Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
YEE HAW! Listen up, everypony: this tea is a delicious blend of hay-like shou mei white tea, freeze-dried red-delicious- and granny smith- apples and organic flavors. This tea tastes like heaven and is great hot or iced. Don’t be surprised if drinking it leaves you uttering strange phrases like, “What in the hay is going on?”
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, when I first saw “Apple Jack’s” in the name, my thoughts weren’t of ponies but of breakfast cereal. I love Apple Jacks. And that would be a really good tea flavor … don’t you think? Maybe a green tea, apple, cinnamon, some barley or malt for the grain-y/cereal-y flavor. Yum.
But this tea isn’t that tea. This is a apple flavored white tea. No cinnamon or grain flavors. And it’s been named after one of those ponies. My daughter used to be into those, but, she’s outgrown them. We recently took a bunch of them to the thrift store as a donation. Hopefully someone will love them as much as she did.
Moving on to the tea that is in my teacup at the moment, eagerly awaiting me to take a sip…
The dry leaf smells delicious – like apples! The aroma of the brewed tea is much softer but I’m still able to pick up some delicate apple notes.
To brew this, I brewed the tea in my Kati tumbler. I put about 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket and poured 12 ounces of 170°F water into the tumbler. Then I let it steep for about 3 1/2 minutes.
The flavor is very apple-y! It is definitely like an apple harvest in a teacup. There are both sweet and tart apple notes and I appreciate that there seem to be more sweet notes than tart. Just enough tartness to offer contrast without making me pucker.
The Shou Mei base is ideal for these flavors, I think, because the flavor of apple is on the delicate side and the light flavor of the Shou Mei allows for a good balance of both white tea and apple flavors to shine through. I taste the sweet, hay-like notes of the Shou Mei and the natural fruit notes of the white tea elevate the apple notes.
A really delightful apple tea that will provide you with several delicious infusions. I infused the leaves three times. I got a nice apple flavor in all three, but I noticed that the flavor was starting to drop off a bit by the third cup so that’s why I stopped there. A really tasty tea that tastes great hot (cozy and autumnal!) or iced (sweet and refreshing!)
Caramel Peanut Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, I have to admit that I was just a little bit weirded out by this flavor before I tried it. It’s been a difficult road to get me to embrace the idea of peanut and peanut butter flavored teas. I don’t know why it sounds so weird to me given all the weird flavors that I’ve tried up to this point but something about tea and peanut butter just didn’t sound all that appealing to me. And while I have come around from that way of thinking and I have enjoyed quite a few peanut and peanut butter flavored teas, the idea of a caramel peanut flavored ICED tea sounded weird. The peanut … worked OK as a hot tea but I was less convinced of an iced tea actually tasting good.
But this is really good. The caramel and peanut flavors work very well together, both accentuating each other in a really pleasant way, and the honeybush seems to elevate these flavors in a very tasty way. The natural nutty tones of the honeybush lend some depth to the peanut flavor while the sweet honey notes highlight the caramel notes.
To brew this, I used the “hot brew” method, bringing 1 quart of freshly filtered water to 195°F and steeping the sachet for 9 minutes. Then I repeated the process for the second quart, resteeping the sachet for 12 minutes. Then I chilled it overnight and now I have a pitcher full of ice-cold, naturally caffeine-free honeybush tea!
I’ve tried a few of the honeybush iced teas from SBT at this point and I think that this one is my favorite so far, which really surprises me because as I said in the first paragraph, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this blend. But this one definitely gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.
Pu’erh Spice Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf here.
Tea Description:
Pleasantly perky spices add warmth and sweetness to the mellow mineral notes of Pu Erh. Sweet cinnamon and anise with tingly ginger liven up the palate while soothing the soul. A great companion for a chilly day.
P u’erh Tea, Cinnamon Bark, Natural Spice Flavor, Orange peels, Ginger Root, Aniseed and Safflower
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op program here.
Taster’s Review:
To brew: I used my gaiwan and after a 15 second rinse, I steeped the leaves for 45 seconds in water heated to 190°F. I added 15 seconds onto each subsequent infusion.
My first infusion had a nice balance of sweet and spicy. The cinnamon, ginger and aniseed offer an intriguing “chai like” flavor which is why I decided to categorize this as not just a Pu-erh tea but also a Chai. The pu-erh is a deep, mellow flavor that is very smooth. It’s a little earthy but I find that the earthiness works to this blend’s benefit. The natural earthy tones of the spices complement the earthy notes of the tea. I didn’t pick up a lot of orange flavor at first, but as I neared the bottom of my first cup, I started to notice more orange notes, hinting at what is to come with further infusion.
The second infusion allowed me to explore some of the characteristics of the tea a bit more. It’s earthy, but more like a mushroom-y earthiness. It doesn’t taste brine-y or fishy. It has a soft texture that reminds me of silky cream and the creaminess seems to translate to the flavor too. As I mentioned previously, there is a good balance of spicy and sweet. It’s not overly spicy, it reminds me a bit of pumpkin pie spice with brown sugar … warm and gentle and pleasantly sweet.
