Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
Ahhhh… Lavender! It is thought to help with a multitude of symptoms. Here are just a few of the many health benefits believed to be aided by lavender; analgesic, antibacterial, antiseptic, relaxant, and nerve tonic. Even though the health benefits are many, just sitting down in a comfy chair and sipping this delightful brew is a genuine pleasure in itself.
Ingredients: Blue Lavender, Cornflowers, Blue Mallow Blossoms, Rose Petals, Lemon Grass with a hint of Lemon and Mango.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I couldn’t help but chuckle a little when I read the above description. “Ahhhh… Lavender!” was exactly the words that I murmured when I first took a sip of this tisane! Sweet, beautiful, wonderful lavender!
Lavender is one of my very favorite culinary botanicals, but I find few companies who really know how to blend with it properly. It’s one of those herbs that if you use too little, it won’t be tasted … but if you use even a little too much, the flavor becomes soapy.
Fortunately, Kally Tea knew what they were doing with lavender when they set out to create this Evening Indigo tisane. Lavender is the strongest flavor, but it is nicely offset with lemongrass, rose petals, and the essence of mango and lemon. These additions allow the lavender to shine as the prominent flavor without allowing the lavender to taste like the perfume shop in the mall.
This tisane is citrus-y with hints of mango and rose, but mostly … this tisane showcases lavender at its very best!
The cup brews to a pretty lavender blue color, and the infusion smells amazing. (The dry leaf smells – and looks! – like potpourri! So lovely!) But even more amazing than the aroma or the appearance is just how delightful it tastes, and the calm it instills as I sip it.
I think I shall have sweet indigo dreams tonight, thanks to Kally Tea.
Blue Unicorn from Shanti Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tea Description:
From the famous Biodynamic & Fair Trade Idulgashinna Tea Garden come these visually captivating spears of Cinnamon, gold, and silver tips, resembling the mythical unicorn’s horn. This hand crafted tea is carefully hand-rolled and twisted into spears. Each finished cluster is slightly more than 1 inch in length. These partially fermented leaves produce a delicate, pale liquor that is exceptionally sweet and clean, with champagne undertones. The tea can be steeped multiple times, each revealing new complexities.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is definitely one of the most unique Oolong teas that I’ve ever encountered. After reading the description of the tea, I thought that maybe it was a black tea, but as Shanti Tea has categorized it as an Oolong, that’s what I’ll call it. Taste-wise, it has qualities to it that are reminiscent of both types of tea.
I steeped this in my gaiwan, adding an extra horn (the steeping parameters suggest 3 horns) to my gaiwan, and using short steeps starting with 1 minute, and adding 30 seconds to each subsequent infusion. I combine the results of two infusions into my cup; therefore, infusions one and two are cup number one, infusions three and four are cup number two, and so on.
The first two infusions were light in flavor, at first, I had a difficult time discerning much of anything and I worried that I may have made a mistake while brewing, and that maybe I should have followed the instructions to the letter. However, as I took the next couple of sips, the flavors began to reveal themselves. By the time I was nearly finished with my first cup, I could taste a pleasant sweetness, some earthy tones, and a lovely spiced undertone. There were indeed “champagne-like” flavors to the cup, imparting a slight fruity sweetness to enjoy in the aftertaste.
After infusions number three and four to make my second cup, the leaves no longer resemble the lovely horns that they were prior to infusion, but they haven’t yet completely unfurled, indicating that they were ready and able to produce more infusions. The second cup is more flavorful than the first, with some earthy tones emerging. The aforementioned spiced tone is still present, but, it is smoother than in the first cup. A bit more of a fruit taste with this cup, as well as more astringency. I find this cup to be more rustic-tasting; offering flavors that are more like a black tea to me than an Oolong.
With the third cup, I noticed more of a floral note emerging. This cup tastes much more like an Oolong than the second cup. The fruit flavors are much more distinct. A sweet, smooth flavor, and very few of the spiced undertones I mentioned earlier. The earthy tones have also mellowed. This one is less astringent than the second cup, and definitely my favorite of the three.
This is a really intriguing, unique tea.
Black & Blue from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Product Description:
Whoooo-doggy! We got us an iced tea heah!
If you enjoyed our Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish, or the Blackberry Green or Blackberry Green Yerba Mate, you know that we don’t mess around when it comes to these two fruits. They are some of the best teas we’ve made in my humble opinion, so I figured, why not put them together?
Here’s our premium Indian black teas blended with real freeze-dried blueberries and blackberries, a little sweet and a little tart. Do NOT miss out on this blend, it is going to go fast, and I’m slowing down my production a bit because it’s summertime. (And some of our customers are acting like they ain’t never heard of iced tea!) =)
Taster’s Review:
Yum! This is so good.
The berry flavor is INTENSE! The blueberry hits the palate first and seems to be the strongest flavor during the sip, but the aftertaste is all about the blackberry. These flavors are very true to the berry: it tastes like plump, juicy blackberries and blueberries.
The black tea base is almost a little hidden amongst the powerful berry flavor, but it is there. I find that the black tea flavor comes through more as the tea cools, though. The first couple of sips – when the tea was piping hot – all I could taste was berry. But now that the temperature of the tea has dropped to a drinkable temperature, I’m tasting more of the tea.
But this tea really tastes best when its iced! Using my iced tea method that I’ve adopted for 52Teas Iced Tea Series, this tea really shines. It is still a very berry tasting tea, and yet the black tea does come through with its brisk tone. It isn’t bitter when it isn’t over-brewed, and it is only lightly astringent. Pure, delicious refreshment – a real summertime treat!