Art of Tea has been one of those companies that I’ve always wanted to try so when they contacted The SororiTea Sisters about reviewing a few of their offerings, I was giddy!
Dark Chocolate Peppermint seemed appropriate for the season so I decided to start with this one. The dry leaf of this blend had a lovely rich dark chocolate aroma that had a note of peppermint in it. I’m typically not a dark chocolate fan but this one even made me drool a tad.
I finished this cuppa off in no tie flat. This tea had a rich earthy tone. After I took a few sips, I checked out the description online and found that this is actually a puerh blend, which is where that earthy note is coming from. Those earthy tones mingle gorgeously with the rich peppermint freshness. This tea is an absolute treat and one that I’ve been enjoying cuppa after cuppa. I noticed there are also peppercorns in the blend but I can’t say that I’m noticing their flavor.
Regardless, this tea is one that should be tried by all who enjoys puerh and ones that are curious or wanting to check out puerh blends. I’m not a huge puerh tea drinker but this tea has me wanting to check out other Art of Tea blends and more puerh teas.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Pu-erh Blend
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Description
Awaken your holiday spirit with this sweet, aromatic blend. Thick and dark once steeped, Dark Chocolate Peppermint joins wintery notes of cooling mint with the taste of smooth, decadent chocolate in an infusion that will fill you with festive thoughts.
Caffeine Content: Medium
Origin: Art of Tea Blend
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Summer Rain Tea from Art of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tea Description:
The taste of fresh sliced melon washes the palate and refreshes the spirit. A special blend of organic white tea fully infused with the fresh essences of cantaloupe and jasmine. Perfect as an iced tea or after a meal.
Caffeine Content: Medium
Tasting Notes: Fruity, Crisp, Light
Learn more about this tea here. <– Update this link to the vendor’s product page. Don’t forget to remove this instructional text!
Taster’s Review:
Summer Rain Tea from Art of Tea is a wonderful delight! This loose leaf white tea is fruity, crisp, and light in touch, feel, smell, and taste. The dry leaf smells very much like cantaloupe and when you add the hot water the natural jasmine aroma comes into play a bit more.
I have enjoyed this tea both hot and cold. The thing I find almost as fascinating as the flavor is the sight of this tea once infused. This is one of the darker white teas I have seen to date! Just by looking at it in the cup you may mistake it for a light to medium strength black tea instead of a white tea.
Summer Rain by Art of Tea makes me want to get back into the white tea phase of my tea drinking days! It helps warm these winter moments and promote dreams of summery weather once again! Two thumbs up on this white tea – Summer Rain – from Art of Tea.
Ancient Forest Black Tea from Art of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tea Description:
A specialty of the southwest province of Yunnan, this unique tea is harvested from ancient trees on the protected land of Jingmai Mangjing’s Blue Mountains. 100% organic, hand picked and sorted, this black tea steeps a rich, earthy infusion with notes of cedar and honey.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The description of the “creamy texture and notes of amber and honey” this tea purports to provide made me particularly eager to try it. It certainly sounds divine, after all. I was even more interested when I learned that the base tea is Yunnan, as it’s one of my favourite black tea varieties. The dry leaf is relatively small compared to some I’ve tried, with no leaf over 0.5cm and some decidedly smaller. They’re mostly a uniform black-brown, but there are a few golden-flecked leaves as well. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a medium golden-brown, the scent a touch mineral and a touch spicy, with a deeper woodiness underlying.
I liked this one so much straight off that I hardly realised nearly half of it was gone before I’d even really started consciously thinking about the flavour. The first thing to say is that it really is creamy, and that’s with no additions. It has a very smooth, silky texture and an underlying richness of flavour that really makes “creamy” an appropriate word, even if it’s not quite the same creaminess I’d associate with dairy. It’s the only word for it, nonetheless. The initial flavour is a mild earthiness, a little like wet forest floor only not so pungent as that perhaps suggests. I’m reminded of an aged black or a pu’erh, although the flavour here is milder than either of those typically are. It’s definitely in the same kind of territory, though. I get a woodiness in the mid-sip; resinous and a little cedar like. It pairs really well with the underlying earthiness – it seems like they’re two flavours of a kind. The aftertaste is a touch mineral, in the way of wet rock, and is again in keeping with the damp, earthy, fresh flavours I’ve tasted so far. It’s a tea that really holds together well, and one where all the flavours are complimentary.
