Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love Verdant Tea. I don’t know of anybody who doesn’t. Their love, passion, attention to detail, and most importantly, their tea is just simply amazing. Tea that you can steep again and again and enjoy for an afternoon. I have tried several of their teas and have loved the flavors of each one.
And this one is no exception! This Spring Harvest Laoshan White (which I’m not finding on their site) is a gorgeous white tea that has resounding notes of a green tea mingled within each glorious sip. Brewed up like a white tea, I allowed the tea to steep for about 4 minutes. Took my first sip and just took a moment to enjoy.
This tea has a gorgeous vegetal feel with notes of a floral touch here and there. Simple but so wonderful. Each infusion brought me a slightly different profile but for the most part, this tea really has a nice solid vegetal feel sweetened by a glorious floral note.
Another really well done tea from Verdant Tea! If you haven’t tried Verdant Tea, I highly recommend you do! They have a great starter pack for only $5. A great deal!
Nepal Oolong from Simpson & Vail
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail
Tea Description:
Located 6000 feet above sea level, in the misty hills of Pashupatinagar, Ilam, is this family owned Organic (EU) and ISO certified garden. The teas grown here are of some of the most interesting and spectacular teas that will tempt your taste buds into new levels of enjoyment. This garden is the first one in Nepal to use the technology, machinery and expertise available from Japan. The Aarubotay tea bushes are a combination of Japanese, Chinese and clonal varieties that produce the best of Nepalese teas. Try some today and, from the first smell of the dry leaf to the taste of the brewed tea, you will be convinced that this family has achieved success!
An enchanting Oolong experience! The dark brown, twisted, tippy leaves brew into a pale amber cup with mild, mellow, well-balanced flavors and delicate peach/apricot undertones. (Note: This crop was picked earlier in the year and is lighter tasting than the 2014 Oolong.)
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I am a huge fan of Simpson & Vail. Their teas are delicious, fresh, and always ones that you can rely on. I had never tried any oolongs from them so I was excited to check out their oolong offerings.
This oolong was nothing less than exceptional. I brewed this up with fresh water at about 190 degrees or so for about 4 minutes. I sat and watched the gorgeous leaves swirl around in my steeper. I couldn’t wait to for the tea to finish brewing. The dry leaf had such a nice and refreshing note about them with a slight touch of being roasted.
And that is exactly what this tea tasted like! A slightly vegetal amazingly light and refreshing slightly roasted oolong. So many gorgeous flavors in each and every sip. There was a stonefruit sweetness that I could pick up here and there, but it wasn’t a solid note throughout the tea. So well balanced and such a great tea to keep you company all day. I’m on my third infusion and am devouring this tea like crazy.
Such a great tea from such a great company. If you haven’t checked out Simpson & Vail, I would encourage you too. They are wonderful to shop with. I just love a tea company that provides amazing teas and amazing customer service!
Thurbo Moonlight from The Tea Shelf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Tea Shelf
Tea Description:
A signature spring harvest tea from the mystical hills of Darjeeling, the fluffy soft textured admixture of single leaves, both rolled and open, are complete with bright silver buds. The light golden liquid is a very clean tasting tea, with a subtle floral bouquet accompanied by notes of apple and honey. A remarkable tea which expresses itself beautifully.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea’s pouch was one of those teas that I happily found int he back of my tea stash. One of the problems with having a nice large stash of tea, teas seem to hide and almost get forgotten. I was excited to see I still had a few offerings from The Tea Shelf to try. So far, I’ve enjoyed checking out their selection.
From the very first looks of this tea, it looks just bright and happy. The tea leaves are a gorgeous light green with twinges of yellow popping thru here and there. Just a tea that screams for spring to come back to us here in the Midwest.
Brewed up per the package instructions, this tea’s brew has such a gorgeous color, a really lovely amber coloring. First sip in and this tea is just spot on. All of those gorgeous slightly vegetal notes combined with a subtle malty flavor with hints of a floral touch. A really nice complex cuppa that gives you a variety of different flavors in each sip. I would almost say this tea is a nice cross between a black, white, and green tea.
I’ll be sipping on this tea for some time. Just gorgeous and hitting on the right notes for me today! Yum!
2 Quart Cold Brew Coffee and Tea Infuser Mason Jar from Country Line Kitchen
Tea Information:
Tea Product: Cold Brew Infuser
Where to Buy: Country Line Kitchen
Tea Description:
- Make your own cold brewed coffee easily and without the mess in our two quart mason jar brewing system. Components are easy to clean and dishwasher safe.
- Made with high quality, BPA free materials. Includes a Ball brand jar and lid, heavy duty stainless steel filter and silicone seal. Includes an instruction manual with several pages of recipes!
