Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Beacon Hill Teas
Tea Description:
This delightful decaffeinated ceylon boasts a rich ceylon flavor, and is playfully highlighted by bits of creamy mango.
Learn more about Beacon Hill’s Monthly Subscription here.
Taster’s Review:
I love my Beacon Hill Tea Company’s monthly subscription box. Each month you get 4 1 oz packages of a variety of teas for you to enjoy. Some of them I love, some of them I don’t. What I love the most is the variety of teas I can now try that I never would have thought of trying before. This tea is a perfect example.
A decaffeinated version of a ceylon tea with mango. A perfect tea for the spring/summer time. I brewed up this tea with the package instructions and then put to sphere ice “cubes” into a mason jar and finished the jar off with an orange slice. Can you save heavenly?
The tea is a lovely light fresh black tea with a creamy mango undertone. All ingredients are allowed to shine. The tea is amazingly refreshing yet simple. I love that. How simple the tea is. There isn’t a mix of complex flavors just fresh wonderful tea that make an amazing iced tea. I have tried this tea hot and it is pretty tasty but where this tea really shines is as an iced tea.
If you are looking for a great monthly tea box that provides you with a nice array of teas, then look no further. I love the variety the box provides and trying out teas that I never would have thought about trying before. Sure it is a bit more expensive than others but you do get quite a bit of tea that you can re steep for several sessions and infusions. So far I have been very happy with my subscription and don’t see myself cancelling anytime soon!
Self Care Blend Herbal Tea from Plum Deluxe
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush/Herbal
Where to Buy: Plum Deluxe
Tea Description:
One of the things we just love about tea is how luxurious a simple cup of tea can feel. We want you to feel like a
millionbillion bucks at a moment’s notice, which was exactly what our intention was when making the Self Care Blend.A curious pairing of elderberry (tart) and apricot (sweet), this all-organic tea has mellow flavors and is packed with nutrients. You’ll love it paired with a hot bath, a good book, or after a nice spa treatment. Elderberry — believed to help us tap into our inner magic — helps expel toxins and helps with colds and viruses, and apricot is believed to be one of the most healing fruits in nature.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This was my sample a few months back from my monthly subscription. I love my honeybush but sometimes that herb can taste a lot like its cousin the dreaded red rooibos. . .which tastes odd to me and medicinal. I hadn’t tried this blend yet because of this, but I decided today was the day for me to try it!
Brewed per the instructions with boiled fresh water and steeped for about 5 minutes and I have to say this isn’t my favorite tea that I’ve had from Plum Deluxe, but it isn’t one that I would have a problem drinking again. This is more or less a middle of the road one to me.
This tea is a lovely mix per the description of sweetness and tartness. I didn’t get any of that but I did get a lovely almost woodsy berry like flavor with hints of a jammy sweetness. Since I only had a sample, I wasn’t able to add more loose leaf in to strengthen the flavor to pull out more of those jammy notes. Those were definitely the best part of the tea.
I would love to experiment with this tea. I have a feeling it would make a gorgeous cold brew or iced tea. Or would be a great tea brewed hot with may more loose leaf tea.
If you haven’t checked out Plum Deluxe, do yourself a favor and pick up a few blends. Plum Deluxe has by far one of the best customer service, friendly, knowledgeable tea blenders/owners that I have ever encountered. I just love them! I’ve been subscribing to them for a while now and have no plans on stopping anytime soon!
Dragon Well/Long Jing from Teabook
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teabook
Tea Description:
Our green tea comes from Hunan, Zhejiang and An Hui provinces in China. In China today, most green teas are still pan fired like originally done in the Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368); this helps to dry the leaf in a way to prevent much oxidation to preserve the green color. From a health perspective, green tea is increasingly popular for its content of EGCG (epigallocatechin), an antioxidant which studies show may have a number of health benefits. Green tea flavor and aroma are often referred to as vegetal, mild, cleansing, and sometimes savory or buttery. The tannins range from bitter to sweet depending on the variety.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Teabook is an tea company with a very interesting concept. They provide consumers with individually wrapped servings of loose leaf tea. The packaging looks very similar to that of a tea bag. Each month you’ll receive a box from Teabook with that month’s tea in it individually packaged for your convenience. A very cool idea. To have loose leaf tea packaged in a way that you don’t have to re package it to make it portable makes me want to instantly run out and sign up. Right now it looks like they mainly have straight teas on the site, but I can see this being just a fantastic new way for loose leaf tea drinkers to get their tea.
