Reviews – Page 2

English Breakfast Black Tea by Steeped Tea

November 3, 2017November 1, 2017 by Sensiblyscript

I steeped this tea for two minutes at 212 degrees, with one heaping teaspoon per cup of water.

So this is another tea company I haven’t tried before, how exciting! Let’s get right to the details of this tea. I guess it’s a blend of black teas, since that ‘s how english breakfast teas are generally made. It has a nice, hearty, strong fragrance, which is of course exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a breakfast tea (after all, it’s meant to help you wake up in the morning, right?).

It smells a smidge bitter while steeping, but mainly you notice that strong, robust tea flavor! After steeping, it doesn’t look super dark; instead, there’s a cedar-like, chestnutty color, and it’s very clear rather than opaque. The smell fortunately is less bitter after steeping has ended, and I can detect some malty notes.

The tea itself isn’t noticeably viscous/thickened. At the first sip I notice plenty of astringency combined with a tad of bitterness, but not a lot. It’s not too bitter (not as bitter as you’d expect from how it smelled while steeping), so I’m sure people who like really strong tea (or coffee) would love it, or it would be perfect for if you’re planning to have it with milk and sugar. Or, to avoid the bitterness, I’d consider steeping it a tad cooler next time.

While sipping this I can detect plenty of tannins–it seems to be a highly oxidized tea, which is just what black tea is supposed to be, but it also has an extremely tangy flavor, which I find quite helpful for waking up in the mornings (or even in the afternoons if I’m having a hard time staying awake after lunch).

There’s not much in the way of floral or cocoa notes, although there may be a touch of maltiness deepening the flavor here and there.

Of course I also had to add milk (to test my it-would-be-great-with-milk theory) and discovered that this tea is indeed lovely with milk, and that the milk takes out the bitterness just as I was hoping. With milk this tea has a strong, creamy, and excellent flavor, and I find it to be exactly the sort of tea I enjoy the most. <3

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Steeped Tea

Description

This classic breakfast tea is fresh, full and flavorful. Traditionally served with milk.

Ingredients: Black tea.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Sensiblyscript

Hi! My name is Tabitha and I'm an uprooted PNW native living in the South with my husband and my cocker spaniel. My favorite teas are usually dark and strong and go well with milk and sugar. I like to combine tea-drinking with all of my favorite activities, such as listening to music, reading YA fiction, knitting, and writing blog and website content for businesses. Because I'm a well-rounded person, I also have other interests, such as wearing mismatched socks and pretending to be ambidextrous.

This post was posted in Black Tea, Steeped Tea

Organic Greek Mountain Tea by Klio

November 2, 2017November 1, 2017 by Sensiblyscript

Steeping time 4 minutes, 1/2 cup boiling water, 2 g of tea leaves and stems.

I have always been an avid herb gardener (although not, alas, always a successful one) and today I noticed what exactly it is about this type of tea that I found familiar. The leaves are similar in appearance (silvery and fuzzy) and even similar in shape to Lamb’s Ear, and I think the fragrance may be similar as well, although Lamb’s Ear is not actually well-known for its smell. (Plus, I can never manage to keep it alive so I don’t actually have a Lamb’s Ear plant to compare right now). When I looked it up, I discovered that the two plants are in the same family, i.e. the Mint family . . . but then so are hundreds and thousands of other plants, so that doesn’t mean they’re actually closely related. I guess it’s just the type of family resemblance that sometimes shows up unexpectedly between distant cousins.

The other thing that the leaves remind me of is licorice, or at least those licorice-flavored herbal teas that you drink when you’re sick with a cold. (Actually I may be thinking of the combination of licorice and slippery elm flavors? But I’m not positive.) It’s not an unpleasant fragrance, and I can imagine this tea being pleasant to drink.

As I steep the tea, the fragrance emerges more, but not at overpowering levels. The tea liquid itself does not appear to change color greatly, and after steeping appears slightly yellowish but not extremely so. The fragrance hasn’t gotten much stronger in the last couple of minutes.

