Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
Tea Description:
“Gunpowder” green is a smooth, full-bodied tea that’s perfect for winter. Blended with a surprising ingredient list, we hope you’re curious to try this out! The vanilla cream is a perfect complement to the smoky gunpowder green & its natural nuttiness is accentuated with hazelnuts. “Peared” up with fruit and cinnamon, this is a really tasty blend.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! This Hazelnut Pear Green Tea from Petali Teas is really good. Then again, I have found that I can count on Amoda to choose some pretty tasty teas for me in their monthly subscription box. Occasionally, I might find myself a wee bit disappointed with something, but for the most part, the Amoda boxes are a big WIN for me.
I was very intrigued with this tea right from the start. The idea of pear and hazelnut together sparked my interest. It sounds yummy and very Pacific Northwest-ish. It sounds like a great big cup of yum.
And that’s what it is. The base of this tea is a Gunpowder green tea and it’s a nice choice for this blend. The green tea is earthy, a little nutty and has a hint of smokiness to it. It’s not really a vegetative tasting tea although there’s a certain ‘freshness’ to the flavor that plays well to the flavor of the pear. It has a soft texture and it’s not an overly astringent tea. It’s really quite nice.
And it melds well with every aspect of this tea: the nutty flavors and the hint of smoke enhance the hazelnut flavor. The earthiness melds with the earthy notes of the spices, which are warm but do not overpower this blend. Instead, they add an accent to the main flavors of hazelnut and pear.
I don’t taste a lot of ‘apple’ in this, I suspect the reason for the apple pieces in this blend is to look ‘pear-like’ because dried pear is a bit more difficult to come by than dried apple. I also don’t taste a lot from the orange, but it does add a hint of brightness to the cup. There is no real obvious note of orange, but you can tell that it’s there, perking up the flavors.
A really nice tea. I’ve enjoyed the teas that I’ve tasted from Petali Teas in the various Amoda Boxes that they’ve been featured in – I’m glad that this is a company that Amoda Tea has chosen to feature regularly!
Chocolate Frost Black Tea from Petali Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Tea Information:
Of all the mint chocolate teas we’ve tasted, this one is at the top. This is a dessert tea for pure tea lovers. The mint is gentle and the chocolate is natural. Think rich dark chocolate rather than sweet milk chocolate. Simply delicious.
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
It’s also part of Amoda Tea’s Holiday Box!
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m trying the second tea from the Holiday Box that Amoda sent me. It took a lot of willpower to save this tea for second instead of trying it immediately, but because I didn’t get the mail until after my ‘black tea’ time in the day, I decided to hold off and try this when it would be more suitable for me to drink a black tea.
I have found that when I drink black teas late at night, I end up lying in bed awake and unable to drift off. I can drink some other teas without experiencing this so I’ve come to realize that it’s the caffeine level of the black tea that keeps me more alert at night and unable to get drowsy. So, I find that I need to stop drinking black teas about four or five hours before I plan to head to bed.
But this is one of the teas in the Holiday Box that I was especially eager to try! Chocolate! Yes please!
And when it comes to chocolate teas, I find it difficult to wait until the tea cools. I have to have just a sip of what’s to come! So I took a small sip and even though it was too hot to keep on drinking, I could definitely taste chocolate and mint. Mmm!
This is very crisp and minty. A bit more minty than it is chocolate-y, in my opinion. But there is a nice amount of chocolate to this tea. If I were to adjust anything about the tea, it would be to lighten up on the peppermint just a tad and add more chocolate.
But what I’m enjoying most about this is that the black tea base is solid. It’s a strong background of flavor. It’s well-rounded and the flavor of the tea complements the flavors of mint and chocolate nicely. The chocolate is rich and tastes of dark chocolate to me. It’s smooth and has a deep, deliciously chocolate flavor.
The three components all work very well together and it’s a well crafted cup of tea. It’s strong – robust enough for early morning if you need a flavorful boost. But it’s also flavorful enough that it tastes like dessert. So it’d be like having dessert first thing in the morning and as far as I’m concerned, that would make everything right with the world so early in the day!
Orange Blossom Chamomile from Petali Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tisane Description:
Ingredients: German chamomile, mint, orange peels and blossoms, malva and lemongrass.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is the third tea that I received in my December Amoda Box (Yeah, I am behind, I
know) The other two teas that came in December’s Amoda Box were Black Tea Merlot from Vintage TeaWorks, which I did not review after receiving this box because I had reviewed it previously, and Minty Winter Wonderland from Tiesta Tea.
This Orange Blossom Chamomile from Petali Teas is a surprising blend. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of herbal blends, preferring teas with the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant, but, I must admit that I do find herbal tisanes to be a nice, caffeine free alternative for evenings. And this herbal from Petali Teas is really tasty.
When I opened the pouch, I was astonished at how good the dry leaf smelled. It smelled sweet and orange-y … reminding me a bit of orange slices (you know those jelly candies that are an orange gel that is covered in sugar? Yeah, those … that’s what this tisane smells like to me) and since I love orange slices, my mouth started watering when I first smelled this … and I started craving orange slices. Since I didn’t happen to have any in the house, I decided to brew a cup of this to see if it would help curb my craving.
Sadly, it did not curb the desire for candy, but, I will say that it is a tasty cuppa. Citrus notes are strong, and it’s not just orange that I taste. I taste hints of lemon and even a touch of lime. The orange is the strongest note, but, I like how this is almost like a citrus punch kind of flavor, rather than focusing just on the orange. I also taste a very light floral note to this.
The ingredients list peppermint, and while I don’t taste a distinct minty note that screams PEPPERMINT to me, there is a certain zesty … crisp, cool note to this that I attribute to the peppermint. That is to say … this doesn’t taste overwhelmingly minty … but there are qualities to this that are minty. Perhaps the strength of the citrus is such that it overpowers the peppermint … and for this particular tisane, that works for me, because it is … after all, called Orange Blossom Chamomile and not Peppermint Chamomile. It should be about the citrus. But I do like the minty characteristics in this blend.
Overall, I found this to be enjoyable … one I’d be happy to enjoy again.