For the last few weeks I’ve been stricken with an odd quandary. At the end of my day, I found myself too tired to brew up tea. Even the herbals. There was a time – not long past – when a good tisane was what the end of the day (or night) required. That ritual fell by the wayside in favor of…well…zoning. Tonight was about to be such a night until I turned to my “It’s All About the Leaf” box (yes, there is an actual box dedicated to this site).

One of the samples I forgot about in the fray was a Mighty Leaf offering. How this escaped my notice (and memory), I have no clue. I love Mighty Leaf, and their tisanes are topnotch. They made one of the best citrus chamomile fusions I’ve ever tried, and don’t get me started on how they made yerba mate drinkable.

The nighttime cup o’ “Thud!” I was turning to this time was aptly dubbed “African Nectar. From the name, it was obviously a rooibos base. In fact, I expected it to be straight rooibos with, maybe, a few other additives. Well…there were more than a few. Along for the rooibos ride were hibiscus (a mainstay in a lot of rooibos blends), rose petals, mallow blossoms, and marigolds. Natural flavors and natural tropical flavors rounded out the medley. Why flavoring had to be mentioned twice, I dunno. Emphasis, maybe.

What I loved best about this? It came in a sachet! Perfect for the lazy, lethargic steeper that I was at 2AM. To the sight, however, the contents didn’t look like the floral menagerie I was picturing in my head. I saw one marigold and a few other pieces, but for the most part, it was just rooibos. Smelled quite tropical, though.

Brewing instructions were dead simple. On the bag, they said to brew for five minutes. That’s it. No water temperature listing, no cup size, nothing. They simply expected you to fill a cup with hot water and dunk the bag in. At two past Witching Hour, I was quite okay with this.

I didn’t time the infusion as much as watched the clear mug dark from gold to crimson – really cool effect. The cup smelled as tart and tropical as the un-dunked bag did. It’s very promising when the natural flavoring can hold up to a long steep. To the taste, there was a mild citrus tang and hibiscus bite on the front, followed by the requisite rooibos nut-sweetness in the middle, and – not surprisingly – it ended on a floral note. There was also the texture of nectar, just as the namesake promised.

In my limited experience, it’s hard to find tisanes that do exactly what they promise. This did so. I think that should be Mighty Leaf’s credo: “We do what the name says, damn it.” (Okay, maybe phrased differently.)

You can purchase Mighty Leaf African Nectar Loose Tea or Mighty Leaf African Nectar Tea Pouches directly from their website.

I tend to like tropical tastes. Much to the chagrin of my family, when I order pizza, I usually choose pineapple and ham as toppings. This just grosses people out but I like it. So how about pineapple tastes in tea?…keep that thought in mind, okay now add to it guava. This combination makes me think that you’ll either love it or hate it. As separate food and drink items, I like it so I’m game to try the combo too. Not too sure about the flower petals in it though. We’ll see.

Opened up the package and found a mesh-stitched teabag filled with not small fannings or dust in the teabag but whole leaves that looked of good quality and only a tiny bit of blue flower petals. Steeped the teabag in boiling water for 3 minutes as per the instructions. Aroma is very fruity and floral. A very pleasant fragrance.

I agree with Mighty Leaf that the “green tea blends harmoniously with the sweet tropical fruits of pineapple and guava” and this may be part of the problem. It would have been more distinctive had the green tea had some of the characteristic grassy or vegetal notes of other green teas. Because of this, it tasted more like a tisane than a green tea blend. The taste of pineapple also seems to be lost in a stronger base note of the sweet guava. The blend does seem to come together quite naturally with the floral notes. It is an okay beverage but tastes too much like many fruity, floral teas I’ve tasted. It doesn’t stand out but it’ll do. I could take it or leave it.

You can purchase Mighty Leaf Green Tea Tropical directly from their website.

Usually I shy away from packaged tea. However, the word “Organic” on the front of the Mighty Leaf package got my attention. I’m also a fan of Earl Grey. I was curious about the “artisan whole leaf pouch”. The contents were just that – artisanal silk tea bag with fancy unbleached cotton stitching continuing into a long chain-stitched string. You can see the intensely large black whole leaf tea through the mesh bag. It doesn’t look like a lot but will soon be saturated with hot water and the tea will expand to almost completely fill the bag, elongating it to the shape of a diamond, providing visual interest.

