Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Milk And Sugar’

For Sinharaja we use rich, dark loose leaf tea leaves that are nourished by fertile rain forest streams in the hills of Ceylon. …from the Golden Moon website.

This dark loose leaf tea has become my favorite tea. I drink it morning, noon and night. What makes it different from all the other teas that I have had the privilege of tasting? Sinharaja tastes like tea. The way tea should taste, not with a bunch of other flavors crowding out the tea taste. It is not bitter nor is it mouth puckering. According to the Golden Moon, you cannot over brew this tea. I have not personally tested this because when I make a pot of this tea, it is gone in a matter of minutes.

Brewing directions from the Golden Moon:
Brew 1 tsp of leaves per cup in boiling water 3-5 minutes. I brew this tea for 3 minutes. This tea stands up well to milk and sugar.

If you are looking for a good basic black tea, Sinharaja may be the answer.

You can purchase the Sinharaja directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

The dry leaf smells like cinnamon and star anise, though predominately of star anise. Through the bag I could distinguish long black tea leaves mixed with small bits of what appeared to be the ginger and cloves. I’ve never had a tea with star anise, but apparently it is a licorice type flavor, so here goes.

I brewed this tea using 6 oz. of almost boiling water for 4 minutes as suggested on the package. Taken plain, the tea tastes unsurprisingly like black tea flavored with licorice. If you like licorice, then you will like this but I’m not a licorice fan. I added milk and sugar to make it more chai-like which seemed to even out the licorice slightly. The cinnamon was also more noticeable but I could not distinguish any of the other chai spices that were included in this blend.

Overall, this is a decent tea for licorice fans who like black tea but is not my idea of a chai since the majority of the chai spices aren’t present in the taste.

You can purchase the Bombay Chai directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

On the Mighty Leaf website this description is given: Bombay Chai with a melange of spicy notes conjures the steamy, aromatic delights of an Indian street market. Black tea leaves with subtle hints of Pepper, Orange, Cinnamon, Cardamom, and Clove make up our chai, the Indian word for tea. Bombay Chai is delicious when brewed fresh and blended with heated milk and sugar to taste.

Having recently given up coffee I drink Chai every day, as I find it is the only tea that has enough of a flavorful kick to get me awake and out the door in the morning.

When I tried Mighty Leaf’s Bombay Chai I found that it was pleasantly smooth and warm. However, generally Chai is distinguished by the bite of its spices, which didn’t seem particularly present here.

When I added milk I found that this overpowered the spices to the point that they were barely even noticeable. To me this tea seems to be suitable as a spiced black tea, but without knowing what it was I wouldn’t identify it as chai.

You can purchase Mighty Leaf Bombay Chai directly from their website.

From Adagio Teas Bengal Green Chai is an eastern fusion blend of green tea from China and a traditional mix of chai spices from India. It is described by Adagio as ” Our smooth China green tea with a chakra warming spice combination. Its natural sweetness and fiery kick will bring you back to center, no matter how polarized you’ve become. OOMMMMM OOMMMMM”

The loose tea presents very well, long leaves of green pekoe tea, lots of cloves, big chunks of cardamom pods, cinnamon bark, ginger root and orange peel; once brewed it makes a cup of tea that is a nice amber color. The aroma of the tea is rich and spicy and stays with the tea even after it is brewed.

I found the flavor of the cloves to be the most pronounced, almost a little too strong, but the ginger, cinnamon and cardamom worked nicely together as an underlying flavor. Overall, I liked the tea but I think that the mildness of the green pekoe was overpowered by the spices. I often add milk and sugar to a traditional black chai blend but I found that this tea isn’t robust enough to hold up to the addition of milk and sugar without losing too much of it’s color and taste.

I followed Adagio’s suggested brewing instructions of two heaping teaspoons per 6 oz cup – 3 min at about 180 degrees. This actually seemed like a lot of tea required to make a cup but I guess it has to do with the loose mix of big leaves and spice pieces – the more tea you use the more likely it is to get a consistent proportion of cloves, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom.

You can purchase Adagio Bengal Green Chai directly from their website.

I truly enjoy this cup of Tea, from the moment you open the container you can smell the warm aroma of superior loose leaf tea. Black teas are one of my favourites and this one certainly fits the bill. The cup of tea smells and tastes delicious, plenty of black tea mixed with a handful of real chocolate chips. I prefer this one with milk and sugar, this type of tea I can drink in the morning, but I really look forward to settling at night with the Chocolate and Cream Tea from TeaFrog. I honestly can say I have never smelled a better tea, fused the perfect amount of time, never becomes too strong or to tart. The body is very smooth and creamy and it looks very dreamy in the tea cup. A hint of light brown, added bonus is the real chocolate chips. I am not a fan of weak tea and prefer full bodied rich loose leaf teas, if you are looking for a different blend from your regular breakfast or Earl Grey this one from Tea Frog will pleasantly surprise you. I love to challenge my taste buds with variety of teas and seem to always come back to my faithful Chocolate and Cream Tea.

This tea should be rated a strong 8/10, full bodied, plentiful and rich in colour. I sure hit, especially with the Christmas season approaching this tea would make a great Christmas gift in a tea basket.

You can purchase TeaFrog Chocolate and Cream Flavoured Black directly from their website.