Chai Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Chai Description:
One of our customers, Sasha, challenged us to create a unique licorice masala chai custom blend. We ended up loving her blend so much, that we decided to offer it on our website. The name of this tea is a reference to one of the owner’s favorite authors, Douglas Adams. This soothing tea features licorice; however, the spice notes are also present and linger long after the sip and meld with the licorice notes. With each sip, the licorice and spice notes seem to become stronger yet they are not overly aggressive. While this tea is fantastic plain, this blend shines with a little rice milk and sugar. For a short interview with the brains behind this tea, click HERE.
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
I love licorice, so when I heard about this licorice-y masala chai, I got very excited. And this tea – So Long, And Thanks For All The Licorice Black Chai Blend from Butiki Teas – is worth all the hype, because it’s AHH-mazing!
First of all, I absolutely love the name because I love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Then, I open up the pouch and I see big, whole pieces of star anise (one of my favorite tea spices!) and I can smell all the amazing spices and most of all I can smell the licorice! This is very licorice-y! This tea takes licorice to a whole other level. If you aren’t a fan of black licorice, this tea is not for you. But, if you love licorice, you’re probably going to love this chai like I do.
The base is Butiki Teas’ Organic Guranse, and it provides a nice, earthy richness to the cup. And while the licorice is very strong in this tea, I like that I do taste the other spices in the chai. I taste the cinnamon, a hint of clove and cardamom, and a slight nutty tone from the nutmeg. It’s truly a wonderful and unique chai – unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before … but am really glad to be tasting it now, because I LOVE licorice!
This is easily one of the best (if not the best) licorice-y teas that I’ve ever tried. In fact, I can’t think of one at the moment that even compares. This is truly a treat for this licorice lover.
Honeybush Spice from Bird’s Eye Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Bird’s Eye Tea
Tisane Description:
Ingredients: honeybush, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, orange zest, star anise, pink peppercorns, and licorice root.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Learn more about subscribing to Bird’s Eye Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh! This Honeybush Spice tisane from Bird’s Eye Tea is delightful. I was very excited to try this when I read the ingredient list (above) because I love star anise and licorice … and I don’t often find them in blends together. I usually find either star anise or licorice root, but because they do possess similar characteristics, they aren’t usually combined. But I like them combined … it really pushes the sweet, sassy flavor of licorice into focus.
But, what I am really liking is that the licorice-y flavor isn’t all that I taste. There is warm cinnamon and cardamom, plus the zesty flavor of ginger. And the orange brightens the whole cup.
The honeybush is sweet, a little bit nutty, and very smooth. I like how the earthy flavors of the spices really come through to enhance the dimension of the honeybush – sometimes honeybush can taste a little on the thin side, but that’s not the case with this cup. The spices give not just the cup depth, but also lets me really enjoy the taste of the honeybush as well.
This tisane was one of Bird’s Eye Tea’s February 2012 tea selections that they sent me to sample, and I’m really glad I got a chance to try it. The warmth of this tisane is perfect for this time of year – it’s so naturally warming and comforting, something that you want to curl up with on a cold winter’s day like this. This is wonderful!
Pumpkin Spice Autumn Spiced Tea from Bigelow
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Bigelow
Also available at Goodies Company
Tea Description:
Fall in love with Bigelow® Pumpkin Spice Tea. The harvest moon brings bountiful blessings for us to enjoy, not the least of which is Bigelow Pumpkin Spice Tea. Smooth and satisfying, its rich, round flavor is a masterful blend of the finest, mountain-grown teas. Pumpkin Spice Tea has no calories – just sweeten to taste for an Autumn treat that is sure to warm the hearts of family, friends and all who gather ’round.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this individually wrapped bagged tea in my November Goodies Box, and while I review most of the items that I receive in my tasting boxes on my foodie blog, since this is tea, I felt that I should review this right here.
While I’m not thrilled about bagged tea in general, I was happy to find tea in my Goodies box. (But hey, Goodies Co., how about some LOOSE LEAF tea?) I mean, whenever these kinds of boxes showcase tea, it feels like a win for tea lovers. Even if it is a bagged tea.
And for a bagged tea, this isn’t all that bad. The black tea base tastes strong and pleasant, with a slight astringency but no bitterness. It is smooth and has a nice earthy quality to it that offers a good background for the warm spices in this blend.
I can taste the pumpkin, which is always a plus when it comes to pumpkin flavored teas as I’ve come across a few where the pumpkin flavor was lacking. That is not the case here, it has a sweet, pumpkin-y flavor that is complemented very nicely with the cinnamon, clove and ginger. I also taste a hint of licorice in this, and at first I thought maybe my taste buds were playing tricks on me, but I checked the list of ingredients, and sure enough – there’s licorice in this! Nice!
Overall, this is a satisfying tea. I do wish it wasn’t bagged because perhaps I’m becoming even more snobbish these days, but I have gotten to the point where the taste of paper often accompanies these bagged teas, and I don’t like to drink paper flavored teas. Call me crazy. Fortunately, the intended flavors of spice, pumpkin and tea are strong enough here that the paper is not a dominating component in this cup, but I do taste faint paper-y notes and I’d really rather they not be there.
