Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea Forté
Company Description:
Combining fine black tea, Madagascar vanilla and coconut slivers produces a smooth and luxurious indulgence. Naturally sweet.
Taster’s Review:
When I first received this tea from my SororiTea Sister (Tea Equals Bliss, of course!) I had thought that I had tasted this tea previously… but I hadn’t. I would have remembered tasting such an exquisite tea!
The dry leaf has a strong scent of vanilla with a lingering note of coconut. It smells deliciously exotic. It brews up to a beautiful coppery color. The liquor smells a bit more like coconut than vanilla, but still smells yummy!
The black tea base is smooth and robust. It isn’t bitter, and it has a light background note of cocoa and flower. It has a fair amount of astringency that leaves the palate feeling invigorated.
The vanilla is pleasant here. It seems that vanilla is difficult (sometimes) for tea companies to get just right – and the flavor of the vanilla is either too soft to be tasted or too strong to be able to enjoy the other flavors of the cup. But that hasn’t happened here. The vanilla tastes sweet and creamy, and perfectly accents the coconut essence.
The touch of coconut in this blend is so delicious! I can even taste that light “oily” taste of the coconut that should be there, but often isn’t there in coconut teas.
This tea gets the coconut and vanilla JUST RIGHT, and these flavors do not overpower the black tea base. It is a harmonious blend of flavors that creates one of the BEST teas that I’ve tried from Tea Forté. I highly recommend it!
Orchid from Lahloo
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Lahloo
Company Description:
This spectacular fragrant Mi Lan Xiang oolong tea is the work of a true tea master! The beautifully twisted leaves make a fragrant and delicious afternoon tea.
♥ Sensationally sophisticated rejuvenation!
♥ Orange blossom honey, apricot, grapefruit
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf has a lovely aroma. It is floral with a distant fruit note, and also an underlying musky/earthy fragrance. The brewing process brings the fruit note into focus, and makes the act of inhaling the scent of the tea just before taking a sip almost as enjoyable as the sip itself.
The flavor is delightful – there is a nice fruit taste to it. I can taste the grapefruit and apricot notes as mentioned in the company description of this tea, and the way the sweet and tart meld together here is a very nice experience for the palate. There is a hint of a honey note which gives it a delicious sweetness.
Some of the earthy notes that I detected in the aroma are also presenting themselves in the taste, it isn’t a strong earthy quality, but more of a wood/musk/earth note that offers a nice contrast to the sweeter flavors of the cup.
This has a lighter mouthfeel than many Oolongs that I’ve tried, but, it is nonetheless enjoyable. It is smooth and reminds me a bit of chiffon – it has a lightness to it that is almost “airy” which is quite unusual for a mouthfeel – and even more unusual, perhaps, for an Oolong. But I think that is one of the things that I enjoy most about it is that it is so *different.*
This is a tea that should be consumed hot without sweetener (I think that sweetener would really overwhelm the flavors of this cup and you really don’t want to do that!)
This tea has a very autumnal feel to it – maybe it’s the amber color of the liquor, or maybe it is the earthy quality to the taste, but, it has a very comforting essence to it that reminds me of autumn. It is a fantastic Oolong – one that I would recommend to Oolong enthusiasts!