Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Wall Flower’

These teabags are adorable; little bendy strings with the leaf, the pyramid shape leaving room for the leaves to dance, the packaging.  They’re highly engineered and very cute.

However, it’s what’s inside that counts, and as a chai, it didn’t really stand out.  Chai should be bold and brave and spicy.  This is a delicate chai.  A demure chai.  Not quite a wall-flower chai, but definitely not the belle of the ball.  Nice to drink, but not something I’d actively seek out.

What I found that I really liked using this tea for was making cocktails with it.  I originally got this idea from a class I took at a local tea shop.  They had gotten the Tea Forte tea cocktails set in, and this is a modification of one of those recipes.  This is a LOVELY decadent drink, to replace dessert when you feel like laying about and being pampered.

1 Bombay Chai Tea Pyramid
Double shot of Whipped Cream flavored vodka (can be done with regular vodka, but this adds an extra dimension of yum)
ice
simple syrup
whole milk (or half and half if you feel REALLY decadent)

Take the bombay chai tea pyramid and put in a small cup.  Pour the vodka in, let sit approx. 5-8 minutes. Remove tea pyramid. Take a large juice or highball glass, fill with ice.  Pour in steeped vodka.  Then add at least 2 tbsp of simple syrup, more if you like things sweet (you can adjust after finishing the drink).  Fill the glass with milk.  Taste, adjust the sweetness with more simple syrup as needed.  Then enjoy.

The tea pyramid can be resteeped two to three times for more drinks.  (For you, or your friends - if you want to share.)  It’s amazingly yummy.  Completely decadent.  Lovely.

You can purchase the Bombay Chai directly from the Tea Forte website.

Big, bold, brassy. This tea is by no means a delicate wall flower of a green tea. Or a delicate anything, really. It comes right out and lets you know that it’s here, it’s a green tea, and that it means to be taking center stage, thankyouverymuch.

However, in its efforts to inform the world of it’s intentions, it may scare some people off. It almost scared me off. Opening the pouch of tea, the scent is an inviting green tea aroma with an enhanced nutty quality, brought about by a roasting step during the processing of the leaf. Steeping the tea, it’s a delicate, pale green color with just a hint of brown; the very picture of an inviting cup of tea. But then, sipping shocked me. Very astringent. Almost a sour quality. And the drying sensation wasn’t restricted to just the mouth, it went down the throat as well. As the brew cooled, the sour faded, leaving a sweeter quality to the cup.

To try and get the best out of this tea, I tried multiple steeping parameters. My first two tries, I used the method referred to on the packet – 1 tablespoon per 5-6 oz of water, steeped in 180 degree water for 3-5 minutes. Their website also recommended trying more leaf with a shorter steeping time. This method resulted in a brew where the sour flavor held on, even once cooled. I then tried the old tried and true proportion of 1 tsp per 8 oz. This resulted in a much lighter brew with reduced astringency and reduced sourness, and a hint of nuttiness at the back of your mouth.

If you are a fan of the big, bold and dry red wines, you will likely love this tea brewed to the original directions. I preferred the weaker brew, but other greens have tickled my fancy more than this one.

You can purchase the Rishi Teas Organic Green Needles (Lu Zhen) Roasted directly from the Rishi Tea website.