Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Green
Where to Buy: Tea Desire
Tea Description:
Ingredients: Ceylon black tea, Sencha green tea, Java black tea, pink rose petals, bucco leaves, natural flavour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Tea Desire is a smaller Canadian chain primarily based in British Columbia; I just happen to be fortunate enough to live in a city that has one of their branches so over the few years I’ve lived here I’ve frequented the store often and tried a sizable range of their teas – still there’s always more to try! The service feels a lot more personalized, and the feel of the store is certainly a lot less commercial that larger Canadian chains such as DAVIDsTEA.
One thing I do dislike about the company is the 50g minimum purchase – however because I do have a local store I can always purchase a To Go cup and try something that way; and that’s exactly what I did when I grabbed this newer Tea Desire blend. It’s one I wanted to try a few months ago, but my branch hadn’t received a shipment of it yet so when the associate today recommended it I was pretty on board.
Based on her recommendation I got it iced, and trying it now I definitely think that probably was a more appropriate way to try it than hot would have been. This is a very floral blend; it’s supposed to be rose and while I did taste rose I definitely thought the floral notes seemed a lot more like peony. There was a light, pleasant vegetal taste from the green tea but mostly the black tea came through; it was smooth softer with floral notes of its own; very characteristic of a good ceylon. For those familiar with DAVIDsTEA’s Elderflower Spritz I’d say this one tastes similar, but has a base with more backbone. Same sort of fruitier elderberry notes, too.
About halfway through I started to pick up on sort of weird buttery notes. I actually don’t have a clue where they were coming from, but it was weird and slightly jarring. Buttery flowers is definitely not something I’d normally pick for myself; but I actually didn’t hate it. All in all, I thought this was pretty good and DEFINITELY a well put together tea for what it’s named after: sweeter floral, natural flavours that definitely evoke the image of fairies, nymphs and yes, druids too.
I’d totally revisit this one!
Morita #02: Sayama Sencha Green Tea from Yunomi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Yunomi.us
Tea Description:
The Morita family’s quality sencha is a result of 10 generations of tea farming. This Sayama region green tea is can be steeped to be very astringent with a touch of umami (savoriness) using hot water, or with a great balance between astringency (shibumi) and umami savoriness using warm water.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yes! Green tea season is here! It is in this blogger’s personal preference to drink tea by the seasons. I often find myself craving one specific type of tea throughout a single time frame. And it makes perfect since too, I like higher oxidized teas that require hotter water in the winter, and lower or non-oxidized teas in the spring and summer for their fresh vegetal notes and their lower brewing temperature. With the weather turning warmer I have not even thought about boiling my water for a shou or a black tea, and have turned instead to Japanese greens, Taiwanese jade oolongs and sheng. The Morita family’s Sayama Sencha from Yunomi fits the bill quite nicely.
I love the smell of sencha tea every time I open a package and dive in. It just smells so buttery and fresh… like hot off the bamboo steamer steamed edamame, salty and so hot that it burns my tongue. Except that I use cooler water than I would for steaming the legume… but, I digress.
This tea lays all it’s cards on the table when I pour out the steeped leaves into my yunomi tea cup. The smell is fresh and intense. It’s so vegetal and marine-like, I can almost picture myself sitting on the beach while downing each sip.
Morita Tea Garden’s is a great Japanese green that hits all the right notes. I have yet to be disappointed by any of the farmers’ teas and offerings at Yunomi, and really, anything you choose will surely be a hit. I’d drink this all day everyday if I could! But then all of my other teas would get lonely.
Honey, I Dew White from DAVIDsTEA
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
In Vietnam, melons are a sign of good luck. In Chinese medicine, they’re said to help cool the body down. Around here, we think they’re just about the tastiest fruit around – especially when you pair them with fresh, delicate white tea. With fruity hints of pineapple and mango, this melon-packed blend is refreshing, juicy and naturally sweet. The best part? This tea was named by our customers! Is there anything they can’t dew?
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s very refreshing to see another permanent white tea blend on the DAVIDsTEA walls; I’ve been complaining for months about the dwindling amount of permanent white teas – I’ve even suffered some losses that were more emotional than I’d care to admit (Coconut Grove, Sweet Strawberry, and Big Apple…). At least a lot of seasonal blends for Spring featured a white base, and one of the Mother’s Day blends as well.
And not going to lie, the fact this was named by DT’s customers (and has such a cute name) is really appealing as well; I find I’m definitely more drawn in to wanting to try a tea when it has a unique name, even if the ingredients/flavor pairings aren’t that unusual. Let us put an end to the “Earl Grey Creams” and “Jasmine Greens” that every company seems to have a version of; give yours a neat name, and make it stand out!
I’m doing this one iced; yes, iced and not cold brewed. I don’t often have the means to do iced tea because I don’t actually have ice at my place. We don’t own an ice tray, and I don’t have the freezer space in my little apartment for larger bags of ice. I know it could be easily remedied by buying an ice cube tray but I always forget; so iced tea is a special treat for me provided by being in the right place (err, chef’s kitchen) at the right time.
