Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Stash
Tea Description:
Our Chocolate Hazelnut is a deliciously smooth and rich dessert tea. Chocolate, hazelnuts, vanilla, and premium black tea combine to create a fascinating blend of flavors. Sugar and a splash of milk bring out the taste of the chocolate and hazelnuts. The black teas are naturally decaffeinated, so you can savor this tea any time of day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I am always on the hunt for good decaffeinated black teas. My desire to drink tea late into the night is often at war with my desire to eventually get some sleep. Of course, herbals or tisanes are great alternatives, but sometimes I just want the comfort of a tasty cup of black tea. So, when I have the chance to try a decaf black tea I jump at it in the hopes that I’ll be able to add some more teas into my nighttime drinking rotation.
While I was excited to try Chocolate Hazelnut Decaf from Stash I have to say that I do not like this tea. The flavoring of both the chocolate and the hazelnut was fake and had an off-putting sour aftertaste. The base tea was slightly astringent but otherwise had no defining characteristics. Perhaps a base tea with more body or a strong biscuit-like note could help balance out the other flavors, but as it is I did not find this tea enjoyable. I did add both sugar and milk to my cup in an attempt to make this something I’d like, but I could not escape the sour note this tea left at the end of the sip.
Chocolate Hazelnut Decaf has too much working against it between the artificial tasting chocolate and hazelnut flavorings and the weak base tea. My hunt for good decaf black teas continues. This is one tea I’ll pass on.
Toffee Dream White Tea from Zen Tea Life
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: Zen Tea Life
Tea Description:
The nutty toasty flavor from the toffee. It smells lovely toffee and looks pretty with lots of yellowish green soft buds mixed with blue corn flower. Recommend for someone that loves a light, sweet, and nutty tea. Must try teas for white tea lovers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Zen Tea Life is an excellent company. Funny enough, I have yet to try any tea from them. I usually go with their teaware, which are really cute and cheap! Their slabs of Korean cedar are a fixture on my tea tray.
This tea hails from a friend on Steepster who did a mystery box sale a while back. The box took a detour to another user’s place before making it back to me. Luckily, there was no problem fixing the problem and in no time I had a perfectly packed cube filled with tea treasures at my door. The only thing is, I had forgotten that I had asked for a box in the first place. It took me a hot minute to noodle out where the box of insane samples came from. Thank goodness I love surprises!
White Toffee Dream was the first sample I tried out of the box. I was very intrigued, I have never had a toffee tea with a white base before. I picked it out because of it’s visual appeal; the cornflower and the big chunks of caramel substance looked awesome against the backdrop of the Bai Mu Dan.
Brewing the tea made the toffee pieces melt in slow motion. The aroma really filled the room. Who needs scented candles or air fresheners when you can just brew a cup of tea? Using 4g in a 16oz mug with 90c water produced a unique cup. The toffee was not doubt there, and an interesting floral and hay rounding out the notes. I do get a candy sequence I get strong notes of graham cracker that follows the toffee. Like a toffee cheesecake almost?
While I agree that black tea may have mad a better choice for this flavor, it’s just so… pedestrian. Zen tea life made a good choice going with a white tea base. It’s different, and worth a try, even if I wouldn’t think about stocking it any time soon.
Georgia Peach from Tiny Bubbles Tea Bar
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tiny Bubbles Tea Bar
Tea Description:
This bright Ceylon black tea flavored with sweet peaches is our best seller year round! It has a very juicy, ripe peach flavor with sweet aromas. Delicious both hot or cold. Simply peachy…
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It is officially iced tea time! I love summer. I am a “cold” blooded person so when the weather starts getting warmer out- I love it. Even in 80-90 degree weather you’ll find me with a sweater on . I get made fun of quite a bit, but I’m told it is all in good fun.
Besides making iced tea, I’m currently addicted to cold brewing tea. Threw some tea into a pitcher and the next morning-VIOLA! you have amazing tea. What I have found is that when you cold brew a tea, you can take a tea blend that was ok or so-so to a tea that is full of flavor!
That is the case with this tea for sure. I brewed this peach flavored black tea as a traditional black tea-212F-3 min. Took a sip and to be honest, the flavor was ok. The peach flavor was nice and the black tea base mixed well, but this hot cuppa didn’t give me the “Wow” factor I was looking for. The flavors were subtle and the cuppa didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
Cold brewed this tea and wow- did my opinion on this tea completely change. This tea reminds me of fresh peaches. The cold brewing really helped draw out more of the flavor. The black tea base is slightly astringent but I liked the contrast. Sweet juicy fresh peaches. So perfect for the summer!
My only thought would be to add a touch of vanilla and this tea would be amazing! A cold brewed peach vanilla iced tea? Yes please!
