Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Sweetener’

One of the things I’ve been noticing over the years, as I’ve ordered tea from various merchants, is that common parameters aren’t always common.

Almost every tea will have directions on the back of the packet, telling you how to brew a cup of tea. Too bad they can’t agree on the definition of the word ‘cup’. A standard English definition of the word cup could lead you to believe that it would be a measurement somewhere around 8 oz. But apparently this doesn’t count in the tea world. The general rule of thumb is 2-3 grams of tea per cup. But if you don’t have the same definition of cup, that could result in some very strange brewing parameters.

Lupicia has one of the smallest definitions of a cup I’ve ever seen. They define a cup as 5 oz., and still call for 3 grams of tea per these 5 oz. I’d be afraid of oversteeping with something like this but this cup? This was an amazing cup of tea.

The product description says “Sweet nostalgic aroma of caramel and almonds. Delicious straight or with milk.” This tea leaf smells sweet. And brewed up, it’s a beautiful medium brown and smells lovely, although much less sweet. Drinking the tea straight up, it has hints of caramel and almond flavors; a nice light cup. However, I like to add splenda or honey to my black teas. And if you sweeten this? Wow, it’s amazing. Mellow, smooth caramel flavors. Rich, creamy, and sweet with an almond finish. I also tried this tea with milk, and while nice, I didn’t find that it added as much as the sweetener did.

I strongly recommend that those who like a little sweetness with their tea give this a try. It’s a lovely yummy cup of goodness.

You can purchase the Caramele directly from the Lupicia Tea website.

I really like grapefruit. As a small child, I always wanted my mother to get me those sweet smelling grapefruit bath products from the overpriced but immensely-fascinating-to-children bath product shoppes (whose quality could be told with the extra, pretentious “e”). And as an adult, I continue to gravitate towards grapefruit scented items and grapefruit flavored things. To me it combines the juicy satisfaction of an orange with a little extra edge, that little hint of sour. If a grapefruit were musical, it would not be top 40, but a harder rock, maybe tinged with punk. A Gwen Stefani of No Doubt as compared to the more sweet and Miley Cyrus-eqsue orange.

So, it was with great anticipation that I got this tea sample. I had some amazing luck with the Blood Orange Black from Drink the Leaf (the blood orange – another edgy citrus relative), and I was hoping to repeat it with this tea. The packet I got however, left me a little concerned. The tea was not in an air-tight packet. And when I opened it to sniff, you could very much tell; no aroma other than the glue for the sticker. I steeped my two teaspoons of tea (which did have visible chunks of peel, getting my hopes back up) in 2 cups of boiling water for 3 minutes, and the resulting brew was a light amber color.

This grapefruit? This is repressed grapefruit. This grapefruit was teased in elementary school and ignored at home. Whether the result of exposure to air or something else, drinking this tea is… well… boring. There is no grapefruit flavor to the tea. The tea itself tastes like it just remembered an important appointment somewhere else, and gee, sorry, it’s got to run. There is a slight hint of sweet behind the mild tea flavor, but I couldn’t discern if it was from the leaf or a very light citrus sweetness. A second steep with sweetener didn’t bring out any additional flavor. Either way, I have no other way to say it – I’m disappointed.

You can purchase the Pink Grapefruit directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.

Hmm, the scent of this dry rooibos is legit. And by legit, I mean it legitimately smells like vanilla. Not fake vanilla like is used in various desserts, but real vanilla. Adding three teaspoons of this tea and steeping it in two cups of water for six minutes, I was left being tantalized by the aromas of vanilla wafting from my teapot as I waited. The tea smells sweet, but not in a fake sweetener way. It is more like the sweetness that comes from plants like mint or various fruits. The liquor is clear, yet a very dark red-brown.

My first cup smells warm. And not just from the hot tea. It just has a warm, and soft, aroma about it. It softly caresses the senses and lingers in the nose. Eagerly, I take my first sip and am immediately surprised by how sweet it tastes. The sweetness is very passive, but it is definitely there, and a quite pleasant surprise. This tea’s mouthfeel is thick and smooth. The flavour of vanilla is, of course, at the forefront. The rooibos, sadly, seems to have taken a backseat in this brew, as it does not show its head much, except in the aftertaste.

The flavours do not change much throughout the rest of the pot. I very much enjoyed drinking this tea. It is good, it is unique, and it is well worth a taste or two. I give it a 77/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Vanilla Rooibos directly from the TeaFrog website.

One of the perks of being married 25 years come September is the marital right to stick just about anything under your spouse’s nose and say, “Smell that!” without getting clobbered. In the case of nice tea from India, the response was “Wow! There’s something clove-y going on, isn’t there?”

While neither of us have a professionally trained tea nose, we did pick up some nice spicy, fruity notes in the dark dry tea. I suspect it has something to do with the area in which Banaspaty tea is grown — evidently the perfect greenhouse environment for teas.

The fruity tones come through loud and clear when this tea is brewed. Because I prefer my Assams on the meatier side, I let it steep a full four minutes before a taste test. Assam Banaspaty has the nice thick heft you’d expect from an Assam tea, but was surprisingly mild in flavor. While I don’t think milk and sweetener would harm this gentle brew, it certainly doesn’t need to be toned down any.  This would be a good introductory selection for someone new to the world of fine loose leaf tea.

You can purchase the Assam Banaspaty Organic directly from the TeaFrog website.

The smell from the package reminds me of Christmas: Cinnamon and spice fill my nostrils. I can hardly wait to follow the directions on the package: bring 1.5 cups of water and 1 cup milk to boil. Reduce heat. Add contents of package. Let simmer 3-5 minutes. Sweeten to taste, strain to drink.

I simmered mine for 4 minutes. The smell is heavenly to me. I did not add sweetener the taste seemed find to me without an addition. Wow, this is still really hot to drink, I have burned my tongue. And I will gladly burn it again to taste this tea. The spice is still lingering on my tongue. This warm milky, brown brew is delightfully spicy. Ginger is hitting my tongue and playing against the black pepper, the cinnamon is still a major player much to my delight. I find myself wanting to really drink this down, but the temperature is restraining me to small sips. I finished drinking this brew as a cold chai. Good and spicy to the last drop!

Bottom line: The price point is doable at $3.50/ounce and if you like spice, this is one chai you need to try.

You can purchase the Masala Chai directly from the Rishi Tea website.