Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lemon Lily
Tea Description:
Organic Ingredients: Black Tea, Pomegranate, Safflower, Orange Peel, Lemon Peel.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
For this review, I felt a little bit at a disadvantage. This Pomteani from Lemon Lily was another of the three teas that I received in the most recent edition from Postal Teas’ subscription service, but because Postal Teas hasn’t updated their blog in a long while and because I was unable to find this tea anywhere on the Lemon Lily website, I couldn’t find any information about the tea – not even a photo of the loose leaf tea. (And my camera battery, of course, needs to be recharged.)
So, I’ll just wing this review without a description from either company and without photos. Hey, I can do this, I’m a professional. (No wisecracks!) Well, maybe I’m not a professional reviewer – but I pretend to be one on the internet.
First of all, I need to say that I don’t know how accurate the ingredient list is. I see the bits of lemon and orange peel, I see the bits of safflower petal and the black tea leaves. I don’t see any pomegranate arils, but what I do see is a powdery substance that reminds me a bit of the beet powder that I found in the Beauty & The Beet blend only this powdery substance wasn’t hot pink. It’s more like a pale blonde color. Is this the pomegranate the ingredient list speaks of? I’ve never seen pomegranate look like that before. But either this is, in fact, the pomegranate, or there’s another ingredient that the list above doesn’t include.
To brew this, I used my Breville One Touch. I added 500ml of freshly filtered water into the jug and 2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket of the tea maker and set the parameters for 2 1/2 minutes at 212°F.
And I definitely taste the pomegranate. I also taste notes of citrus. The black tea is medium bodied tea with an even tone and texture, I suspect it’s a Ceylon. It has some astringency to it and it’s an astringency that seems to build, as I found the second half of my cup to be more astringent than the first half.
It’s a flavorful cuppa, and would make a nice afternoon tea. I guess it would also make a nice cocktail – or at least a very attractive one to serve for today: Valentine’s Day.
Overall, this tea is just alright. I didn’t enjoy this as much as I’ve enjoyed the other offerings that I’ve tried from Lemon Lily.
Mint Chamomile Rooibus Blend from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Our Mint Chamomile tea will put a smile on your face regardless of the day you are having. Brew a cup of this floral, sweet and soothing tea and enjoy a wonderfully fresh finish of this beautiful cup of tea.
Chamomile Flowers, Roobius Tea, Peppermint Leaves, Natural Vanilla Flavor
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership here.
Taster’s Review:
What a happy day! I was so thrilled to find a box from Simple Loose Leaf in my mailbox today! So happy, in fact, that I decided to go against my “usual” approach when it comes to teas and I grabbed the tea I would normally ‘put off’ trying: this Mint Chamomile Rooibus Blend!
Tonight seems the perfect night for such a blend too. I’m up a little later than usual and I’m not really feeling all that sleepy yet. I’m hopeful that the chamomile in this tisane will help inspire a sense of calm and relaxation so that I can start thinking about catching some Zzz’s.
To brew this tisane, I grabbed my Kati tumbler and measured a heaping bamboo scoop into the basket. Then I poured 12 ounces of 195°F water into the tumbler and let it steep for 8 minutes.
I’ve come to realize that I’d really rather not steep chamomile blends in my Breville One Touch. The chamomile is a bit more ‘resistant’ to being removed from any infuser basket, and while I do scrub out my infuser basket in between every tea that I brew in my Breville One Touch, chamomile proves to be rather challenging to scrub out of the basket. I find it easier to clean the Kati Tumbler infuser basket than it is to clean the basket of the tea maker!
Even though I am often quick to say that I’m not crazy about chamomile or rooibos, I’m really enjoying this! I think it’s the combination of the peppermint and the vanilla flavor that I’m liking. The soft, creamy notes of the vanilla soften the crisper edges of the peppermint just enough so that the herb isn’t as invigorating as it often is. I’m not getting that exhilarating feeling after sipping this. The mint is cool and sweet and the vanilla adds a softness to it that is quite nice.
The rooibos adds a little bit of nutty flavor and a touch of honey-like (that honeyed flavor coming not just from the rooibos but also the chamomile) sweetness to the cup. I like that while the rooibos doesn’t present a strong flavor to this tea, what I can taste of the rooibos is a pleasant contribution to the overall cup. That is to say that it plays well with the other flavors!
Of the four ingredients of this tea, the chamomile is the one that I taste least. As I already mentioned, I do taste a light ‘honey-like’ flavor from it, but I’m not tasting much else from it. Maybe a hint of ‘chamomile apple taste’ every now and then, but it’s very obscure.
But I don’t mind that at all. I’m not big on chamomile, as I said, but I do like the flavors of mint and vanilla and since those are the two strongest flavors of this cup, I’m quite happy with what I’m tasting.
