Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Ginger Root’

If anyone’s been following my reviews, they would have noticed a pattern by now. I tend to review teas with any or all of the following ingredients: lemon, ginger, and ginseng. Not to deviate from that trend, this review will be on Special Tea Brew’s Lemon Ginger Snap. Dry leaf is made up of Chinese green tea, lemongrass, lemon myrtle, and ginger. Upon opening up the package, the aroma was a piercing ginger smell. Ginger was the only ingredient I could smell. I steeped 5g in 600ml of hot water for 3 minutes. The aroma coming off the steeped liquor was now more lemony than ginger. Funny that the ingredient that is dominant for a chosen characteristic does not show up as the predominant ingredient in other characteristics. For example, although the dominant ingredient in the aroma is lemon, the taste is predominantly ginger. It was like a lemony swamp, like lemon mixed with muddy grass. It did not smell very appetizing. As for the taste, you are wham smacked in the face with ginger at every sip. It is very overwhelming. Then after you swallow, you can taste the lemongrass and lemon myrtle which in this combination makes it taste dirty. It certainly is more herb than tea. Ginger swamp are the words I would use to describe this tea.

However, having said that, I am glad I gave this tea a second chance by tasting it cold. It tasted much better, not like you’ve just had a face plant in a muddy soccer field of prior, but a subdued bitterness with a much more tolerable level of ginger taste. It is much more drinkable this way I found.

You can purchase the Lemon Ginger Snap directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.

Product Description:
Golden Moon Tea delicately blends hand-plucked white loose leaf tea leaves and exquisite Yin Zhen buds with freshly dried ginger root to produce a sweet and enlivening cup. Ginger, treasured by traditional herbalists for its strengthening and digestive properties, lends a spicy and aromatic note to the clear infusion. White Ginger, delicate yet vibrant, serene yet sensuous, warming yet refreshing. Ingredients: White tea, ginger root

Tasters Review:
When I first sampled this I noticed many other reviews online from others that didn’t particularly like this. I, however, didn’t think it was all that bad. I don’t think I would purchase it for myself in large quantities but I gave it a little more credit than others seemed to have given it. This wasn’t very gingery – which is fine by me – I do know that White Ginger is supposed to be mellower than regular ginger – but I think this is regular ginger and it’s in white tea…so…perhaps the white tea toned down the heavier ginger flavor. Regardless – the ginger isn’t harsh. It’s a bit chewy for a white tea but the flavor overall isn’t very memorable. The taste of this flavored white is not bad…it’s just not what I would call stunning either! Perhaps people were looking for that stereotypical ginger taste – I guess I can understand their confusion because this flavor isn’t your typical ginger taste. I, however, am grateful it wasn’t overly gingery…that factor I will say I enjoyed about this offering.

You can purchase the White Ginger directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

Lapacho goes by many names – taheebo, trumpet bush, Ipe, and (my favorite) Pau D’Arco. The latter name seems to be the most common one used in herb shops I’ve frequented. Why this is, I don’t know; perhaps because it sounds less “Latin”. Personally, I prefer the lapacho moniker – sounds manlier. Moving along: The herbal infusion of lapacho is made from the inner bark of the Tabebuia impetiginosa, a tree native to the South American Andes and Amazon rainforest. The “bark tea” is linked to many purported health benefits including – but not limited to – relief of the common cold, psoriasis, ulcers, anemia, cancer, and even HIV. It should be noted that for the two last claims, the amount of bark tea needed to make any difference would far exceed toxicity levels deemed normal.

I was suckered in, some three years ago, by the health claims when I thought I suffered from a rather embarrassing “-itis” (that shall remain nameless). The infusion had a woody, faintly sweet, somewhat leaf-minty taste. Not unlike other inner-bark-borne South American tisanes. The flavor – like yerba mate – wasn’t worthy of too much note; it was what it was. However, bad or mediocre memories are quick to fade, and I wanted to give lapacho a fair chance. A sample of Distinctly Tea’s Lapacho Vanilla Chai awaited me.

Ingredients for this unique melange included the aforementioned bark, coriander, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, ginger root, vanilla beans, anise, and natural flavors. I was a little dismayed at the “flavors” mentioned. With all those strong herbs on display, I would think flavoring wouldn’t be necessary. That is, unless the amount of vanilla beans included in the blend didn’t yield enough flavor. Which is probably why – when I went in for a whiff – the vanilla was the first thing I smelled, trailed behind by a lightly-spiced ring. The rest of the “chai” elements were beaten into submission by the “VANILLA!”-ness of the blend. However, they showed up in the visual bouquet of yellows, oranges and browns.

I almost had to laugh at the general steeping instructions on the Distinctly website. Paraphrased greatly, they basically said: “Dude, just look at the bag.” Albeit, far more eloquently than that. Still, that took cojones. On the bag, brewing instructions said to use 1 heaping tsp. of boiling water per 8oz. cup, steeped for five-to-seven minutes. My general approach with herbals was just that for six minutes. Perfect, we were in agreement.

The infusion brewed to a honey-colored liquor with…probably the oddest aroma I’ve run into in awhile. The finished product smelled like a cross between hot apple cider and TheraFlu. And you know what? I love both of those. I have no clue where the apple came from, but the cidery aspect probably stemmed from the merger of coriander and cinnamon. The rest of the spices showed up on the foretaste, followed by a somewhat woody middle. Lapacho showed itself as a base in the body of the flavor. Rounding it out was a crisp, cider-like, and creamy finish. What a peculiar drink.

Summing up, I was happy this was more “something else” than chai. The concept of a decaf or herbal chai never really sat well with me. The addition of vanilla to the mix and the different take on lapacho more than gave this blend a pass. If competing in a sport, this would be bronze medal material.

You can purchase the Lapacho Vanilla Chai directly from the Distinctly Tea website.

Loose tea blend of lemongrass and ginger.

The ginger was a bit mild for my liking. The lemon seemed to take a back seat to the other flavors in this blend. As I sipped this tea, I was continually hit with the sensation that I was drinking hay. It was drinkable, but will I choose this particular tea again from my cupboard, probably not.

Well, I did choose this tea again and I liked it better, I let it steep longer and that seemed to overcome the hay sensation I experienced with tasting number one.

Overall, a good caffeine free choice from Tea Forte.

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

I wish I was at home, reading a book on a nice summer afternoon, because this tea deserves that. Or at least it deserves a little more than sitting in my boring cube at work in the middle of winter. A nice light tea, with strong ginger and lemon tones. While mild, this cloudy sage-green brew is not subtle. It is definitely GINGER and Lemon. Ginger is the strongest element, and comes out more in the flavor while the lemon flavor comes out more in the scent. The herbal element here is more to the fore than the tea element; it really feels more like a herbal than a flavored green tea. The blend works well both sweetened and unsweetened. I also bet this would be lovely iced.

You can purchase the Lemon Ginger Snap directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.