This tea has possibly one of the most well-described packages I have ever seen. The single teabag package reads: “Hamstead Tea, London. Organic Fairtrade Earl Grey with aromatic bergamot. 1 staple-free teabag.”

Wow, that is quite a mouthful. I personally do not know anyone who buys teabags who is also concerned about saving some metal, but by the look of the string attached to the teabag, it makes me wonder why more teabag-producers do not follow this. It seems that Hamstead has implemented an easy way to do away with stables entirely. But how about the tea itself?!

The packaging recommends 3-5 minutes for steeping. The last earl grey that I tried oversteeped even with low steep times, so I boil some water and decide to go for the lower end here with 3 minutes of infusion. While I will admit that I am not big on bagged tea, this tea smells quite good, dry in the bag. A hint of orange provides a nice aroma. The steeping tea gives off a pleasant bergamot aroma. The first sip confirms that 3 minutes was a perfect amount of steeping, unless you prefer your tea stronger. For a bagged tea, this is pretty smooth, but it lacks a bit in the flavor profile. This is definitely a quality bagged tea. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it a 65/100.

You can purchase the Biodynamic, Organic and Fairtrade Earl Grey directly from the Hampstead Tea website.

From the moment at which I remove the pyramid infuser from its cardboard cover, I know there is something different about this Earl Grey. The smell of bergamot is not very strong. In fact, it is hardly present at all. Popping the infuser into my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, I fill the cup with just boiled water and let it steep for four minutes…a happy medium in the 3-5 minute range that was given by Tea Forte’s website!

The tea being now prepared, I take a whiff of the steeping, once again surprised by the smell. It is spicy with a bit of a fruity smell. Intrigued, I go on to try this cup of tea, sip by sip. My first sip is possibly the most astringent Earl Grey I have ever tasted! The bergamot is finally hinted at in the aftertaste, but the tea itself is so incredibly astringent that I wonder if I mistimed this tea. I ditch this cup and prepare to steep a new one.

This second cup I steep for only two and a half minutes. I know this is less than what was suggested, but I figure it is better to be safe. This second cup still smells exactly the first one, which worries me slightly, but I forge onward with this tasting! Still astringent, even after such a short steep time. But it is not as bad as the first cup was. The bergamot flavor is very fake and overdone, which is a bit of a turn-off, considering that this is supposed to be Earl Grey, not cologne.

If hunting for a cup of Earl Grey, this is not the tea to which to turn. I recommend trying a different brand. Sorry, Tea Forte, but this tea needs to go back to the mixing room. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it a 45/100.

You can purchase the Earl Grey directly from the Tea Forte website.

The chance to try this tea is something very special. Unfortunately, despite how special it was, I am not honestly sure which of Canton Tea Co’ Pu’erhs this tea is. “Canton Beeng Cha” is all that the label says, and from my limited knowledge of Chinese, I know that a “Beeng” or bing is a round cake of pu’erh. “Cha” is merely “tea.” That being said, I can be sure that this is a pu’erh!

I begin this session of tea by bringing some water to a boil, after which I rise my gaiwan, small pot, and teacup to preheat them. It is pretty amazing how much of a difference preheating ones teaware can make on the taste of the tea that follows. Next, I measure out about one teaspoon of this tea into my gaiwan. I typically use more than this for gong fu brewing (quick and multiple infusions), which is what the directions on the label seem to imply, but for now we will merely follow along. I perform a quick rinse of the leaves with hot water to “open” them.

The dry leaves have a very vegetal aroma, suggesting a raw pu’erh. Yet there is an underlying smokiness and clear, fresh smell to them as well. The first 20 second infusion is performed. The wet leaves smell more malty now, yet still slightly vegetal. Much to my surprise, the tea brews a very pale green. This is very interesting, and not at all what I was expecting. This first infusion carries a very thin flavor. It is clear and fresh, with a smooth, vegetal aftertaste. As per the instructions, I go ahead and resteep the leaves, figuring that it will be different in the second infusion.

Mmm, this tea really kicks it in gear with the second infusion. The vegetal pu’erh flavor floods the taste buds. It is incredibly smooth and just slides over the tongue. I am truly impressed. I put it through several more steepings, and this tea just keeps on impressing. Normally, I prefer cooked pu’erhs to raw pu’erhs, but with a tea like this, I can hardly afford to be biased. I would give this tea an 87/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the 2010 Xing Hai Raw Beeng Cha directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

This tea helped me come to a decision on something. I don’t consider myself a tea purist at all. I happy drink tisanes and call them tea to my friends. I will throw sugar, splenda, or sweet and low into a cup and not think twice about it. I don’t use the purest of pure spring waters, or wash my teapots by hand, or insist that my oolong only is worth drinking when I drink it from a gaiwan or a special seasoned yixing pot. I try to drink good quality teas, and to treat them well to get good flavor, but I don’t fuss to much about it.

