Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Mint Tea’

Dry smell is nice and minty.

A 4 minute brew time yields a light straw colored brew.

My first sip leaves me screaming, “where is the mint?”

This is blasphemy. The Moroccan mint police need to called! Someone stole the mint out of this blend!

The dry smell was to die for, the brewed up tea was a total failure.

I was greatly disappointed with this sample.

You can purchase the Moroccan Mint directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.

Not being much of a mint fan, in whatever form, be it candy, ice cream, or chocolates, Tea Forte has a tough job at hand to try to convince me that mint – yes, in the form of a tea is good. Well, I like citrus fruits so at least they have that going for them. Anyway, on with the review…

Dry leaf looks like the grade of a fannings, green and some brown, packaged in that familiar pyramid shaped teabag known to be Tea Forte. I cut open the 2 teabags I received (total about 3 grams) and steeped it in about 400 ml of hot water. I was pre-occupied at the time and by the time I returned to the water, it had cooled to 80C. Herbal teas should be steeped at 100C for 2-3 minutes. I knew I was going to get a sub-par tasting tea. There was a faint minty aroma, no hint of citrus. The taste was minty, not overly piercing mintyness but a softer mint. I did not detect any citrus taste. After the initial mintyness, there was a taste as if you were licking the back of an envelope – that sort of gluey-paper taste. Mind you, I think this was because of the low temperature at which I steeped the tea.

I tried a second infusion at boiling point and the tea tasted much better. There was no more of the gluey-paper taste and the mintyness was more light and tangy rather than stale if that makes any sense. I noticed that as the tea cools, the minty taste dissipates and you can taste hints of citrus. I prefer it cold rather than hot. As a hot beverage, I found that the citrus and mint did not complement each other very well. I don’t know, maybe because when I drink citrus I expect something sweet like citrus juices, because when I tasted this the sort of “lack of sweetness” coupled with the mintyness made the taste buds yearn for something that wasn’t there. It was missing an ingredient, maybe honey or cocoa shells or maybe even lavender. But then again, that could just complicate things…let’s leave that to the tea blenders shall we.

You can purchase the Citrus Mint directly from the Tea Forte website.

I have two tea bags with which to form a review of this tea. So, I will be sharing my thoughts on this tea as I progressed through both tea tastings.

First tea bag:
The smell from the dry tea bag is minty. The teabags from Hampstead Tea are really full, not your typical tea bag. I brewed the bag for 2 minutes, added a splash of milk and sipped. “What does this remind me of? Dirt? No, mint.” For me the tea has a mint aftertaste. Is this bad? It depends, do you want your breakfast tea to remind you of mint? I decided on this first cup that I did not want mint with breakfast.

Second tea bag:
The smell from the dry tea bag is minty. No denying the mint flavor. As I brewed for two minutes, I braced myself for the previous flavor profile. I sipped my first sip and hum…it seems better to me. Is it a tea that I would pick for breakfast? Probably not. I did read another reviewers take on this tea and they compared it to a Darjeeling. I can see that comparison now that I have drank two full cups of this robust black tea.

Overall, I like Hampstead Tea tea bags, they are full and brew up nicely. This particular EB left me wanting something else. It is just not my cup of tea.

You can purchase the Organic Fairtrade English Breakfast directly from the Hampstead Tea website.

I love the way that Tea Forte does herbal blends and this one is looking like it’s not going to be an exception.  It smells beautifully tart and minty, perfect for a chilly bedtime brew.  The tea bag is looks to be filled mostly with peppermint leaves but I can definitely see lemon peel mixed in with it.

Steeped it in boiling water for 7 minutes (I like my herbals stronger) and it infused the water to a nice light color of mint tea.  The scent is now more tangy than tart and the smell of mint is invigorating.  It’s tastes clean and fresh with no trace of the artificial aftertaste that I sometimes get with mint teas. Yes, Tea Forte did it again, I really like this blend.  It’s perfect if you need to feel warm and refreshed at the same time and the full flavor lasted through three steeps.

You can purchase the Citrus Mint directly from the Tea Forte website.

Morroccan Mint tea seems to be a staple for most tea drinkers that I know. A very traditional tea that is easy to find and is enjoyable steeped in the traditional way or iced. Today I’m reviewing one from Golden Moon Tea and it’s unique in that it has mint oil added to it, I’ve never seen that as an ingredient before.

The dry leaves are clean with shiney and tightly rolled Gunpowder pellets and a generous amount of mint. Steeped it according to the instructions on the packaging, watching the Gunpowder pellets unfurl after a few minutes. It brews up to a nice dark color, with the scents balancing out after a few minutes making the smell of mint less over-powering. The taste is smooth and rich, with a nice minty lingering aftertaste. The second steep brought out more of the gunpowder flavor and was a bit drier than the first steep but still really enjoyable. From the taste, I think that the mint oil made the mint leaves taste a lot fresher than blends I’ve had without the oil. This is one of the better Moroccan Mints that I’ve had, can’t wait to try it iced.

You can purchase the Moroccan Mint directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.