Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot

pink-rose-lemonade-teaTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal/Tisane

Where to Buy: The Tea Spot

Tea Description:

Pink Rose Lemonade is a swirling collage of flowers with a hint of lemon and wintergreen. Like a fancy floral confection, this delicately handcrafted tea will refresh and soothe your palate. Pink Rose Lemonade is totally guilt-free, as it has no caffeine and is naturally sweet. Lemon, rose, mint, chamomile, and lavender spring to life in this absolutely fabulous herbal tea. Pink Rose Lemonade tastes distinctively wonderful brewed hot or cold.

Features:

  • Premium Loose Leaf Herbal Tea
  • Sample = 5 8-oz Servings
  • 1/2 LB Bulk = $0.31 / Serving
  • Naturally Caffeine Free!
  • Gluten-free & Sugar-free
  • No added flavorings

Ingredients: lemongrass, lemon myrtle, orange peel, rose petals, lemon balm, spearmint, chamomile, lavender

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot…that just sounds lovely, doesn’t it?  Well…it IS!  I’m usually not BIG on herbal tisanes but this Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot is something that sparks my interest that is for sure!

The product description and profile said the ingredients of this herbal tisane were lemon, rose, mint, chamomile, and lavender and that it is good hot or cold.  I agree!  First I want to point out how well these 5 ingredients meshed together so nicely!  The ratio seemed to be 1/5 – 1/5 across the board…at least that is what my taste buds seemed to pick up!  I’m glad because I don’t generally like or side with chamomile flavors but if you pair chamomile with mint I’m more apt to try it.  Lemon is always a plus.  Rose and Lavender I can be hot and cold on but here it worked!

Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot is refreshing this or any time of year!  This is probably on my short list of favorite herbal tisane offerings to date!

 

 

Jackfruit Delight from Mahamosa

JackfruitTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black Tea and Green Tea Blend

Where to Buy: Mahamosa Tea & Spice

Tea Description:

 

A fruity Chinese-Sri Lankan black and green tea blend with unique hints of spice. You will taste notes of exotic fruits, berries and creamy soft almond. Orange peels and flowers add flavor and decoration. Ingredients: Black tea, green tea, orange peels, flavoring, rose petals, safflowers, marigold petals.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Today’s tea I geeked out a bit – I have to admit – it’s Jackfruit Delight from Mahamosa.  Now let me tell you WHY I geeked out about Jackfruit Delight from Mahamosa.  There are several reasons.  The first being that it’s Jackfruit.  Jackfruit has been popular in certain countries for a while now but here in the US it’s gaining popularity and I try and find Jackfruit and Jackfruit flavored things whenever I can.  The 2nd reason I geeked out about Jackfruit Delight from Mahamosa is because it’s a Black and Green Tea Blend.  I’ve had a lot of black/green blended teas that have been pretty bad and this one is the complete opposite.  This black and green tea blend is super YUMMY!

Jackfruit Delight from Mahamosa smells like Jackfruit, green tea, and black tea.  Mission accomplished on aroma!  It ‘brews up’ a darker brown once in the cup.  The Jackfruit flavor is powerful followed by BOTH the green tea and black tea flavors.  My palate picked up about 60/40 green/black ratio.  I think this is a good ratio to have.  I have tried green/black blends before and all you can taste is a ‘stale’ green tea and very little to NO black tea.  This is NOT the case here with Jackfruit Delight from Mahamosa.  The green tea is nice and fresh and so is the black tea in this blend.  The black tea doesn’t over power the green tea or the flavor of the Jackfruit.  I give this tea two thumbs up on aroma, flavor, and blending success!

 

Goomtee China Classic First Flush Darjeeling from Udyan Tea

GoomteeChinaClassicTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black (Darjeeling)

Where to Buy: Udyan Tea

Tea Description:

Goomtee is a very well known Darjeeling heritage garden planted with pure china bushes almost a century ago. Picked from special section of the garden called Ghani between 3000-4000 sq.ft. height, this tea is for the strong hearted first flush lovers as it has a strong body with a very slight tinge of muscatel (grape flavour usually associated with second flush Darjeelings). It is a well balanced cup that leaves a stong after taste as well. With repeated steepings, the liquor becomes sweeter and midler. Perfect tea for long winding day with a good book in hand to read.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

First Flush Darjeelings are among my favourite black teas, as I’m sure I’ve intimated several times before. This one – from the Goomtee Estate – is apparently perfect for “strong hearted first flush lovers”. Well, we shall see. The dry leaf is a thing of beauty. There’s a mixture of long and shorter leaves, which have primarily been either rolled or twisted, although there are also some downy silver buds. There’s a variety of colours, from palest white/silver, through creamy green, darker grass green, to the medium brown of tree bark. The scent is fresh and mildly floral. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 2.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is golden yellow, the scent reminiscent of rose water with an undertone of freshly shelled peas.