This is a soothing, comforting cuppa – relaxing? Yes. A really nice bedtime drink.
This tea came in this month’s Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op Membership box, along with four other teas. This program is great for someone who likes to taste before they commit to a large quantity of tea – the five tea packages were sample sized, just enough to have several cups of tea to decide if you like it enough to buy more and when you do buy more, you get a discount on full-sized purchases! This Co-Op program is a win-win!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 2)
As I mentioned in yesterday’s article – I’m back with “Part 2” of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club review of February’s shipment! Today’s article will highlight my experiences with two more Hojicha teas as well as another Japanese Oolong – I’m excited to get started, so let’s not dilly-dally! Let’s jump right in!
The first tea that I’ll be discussing is Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from Takeo Tea Farm. The first thing I noticed about this tea is that it starts out delicately. My first few sips were very softly flavored. I could taste light notes of sweet, toasty nut flavor, but they were quite subtle. It wasn’t until the third or fourth sip that the flavors started to become more focused. Now that I’m about halfway through the cup, the flavors are sweet, roasty-toasty, and nutty … and very well defined!
With those initial first couple of sips, I was starting to think that this tea was much more delicate than the Hojicha I had tasted for yesterday’s article, but now, I’m thinking twice about that. These two Hojicha are very similar though, but I think that this one might taste a little more ‘roasted.’ Both are spectacular varieties of Hojicha, though, and I’d heartily recommend either, but this is the one I’d point you toward if you were looking for a stronger roasted flavor.
The next tea that I’m tasting from Yunomi’s Tea Discoveries February package is #03 Black Oolong Tea from Kaneban Higuchi Tea Factory. I found myself wondering as I brewed this tea in my gaiwan how much different it would be from last night’s experience with the Oolong tea from Takeo.
And there are some distinct differences in the two. This has more of a sweet potato flavor to it! I love that I’m tasting sweet potato! There are hints of smoke to the flavor. This reminds me more of a black tea than an Oolong. It doesn’t have the same texture as I experienced with the Oolong from Takeo.
If I were to attempt to describe this tea in one sentence, it might go something like this: this tea is what I’d imagine the love child of a Japanese black tea and Formosa Oolong tea would taste like. I’m getting that rich flavor that I remember from the few Japanese black teas that I’ve tried, and I’m tasting notes of peach that I’d taste in a Formosa Oolong. Along with the softest hint of smoke.
Quite lovely!
The final tea in this month’s Tea Discoveries package is Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea. When I opened this pouch, the roasty-toasty aroma filled the air. This tea seems to have more roasty-toasty-ness to it.
And that’s evident in the flavor too. The flavor here is much stronger, right from the very first sip. The roasted flavors are intense. I can almost taste the charred wood notes of the wood that was used to roast this tea. Most Hojicha – including the previous two teas that I tasted from this month’s Tea Discoveries Club – tend to have a delicate flavor. This tea is more in your face. Very roasty. Very toasty! Very nutty and sweet. I’m getting mineral notes and a distinct charcoal-y flavor from it too.
And smoke! I don’t usually taste smoke from a Hojicha. I taste the roasty-toasty, nutty flavors, but the smoke? No, not always. I might have noticed smoke on an occasion or two, but here, the smoke is evident, particularly in the aftertaste. Nice!
This is the tea for those who liked Hojicha but wanted a stronger flavor to it. This tea delivers that! It’s warm and cozy and comforting, but it’s also offers a bold flavor that is not common in your average Hojicha.
This month’s Tea Discoveries Club just reaffirms to me that YOU should be joining me on these discoveries! The teas are remarkable and it’s really interesting for me to see how teas – like Hojicha – can differ from producer to producer. You should never judge your like/dislike of a particular tea type based only on one sampling. You should give yourself a chance to explore the teas – even those you may not have enjoyed from other tea companies – because you never know what you might be missing.
The Tea Discoveries Club gives you the unique opportunity to really explore Japanese Teas!
Christmas Fruitcake Iced Black Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
What’s Christmas without fruitcake? Not some brick of processed dried up yuck and colored cherries, but real, moist, sweet cake with cherries, oranges, cranberries, and pineapple–that’s the kind of Christmas fruitcake we tried to recreate here. And we did it, like always, with just premium organic Iyerpadi black tea and organic flavors. Enjoy!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, confession time: I actually like fruitcake. I’m probably one of the only people on earth that does like it. I don’t like all fruitcake, but if I happen to find a bakery that does fruitcake right – something that’s been baked in-house with good quality ingredients and that’s been doused with brandy … yeah, that stuff, I’d eat happily. That, to me, is the best way to ingest brandy.
So I was happy when Southern Boy Teas announced this Christmas Fruitcake Iced Black Tea as a flavor for the week of December 29th!
