Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Twinings of London
Tea Description:
Select black tea from Assam expertly blended with sweet and savoury spices including cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and ginger to deliver a flavourful tea with a warm, soothing aroma and a fresh, spicy taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After trying two other rather lackluster teas from Twinings of London recently, I wasn’t sure what possessed me to actually try another today. But I tried to keep a positive outlook and without having too high of expectations, I brewed this cup of Organic Chai from Twinings of London.
My initial thoughts: this is better than both the two previous recent tastings of this company’s teas. I can taste the robust Assam tea beneath the bold spices. I like that all the flavors that I expected to taste are represented.
About now is where I might say something like “the flavor of the spices are well-balanced,” but I can’t really say that because they aren’t well balanced. I taste more clove than any other spice. I taste a hearty cinnamon flavor and in contrast, there is very little ginger flavor. The cardamom is tasted, but, it’s not as strong as the clove and cinnamon.
But! I do like the Assam here. It’s a rich and flavorful tea. It’s almost creamy because of its thick, malty texture and I find that very enjoyable.
Overall, it’s not a terrible chai. It’s certainly not great though. It’s not the tea that I’d keep stocked in the cabinet. There are so many great teas out there and this is simply average or perhaps even just slightly below.
Pipers Chai from Pipers Loose Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Pipers Loose Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Black tea infused with black pepper, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla and orange flavor. Add milk and your preferred sweetener or sweetened condensed milk for a rich, spicy chai.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Pipers Chai from Pipers Loose Leaf Tea is the first tea from this new-to-me company that I’ve tried. I was in the mood for something satisfying and warming from the inside out and this tea certainly fits the bill.
I brewed this chai in my Kati tumbler, using 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tea and 12 ounces of boiling water. I steeped it for three minutes, and it produced a really strong, warming cup of tea! Nice!
The black tea is a robust black tea. The description doesn’t tell me what type of tea is used here, but I think – based upon the richness of the tea – it’s an Assam. There are also some faint notes of bitterness which hint further at the Assam.
The spices are bold. There’s a lot of clove in there though. I find myself tasting more clove than any other spice. The cinnamon and cardamom are warm and the ginger and pepper add some kick to it. I think it would be better if the clove were not quite as strong so that the other spices could shine through better, it might make for a more balanced spicy note.
The vanilla is the best part of this blend. It adds a nice creaminess to this and accentuates the malt notes of the black tea base. It softens some of the edges to the tea and it gives a slight ‘latte’ taste to the cup without going latte with a dairy addition. It also adds a pleasant sweetness so you don’t have to add too much in the way of sweetener to this (I suggest tasting before you sweeten so you don’t add too much and overwhelm the tea.)
The orange is a nice flavor here too, however, I think it could be even better without it. I don’t mind the orange, it tastes good with the orange notes, but I think that it detracts a little bit from the spice and I find myself wanting to focus more on the spice and a little less on the citrus.
Overall, I enjoyed this chai.
Ginger Ale Iced White Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Our amazing organic shou mei fannings blended with the organic flavors of ginger and bergamot. We think it makes the ultimate tribute to ginger ale. But what do you think?
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve been back and forth with this Ginger Ale Iced White Tea from Southern Boy Teas. I like it … but I find myself not as happy with it as I was with the original Ginger Ale. I don’t know if it’s because that tea was crafted with Bai Mu Dan and this is Shou Mei.
Or maybe it’s because since having tried that Ginger Ale tea, I’ve been exposed to a few really awesome ginger ale sodas that have knocked my socks off and perhaps my expectations of ginger ale are higher now. Perhaps those experiences have raised the bar for me.
That’s not to say that I’m not enjoying this. I find it tasty and very refreshing. We’ve had some rather warm weather here lately (sorry for those of you who aren’t getting that same warm weather!) and this is really nice for when I need something cold and tasty that will quench the thirst.
Still, I find myself tasting a little more bergamot than ginger and I’m wishing that the ginger had just a wee bit more bite to it. I guess it goes back to what I was saying before, some of the ‘gourmet’ ginger ale sodas that I’ve tried in the last few years have been absolutely outstanding and I find myself wanting that kind of flavor.
Overall, though, if you enjoyed the first Ginger Ale tea from 52Teas, I think you’d enjoy this. It’s tasty. I found that I enjoyed the second half gallon pitcher of the tea more than the first – so, this is one you definitely want to resteep!
This review will publish at the very tail end of Southern Boy Teas’ Indiegogo Campaign to raise funds to build the brand. Support this small business and help it grow!
Chocolate Marshmallow Spicy Chai from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Following the success of our Spicier Chai, one of our faithful customers requested a version with chocolate and marshmallow. How could we not do that?
