I don’t think I have disliked any of the teas I have tried so far from the Sunmoon Lake region of Taiwan! Lucky for me I had another one to examine! This time it was Black Ruby – Sunmoon Lake – Taiwan – from Terroir Tea Merchant!
Back Ruby from Terroir Tea Merchant is a low altitude black tea of Sun Moon Lake origin. It’s an ECO Cert organic certified legendary black tea with a smooth, sweet, and intriguing flavor. There are specs of cinnamon and mint to provide a natural yin and yang of sorts. It’s malty and sugary…naturally-speaking…there is no added sugar to this…it’s a straight-up black tea, folks!
In the product description it says this tea is Harvest Ruby #18 cultivar, Hand picked in small batches in the summer, Certified Organic, and the processing is Hand picked and natural withering for 12 hours in partial sunlight. Black Ruby is grown in a forested area of central Taiwan under natural conditions through organic cultivation.
This tea offers a sweet, smooth, and rich flavor with a deeper and more complex character that develops as you continue to drink it. As I stated before this pure tea has a natural fragrance of cinnamon and mint. PLUS a distinctive sweet malt flavor that is reminiscent of bourbon or even brandy. There is NO astringency and has a lingering taste that is very pleasing!
According to the company website and product description Black Ruby is unique and versatile because it can be enjoyed with any meal at any time of the day. Foods with spices like cinnamon and mint would complement the flavor profile of the tea. For more specific food pairings they suggest a cinnamon bun or pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast or a decadent chocolate mousse served in a brandy snap basket to enhance the tea’s sweet malt flavors.
I LOVE that they offer suggestions and pairing with this tea! What a great all around tea experience!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Terroir Tea Merchant
Description
ECO Cert organic certified legendary black tea with a smooth, sweet and intriguing cinnamon and mint flavour. This tea is guaranteed to excite even the most jaded taste buds.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Oriental Beauty from Dachi Tea. . . .
These long twists, amber and brown with white tips, are stunning. They are also sort of difficult to measure out with my “perfect teaspoon.” So what you’re getting with this review is a BEST GUESS at how this should have been made.
Regardless, this is a sweet little number tastes like white grape juice. It tastes like sugar, and flowers, and grapes, and candy, and ribbon-dancing.
Do you remember ribbon-dancing? There was a product called Ribbon Dancer.
My mom wouldn’t let me have it, so I took a stick, tied some braided-up yarn to it, and made do.
This tea is like if I’d RECEIVED a Ribbon Dancer. I would have been the most graceful ribbon dancer of all time. This tea is has an airy, swishy ballerina vibe to it. I might have under-leafed it a bit, but I genuinely think that it’s meant to be delicate. (It says “delicate” on the bag. I’m cheating a little bit here.)
You can’t buy this tea directly from Dachi’s site, but you can take a moment to look around the site. (And consider a subscription!) The site has graphics that show not only the tea itself but what it tastes like. Which is a wonderful way for a visual learner like me to discover the properties of different tea. I mean, look at this.
I daresay that’s the Ribbon Dancer of tea photography.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Dachi Tea
Description
Premium-grade, single-origin, direct-trade tea delivered to your desk or door, month after month.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Mesozoic Malt from Tea Historic. . . . .
More times than not, I reach for flavored teas though every now and again it’s nice to have a plain black tea. I would have never said that when I first started drinking teas because every non-flavored tea I tried was just not for me. It is interesting how tastes change overtime.
This particular tea is accurately named: Mesozoic Malt as this is incredibly malty. It has a bit of a briskness to it that is good for the morning without getting bitter or astringent. The flavor, in addition to the malt and briskness, is sweet and reminiscent of molasses.
As the tea cools, the briskness does get stronger so for my tastes this is best hot. Nonetheless, it makes for a great pick-me-up.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Tea Historic
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Genmaicha (Australia) from Blue Hour Tea. . . .
I steeped this at 190 degrees with 1stp tea and 1 cup water for about one minute. (The recommendation was 1-3 minutes, but after one minute it smelled super toasty even from across the room so I figured I’d better drink it before it got strong enough to knock me over.)
This tea does interestingly include a bit of matcha in the ingredients despite being a genmaicha, which is a great addition as far as I’m concerned. Also, I’ve never had a tea from Australia before (that I know of), so I was quite excited by this opportunity!
Once steeped, the tea was hazy and a bit cloudy, possibly from the dissolved matcha, and had a grassy but very light green color. Even in the fragrance I could definitely find the green-tea-flavor melding with the toasted-rice flavor. The liquid was a little thicker than expected, and as I took my first sip I found that it doesn’t taste quite as toasty as it smells. There was a bit more of the buttery, savory green tea flavor than I’d expected based on the fragrance, especially at the beginning of the sip. However, the overall flavor profile was nicely blended with most of the strength of the nutty, toasty flavor coming more at the end of the sip. This tea was smooth, not bitter at all, and it was somewhat astringent but not too astringent.
So the verdict altogether is that if you like genmaicha, you’ll like this tea, and if you like matcha-flavored cereal, you should try it with milk and sugar. In addition to being delicious it should also be really great for you (unless your doctor has told you not to drink caffeine, of course), since green tea and matcha both have plentiful health benefits. The only downside is that, although you can steep it multiple times, the second steeping isn’t quite the same because the match gets mostly used up in the first steeping.
I really enjoyed drinking this tea and would happily drink lots more of it if given the opportunity.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Blue Hour Tea
Description
Our Genmaicha is a combination of the fresh flavour of green tea with the undertones of roasted rice and the added richness of matcha tea. This premium Genmaicha is grown in the Acheron Valley in Victoria, Australia. There are only a handful of farms growing tea in Australia and this is one of our favourites.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Robust Offering from BRUU Tea Club. . . . .
There are some teas from specific tea companies that have been on my own personal WISH LIST for EVER it seems. Teas from Bruu Tea Club are among those teas. Recently I was FINALLY able to sip on China Keemun from BRUU Tea Club and I have to say that it was worth the wait!
The flavor was on the stronger side of medium with notes of smoke and roasted nuts, even. It was even a bit floral at times – fading in and out – gently but elegantly, too! The aftertaste was a bit more smoky that the sip was but it lingered nicely. I’m not saying that it was a smoky tea like an Lapsang Souchong but there were nods of smoke that made it pretty unique.
The aroma, the taste, the darkness in the cup post-infusion all have the glorious trio of traits I look for in a stright-up, stand-up, and stand-alone black tea. I can’t wait to try other teas from BRUU.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: BRUU Tea Club
Description
Whilst sitting dry in its container waiting to become your BRUU;
Smokey and very much a black Camelia Sinensis. Reminiscent of a roasted monkey nut.
As the drink is BRUUing;
The aroma is almost flowery.
The taste journey;
A light black tea with a hint of smokiness in the aftertaste.
Best enjoyed;
1tsp // 100°C // 2-4 mins