Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Cup Of Tea’

I am having a hard time writing this review. This tea makes me think of nothing more than sitting outside on a sunny day in the short grass. Sun is shining on your face, and the sweet scent of the lawn washing over you. There even may be a hammock involved. All of that in just a little cup of tea. Bliss. It’s a lovely image, and a really nice cup of tea. Very mellow, smooth, just a hint of astringency at the finish, just making you want to take that next sip all the sooner. It has a hint of sweetness in the aroma – I can see where Rishi finds the “sweetly toasted chestnut” from it’s product description. There are no stand-out notes in this tea for me – just a blended mellowness that I’m really enjoying. I have a feeling that drinking this on a cold, snowy December might instantly transport you to a very spring-like place.

Unfortunately for this review – outside it’s a beautiful sunny day, and there actually is a hammock. Both the cup of tea next to me, and the entire back yard are telling me I need to take this tea outside and sit and enjoy it in the sunshine. I don’t think I can hold out any longer.

You can purchase the Jade Cloud, Organic Fair Trade Green Tea directly from the Rishi Tea website.

The leaves are small and black. The dry leaf smell is of tea, a really good quality Ceylon tea. I can smell the tiniest hint of green? Can this be possible in a Ceylon black tea?

I brewed up 2 tsp. in the ingenuiTEA by Adagio for 2 minutes. The tea package clearly indicates that brewing over 3 minutes will produce a bitter cup of tea. The leaves danced around in the hot water.

First sip note: This is not bitter. It is smooth, amber in color and smells like I think black tea should. It’s the kind of smell that invokes memories of yesterdays gone by, the sound of someone mowing the grass, the smell of fresh cut grass. I know this is a black tea, but I do detect a bit of “green” in there also. The wet leaves do have a green hue to them. You take a sip of tea, it is not flavored with anything other than tea leaves. This is a simple tea that does not require milk or sugar.

Added ice and WOW! Decided to do a second infusion and put in my iced tea pitcher for later this afternoon. It is nice hot, but the Pekoe flavor really pops when this tea is ice cold.

You can purchase the Organic Ceylon Tea directly from the Leaf Spa Tea website.

I was surprised at the size of this infuser. It is small. When you see it online, it looks really big. Filling it to the brim gets 16 ounces in the infuser. In reality, you are only making 12-15 ounces of tea with this infuser.

Now, I have water and tea leaves in the infuser. I wait the prescribed amount of time depending on the type of tea. A word of caution here, make sure the cup you intend to use is large enough to hold 12-16 ounces of tea and that the brim of the cup is as wide as the bottom of this infuser. When the tea is ready, place the infuser over your cup and gravity does all the work. Thank you Sir Isaac Newton! When you lift the infuser off your cup, the mechanism closes. No drips.

Here are a list of pros and cons to help you decide if the IngenuiTEA is right for you:

Pros
It is clear, you can watch the agony of the leaves as they unfurl. And with it clear, you can easily get it clean.
With it being gravity fed, it is effortless to pour a cup of tea.
The IngenuiTEA is microwave and dishwasher safe. I personally would never put it in either appliance, but you could if you wanted.
This is great for using loose leaf tea to make iced tea. It fits right on top of my iced tea pitcher.

Cons:
It is plastic.
The lid does not come off, so it sits at an angle in the drain board.

I would recommend this to any tea drinker. It makes the using of loose leaves easy and fun. This is great for anyone who travels or wants to make great tasting tea at work. The IngenuiTEA is smart looking. It would certainly start a conversation about tea.

You can purchase the IngenuiTEA directly from the Adagio website.

Company Product Description:
A tea blended in honor of Malachi McCormick, that tea author of Irish blood. His out-of-print book “A Decent Cup of Tea” is small, but speaks volumes concerning the difficulty in finding well-prepared tea in hotels.

I start each day with at least 1 black or black flavored tea…my day “tea day” progresses from there…each day a new tea adventure.  BUT…I always HAVE to have some good, solid Black or Black Flavored Tea Favorites or Standby’s nearby.  With all the tea I drink I MUST have a HUGE variety in my stash. 

Recently I sampled Malachi McCormick’s Blend from Harney & Sons for the first time.  I received it from a friend in a tea swap!  Let’s just say it’s very satisfying and I am fairly certain that’s on its way to my Standby Pile…if not my “go-to” pile! 

It’s a medium strength Black Tea that is toasty yet sweet and oh-so-smooth!  It seems to be the perfect tea to sip or – if you are in a rush – gulp.

I don’t know what it is about this tea…but I think it’s a winner!

You can purchase the Malachi McCormick’s Blend directly from the Harney & Sons website.

Big, bold, brassy. This tea is by no means a delicate wall flower of a green tea. Or a delicate anything, really. It comes right out and lets you know that it’s here, it’s a green tea, and that it means to be taking center stage, thankyouverymuch.

However, in its efforts to inform the world of it’s intentions, it may scare some people off. It almost scared me off. Opening the pouch of tea, the scent is an inviting green tea aroma with an enhanced nutty quality, brought about by a roasting step during the processing of the leaf. Steeping the tea, it’s a delicate, pale green color with just a hint of brown; the very picture of an inviting cup of tea. But then, sipping shocked me. Very astringent. Almost a sour quality. And the drying sensation wasn’t restricted to just the mouth, it went down the throat as well. As the brew cooled, the sour faded, leaving a sweeter quality to the cup.

To try and get the best out of this tea, I tried multiple steeping parameters. My first two tries, I used the method referred to on the packet – 1 tablespoon per 5-6 oz of water, steeped in 180 degree water for 3-5 minutes. Their website also recommended trying more leaf with a shorter steeping time. This method resulted in a brew where the sour flavor held on, even once cooled. I then tried the old tried and true proportion of 1 tsp per 8 oz. This resulted in a much lighter brew with reduced astringency and reduced sourness, and a hint of nuttiness at the back of your mouth.

If you are a fan of the big, bold and dry red wines, you will likely love this tea brewed to the original directions. I preferred the weaker brew, but other greens have tickled my fancy more than this one.

You can purchase the Rishi Teas Organic Green Needles (Lu Zhen) Roasted directly from the Rishi Tea website.