Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Grey’s Teas
Tea Description:
Looks good, ..smells good, …tastes good. Just the reassurance you need on a cold winter’s evening. China tea with citrus peels and cloves. Perfect.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Winter Warmer Black Tea Blend from Grey’s Tea is a really nice alternative to the typical “orange spice” winter blend. Other orange spice blends often overwhelm the palate with spicy notes … nothing wrong with that, of course, because I like spicy tea, but, sometimes, it’s nice to have something on the gentle side.
This Winter Warmer is just that. Warmly spiced, but gently so. The clove is exotically sweet and has a comforting, cozy kind of flavor to it without going over the top. The citrus brightens the cup but does not overpower the flavor of the black tea. The orange-y notes taste sweet, a little tangy, but it isn’t overdone.
The black tea is really the star of this cup, and that – in my opinion – is just the way it should be. The black tea tastes robust with a mild-to-moderate amount of astringency which is accented by the citrus notes.
This is a really nice black tea – one that maybe isn’t quite strong enough to serve as a breakfast tea alternative … but instead, one I’d like to sip in the afternoon – it’s something that would warm me up and energize me at the same time.
Darjeeling Monteviot Organic First Flush from Grey’s Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Grey’s Teas
Tea Description:
This 2011 first flush is produced at Monteviot, one of Darjeeling’s oldest tea gardens located in Kurseong south valley at an average altitude of 3600 feet. At around 220 acres the garden it is also one of Darjeeling’s smallest. The leaf is green and neat with a clean, fresh hay-like aroma. In the cup the golden infusion yields a lovely, highly drinkable, honeyish tea with little astringency and a long finish.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Darjeeling Monteviot Organic First Flush is a really good Darjeeling – one of the nicest I’ve had in a while!
The dry leaves range in color from forest green to a medium brown color, and they smell like oak, hay and smoke. Really … what I was first reminded of when I smelled the dry leaves was the smell of hay burning … not an aroma I smelled often growing up on a farm, but, there was one occasion when a haystack caught fire, and the scent is rather distinctive and imparts one of those memories that doesn’t fade.
I was kind of surprised by the smoky notes in the aroma, really, because I don’t usually experience that with a Darjeeling, so I wondered what other surprises this tea had in store for me. I didn’t smell any smoky notes with the brewed tea, but I do still smell the hay-like aroma as well as a woodsy tone.
The flavor is really quite surprising as well. The first thing I taste is honey! Yes, honey! (And no, I didn’t add honey to the cup!) I don’t usually taste honey-esque notes with a Darjeeling, as Darjeeling usually tends to be more fruity than honey-like. I taste hints of flower in the distance, as well as a definite woody note. I taste fruit too … imagine currents and apples drenched in honey! That’s what I taste. Sweet, slightly wine-like but not so much of a distinguished muscatel note … but delightful nonetheless.
Like with most Darjeeling teas, there is some astringency with this cup, and it imparts a slightly dry feeling on the palate in the finish. The aftertaste is clean with hints of sweetness.
A very enjoyable Darjeeling … I’m glad I had this chance to try it.
Kenya Rift Valley Green Tea from Grey’s Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Grey’s Teas
Tea Description:
A rare and wonderful orthodox green tea from Kenya… Now aged 111 Arthur Njuguna Komo planted his tea estate over fifty years ago on naturally fertile soils at an altitude of 6700 ft in Gatundu District, amongst the foothills of Mount Kenya, alongside the Rundu and Mukengeria rivers. Whilst continuing to play an active role in ensuring the quality of his tea and furthering the enlightened approach to employment which he pioneered, it is now run by his grandaughter, Joy. This orthodox, large leaf green tea is loosely rolled and has a sweet and fruity aroma of peaches, nectarines and mangos. In the cup the greeny gold infusion is mellow, complex and full flavoured. Brew for thirty seconds with freshly boiled water that is a minute off the boil. Up to five infusions can be made with the leaf. Truly delicious.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh, I’m really enjoying this!
It isn’t often that I come across a pure green tea (that is, an unflavored/unblended green tea) that possesses more fruit notes than it does vegetative notes. Usually, when I taste a green tea, I’m expecting a vegetative tone, be it a grassy note or something that tastes more of steamed or fresh leafy vegetables … sometimes, I am surprised to taste a mild bean note or something. But, usually, I expect something that could be characterized as “vegetal.”
But, this tastes more of fruit than of vegetative. Oh sure, there are some vegetative notes in the distance. But they are way off, and only really obvious when I am really focused on finding them. The more prevalent flavors here are that of nectarine and of mango, believe it or not. No, go ahead and check the description above again … this is not a tea that’s been altered with fruit flavoring. This is a green tea – pure and true – from the Gatundu District in Kenya.
