Whenever a tea company offers a sample pack, it’s a great chance to try out teas that you aren’t sure you’ll like. Recently I tried a sample pack of several different teas from Swallowtail Tea company and White Peony tea was a lovely new find.
I’m not always in the mood for white teas. They have a unique smooth, earthiness that is different than pu erh, black, or green teas. In the right blend, this is a winning flavor, in the wrong blend it ends up tasting strange. White Peony from Swallowtail tea was absolutely a winning white tea.
This tea is lightly flavored, mainly allowing the white tea itself to fill out the flavor profile. The tea brews up deep and golden with the buttery and earthy tones I expect from white tea. The floral peony is gentle but present, not at all like perfume, but instead much more natural like crushed dried flowers, or getting a whiff of blooming flowers from a garden as you walk past.
White Peony is a great spring and summertime tea. It is refreshing without being too vegetal or too sweet, and bright and floral without giving you hayfever. A perfect balance of butter and blossoms, suitable for a hot or iced mug on a sunny day.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Swallowtail Tea
Description:
This least processed of all our teas has a shimmering golden liquor with a delicate floral fragrance.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Layla Teapot and Jasmine Flowering Tea from Primula
I was lucky to receive a Primula Layla Teapot and flowering tea set from a friend The Primula teapot features all-glass construction, even the brewing basket is clear. It has an impressive capacity, making it perfect for sharing a blooming tea session with a few friends.
The flowering tea set came with blooming tea balls, which make good use of the transparent, glass-bodied teapot. I’m not sure which flavor of blooming tea was included, as it lacked a label, but I suspect it is their house blend jasmine bloom.
This is the first blooming tea I’ve actually conducted myself. Previously I’ve always been viewing at someone else’s tea party. Now that I have a teapot so suited for blooming teas, I’ll have to try this type of tea more often.
On an afternoon where I needed some zen, I brewed up a pot of hot water and dropped in the tea ball. As the water soaked into the leaves, they slowly peeled back, like a hand opening its fingers. The process did take a few minutes and I found myself impatient at first. As I relaxed, I found I was surprised how much the bloom was changing in each moment, until we finally reached the unfurling of the pink, center blossoms.
I poured a small cup of the tea to sip on while the bloom continued to relax its leaves. The tea brewed up a golden color, clear and bright, making the blossom look sunlit from every angle. The tea tasted mainly of jasmine, but had a surprisingly earthy undertone almost like the sweet-floral notes of cacao or dark chocolate. I like jasmine pearls, but it was nice to have a deeper flavor balance to the light, flowery notes.
I sipped on the tea all afternoon and watched the leaves continue to soak until they were saturated with tea. It was a lovely experience and the Primula flowering tea set would make a great gift. I can’t wait to brew more tea in this lovely teapot!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green tea/TeaPot
Where to Buy: Primula
Description:
Create an unforgettable and extraordinary tea experience with this crystal clear glass teapot and accompanying flowering tea blossoms. The Layla glass teapot and tea set offers a generous 36 oz capacity. Serve up to 9 cups of tea in this stunning clear glass tea set, which offers the perfect window from which to watch the included tea flowers begin to bloom in colorful profusion as they steep. After tea, cleanup is easy because this BPA free borosilicate glass teapot is both microwave and dishwasher safe.
Each tea flower has been exceptionally crafted by artisans in China to create the hand-sewn green tea with all natural tea flowers. The green tea is blended five times with jasmine to emanate an ambrosial floral fragrance. Each package contains 12 different flowering teas along with an illustrated picture and health benefit guide. Choose a pot of Floral Passion, Noble Madam, Oriental Beauty or Camellia Joy. Or watch your cup erupt with Wild Flowers, Gilded Lotus, Lover’s Blossom or Juliet’s Kiss. Other popular flavors like London Fog, Butterfly Floret, Fairy Lily and Summer Bouquet complete your choices in the taste sensation. Try all twelve green tea blends and be amazed at how each bud delivers a delectable cup of tea and an optical sensation. Each tea blend is packed with healthy anti-oxidants and can be steeped three times giving you over 250 cups in each canister. These tea flowers make an excellent gift for special occasions and are something any tea lover would enjoy.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Just Elderflower from Plum Deluxe
The elderflower flowers look like micro chamomile blossoms, yellow and spherical. Though the elderflowers are so tiny, it almost like a bag of pollen. The small blossoms are a golden color and very fine in texture. When brewing this tea, be sure to use your infuser with the finest mesh or smallest holes.
Brewed, this tea is surprisingly earthy and savory, and not very floral. The tea has a woodsy fragrance like crushed dried flowers or cut hay. Some of the flavor notes remind me of the brighter pu erh teas I’ve tried, so if you aren’t a floral tea fan, this blend might just be your favorite exception.
