Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘saffron Tea’

I may have mentioned this before, but one of my ever increasing number of hobbies* is researching and recreating Medieval cooking.  Much like today, medieval people were very into conspicious consumption.  They liked using expensive pricy ingredients to show off to their guests – “See!  Look how much money I can spend – just on dinner!”  Spices were always one of the most popular ways to show off wealth.  They were very expensive and very highly valued, and saffron was one of the more popular spices.

In the cooking I do saffron is mostly a coloring agent, as it turns the food a lovely golden color, and not used for flavor.  I find the flavor very light and subtle.  So I was very curious about what affect it would have on the tea.

The teabag smelled like generic tea.  Pouring water over the bag, it did turn bright yellow for a moment – then turned into a normal tea color.  The brewed aroma again smelled like a normal tea.  In drinking, I’m getting a bitter high note – like I over-brewed the tea, but it didn’t have the tannic drying effect that normally goes along with the bitterness.    I prefer my tea sweetened, so after a few sips of the tea unsweetened, I added my favorite sweetening agent.  It toned down the bitterness, and turned it into a very bright flavor.

Either way, I don’t think I like the addition of the saffron.  The tea behind the saffron tastes quite nice, and would have likely been a very nice cuppa on it’s own.  But as it is, it’s not really for me.

*My craft room is crying from from too much stuff and too many projects. You can almost hear it crying from the street, “no more stuff, take the yarn away!  I don’t need any more embroidery floss!”

You can purchase the BLACK SAFFRON directly from the Hampstead Tea website.

Hamstead Teas mentions that saffron was revered in ancient India as medicine sent from the gods. Other sources claim that saffron use actually dates back a staggering 50,000 years. Ancient Persians, Sumerians, and Assyrians cultivated it for pigments and for its apparent medicinal properties. The first documented botanical reference was made by the Assyrians in the 7th century B.C.E.

To this day, I don’t know what actual saffron tastes like, but I’ve had five teas with saffron scenting or strands in them. From what little I could tell – by palately separating the taster notes for the tea base – saffron has a sweet-’n-spicy taste with a floral dryness to it. I could be completely wrong in this assessment, since it is – after all – only based on flavor comparisons between blended teas.

This Saffron Black marked the sixth tea I was trying blended with the over-expensive flower. There was very little information on the package or the Hamstead site as to whether or not actual strands were used. If I had to guess, I would’ve said it was scented with saffron, much like how jasmine green teas are prepared. On dry presention, there wasn’t much I could discern. It was a teabag, so I couldn’t really judge the contents. Nor was I sure how many saffron strands there were per black tea fanning. I can say that it had a really sweet smell to it.

Brewing instructions on the Hamstead site called for boiling water and a three-minute steep. At times, I’m relieved when a review sample is a teabag. I was at work when I tried it. All I had to do was dunk the bag in a 12oz. coffee cup filled with 200F water, then let it steep for three minutes.

The liquor brewed crimson-to-medium-brown with a very dry and floral scent. That was either from the saffron strands/scenting or (more likely) a high-altitude black tea base. Taste-wise, it opened up with a sweet forefront that segued (again rather dryly) to a middle with some medium malt to it. The finish was actually rather pleasantly understated for a bagged black. Whatever the floral contribution was, it helped cut back on any tannic quality this would’ve initially had on its own.

I’m still of the opinion that saffron needs to be treated with the utmost respect, and – as such – be paired with a high-quality tea base. I wasn’t quite sure that was the case here. Hamstead does say that it was blended with Fair Trade black tea, but no details were given as to what kind. I’ve often wondered if saffron might pair well with a first flush Darjeeling or a Nuwara Eliya Ceylon – given those regions’ tendency toward floral-seeming teas. As it stands, though, it’s a decent enough blend.

You can purchase the BLACK SAFFRON directly from the Hampstead Tea website.