The texture is somewhat brothy – smooth and rich! And as the tea cools, more of the vegetal notes become more apparent, but, those beautifully juicy and sweet fruit notes remain.
This tea is special – I’d recommend this to everyone!
Good Afternoon from Grey’s Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Grey’s Teas
Tea Description:
Our Afternoon blend – Well chosen China and Indian teas are blended to give a light, fragrant liquor with a little smokiness. Once you have tried it you will not drink an average tea during the afternoon ever again! Can be drunk with or without milk.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first open a package of tea, I do what many of “us” (tea drinkers) do, I inhale deeply to take in the aroma. And when I did just that with this Good Afternoon tea from Grey’s Teas, I noticed a hint of smokiness and a rugged earthiness, evoking thoughts of the smells I might encounter while hiking through the woods.
After brewing, the smell that wafted out of my tea pot and now out of my tea cup is smoky with hints of pepper. I imagine this is what it might smell like if I were to burn a bunch of peppercorns and pine wood in the fireplace.
But the flavor is quite surprising, because it isn’t as smoky tasting as the aroma lead me to believe. Yes, it is smoky, but, it melds quite nicely with the rest of the cup and doesn’t stand out as strongly as the aroma led me to believe it would. I taste the faintest hint of pepper as well. This is a very robust, bold kind of blend – much stronger than I expected for an afternoon blend. Other afternoon blends I’ve tried tend to have a lighter taste, like a Darjeeling. This tastes more like Lapsang Souchong (or possibly a strong Keemun) meets Yunnan and Assam for a power lunch.
All that said, I find this to be quite enjoyable. Different than I expected, but still, I am enjoying it. The smokiness is not overwhelming, it manages to marry well with the other flavors of the blend to become part of the complexity rather than oppressing it to the point where the complexity is lost – if that makes sense.
And as this tea cools, I find that it becomes even more enjoyable. It’s not cold, it’s still hot, it’s just not straight from the tea pot hot. It’s had a chance to cool just slightly and I notice the caramel-y undertones emerging, and an almost creamy note also come forth, which is really quite lovely when it melds with the smoky overtones. It’s really wonderful.
This is a powerful afternoon blend – for those days that you need something stronger than the average pick-me-up!
Assam Mothola White (White Assam) from Grey’s Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Grey’s Tea
Tea Description:
Recognisably malty, this is a beautiful tea not only to drink but to look at. The long white velvety buds of White Assam have a rich floral aroma and produce a rich flowery liquor that has good definition but without astringency. This is a lovely, highly exclusive and most beautifully made tea from the Methola Estate, located on the south bank of the great Brahamaputra river in eastern Assam. It is one that matches the very best white teas from China but with the rich maltiness that is exclusive to Assam. No other white teas are known to be produced in Assam. The buds are meticulously hand picked in early spring and are then air dried. Brew for fifteen minutes. This is a highly prized and unique white tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh goodness, this is delicious.
I (again) did not follow the suggested steeping parameters. I did not steep this for fifteen minutes. Something inside me was not able to steep an Assam that long – regardless of the leaf type, so I steeped this for four minutes. I’ve had one too many bitter Assam teas (yes, they were black, but they were bitter nonetheless) after steeping just seconds beyond three minutes, so steeping this one for four minutes was difficult for me to do.
But it turned out amazing with a brew time of four minutes. It is sweet, creamy and delicious. It has that malty note that I’ve come to expect from a high quality Assam tea, and the way the malty note melds with the creaminess of this tea … it becomes absolutely decadent. So smooth and rich, with virtually no astringency … and nope, no bitterness.
Perhaps this would be alright to steep a little longer. However, I must say that I’m really enjoying it at four minutes, and it’s hard to believe that I could enjoy it more if it were steeped longer. I’d just have to wait longer to enjoy it!
This tea is good for at least two infusions, as well … perhaps more! I found the second infusion (I steeped it for six minutes the second time) to be still malty and creamy, although these two notes seem to have softened somewhat to make way for the emerging fruit and flower notes that I tasted. Not overly floral, but pleasantly so, I found the fruit notes to give this a delicious, juicy quality that was positively thirst-quenching.
This is a tea I’d recommend to all tea drinkers out there. It’s one of the most unique teas I’ve yet to taste. It is different from a typical white tea, it is different than a typical Assam tea. It is in a league all its own: it’s absolutely wonderful!