Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tea Description:
Matcha tea is kind of like a super-powered green tea—since you’re ingesting the whole leaf instead of just the brewed beverage, you get up to ten times the antioxidant effect and nutritional value of your standard green. Matcha’s rich in antioxidants, as well as chlorophyll and fiber, and has been found to have natural mood enhancing effects. All in all, matcha’s got no match when it comes to healthy teas.
Learn more about this Matcha here.
Taster’s Review:
I could smell the berry in this as soon as I opened the package! I knew I was in for a treat!
I prepared this the way I would most Matcha, except that I didn’t sift it. I’ve had bad luck with sifting flavored teas in the past, so I leave the sifting to pure Matcha. Instead, I used the back of a spoon to help break up any lumps (there were only a couple) and then added some hot water to my chawan, and used my chasen to whisk the Matcha into a thick paste. Then I added a enough water until the Matcha reached the desired consistency. I don’t usually measure any more, I’ve been making Matcha long enough that I can just eyeball it.
The Matcha whisked up nice and frothy, and has a thick, creamy texture. It tastes buttery and vegetal and sweet. I was happy to find no chalky taste to it, not even in the aftertaste or when I reached the bottom of the chawan!
The berry flavor is sweet and tart, with the tartness tingling on the tongue in the aftertaste. It tastes kind of like a combination of blueberry and blackberry – sweet and juicy! YUM!
The berry flavor started out rather subtle, much more subtle than I expected with the strong berry fragrance that the Matcha possesses. But with each sip, the flavor intensified, and by the time I reached the last bit of Matcha in my chawan, the berry flavor was delicious and strong without being so strong that the flavor of the Matcha was overwhelmed.
Green Rooibos from Shanti Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tea Description:
A light, fresh tasting Rooibos which is quickly withered and steamed to prevent oxidation. This allows it to retain its green color. It has a grassy aroma similar to sencha, and tastes mildly sweet. Studies have shown that green rooibos has more anti-oxidants than red rooibos, bringing closer in line with green tea.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
As most of you are aware (and as I’ve said many times here) I’m not particularly fond of red rooibos, although I do find quite a few blends containing red rooibos that are quite tasty. Green rooibos is another matter entirely, and I can’t think of a green rooibos blend that I’ve disliked. Pure green rooibos though, like this one from Shanti Tea … well, I had my doubts.
So let me start by saying this: It isn’t bad. Not my favorite tisane, but it’s tasty. It has a light, somewhat fruity taste with hints of grassy tones to it, but a little different from the “grassy” taste you might expect from a green tea. This is more like a grassy/woody/nutty flavor with a touch of sunshine and fruit mixed in. Reading that back I realize that sounds kind of hokey, like a commercial describing corn flakes or something.
I don’t mean it that way.
What I mean is … you know that certain sweetness that comes from fruit that you only get when you’ve picked it fresh from the tree when it’s perfectly ripe? That kind of sweetness you can only get when the fruit has had time to reach maturity in the summer sun. That’s the kind of fruit sweetness I taste here, melding with the vegetal tone to create this unique grassy kind of flavor that seems to sparkle on the palate.
Overall, the flavor is light, with a background of nutty wood tones and a foreground of the aforementioned sunny/grassy/fruit taste. It is sweet, but it is a light sweetness to match the overall lightness of the cup. It doesn’t have that almost-artificial-tasting sweetness to it the way I notice in many red rooibos tisanes. The flavor here is very natural and pure.
It’s a pleasant tasting, enjoyable cup, reminding me once again why I prefer green rooibos over the red variety.
Apple Crumble from Shanti Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tisane Description:
Leaf Aroma: Apples and honey
Infusion Aroma: Baked apples
Infusion Color: Amber
Base Flavor: Apples, vanilla
Infusion Strength: Medium
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This tisane smells so good – like my gramma’s apple pie!
The taste is a bit more like the name of the tisane suggests: Apple Crumble. This tastes quite a bit like an apple cobbler or apple crumble. There’s even a creamy vanilla flavor to this cup to make it a bit like apple crumble a la mode. YUM!
The apple flavor is strong, sweet, and it tastes true to the fruit. It doesn’t taste like a fresh apple, instead, it tastes more like a caramelized baked apple with a sprinkling of cinnamon and brown sugar.
The honeybush is the perfect base for this tisane, because it has a natural nutty flavor and sweet, honey-esque tone which plays well to the pastry aspect of the crumble.
Overall, this is a delicious, dessert-y tisane. It is naturally caffeine free, so, it makes a great late-night snack when you’re craving something sweet but don’t want to eat something heavy and calorie-laden. This tastes indulgent without the guilt!
African Carnival from Shanti Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tisane Description:
This herbal blend is an exciting combination of herbs and spices. It embodies the smells and flavours of the African festival season and piques all of your senses creating an experience that walks a fine line between excitement and relaxing escape.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
I know I’ve said it before, but, I prefer green rooibos over the oxidized, red variety. The green rooibos (which is not oxidized) has a fresher, fruitier flavor that I really enjoy. Unfortunately, there really are so few green rooibos blends out there … at least when compared to the red rooibos blends. So when I saw that this rooibos blend from Shanti Tea was a green rooibos blend, I was very pleased.
While Shanti Tea does not go into details on their website about the ingredients of this blend, I can see large rose petals, chunks of citrus peel and pieces of dried fruit in there amongst the needle-thin green rooibos leaves. It brews to a golden color that’s full of fruit flavor!
The citrus notes are prominent, and they add a certain brightness to the cup, as well as a tangy taste that offers a nice contrast to the sweeter fruit notes of peach and apple. I taste the floral notes as well, starting out with a very soft rose flavor at the start of the cup, and by the time I’ve reached mid-cup, the rose becomes a little more focused.
Overall, I’d describe this cup as a deliciously fruity, lightly sweet cup – very enjoyable! It is a tisane that I think kids would really like because of its sweet, nectar-y like taste, and because it’s naturally caffeine-free you won’t have to worry about it keeping them over-stimulated … and they certainly don’t need that!
Red Chocolate from Shanti Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tisane Description:
Inviting and rich, the warm smell of chocolate greets you as you open the tin and settle in for a cup tea. A rich and smooth blend of Rooibos and cacao, this tea is a refined take on the comforting feeling of sipping hot chocolate on a cold day.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
YUM! This is so rich and chocolate-y that it even manages to satiate the chocoholic in me! And trust me, that’s not easy to do! It tastes LOTS of chocolate … and this tisane has got it!
It is rich and chocolate-y with hints of cacao bitterness. It’s a bittersweet chocolate taste, but the emphasis would be on the SWEET rather than the bitter, in my opinion. If you prefer milk chocolate, this would go nicely with a splash of milk, but I would recommend steeping it at double strength first so that you don’t lose any of this magnificent flavor.
The rooibos base is barely discernible amid all this chocolate-y flavor, but, I do taste some of the hints of wood and the distinct nutty tones of the rooibos. But mostly what I taste is CHOCOLATE … so much chocolate in fact that I think that this just may be the most chocolate-y rooibos blend I’ve yet to encounter. And that’s saying something, because I’ve tried quite a few chocolate rooibos blends.
If you’re an insatiable chocoholic like me, try this tisane. You’re going to love it!