The first sip is not quite as flavorful as the fragrance, but it does support my impression of this tea as being similar to an herbal tea used to treat colds. It tastes slightly sweet in the back of the mouth. It doesn’t seem all that viscous, but it’s probably giving my throat a nice protective coating as I drink it. It doesn’t need sugar, which is a good thing because if you’re going to drink it every day for your health then you wouldn’t want to add sugar or you’d counteract the health benefits, right? It definitely tastes healthy, but in a good, gentle way, not in a bitter-green-smoothie type of way.

I’m not going to say that I want to replace my regularly scheduled tea breaks with this herbal tea, but since it’s caffeine free I bet it would be a great nightcap. Plus, it does have quite a soothing and calming effect, so add that to its other benefits (such as its health benefits) and it turns out to be quite a valuable beverage!

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Herbal

Where to Buy: Klio Greek Tea

Description

This variety, Sideritis Scardica, comes from the legendary Mount Olympus, in the Balkans, situated between Thessaly and Macedonia.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Sensiblyscript

This post was posted in Fruit/Herbal Tisane, Greek Mountain Tea

Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea by Harney and Sons

October 18, 2017October 17, 2017 by Sensiblyscript

I steeped this tea in approximately eight ounces of 212-degree water, using one tea bag, for about three and a half minutes.

These are really cute pyramid tea sachets! (I know pyramid sachets have gotten much more popular recently partly because everybody is recognizing how cute they are, but it still strikes me every time!) I don’t usually buy these, but you have to admit they’re super convenient. There’s no measuring, no latching and unlatching a tea-ball or pouring through a strainer after steeping, no wishing the mesh was smaller so the tea particles wouldn’t get out, no wondering why all of my tea steeping baskets are in the dirty dishes and how I’ll ever get the cooked-on milk out of the mesh of the one that I made chai with that one time.

The Harney website says that there are three types of cinnamon in this tea; I wonder which ones they are. Google says there are four main types of cinnamon in the world today that are used commercially: Ceylon, Cassia, Saigon, and Korintje, so I guess this tea has most of those. It certainly smells very strongly of cinnamon, and there are chunks of cinnamon bark visible with the tea leaves in each sachet before brewing. There’s plenty of quality tea leaves in the bag. Much more intact than in most teabags.

The tea liquid, once steeped, is amber-like but a bit darker. The smell is like those red-hot candies that my grandma used to keep in a candy dish at her house–I used to always wish she’d let me have one when I was little (I didn’t get one very often though, in my recollection at least, but in retrospect that might only be “not very often” in comparison to the number of times I asked, which if you know anything about little kids and how many times they can ask for something per minute, means you should probably take that with a grain of salt). The tea is kind of opaque, probably from the cinnamon granules–which tells me that there’s probably powdered cinnamon in the mix as well as the chunks that I saw.. It’s a teeny bit viscous, too.

First sip: sweet and spicy. The spice isn’t as up-front as expected-more “hovering,” which is nice because it means that the tea flavor even comes through a little. It’s a tad astringent, but not bitter at all.

With milk–a good flavor but less fulfilling, because in this case the milk dulls more than enhances the other flavors. I’m not sure why–usually milk just makes things creamier and better. It’s still yummy with milk, but I’d tend to recommend it without just so that you can get the full force of the cinnamon! You could even add a bit of sugar–I didn’t try it here, but I expect it would bring the cinnamon out better in this tea than the milk does.

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Harney & Sons

Description

Our most popular flavored tea worldwide, Hot Cinnamon Spice is an assertive blend of black teas, three types of cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves. There’s no sugar added. Try our great value, a bag of 50 tea sachets. Each tea sachet brews a 12 oz cup.

Ingredients:
Black tea, orange peel, three types of cinnamon, cloves.
Contains Natural & Artificial flavors.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Sensiblyscript

This post was posted in Black Tea, Harney & Sons

Spiced Mulled Wine by Simpson and Vail. . . .

October 1, 2017October 1, 2017 by Sensiblyscript

I steeped this tea for 3 minutes at approximately boiling temperature, with one teaspoon per cup of water.

