Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Description:
Our Traditional Blend contains some of the best teas produced from around the world, selected predominantly from our long standing relationships with family businesses in East Africa and India. Our expert tea blenders taste and choose each individual tea that goes into the blend, ensuring you always receive that unique, refreshing and lasting flavour that makes Ringtons Traditional our most popular blend.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Of the different teas that I’ve tried thus far from Rington’s Premium English Teas, I think that this Traditional Black Tea blend might be my favorite. Yes, it’s a bagged tea. Yes, I prefer loose leaf over bagged varieties. But occasionally, I’ll find a bagged tea that’s decent. Sure, I’d still rather drink loose leaf, but when I do find a bagged tea that’s worthwhile, I’m going to say so.
And after having tried the one loose leaf offering from Rington’s the other day, I must admit that I’m finding this one – a bagged tea – more enjoyable than their loose leaf variety.
Why?
Because this tea is smoother. It is richer and more rounded. There’s less astringency. Put simply, I’m finding this variety from Rington’s to be more satisfying than their loose leaf blend. Now, if this Traditional blend were offered loose leaf, I’d be one very happy sipper!
The sip starts out sweet. I taste delicate notes of honeyed caramel. The tea has a robust character – it has a nice, satisfying round flavor. A little earthy, a little flowery, and a little fruity. It’s very smooth with no bitterness and very little astringency. Very, very little astringency – as in virtually none. I like that.
This tea tastes great hot and it also tastes really good as it cools. I had finished about half the cup and then I needed to step away and came back to a cold cup of tea – and it still tasted really great. It doesn’t need any additives to taste good – it just does.
It’s one of those types of tea that you want to keep on hand when you just want a no-fuss cup of tea.
India’s Original Masala Chai from Golden Tips
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Golden Tips
Tea Description:
Originating from India, Masala Chai or ‘Spiced Tea’ is one of the most popular black tea blends in the world. This ancient traditional recipe is prepared by blending a strong & robust black tea with an array of fresh & aromatic spices. Our signature ‘Masala Chai Spiced Tea’ is symbolic of the original house blend which has been cherished in India for decades now. A combination of Assam CTC & orthodox leaves blended in a varying ratio is taken as the base. The base tea is then blended with exotic and fresh indian spices including crushed cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, long pepper, dry ginger and clove.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m always so excited to try a new chai – one that I’ve not yet tried. So, I was happy to find this India’s Original Masala Chai from Golden Tips in my stash of teas waiting for review!
The dry leaf is a very fine CTC. Even the spices are pretty finely chopped or ground, so it would benefit your teacup to give the pouch a good shake before you open it and measure it out.
To brew it, I measured out one bamboo scoop of the tea and then I shook off just a little bit from the scoop. Since the chop is so fine, you don’t need a whole scoop of tea! Then I put the tea into the basket of my Kati tumbler and added 12 ounces of boiling water and let it steep for 2 1/2 minutes. Again, since this is a finely chopped tea, you don’t want to steep it too long. 2 1/2 minutes produced a very flavorful cuppa for me – I wouldn’t recommend steeping it much longer than that otherwise you may wind up with a bitter tasting tea.
This is really good! The spices are ‘moderately spiced’ – that is to say that it’s not super spicy, but not what I’d call mild either. I think that if you typically shy away from a chai because it’s too spicy for you, you might find that this chai is to your liking. It’s warmly spiced without going overboard.
And I like that the spices are really nicely balanced. I taste cinnamon, clove, cardamom, ginger and pepper, but I don’t notice that any one or two of these trying to overpower the rest. It’s warm and zesty, like a delicious spice cake. All the spices are present and accounted for but they don’t overwhelm the cup or the flavor of the black tea.
And the black tea is the star of this cup. That doesn’t happen too often in a chai. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a good, spicy chai! But I also like other ‘chai’ blends that offer a balance of flavors like this one has achieved.
This tea offers a robust, full-flavored taste of black tea. The tea is an Assam tea so I get a strong malty character that I like. It’s rich and smooth. Not too astringent and not bitter (although I suspect it could be bitter if I had oversteeped it!)
And this tea offers a pleasant flavor of spices that tingle on the palate. The flavor of the spices builds, but it builds in a really pleasant way. I haven’t felt like “oh, that’s spicy!” Instead, it’s more like … nice! Warm! Zesty! Yum!
A really nice chai!
Classic English Breakfast Black Tea from M&K’s Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
It’s classic! It’s English (actually it’s Indian and Sri Lankan)! It’s…breakfast! Nevermind. We’ll cut to the chase. It’s a nice cup of malty black tea from the Bargara and Kandoli Assam estates of India and the Kenilworth estate of Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Great with milk, good with sugar, best in the morning. This blend is part of the Original 20 M&K’s Blends.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve enjoyed quite a few of M&K’s Tea Company’s blends now so I was really eager to try this Classic English Breakfast Black Tea to see how well they crafted a traditional favorite. And I’m really glad that I had this opportunity to try it, because this is quite nice.
To brew: I put 1 bamboo scoop of tea into the basket of my Kati Tumbler and then poured in 12 ounces of boiling water. I set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes and let time take care of the rest.
This is a robust blend. I like that it focuses more on the Assam than the Ceylon, which gives it more of a rugged, hefty flavor. It’s strong and edgy, but without being bitter or too astringent. Had I steeped this for longer, though, I think that I would have had a bitter cup. Take care not to oversteep this blend!
The flavor is bold with notes of malt and there is a fruity, wine-like quality to this as well. There are two single estate Assam teas in this blend and I suspect one is more malty while the other is a more ‘wine-like’ Assam. It’s a nice balance between the two qualities. The Ceylon adds a certain ‘evenness’ to the flavor. It’s a rich, flavorful cup that would take the additions of milk and honey well – which is what most people look for in a breakfast blend.
Personally, I don’t usually add milk or honey to my teas, so my cup has that rugged edge to it that I like in the morning. It’s the kind of tea that I’d want if I need a good shake awake. It’s the kind of tea that will get you going.
Really nice!
Mankota Exotic Assam Black Tea – Second flush – Single Estate – Summer 2014 from Golden Tips Tea
Tea Type:
Black Tea
Where To Buy:
Golden Tips Tea
Product Description:
Maple Marshmallow Flavored Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Why hasn’t anyone combined these two flavors yet? I don’t know, but I’m not scurred. Here’s our premium organic Indian black teas blended with organic maple and marshmallow flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
YUM! This is seriously good.
My mouth watered when I saw the label on the package. I want those cupcakes.
And while this tea doesn’t have “cupcake-y” flavors to it, it definitely has the maple and the marshmallow! These flavors are strong and very well-defined. And even though they are really strong, I still taste plenty of black tea flavor too.
It’s sweet and refreshing. It’s something that tastes so good that you’d swear you’re cheating on your diet when you drink it, but you aren’t! It’s iced tea! It only TASTES indulgent.
This is one of the best flavors I’ve tasted from SBT thus far. This might even be better than my lime favorites (Lime Cola and Lime Jello).
If you’re one who doesn’t like sweet flavors – this tea probably won’t be to your liking. But for the rest of us, seriously, you’ve got to try this. It’s so good.
AND Southern Boy Teas has a new Kickstarter Campaign going. Please take a moment and check out the campaign and if you can, please consider contributing to this small business!