Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Green Rooibos
Where to Buy: Hale Tea Company
Tisane Description:
The aroma is something of a cross between a peach and an apricot. To taste, this tea really does mimic eating an actual Mirabelle plum with it’s tart skin and sweet flesh. The green rooibos brings an interesting savouriness that interacts delightfully with the Mirabelle flavour.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
This Mirabelle Cream Rooibos Tisane from Hale Tea Company is the last of the three teas that I received in September’s tea tasting box from Amoda Teas. The fragrance is to die for! My mouth was watering the moment I smelled it – it smells luscious … like fresh peaches and apricots … and evoked memories of my gramma’s kitchen during the month of August and beginning of September, when the last of the peaches and apricots were being harvested from her prolific trees, and she would be making peach and apricot preserves, as well as pies and cobblers. YUM! I think my stomach just growled from thinking about it … now I want a peach/apricot cobbler with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream!
But I suppose a cup of this tisane will have to suffice since those days have long since past (and I’m not nearly the baker that my gramma was!) And this is tasty … not nearly as tasty as my gramma’s cobbler with homemade vanilla ice cream, but, this also has less fat and fewer calories.
Click on the Pic to go there.
The green rooibos base is a nice choice for these flavors, because the green rooibos has a natural fruity tone to it that accents the notes of plum. I can’t recall that I’ve actually tasted a Mirabelle plum, but I do notice some plummy notes in this tea that remind me of a sun-ripened plum with the juicy, deep red flesh. I notice the sweetness and the hint of sour to those plums. This is sweeter than most plums that I’ve tasted … but I do notice that plum-like tartness to this too.
The flavor is not as peachy or apricot-y as the aroma would lead one to believe … but then, this is not supposed to be about peaches or apricots, but the Mirabelle plum, although the photo of the Mirabelle plum (above right) … those kinda look like apricots!
Overall, I’m finding this tasty tisane to be fruity with a nice contrast between sweet and tangy, with just a hint of cream. I like the lightness of this … it’s very refreshing and it tastes great hot or iced. As it cools, the flavors do soften somewhat, but it’s still a tasty, creamy, fruity drink.
A really nice tisane, I’m glad that Amoda included this in the September box!
Vanilla Jasmine Tea Blend from Hale Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green & Black Teas
Where to Buy: Hale Tea Company
Tea Description:
Vanilla – rich and sweet, and jasmine – floral and fragrant. Two very classic flavours blend together for some powerful aromatics. The black tea adds great body and fullness and stands out amongst the flavours with a bit of maltiness and hints of caramel and cocoa.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
I was a little apprehensive about this Vanilla Jasmine Tea Blend from Hale Tea Company. I was worried … because from the description of this tea provided on the Amoda Tea website, it almost reads as though the jasmine was added to the tea rather than being naturally scented by layering the tea leaves with jasmine blossoms.
In most cases when jasmine oils are used to flavor tea leaves, the tea comes out tasting more like perfume than … well, tea. The layering process, following the harvesting of the leaves … produces the best flavor for jasmine teas. And from the way the description from Amoda Tea reads … this sounds like the tea leaves have been flavored instead of scented.
But, I figured I’d give it a try. I opened the pouch and inhaled deeply to capture the fragrance … I smell more vanilla than jasmine. This is a good sign! Things are definitely looking up! So, I brewed the tea, poured myself a cup, got cozy in my chair … and now … let’s take a sip…
Hmm … not bad. Not bad at all. I taste vanilla. Creamy, luscious vanilla! I taste the earthy qualities of the black tea … a bit softer since I steeped at a lower temperature (since this is a black and green tea leaf blend, I accommodated the delicate green leaves and brewed this at 180°F for 3 minutes), and I taste the smooth, buttery notes of the green tea. And I taste jasmine too. It’s light … soft … exotic. It tastes a lot to me like maybe the green tea leaves in this blend were layered and scented rather than flavored.
Now, I still don’t really know how the jasmine in this tea came to be part of these tea leaves, but, this doesn’t taste perfume-y and that’s what I really care about. I don’t like tea that tastes like soap. Or something that should be applied to the body rather than sipped from a teacup. And this tea doesn’t taste like something that I should wear … it tastes sweet, creamy and rather nice, actually!
I like that all flavors that this tea suggests in the description: black tea, green tea, vanilla and jasmine … all these flavors are present and accounted for, but no one flavor dominates the cup. The vanilla is the strongest flavor, and it gives the cup a creamy elegance … this tastes like something you might enjoy at a fancy tea party, or maybe it’s also something you’d enjoy while sitting at the computer typing your thoughts to whomever might read them, like I’m doing now.
Another wonderful tea selection from Amoda Tea. I’m glad that I decided to try it despite my apprehension.
Creamy Cacao Delight from Hale Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green & White Teas
Where to Buy: Hale Tea Company
Tea Description:
Creamy white cacao pretty much sums it up! Lingering white chocolate flavour and notes of vanilla bean meld naturally with subtle hints of the green and white tea at its base. This is a velvety soft tea that’s surprisingly light.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
Amoda Tea has made some changes with their monthly Tea Tasting Box, and it sounds to me like these changes may be for the better! First of all, the amount of tea will be less per tea – which is fine by me because I am more of a taster than one who likes to keep large amounts of tea on hand. Second … the cost of the monthly box is less! I can live with that! Ha! Finally, Amoda will no longer be selling the tea to the public … oh, they’ll still assemble the boxes, but if you want more of any particular tea after sampling it, you’ll be forwarded to the tea company that sells the tea to order directly from them.
So far, I’m really happy with these changes!
For the month of September, the featured tea company is Hale Tea Company. The first tea that I chose to sample from this company is Creamy Cacao Delight, because … well, did you happen to see the word Cacao in the name? Yeah, I like that word. That word says to me that this tea will be a yummy, chocolate-y tea. And that brings a big smile to this chocoholic’s face!
The aroma of the dry leaf is deliciously creamy with vanilla top notes and notes of chocolate. My mouth started watering the moment I opened the pouch! Once brewed, I notice less of the vanilla tones and more of the chocolate-y notes.
The flavor … oh my goodness! This is yum. As I’ve mentioned before (even in this article!) I’m a chocoholic. But, white chocolate … doesn’t always do it for me. I’d much rather have dark chocolate. I generally find white chocolate to be too sweet, and I enjoy the contrast of bitter and sweet in a darker chocolate. But … I’m liking the sweet creamy notes here just fine!
There is a lovely balance between vanilla and chocolate notes to provide a very rich, creamy, decadent taste. The white tea and green tea provide a nice base for the chocolate flavors, because it doesn’t overwhelm the chocolate, but it’s also not allowing itself to be overpowered. I taste both teas – the green tea is fresh and vegetative and the white tea has a crispness to it, as well as a hay-like note that tastes really quite nice with the white chocolate tones.
And as the description above suggests, the overall tone to this cup is light. It isn’t a heavy feel on the palate, and this I like because even though it’s white chocolate … it’s a flavor that I often find “too much” because it is a very sweet form of chocolate-y taste. The lightness allows the goodness of white chocolate to come through without all that heavy sweetness.
This is a light, sweet, delicious way to experience a balance between vanilla and chocolate. YUMMY! And … this one must be resteeped! The chocolate-y flavors really intensify with the second steeping.