My initial thought when I tried this was of Trident’s Watermelon Twist gum – the sugary, candy sweet watermelon top notes were pretty identical. I was expecting something both more mellow and, based on the name, more in the line of Honeydew so I was a little taken aback but once I got accustomed to the taste I found it really enjoyable. Contrasting that, the tail of the sip was a lot more natural tasting once the sweetness has subsided, and definitely a lot more honey dew than watermelon. I like the layers of melon that this one has. Almost like Trident Layers? That’s a bad pun, sorry.
The body of the sip is interesting too; somewhere in between where the watermelon eases up and the honeydew takes over there are a lot of very strong apple notes and some very vague mango and pineapple notes. I’d say they mostly create a tropical fruit vibe rather than make an impact as unique, stand-alone flavors though.
This was really enjoyable, and I think quite different from any other white blend that DT is currently offering, let alone any of their current blends. I really, really like the way they do Honeydew flavors; I’m thinking in particular of Honeydew Mate and Cool Cucumber (two seasonal blends). I loved both quite a bit (I still have some Cool Cucumber), and they definitely honed in on that awesome honeydew flavor. While DT’s watermelon can get too sweet or artificial, honeydew is a flavor they have successfully nailed. If you’re a fan of either of those two blends I absolutely 100% recommend giving this one a shot.
Nosy Bey Black Tea from Dammann Freres
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Dammann Freres
Tea Description:
Black tea flavoured with vanilla and bush peach. Embellished with pieces of pineapple and sprinkled with flower petals. A successful fusion from sunbathed orchards and vanilla tropical scents.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
One of my favorite flavors in tea used to be peach. When starting my disturbing obsession with tea, I started out with Celestial Seasoning’s Peach Blossom Green Tea. I moved on to other peachy teas, and I think down the road I just had one too many bad peach flavorings that I have been totally turned off by it. I was able to snag a little bit of this in a crazy huge group order hosted by a generous member of Steepster. I heard good things about this tea, and I wanted to give peach a chance!
The scent alone of this tea is pretty magical. The notes of vanilla and peach invade my senses and take over my brain. The rose petals and chunks of pineapple are a bit of a head scratcher, I can’t seem to see the reason for it.
Brewing this up, it produces a strong black tea base with a good supporting cast of smooth and creamy vanilla and bright fruity peach. Incidentally, that combination tastes exactly like peaches and cream instant oatmeal. Which does not sound like a compliment, but there was an entire year in life where I ate nothing for breakfast except off brand peaches and cream instant oatmeal. Man, that stuff is so good… I still crave it sometimes.
This tea brews up nicely, and the flavor stick its out in the resteepings. I have yet to have tried this tea iced, but I can tell it would be a winner!
Watermelon Barley Herbal Tea from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Lupicia USA
Tea Description:
Aromatic six-rowed barley produced in Japan flavored with fresh watermelon. Limited flavor just for summer.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Tis the season of iced tea and delicious summer fruit! Nothing says ‘summer’ to me quite like mugicha (which is roasted barley tea, traditionally sipped on iced as cold as my heart.) and fresh, sweet, and messy watermelon. Lupicia’s Watermelon Barley tea sounded almost too good to be true on their website, I just had to bite. I’m hoping that the hype I have built up in my brain lives up to this fantasy blend.
The combination of roasted and toasted barley with fresh and juicy watermelon sounds like it could be either really great, or really awful. The only way is to drink this tea and find out!
Upon opening the bag, the sachets inside are large and offer a tiny hint of what I am about to brew. The main scent on first whiff was the roasted grain smell, rich and full. Cloyingly sweet in the background is the fruity watermelon. I didn’t let myself investigate further, I was dying to sink my teeth into the brew. I attempted the cold brew in 2 cups of cold water for 4 hours, simply out of laziness. This resulted in the toasty flavor of the barley becoming a little too overpowering for the watermelon to handle. I could only taste a whisper, it might as well have been regular old mugicha.
The next day I wanted to make it right. I knew it was just a user error on my end, and I needed this tea to taste differently than it had when I brewed it cold. So, I used one pyramid type bag in 16oz. of freshly boiled water. Steeped for 5 minutes then chilled in the refrigerator. When I brought it out the next morning and huffed the liquid, I was met with a satisfyingly sweet smell. The watermelon! Drinking it throughout the day was greatly refreshing. The watermelon was so very melon-y, juicy, thirst quenching. It leans on the side of becoming candy-like in flavor, but stays true to the actual fruit. The barley is still the forefront, but not obnoxiously so. The brew as a whole tastes like grilled watermelon, in a good way. (which is a great thing to try for your next barbeque, by the way!) Probably my new favorite go to easy iced tea for the summer!