Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Handmade Tea
Tea Description:
For this blend I wanted to bring together something sweet, fresh, and light. Taking a cue from the beer industry, I wanted to create something very seasonal. I’ve been wanting to use hops in a blend for months and it took a lot of experimenting but I believe we have a hoppily delightful April blend. PLease, enjoy Hoppiness is Happiness from Handmade Tea.
Happiness is Hoppiness consists of a pan-fried green tea which is subtle, sweet, and fresh. Next we added apricots for a fruity, sweet flavor. Lastly this blend contains common hops for a bright, grassy, and bitter punch to the palate. The hops and green tea work together to build that super fresh and bright flavor with the apricots sweeten the blend up and help round out the flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I received Hoppiness is Happiness from Handmade Tea I nearly squealed. Some of you may know I love hops in tea. I have had a couple custom blended just so that I could get my hop fix in a tea blend. I was thrilled to see that I am not the only one who loves a hoppy tea!
Now this is a good tea. Its a bit on the lighter side than I would prefer but its not lacking in flavor, I would just have liked it a bit stronger in the flavor department. One thing that is bothering me to no end however is the term “common hop”. Call me a hop elitist but there are so many wonderful types of hops, each imparting a different flavor into beer, or tea, or whatever it is used in. I am just not sure if this is a mixture of many different hops, or if it is a specific type of hop. Generally the term “common hop” is used to describe any number of hops used in beer brewing, and now sometimes tea blending. I would love to know specifically which type was used in this blend. Caleb of Handmade Tea is a nice guy and almost always available for chat on his website, so I may have to pick his brain on this one soon.
I will say the hops in this blend are large, some whole. That may or may not be a good thing, depending upon the type of hop being used. Some hops may require a bit of breaking down to release the potential flavor. Regardless, the tea does have hoppiness to it but it by no means too hoppy, or so hoppy that the average tea drinker would wrinkle their nose at the flavor imparted in this tea.
The apricot in the tea is what really shines. I can taste its sweet fruitiness well, and the pan-fried green tea is lovely as a base. I have found I prefer this tea when cold and it will make a lovely addition to my summer iced tea stash.
A big thanks to Caleb for always thinking out of the box and making us some unique blends to savor!
You can check out his monthly tea subscription plans here.