This company has specific large print instructions on the package to steep their product for 4 minutes, yet doesn’t say what quantity of water should be used. I would assume this would be a single serving size and that would be 8 oz. I used a mug with a lid. You will lose a lot of the aromatics from the bergamot essential oil without a lid to trap the vapours. Alternatively, you could use a teapot and steep the tea in 12 oz water without losing too much as long as you use a tea light or a tea cozy to keep the liquor warm during this longer steep.

The blend contains golden tips organic black tea (doesn’t say where sourced) with first-pressed bergamot oil with a drop of jasmine essence. The tea is organic, but not necessarily the flavouring. When I opened the package, I expected to have my sense flooded with bergamot. They weren’t. So I wondered if the characteristic of the tea would be lost.

After the dutiful 4 minute steep, I sampled the tea. I could smell the bergamot in the stem. The drink was an orange-red. The flavour of the bergamot was not strong, allowing a natural sweetness of a good quality tea to come through with a fullness in the mouth. The bergamot flavour sat at the mid to back of the tongue and at the roof of mouth where the aromatics can be enjoyed. There was relatively low tannin and minimal astringency making this perfect to drink without milk.

While the flavour of jasmine is not really the feature of the tea, its effects are unmistakeable in combination with the bergamot. Combined, they provide a relaxing experience. One can mellow out with this tea. It de-stresses the body and the emotions and like the long steep, you relax into the experience. The smoothness of this tea tempered with jasmine provides a long satisfying drink. Each sip renews the flavour profiles even after 10 – 12 ounces. This is a long, slow drink. I would take this in the late evening. Its quite different, less edgy than a Twinnings Earl Grey. I may have found a new favourite!

You can purchase the Mighty Leaf Organic Earl Grey directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

Today I’m reviewing to herbal teas from Mighty Leaf and I’m excited because they are one of the few companies I know of who offer high quality in sachets.  Perfect to have in a pinch if I’ve forgotten my finum because they tea pouches are large enough to let the tea infuse properly. 

Opening the package and I can immediately tell that I’m going to love this tea.  The citrus smell is intoxicating.  It has Egyptian chamomile in it and the flowers are whole and appear to be really fresh.  There’s no dust in the pouch at all, just pretty bits of herbs and fruit.

Steeping it at 205 F for the full five minutes because I want to get every golden bit of the tisane infused.  The color was immediately a light yellow then finally went to a nice golden orange.  Love the way rosehip warms up the color of a brew.  Can smell all of the other herbs now and they are balancing out the citrus perfectly.

Yeah! It tastes as good as it looks and smells, I was right, this is a great blend.  I can feel my heart rate slowing, the days stress leaving me…  Would it be insane for me to let this tea pouch dry out and use it as a sachet in my lingerie drawer?  hmmm… yes, it smells that good.

Now on to the African Nectar.  Rooibos is a friend of mine, we go back a long way and she’s never let me down.  This tea pouch fine enough to contain the rooibos, helps that it’s a higher grade so the needles are longer.  Blends looks like it’s mostly rooibos, with bits of the other ingredients.  Can see the marigold in it, which is good (I have a ton of marigold at home and add it to most of my teas, just to up the health benefits of my teas).

This blend has so much of a citrus scent that I can barely smell the rooibos, expecting that will change when I stop analyzing the pouch and add water to it…

Steeping this one the same as I did the Chamomile Citrus, boiling water for five minutes.  The rooibos is darker wet so now I can see the other herbs as well as the stems.  Excellent leaf to stem ratio though, Mighty Leaf did not disappoint.  It’s infused to a nice dark, reddish brown and it smells divine.  The rose and hibiscus are now dominating the scent and the citrus smell is completely gone.

It tastes like rooibos but I think the rose is killing it, bit too flowery, almost perfumey.  Letting it cool.  The pouches are completely biodegradible and they literally look like the sachets that girls use to scent lingerie (do guys do that too?).  Tea has cooled now and it still has that rose taste, fantastic if you like flowers in your tea, not working for me though.  Still a really good quality tea though, impressive.

You can purchase the Chamomile Citrus directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

Today I’m reviewing to herbal teas from Mighty Leaf and I’m excited because they are one of the few companies I know of who offer high quality in sachets.  Perfect to have in a pinch if I’ve forgotten my finum because they tea pouches are large enough to let the tea infuse properly.

