Imagine a jar of rainbow gumdrops. These sweets could go one of two ways: fruity, gumdrops, or seasonal spice drops. Is the dark purple candy grape or anise? Are the red ones cinnamon or cherry? Peppermint or pineapple? Orange or clove? If you’re not into these herbal-flavored treats, spice drops must be the bane of your existence. Sassafras instead of lemon?! Fooled again!
I like both kinds of candy drops, for different reasons. But the one reason I love White Christmas Tea from 52Teas is that it smells and tastes just like a sweet spearmint spice drop. The dry leaves are strongly fragrant with mint and vanilla, and the tea brews up with the same scents. The blend smells so sweet and perfectly creamy and minty, you can almost feel the spice drop sugar crystals on your tongue already.
This blend doesn’t feature the icy harshness of pure peppermint, but the gentler more herbal tone of spearmint. The natural creaminess of the spearmint is complimented by the vanilla notes from marshmallow root, bringing additional sweetness to the blend. A touch of cocoa and the black tea leaves add robustness to these candy-cane flavors, making the blend strong enough for any cold winter night.
52Teas is known to change their inventory on a regular basis, so I am not sure if this blend is in stock at the moment, but keep an eye out if it pops up in the future.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description:
Here’s our premium black teas blended with peppermint, marshmallow root and organic flavors. I know we’ve done a few marshmallow/mint blends this year, but this might just be the crowning jewel. As a few of our 12 Teas of Christmas sampler purchasers have already commented, the black tea lends a faint chocolate note to the mixture of mint and marshmallow.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Chocolate Mint by The Love Tea Company. . . .
Today we have a wonderfully minty black tea up for review!
This company’s website states that they donate 25% of their net profits to the Flagg Foundation for Mental Wellness, so buying this tea supports a great cause!
Another great thing about this company (in addition to offering great tea) is that their tea comes in cute little plastic canisters that you can either reuse or recycle. This is great if, like me, you’re getting tired of having to throw all those loose leaf tea bags in the trash because they’re made of paper (or plastic) fused with foil so you can’t recycle them or wash them out–or even if they’re just simple plastic bags, your city won’t accept them and you have to somehow recycle them separately (biggest inconvenience ever!). So this company is socially responsible and their tea packaging is eco-friendly (or at least convenient to be eco-friendly with . . . )!
For this tea session, I steeped 1.5 teaspoons of this chocolate mint tea in about 8oz of water (at just under boiling) for about 4 minutes. It smells nice and minty even before steeping, with a smooth creamy undertone from the chocolate.
While steeping, a reddish-brown cloud settles to the bottom of the cup. It starts to smell warmer and chocolatier. By the end of the steeping process, it’s reddish cedar-y in color, darkish but still see-through.
First sip: Very minty–like actual mint tea. There’s a distinct difference between a mint flavor from mint extract/flavoring and the actual flavor of actual mint leaves (mint leaves have some vegetal undertones and the possibility of bitterness if you oversteep, which the “extracts” don’t have). And sure enough, the ingredients list specifies that there are mint leaves in this, so kudos for that–we have actual mint here. And because the tea comes with bits of chocolate in it, this is a very naturally flavored chocolate mint tea.
With milk: it’s creamy, no surprises here. I use whole milk, which tames the mint quite a bit. It doesn’t bring out the chocolate as much as I was hoping, but it’s still quite yummy. I think next time I’ll need to be more careful to actually include chocolate bits in my spoonful of tea leaves.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this tea and we’re basically friends now. And I really appreciate the Love Tea Company’s social efforts and recyclable tea packaging, not to mention that their branding is really cute–I love the colors!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description
Did you know that February 19th is chocolate mint day? The combination of chocolate and mint is one of the most delectable pairings known to human kind. Its origins are unknown, but surely it was created a long, long, long time ago. This scrumptious Black Tea Blend is a real treat, just don’t steal all of the chocolate pieces before steeping! Brew up a nice hot pot and add a splash of milk and a dash of sugar and enjoy all of that chocolaty, minty goodness. Surely February 19th must be the tastiest day of the year!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Black Ruby from Terroir Tea Merchant. . . .
Today is one of those days where I need all the caffeine to keep going. I literally bring a tote bag full of tea wherever I go so I dug into my lovely portable tea stash and landed on this lovely option.
Black Ruby from Terroir Tea Merchant is a black tea described as having a smooth, sweet, and cinnamon mint flavor. That description alone peaked my interest. I’ve tried a few offerings from Terroir Tea Merchant and I have to say, even though I typically reach for flavored teas, they’ve even turned my head and made me re-think my mostly flavored tea stash and possibly add in more straight teas.
Brewed up with fresh prepped water, I accidentally allowed this tea to steep a bit to long. Recommendations called for 3 minutes and I think the tea steeped about 5 (at work and failed to multi-task properly).
I will say this tea had gorgeous cinnamon notes going in to steep but has an incredibly strong malty flavor. Even though I did steep the tea longer than I should have the flavors were stop on with a slight twinge of astringency (which is totally my fault). This tea is one of those that gives you that whole mouth feel and demands your attention. I can’t say that I picked up any hints of mint, the cinnamon was present. Combine that flavor and the malty tone, you’ve got yourself one heck of a cuppa tea.
I think I have enough in my sample to brew up another cuppa properly and this time I’ll pay closer attention to my steeping parameters. I’m hoping with a bit of patience, I can draw those minty notes out because a cinnamon mint tea just sounds so darn interesting!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Terroir Tea Merchant
Description
cinnamon and mint flavour. This tea is guaranteed to excite even the most jaded taste buds. Flavour: Cinnamon, mint and malt sugar
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
