Tea Type: Green Tea
Where To Buy: Shanti Tea
Product Description:
Fresh, fruity flavor and sweet aftertaste, a popular everyday tea.
This green tea is from the Five Peaks Mountain in Shandong province, China, famous for its lush green hills and pristine water. Known for its fresh, fruity flavor and sweet aftertaste, this China Green is a popular everyday tea. Green teas can be steeped several times with increasingly warmer water.
Tasters Review:
I would love to go see this “Five Peaks Mountain” some day…but for now I will have to live life vicariously thru this tea. And what a good green tea it is!
The first time I had this it smelled and tasted like broccoli…but the aftertaste is wonderfully sweet and semi fruity as the description states. The very first time I tried this I determined that this was a pretty good tea!
The 2nd time I tried this tea I picked up on a few additional notes…
I under infused it a little and thought it was even more lovely!
It was vegetal but more sweet than vegetal. It was slightly fruity on to the aftertaste which I thought was a nice touch!
It’s always nice to be 2 for 2 on a tea…this one didn’t disappoint!
Strawberry White Tea from Shanti Tea
Tea Type: White Tea
Where To Buy: Shanti Tea
Product Description:
This tea combines the soft flavour of white tea with a hint of strawberry. White tea is loaded with antioxidants and is also said to strengthen the circulatory and immune systems. A treat for nose and palette.
Story
Strawberries have grown wild for millennia in temperature regions throughout the world. They were highly prized by many ancient Romans. In the Middle Ages, they were prized again, more so for their medicinal qualities than delicious flavour. Today, the strawberry is the most popular type of berry fruit in the world. While there are more than 600 varieties of strawberries that differ in flavor, size and texture.
Tasters Review:
I tend to add more loose leaf than suggested because I usually like a strong flavor with most or all of my teas. The first time I tried this one I used what I would call my normal amount of loose leaf. I was completely shocked at the flavor it was almost too much of the sour and puckery taste to handle.
I promised myself I would then try the suggested amount…and that’s exactly what I did! It was MUCH better! A little goes a long way here, folks! This flavored white is packed with flavor and personality!
At first I thought this had hibiscus in it but I cannot tell – for sure – based on the description – I guess it could just be the strawberries in the dry mix. It’s a tarty/puckery type strawberry. In this case, I personally, prefer less as well. I am not really into tarty teas – so less is more with me! This one worked out really well when I did what they suggested with the loose leaf amount. The Strawberry flavor was amazing! I also LOVE that Shanti Teas did a Strawberry WHITE tea!
Another thing I would like to mention in this review is the aroma!
I will say I LOVE the way this one smells and it reminds me of a strawberry chapstick I used to LOVE as a kid…the 80s RULE…I miss them when it comes to certain stuff like strawberry chapstick! I know there are other strawberry chapsticks out there but not like the one I specifically remember the aroma to from the 80s!
I just LOVE creative flavored teas and lately flavored WHITES is something I have been extremely interested in. This is one of Shanti’s newer offerings and I think it’s a treat!
Darjeeling Green Tea from Shanti Tea
Tea Type: Green Tea
Where To Buy: Shanti Tea
Product Description:
Rare Darjeeling Green , light, natural aroma and subtle flavor.
This rare Darjeeling green tea is cultivated at about 7000ft in the Himalayas, at the renowned Makaibari Estate, the oldest (est. 1859) and most respected tea estate in the world, and also the world’s first biodynamically cultivated tea garden. This exquisite green tea has a light amber color, a mild, natural aroma and subtle flavor, with delicate floral hints.
Tasters Review:
I haven’t been this excited about a plain green tea in a LONG time! I swear Shanti made this tea especially for me! So I will take this time to say THANK YOU Shanti Tea!!
