Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘teafrog’

Broke into this sample as soon as it arrived, the smell from the pouch is heavenly. The main flavor in this tea is orange. Nice tea to drink at night since there is no caffeine. Sometimes Rooibos can taste woodsy, but not this one. The taste is milder. This is a nice warm cup brimming of orange notes. I am left wondering where is the gingerbread note?

Overall, a good choice.

You can purchase the Gingerbread Orange directly from the TeaFrog website.

I’m easily confused.  Especially when two conflicting rules butt up against each other.  So blends of black and green tea *definitely* confuse me.  Do I brew at high temps or low?  Risk scalding the green to get the black to brew up fully?  Or should you brew at the low temperature and risk a weak cuppa?

This meant playing with the parameters and seeing what worked best.  The lower temperature brew resulted in a more fruity/floral brew while the higher temperature brought out the tea more.  Both were flavorful cups that had some lovely fruity overtones.   My favorite was the lower temperature brew.  It had more floral and fruit notes and was definitely NOT a weak cup.  Either way, it was a lovely, light brown cup that was enjoyable to drink.

Nice, flavorful, and fruity. Yum.

You can purchase the 1001 Nights directly from the TeaFrog website.

The first thing I noticed about this tea was the teeny size of the broken leaves. Dark brown with lighter mocha tones throughout. The smell is sweet.

A 3 minute infusion in boiling water revealed a not so good brew for me. Too bitter, too ugh…I can’t put my finger on it. The smell in my cup and of the wet leaves are hastening my trip to the sink to (regrettably) to pour out

You can purchase the English Breakfast directly from the TeaFrog website.

I was really excited to taste this tea. The ingredients of orange peel, cinnamon and cloves sounded wonderfully delicious. The directions recommend steeping 1.5 tsp per cup of water for 5-6 minutes. I was using a 2-cup teapot, so I doubled my amount of tea and steeped it, using boiling water, for five minutes. The smell of cloves and cinnamon wafts up from the pot to my nose enticingly. This tea is aptly named, as it reminds me of sitting next to a fire, perhaps during the Christmas season, where these smells are often common around my home.

Pouring myself a cup of this dark, red-orange tea, cloves take the greatest part of its aroma, with edgings of cinnamon in that scent. Sipping this tea, it goes down smooth, the biggest flavour being the cinnamon and the rooibos (which is pleasantly not overpowered as in many rooibos blends I have tried). The orange aftertaste is quite appealing.

My overall impressions were that this tea has very well-balanced flavours and really does make for a very soothing beverage. I certainly enjoyed it and would rate it a 90/100.

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

The Rani Tea Estate was once a picturesque garden known for distributing orthodox Assam teas to many parts of Europe. The estate adhered to biodynamic farming practices, meaning an emphasis on the symbiotic relationship between soil, plant, and animal. I have often sneered at the biodynamic label as nothing more than quasi-religious, Gaia Theory-borne mumbo-jumbo – a tacked-on label for upping the price of tea. Yet all teas I’ve tasted from biodynamic gardens were of high quality. This was my first Assam from Rani…and unfortunately, it was my last.

How TeaFrog was able to get a hold of this wonderful smelling Assam is a mystery. On first impression, the leaves looked like normal, small-cut black tea pieces with some golden tips strewn about. The smell, though…where to begin?! There seems to be an underlying similarity between some Assams of a higher quality. The aroma reminds me of tiramisu, dark chocolate, and blueberry syrup. I know, it’s an odd combination. I guess that’s what one gets from a SUPER Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. I just wish I knew what seasonal flush the tea was, but there was no mention of it on the TeaFrog profile.

Brewing instructions on the sample bag called for 1 tsp. of leaves per cup, a water temperature of 100C (212F), and an infusion time of three-to-four minutes. I generally steeped on the light side, which meant I was going for my usual three-minute wait. I measured out 1 tsp. and prepped 8oz-worth of water.

Even on the lighter side of steeping times, the liquor brewed to somewhere between amber and crimson – a lovely yet clear red-gold. The aroma was smoky-sweet with a floral after-scent more in line with a high-altitude Ceylon than an Assam. As for the flavor, to say that I was in awe would be the greatest of all understatements. Most Assams have an underlying profile of “MALT!”. That initial impression has become as much an Assam staple as muscatel notes have for Darjeelings. While some of that was indeed present, it took a far backseat to a fruit/floral lean I sensed in the dry leaves. A bit of dryness did perk up in the aftertaste, but it was mild. What a delightful morning cup.

This was as close to perfect as I’ve seen an Assam come. I find it a bit tragic, however, that there is only a finite supply. In March of 2010, the Rani Tea Estate was burnt to ashes by an angry mob. I won’t go into detail regarding what sparked the altercation, or my thoughts on who was in the right. Point is, a tea legacy has all but vanished. There are efforts to rebuild the infrastructure of the original garden, but a grand reopening is a distant possibility. Quite a loss, considering how perfect a cup the estate created.

You can purchase the Assam Rani SFTGFOP directly from the TeaFrog website.