Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Hibiscus’

Flowering teas originate from Southwestern Yunnan Province. Flowering teas are prepared primarily for their aesthetics; often in glass / transparent vessels so that the blooming of a flower right before your eyes within seconds can be fully enjoyed. The tea leaves are harvested and while damp, they are sewn into various shapes and bundles with cotton thread. One single, more elaborate bundle may take as long as ten minutes to sew. Flowers commonly used are globe amaranth, chrysanthemum, jasmine, lily, hibiscus, and osmanthus. Flowering teas can be refreshed several times, and do not get bitter with extended steeping. The taste profile is usually light, fragrant, and aromatic. Here I have posted pictures of my steeping of Canton Tea’s Sweet Osmanthus.

This flowering tea is in the shape of a bulb. It is made up of silver needle and orange osmanthus flowers so I steeped it at 88C. The aroma coming off the pot smelled very sweet like nectar and a little like medicinal herbs. It did not smell floral at all.

The infusion was a light orange colour similar to the colour of the osmanthus flower that emerged from the bulb. This is interesting for a silver needle. Most infusions of industrial white teas are yellowish-orange but not premium quality white tea which brings up the point of the quality of the tea that goes into flowering teas. I would think that they are on the lower end as the point of flowering teas is more for aesthetics than for taste.

The bulb opened up completely in about 3 minutes, just enough time for the tea to steep. The website said the tea tastes like lilies and orange osmanthus. I do not know what that tastes like but this tea did not taste floral or fruity, or crisp or refreshing but it is on the opposite end – more robust, grounded, a hardier taste. It tastes a bit like sugar cane. Not bad if that is what you like. Sometimes I opt for the less fruity and floral teas myself.

You can purchase the Sweet Osmanthus Flowering Tea directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

Da.u.de samples always come in lovely tins with beautiful labels. Opening this tin an AMAZING scent washes over you. Dark fruit, sweet berries, and lovely sweet tones and floral high tones. I would wear this scent daily this scent as a perfume if I could. However, teas with amazing aromas such as this one always make me nervous – will the flavor live up to the aroma? Or will your tongue call your nose a liar?

I am happy to report that for this tea, your tongue will congratulate your nose on its taste and discretion.

Brewed up, the aroma continues and the deep ruby red tea looks rich and inviting. The flavors are sweet, fruity, and juicy with a base level of tartness. This is likely due to the hibiscus. I tend to detest hibiscus in herbal teas, but here it adds just the right base note for the other lighter flavors to use as a springboard, launching the entire blend into balance and harmony. I realize I’m likely mixing metaphors here, but the tea is just darned good.

I did slightly sweeten the brew, as I tend to like my herbals sweet, but this could be enjoyed unsweetened – it is sweet without needing to add anything.

This is a great blend. This would be perfect for evening drinking, or iced on a hot sunny afternoon.

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.

I was recently contacted by Zhi Tea about sampling one of their teas as an iced tea, part of a campaign they are running this summer. Being that I never turn down any kind of tea anytime, I was of course, more than happy to participate! I had the choice of 4 teas that they chose as capable of making great iced tea, the Ginger & Lime Green Rooibos, Berry Hibiscus, Turkish Spice Mint and Tropical Green. I chose the Berry Hibiscus, as I enjoy fruit iced tea a bit more in the summer heat, more refreshing.

I tried this tea 3 ways, the first was the suggested method in the letter that arrived with the sample, brew 5 minutes, double strength (2tsp/cup) and pour over ice. Then I did the same method, except with a tsp of sugar added. Finally, I did it “Arnold Palmer” style, mixing half and half brewed tea with lemonade. The following are my personal thoughts on the results.

