This is going to be a rather unconventional review, because rather than review just one tea, I’m going to review the first two teas that I tried from the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club (scroll down a bit when you get to the page and you’ll find the Discoveries Club in the middle of the page!) and then tomorrow, I will review the other three that I received in the club. Plus, I will review the club itself.
The main reason I’m doing the review this way is that this month’s Discoveries Club included teas that aren’t available on Yunomi’s website, so they aren’t available for you to buy from Yunomi. These are exclusive teas available only to the Discoveries Club subscribers, and you should be one! So this review is more about the club itself rather than the five teas that were part of the review, although I’ll tell you about each of the teas too!
This month’s Discovery Club package was filled with five different teas: Sencha Suiren, Sencha Suiho, Mochi Rice Genmaicha, Hojicha Soybean Blend and Bancha Tea Blend. All five of the teas are from Onocha Tea Factory & Shop.
The first tea that I decided to ‘discover’ was the Sencha Suiren. It’s been a little while since I’ve had a pure Japanese Sencha so I found myself very excited at the prospect of a fresh tasting, clean, invigorating green tea.
And that’s just what this tea delivered for me. It’s a lovely tea. I found my palate refreshed after each sip. There’s a contrast between sweet and savory bitter notes. The sip starts out with sweetness and by mid-sip, I feel the savory notes tantalizing the taste buds. The finish is sweet and clean. There is very little astringency to this – as in I’m finding it difficult to detect much astringency at all! I feel a slight “tangy” sensation on the palate and on the insides of the cheeks in the aftertaste, but it’s very slight.
What was nicest for me about this particular tea is how the palate felt so clean and refreshed after I’d finish a sip. I felt it slowly rejuvenate me, as if it was removing the stress of the day.
It’s sweet, it’s light, it’s refreshing. It’s a really lovely cup of tea! After I enjoyed a couple of cups of this tea (the leaves resteep very well!), I scooped out the leaves and put them in a little bowl with a light vinaigrette and ate the leaves like a salad. Delicious!
Time to move on now to the Mochi Rice Genmaicha – also from Onocha Tea Factory & Shop.
Most Genmaicha has roasted brown rice, not Mochi rice. So I wondered how different this would make the flavor of this tea.
I noticed as I measured out the tea that there are very few popped kernels. I think I only spotted one popped kernel, actually! The rice looks different from the toasted brown rice in other Genmaicha. Other Genmaicha looks a bit like crisped rice cereal that had been toasted, while this rice looks much more solid. I didn’t notice the ‘air pockets’ that I would normally see in the roasted brown rice.
As far as flavor goes, this tastes different too. The rice doesn’t taste quite as ‘roasty-toasty’ as a typical Genmaicha.
The tea is still sweet and I do still get nutty flavors from the rice. The sweetness is a little different, this is more like a slightly sugary sweetness as opposed to the roasty-toasty sweetness that I’m used to from a Genmaicha. The green tea has a fresh, vibrant flavor that I expect from a green tea in a Genmaicha and it melds nicely with the flavors of the mochi rice.
This is different, but it’s very tasty in it’s own way. It also has a similar soothing quality that I get from Genmaicha. I don’t get that roasty-toasty cozy flavor, but there is a certain cozy character about this tea too. I like it and I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to try it, thanks to this month’s Tea Discoveries Club package!
Stay tuned to tomorrow’s post (same time!) to learn about the other three teas in this month’s Tea Discoveries Club package!
Candy Cane Flavored Iced White Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Don’t let the simplicity of this flavor fool you: this is a blend of our premium organic shou mei white tea fannings with organic peppermint candy cane flavors and it does not disappoint. Believe me when I say, you’ll have a hard time keeping this tea in your refrigerator.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
After having tried the Candy Cane Iced Black Tea from SBT last year and loving it, I had really high expectations for this white tea version. Unfortunately, it fell a little short of the expectations I had.
Oh, this is still a really tasty iced tea. It’s just not as amazing as I remember the black tea version. Then again, it could be that my expectations were too high, so this was not going to reach those heights.
But this is – as I said – quite tasty. The white tea is light and I like the crisp, refreshing flavor. It has a sweet flavor that’s airy and hay-like and very fresh tasting.