One thing’s for sure, this tea tastes glorious! The initial sip is crisp and fresh-tasting, with a mild floral undertone. It makes me think of dew on rose petals – a clean, sweet freshness. The floral flavour develops in the mid-sip, where it’s more recognisably rose-like, with a strong perfumey aftertaste. There’s a hint of classic muscatel right at the tail end of the sip, richly grapey and a little drying. It’s not exactly astringency at this point, but nearly. I get the impression that this tea may become astringent as it cools, or if oversteeped.

It’s fair to say that I prefer the clean, fresh flavour of the initial sip to the strong, heavily perfume-like aftertaste. I dislike heavily floral tea in general, though, so that’s no surprise to me. I enjoyed my cup immensely for its flavourful nature, and it’s a great example of a first flush Darjeeling. It’s stronger than most I’ve come across, and while I typically appreciate the delicate flavours characteristic of this variety, I also enjoyed the bolder experience here. I’d certainly try another Goomtee Estate Darjeeling if the opportunity arose, and Udyan Tea is now firmly on my radar.

Good Morning Energy Tea from Tea Drift

Good_Morning_Energy_largeTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy: Tea Drift

Tea Description:

Black tea, lavender, rose, bergamot and rosemary.

  • Helps fight bad breath
  • Lowers the risk of diabetes
  • Improves damaged lungs from cigarette smoke
  • Reduces risk of heart disease

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Tea Drift’s Good Morning Energy Tea is direct and to the point.  Good Morning Energy Tea from Tea Drift contains Black Tea as the base with highlights of lavender, rose, bergamot, and rosemary.  But I picked up on something a little extra and somewhat mysterious.  It resembled lemon grass.  Perhaps it was just the naturally-morphed bergamot and rosemary combo.  Regardless it was a delight.

I was able to get about 3 infusions with this dry loose leaf.  Of course the first was the strongest and the 2nd was quite good too.  The only reason I attempted a 3rd infusion was to see how far I could stretch it.  The last infusion was fairly week but overall my experience with this tea was a positive one.

I’m not sure how much energy it really gave me but it was a pleasant morning cuppa either way.  The Lavender was more noticeable than the rose.  The Bergamot wasn’t overly intense and the rosemary really helped take the flavor to the next level.  The Black Tea base was nice…not too bold but not weak either.  Eventho this had Bergamot in it I wouldn’t call it an Earl Grey it was far from it.  This flavored tea has an identity all of its own and I appreciate that.

This is certainly worth a sip and many more to follow.  Try and for yourself and let us know what you think!

 

Rose de Mai Oolong from Dammann Freres

rose-de-maiTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy: Dammann Freres (However it’s not currently listed)

Tea Description:

“Rose de Mai” is a subtle blend of the vegetal notes of a spring oolong tea, to those fresh, bright and dazzling of a 1st press rose essential oil extracted from a rose of exception. A well-balanced tea for lovers of resolutely flowery notes.

Learn more about this tea on Steepster.

Taster’s Review:

Since I haven’t done one in a while, I decided that I’d do a blind tasting with this blend! Obviously it’s got rose in it, but I wanted to see what I noticed by drinking my cold brew prior to do any reading on it. I actually had some interesting results this time around:

My immediate observation was that this was a highly floral from the rose but also from the natural floral notes of the greener oolong base; specifically I thought I picked up notes of both orchid and sweet jasmine. There were a few sips where the intensity of all the floral elements felt a little overwhelming and I definitely think those wary of floral teas in general will find this too much, but overall I think they were all pretty well balanced/in check.

The big surprised was that throughout the entire cold brew I kept tasting the same juicy fruit note that I thought tasted pretty obviously of lychee. I was quite surprised when I finally did look up the tea ingredients only to see that there’s no added lychee flavouring. For me, that flavour was unmistakably present. I suppose, since lychee is quite a floral fruit, all of the other floral components of this tea could have contributed to the flavour, though.

Regardless, I thought this was a really pleasant cold brew; quite refreshing and thankfully with flavours other than a flat, monotone rose note. I’d definitely revisit this one, perhaps trying it hot instead of cold brewed.