Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

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This is one of those amazing quality teas that sends you straight to the package, squinting at the fine print to find evidence of flavoring above and beyond the tea itself. Nope. Nothing but great tea.

The dry leaves have the farmy burlap feed sack smell traditionally associated with Keemuns. (Southwest Missourian that I am, I could just breathe the bag fumes and be content!) Drink the Leaf subtitles this “red peach Keemun,” which is evident in the red-gold color of the steeped tea.

But peachy doesn’t even begin to describe all the things that happen in your mouth once you start enjoying this stuff! This tea has heft and a wonderful liquid honey taste that stays on the tongue long after you’ve swallowed. (Suddenly, I’m craving buttered toast.) A second steep lightens the flavor some, but it’s still pleasant follow-up to the first yummy batch.

Drink the Leaf describes Hong Tao Mao Feng as having a “long finish,” appropriate for a tea you’ll want to enjoy when you have plenty of time to sit and smile between sips.

You can purchase the Hong Tao Mao Feng directly from the Drink The Leaf website.

The color of this is GREAT and as described in the product description. It smells delightful!  A bready-toasty type black tea scent.

The taste is great! I can relate to the caramel and honey notes DRINK THE LEAF spoke of in the Product Description and can appreciate the bready/cakey type chewiness too! It’s not sweet – you almost think it’s going to be (a good type) bitter but it’s not bitter either. It’s a lingering tea that last long after your sip is complete! But it also makes you crave more!  This seems a little more complex that it gives itself credit for – and I like that!  This is a very memorable and delicious tea!  I like it very much!

You can purchase the Hong Tao Mao Feng directly from the Drink The Leaf website.

Blood oranges fascinate me. I know they are becoming more popular (like the surge of pomegranate flavors over the last 3 years), but they still seems exotic, unusual and downright fascinating. It’s the dark red color of the fruit’s flesh combined with the bright citrus flavor that just get my mouth watering!

My first impression is that this tea smells awesome; dark and sweet and tangy. And upon the first sip, the taste lives up to the smell. I brewed this up in my zarafina tea maker at work, and added half a packet of sweetener and the first cup disappeared within minutes. So did the second cup. And the third. Additionally, it withstood a second brewing quite well. Which is a little unusual for a highly flavored black tea. This helps in making this tea a good value for your money – always a bonus!

I’d recommend this tea to anyone who likes black teas and citrus flavors. It tastes great and is a good value.

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

Upon opening the package, you are hit with the most incredible, rich, fresh scent of blood orange that smells it has been freshly squeezed. The dry leaves are thin and wiry with the beautiful red-orange leaves safflower leaves mixed in. I measured out 2 tsp of tea and steeped it in boiling water for 3 minutes as directed on the package.

As the tea is steeping, the scent of the blood orange intensifies but still does not smell artificial. The tea pours to be medium-brown in color with just a hint of orange thrown in. When you take a sip of the tea, you’ll first notice the smooth and flavorful black tea base followed by rich, juicy orange. The orange flavoring is so natural that you will begin to wonder if someone put a small splash of blood orange juice in your black tea while you weren’t looking.

This tea does not need any additives. This is big for me. As a general rule, I add milk and possibly sweetener to just about every black tea but this tea doesn’t need any of that. There is a natural sweetness that makes the tea very enjoyable to drink plain. For my personal enjoyment, this tea receives high marks. It is nice to have a black tea without having to worry about fixing it up before it tastes right.

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