Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: English Tea Shop
Tea Description:
Candy Cane: Green tea, peppermint leaves, orange peels, cinnamon pieces, chicory, strawberry leaves and vanilla pods with mint, vanilla and coconut flavours.
Taster’s Review:
This Candy Cane Green Tea from English Tea Shop is another tea from the holiday package that I received from a friend this past Christmas. The dry aroma smells like a candy cane … but there is also an artificial sort of smell to the dry leaf too. It’s a little off-putting, but I’m hoping that it won’t affect the flavor of the brewed tea.
Yeah, I can still taste a bit of that artificial-ness, but, while it did smell a bit off, it doesn’t taste horrible. On the contrary, this is actually tasty. The flavors of candy cane are there: mint and vanilla.
I taste hints of orange and cinnamon too, and they lend a holiday kind of warmth to the cup. I like that while I can taste these flavors, they don’t interrupt the candy cane notes that I’m tasting, rather, they seem to accentuate the candy cane flavors.
And then there is the chicory and coconut which I think is what I was smelling and tasting that is so odd. Maybe not so much an artificial scent but it’s just weird that I was smelling (and now tasting) coconut and chicory in there, you know? It’s just … strange. It doesn’t taste bad, just a bit unusual and a little out there, you know?
The green tea seems a little lost in this blend, and I think I’m finding myself wishing I was tasting a little less of these other flavors and more of the green tea with mint and vanilla to give it a more candy cane-ish sort of taste.
Overall, it’s not a bad candy cane tribute, and I’d drink it again if it were offered to me. It’s sweet, minty and creamy, just like I’d expect from a candy cane and I like that. But there are some other flavors in there that make this tea sort of stray from what it would seem should be its original intent, which is to be a candy cane tea. The result of which makes this an average tasting candy cane tea. Not great, but not bad either.
Holiday Blend Black Tea from English Tea Shop
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: English Tea Shop
Tea Description:
Holiday Blend: Black tea, cinnamon pieces, ginger pieces, cardamom pieces, nutmeg pieces, pepper, cloves and orange peels with vanilla and apple flavours.
Taster’s Review:
I received a lovely tea package from a friend for the holiday, and this Holiday Blend Black Tea from English Tea Shop is one of the teas that she sent me. And because the ingredients sound very “chai-like” to me, I decided to categorize this as a chai tea as well as a black tea.
However, I must admit that it doesn’t taste quite as chai-like as it sounds. (Yes, I know that chai means tea … but I’ve come to think of chai as a blend of spices and tea rather than just “tea.”) This is a bagged tea, and I’ve never made any secret about my feelings about bagged teas, but for what this is (that being a bagged tea) it’s really not bad. I steeped it for 2 1/2 minutes in boiling water and the flavor is sweet and warmly spiced with tasty fruit notes.
The black tea base is a mild-tasting black tea, leaving me to suspect that it is probably a Ceylon. It has a medium body, and it has a smooth, even taste – it’s not an overly assertive tasting tea.
The spices are not assertive either. They’re gently warming, and I think that with this particular blend, it is the moderate spice levels that make it work … there is just the right amount of spice here. In one sip, I notice subtle touches of cinnamon, ginger and clove. In the next, I’ll pick up on hints of cardamom, and nutmeg. In the next, I’ll notice the softness of vanilla peeking through, and a kick of pepper toward the finish. Every spice is represented without the blend ever tasting too spicy.
The same is true for the apple and orange notes. The apple is smooth and sweet, and the orange brightens the cup with a sunny note of citrus, but neither fruit tastes overly done. All the flavors here have been carefully balanced so that all the flavors are accounted for without any one flavor profile overpowering the blend.
It’s a pleasant cup of holiday cheer!
Champagne Cider Honeybush Blend from Butiki Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Tisane Description:
A champagne cider cocktail for the day after the holiday party. Apple is the undercurrent of this fantastic flavour combination that really does taste like champagne. Add in spiced apples, hints of orange and a touch of natural sweetness and you get this incredibly unique tea.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
This Champagne Cider Honeybush Blend from Butiki Teas is really delicious. Of course, I certainly didn’t doubt that it would be, given the success that I’ve had with Butiki Teas’ blends. Stacy at Butiki Teas knows what she’s doing – she’s brilliant!
I don’t know that I’m tasting a lot of champagne here, but I can definitely smell the champagne in both the dry leaf and the brewed tisane. The flavor of the champagne is a little more difficult to discern, but I do pick up on the champagne-like taste when I slurp to aerate the liquid as I take a sip.
But I do taste the fruit! The orange, which can sometimes be an overly-prominent flavor in a tea or tisane, is instead a subtle note here. The apple is sweet and equally matched with the level of orange flavor. These fruit notes are softer flavors to mimic a “mulled” champagne cider.
And then we have the spices. The spices are also on the subtle side. I taste the notes of cinnamon and clove, but neither is overpowering the cup. Everything stays nicely balanced, even the cinnamon which can often be a selfish spice and take over. It doesn’t do that here, it stays gently warm … softly spiced.