This fresh taste melds well with the cool notes of the minty candy cane flavor. It’s not just “minty” – there is a light sweetness in there too so this tastes more like a white tea flavored with a candy cane than it does a white tea flavored with peppermint. There are hints of vanilla and a soft, almost ‘candy-like’ sweetness in there. I like that I’m getting this really delicious sweetness but it isn’t too sweet.
It’s a tasty tea. That said, if I’m going to be shopping for a candy cane iced tea, I’d probably be putting the black tea version in my cart before I’d grab the white tea version.
Please take a minute to check out Southern Boy Teas’ Indiegogo campaign and support this small business – help them take their business even further.
Berry Mocha Truffle Black Tea from Octavia Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Tea Information:
Let’s keep this simple. This blend smells and tastes exactly like dark chocolate covered fruit. It’s seriously good. You get the mocha & dark chocolate first, a fruit blast in the middle and a slight bitter chocolate and floral finish. To make it more indulgent, stir in some milk and sugar.
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
It’s also part of Amoda Tea’s Holiday Box!
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As I’m sitting here with the aroma of this tea wafting through the air, I find myself in total agreement with Amoda Tea’s description above: Yep, it smells exactly like dark chocolate covered fruit. My mouth is watering right now. It smells SO GOOD.
It’s the cocoa husks! (Aka cacao shells!) I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: tea companies should use cacao shells if they want a strong, true flavor for their chocolate teas.
As for the taste: Yum! I get the mocha notes up front, and as the sip continues, I pick up on a strong berry note that lingers into the aftertaste.
This has a really pleasing chocolate note. I love the dark chocolate flavor of this tea. Bittersweet! It’s a really nice contrast to the sweet-tart flavors of berry.
My one criticism of this tea is that the black tea seems just a wee bit lost in these strong flavors. Yes, I taste the black tea, but I don’t think it’s quite robust enough to be with all this chocolate mocha and berry flavors.
I don’t know what type of black tea is used as a base for this blend, but I think that an Assam or a Nilgiri would have been a good choice for it because I think that those malty notes that Assam and Nilgiri teas are known for would taste amazing with these chocolate mocha notes. My taste buds are “mmm-ing” just at the thought of a malty, rich Assam tea with the mocha flavors.
But as it is, this is really a nice tea. I can taste the tea – and I find that the tea flavors come through a little stronger as I make my way down the cup (and a slurp now and then doesn’t hurt!) But this really tastes more like a mocha than it does a tea.
The berry notes brighten the cup in a really nice way. The sip starts out with the strong mocha-esque flavors and then all the sudden, a bit of bright, berry flavor hits the palate. Nice!
This is the tea I’d recommend to someone who is a former coffee drinker and decided to turn to tea because the caffeine of coffee is harsh on them (it was on me!) but they still miss that mocha flavor from their favorite coffee shop! This tea will help them miss their mocha less – or perhaps not at all – because I’d rather drink this than a $5 mocha any day!
Gingerbread Flavored Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
This is a crowd pleaser. Order this today and offer your Thanksgiving dinner guests an awesome caffeine-free treat with organic flavors of gingerbread and a hint of cream cheese frosting. This is a real treat and likely to go fast. Do not miss out on this one.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
Gingerbread is not something I eat often. I like some gingerbread, but most that I find tends to be a little on the wimpy side with no real ginger flavor. An exception to that is the gingerbread that I’ve tasted from Nikki’s Cookies. Good stuff.
But a lot of the gingerbread that you can buy in the grocery stores (about a month ago, you couldn’t walk into a grocery store without seeing a “gingerbread house kit.” And most of that stuff tastes like it was made from cardboard. No real ginger flavor – it’s as if the ginger that they use in the recipe is ground ginger that had been sitting on the shelf since Christmas in 1990. Boring flavor with no ginger kick.
So I’m hoping this tea will give me the kind of gingerbread flavor I want!
I hot-brewed this tea. I brought a quart of water to 195°F and dropped the sachet into the kettle and let it steep for 9 minutes. Then I strained the liquid into my favorite half gallon iced tea pitcher and repeated the process: heated a quart of water – 195°F – and put the same sachet into the kettle. This time, I let it steep for 11 minutes. Then I let the pitcher come to room temperature before I stashed it in the refrigerator to cool overnight.