Opening the package and I can immediately tell that I’m going to love this tea.  The citrus smell is intoxicating.  It has Egyptian chamomile in it and the flowers are whole and appear to be really fresh.  There’s no dust in the pouch at all, just pretty bits of herbs and fruit.

Steeping it at 205 F for the full five minutes because I want to get every golden bit of the tisane infused.  The color was immediately a light yellow then finally went to a nice golden orange.  Love the way rosehip warms up the color of a brew.  Can smell all of the other herbs now and they are balancing out the citrus perfectly.

Yeah! It tastes as good as it looks and smells, I was right, this is a great blend.  I can feel my heart rate slowing, the days stress leaving me…  Would it be insane for me to let this tea pouch dry out and use it as a sachet in my lingerie drawer?  hmmm… yes, it smells that good.

Now on to the African Nectar.  Rooibos is a friend of mine, we go back a long way and she’s never let me down.  This tea pouch fine enough to contain the rooibos, helps that it’s a higher grade so the needles are longer.  Blends looks like it’s mostly rooibos, with bits of the other ingredients.  Can see the marigold in it, which is good (I have a ton of marigold at home and add it to most of my teas, just to up the health benefits of my teas).

This blend has so much of a citrus scent that I can barely smell the rooibos, expecting that will change when I stop analyzing the pouch and add water to it…

Steeping this one the same as I did the Chamomile Citrus, boiling water for five minutes.  The rooibos is darker wet so now I can see the other herbs as well as the stems.  Excellent leaf to stem ratio though, Mighty Leaf did not disappoint.  It’s infused to a nice dark, reddish brown and it smells divine.  The rose and hibiscus are now dominating the scent and the citrus smell is completely gone.

It tastes like rooibos but I think the rose is killing it, bit too flowery, almost perfumey.  Letting it cool.  The pouches are completely biodegradible and they literally look like the sachets that girls use to scent lingerie (do guys do that too?).  Tea has cooled now and it still has that rose taste, fantastic if you like flowers in your tea, not working for me though.  Still a really good quality tea though, impressive.

You can purchase the Chamomile Citrus and African Nectar directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

I love Earl Grey. I used to drink it quite often, but a couple of months ago I came across a couple of EG variations that were bad. They gave Earl Grey a really horrible, perfume filled name. It used to be my favorite variety of tea, so I was excited to try this version from Mighty Leaf in hopes of renewing my faith in Earl Grey.

This is a whole leaf bagged tea which I don’t recall having experienced before. There were a lot of long, dark leaves and very few typical bagged tea sized pieces. The bag smells strongly of bergamot, but not in the perfume sort of way. I am not able to identify the scent of jasmine, but that may be a good thing. I believe my most recent horrible EG experience was with a jasmine EG. As the tea is steeping, the bergamot allows the black tea to shine through in the scent.

I steeped the bag for 4 minutes as suggested by Mighty Leaf and was a bit surprised that the leaves had expanded to fill the entire bag. That is pretty impressive compared to the normal bagged teas I usually have. The taste is of smooth black tea with a nice dose of bergamot. I am once again unable to locate the jasmine, but I’m fine with that. This is possibly one of the best Earl Greys I have had. The flavor is bold, but not overbearing or perfume-like. This tea is great and easy to drink plain, but is equally as good with the addition of milk and sweetener. The tea holds up nicely to the additions and retains a strong black tea base.

You can purchase the Mighty Leaf Organic Earl Grey directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

The dry leaf smells like cinnamon and star anise, though predominately of star anise. Through the bag I could distinguish long black tea leaves mixed with small bits of what appeared to be the ginger and cloves. I’ve never had a tea with star anise, but apparently it is a licorice type flavor, so here goes.

I brewed this tea using 6 oz. of almost boiling water for 4 minutes as suggested on the package. Taken plain, the tea tastes unsurprisingly like black tea flavored with licorice. If you like licorice, then you will like this but I’m not a licorice fan. I added milk and sugar to make it more chai-like which seemed to even out the licorice slightly. The cinnamon was also more noticeable but I could not distinguish any of the other chai spices that were included in this blend.

Overall, this is a decent tea for licorice fans who like black tea but is not my idea of a chai since the majority of the chai spices aren’t present in the taste.

