Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Five Minutes’

Irish breakfast tea should need no mollycoddlin’; it should be a tea that will allow you to stagger into the kitchen on a weekday morning with your eyes half closed and throw an indiscriminate amount of leaf into the cleanest cup you can find in the sink, dump in water at the first hint of a kettle whistle, and there! Bob’s yer uncle.

I’m not sure Golden Moon’s take on Irish Breakfast can handle that kind of mistreatment, but it’s definitely tasty. I made my first test cup on a leisurely weekend so I had time to fully open my eyes and give it a good look. The first thing I noticed was that, even at a full five minutes, the color was lighter than I expected. Taking a second look at the dry leaves, that’s not a surprise—there’s a generous amount of blonde golden tips in the mix.

While rolling around possible adjectives for this tea, stout and robust didn’t make the list at all. Golden Moon Irish Breakfast is more malty and fruity than one would expect, but still has enough character to stand up to the “breakfast” category. No milk needed, but a.m. additives don’t weaken its taste or personality.

According to Golden Moon’s website, the type of Irish Breakfast I described in the opening paragraph might be considered “too bitter for the faint of heart.” Thus, their blend, hand-picked from a market in Cork, England, has toned down the kick to make a cup that says “top o’the mornin’ to ya.”

You can purchase the Irish Breakfast directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

Hmm another amazingly retro package from Blue Q Tea. The back of the box poses an interesting question: “Are you thinking of running away from home?” If you’re a parent or if you were ever someone’s child, you will, at the very least, get a chuckle out of this one. I showed this to my son and he thought it was funny (he’s a teen, so I kind of sort of think he almost smiled). Now, he actively encourages me to take tea breaks. “Gawd Mom, why don’t you just go drink something…” It’s a beautiful thing.

So, in an effort to become an even more perfect parent, I cracked open this tea. It smells fantastic, light and fresh, with a hint of orange. It’s dusty but the smell helped me over look that. Steeped it with boiling water for five minutes and the scent became really calming. Brews up really clean and almost colorless but the citrus taste is strong enough to compliment the chamoumile without overpowering it. This is a nice tea and it really would make a nice gift for the parent or parent-substitute in your life.

You can purchase the Be A Better Parent Tea directly from the Blue Q 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.

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.

Due to user error, my first experimental pot of Lochan’s Harmutty Golden Paw was a declawed version of what a good Assam should be. At a scant teaspoon per cup and 3:45 brewing time (what I thought was a fair middle range), it was a beautiful amber in the cup, but I couldn’t coax much flavor out of it. It just tasted light and tea-ish.

When I got distracted—a routine occurrence on busy Saturdays—and left the rest of the pot for more than an hour, the color began to darken. Once that happened, some sweet, nutty notes began to emerge—prompting visions of and a craving for my Aunt Nancy’s legendary pecan pie. The full pot’s worth of leaves, double strength in a single cup, made a great glass of iced tea in the afternoon.

Evidently, this tea is not intended to be treated like a pampered pussycat. Even though the leaves are light and fluffy, they need strength (a heaping teaspoon per cup and then some) and time (minimum five minutes). When you give Harmutty Golden Paw a lion’s share of care and attention, you’ll get a smooth, light, slightly sweet, highly enjoyable tea.