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! I’m loving this Chocolate Marshmallow Spicy Chai from 52Teas. It’s the perfect tea to enjoy on a cold, wet afternoon!
If you read this blog regularly, you’re probably well aware by this point that I’m trying to raise funds so that I can take over 52Teas. And if you aren’t yet aware of this, please check out my Kickstarter campaign by clicking right here. (Remember, every little bit helps!)
Anyway, after taking my first sip of this tea, my immediate thought was, “oh yeah, I have to reblend this one!” In fact, I just finished posting a comment on the campaign, stating that I nominate this for a reblend for the next vote!
Every time we reach another $2,000 in pledges, we vote on a new reblend. So far, we’ve reached on $2000 in pledges and the winner of that vote was the Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish Honeybush. If you want to get in on the next vote, you need to contribute and help me reach my goal!
So, yes, I guess you could say that I like this tea. I like it a lot!
The black tea base is rich and flavorful. That in itself is quite an accomplishment because the spices are spicy and the chocolate and marshmallow are both strong components to this cup too. To be able to be tasted beyond the bold spices and the strong flavors, that’s impressive to me.
I also appreciate that the black tea isn’t astringent or bitter. It’s smooth and robust, but not aggressively so. It stands strong amid the other strong flavor profiles in this cup without having to be too harsh tasting.
The spices are very reminiscent of the Spicier Chai blend that 52Teas introduced a few weeks back. And there’s a good reason for that. It would seem that the Spicier Chai was the inspiration behind the request for a Chocolate Marshmallow version. Genius. It sounds like something I’d think of. I didn’t. But, whoever did think of it, you’re a genius.
The spices are spicy! Peppery! Zesty and invigorating! It’s a good, strong, BOLDLY spiced chai. It not only warms you from the inside out but it’ll feel a little like someone started a tiny fire in the back of your throat. Yeah, it burns, but it burns SO good!
And then you have chocolate and marshmallow! I’m usually quick to say that more chocolate is better, but I really am enjoying the level of chocolate in this blend. It’s not SUPER chocolate-y but I think that more chocolate might have interfered with the spices a little bit and I like the balance as it is right now. Spicy and chocolate-y deliciousness.
And the marshmallow is light and fluffy.
What this tastes a bit like is that someone brewed up a cup of that Spicier Chai, and then added a scoop of hot cocoa powder to it and stirred it up, and then topped it with a marshmallow that is now melted into the beverage, making it creamy and sweet and delicious.
So, yeah … totally yum. Please help me save 52Teas so that I can reblend this one!!!
Gingerbread House Genmaicha Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
With marshmallow root, orange peel and a touch of peppermint blended into our Japanese Genmaicha, we tried to infuse a whole gingerbread house (gingerbread, orange gumdrops and spice drops, creamy frosting and all) into one tea. I think we did pretty well, but you’ll just have to find out for yourself.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Please check out my campaign to take over 52Teas here! Please help me keep 52Teas alive and kicking out those teas every week!
Taster’s Review:
I really liked that when I opened the pouch – I could smell GINGER! I like my gingerbread to be heavy on the ginger flavor, I like that punch of ginger flavor, but all too often when it comes to gingerbread, I’m of the opinion that there just isn’t enough ginger to call it gingerbread.
So I was happy that I could smell ginger here. The brewed tea smells a bit less like ginger (or gingerbread) and a bit more like brewed genmaicha with it’s nutty, toasty essence. There are some warm notes of ginger, the fragrance of the ginger is just not as strong as it was with the dry leaf. I’m also picking up on some sweet, cakey notes in the scent too. It smells quite yummy.
Even though I like to let the tea cool a bit before I start writing a lot about it, I couldn’t stop myself from taking a little sip while it was still quite hot. Mmm! I have a really good feeling about this tea. It’s going to be a cupful of yum!
And it is! I like that the ginger is dominate, but it isn’t overpowering the other flavors. This tastes the way I want my gingerbread to taste – with a strong ginger note. I can also taste notes of creamy, marshmallow-y icing and notes of orange.
These flavors don’t overwhelm the genmaicha tea which is sweet and nutty with a really nice pleasant roasty-toasty flavor. I like the way these flavor of the genmaicha taste with the gingerbread house flavors. It’s sweet but not too sweet because the nutty flavors add some dimension to it to make it not so candy or cake-y that it ends up tasting cloying.
It’s a really fun flavor.
This one resteeps well too. The flavors are less distinctly “Gingerbread House” and more like a gently spiced cookie. It’s still quite tasty though and definitely worth the effort to resteep it, so hang on to those leaves!
I see that this tea has sold out, so I am hoping that other customers have enjoyed this tea as much as I did so that when it comes time to vote for reblends – this one will eventually get reblended!