But this one has taken me a little too far.

I don’t like chips of stuff in my tea.

This tea smells amazing, as all of the Necessiteas’ blends do. It’s a whiff of lemony heaven. But when I first saw the blend, I thought there were chunks of carrot in there. Nope- they turned out to be vanilla chips. Vanilla chips? Like would go in cookies. Meh? That feels just wrong. But, for the sake of tea reviewing, I brewed up a cup.

The chips only partially melted, and left an oily residue on the surface of the cup. The brew still smelled amazingly lemon – one of the major ingredients is lemon grass. The flavor is nice, but there’s an oily mouthfeel that ruins it for me. The flavor is strongly lemongrass. The advertised vanilla notes don’t come through for me.

So for me, this tea would be a pass. I don’t want to drink it because of the way the chips affect the brew. And the flavor behind the oily mess isn’t enough to make me want to work around it. The lemongrass is nice, but not enough to make me want more of it. I’ll stick with their other flavors. And when I want lemon, I’ll go with Shanti Tea’s Lemonade.

You can purchase the Lemon Chiffon directly from the The Necessiteas website.

I recently received an e-mail from The Jasmine Pearl’s co-owner Chuck – o’ the of the Chuck-’n-Heather combination – to try some new wares from Taiwan. One was an aged oolong, another was a GABA green tea, and a couple of other offerings he left a mystery. However, the one that he seemed most eager to present was an organic green tea he received from his Taiwanese supplier. Said trader mentioned that it was “what green tea should taste like.”

Alas, when I and a tea compatriot did make it down, the last of the Formosa Green had vanished into the palate-y aether. He said that the actual bulk delivery would be arriving in the next few days, though, and that he’d let us know. True to his word, three days later, an e-mail showed up saying it came in. I tried it, liked it, bought an ounce…but I was unconvinced that it was the end-all/say-all for green teas. It was the second Taiwanese green I’d tasted, but it wasn’t the best. Perhaps I needed to subject it to my approach.

First off, I will say that the leaves were gorgeous – dark, bold green, long, twisty, and packed with aroma. I sniffed butter, lemons, grass, and…some kind of nut. Overall, it reminded me of a more pleasant-seeming Mao Feng. Far different than what I was expecting from a Taiwanese green. The last one I had smelled like Fruit Roll-Ups.

I completely forgot to ask what the best brewing approach was for this. Not that I was too worried about it; green teas were somewhat easy to figure out. I went with 1 tbsn. in 8oz. of 175F water and a steep time of three minutes.

What result was a relatively clear brew with a green tinge and a gentle, almost lemongrassy aroma. The flavor echoed the lemongrass comparison but with a twist. It was more like lemon verbena dipped in honey – citrusy, sweet, creamy, grassy, and oddly herbal on finish. If this is what green tea is supposed to taste like…I can deal with that.

You can purchase the High-Elevation Formosa Green directly from the The Jasmine Pearl website.

Dry leaves are black, wiry, tightly rolled leaves
Smell is of cinnamon

Wet: the leaves completely unfurled revealing black and dark green torn leaves

Ingredient list:
Finest black and green tea, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and spice oil

I made this tea stovetop. Here is my recipe:
1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup 2% milk, entire sample packet
Simmer for 9 minutes, let stand 1 minute, strain and Enjoy.

As the tea simmered, I was reminded of the homemade cocoa my Mother used to make when I was little. The color was a milky, chocolaty inviting cocoish kind of color that invokes memories of gentler times.

Someone once said that this tea was a tea for all seasons. I agree with that statement, it is a gently spiced tea that is very satisfying. The absence of pepper + the presence of a green tea contribute to the overall mildness of this blend. I could see myself drinking this at night outside enjoying my fire pit.

I believe that you really need more leaf to make this tea really pop, leaving the question in my mind: how much to purchase a full tin or half a pound? It is really one of those teas that warrant a BIG bag purchase.

You can purchase the Kashmiri Chai directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

This marked the last Hawaiian-grown tea I had yet to try from K Teas. Grown at the Hilo Tea Garden estate residing near Mountain View, Tea Hawaii sourced this green tea with the gentle drinker in mind. K Teas describes it as a pan-fired green tea reminiscent of some Chinese varieties. I’d say that’s a very apt description.

The curly, long, yellow-to-green leaves looked exactly like Mao Feng green tea. The buttered vegetables aroma was even there. If I was looking at this blind, I would’ve passed it up as a Mao Feng. A grassy one at that.

