It goes without saying that a big part of drinking tea is the smell and taste of a good brew, but sometimes the presentation and design of the product can be a nice diversion. This tea from Nunshen arrived in a sleek, modern, well-designed packet. The bilingual instructions come with plenty of stylish symbols alongside the English and French, describing the temperature, brew times, leaf type, and the mood of the tea (Chai du Kerala is marked as, “relaxing”). The muslin teabag adds a soft, handmade touch to the whole experience.
The dry tea and the brew both smell strongly of natural cinnamon sticks, warming up the whole room. It’s a chai tea, and it has the expected heat and spice without being too cluttered. This tea is deceptively fragrant, following me around the house from the kettle to my chair in wafting waves of cinnamon. There is not too much ginger, just enough to add dimension to the cinnamon flavor, and both spices meld well with the earthy, malty, black tea base.
The tea’s package even numbers the blend, like a perfume or a vintage. Chai du Kerala is no. 91 in the flavor listing from Nunshen. With a sleek design and quality tea, I can’t way to try all the other numbered flavors!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Nunshen
Description: Love, healing and happiness go hand in hand as you sip on this unique blend. Hints of citrus and earthy tones will recover peace of mind and restore your well being.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Chai Du Kerala from Nunshen. . . .
Chai Du Kerala from Nunshen. Come over here and snuggle up with me – won’t you? This is the first tea I have ever had from Nunshen. I have to say I’m quite giddy over that fact.
This chai is ideal for the afternoon and/or evening and is of medium strength. This was harvested in China. All of that was listed on the product description of their website.
Love, healing, and happiness go hand in hand as you sip on this unique blend. Hints of citrus and earthy tones will recover peace of mind and restore your well-being was also listed under the description of this tea on the company website and I tend to agree!
I looked up Kerala and Google said that the region has been a prominent spice exporter since 3000BC. Kerala is historically known as Keralam and is an Indian state in South India on the Malabar Coast. So with a name like Chai Du Kerala this tea HAS to be good, right? YUP! It is! Don’t you worry your pretty lil head! It’s a winner!
It’s a completely satisfying chai – indeed! All of the chai flavors from the spices are represented. It’s not weak but it’s not over-the-top strong either. I’m overjoyed with this tea and can’t wait to try another tea from Nunshen! YAY!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Nunshen
Description
Love, healing and happiness go hand in hand as you sip on this unique blend. Hints of citrus and earthy tones will recover peace of mind and restore your wellbeing.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Discovering Nunshen’s Oolong. . . .
G’day, tea-ple! It’s time for another foray into the Land of Oolong — a lush valley between the mountains of Black and the rolling hills of Green. (Disclaimer: this is not literal.) Oolong is like Doctor Who: it can travel between green and black at will. You never know where it will be. It will always surprise you.
Today’s pick comes from Nunshen, which has a really chic Bauhaus-style logo.
The pouch that held the tea sachet was made of a fine matte plastic that felt like a high-end business card. The sachet itself was made of a nice cotton/linen sort of material and had the stitching turn into the string that held on the tag. (David’s Tea’s sachets have similar construction. I was always impressed by those, too.)
I’m sharing this because I LOVE good design. It shows, right from the get-go, that these people care. (Well-packaged tea might not always be delicious, but you know that they had some meetings and they WANTED your experience to be nice, at least.)
The oolong that came out of this hella-chic packaging is surprisingly earthy. It’s like I momentarily entered the world of Helvetica/Bauhaus and forgot that tea existed. All of this smooth black-and-white sans-serif typography is covering up… plants for me to drink. RIGHT. I WAS HERE FOR THE TEA.
More than anything, this tea tastes like healthy cereal. The descriptor on the bag uses the word “oats” and “long.” I’m absolutely getting the oats. When I ran out of my own cereal once, I tried substituting my mom’s, some kind of uber-fiber keep-you-regular comes-from-the-earth blend. This is that. If you love oats and earthiness, this is for you.
