Spring and summer are my favorite time for drinking floral teas, complementing the flowers blooming outside of my teacup. So this seemed like the perfect time to try a cup of Rose City Rooibos from Beach House Teas.
This is the first tea I’ve tried from Beach House Teas so I took a look at their website. Family-run business in the Pacific Northwest with a focus on organic and wild ingredients, producing hand-blended teas. They also have an Etsy shop, if that’s more your style. They even offer herb-infused sugar for cooking, and herb infused salts and bath bombs for the bath.
Let’s get back to the tea at hand, Rose City Rooibos. Like many tea blends on Beach House Teas, this blend looks great in the dry leaf with beautiful curled rose blossoms in pink and cream, and the rich russet tones of the red rooibos.
Brewed, this tea is smooth and simple, with the nutty, caramel tones of the red rooibos with gentle floral overtones. The ingredients list says there is peppermint in this blend as well, but the mint gets lost under all the rooibos taste and rose scent. I wouldn’t mind more peppermint in the next batch to help add more dimension to the flavor set of this blend. I usually favor teas with a bit more punch to their flavors, so I might not brew this one again. Overall this was very simple and comforting.
This tea’s description calls this a “liquid spa” and I won’t deny that the floral notes are relaxing, and the rose petals are captivating to look at. A good tea for when you need some relaxing aromatherapy.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Beach House Teas
Description:
Rose City Rooibos is 100% organic loose leaf tea blended with red rooibos tea, rose petals, peppermint, and pure extract. This floral elixir is all about beauty and what better way to surround yourself in beauty than rose petals and rooibos that’s like a liquid spa?
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Jasmine Dragon Pearls from Enjoying Tea
In the early days of my loose leaf tea drinking, I first encountered jasmine green tea pearls. I was working evening shifts at the college library and we had a small, varied supply of tea, mainly our favorite tea bags. But one night, one of my coworkers had brought in loose leaf teas they were looking to share. I was fascinated by these little green pellets in one of the tea canisters and dropped a few in mug even though we didn’t have tea bags or filters. I watched the balls of tea unfurl and fill my mug with flavor. Turns out they were jasmine green tea pearls, and I’ve had a nostalgic affinity for this kind of tea ever since.
The Jasmine Dragon Pearls from Enjoying Tea are beautiful little tea oddities. Tightly rolled pellets of tea, twined with both grey fuzzy buds, and olive green leaves. Brew them gently, despite their tight shape, these leaves are still green tea at heart, keep the temperature of your water a little cooler than normal.
The dry leaf was already heady and fragrant with jasmine blossoms. Brewed, the flowery notes continued to be pronounced, full and luscious like a bouquet of flowers in your hand. Beneath all that flower-power, the tea has a buttery base, with slightly earthy and savory undertones. The less sweet notes paired well against the powerful jasmine. The overtones of each sip carry the floral flavors, so sweet they are almost fruity.
Jasmine Dragon Pearls from Enjoying Tea lived up to my fond first memories of trying jasmine pearls from many years ago. Give this tea a try and make your own jasmine-scented memories!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Enjoying Tea
Description:
This green tea has a unique shape of a pearl and comes from the Chinese province of Fujian. These hand rolled pearls consisted of both leaves and bud. This tea has a sweet flavor with a flowery jasmine aroma. Researchers in Japan found that people who drink green regularly have a lower chance of getting cancer or developing heart diseases. Dragon Pearl is a great tasting healthy tea to drink regularly. We highly recommend it.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Travel the World with #SirStuartBlackAndGreen from #Kent&Sussex Tea Co.
Sometimes I try out unflavored teas with one kind of leaf, and a flavor that all about the purity of the process. And sometimes I try out teas that are exactly the opposite– just like today’s blend, Sir Stuart Black and Green.
This tea has both black and green tea leaves, three types of flower petals, and rich spices like cardamom, fennel and ginger. Visually, this blend is full of diverse colors and shapes, and the smell of the dry leaf is luscious and complex. It smells like someone lit floral incense in a kitchen, where other smells like fennel or orange peel are being mixed together as someone starts cooking.
The flowers are most prominent in the scent of the tea, with bergamot and sweet orange dominating the taste. The flavors of the tea leaves themselves are minimal: no grassy greens and no bitter blacks. Instead, the varied ingredients list really dominates the flavor spotlight.
