Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Sweeteners’

Smell in bag is of vanilla and cream-Whoa-I can’t get the water boiled fast enough!

A 3 minute infusion releases the cream notes. This tea is perfectly balanced, the bergamot is present but not over the top. No need for sweeteners, I did add a splash of milk to bring out the vanilla and crème more.

On an Earl Grey scale, this tea would be ranked as a mild one…a GREAT mild Earl Grey with a creaminess you will have to experience for yourself. For me, the search is over! I can now join with Picard…”Earl Grey (de la crème) Hot.”

You can purchase the Earl Grey de la Crème directly from the Distinctly Tea website.

Dry appearance: leaves are large and coal black in color, smell is sweet like honey (hence the name)

Boiling water and 3:30 minute infusion yields a champagne colored tea. This is hard to believe that this is an unflavored black tea! The taste is more of oolong than black. The meatiness of an oolong comes to mind as I silently sip this delicate tea. This reminds me of my very first oolong…plum oolong to be exact. A woody flavor profile that lingers on your palette long after the tea has disappeared from your cup.

This tea does not need sweeteners added. The honey presence makes this perfect. I personally I am not detecting the orchid, which is fine by me. Flowers and tea is not always a tasty combination.

Overall, this tea is good. A second infusion is expected with this one since the leaves have not fully unfurled from the first infusion. If you are looking for a robust black tea, keep looking. Honey Orchid is a light tea with a dual personality: black or oolong? I will let you decide, that is if you are lucky enough or thoughtful enough to have joined the Single Leaf Club. If not, then you will just have to take my word that this is one impressive bloolackong tea!

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

I am just finishing my fourth infusion of this elegant Dragon Well green tea and it is going strong. I have worked a bit at learning how to prepare green teas properly. A little bit of attention to detail–water quality, water temperature, steeping time–repays itself abundantly. The dry leaf does not give away an enormous amount of aroma but seems slightly fragrant and nutty. The leaves are firm and a bit tippy. The wet leaf, as is typical, provides a fresh and vegetal fragrance and resembles broad bright green pine needles.

The vivid tea is a pleasing pale yellow color–the relative pale color testifies to the youthfulness of the leaf. The taste is fresh, light, and buttery–almost like a sweet pea that has some delicately inserted wild rice grains. The taste develops a floral overtone that could be described as “orchid-like”. It’s not at all astringent or bitter.

I think that this tea is youthful and light yet it can sustain multiple infusions. It’s got an extremely fresh and natural taste and the hints of orchid, rice, corn, and vegetable are delightful flirtatious. This is a tea to ponder over and to enjoy. I would not use sweeteners at all with a nicely delicate and bright tea like this one.

I most certainly plan to try more teas form Grandtea.com. Visit their website athttp://www.grandtea.com/. Based in Hong Kong, they specialize in Chinese and Japanese teas of high quality and ship inexpensively to the USA and the rest of the world.

You can purchase the Xi Hu Premium Dragon Well directly from the Grand Tea 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.

I was recently contacted by Zhi Tea about sampling one of their teas as an iced tea, part of a campaign they are running this summer. Being that I never turn down any kind of tea anytime, I was of course, more than happy to participate! I had the choice of 4 teas that they chose as capable of making great iced tea, the Ginger & Lime Green Rooibos, Berry Hibiscus, Turkish Spice Mint and Tropical Green. I chose the Berry Hibiscus, as I enjoy fruit iced tea a bit more in the summer heat, more refreshing.

I tried this tea 3 ways, the first was the suggested method in the letter that arrived with the sample, brew 5 minutes, double strength (2tsp/cup) and pour over ice. Then I did the same method, except with a tsp of sugar added. Finally, I did it “Arnold Palmer” style, mixing half and half brewed tea with lemonade. The following are my personal thoughts on the results.

Method 1 – boiling water, 2tsp/cup of tisane, pour over ice, drink right away. My first impression is that I prefer my iced tea really cold, and this method does not get it really cold. It cools it down, but not cold enough for me. The taste of the tea is what I expect with any hibiscus blend, that is somewhat sour. I can taste a bit of cranberry in the background, but the rose hips and hibiscus just overwhelm any other fruitiness. I did find it somewhat refreshing, and interesting that the sourness was not a powerful pucker, not completely undrinkable, just basically what I expected. Usually sugar can pull out fruit flavours, so that is what I tried next.

Method 2 – boiling water, 2tsp/cup of tisane, pour over ice, add 1tsp sugar, stir and drink. Now, I am not really a fan of adding pure sugar, but I did not have any honey or other sweeteners at hand, so white refined sugar it is. As I mentioned, you can usually coax out fruit flavours with sugar, but in this case, I still found that the hibiscus and rose hip overwhelmed the other fruit flavours, nothing jumped out at me. I definitely did not like the addition of sugar. I preferred the first method without sugar, as it did nothing to pull out flavours or mute any sourness. (I need a better word for sourness, it sounds so negative, and it was not an unpleasant sour – maybe add suggestions for this in the comments section for this post!) On to the third method – the way to make ANY iced tea amazing!

Method 3 – boiling water, 2tsp/cup of tisane, blend with lemonade, chill and drink. Now in my experience, this method will make even the most borderline teas an amazing drink. The lemonade adds a natural sweetness, and highlights fruit flavours, as well as mixing well with any green or black tea I have ever tried it with. In this case, it was a definite improvement, tho fireworks did not go off in the sky. It did bring our more of the fruit flavours, unfortunately that included the cranberries, so a more sour-ish kind of pucker. It was still refreshing throughout, and very drinkable.

As a first experience with Zhi Tea, it left me wanting a little bit, but honestly it was not unexpected. Any fruit blend with hibiscus and rose hips together is bound to be a little sour or bitter. In retrospect, I should have chosen a different blend to try, and that is 100% my fault on that. Zhi just provided what I asked for.

I did not dislike this tea as an iced tea, it was refreshing (definitely better cold than lukewarm), so if you are going to prepare it, then leave it to cool in a fridge overnight. The sourness was not as bad as I have had before, I do like a little pucker, but I would have liked more fruit flavours to come to the fore in this tea. All in all, not too bad. If I was asked to rate it out of 10, I would give it a solid 6.5, tho it is not as bad as that seems, just not good enough to reach a 7.

My thanks to Zhi Tea for allowing me to participate in this iced tea sampling, and hopefully in the future you will see more Zhi Tea reviews on It’s All About The Leaf!

You can purchase the Berry Hibiscus directly from the Zhi Tea website.