I’m not typically all that excited about tisanes. That is to say, I’d rather drink a camellia sinensis tea than an herbal tisane like this honeybush blend. But, I do like this quite a bit. Butiki Teas really knocked this one out of the park!
Dreamsicle Puerh from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Created for our recent crowd-funding effort on indiegogo.com, this is a lovely sheng puerh blended with freeze-dried oranges and organic flavors. This is a real treat, but there are only a few available.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
When 52Teas offered a special limited-edition blend as one of the rewards of the re-open Zoomdweebies campaign on indiegogo, I knew I had to buy in and get one of those limited-edition blends! And this Dreamsicle Puerh is the mystery, special limited-edition blend that 52Teas made for that campaign!
And while I wasn’t as excited about the prospect of a limited-edition pu-erh tea as I would have been about perhaps another type of tea, I really am enjoying this a lot more than I expected to like it. I guess it’s just another case of me pre-judging a pu-erh before I’ve tasted it. I do that a lot, as you probably are aware from my previous pu-erh reviews.
But the first thing that convinced me that this was different was when I opened the pouch and smelled the strong very dreamsicle-ish aroma. I didn’t smell an overwhelming earth scent. I didn’t smell fish or brine or dirt. I smelled orange and vanilla and a slight vegetative scent in the background. The brewed tea has a very slight earthy tone to it, but it isn’t off-putting nor does it overpower the delightful notes of orange and vanilla.
I brewed this the same way I’d brew any pu-erh … in my gaiwan! After a quick fifteen second rinse, I brewed the tea for 45 seconds for the first infusion, and the flavor here is pleasant and light. The “dreamsicle” flavor is prominent with lots of sweet orange and creamy vanilla tones. The sheng puerh adds a hint of vegetative taste to the cup and it’s vaguely reminiscent of a white tea. I notice notes of hay and a slight earthiness, but it’s not anything that overpowers the cup. There’s actually a really enjoyable balance between tea and flavoring here.
With the second infusion, I’m noticing that the orange notes have muted somewhat. The vanilla notes are more prominent than the orange now, as are the notes of the puerh. There is more of an earthy note, but not so much a “dirt” or “brine” kind of taste that is often associated with a puerh … this is the good stuff! There is no bitterness to the cup, but I am noticing a slightly dry finish that I didn’t notice with the first cup. With the subsequent infusions I found that the dreamsicle flavors continued to subside, allowing the complexity of the mellow sheng tea to emerge more fully.
At first, I admit that I was just a little disappointed by this development, because the orange and vanilla flavors are really delightful, however, I’m thinking about this in a different way now. I got to experience those delicious creamy citrus notes in the first infusion, and as I progressed through the infusions, the dreamsicle notes waned but I got to then experience a really lovely sheng puerh! I get the best of both: a flavored tea and a delightful puerh!
Organic Sungma FTGFOP-1 Black Tea from Kally Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
Sungma – This is one of the most respected tea estates in Darjeeling. This black Darjeeling tea offering produces a wonderfully balanced liquor. This is what you come to expect from top tea estates in taste and aroma.
This grade of tea “FTGFOP-1” stands for “Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe #1”. This tea is hand processed, with one quarter of it consisting of tips.
A joke among tea aficionados is that “FTGFOP” stands for “Far Too Good For Ordinary People” so try this tea and welcome to the ranks of the privileged.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Of the information that is provided for this tea, the one thing that is missing is which flush Organic Sungma FTGFOP-1 Black Tea from Kally Tea was harvested. But the flavor suggests to me that this is most likely a first flush. In my experience, the second flush Darjeeling teas tend to possess more of that “muscatel” taste while the first flush tends to be a little more woodsy.
And this tea does have more of that woodsy kind of flavor to it. In the dry leaf aroma, that’s the first thing I picked up on was a woodsy kind of fragrance, reminding me of the scent one might experience while walking through a heavily wooded forest just after it rained, when the scent of the trees is really prolific. The brewed tea has some of this fragrance as well, but it isn’t as pronounced as it is in the dry leaf.
The flavor – as I’ve already mentioned – is also woodsy. It also does have some delightful floral notes in the distance, and some sweet fruity notes that seem to emerge as the tea cools slightly. The first couple of sips that I tasted, I didn’t really notice a lot of fruit or flower to this cup, but now that it’s had a few minutes to cool to a drinkable temperature, I notice more of the fruity tones and floral notes.
But mostly what I notice here is an earthy, woodsy tone. It is crisp and focused. The mouthfeel is pleasant, and the flavor is uplifting. The fruit notes provide more of a sweetness than a real distinct, identifiable fruit flavor, and it isn’t exactly a muscatel-ish note. This has some astringency toward the finish, but it isn’t as dry as some Darjeeling teas that I’ve tasted. It’s really quite enjoyable – a very good afternoon tea.
I don’t know that I’d say it’s Far Too Good For Ordinary People – mostly because I’m not in to arrogance like that – but it is certainly good, and I do appreciate that it’s part of Kally Tea’s organic line of teas, and it’s a good one to try if you’re looking for a good quality Darjeeling.