Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Palate’

Chocolate with tea in it…it is a delicious concept. Much better than most tea with chocolate in it, as my past experiences have told me. Before I started reviewing this chocolate by Tea and All Its Splendour, I “cleansed” my palate with a sip of some Fujian black tea. I then tasted each of the various chocolates, giving a bit of time in between each one to allow my taste buds to clear a bit.

The first chocolate was Milk Chocolate Passionfruit Green Tea. This chocolate was very fruity tasting. I did not noticed much tea flavour, but I do think that chocolate and passionfruit is an excellent combination.

Next up was the Milk Chocolate Earl Grey Tea. It certainly had more tea flavour than the Passionfruit chocolate. The typical Earl Grey bergamot flavour was not heavily present, nor overwhelming, for which I was grateful. I have tried other Earl Grey milk chocolates, and they all seemed to have far too much bergamot in them.

The third chocolate I tried was the Milk Chocolate Chai Tea. The flavour of this chocolate was very creamy, but not very chai-tasting. The tastes of cloves and peppers, especially, were fairly prominent.

Dark Chocolate Ginger Black Tea was next. Wow. I could taste the flavour of ginger before even biting into it. The flavours of ginger and dark chocolate combined to create a very sharp taste with a ginger-like lasting burn at the back of the throat. Surprisingly though, despite the description I just offered, this chocolate really was quite tasty.

The last chocolate included was Dark Chocolate Raspberry Black Tea. This one was very smooth and creamy in texture and in flavour. The fruit flavour was not as strong as the passionfruit chocolate. However, the subtle raspberry flavour complemented the dark chocolate quite well.

I would definitely recommend these chocolates to any chocolate or tea lover. These are delicious treats and the tea added to them complements them excellently.

You can purchase the Tea Infused Chocolates directly from the Tea and All Its Splendour website.

Keemun, Assam, Ceylon, and Darjeeling teas each have their own personalities: grainy, stout, brisk, and wine-y. Thus, you’d expect a blending of these personalities to be the tea equivalent of a cheerful and intellectual morning conversation.

What you get, however, is the tea equivalent of morning senior-citizen buzz at the Branson hotel breakfast buffet—the kind you tune out because there’s really nothing worth eavesdropping on.

Don’t get me wrong—it’s good tea. It’s distinguished senior-citizen buzz. But to my highly uneducated palate, the blend tones down the character of the individual ingredients…the “brisk and complex” flavor and “subtle floral overtones” just aren’t there.

Prepped according to package directions and left a full four minutes, the tea is a nice, clear copper color.  Golden Moon ensures that the leaves are quality enough to take a second steep, no problems there.  A little milk with the second cup may have kicked up the Assam mojo a little bit, but still … just  murmuring white-haired tourists in embroidered autumn-leaf sweatshirts.

Golden Moon’s sample packs are nice (vacu-packed foil sleeves), but tiny (you’ll be lucky to squeeze two dry leaf-cups out of one). Perhaps if I had had a full tin to stick my nose in and experiment with, I could have gotten some real gossip out of the grannies.

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

I prepared this tea in an almost reverential mood because the reputation of Mark T. Wendell teas is excellent.  And I was not disappointed.   Their River Mist Green tea is a great delicacy.  According to the Wendell web site, this tea is an “unusual Chinese green [which]  has abundant silver strands among the twisted green leaves and unopened buds. It’s supple, rich flavor is easy on the palate and a treat to drink.”  

This is no hyperbole at all.  This tea is a clear winner.  I’ve been tasting a lot of green teas lately noticing which ones manage to forge a distinctive identity on the memory of my nose and palate.  River Mist Green is a winner in terms of delicacy and refinement.  This is a tea to be sipped with attention and pleasure and not to be slurped down efficiently (and I do like teas that deliver huge flavor and caffeine while being hastily slurped). 

Mark T. Wendell’s River Mist Green is of the former company.  Choice, classy, and charming, it can serve as a centerpiece for entertainment or for quiet times alone.  I enjoyed every sip as if it were a delicate wine.  The tea does not have any overtly vegetal notes, which will be a recommendation for green tea lovers who don’t want to drink spinach juice.  This tea, instead, is what I would call bright, fresh, delicate, and refined.  It’s a very swanky tea but also an eminently affordable one.  

You can purchase the River Mist directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.

TeaFrog’s Assam Rani SFTGFOP is an exceptional tea.   The very best Assam teas are versatile and yield many aromatic and flavorful treats.   This is one of the very best I’ve experienced.

A morning cup without milk or sweetener, is a delightful malty rush of great taste.  I even felt a bit guilty drinking such a delectable tea when I had not yet fully awakened, but TeaFrog’s Assam Rrani SFTGFOP had me alert and paying close attention within a few seconds.   There’s a natural sweetness to this tea, so I would not recommend adding any sweetener.  On its own the tea envelops the drinker in folds of chocolate, citrus, raisins,  and the malty deepness of a truly rich tea.  It’s always fascinating to me how single leaf teas can be as intensely versatile with each sniff, each sip presenting a new universe of flavor.   This kind of tea leaf is to be cherished.

I had the Assam Rani SFTGFOP in the afternoon as well.   The morning calls for a tea to rouse one, to get one moving, to bolster the spirits and to summons energy.  In the afternoon, a tea can be sipped more slowly and appreciated and savored without urgency.  It’s like the difference between a quick sprint through an art museum and slowly pausing in front of a painting to speculate and contemplate.   In the afternoon I added some milk, which did not diminish the tea at all.  It’s strong enough to stand up to any creamy additions.  I once again picked up on the changing flavors offered by each sip.   The malty essence of a good, strong bracing tea is a splendor in its own right but the side-notes that come to the front of the palate are a true pleasure.  

TeaFrog’s Assan Rani SFTGFOP is a superb tea to be relished and appreciated.  It has numerous taste notes dancing upon the bracing scaffolding of a really exceptionally fine black tea.  It wins my highest rating for a good, strong black tea which offers many gifts to the appreciative drinker.

You can purchase the Assam Rani SFTGFOP directly from the TeaFrog website.

I was told to cut out caffeine for a bit so I went to Teafrog looking for some rooibos decaf amusement and they came through for me with three tisane recommendations. Grabbed them all because I’m self indulgent that way (tea is my only real vise, I swear).

Sitting here looking at the Kalahari Flavored Rooibos and smiling. Teafrog teas are always so pretty (pretty in a gender neutral, men who drink tea are hot, kind of way). The rooibos is a nice red color, looks really fresh, need to ask but it looks like super grade. Don’t have to read the ingredient list to see what’s in this blend. Blue cornflowers mixed with lemongrass and rooibos. The leaves smell almost chocolaty, maybe vanilla, but with something else going on. Really can’t work out what to compare the scent to, mystery blend here.

Steeped it for 6 minutes in boiling water and now I’m waiting for the dark amber tisane to cool. The scent hit me right away but I still can’t make out what it is or whether or not I like it. Still kind of chocolaty but with a grassy hint that’s overwhelming it. Okay weird taste, wonder if the cornflower is throwing my palate off. Tossed.

Brewed some more, steeped it for less time (4 minutes) and the ‘grassy’ taste is gone but I’m still not liking this blend. Quality ingredients that I’ve grown to expect from this tea company so I guess it’s down to personal taste…

You can purchase the Kalahari Flavoured Rooibos Tea directly from the TeaFrog website.