Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Choice Organic Teas
Product Description:
Brighten your day with this sophisticated, single estate tea from one of India’s first organic tea gardens. Nestled in the Western Ghats Mountains, Oothu’s surrounding rainforest is home to a tiger reserve and many other endangered species. The taste is crisp and lively with a sunny color sure to inspire.
Taster’s Review:
This is a really decent, bagged green tea.
This single state green tea from India has a sweet, vegetative taste. I would classify this vegetative taste as more grassy than steamed vegetable, although I can taste a slight “steamed spinach” kind of flavor as well. It is a very pleasant taste with no bitterness, and very little astringency.
As the tea cools, I notice that the grassy flavor intensifies, although it never becomes a bitter grassy taste. It remains sweet, but as the grassy flavor grows stronger I notice it becoming slightly sharper as well. Still a pleasant cup, but, I think I prefer it when it’s hot.
Besides the obvious convenience of the tea bag, I like that Choice Organic Teas supports the Jane Goodall Institute, and that some of the proceeds of the sale of this tea is donated to the institute. And of course, I love that this is organic.
A good tea that is also good for the earth!
Peach Oolong from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Product Description:
The darker, more oxidized oolongs of Taiwan are known for having very lush, playful flavors. Deeply floral, honey and juicy, it’s not uncommon to have a lovely cup that’s almost like a succulent slice of peach. Why not let the tea play with some actual peaches? Our Peach Oolong is truly an inspired treat. Fragrant and sweet like a perfectly ripe fruit, with a smooth astringency and lingering floral aroma. So very harmonious, indeed. Please, be a peach – try this oolong!
Ingredients: oolong tea, natural peach flavor, apple pieces, marigold flowers, apricots
Taster’s Review:
Pairing peach flavor with dark Taiwanese Oolong tea seems a perfect match. This tea provides proof – the beautiful peach tones are so well suited for the sweet, earthy Oolong tea in this cup.
The sip starts out with a strong note of peach with a background note that is slightly nutty and earthy. The peach flavor is sweet and succulent. About mid-sip, there is a hint of flower to the sip, and the nutty tones have developed as well. The flavor is smooth and the texture is silky, and there is a pleasant aftertaste that reminds me of honeysuckle.
This tea is available loose leaf as well as part of the Sweet Medley collection. I received it as part of the gift collection, and I was a little apprehensive about an Oolong in a sachet. But there appeared to be plenty of room for the leaves to expand and release their flavor. This would be a really convenient way to travel with Oolong tea!
Green Tea Fruit Smoothie from Ovation Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Ovation Teas
Check out Daily Gourmet’s Special Offer on this tea!
Product Description:
Green tea blended with strawberry pieces, mango, pineapple, marigolds, and globe amaranth with strawberry and mango flavoring.
Taster’s Review:
When I first opened this package, I had intended to only brew a cup of the tea to drink hot. I hadn’t expected it to smell so INCREDIBLE! As a result of the breath-taking aroma, I am now brewing enough to have for iced tea tomorrow afternoon.
This tea is appropriately named, it smells like a fruit smoothie. The flavor is ambrosial. Sweet, fruity, and with just enough tarty fruit taste to keep it interesting.
The green tea base is – surprisingly – not obscured by this fruity combination. It tastes fresh and light, like the air in a lush, green forest. It is not overly vegetal, though, but has enough grassy taste to remind you that this is a green tea and not a fruit punch that you’re drinking.
The strongest flavor that I’m tasting is the mango, followed by a lovely strawberry note. The pineapple is a little more in the background. The flavors are sweet and nectar-like, with a tingly tartness that sits on the tip of the tongue in the finish. This delicious, sweet-tart fruit flavor lingers long after the sip.
I like this served hot or iced – but my preference is iced. It is complete thirst-quenching refreshment.