Sencha of the Wind Green Tea from Yunomi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Yunomi.us
Tea Description:
A tea popular with female customers in Japan, our Sencha of the Wind or 風の煎茶, is a sencha with a soft sweetness. Grown on southeast facing rolling hills at an altitude of 500 meters (1640 feet) and harvested in late May, the cultivation technique is very similar to our Kabuse Sencha. However, in addition to being harvested slightly later than the Kabuse, this tea does not use the Yabukita variety of tea plant (said to be the most suitable for Japanese tea) and is instead cultivated on standard tea plants. The difference is in the leaves as these leaves produce less amino acids than the Kabuse and therefore less bitterness.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have heard that green tea is perfect for hangovers, and I suppose today is a good day to find out.
I went to an amazing show with my man last night, and one drink led to another, and another… at the end of the night I was somehow dancing on a ladder, my boyfriend trying to get me down before I fell off. Needless to say, I am feeling the effects of it today. I woke up groggily, and googled drinkable hangover cures as I dug through my stash of teas. I read on a couple of random websites that green tea is better than the hair of the dog that bit you. Even if it was a load of hogwash, it never hurts to drink a good sencha.
Sencha of the Wind from Yunomi is one of the teas produced by Kyoto Obubu tea farms. They always have an amazing selection of teas that they produce from year to year. I have the 2014 version that I got in a sampler pack a while back. I used all 10g in my large kuysu, which is (probably?) 16oz. Using warm water, 65C I flash steeped a couple times and then brewed in increments of 30 seconds. I was really surprised at how much I could get out of those leaves! I think I made it to 9 steepings before I had to call it quits.
The smoothness and richness of this brew is simply incredible. Plenty of people new to green tea in general usually say that green tea has no taste, it’s just colored water. This is going to be the tea that I will use to change their mind. All Japanese greens are so strong and flavorful, this is no exception. I love how sweet and smooth this is. I even uttered an audible, ‘wow!’ when taking a sip.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a little put off by the astringency of some senchas, this is a very rich and sweet brew, buttery smooth to the last drop!
CTC Assam Exotic Black Tea by Golden Tips
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Golden Tips
Tea Description:
Even though Assam produces some exquisite orthodox teas, its CTC (Cut, Tear,Curl) grade of teas are cherished for their extremely bold character. They are known to have relatively bigger round granules which make for a bright red liquoring cup. Strong, robust, full-bodied and rich with a unique malltiness, this tea pairs up with your breakfast like bread does with butter.It goes perfectly with milk and sugar and can also be enjoyed as a pure black tea when brewed in freshly boiled water for 3-5 minutes. Harvested in the peak second flush tea growing season, this exclusive offering will add a new aspect to your love for Assams. The perfect wake-up tea!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is the Crush-Tear-Curl (or CTC) version of Golden Tips Tea’s signature blend Exotic Assam. For those unfamiliar, CTC is a method of mechanised tea processing, during which the tea leaves are passed through cylindrical rollers lined with tiny “teeth” which shred and roll the leaf into tiny pellets. The dry leaf smells very strong – malty with an edge of bitterness. It’s a smell I associate with the supermarket tea bags of my childhood. The leaf itself is a uniform black, formed into tiny balls.
I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it a scant 1.5 minutes in boiling water. This one brews FAST, and the resulting liquor darkens to a deep chocolate brown mere seconds after the leaf is added to the water. The scent at this stage is powerful, too – it’s readily identifiable as “tea” in the best builder’s sense of the word. Like the dry leaf, it’s malty with a bitter edge. I added a good splash of milk.
To taste, this one seems a little generic. It’s sweet and malty, as Assam typically is, and it has a thick, almost syrupy mouthfeel because of that. There’s a tiny hit of bitterness right at the end of the sip, although this intensifies as I continue to drink until it’s ultimately a little drying and astringent. My teeth actually feel a little “furry” after about half a cup, assumedly from the high tannin levels. This is definitely a full-bodied tea, but it’s a little one-note, and lacks some depth and complexity. It’s malty, for sure, but that’s about all I can really say.
This is a great convenience tea. It brews up quickly due to the CTC method of production, and it makes a strong, full-bodied cup that would readily assist the morning wake-up process. It’s perhaps a little heavy-handed, but a good slosh of milk smooths its rougher edges for the most part, with the exception of some bitterness. I think it’s fair to say that it lacks some subtlety, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad tea. It’s an excellent choice if you’re looking for a strong, everyday tea that’s both convenient and consistent, and sometimes that’s just the thing. There are other teas for other days.
I’m not huge CTC fan personally, but I appreciate that they have their place in the tea world, and they’re certainly well suited to some situations. This one is one of the better ones I’ve tried, and definitely worth a look if you’re in the market for this kind of tea. I like the fact that you can also purchase the full-leaf version of their Exotic Assam, as this affords the opportunity to compare (should you wish to), and ultimately to decide for yourself which option you prefer, or which suits you and your lifestyle best.