I do not, for the life of me, now what “taste: long” means. I actually opened up Dictionary.com and typed in “long” thinking there was some kind of secondary meaning. A Google search on “long taste” offered up a jumble of results, including one that mentioned aftertaste.
So I stopped sipping, and yes, I do still taste this in my mouth a moment later. So maybe they mean it’s a lasting flavor?
REGARDLESS, if you love some malty oat flavor, you’ve gotta get on board with this tea. And then report back to me on what you think “long” means. Please help.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Nunshen
Description
Get closer to nature with fresh grassy flavors and scents that will remind you of an open meadow in the spring.This blend is guaranteed to cœrce your mind and body to feel at peace and one with the Earth.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Holiday Gift Idea Alert! November’s Tea Box Express
If you have that person on your list that you want that special unique item for and they just happen to be a tea drinker (of any kind!), I highly recommend thinking about sending them a gift from Tea Box Express.
Tea Box Express offers amazing curated boxes that feature teas, tea accessories, tea trinkets and different snacks to go along with the tea. Basically, each month you receive an instant tea party. I just love this box. Yes, it is a bit pricey when you first look at it, but the value of what you are getting is typically double if not more each month. This month alone, the box featured a tea accessory that I’ve had my eye on for some time and that tea accessory typically sells for $18 without shipping or taxes. This box is definitely a wonderful value and one that is quite memorable to boot!
November’s box had so many amazing treats! A gorgeous leaf shaped shortbread cookie, a Tea Bling, two different kinds of tea from Nunshen, a chocolate treat, and these awesome flavored agave pouches-pumpkin flavored and caramel from Pura. I was quite pleased and couldn’t wait to dig in.
Let’s start with the My Tea Bling. This is the accessory that I’ve had my eye on for some time. My Tea Bling is a clip that you use when you are drinking any kind of bagged tea to give your tea a bit of pizzazz-there is a lovely disc full of sparkles at the end of the clip. I use this all the time when I’m at work and am so happy to have one. I’ve received a lot of compliments on my this sparkling accessory. I just use those tea filters you can pick up pretty much anywhere, make my own tea bags, ad attach this as a nice weight to keep everything where it needs to be. (Mug Cozy featured below is from Nandy’s Nook)
An oolong and chai tea were the offerings for the tea part of the box. They came from Nunshen, a company I hadn’t heard of before but one I’m now actively checking out. The tea was a bagged tea (which worked perfectly with my new Tea Bling) and we were sent a few oolong tea bags and chai. I wasn’t crazy originally with the idea of a bagged chai tea but after having the tea, I’m addicted.
The chai bagged tea packs all of those lovely chai flavors without the spices being overwhelming to the point where you have to add milk or sugar. The tea was pleasantly balanced and was a great tea for the afternoon when I needed that pick me up to keep going.
The oolong offered was also quite delicious and one that I found myself searching my bag for to see if I had anymore. Smooth and subtle with those familiar oolong roasted tones. . .another great afternoon treat. I think I favored this tea more than the chai but that’s just because I’m partial to oolong. Plus this oolong tasted delicious with both the cookie and the chocolate candy treat.
Flavored agave (from Pura.mx) is something I never had really thought about checking out but after enjoying the caramel and pumpkin flavored pouches included. . .I need to have a constant supply of this on hand. Both the Pumpking and Caramel were amazing in tea lattes and added that special kick that typically you can only get in coffee houses.
So many wonderful treats, trinkets, and goodies all packed into this box. Any tea drinker or enthusiast would love this box. Really great gift idea for anybody on your list. My family loves enjoying all of the treats together and we always have a family tea party with the box. (Pics of the cookie and chocolate treat-don’t they just look delicious!)
I really can’t wait to see what we receive in the next box!
Here’s the scoop!
Where to Buy: Tea Box Express
Description
Tea Box Express is a monthly box for tea lovers. Every month features a new whole leaf tea and unique accessories.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