This tea that I am trying from Teabook is a Dragon Well. I have tried several different types of Dragon Wells from different tea companies and was excited to try out this offering. I brewed this tea up with the water temp at about 180 per the guidelines provided on the package. I poured the contents of the package into my steeper and watched the leaves dance as the water was poured in. I let the tea steep for about 4 minutes and took my first sip.
The major flavor note that you get from this tea is a nice pleasant vegetal note that is rich and satisfying. I took my cuppa into a meeting. As the meeting was progressing, I started to notice that the pleasant vegetal note started to turn more and more into a deeper richer and dare I say darker vegetal flavor.
As much as I love my green teas, I have to say this one may just not be for me. As the tea cools, that seaweed like flavor becomes more and more pronounced. It reminded me of a rich black tea that you allow to cool for way too long and it has become too astringent for you. Similar situation here.
I’m still not sure how I feel about this particular offering yet. I think this would be one to try again later on but I still love the idea of Teabook and plan on checking into it. Such a great concept!
Namring Special Autumn Darjeeling Black Tea from Teabox
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Teabox
Tea Description:
Incredibly fresh & delicious teas chosen to match your tastes using data science.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Namring Special Autumn Darjeeling Black Tea from Teabox is not only a ‘mouthful’ to say – it’s also a ‘mouth full’ of tea to enjoy! Some of you already know that I start each and every day with a black tea and then after that I move on to other types of tea to enjoy throughout the day. When it comes to the tea base that I go thru the most that would be black teas. Namring Special Autumn Darjeeling Black Tea from Teabox is a black tea I would be proud to have in my tea stash at any given time.
Once infused it smells like what you would expect from a black tea base with an added speck of ‘crust’ to the aroma. Namring Special Autumn Darjeeling Black Tea from Teabox ‘brews’ deep and dark and the brown color stands strong. As for the taste it’s a medium-strength black tea flavor but more importantly (for me) it’s a bit astringent (but in a good way) and has a slight crusty flavor in the middle of the sip and subtle plum flavor towards the end of the sip.
Oh…how I LOVE teas with multiple layers and flavor morphing profiles. This one didn’t disappoint! Namring Special Autumn Darjeeling Black Tea from Teabox is “A O K” in my book!
Bananas Foster from Handmade Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Handmade Tea
Tea Description:
Handmade Tea is a once a month tea subscription company. Each month you receive a high quality tea that is unique and fantastic!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Bananas Foster is a dessert that I just can’t pass up. I love bananas and when you add in caramel and other goodies. . .I’m in! And when tea blends are created with this idea in mind to make a Bananas Foster tea, I just get giddy.
This tea is an oolong based tea with banana slices, butterscotch chips and cinnamon, along with a few other spices. The tea smells amazing and I couldn’t wait to dive into the tea and check it out. I eagerly steeped up the tea. I couldn’t wait to try this. I’m always on the look out for an amazing banana tea.
Brewed with water at about 190 degrees and allowed the tea to steep for about 4 minutes. Once the tea was poured into my cup, I allowed the tea to cool off for a few before trying it. First sip in, I was very pleased by the flavors I was getting. Now I will say, I still haven’t experienced any banana flavor in this tea. I can see the banana chips in the blend but I just am not picking up those notes. What I do get is this amazing silky smooth vegetal flavor with a caramel sweetness that just makes you smile. Every now again I pick up a honey note and butterscotch flavors. I wish I picked up more of that butterscotch and obviously the banana but having an oolong that is sweet and vegetal all in the same, that works for me! The tea is still delicious and I will have no problem finishing it. I had recently cancelled my subscription to Handmade Tea just because of the amount of tea I currently have, but I have to say, I don’t think I can quit them! I can’t miss any of these fun flavors!