Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Village Tea
Company Description:
Ingredients: chinese green tea, ginger, flavor, orange peel, peach pieces, chilies, cloves, safflower, acai
Our Sassy Green Tea with Acai combines top-quality green tea with peach, ginger, acai, and orange for a sweet and subtle spice.
Taster’s Review:
This is really good! I love the sweet and spicy in this cup – the sweet is just a little stronger than the spicy, and they enhance each other very well. It is really quite a palate pleaser!
That being said, I’m finding it a little difficult to discern the different fruits and spices being represented here. They seem to merge very well – almost too well – so I can only taste wee little notes of each ingredient.
The green tea base is subtle here, it has a nice smoothness and offers a nice richness to the blend. It doesn’t taste very vegetative or grassy to me at all, and this may be because of the type of green tea used in the blend, or it could be that those sometimes undesirable flavors tend to be overwhelmed by the other flavors in the blend. (While I do have an appreciation for the vegetative/grassy notes of some green teas, I know that there are quite a few of you out there who do not)
I can taste a sweet smoothness brought on by the peach flavor, along with a delicate note of orange. There is a light tartness from the açaí berry. A subtle warmth comes through from the cloves and the ginger, and just at the end of the sip, the chili sort of SNAPS on the tongue, it isn’t really powerful or overwhelming… but it does let you know it’s there.
It’s really quite an enchanting blend – and I can see why Village Tea calls this their Sassy Green Tea!
Simply Earl Grey from Village Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Village Tea Company
Company Description:
Named for Charles Grey, a 19th century British statesman and prime minister, our deeply satisfying, aromatic tea is laced with the fragrant oil of the bergamot orange to bring you an incredible blend of traditional tea with a hint of modern spirit. We invite you to see what Charles Grey made such a fuss about when he found his escape in a delicious black tea.
This blend comes to you in 100% recycled and recyclable packaging.
Taster’s Review:
I am sure you’ve heard me declare this before, but, I love Earl Grey tea. There is just something about the bergamot orange that makes it just seem to be made for flavoring the tea leaf.
This is an excellent variety of Earl Grey from the Village Tea Company. Having not tried any of their teas before, I must say that I was rather excited to receive one of their nifty little “teaser” packages – a small cardboard cylinder “tin” that is just about the same size as a lipstick tube.
This packaging is quite impressive – I mean, really, how clever! This little tube fits comfortably in a pocket, purse or briefcase, giving a whole new level of portability to tea time! This is something that can easily be stashed in the desk drawer at work, or into a suitcase so that you can travel with your favorite teas rather than having to settle for the lackluster hotel “courtesy” teabags. All this convenience, the tea stays fresh and dry… and these portable tubes are eco-friendly! What more can you ask from tea containment?
Here’s more about the teaser packaging from The Village Tea Company’s website:
Travel Sized Tea to Go!
Our Simply Early Grey Teaser is our best blend of Indian black teas with bergamot orange essence packaged for a convenient sampling experience or for Village Tea on-the-go.
My gushing over the cool packaging of the Village Tea Company’s teasers aside, I am really enjoying this cup of Simply Earl Grey! The bergamot flavor here is a bit lighter than many Earl Grey teas that I’ve encountered – and although I really like a strong bergamot aroma and flavor – I must admit that there is a very pleasing balance between tea flavor and bergamot taste here.
The black tea base is mellow and smooth – I certainly wouldn’t categorize it as robust. This is not a tea that I would consider a breakfast or morning tea because it doesn’t have that verve that I look for in a morning tea. However, this IS a truly excellent afternoon tea and would make a perfect choice to serve to guests. There is no bitterness to the black tea and only a light astringency to it. It is just … rather simply … a delicious, medium-bodied black tea base.
The bergamot follows suit by being a softer, smoother bergamot. This is not the perfume-y tasting Earl Grey that you might remember when drinking tea at your great-aunt’s house when you were younger. It has a deliciously juicy, citrus taste to it with hints of the signature “floral” taste that I so often attribute to Earl Grey teas. But – please note – that these are only hints of those floral notes. The bergamot here is very light and refreshing.
This really is “Simply” Earl Grey… and, simply delicious.