You can purchase the Bombay Chai directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

I am a fan of Rooibos. I love all teas, but there is something about Rooibos that is more appealing to me. Perhaps it is my sweet tooth, which appreciates the natural sweetness of Rooibos, or perhaps it is because Rooibos tends to blend with so many “sweet” flavours such as Caramel and Vanilla. Whatever it is, I am a fan.

With that in the forefront of my mind, I brewed up a bag of the Mighty Leaf African Nectar. My teabag prejudice aside, Rooibos actually works well in a teabag because it is naturally a small leaf, and does not need a lot of room to expand.

I brewed the tea using my regular Rooibos methods, boiling water, steeped for 5-6 minutes. The smell was fantastic, and I could not wait to dive into it. The cup was a deep red color that I relate to good quality Rooibos.

Prevalent in the taste was a mango and vanilla combined with, but not overwhelming, Rooibos flavour, which is a sweetish, nutty flavour. I like it. I like it a lot! There is not much more to say on this tea, as I think the above speaks for it’s self. Sometimes Mighty Leaf has fallen down in taste for me, but in this case, it is a home run! I would recommend this tea to anyone who likes Rooibos, and to someone who wants to get an idea of what a flavoured Rooibos tea can be!

You can purchase Mighty Leaf African Nectar Loose Tea or Mighty Leaf African Nectar Tea Pouches directly from their website.

On the Mighty Leaf website this description is given: Bombay Chai with a melange of spicy notes conjures the steamy, aromatic delights of an Indian street market. Black tea leaves with subtle hints of Pepper, Orange, Cinnamon, Cardamom, and Clove make up our chai, the Indian word for tea. Bombay Chai is delicious when brewed fresh and blended with heated milk and sugar to taste.

Having recently given up coffee I drink Chai every day, as I find it is the only tea that has enough of a flavorful kick to get me awake and out the door in the morning.

When I tried Mighty Leaf’s Bombay Chai I found that it was pleasantly smooth and warm. However, generally Chai is distinguished by the bite of its spices, which didn’t seem particularly present here.

When I added milk I found that this overpowered the spices to the point that they were barely even noticeable. To me this tea seems to be suitable as a spiced black tea, but without knowing what it was I wouldn’t identify it as chai.

You can purchase Mighty Leaf Bombay Chai directly from their website.

Mighty Leaf is one of few popular Canadian tea companies. As a Canadian, I celebrate that fact, and always look forward to sampling a new Mighty Leaf tea. However, in this case, I am left with a bit of a *meh* feeling.

I picked out the Green Tea Tropical from the samples that Mighty Leaf sent us, anticipating visions and flavours of tropical vacations to Mexico and Costa Rica, and the initial scent of the un-brewed leaves gave me just that. It is of course, packaged in the signature Mighty Leaf stitched pillow teabag, and the leaf appeared to be fairly large and full, and as such, of seemingly high quality.

The first brewing was as suggested, 180 degrees for 3 minutes. As the teabag went in, the scent started to become more muted. After 3 minutes, I was left with a dark amber liquor, and mildly tropical scented water.

As I sipped, I noted that the tea was not in the least bit astringent (aka “bitter” for some), leading me to again, believe that the green tea was of good quality. However, the flavouring of the tea was strangely blended together, not really allowing me to sort out different tropical flavours, tho the scent was “Guava” like. I found overall, the tea not “incredible” – but a decent cup of tea, but yet, unremarkable, leaving me with that *meh* that I mentioned before – a take it or leave it kind of feeling.

As I make notes on this tea, the taste does slightly linger, while leaving my teeth feeling a bit fuzzy, and my mouth a bit dry, again, green tea characteristics. The problem I think here, is that the actual green tea flavour gets lost in the tropical fruit flavouring, never really rising to the top to be complemented by the flavours. The second steeping (4 min @ 180 deg) was even more unremarkable, with a little flavour, but less so that the original, and again, the green tea not coming to the fore.

So my overall impression of this tea is that it would be a good starting tea for a convert, someone that is not used to green tea and could get turned off by the earthier aspects of a straight green. This tea has maybe a wider appeal, but I am not sure if it is good enough to be called a “premium” tea or to charge premium prices for.

All that being said, it is not a bad tea, and Mighty Leaf produces some top quality teas, which is maybe why this one leaves me wanting more.

You can purchase Mighty Leaf Green Tea Tropical directly from their website.

EDIT: I was informed by an astute commenter that Mighty Leaf is NOT a Canadian company, and much to my chagrin, they are correct. My apologies for the mistake in this review!