Method 1 – boiling water, 2tsp/cup of tisane, pour over ice, drink right away. My first impression is that I prefer my iced tea really cold, and this method does not get it really cold. It cools it down, but not cold enough for me. The taste of the tea is what I expect with any hibiscus blend, that is somewhat sour. I can taste a bit of cranberry in the background, but the rose hips and hibiscus just overwhelm any other fruitiness. I did find it somewhat refreshing, and interesting that the sourness was not a powerful pucker, not completely undrinkable, just basically what I expected. Usually sugar can pull out fruit flavours, so that is what I tried next.

Method 2 – boiling water, 2tsp/cup of tisane, pour over ice, add 1tsp sugar, stir and drink. Now, I am not really a fan of adding pure sugar, but I did not have any honey or other sweeteners at hand, so white refined sugar it is. As I mentioned, you can usually coax out fruit flavours with sugar, but in this case, I still found that the hibiscus and rose hip overwhelmed the other fruit flavours, nothing jumped out at me. I definitely did not like the addition of sugar. I preferred the first method without sugar, as it did nothing to pull out flavours or mute any sourness. (I need a better word for sourness, it sounds so negative, and it was not an unpleasant sour – maybe add suggestions for this in the comments section for this post!) On to the third method – the way to make ANY iced tea amazing!

Method 3 – boiling water, 2tsp/cup of tisane, blend with lemonade, chill and drink. Now in my experience, this method will make even the most borderline teas an amazing drink. The lemonade adds a natural sweetness, and highlights fruit flavours, as well as mixing well with any green or black tea I have ever tried it with. In this case, it was a definite improvement, tho fireworks did not go off in the sky. It did bring our more of the fruit flavours, unfortunately that included the cranberries, so a more sour-ish kind of pucker. It was still refreshing throughout, and very drinkable.

As a first experience with Zhi Tea, it left me wanting a little bit, but honestly it was not unexpected. Any fruit blend with hibiscus and rose hips together is bound to be a little sour or bitter. In retrospect, I should have chosen a different blend to try, and that is 100% my fault on that. Zhi just provided what I asked for.

I did not dislike this tea as an iced tea, it was refreshing (definitely better cold than lukewarm), so if you are going to prepare it, then leave it to cool in a fridge overnight. The sourness was not as bad as I have had before, I do like a little pucker, but I would have liked more fruit flavours to come to the fore in this tea. All in all, not too bad. If I was asked to rate it out of 10, I would give it a solid 6.5, tho it is not as bad as that seems, just not good enough to reach a 7.

My thanks to Zhi Tea for allowing me to participate in this iced tea sampling, and hopefully in the future you will see more Zhi Tea reviews on It’s All About The Leaf!

You can purchase the Berry Hibiscus directly from the Zhi Tea website.

I am a fan of Rooibos. I love all teas, but there is something about Rooibos that is more appealing to me. Perhaps it is my sweet tooth, which appreciates the natural sweetness of Rooibos, or perhaps it is because Rooibos tends to blend with so many “sweet” flavours such as Caramel and Vanilla. Whatever it is, I am a fan.

With that in the forefront of my mind, I brewed up a bag of the Mighty Leaf African Nectar. My teabag prejudice aside, Rooibos actually works well in a teabag because it is naturally a small leaf, and does not need a lot of room to expand.

I brewed the tea using my regular Rooibos methods, boiling water, steeped for 5-6 minutes. The smell was fantastic, and I could not wait to dive into it. The cup was a deep red color that I relate to good quality Rooibos.

Prevalent in the taste was a mango and vanilla combined with, but not overwhelming, Rooibos flavour, which is a sweetish, nutty flavour. I like it. I like it a lot! There is not much more to say on this tea, as I think the above speaks for it’s self. Sometimes Mighty Leaf has fallen down in taste for me, but in this case, it is a home run! I would recommend this tea to anyone who likes Rooibos, and to someone who wants to get an idea of what a flavoured Rooibos tea can be!

You can purchase Mighty Leaf African Nectar Loose Tea or Mighty Leaf African Nectar Tea Pouches directly from their website.