The taste of the brew continues to support the earthy, dried grass tones, but coupled with a new, buttery flavor. The taste is a bit more vegetal than the scent, with a crisp, celery note. As the brew cools, and the more I drink, the more I detect a sweeter, brown sugar undertone. Plum Deluxe recommends the brew with a bit of sweetener, which helps bring forward the toasted sugar or brown butter flavors even further.
Just Elderflower is a unique blend in appearance and taste, making for a thoughtful and flavorful one-ingredient brewing experience.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Description:
Just Elderflower is part of our “just” line of thoughtfully-source, single ingredient herbal teas. Elderflower is a curious, floral, and fragrant tea ingredient. Despite its delicate nature, it steeps up for a wonderful, calming, curing beverage.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Cup of Love from Big Heart Tea. . . . .
This tea has two ingredients, rose petals and tulsi, also known as holy basil. On paper, this seems too sparse. I mean I like tulsi quite a bit but I’ll be the first to stay that it shines when balanced with other herbs and flavors. Looking at the leaves in the bag, I’m slightly more encouraged. The rose petals are vibrant and numerous, and the tulsi is lush and green. Lots of big leaves, no crushed tea powder here.
Brewed, there is a lovely cinnamon-like flavor in the smell and taste. Since there is no cinnamon in the blend, I must attribute this surprising spiciness to the tulsi. Beyond this first warm cinnamon burst, there is the familiar earthiness and sweet-herbal basil flavor of the tulsi. The rose petals are gentle, just a hint of something lighter and more romantic, which keeps the earthy tulsi from being too sour or herbaceous.
As someone who is skeptical of rose teas, I will say this one does it right: not at all perfume-like, but plenty sweet and floral.
I’m impressed by the full flavor of a this two-ingredient tea. Robust and drinkable, and a caffeine-free herbal blend to boot.
It is also a very beautiful-looking dry leaf, and with all the bright pink rose petals, which may make it a great gift for a tea-loving friend who can show off its colors in their tea cabinet.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Big Heart Tea
Description:
Cup of Love is a mild, nurturing, naturally sweet rose tea. Crafted by hand to reduce stress and soothe your soul. A floral olfactory release, just like a hug from your grandma.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Honeybush Malaika Tisane from Nothing But Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Nothing But Tea
Tea Description:
Honeybush is gaining a lot of attention at the moment for its benefits. This blend sees honeybush blended with strawberrys, kiwi, elderberry, passionfruit and rosehip for a new take on the fruit infusion.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Hello fellow tea lovers.
Today I’m reviewing this Honeybush Malaika which I have to admit that I have not had a lot of Honeybush tea compared to the likes of Rooibos. So if you’ve heard of it but don’t really know what it is or much information about it then hopefully this will help.
Some brief information on Honeybush: The name of this plant is Cyclopia but it is better known as Honeybush purely because it’s flowers smell sweet like honey. While Cyclopia is one plant it has many different cultivars, all of which originate across South Africa. Technically speaking Honeybush is not a tea but a tisane and considering this; is also low in tannin. Similar to Rooibos in flavour but Honeybush is considered to be sweeter and with a fuller body, though similarly it is also caffeine free.
Comparing it to Rooibos is interesting as I don’t usually like Rooibos but the few Honeybush I’ve had I loved. Rooibos has a chemical flavour (at least in my opinion) and that tends to overpower any flavours added to it. Honeybush does not have that issue and while it is perhaps a little sweeter I find it does not dominate additional flavours but rather enhances them.
Back to this tea in hand. I received a sample pack of 10g from NBT a while ago as an exclusive pre-release taster before it was launched on the site. Now it’s up for sale I decided the best thing for me to do was ice it to try and get the most flavour from it. So for two days I have had 10g of this blend steeping in my fridge using 1litre of water. Coldsteeping is much softer and keeps delicate tones, it’s my preferred method of icing tea/tisanes.
I haven’t mentioned much about the look or scent of the blend but honestly there was not much to it. The blend looked floral and multi coloured which bared a subtly sweet yet herbal scent. The fruit was too delicate for me to really say much about it and I decided to let it’s flavour speak instead. So I waited for the outcome with enough time to thicken with flavour.
Today is the morning I try this and the resulting liquid is a light brown/orange colour with a delicious sweet, fruit scent. Particularly like apple and strawberry with honey. A real contrast to it’s unsteeped scent. It’s flavour is just as wonderful! Sweet honeyed fruits with a touch of floral after tones that leave my mouth feeling sweet and refreshed. The fruit tones are mixed but notable berry with a touch of sourness with an exotic fruit affair behind them.
Honestly this tisane gave me a lot more pleasure than I thought it would and I’m happy to say this Honeybush blend is a winner. I don’t think I would have liked this if it was a Rooibos base and the Honeybush really does make this blend stand out.
Until next time,
Happy Steeping!
