Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Chiang Rai Tea House
Tea Description:
An exquisite, balanced blend of two fragrant herbs typical of South East Asia. The lemony flavor and aroma of lemongrass is a great match to the sweet, vanilla-like taste of pandan. If you haven’t tried pandan yet, this infusion is not to be missed. The lemongrass-pandan combination is known to relieve stress, ease constipation. detoxify the blood and, being caffeine-free, it’s also the perfect after-dinner beverage. As for all our teas and herbs, these two are also organic.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I don’t recall ever having tried Pandan before, so this moment with Lemongrass & Pandan Tisane from Chiang Rai Tea House represents a new experience for me.
Pandan is interesting! It has a sweet flavor that is reminiscent of rice. The description above suggests a vanilla-like taste and I get that too, but I think I taste more of a rice-like flavor than a vanilla one. I’m quite enjoying it!
I have tried a lot of lemongrass in the past, but I must say that the lemongrass that I’ve sampled from Chiang Rai Tea House is truly exceptional. I realize that there are people out there that might thing that ‘lemongrass is lemongrass’ but for those people, I’d recommend trying one of Chiang Rai Tea House’s lemongrass offerings and that might change your mind. If nothing else, you might find the curly shavings of the lemongrass more interesting and enchanting than the typical blades of lemongrass that you might be used to.
The combination of the sweet, citrus notes of the lemongrass with its subtle hints of butter complement the pandan in a very pleasant way. This is a really nice caffeine free drink – one I wouldn’t mind drinking on a regular basis!
Overall, I’m really happy that I had this opportunity to try this Lemongrass & Pandan Tisane – Pandan is delightful and so is the lemongrass! A really nice tisane.
Organic Tea from Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Rington’s Premium English Teas
Tea Description:
As you can imagine, organic tea cultivation is time consuming and requires careful attention. Over the last 10 years we have worked closely with selected organic tea gardens where careful crop husbandry and leaf quality is at the heart of everything they do. Our selected blend delivers a classic smooth flavour with a golden colour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
After having tried several of Rington’s Premium English Teas offerings, I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed a few and there have been a few that I wasn’t too crazy about. And then there are some that I was kind of just ‘meh’ about. That is to say that while I didn’t dislike the tea, it wasn’t something that had me jumping out of my seat with excitement either.
This Organic Tea from Rington’s falls into the latter category. I don’t dislike it, but it’s not got me all giddy with joy either. I’m feeling just sort of ‘meh’ about this tea.
It’s got a rich flavor: earthy and robust. It has notes of leather and fruit. The finish is moderately astringent. Not overly so, but I notice that the dryness from the astringency seems to build as I continue to sip. On the down side, I can also taste the paper from the teabag. Not my favorite flavor profile.
The tea isn’t ‘bad’ or unpleasant. It’s just sort of boring. It tastes like a bag of tea fannings which is essentially what it is. The problem is, I’m not wild about a bag of fannings and generally, when I drink a bagged tea, I’m looking for something that doesn’t taste like a bagged tea. I want something that convinces me to think twice about bagged teas – but this one isn’t doing that. This is the kind of bagged tea that makes me feel like a tea snob because it makes me realize just how inferior a bagged tea can be.