I enjoyed this one, and it’s a tea I’d definitely drink again if the opportunity arose. It’s flavourful and fairly unique among the teas I usually drink. Certainly an encouraging experience for my first Art of Tea!
White Coconut Crème Tea from Art of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tea Description:
Immerse yourself into a cup of this dreamy tropical infusion! With its light body and smooth creamy texture, it’s no wonder this tea is a favorite of many Art of Tea customers! Delivers a sweet and soothing balance of coconut and is great hot, iced or as a dessert tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum!
I figured I’d like this tea. I mean, I like coconut and the lighter flavor of the white tea base would really allow those coconut flavors to shine through nicely. And this is a really tasty tea!
To brew it, I grabbed my reliable Kati tumbler and put 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket (when it comes to brewing white teas, I usually use a little extra leaf) and heated the water to 180°F. That was an absent minded mistake, actually. I usually use a lower temperature for white teas, but, I was thinking “green tea” when I started brewing this tea. I’m not sure why, exactly. I steeped the tea for 3 minutes.
Fortunately, my absent minded mistake while setting the temperature for the kettle didn’t upset the tea!
The coconut is really strong and flavorful. And it tastes like genuine coconut. It doesn’t have a fake or artificial flavor. It’s smooth and it has that slick “coconut” flavor.
The white tea base is sweet and light in flavor. It’s a delicate tea. The Art of Tea website doesn’t reveal what type of white tea this is – or at least, I couldn’t find the identification of the white tea anywhere on the website. But to this tea drinker’s eye, I would say that it is either a White Peony or a Shou Mei. The sampling that I had of this tea appeared to look more like a Shou Mei or at the very least like a combination of both White Peony and Shou Mei.
I like that while the coconut is a strong taste in this cup, it doesn’t overpower the hay-like notes of the white tea. It has a sweet crispness to it. The white tea is tasted but it still allows the blend to serve as a celebration of the sweet, creamy joyful taste that is coconut!
This tea would make a really delightful dessert tea, and it tastes great hot or cold. (Note: the tea actually seems to get “creamier” as it cools! Mmm!) I found the tea to be really enjoyable and I’d recommend this tea to anyone looking for a delicious coconut tea!
Passion Fruit Jasmine Blend from Art of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black & Green Tea Blend
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tea Description:
This award winning blend of select black tea and green teas, jasmine blossoms, and passionfruit essence has a long lasting, sweet flavor and astounding aroma that carries well hot and as a refreshing iced tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I am sometimes a bit stand-offish when it comes to blends like this, where two different tea types (like black and green teas, as was used in this blend) are combined into one tea blend. I worry that the black tea will overpower the lighter flavors of the green tea, and I’m concerned about the proper temperature and steep time.
Generally speaking, when I encounter a blend like this, I tend to yield to the tea type that requires the lower temperature: in this case, it’s the green tea. So I heated the water to 180°F and steeped it for three minutes. This seemed to do the trick, because this is quite tasty!
And, I’m happy to say that while the black tea notes seem to be a bit stronger than the green, I can still taste the lightness of the green tea as well as the rich, earthy notes of the black tea. The black tea is softer than a black tea that was brewed at a higher temperature – obviously! – but, I’m still getting a lot of black tea flavor in this cup.
The green tea adds a soft, buttery note and a hint of freshness to the cup, and I like the way that melds with both the notes of flower from the jasmine and the essence of passion fruit, which is sweet and flavorful. The black tea adds a nice depth to the cup and gives an interesting contrast to the sweeter notes of the green tea. There is some astringency to this, but not a lot, and it’s not bitter.
Overall, this is a pleasingly sweet tea that’s a little bit fruity and a little bit floral, and a whole lot enjoyable. This tastes good served hot, but I like it even better when it’s chilled! I was sure to save some of what I brewed and stashed it in the fridge, and iced … this tastes really great! As it cools, I find that the passion fruit notes really pop, and the floral notes aren’t quite as sharp, offering an interesting exotic quality to the tea that I didn’t experience when the tea was hot. It’s an interesting twist on the classic tropical flavored iced tea!