Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
A perfectly mellow ginger mint tea (yes, it is possible!). There’s enough ginger and mint to get the tongue tingling – in delightfully opposite ways. But we wait patiently and can taste the softly sweet, vegetal notes of the Sencha green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of this Samurai Rush Green Tea Blend from Tea Xotics reminds me of the smell of a freshly opened package of DoubleMint gum! It has a lively, minty scent, but also that sweetness that I smell with the gum. I don’t smell a lot of ginger in the dry leaf, but, once it’s brewed, the ginger emerges slightly, while the mint becomes more subdued than it was in the dry leaf fragrance.
The flavor is surprising! I guess it shouldn’t be, based upon the above description provided by Amoda Tea, but I guess in the many years that I’ve been tasting teas and writing about it, I haven’t ever found a mint and ginger tea quite like this one. The mint … is subtle! The ginger … is also subtle! It’s quite a unique thing to find a tea with mint and ginger where these two components were both gentle tastes within the cup.
Oh, I taste the mint, certainly … and the ginger. And because of the nature of these two components, the flavors of them is front and center. But Tea Xotics blended these two flavor profiles together in such a precise way that neither the mint nor the ginger overpower the cup.
The mint is crisp and invigorating … but at the same time, I’m finding the softer flavor of the mint to be quite soothing and relaxing. The usually warm and peppery ginger is still warm and peppery, but, it’s more like a calm, gentle ginger-y warmth that I’m experiencing from this tea.
And I can taste the tea! I taste the fresh, sweet taste of the Sencha, and I like the way the three ingredients come together. The sweetness of the Sencha brings out the sweet, enchanting side of the mint, while the vegetative tones of the Sencha enhances the savory qualities of the ginger. It’s a beautiful medley of sweet and savory that is minty, crisp, light and zesty all in one sip.
I have really enjoyed the Amoda Tea Tasting Box for August … I really enjoyed the three teas from Tea Xotics immensely! I think I’ve found a tea company that I’ll need to check out a little bit more!
Bengal Peach Tea Blend from Tea Xotics
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black & Green Teas
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tea Description:
The peachy aroma of this tea will make our mouthes water. Orchard fruit meets the Hawaiian tropics. There’s a subtle ginger spice that works really well with the succulent fruits and the unique tea base – Assam and sencha!
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the dry leaf of this Bengal Peach Tea Blend from Tea Xotics. Big slivers of dried fruit, pieces of ginger, black and green tea leaves, petals and blossoms all tossed together in a deliciously fragrant blend.
The brewed tea smells of warm peaches with hints of ginger, evoking thoughts of a warm, gently spiced peach dessert. Mmm! The flavor tastes of peach and mango. The ginger flavor is delicate, adding just a touch of warmth rather than a heavy amount of spice. This doesn’t taste overly peppered with ginger … there’s just enough ginger to keep the flavors interesting so that it doesn’t taste too fruity.
The combination of black and green teas adds an appealing background of flavor as well. When brewed at a lower temperature, I find that I can taste both the black and green teas. I brewed this tea at 180°F in my Breville One-Touch – the package parameters suggest a temperature of 185°F but whenever I brew a blend like this in my Breville, I make it a practice to lower the suggested temperature by 5 degrees since the tea maker keeps the water warmer than a teapot would. I steeped the tea for 3 minutes, and I’m very happy with the results.
The black tea tastes lighter than a typical cup of Assam would. I taste a wine-like quality to the tea, and this complements the fruit notes quite nicely. As the tea cools slightly (hot, but not piping hot), I notice some of the malty tones of the black tea emerge. The green tea doesn’t add a lot of notable flavor to the cup, but it lightens the overall flavor and texture. I notice hints of vegetation in the distance, as well as a slight buttery note that works well with the sweet, caramel-y malt notes.
A very tasty blend. It’s delicious hot and also quite nice iced!
Jungle Monkey Chai Rooibos Blend from Tea Xotics
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Amoda Tea
Tisane Description:
What happens when you add a banana to your chai? You get this! Kind of. A spicy cup with a cocoa, banana, and cinnamon edge and a creamy coconut feel. Sweeten it up to take the edge off the spice.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
Yes, August has come and gone, and I’m now reviewing my first of the August teas from my Amoda Box. That’s because Amoda updated their website (and it looks fabulous, might I add!) and I wanted to wait until the new website was up and running before I started reviewing the teas from August.
It’s a rare thing when the first tea that I try from my monthly Amoda Tea Tasting Box is a tisane! But, this Jungle Monkey Chai Rooibos blend from Tea Xotics just sounded too yummy to not try immediately: a rooibos based masala spice blend, combined with chocolate, banana and coconut? Oh YUM!
And it is indeed yum!
The aroma of the blend is spicy … the cinnamon really pops out and grabs me. The chai is definitely a cinnamon-y chai, with the cinnamon serving as the strongest flavor in the masala blend. I also taste peppery notes, and hints of clove.
The coconut is the next flavor I notice … it adds a creamy texture and taste to the cup. The banana comes through next, and it’s a subtle banana note. The chocolate is there too, and I taste it … I just wish … I was tasting MORE chocolate. (Remember this chocoholic’s chocolate rule of thumb: some chocolate = good, more chocolate = better.)
The flavor of the rooibos comes through here too, which I found kind of surprising given all that’s going on in this chai blend. I expected the flavor of the rooibos to be buried beneath all the other flavor components. But, I taste the woody notes of the rooibos, and even that funky note of rooibos that I usually don’t really care for … but somehow … it works in this blend. I guess with the tropical notes of banana and coconut … that funkiness just sort of works.
Overall: this is a really tasty blend. I like the chocolate but I wish there was more of it. I like the banana and the coconut … and the spices. It just really … works together really very well.
This is the first tea that I’ve tried from Tea Xotics … and I’m really glad that Amoda Tea decided to make them their feature blender for the month of August, because I am really looking forward to what the other blends have in store for me!