Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Blends’

I was really excited to taste this tea. The ingredients of orange peel, cinnamon and cloves sounded wonderfully delicious. The directions recommend steeping 1.5 tsp per cup of water for 5-6 minutes. I was using a 2-cup teapot, so I doubled my amount of tea and steeped it, using boiling water, for five minutes. The smell of cloves and cinnamon wafts up from the pot to my nose enticingly. This tea is aptly named, as it reminds me of sitting next to a fire, perhaps during the Christmas season, where these smells are often common around my home.

Pouring myself a cup of this dark, red-orange tea, cloves take the greatest part of its aroma, with edgings of cinnamon in that scent. Sipping this tea, it goes down smooth, the biggest flavour being the cinnamon and the rooibos (which is pleasantly not overpowered as in many rooibos blends I have tried). The orange aftertaste is quite appealing.

My overall impressions were that this tea has very well-balanced flavours and really does make for a very soothing beverage. I certainly enjoyed it and would rate it a 90/100.

You can purchase the Fireside Rooibos directly from the TeaFrog website.

I have been on a Black/Green Kick lately!  There are just some blacks and greens that do go good together and when you add something link mint to it – I’m always game!  For this particular one, I think you can taste the Gunpowder Green more than the black tea but the Mint is what makes it in more ways than one.  Here is what I mean by that…if you like Mint,  you will probably like this.  If you like flavored black tea -  you are certainly going to want to try this.  And if you are into greens that are blended with others – you can’t pass this up!  On the other hand…if you aren’t sure about gunpowder and are willing to give it another try – TRY THIS.  I repeat TRY THIS.  The Gunpowder and mint go together perfectly.  It takes away from the grassy taste and the aftertaste is pure minty goodness!  I would classify this as a very versatile blend!  It would appeal to many and maybe even gain some newbies to try new things and find their love of gun powder teas and/or black & Green blends.  In addition…if you are worried there is too much mint – I don’t believe there is.  I’m a huge mint fan…and usually the more the merrier but feel this is one of those ‘just enough mint’ type scenarios!  Overall this is one of my favorite TeaFrog Teas so far!  Thumbs up on this one from me!

You can purchase the Asian Mint directly from the TeaFrog website.

The cold weather always makes me reach from stronger blends so today I’m trying a nice black tea blend from SpecialTea Brew. It’s called Pink Grapefruit and you can see pieces of citrus mixed in with the dark leaves. The dry leaves smell amazingly rich and fresh, really inviting.

Steeped it in almost boiling water (195 degrees) for just over two minutes and it brewed up to a nice red color. It smells really good while it’s steeping, not a grapefruit scent though, more orange than anything. It’s a nice clean brew with very little dust. Tastes really smooth but a little bit on the bitter side, thinking I may have to steep it in slightly cooler water next time. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to warm up and wake up on cool morning.

You can purchase the Pink Grapefruit directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.

To review this tea, I decided to once again utilize my awesome Tea Forte Cafe Cup!

Tea Forte’s website recommended steeping this for at least five minutes, so I poured just boiled water over one pyramid bag and let it steep. The teabag actually remained in the cup for six and a half minutes, but I figured this would not be an issue, as most rooibos blends rarely oversteep.

The dry leaf smells delicious! Lots of tasty smelling berry aroma.

The liquor brews a deep, dark red, very nearly the colour of some red wines. While it still smells like berries, the berry scent has changed to smelling very nearly like juice.

The taste of the steeped tea is very smooth, with a fullness that is neither thick nor watery. The finish is much stronger in berry flavour than is the taste while on the tongue, as though the dominant flavour migrates seamlessly from rooibos to berry.

The smell of this tea was far more bold than the flavour, almost making it a bit disappointing to drink. (I guess I shouldn’t let the aroma set my expectations.)

All in all, it was a very tasty tea. Wonderfully fruity, the hint of the rose petals that are part of this tea even peek out in the aftertaste.

On my personal enjoyment scale, I believe I would rate this tea a 75/100.

You can purchase the African Solstice directly from the Tea Forte website.

I was so excited to sample Adagio’s version of Chocolate Chai, which is one of my favorite blends. I just cannot resist the classic pairing of chocolate and peppery spice, as celebrated in movies like “Chocolat” (with the irresistible Johnny Depp) and as celebrated in the fragrant Mexican mole poblano sauce. So, with fantasies of Johnny Depp and I savoring a romantic meal at a beachside restaurant in Mexico floating through my mind, I had high expectations for this tea. Unfortunately, the reality collided with fantasy.

Succinctly, this tea is just “Meh…”. The aroma in the tin was fragrant with cinnamon notes and upon inspection, the blend did contain pieces of chopped cinnamon sticks. However, the chocolate flavor had an odd chalky after- taste. The chai flavor was not a well-rounded spicy flavor and mostly tasted of cinnamon and cloves. The overall flavor of this tea was a watery-chalky- cinnamon-y brew. So, bottom-line, this is not my favorite version of Chocolate Chai.

You can purchase the Chocolate Chai directly from the Adagio website.