I don’t taste brandy flavoring here, so I don’t know that it was actually utilized in this flavor. But that’s OK, because this is really tasty just the way it is.
I’m really liking the flavors here. Of the fruit flavors, I think I taste the orange most. I taste orange throughout the sip and into the aftertaste. I get a nice little sweet and tart citrus note in the aftertaste. I taste notes of pineapple and cranberry and cherry, and I appreciate that these flavors are nicely balanced. I’m not getting an overwhelming, cough syrupy cherry note which is good.
The cake notes are softer than the fruit notes, but they’re definitely there. I get a sweet, cake-y flavor that is really pleasant. I taste hints of a buttery flavor. I like the way all the flavors come together in one sip: the sip starts out with a sweet orange note, and shortly afterward, I pick up on hints of cranberry. Pineapple is present throughout the sip. Cherry weaves its way in and out. The cake notes are sort of a sweet undertone throughout the sip and if I happen to slurp the sip, I get more of the cake-y sweetness (although it feels a little weird to slurp iced tea, I’ve gotta tell you.)
Overall, a really good, fruity, fun iced tea.
And please consider supporting this small business with their Indiegogo Campaign! They’re looking to reach new heights with their company and they need your support!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 1)
As with last month’s review of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club (You can check out part 1 of that review here), I’ll be doing the review of this month’s package in two parts. This first article will feature the review of two teas and the second article, published tomorrow at the same time, will feature three teas.
This month, we received five teas featuring Hojicha Roasted Green teas as well as Japanese-made Oolong teas. Exciting! I haven’t tried a lot of Japanese Oolong teas – most of my Oolong experiences have been with Taiwanese Oolongs and to a slightly lesser extent, Chinese Oolongs. Japanese Oolong teas aren’t as common a tea to find – another reason that this Tea Discoveries Club from Yunomi is a GREAT deal!
The teas featured in this month’s package are: three Hojicha teas (Hojicha Roasted Green Tea, Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea and Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea) and two Japanese Oolong teas (Oolong Tea and Black Oolong Tea). I’m so excited to try these! I love Hojicha and I love Oolong and am especially excited to try something rare like Japanese Oolong!
Also included in this month’s package is a pamphlet that offers steeping and tasting notes as well as some other interesting information including tea-related Japanese phrases and terms and the cutest little origami Crane!
So let’s jump right in and get started with the Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea.
This Hojicha delivers all the flavors that you’d expect from a Hojicha. It’s got that wonderfully cozy, roasty-toasty flavor. It’s lightly sweet and nutty. It’s a very autumnal type of flavor – it evokes thoughts of autumn for me. I think of the cooler weather, the crispness in the air and the smell of smoke from the neighborhood chimneys. It’s the kind of flavor that you want to curl up to.
I like that this particular Hojicha is light. It doesn’t have a heavy flavor to it. It’s the kind of drink that you want after you’ve had a heavy meal. It’s soothing and gentle.
The second tea that I’ll be examining in this article is Organic Oolong Tea from Takeo Tea Farm. This is a tea that I explored previously in another review (read that review here).
Dry, this tea looks a lot like a black tea. It reminds me of a black tea with its dark, slender leaves. If I were given the dry leaves ‘blindly’ (without knowing that it was an Oolong) I would not have guessed it was an Oolong by the appearance of the dry leaf.
The tea brews up dark too. The only real “Oolong-like” indication I started to recognize is after the rinse and first infusion, I noticed how much the leaves had expanded and it was very “Oolong-esque.” (Oolong teas tend to expand quite a bit during the brewing process!)
Now the flavor … this does taste like an Oolong. It reminds me a lot of a darker Oolong, like perhaps a Formosa Oolong or a Oriental Beauty Oolong. It has that deep, fruity flavor and the really lovely, full texture of an Oolong. It’s sweet and really quite pleasant.
It has an almost ‘wine-like’ quality to it too, much more so than teas that I often call ‘wine-like.’ I can really taste a fermented grape flavor here. The tea has a very rich, full and satisfying flavor. This is truly a unique Oolong tea – one that should be experienced to be understood fully. (In other words – try this tea as soon as you can!)
My first cup (infusions 1 and 2) was probably the most intensely flavored cup of the three that I enjoyed. I found that with my second cup, the flavors were beginning to mellow slightly. The tea was still very strongly flavored and I still got a very distinct fermented grape-like flavor to the cup. But the flavors in the cups that would follow were a little less focused. (Still quite enjoyable though – it’s well worth the effort to keep on steeping!)
With the third cup, I started to notice that the fruit notes were becoming sweeter. It wasn’t as ‘fermented’ a taste as I noticed in the first two cups. Floral notes began to emerge as did a sweet note that evoked thoughts of honey. A really lovely cup!
I can’t wait to explore the other three teas! Read about them in tomorrow’s article!