Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Our Mint Chamomile tea will put a smile on your face regardless of the day you are having. Brew a cup of this floral, sweet and soothing tea and enjoy a wonderfully fresh finish of this beautiful cup of tea.
Chamomile Flowers, Roobius Tea, Peppermint Leaves, Natural Vanilla Flavor
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership here.
Taster’s Review:
What a happy day! I was so thrilled to find a box from Simple Loose Leaf in my mailbox today! So happy, in fact, that I decided to go against my “usual” approach when it comes to teas and I grabbed the tea I would normally ‘put off’ trying: this Mint Chamomile Rooibus Blend!
Tonight seems the perfect night for such a blend too. I’m up a little later than usual and I’m not really feeling all that sleepy yet. I’m hopeful that the chamomile in this tisane will help inspire a sense of calm and relaxation so that I can start thinking about catching some Zzz’s.
To brew this tisane, I grabbed my Kati tumbler and measured a heaping bamboo scoop into the basket. Then I poured 12 ounces of 195°F water into the tumbler and let it steep for 8 minutes.
I’ve come to realize that I’d really rather not steep chamomile blends in my Breville One Touch. The chamomile is a bit more ‘resistant’ to being removed from any infuser basket, and while I do scrub out my infuser basket in between every tea that I brew in my Breville One Touch, chamomile proves to be rather challenging to scrub out of the basket. I find it easier to clean the Kati Tumbler infuser basket than it is to clean the basket of the tea maker!
Even though I am often quick to say that I’m not crazy about chamomile or rooibos, I’m really enjoying this! I think it’s the combination of the peppermint and the vanilla flavor that I’m liking. The soft, creamy notes of the vanilla soften the crisper edges of the peppermint just enough so that the herb isn’t as invigorating as it often is. I’m not getting that exhilarating feeling after sipping this. The mint is cool and sweet and the vanilla adds a softness to it that is quite nice.
The rooibos adds a little bit of nutty flavor and a touch of honey-like (that honeyed flavor coming not just from the rooibos but also the chamomile) sweetness to the cup. I like that while the rooibos doesn’t present a strong flavor to this tea, what I can taste of the rooibos is a pleasant contribution to the overall cup. That is to say that it plays well with the other flavors!
Of the four ingredients of this tea, the chamomile is the one that I taste least. As I already mentioned, I do taste a light ‘honey-like’ flavor from it, but I’m not tasting much else from it. Maybe a hint of ‘chamomile apple taste’ every now and then, but it’s very obscure.
But I don’t mind that at all. I’m not big on chamomile, as I said, but I do like the flavors of mint and vanilla and since those are the two strongest flavors of this cup, I’m quite happy with what I’m tasting.
This is a soothing, comforting cuppa – relaxing? Yes. A really nice bedtime drink.
This tea came in this month’s Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership box, along with four other teas. This program is great for someone who likes to taste before they commit to a large quantity of tea – the five tea packages were sample sized, just enough to have several cups of tea to decide if you like it enough to buy more and when you do buy more, you get a discount on full-sized purchases! This Co-Op program is a win-win!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, January Review (Part 1)
This is going to be a rather unconventional review, because rather than review just one tea, I’m going to review the first two teas that I tried from the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club (scroll down a bit when you get to the page and you’ll find the Discoveries Club in the middle of the page!) and then tomorrow, I will review the other three that I received in the club. Plus, I will review the club itself.
The main reason I’m doing the review this way is that this month’s Discoveries Club included teas that aren’t available on Yunomi’s website, so they aren’t available for you to buy from Yunomi. These are exclusive teas available only to the Discoveries Club subscribers, and you should be one! So this review is more about the club itself rather than the five teas that were part of the review, although I’ll tell you about each of the teas too!
This month’s Discovery Club package was filled with five different teas: Sencha Suiren, Sencha Suiho, Mochi Rice Genmaicha, Hojicha Soybean Blend and Bancha Tea Blend. All five of the teas are from Onocha Tea Factory & Shop.
The first tea that I decided to ‘discover’ was the Sencha Suiren. It’s been a little while since I’ve had a pure Japanese Sencha so I found myself very excited at the prospect of a fresh tasting, clean, invigorating green tea.
