches with a brown, Kraft paper exterior. They’re not resealable, but as they’re so tiny that’s not really a problem.
Getting Lei’d is a green blend with pineapple flavouring. I love pineapple, so I pretty much had to give this one a try. The tea leaves are a fairly uniform dark green, folded and flat, but fairly small. I’d say Sencha, as an educated guess. There are blue cornflower and red safflower petals scattered throughout, which gives this blend a really pretty appearance, and one or two chunks of freeze-dried pineapple. The scent is beautifully tropical, with strong notes of pineapple. I have high hopes for this one!
As per the recommended parameters, I used 1 tsp of leaf and gave it 2 minutes in water cooled to around 175 degrees. The resulting liquor is a medium yellow-green, and the scent is faintly tropical. Unfortunately, faint is probably the operative word as far as this tea is concerned. The pineapple flavouring is just about discernible, but sadly nowhere near as strong as I’d like. Saying that, I can taste it throughout the sip, and it’s obvious what it is, so they’re both points in its favour. I can also taste the green tea base, which is a touch floral and a touch grassy – it suits the image of the Lei in that respect! There’s no bitterness or astringency here, which are also favourable points. I’m just left feeling that I’d like a lot more punchiness, and I’m a little underwhelmed by this one as a whole. This is a pleasant tea, and while I wouldn’t turn down the occasional cup, it’s not one I’d look to repurchase in quantity.
