Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Smooth’

The dry tuo cha smells of a smooth, cooked pu-er, but after rinsing this mini tuo in my gaiwan, the aromas of rice start to come out. Using just-boiled water, I prepare the first steeping. Light, golden-brown, the liquor is a bit cloudy and mingles a faint hint of rice with tea. The taste of this first steeping is not a flavourful as the aroma would suggest.

The second steeping gives off a darker brown infusion. This time it is hard to distinguish whether the tea is just very smooth or whether it lacks a lot of flavour. I suspect this is on account of the intense rice flavour, which seems to camouflage a lot of the pu-er nuances. Hopefully the rice flavours will give way soon and let the tea itself shine through.

Finally, with this third steeping, I am getting more of the flavour of the shou pu on which this tea is built. It is good, though perhaps not as amazing as I had hoped. I go ahead and put this tea through a couple more infusions. It is good, but I am left with the impression that it is lacking something. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it a 75/100.

You can purchase the Rice Shou Pu-erh directly from the Tao Tea Leaf website.

First glance at the sample had me doing a double take…what is that chunk? Hmmm, a soft chocolate square has my hopes soaring for this tea.

The smell is all chocolate and the taste is chocolaty too! I am not getting much spice from this blend, but the overall taste is so pleasantly comforting I am not missing it!

As I get near the end of the cup, the spice greats me and I must say that the ratio of chocolate to spice is spot on.

This is a smooth nice herbal tea that could easily become a part of night time tea rotation.

Good job on this one TeaFrog!

You can purchase the Chocolate and Ginger Spice directly from the TeaFrog website.

Dry leaf appearance: black wiry leaves with bright orange and goldenrod shavings mixed throughout

Step one: open the bag
Step two: breathe deeply
Step three: put 1 tsp of dry leaf per 6 ounces of hot water, wait 3-4 minutes
Step four: pour the dark amber brew into your favorite teacup, take that first sip….

WOW. CITRUSY. CLEAN. BLACK TEA. GOOD.

Folks, what we have here is a home run from Sri Lanka! This tea is smooth with very little astringency. It has citrus notes that are perfectly balanced in the black tea base. I fear I do not have enough of this tea in my cupboard.

You can purchase the Blood Orange Black directly from the Drink The Leaf website.

From the label: Top quality black tea with the sweet flavor of ripe fruit, and rich, smooth honey.

The smell of the tea leaves (dry and wet) is musty. Oh, I see pollen pieces on the ingredient list. That would explain the slight musty smell.

The taste is of pear. Greenish Pears that may have not been ready to pick The amber liquid does not need sweeteners. It is fine all by itself. This reminds me more of white tea than black. The pollen is probably responsible for the “flowery” taste emitting from my cup. As this cools, the taste is unforgiving for me. I cannot bear to finish this tea, the flowers, the pollen, the mustiness all came together in a bitter mess of a tea. I hope to have better luck on my next Golden Moon sample, but it is a wrap for this one.

You can purchase the Honey Pear directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

As my husband handed me the box from Mike, I could smell this tea! And I have to admit my comment was “something really smells in there!” The fear in the back of my mind was Rooibos. Had I requested another Rooibos? The fear was subsided when I opened the box to reveal this silver tin of Honeybush tea. I have only had honeybush tea once before and on that particular occasion the honeybush strongly resembled a woody rooibos.

Honeybush is a mild, caffeine free herbal tea. I was hopeful that I would like this tea. As I put my teaspoon into the tea leaves, I noticed something…what is that? Chocolate? Yes, tiny chocolate pieces of goodness throughout this blend. Since I could not locate any brewing directions I just went with standard recommendations 4-5 minutes steep time with 1.5 tsp per cup.

Chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate??? This is very good chocolate tea! Smooth and rich. One cup will do ya kind of tea. And the best part is that it is caffeine free, so this may well become my nighttime tea. Halleluiah. It is really hard to find a good nighttime tea. I would never have pegged a honeybush to fill that need in my tea cupboard, but this jewel of a tea did just that for me. Go ahead and pick up a tin of this tea, it just may be your tea too!

You can purchase the Chocolate Honeybush directly from the Sanctuary T website.