Today, I have a pitcher full of gingerbread tea! Well, I guess I should say, I did have a pitcher full of gingerbread tea. Now I have about 1 glassful of tea remaining at the bottom of the pitcher and that glassful will be consumed soon!
This has a nice ginger flavor. The ginger is subtle but present in every sip. It doesn’t have a strong, peppery zing from the ginger, but there’s enough ginger in there to know that you’re tasting ginger. And there’s a pleasant sweetness, almost molasses-y, and that’s something I want to taste with gingerbread too.
This is sweet and enjoyable without being cloying. The ginger cuts through enough of the sweetness to keep it from tasting too sweet. The honeybush is a good base for the gingerbread flavors because the nutty and honey-esque flavors of the honeybush really tie in well with the overall gingerbread concept.
If I’m to offer any “complaint” about this tea, it would be that I want a little more “buttery/pastry” like flavor. That – it would seem – has become a common complaint of mine about some of the baked good flavor teas that 52Teas/Southern Boy Teas/Zoomdweebies has been producing as of late. I’m just not getting the buttery/pastry-like flavor that I’ve come to love from some of 52Teas’ classic flavors like their Pancake Breakfast tea. I think that would make this taste more like a gingerbread cookie.
That said, I found this iced tisane to be enjoyable. I like the flavor of the ginger and the molasses notes are quite delightful. It’s not my favorite iced tea selection from Southern Boy Teas, but it’s tasty and refreshing. The fact that the half gallon pitcher is nearly empty after it being in the refrigerator for less than a day should be testament to the fact that I enjoyed the flavor and it is very easy to drink.
Please take a moment to check out Frank’s Kickstarter campaign! He’s looking to take Southern Boy Teas to new heights and the fundraising effort will help get him started in the right direction! Please help this small business!
Fig Peach Oolong from Modern Tea Girl
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Tea Information:
Trust us, this tea tastes SO much better than it looks 🙂 Peaches may not scream Christmas, but figs are certainly quite festive! Mission and golden figs taste amazing in this blend with a beautiful, sophisticated and fragrant dark oolong. A very uncommon blend that has a stunning flavour that subtly builds with each sip.
This tea is available from Amoda Tea.
It’s also part of Amoda Tea’s Holiday Box!
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I just received my January box from Amoda and I haven’t yet finished reviewing the teas that I got from the Holiday Box – I better get busy!
I was pretty excited about this one (really, I was excited about all the teas in the Holiday Box! It’s a scrumptious collection of teas! I love the flavor combination of fig and dark Oolong – these two flavors really work well together. And because darker Oolongs tend to have a peach-like flavor and figs have a similar profile to a peach, it would seem to be the natural choice for an additional flavor for this blend.
And what can I say? YUM! This is really tasty. As Amoda says in the description above – it definitely does taste better than it looks. It’s not the most attractive tea I’ve ever seen, but it is very tasty.
The Oolong is the star of this tea – it’s a mellow tasting, lightly smoky, earthy Oolong with a smooth, silky texture.
The flavors start out really delicate. My first few sips, I was tasting mostly just Oolong and I found myself wondering: “where’s the fig? where’s the peach?” But after about three or four sips, I started to pick up on subtle notes of fig. The peach developed even more slowly, but after a few more sips, I could pick up on the peach.
I like that the Oolong is really front and center with this tea. It’s a really delicious Oolong!
The fig notes arrive slowly but when they do, they’re sweet and really lovely. I love figs and there is something so comforting to me about a fig tea – especially when served warm. It evokes memories of a happy time in my childhood when I would pick figs from a fig orchard and eat them right after picking them. They were still warm from the afternoon sunshine and really, there’s no better way to eat a fig!
And I’d argue that there’s no better way to eat a peach! Freshly picked from the tree and still warm from the sun. Mmm! This tea manages to capture both of those flavorful memories very well.
This is a really happy tea – it makes me happy to drink it and it brings back so many warm and happy memories. If you are looking for a really good fig tea – you should try this one. And because it’s an Oolong, you can get a few flavorful infusions out of it!