So, I’ll summarize by saying as a bagged tea this is alright. If it were a loose leaf tea, I think I would categorize it as better than alright … it would be very good!
Licorice Matcha from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
The licorice plant is native to southern Europe and parts of Asia. Licorice is well known for being used as a sweet additive that is added to many types of candy. It is thought to be as much as 50 times sweeter than sugar. However, licorice has many more valuable uses than as a sweetening agent. In fact, Licorice is a powerful anti-inflammatory that can help to soothe arthritis. It also works to help the stomach make more mucus for its lining. This reduces problems with upset stomachs, ulcers, and acid indigestion. Apart from all these benefits, licorice can be a valuable herbal medication towards living a healthy lifestyle.
Learn more about this Matcha here.
Taster’s Review:
I must admit that I was a little afraid of this Matcha.
I love licorice (I’ve never really made any secret of that), however, Red Leaf Tea has a very active presence on Steepster and some time ago, they were asking for input on possible new Matcha flavors that the Steepster members would most like to see made available at Red Leaf Tea. And among the proposed new flavors was Licorice (Improved Flavor) … and that scared me a bit. Is that suggesting that the current licorice flavor is not good? Since that was a flavor I was planning on ordering very soon, I was a bit worried that in tasting the “old” flavoring, it might not be very good because there was a proposed improved flavor.
BUT … this is wonderful! It tastes like Matcha with liquified black Jelly Bellys (one of my very favorite flavors) thoroughly mixed in. The licorice flavor is really remarkably good. It tastes sweet like licorice candy, with its delightful sharpness and spice. I don’t think I could get a better flavor if I were sipping on Matcha and popping a black Jelly Belly into my mouth in between bites. It is so, so good!
And with as strong as the licorice flavor is – and it is strong, the aftertaste sort of reminds me of the Altoid’s Liquorice candy with its almost minty-like, spiced overtones – it doesn’t overpower the sweet, leafy flavor of the Matcha. At least, not completely. The licorice flavor IS stronger than the Matcha but, the Matcha does come through – and I like the way these two work together.
Given that this was the old flavor that has been proposed to be replaced with the new and improved licorice flavor, I considered getting the delicate flavor instead, but I’m really glad I didn’t. This is absolutely wonderful. The balance between Matcha and licorice flavor works well for this licorice lover. Now, I’m just wondering how much better this could get … given that there is supposedly an “improved flavor” … because I’m loving this just the way it is!
My order specifications for this Matcha is similar to most of the other Matcha teas I’ve tried lately from Red Leaf Tea: the classic, basic grade Matcha with a distinctive level of flavoring. And it turned out fantastic! The flavoring here is spot-on so if you’re a licorice lover like I am – these are the specs … and this is the Matcha for you!
Talk To Me from Hari Tea (Shoti Maa)
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Hari Tea
Tisane Description:
It’s no secret that the mental stress of modern life affects us. How can we avoid this unwanted guest? Sometimes we can’t. But maybe with a little comfort, we can maintain calmness. Here is a big comfort – Shoti Maa Tea. Each of the varieties is formulated to comfort your senses in different ways. Traditional and not-so-traditional herbs and spices are blended to give you an experience of meditative well-being. And perhaps the biggest comfort of all: Shoti Maa teas are simply delicious. One sample of the heady aroma and taste tells the story.
Note: This tea is part of the Shoti Maa line of tisanes from Hari Tea.
Taster’s Review:
Well, after reading such a lovely description, I would have liked to have been as equally as eloquent and complimentary about this tisane as they are about the product. Unfortunately, I can’t.
That is not to say that this is a bad tisane, it’s not bad at all, but, it just doesn’t taste or smell – in the opinion of this taster – as good as the description sounds to me.
The aroma is herbal in a medicinal kind of way, which was a little disappointing as I had hoped for a stronger lavender scent. As it is, I can barely discern the lavender, smelling mostly the licorice. Now, I like licorice, as anyone who has read very many of my reviews can attest. It’s certainly a favorite flavor of mine. However, for some reason, it just isn’t working for me in this blend.
The taste is a strong licorice flavor, and something about the way that it unites with the cardamom and lavender just isn’t really knocking my socks off. It’s not a bad flavor, but, it is strongly spiced/herbaceous, again, in a medicinal sort of way. I find myself wishing that the flavor had a stronger mint note or even a stronger lavender note. Perhaps even a stronger cardamom flavor might work. But, as it is, the strong licorice really overwhelms just about everything else, and the supporting herbs and spices seem to accent the licorice in all the wrong places.
On the up side, I do find that sipping this is incredibly soothing to my throat – suggesting to me that this would be a good tisane to have on hand if one is feeling under the weather and wanted something to help relieve an itchy, achy sore throat. And I find it does help calm and relax me.
And it isn’t a terrible tisane, I just find myself wishing it could be so much more than it is. I find myself wanting more from it, and as it is, it just seems to fall short of the mark. I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this herbal, so if you’ve tried it, please do comment and tell me what you thought!