Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Taste Buds’

Not being much of a mint fan, in whatever form, be it candy, ice cream, or chocolates, Tea Forte has a tough job at hand to try to convince me that mint – yes, in the form of a tea is good. Well, I like citrus fruits so at least they have that going for them. Anyway, on with the review…

Dry leaf looks like the grade of a fannings, green and some brown, packaged in that familiar pyramid shaped teabag known to be Tea Forte. I cut open the 2 teabags I received (total about 3 grams) and steeped it in about 400 ml of hot water. I was pre-occupied at the time and by the time I returned to the water, it had cooled to 80C. Herbal teas should be steeped at 100C for 2-3 minutes. I knew I was going to get a sub-par tasting tea. There was a faint minty aroma, no hint of citrus. The taste was minty, not overly piercing mintyness but a softer mint. I did not detect any citrus taste. After the initial mintyness, there was a taste as if you were licking the back of an envelope – that sort of gluey-paper taste. Mind you, I think this was because of the low temperature at which I steeped the tea.

I tried a second infusion at boiling point and the tea tasted much better. There was no more of the gluey-paper taste and the mintyness was more light and tangy rather than stale if that makes any sense. I noticed that as the tea cools, the minty taste dissipates and you can taste hints of citrus. I prefer it cold rather than hot. As a hot beverage, I found that the citrus and mint did not complement each other very well. I don’t know, maybe because when I drink citrus I expect something sweet like citrus juices, because when I tasted this the sort of “lack of sweetness” coupled with the mintyness made the taste buds yearn for something that wasn’t there. It was missing an ingredient, maybe honey or cocoa shells or maybe even lavender. But then again, that could just complicate things…let’s leave that to the tea blenders shall we.

You can purchase the Citrus Mint directly from the Tea Forte website.

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.

Wow. The aroma of the dry leaves, an intensely sweet and grassy smell, was incredible. I opened the package and it wafted instantly to my nose from a foot away. That, I must say, was impressive. I went ahead and steeped two teaspoons in one cup for a little over 2 minutes.

The aroma of the steeped liquor retains some of the same sweetness, but it is also much more mellow. The flavour suprises me. It comes out much more light and subdued that I had expected. I think that perhaps the second steeping I shall try for three minutes to see how it changes the flavour. There is not much aftertaste, but the small amount that lingers on the tongue is soft, and not overly vegetal at all. Traces of the original aroma of the dry leaves hang for a moment in the throat before they are gone. It is time for the second steeping.

The leaves dance about in the tiny glass pitcher for three minutes more. These leaves are beautiful, tiny buds with the slightest small hairs. The aroma of this second steep seems to be thicker, somehow, yet not stronger. The flavours remain much the same as they were in the first steeping.

While this tea was good, I am left with the impression that my taste buds missed something significant that this tea had to offer. It certainly is a tasty green tea, and I would recommend it for fans of more delicate greens. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would give it an 80/100.

You can purchase the Snow Buds (Xue Ya) directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

Canton Tea’s Alishan Oolong is absolutely fantastic! I haven’t tasted an oolong so flavourful in a long time. Alishan Oolong is one of Taiwan’s finest high-grown oolong teas. According to the Canton website, their Alishan won 2010′s Great Taste award and I can see why!

Dried leaf is in tightly rolled clumps that open up into medium long leaves with hot water. Liquor is an attractive clear, bright, green infusion. The scent is just heavenly, floral with apricot scents and most importantly the taste is just yummy. Smooth with very floral and fruity notes, not to the extent of being too perfumy or chemical but I would say a little goes a long way. I used about 9.5g in 1.6L of water which is on the more diluted side but it was still packed full of flavour. I think I would still prefer it to be even more diluted. My taste buds were on overdrive it seemed. Hey, this didn’t win the great taste award for nothing! For those of you who love quality, classic, flavourful oolong taste this is perfect for you but if you are looking for something more subtle or light then I would suggest you look elsewhere, probably not in the oolong category. This tea like many oolongs has many nuances and complexities and yet still has a bit of a vegetal base. One thing I found interesting was you get an aftertaste in your mouth like you’ve been chewing on some flower petals and have just eaten an apple after drinking this tea. My co-worker has been hinting at me to order this for the office and I have no hesitation to do so.

You can purchase the Ali Shan Oolong Tea directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

The smell of the dry tea bag is ginger-y but sort of a candied ginger rather than straight-up, freshly-chopped gingerroot. Adding water brought out a delicious pear fragrance that reminded me of pear-flavoured hard candies with a hint of warm, spicy ginger.

Tea Fort’s teas have (in my personal opinion) a reputation for looking and sounding fancy but not really having much actual flavour or substance to them. But this tea proved me wrong. It tastes exactly like what it says it will – pear and ginger. The fruity pear dominates with the ginger complimenting it subtly rather than trying to compete with it for my taste buds’ attention. The whole thing is surprisingly sweet, almost like I’d added some sugar or agave nectar to it, and has a faint herbal-floral aftertaste.

I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed this tea and I think it would be a good one to convert someone who’s used to drinking Celestial Seasonings or Lipton to finer teas.

I gave this tea a Steepster rating of 90/100.

You can purchase Tea forte white ginger pear directly from their website.