For a special offer on this tea (and other amazing foodie products!), check Daily Gourmet. For a limited time, you can order Ovation Tea’s Summer Set of Teas for just $15. (That’s a 50% savings!) I recommend getting yourself some of this tea right away, while summer is still here … you’ll be glad you did!
Ginger Peach White Tea from Ovation Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Ovation Teas
Be sure to check out Daily Gourmet’s Special Offer on this tea!
Product Description:
Nothing goes better with a BBQ than a glass of iced Ginger Peach White Tea. Cool and refreshing, bursting with sweet peaches and balanced with a gentle spicy ginger twist, this tea will quench your thirst in the summer heat while soothing your full belly. No summer meal is complete without a jug of sweet ginger peach white tea on the table; we like to sweeten it with a hint of agave after it steeps. You can also enjoy this tea hot when the night falls and the evening cools. Paired with some ginger snap cookies, this low caffeine white tea makes the perfect bedtime snack.
INGREDIENTS: Pai Mu Tan White Peony tea, diced peaches, orange peel, ginger, and marigold petals, with peach and orange flavoring.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve tried quite a few ginger peach flavored teas, and for the most part, enjoyed them. But, I can’t remember enjoying one more than I am this Ginger Peach White Tea from Ovation Teas. It is balanced so nicely.
The white tea base (Pai Mu Tan) is – not surprisingly – a very gentle flavor. It is fresh and a bit like a breath of fresh air. It would be easy to overwhelm the white tea with the flavors of ginger, peach and orange, but fortunately, this blend has been skillfully blended with a delicate touch of flavoring to maintain a sense of balance.
The peach and orange work very well together. The peach is sweet, the orange tangy, and with the peppery heat from the ginger and the soft whisper of white tea, it becomes a lovely contrast of flavors.
I love this tea iced! It is so light and delicious.
Be sure to keep an eye on the Daily Gourmet website because for a limited time they will be offering 50% savings on the retail price of some of Ovation Teas’ most popular blends (including this one!) starting August 22!
Vanilla Rooibos from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Product Description:
According to the International Ice Cream Association, Vanilla is by far the most popular flavor, getting a full 23% of all ice cream consumption. Inspired by this love, Adagio has created Rooibos Vanilla, combining rich, warm dark sugar aroma of vanilla with mellow and grounding rooibos herb from South Africa. Soothing, sweet and very ‘beany’ vanilla fragrance (like warm sugar cookies made with fresh vanilla beans). Slight fruit juiciness from the rooibos, melting texture and comforting flavor. Naturally caffeine free!
Ingredients: rooibos tea, natural vanilla flavor
This tea is part of the Sweet Medley Gourmet Tea Collection from Adagio Teas.
Taster’s Review:
It would seem that vanilla and rooibos are a perfect pairing. Rooibos is a naturally caffeine-free herb, and vanilla is such a soothing, relaxing flavor. It seems like just the right combination for night-time sipping.
The vanilla is pleasant enough, although I did find that the vanilla flavor does need some encouragement to reveal itself. A little bit of turbinado sugar does the trick, though. I have tried this also with a drizzle of agave nectar, but I prefer the turbinado sugar here – it really accents the deep vanilla tones nicely. Without the sweetener, the vanilla is a bit underwhelming, and all I really taste is the woody notes of the rooibos. It doesn’t taste bad, but, if I wanted to drink plain rooibos, I would have brewed some, you know what I mean? So, when you try this one, if you find that the flavor is a little less than you’d like, try a little bit of sweetener and see if that perks the flavor up for you like it did for me.
That being said, once I managed to get the vanilla to come out and play, it was certainly worth the effort. Smooth, sweet and creamy! The rooibos has a woody flavor, as I’ve already mentioned, and a natural nuttiness to it. That nutty tone is a very harmonious taste to go along with the delicious, rich taste of the vanilla. I don’t get any of that funky aftertaste from the rooibos, and that is a good thing.
A very pleasant way to end the day!