Darjeeling Green Tea from Shanti Tea is a medium strength green tea but it’s pretty equal in all aspects of grassy, buttery, sweet, juicy, mouth-watering, floral, and it’s VERY smooth. I guess one could say that this Darjeeling Green Tea from Shanti Tea didn’t play any favorites when it comes to one taste over the other and I am fine with that. Everything works out and plays nice with each other. There is a pleasant aftertaste which really makes me smile!
This is a really nice tea!
I REALLY REALLY LIKE THIS TEA!
HEY! Did I mention, I like this tea?
Kashmiri Chai from Shanti Tea
Tea Type: Chai (Black Tea)
Where To Buy: Shanti Tea
Product Description:
Traditional Kashmiri blend of black tea and spices which produces the rich, semi-sweet and nutty flavor favored in Kashmir.
This traditional Kashmiri recipe is a blend of black tea, cardamom, cinnamon, and almond flakes and essence which produces the rich, semi-sweet and nutty flavor favored in Kashmir.
Tasters Review:
Chai is a funny thing…It’s one of those “you can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time” sort of things. Many people take their chai VERY seriously. Some people say the more spice the better where as others enjoy it more mild. Others always add additives and some no additives at all. I know of many people who swear by chai prep via stove top and others who have never tried that method and think that way of preparing chai doesn’t matter. AND…several people go back and forth about which countries are famous for their chai and which are not.
As for this specific chai…I thought it was ok. There really isn’t anything wrong with this chai at all. Not in my book at least. It smells spicy but not overly. I can certainly taste the spices. The spices are THE flavor. It has a bit of a funky aftertaste for me but it’s still ok. The thing that stands out on this chai, for me, were the spices. I can taste little else past the spices, actually, but still think this is a decent chai to have on hand.
Question of the day: What are your personal preferences with chai?
Wuyi Rock Oolong from Shanti Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Company Description:
One of the purest teas available on the world market.
Organic Wuyi Rock Oolong is one of the purest teas available on the world market. This rare oolong hails from Mount Wuyi in Nanping Prefecture, Fujian, up along the border of Jiangxi Province. In 1999, UNESCO listed the mountain as a World Heritage Site in part owing to its outstanding biodiversity. According to the UN, Mount Wuyi is one of the world’s finest, intact, subtropical forests. Further complimenting the region’s reputation, Mount Wuyi is registered with the Chinese government as a biodiversity conservation zone. The climate of the region is relatively humid due to the fact that the mountain prevents cool air from entering the valley, and the presence of the 9 Bend River meandering through its valleys. Living with this subtropical paradise is an almost unaccountable number of species of flora and fauna. Many of the plan species living on the mountain are considered relics of a bygone age, no longer found anywhere else on the planet. In amongst this jewel of biodiversity grows the world famous organic rock tea. The tea bushes, like many other plant species, are ancient, having grown amongst the mountain’s rocky outcroppings for generations. Cultivation of the plants is almost impossible given the topography, so exceptional care is taken when handling and plucking the fresh tea shoots. The harvesters typically wear light cotton gloves when handling the leaves, which are harvested in small quantities so as not to tire the bushes. The fresh leaf is then allowed to naturally semi-ferment. The resulting flavor is at once rich, delicate, and laden with floral nuance.
Taster’s Review:
This is an outstanding Oolong tea.
The dry leaf has a nutty scent with woody tones. As it brews, the nutty fragrance develops, but even stronger is a smoky aroma. This worried me at first, because smoky teas and I don’t always get along… but really, once I tasted it I needn’t have worried. The smoke flavor is there, but it is oh-so-subtle and it melds harmoniously with the roasted nutty flavor.
The tea has a charming sweetness to it with subtle notes of spice in the background. There is also a distant fruit note that is a bit like peach, a typical characteristic of well-oxidized Oolongs such as this one.
I love the smooth, well-rounded flavor of this tea. The mouthfeel is light and silky, but it lingers well into the aftertaste because there is very little astringency to this Oolong.
A truly wonderful Oolong – and the first tea I’ve tasted from Shanti Tea… if this tea is representative of what I have to look forward to from Shanti, I am very excited, indeed!
