Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Cocoa’

So, as I child, I used to eat grass.  Not a lot, and not actual grazing, but every so often when outside, I’d pick a blade and nibble.  Thank goodness my parently didn’t use chemical fertilizer, and that we didn’t have any dogs!  I favored wild grass, because you can get the milder white hearts of grass from the inner stem in larger portions than from regular lawn grass.

That is what this tea reminds me of – those mild grass hearts.  It’s a lovely mellow, smooth and grassy tea.   And grass really is a motif throughout the tea. The dry leaf looks like dried grass slippings, while having cocoa and nutty aroma notes.  The brewed leaf looks even more like grass clippings and smells like a typical green tea.

But the brew – oh!  the brew.  It’s lovely.  Others have called it sweet.  I don’t get sweet.  I get grassy, lightly nutty, and very mellow.  Mild.  Very lightly colored.  This is a tea I could sip all day.  Lovely, lovely tea.

You can purchase the Anji Bai Cha directly from the Canton Tea Co. website – Save 10% right now when you use the code IIATL at checkout!.

To be a white tea fan, one must generally appreciate tea that whispers, not shouts. Most white tea is subtle and only hints at having a flavor. Thus, Coconut Vanilla Flavored white is a pleasant surprise to a drinker of louder, bolder flavored teas. It doesn’t exactly shout but it speaks audibly, firmly, and pleasantly!

The dry tea is beautiful–big, long-legged leaves, complemented by white coconut shavings and tiny rosebuds—and would be lovely in an apothecary jar. Its aroma is smooth and sweet, not greenish or grassish.

But don’t spend too much time with your nose in the dry mix–get on with making yourself a cup, because you’re in for a treat. The steeped tea is pale, but don’t let the color fool you. It’s velvety-thick and every bit as coconutty sweet as “advertised” in by dry aroma: very, very similar in character to white chocolate cocoa.

The quality pai mu dan leaves take a second steep well. A good thing: you’ll want seconds!

You can purchase the Jasmine Green Tea directly from the TeaFrog website.

Once again utilising my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, Tea Forte Tea Tray, and Tea Forte Tea Timer iPhone application , I start out steeping this tea for a recommended average of 3 minutes. It may sound like a shameless plug, but their app is great, and the Cafe Cup (with its specially designed lid) is perfect for steeping Tea Forte pyramid infuser bags. The leaves inside the pyramid infuser look very broken up. This worries me a bit, but not being one to judge a tea from its appearance (at least not completely), I wait patiently for the steeping to finish.

The liquor has steeped to a milk-chocolate brown. Nutty smells waft up from the cup. This tea smells quite nutty. In the aroma, there even appears to be some subdued cocoa notes. Taking my first sip, it appears that three minutes was long enough to steep this tea. Perhaps even a bit too long.

The taste is much smoother than the smell would lead one to believe. Unlike many Formosa oolongs I have tried, this one slips nicely over the tongue, ending in an expressive aftertaste. Robust is a good descriptor for this tea. Oolongs are known to be warming to the body, and this one seems to be the epitome of that factoid.

My tea time was enjoyable, thanks to this tea. It was a good representation of a decent Formosa oolong. On my personal enjoyment scale, I rate it an 80/100.

You can purchase the Formosa Oolong directly from the Tea Forte website.

The dry smell is just like ice cream. How can this be? Let me assure you that this is the most delicious tea. I don’t know how Frank does it; he just seems to have a way with honeybush that leaves me coming back for more.

All three flavor profiles are present. The strawberry is represented by dried strawberry bits that impart the juiciness of a fresh picked ripe strawberry. The vanilla bean gives this blend the creamy aspect of ice cream. The chocolate was the most surprising to me, it is subtle, and a delicate cocoa that rounds out this threesome perfectly. Since my honeybush order arrived, I have had a hard time choosing other teas. I drink some kind of honeybush from 52 Teas most every night. Honeybush is sweeter and less woodsy in taste than rooibos and it is naturally caffeine free. Enjoy.

You can purchase the Neapolitan Honeybush directly from the 52teas website.

Pre-steeping, my nose revels in the wonderful and delicious smells coming from the dry leaves. This tiramisu smells delicious, and it is strong enough that I can hardly detect the scent of the red rooibos underneath it.

After steeping, the aroma of rooibos has been brought to a more prominent place, but the tiramisu is not letting go of its grasp on the scent and the senses. The liquor has steeped a deep red colour, yet remains bright and clear. Eagerly, I lift the cup to my lips in anticipation…

Creamy! This tea has a very thick mouthfeel that actually starts out being a bit thin, but when the sweetness of the tea finally hits, it thickens considerably. The rooibos has come through beautifully, though it almost seems to have too much rooibos flavour (as compared to the tiramisu). The tiramisu does put forth a good showing, however. It boldly jumps out at the drinker, and lasts a while, settling in a delicious aftertaste. With each sip, I’m left wanting to take another sip and another…

I really enjoyed this tea, which is probably an understatement, considering how fast I went through the first cup. I gladly give this tea an 85 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

Time to go have another cup!

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