Looking at the tea leaves I see bits of orange peel among them, as well as blue flower petals. This is a nicely scented blend, although it doesn’t really smell like what I imagined mulled wine would be like (I’ve never actually tried mulled wine though so maybe that’s why). My first sniffs did detect a sort of depth that hinted at pu-erh, though, although it doesn’t actually have pu-erh in it.

It doesn’t look like pu-erh once steeped, either. It’s quite reddish, like a blueberry or citrus/rosehip tea, but doesn’t smell acidic or berry-ish. (Reading through the ingredients I discovered that this is likely due to the beet root in the blend.)

First sip: Pleasant flavor, not super strong, and definitely not acidic. It doesn’t taste alcoholic either, but does have a sort of sweetness at the back of the throat. I can’t really taste the orange peel, although it may be lending a slight freshness to the blend (not really a detectable citrusness, though). The black tea base is obviously one that plays well with others; it’s not shoving floral or malty flavors to the front, but instead providing a comfortingly well-rounded sip that warms nicely.

From the way the back-of-mouth sweetness is behaving, I wondered if this tea has chamomile or mallow in it, so I checked the ingredients and there are malva blossoms! Yeah, I wondered what that meant too, but apparently they’re a type of mallow, so maybe that’s where the flavor came from (don’t quote me on that though).

The tea base is also a light one since the tea itself ended up clear but red, not brownish or dark. (So clear that I could easily see the bottom of the mug.)

I added milk next, which didn’t curdle thankfully but did turn the whole thing raspberries-and-cream pink. I like a lot this way too, despite the fact that it probably tastes nothing like mulled wine now. <3

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Simpson and Vail

Description

Looking for a winter concoction without the alcohol? Then, this brew is for you! The blend produces a reddish cup with a sweet fragrant aroma and taste. The tannic taste is reminiscent of red wine and it is perfectly complemented by the light spice taste and the earthy undertones.

Ingredients: black teas, orange peel, beet root, spiced mulled wine flavoring and malva blossoms.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Sensiblyscript

This post was posted in Black Tea, Simpson & Vail

Golden Monkey from Tea N Joy. . . .

September 15, 2017September 14, 2017 by Sensiblyscript

Today’s tea sample is from a company called Tea N Joy. I’ve never tried teas from this tea company before, so I’m excited to see how it goes! This should be fun!

So I steeped this tea for around 2.5 minutes, using a heaping 1/2 tbsp and 10 oz of near-boiling water. It started to give off a nice malty smell right away.

I should describe the tea leaves, too; they’re big, well-defined, long twisty thin leaves with gold tips! Wonderful. They look very high-quality. I love it when my tea has entire tea leaves in it, especially when they’re this beautiful! According to Tea ‘N Joy’s website, it’s because only the very tip of each growing sprig is used in this tea; only the bud and one adjacent leaf.

As the tea steeps, it gains a rich, full fragrance with a slight edge to it and lovely chocolate notes.The tea liquid itself is a darkish copper-amber color.

First sip: Sweet, malty, and pleasant. In fact, it’s so sweet that I’d say it almost has a honey-like flavor. And, as the fragrance implied, it also has strong cocoa notes, not just while steeping but also while sipping.

Tea ‘N Joy’s website claims that this is a super-high-quality tea, and I tend to totally agree with that assessment. In fact, I’m tempted to place an order right now just so I can continue enjoying a premium-quality cup of this tea on a regular basis. <3

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Black

Where to Buy: Tea N Joy

Description

Golden Monkey Tea is hand-processed each spring with a careful plucking of only one leaf and one bud. It is among the finest Chinese Black Teas available today. A rich, full-bodied Tea. The name comes from its unique appearance: the leaves resemble monkey claws. Sweet and very ‘nosy’ with the aromas of: savory roasted apples, cocoa and spice notes that linger as you sip. Rich, coating texture and very smooth, soft mouth-feel. Delicate, almost indistinguishable astringency.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Sensiblyscript

This post was posted in Black Tea, Tea N Joy