As I drank the tea, more of the unexpected herbs like fennel or cardamom popped up in the taste and smell, though the ginger was slow in arriving. I finally got some of my favorite buzzy, spicy mouthful from the ginger after I let the teabag steep beyond the recommending steep time. Overall the blend is sweet without being cloying, and the bright citrus lingers on the tongue without being to tart.
According to Tea & Coffee, this blend is named after the well-travel Sir Stuart Cleary of Cranbrookshire. With all the varied treasures and eye-catching beauties hidden within this tea blend, it feels like a bounty gathered from exploring the reaches of the world.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black/Green
Where to Buy: Kent & Sussex Tea Co.
Description:
Sir Stuart a fine Black Tea and Green Tea. A flavoured Tea with hints of Bergamot and Orange. Named after the explorer Sir Stuart Cleary of Cranbrookshire following a trip to the Orient. A beautiful looking loose leaf tea with magical flavours when brewed. A Fruity aroma combined with Spicy Ginger and Fennel create something special and fresh tasting. Ingredients Black Tea, Green Tea, Ginger pieces, Fennel, Cardamom seeds, Natural flavouring, Rose petals and Cornflower blossoms.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Jasmint from Chash Tea . . . . .
When the weather gets warmer, I feel a resurgence of my love for all things minty and cool. Iced mint tea on a hot day helps me cool down and refresh like nothing else. After getting a taste of Jasmint from Chash Tea, I’ll have to add this blend to the rotation.
This tea came to me in well-designed little package, and when I looked it up online, the Chash website is equally enticing. The stylish package makes me feel extra classy when I brew up my tea.
The dry leaf of this tea is everything you want in a minty tea, fragrant and cool and crisp, as popping and fresh as mint right from the herb garden. When brewed, this tea shows off its other ingredients, with a dominant bloom of jasmine, and a nutty, barky undertone from the tea leaves. The spearmint is at the back of each sip: minty and slightly creamy, with a touch of vanilla. I always find that peppermint is a little too harsh on its own, and it needs the softer creaminess of spearmint to help balance it out. The sweet-mint taste of spearmint in this blend is no exception.
My go-to summer mint tea has always been some variety of Moroccan Mint with peppermint and black or Darjeeling tea blended together. Jasmint is a lovely departure from this usual mix. The flowery jasmine and creamy mint are a great combination of both floral and cool. This tea feels like the ideal summer night, with open windows blowing in cool air with the fragrance of garden blossoms.
Stay cool and classy this summer with a cup of Jasmint from Chash Tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Chash Tea
Description:
When blending we occasionally find one so obvious we can’t quite believe we didn’t think to blend it earlier! One afternoon it occurred to the team that Jasmine might support Spearmint and Peppermint. Counter-intuitive? Very much s0! The rest is history!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Give in to Temptation with a Picture of Earl Grey from NovelTeas
If you’re easily distracted by cute packaging, be warned that blends from NovelTeas can come shipped in beautiful, book-shaped, metal tins. At first glance, these tins can sit amongst your real books, undetected until someone realizes the titles are full of tea-related puns. Today, I’m tasting Picture of Earl Grey, also called Wilde’s Rosy Tea Blend on the Novel Teas site.
This blend is like a garden in a cup with lush rose petals and jasmine-green tea. All those flowers are a perfect match for the showy, vanity of this novel. Like Dorian, your tea will have eternal beauty since the dried flowers last much longer than fresh ones. Mind your steep times with this brew or else the roses might get a bit overpowering. Among the rose and jasmine there is just enough tart, earl grey to give the tea a backbone and remind you of the staunch and proper Victorian Era.
Any of NovelTeas blends would be a great addition to a book club, adding themed scents and tastes to the literary discussion. Picture of Earl Grey is a great blend for a garden party, or when you want your kitchen to be as fragrant as a spring garden in bloom. Just a sip of this lush and verdant blend across your tongue and you’ll feel as poetic and witty as Oscar Wilde himself.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Blend of Black and Green
Where to Buy: NovelTeas
Description:
The delicate flavorings and novel-inspired decorations of The Picture of Earl Grey™ may deceive you at first. This tin and tea provide for an exquisitely deceptive and Wildely elegant experience for any new collector. Organic jasmine green tea and a rose-blended bergamot radiate hedonism and reflect your eternal beauty as you sip.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!