Brewing instructions were peculiarly light. The sample bag recommended steeping 3g. (roughly 1 tsp.) of leaves in a cup of 140F water for two minutes. That sounded rather low, but – to be fair – some green teas required delicacy. Japanese varieties, for example. This green tea looked like it was prone to spinaching if not carefully observed. I obeyed their instructions almost to the letter, save for the amount. Since the sample was small-ish, I opted for “almost-a-teaspoon” in 5oz. of water – just in case I screwed up the first brew.

The liquor infused almost completely clear, even more transparent than white tea. Heck, I’ve seen water that brewed darker. (California, anyone?) I think there was an aroma of leaves and butter, but it was extremely understate. There was a Mao Feng-ish presence on taste with a creamy back, yet in all honesty…this was water. Warm water.

I tried a second steep with the same leaves at 160F and three minutes. Now it looked like a green tea – one with a nice grass-to-floral scent. On the tongue, it was even more pleasant with a nutty mouthfeel. I likened it to a Japanese aracha instead of a Mao Feng. This proved that the instructions were way too light. So, go with your gut on this one. Brew it light but not too light. A good green tea awaits you if you oblige it.

You can purchase the Olas Green Tea directly from the KTeas website.

Preparing to try out this herbal blend, the first thing that I notice in the smell of the dry leaves is “Hmmm, hibiscus.” After boiling some water, I steep one pyramid infuser in a cup of water for five minutes to prepare to taste the “nectar”! The steeping brew still smells a lot like hibiscus, but the raspberry and orange peel smells are noticeable as well.

The first sip of this herbal tisane is a massively juicy explosion of flavor. Tea Forte’s website had listed the ingredients as “rosehip, hibiscus, apple pieces, blackberry leaves, raspberries, orange peels, flavoring” and there is so much going on in the taste that I believe it has all those things and more. Thankfully, since this blend is called “Raspberry Nectar,” raspberry is one of the dominant flavors. The sweetness of the apple does come out quite nicely, albeit subtly. This would be a decent desert drink, especially if one is looking for something low in caffeine. On my personal enjoyment scale, I rate it a 72/100.

You can purchase Tea Forte Raspberry Nectar directly from their website.

This tastes purple. Very, very purple. Crayola Purple.

Other than that, I’m at a bit of a loss to describe this one. British East India isn’t particularly forthcoming with their ingredient list, so the ability to match what I’m tasting with what the label says I’m supposed to be tasting is limited. The only other hint given on the packet is a strength of “4″ on a rating scale of Zed to … well, they don’t tell us that, either.

Dry, this blend has short, thick, dark leaves–a good black tea base. Those are accompanied by long, gold leafy bits that I can’t identify and bits and shards of the “tantalising spices.” Almost sandalwoody in character. (Which, in keeping with the Kama Sutra frame of reference, would be appropriate.)

After a four minute steep, we get a cup of deep, velvety red-brown liquid that is thick and hefty on the tongue. Flavor…well, we’re back to purple, even a little bitter. (Probably best to stay a little light on the leaf–I did a teaspoon to an 8 ounce cup.) The sensuous blossoms have a deep, dark personality–not tart and bright like hibiscus, more like violets or periwinkle or pansies. This is by no means grape flavored, but you do catch yourself holding your tongue the same way you do after a shot of Welch’s unsweetened juice.

Quailty tea veiled in a bit of mystery.

You can purchase the Kama Sutra Revitalising Tea directly from the The East India Company website.

Bai Lin Gong Fu – other than sounding like the name of a cheesy 70s martial arts flick – is a black tea hailing from Fujian province, China. The territory is best known for producing Wuyi oolongs and the ever-famous Bai Hao Yinzhen (or Silver Needle white tea). The only other black tea I know of made their is Golden Monkey, which is just AWESOME! Anyway…

This was an impressive enough looking black tea with brown-to-black, curled leaves in full effect. Tippy pieces also dotted the canvas, giving a spritely touch to the earthy presentation. Smelling it was also an experience, for I found it hard to pinpoint what to call the scent; I settled on “caramel musk” – even though that sounds like a male aftershave.

Teavivre recommended 1-2 tsps. per 8oz. of 185F water steeped for two-to-three minutes. I braved a quickie brew-up at 199F water for two minutes – 1 tbsn. and a 12oz. cup. I was on the go.

The liquor brewed a deep red-brown with a smoky-sweet aroma that reminded me of a Keemun. Further whiffing turned up notes of wood, leather and chocolate. Y’know…manly things. There seemed to also be a dryness to the scent, which turned up on the flavorful forefront. However, that was thankfully minor, and it was followed up by a bold, malty middle with shades of honey. Some bitterness showed up on finish, but I owed that to my near-boil brew-up, not the leaves. This was different from the other two Bai Lins I’ve tried – which both exhibited more earthy, Yunnan-like tendencies – but I still favored its robust roundhouse kick of a taste. It’s a morning cup, that’s for certain.

You can purchase the Bailin Gongfu directly from the Teavivre website.