- Uses a versatile and durable mason jar for brewing. No fragile borosilicate glass or plastic containers. Add your own mason jar to store your cold brewed coffee while making a fresh batch.
- The extra large filter allows a 1:3 coffee to water ratio that results in a strong coffee concentrate. In addition, the silicone seal allows the jar to be shaken during brewing to ensure thorough wetting of the grounds to extract the maximum intensity from the coffee.
- Also makes a great loose leaf tea infuser and fruit infuser. Make a batch of delicious sun tea or infuse ½ gallon of water with your favorite fruits!
Learn more about this tea product here.
Taster’s Review:
Who doesn’t love a fresh crisp glass of cold brewed tea? The problem is that I haven’t found the best way to go about making it. Sure you can just dump some tea leaves into a vessel of you choice and put it in the fridge overnight. But the problem with doing that is the mess that it creates afterwards. Tea leaves always end up in your tea and you have to scoop out the remaining leaves and wash and rewash the vessel to make sure it is clean. Hence, it is a pain but the tea tastes amazing. Cold brewed tea allows the tea leaves to really explode with flavor and sometimes hidden flavors that you couldn’t taste in a hot brewed tea will become more pronounced.
Welcome to my teaware family this wonderful 2 QT Mason Jar Infuser! Yes, the main purpose for this infuser is to make iced coffee but I have to say I haven’t even tried iced coffee yet in this delight. I am just addicted to the cold brew tea I have been devouring over the last week.
The concept is quite simple. A giant (very cool looking) Mason Jar with a filter that runs the full length of the jar and a plastic lid. That is it. Put your tea leaves into the fine mesh filter, fill with fresh cold water, screw on the lid, and wait. 8-10 hours (or less depending on your preference) and you have yourself some wonderful cold brew tea. I have been cold brewing teas like mad and loving the flavors and undertones that I hadn’t picked up from the tea when I drank it hot. I have also found that some teas that I may not have necessarily cared for taste amazing cold brewed, giving me a chance to drink down some teas I have been neglecting in the back of the ol tea stash.
I actually used the same leaves for almost a week, just continuously pouring in fresh water and allowing the tea to sit for a while. To clean the infuser all you have to do is scoop out the tea leaves in the filter, toss them in the garbage or garden, and clean the glass jar. That is it. No harder than cleaning any other kind of infuser.
A really great way to enjoy your tea and the fact that the get up is easy to clean and easily fits in your fridge (another bonus!), just makes this product even more enduring to me. I’m buying another one so we can have one for coffee and one for tea but I have a feeling I’ll be just using the second infuser for more tea!
Dragon Well/Long Jing from Teabook
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teabook
Tea Description:
Our green tea comes from Hunan, Zhejiang and An Hui provinces in China. In China today, most green teas are still pan fired like originally done in the Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368); this helps to dry the leaf in a way to prevent much oxidation to preserve the green color. From a health perspective, green tea is increasingly popular for its content of EGCG (epigallocatechin), an antioxidant which studies show may have a number of health benefits. Green tea flavor and aroma are often referred to as vegetal, mild, cleansing, and sometimes savory or buttery. The tannins range from bitter to sweet depending on the variety.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Teabook is an tea company with a very interesting concept. They provide consumers with individually wrapped servings of loose leaf tea. The packaging looks very similar to that of a tea bag. Each month you’ll receive a box from Teabook with that month’s tea in it individually packaged for your convenience. A very cool idea. To have loose leaf tea packaged in a way that you don’t have to re package it to make it portable makes me want to instantly run out and sign up. Right now it looks like they mainly have straight teas on the site, but I can see this being just a fantastic new way for loose leaf tea drinkers to get their tea.
This tea that I am trying from Teabook is a Dragon Well. I have tried several different types of Dragon Wells from different tea companies and was excited to try out this offering. I brewed this tea up with the water temp at about 180 per the guidelines provided on the package. I poured the contents of the package into my steeper and watched the leaves dance as the water was poured in. I let the tea steep for about 4 minutes and took my first sip.
The major flavor note that you get from this tea is a nice pleasant vegetal note that is rich and satisfying. I took my cuppa into a meeting. As the meeting was progressing, I started to notice that the pleasant vegetal note started to turn more and more into a deeper richer and dare I say darker vegetal flavor.
As much as I love my green teas, I have to say this one may just not be for me. As the tea cools, that seaweed like flavor becomes more and more pronounced. It reminded me of a rich black tea that you allow to cool for way too long and it has become too astringent for you. Similar situation here.
I’m still not sure how I feel about this particular offering yet. I think this would be one to try again later on but I still love the idea of Teabook and plan on checking into it. Such a great concept!