With the third infusion, I noticed a much darker color liquid. The flavor was deeper and smoother this time. I was getting a profound flavor of the rich, aged tea. It wasn’t so earthy anymore. Just deep, molasses-y, with hints of warm spice. The spice notes are much softer now, but still identifiable. A very smooth, mellow flavor.
I found that with each subsequent infusion, this tea just became even more delightful to drink. By the fourth infusion, the spice notes and the tea had become a nearly seamless flavor. The warm notes of spice were still present; they just seemed to taste like they were part of the tea rather than individual spice notes. I managed eight lovely infusions from this tea and enjoyed every one of them.
It’s a perfect autumnal tea. So warm and comforting. It tastes like autumn.
This is one of the best Pu-erh blends I’ve yet to sample. I found my experience with this tea to be very enjoyable – this is a really lovely tea. I’d recommend this to anyone who is looking to expand their tea horizons into the world of Pu-erh. This tea would be a wonderful “gateway” tea to explore the wonders of a Pu-erh.
Postal Rooibos Blend from Monarch Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Monarch Tea Co. or Monarch Tea Co. on Etsy
Tea Description:
Warm and rich, perfect for dessert or just when you want that sweet fall moment to yourself.
Ingredients: Rooibos, caramel pieces, sunflower and calendula petals, chamomile blossoms, natural flavors.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
This rooibos blend is a very finely chopped tisane! It appears to be both red and green rooibos and they’ve been chopped into near dust particles, along with the petals and the chamomile. Everything appears to have been pulverized to a near “powder like” consistency: a very fine cut.
I brewed this in my Breville, measuring 2 bamboo scoops of the tisane into the basket of the tea maker and adding 500ml of water to the jug. With most tisanes, I would use 3 bamboo scoops, but because of the fine chop on this, I decided that more than 2 would be too much. The finer cut means that there is more surface area exposed and lots of flavor will be released and more loose leaf would result in too strong a brew. I set the parameters for 195°F and 10 minutes and let the tea maker do the rest.
This is a tasty blend. Not my favorite of the three teas that I received in my Postal Teas box for October, but I’m certainly not disappointed by it.
Because it’s a blend of both green and red rooibos, I find that the flavor is sweeter and slightly more fruity tasting rather than a strong, nutty flavor. This fruity note accentuates the chamomile flavor which has a natural apple-like flavor. There are hints of nutty flavors in the background which complement the caramel notes. It is sweet, soothing and relaxing to sip. It’s a light cup – both in taste and texture.
It has a pleasing, autumnal taste to it, making it just the right thing for the October box. It’s cozy and would make a great tisane to sip late at night when you’re craving something a little bit sweet but nothing that is going to be too filling or overstimulating.
Genmacashew Flavored Genmaicha Green Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This one I suspect is going to go really fast. This is an awesome blend of genmaicha, cashews and macadamias, with organic cashew, macadamia and honey flavors. Just the smell of this tea is enough to cause instant drooling.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
One of the first things I like to do with any tea when I first “approach” it is to smell it. I like to check out the dry leaf to see what it looks like and more importantly, what it tastes like. This one smells so nutty! It smells a bit like I had just opened a can of honey roasted mixed nuts … and a tin of Genmaicha!
The dry leaf looks pretty much the way it smells too: chunks of cashews and macadamia nuts, green tea leaves, tan toasted rice grains and popped bits of sorghum seed.
I brewed this tea in my Breville One-Touch tea maker, measuring out 2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket and adding 500ml of water. I set the timer for 2 minutes and the temperature for 170°F. Then I walked away for a few minutes and let the tea maker do it’s thing. I came back to a kitchen that smelled of delicious, roasted nuts and honey.
The brewed tea smells less of Genmaicha and more like cashews and macadamia nuts. I still smell hints of the toasted rice from the Genmaicha, but they’re quite faint.
The taste is an interesting combination of all the components of this tea. I taste the Genmaicha – the sweet green tea and the warm, toasty flavor of the rice – and I taste the nuts and the honey. It all comes together in a very seamless way. It’s hard to say where the flavors start and end … they all seem very melded into one flavor that is Genmacashew!
As I started sipping this tea, I noticed that the honey notes were softer than the other flavors. Not surprising, because honey isn’t usually a very aggressive flavor. But now that I’m about mid-way through the cup, I’m picking up more of the honey. It’s a strong, persistent flavor throughout the sip.
The nut flavors taste more like a medley of nuts. Like I reached into the mixed nut can and grabbed a handful and popped it into my mouth. It doesn’t necessarily taste like macadamia or cashew … but it tastes like both of them, if that makes sense. And I also get a nutty flavor from the toasted rice that melds with the both of them.
The green tea is probably the softest flavor of the components, but it isn’t hidden behind the flavors. I taste that sweet, “green” taste that’s lightly grassy, buttery and I even taste very subtle notes of flower in the distance.
Overall, this is a really enjoyable cup of tea. After I drank a cup hot, I resteeped it and let that cool and enjoyed a cup of this chilled. It’s good both hot or cold!