And that’s just what this tea delivered for me. It’s a lovely tea. I found my palate refreshed after each sip. There’s a contrast between sweet and savory bitter notes. The sip starts out with sweetness and by mid-sip, I feel the savory notes tantalizing the taste buds. The finish is sweet and clean. There is very little astringency to this – as in I’m finding it difficult to detect much astringency at all! I feel a slight “tangy” sensation on the palate and on the insides of the cheeks in the aftertaste, but it’s very slight.
What was nicest for me about this particular tea is how the palate felt so clean and refreshed after I’d finish a sip. I felt it slowly rejuvenate me, as if it was removing the stress of the day.
It’s sweet, it’s light, it’s refreshing. It’s a really lovely cup of tea! After I enjoyed a couple of cups of this tea (the leaves resteep very well!), I scooped out the leaves and put them in a little bowl with a light vinaigrette and ate the leaves like a salad. Delicious!
Time to move on now to the Mochi Rice Genmaicha – also from Onocha Tea Factory & Shop.
Most Genmaicha has roasted brown rice, not Mochi rice. So I wondered how different this would make the flavor of this tea.
I noticed as I measured out the tea that there are very few popped kernels. I think I only spotted one popped kernel, actually! The rice looks different from the toasted brown rice in other Genmaicha. Other Genmaicha looks a bit like crisped rice cereal that had been toasted, while this rice looks much more solid. I didn’t notice the ‘air pockets’ that I would normally see in the roasted brown rice.
As far as flavor goes, this tastes different too. The rice doesn’t taste quite as ‘roasty-toasty’ as a typical Genmaicha.
The tea is still sweet and I do still get nutty flavors from the rice. The sweetness is a little different, this is more like a slightly sugary sweetness as opposed to the roasty-toasty sweetness that I’m used to from a Genmaicha. The green tea has a fresh, vibrant flavor that I expect from a green tea in a Genmaicha and it melds nicely with the flavors of the mochi rice.
This is different, but it’s very tasty in it’s own way. It also has a similar soothing quality that I get from Genmaicha. I don’t get that roasty-toasty cozy flavor, but there is a certain cozy character about this tea too. I like it and I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to try it, thanks to this month’s Tea Discoveries Club package!
Stay tuned to tomorrow’s post (same time!) to learn about the other three teas in this month’s Tea Discoveries Club package!
Darjeeling Second Flush Black Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
This 2nd Flush Darjeeling black tea is harvested in June and embodies aromatic deep earthen leaves that brew a gentle golden amber, full bodied, subtly sweet, and satisfying cup every time. So gentle and smooth, our Darjeeling 2nd Flush is the perfect afternoon tea. Best served hot.
Learn more about May’s Tea Menu for the Selection Club here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club subscription program here.
Use this code: SISTERSELECTION25 to get a 25% discount when you sign up for the selection club. This discount is not applicable on the retail selection of teas, and is only good for the selection club subscription.
Taster’s Review:
This 2nd Flush Darjeeling from my May’s Tea Box from Simple Loose Leaf is absolutely LOVELY! It has a lovely, well-rounded taste with beautiful fruit notes. I am tasting that lovely muscat grape note that evokes thoughts of a fine wine.
Of course, since I don’t typically drink wine, I mostly just imagine that this is what a fine wine would taste like if it were served hot and the alcohol content was somehow removed. But it has that smooth, uplifting, grape-y note that hits the palate around mid-sip and toward the finish becomes a bit more like a black currant. Delightful.
The flavor is sweet and smooth and there is a slightly tangy astringency toward the tail. I’ve found that with some adjustments in brewing parameters, I encounter less astringency with my Darjeeling teas than I would if I would have gone with a boiling temperature and 3 – 4 minutes brew time. Instead, I brew a Darjeeling at 195°F and steep for just 2 1/2 minutes. This offers a very pleasing flavor without a strong astringent bite that Darjeeling teas often have. There is still some dry astringency to this, but it isn’t quite as obvious as it would have been if I steeped it hotter or longer.
This is a very fine Darjeeling tea. A nice sweetness that contrasts nicely with hints of earth and wood. Juicy fruit notes meld with light floral tones. A really pleasant Darjeeling – this is one I’d recommend to those looking for a nice afternoon tea to serve while curling up to a good book or to offer to guests.
A really good Darjeeling.