Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Cupboard’

Holy giant rose-buds Batman!

That’s the first thing I see when I opened the tin – these large, well-formed rose buds that haven’t lost their colour or their scent – proving that they’re relatively fresh. They’re so big that at first the tea seems to be all roses – but that’s mostly because the other components are so much finer – green rooibos, curled little tea leaves, and small fruit bits. The tea does smell like roses, but it’s roses with something rich, fruity, and tropical-ish mixed in with it – a very appealing scent in my opinion, I could just sit here sniffing the tin.

The rose isn’t over-powering in the tea, though I think it’s very much the star of the show. I’ve never had plain green rooibos, so I’m not quite sure what it’s supposed to taste like as opposed to red rooibos, but I can tell you that I’m not getting any of the woody-earthy flavour that I usually associate with rooibos teas. What I can taste is that exotic, sweet flavour from the mango pieces and a tiny bit of a citrus zing. Despite the white silver needles and the jasmine pearl this tea is supposedly decaffeinated, though it doesn’t have that thin, watery taste characteristic of many decaf blends. Of course, apart from a few hints here and there of jasmine (mostly hidden by the rose) I’m not really tasting much actual tea at all! So it’s more like a herbal infusion, which is fine by me, I need a better selection of ‘nighttime’ teas in my cupboard.

It’s an interesting mix and maybe it’s the rose, but drinking it makes me a feel a bit girly – in a good way. I don’t think I’ve ever some across a blend with a flavour combination like this, and it’s perhaps a little ‘busy’ but it’s great for someone like me who enjoys a bit of variety now and then.

I gave this a Steepster rating of 81/100

You can purchase the Xaouen directly from the 52teas website.

I grew up drinking Celestial Seasonings teas and it was (and still is) a staple in my mom’s cupboard.  But for some reason I never got around to trying this particular one even though ‘SleepyTime’ is one of the standard CS blends. As it turns out, for once CS seems to have made a herbal tea without hibiscus being involved (thankfully, as the hibiscus over-dose is what has kept me away from a lot of them in recent years). Out of the box it smells quite herbal-y with a strong odor of mint. More in-depth sniffing revealed a sweet vanilla-y odor lurking in the background.

There’s not really a whole lot of vanilla that I can taste in the tea itself and I think that’s partially due to the fact that the mint and chamomile are such strong, aromatic herbs that they drown out any subtleties in this tea.  The herbal flavours aren’t bitter and the chamomile has a nicely sweet, apple-like flavour.  I can pick up a bit of citrus from the lemongrass, but the rest of the ingredient are mostly there for show I think l – or maybe they’re just part of the amorphous herbal flavour.  As for its effects as a practical herbal tea, I didn’t really find myself getting sleepy per say, but it does have a bit of a relaxing effect on the body and mind.

I gave this tea a Steepster review of 63/100

You can purchase Celestial Seasoning Sleepytime Vanilla directly from their website.

The dry leaves are black, small and wiry.
The smell of the dry leaves…smoke.
This is my first experience with a smoky tea. The smell from the bag reminds me of cigars.

This smoky smell is now very faint, almost pleasant. The wet leaves have unfurled quite a bit, you can see larger leaves that look brown-green in color and smaller leaf segments that are one tone brown. Looking at the wet leaves reminds me of a melted brown crayon. The texture begs you to touch the leaves, they are soft and velvety.

The brew is a reddish liquid that looks like velvet in my glass tea cup. Smooth taste with no bitterness, but that smoke is still there in the background waving his hand at my taste buds. If you like smoke in teas, then this could your tea. As for me, I am still on the hunt for that one perfect “gotta have it” tea for my cupboard.

You can purchase the Victorian Afternoon directly from the Mark T. Wendell website.

Have a bit of an unsettled stomach today, digging through my tea cupboard looking for a cure and I found this lovely ginger and lemon balm blend. Normally I just make my own ginger tea (freshly grated) but well, meh, tummy ache.

The first scent to hit my nose is that of lemon, a sweet lemon though, not like Myrtle or lemongrass. It’s a nice and refreshing smell, can’t make out the ginger yet though. The Tea Forte website says the only two ingredients are ginger and lemon balm but it lists lemongrass under the ‘origin’ tab and not lemon balm. Curious.

Steeped in boiling water for five minutes, now I can definitely smell the ginger. Love the way teas change their scent so dramatically when you add water. It brews really light but dusty, not clear at all. Tastes fantastic though. Not helping my stomach though, back to fresh ginger.

You can purchase the Lemon Ginger directly from the Tea Forte website.

Dry leaf appearance: black wiry leaves with bright orange and goldenrod shavings mixed throughout

Step one: open the bag
Step two: breathe deeply
Step three: put 1 tsp of dry leaf per 6 ounces of hot water, wait 3-4 minutes
Step four: pour the dark amber brew into your favorite teacup, take that first sip….

WOW. CITRUSY. CLEAN. BLACK TEA. GOOD.

Folks, what we have here is a home run from Sri Lanka! This tea is smooth with very little astringency. It has citrus notes that are perfectly balanced in the black tea base. I fear I do not have enough of this tea in my cupboard.

You can purchase the Blood Orange Black directly from the Drink The Leaf website.