An Early Taste of Spring with Mountain Oolong Spring. . . . .

Mountain Oolong Spring from Mountain Tea Co. is truly a springtime tea.  In the spring, everything blooms and bursts into life, and you can evoke this feeling by brewing a cup of this tea in your kitchen at home.  I’ve had quite a few teas that smell like jasmine or rose, but this tea lights up with the fragrance of less typical flowers, soft and feminine like baby’s breath or lily of the valley.

Putting your nose into a cup of this tea will envelop you with this relaxing, perfumey sensation.
Beyond the flavor of flowers, there are nutty and buttery tones to help fill out the brew and give the tea a smooth, rich mouthfeel.  The more I steeped these leaves, the brighter and greener the undertones became.

The most unique and memorable part of this tea is its forward floral accents.

If you’re a lover of flowery oolongs, Mountain Oolong Spring will be a perfect fit for your tastes.


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Mountain Tea Co.
Description:

The character of a pot of tea tells a story about the leaf it originated from. Good tea is a mixed blessing for tea farmers; in general, the harder the tea plant struggles to grow, the more flavorful and tempered the finished brew becomes. For this reason higher elevation with colder temperatures and thinner air produces outstanding leaf.

The 2016 spring harvest of Mountain Oolong withstands high temperature water longer without introducing dryness to the flavor, producing a forgiving and well-behaved pot of tea for the busy brewer. The steeped cup reflects a beautifully clear yet deep honey gold color; the nose is creamy sweet over a faint, nostalgic scent of rice flower bud.  Notes for this crop are sharp and floral, paired with a robust body.  Expect flavors of citrus blossom mostly, nasal and high in the mouth.  Properly brewed we found that this tea has even greater re-steep potential than past flushes, up to six or seven.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot

meditative-mind-teaTea Information:

Leaf Type:  White Tea/Green Tea Blend

Where to Buy: The Tea Spot

Tea Description:

Blender’s Notes:

Our beloved blend of pure Chinese white tea, rosebuds and jasmine pearls creates an experience of aromatherapy that sharpens the mind and arouses the senses. The exotic floral scent of night–blooming Jasmine is uplifting and soothing, and is used as an anti-depressant in herbal medicine. Rosebuds are used to ease nervous tension and stress, and have a calming effect on the mind. This combination works together to enhance the light, subtle flavor of the white tea leaves. This tea brews into a golden liquor with a very soothing fragrance, and is perfect before, during, or after a stressful day.

Features:

  • Sample = 5 8-oz Servings
  • Tins = 28 8-oz Servings
  • AND leaves can be re-infused 2-3 times!
  • 1 LB Bulk = $0.28 / Serving
  • White tea is loaded with antioxidants
  • Jasmine & rosebuds help with relaxation
  • Gluten-free & Sugar-free

Ingredients: white tea, jasmine green tea, rosebud & petals

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot.  Let me say/write that 3 times…Meditative Mind, Meditative Mind, Meditative Mind….Ahhhhhh!  This is a wonderful name for a wonderful tea!  Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot is a white tea with jasmine green tea, rosebuds, and petals.  This is white and green tea blend.

The first thing I have to make a special note of here are the jasmine notes.  I’ve had teas where the jasmine tends to taste stale.  That is NOT the case here!  It’s incredible fresh and floral yet semi-sweet!  The Jasmine and Rose flavors dominate this as far as flavors go but the white and green teas are pretty flavorful, too!

This is a comforting tea you can unwind to.  Relax to.  Enjoy by yourself or with others.  This is delightful both hot and cold.  I believe Meditative Mind From The Tea Spot to be a crowd pleaser yet to impress those who have more specific taste buds as well.  It’s well rounded.  The flavors are not over done or over the top nor are too loud or too quiet.  The flavor, ingredients, and emotions prove this tea is rightfully named.

 

Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot

pink-rose-lemonade-teaTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal/Tisane

Where to Buy: The Tea Spot

Tea Description:

Pink Rose Lemonade is a swirling collage of flowers with a hint of lemon and wintergreen. Like a fancy floral confection, this delicately handcrafted tea will refresh and soothe your palate. Pink Rose Lemonade is totally guilt-free, as it has no caffeine and is naturally sweet. Lemon, rose, mint, chamomile, and lavender spring to life in this absolutely fabulous herbal tea. Pink Rose Lemonade tastes distinctively wonderful brewed hot or cold.

Features:

  • Premium Loose Leaf Herbal Tea
  • Sample = 5 8-oz Servings
  • 1/2 LB Bulk = $0.31 / Serving
  • Naturally Caffeine Free!
  • Gluten-free & Sugar-free
  • No added flavorings

Ingredients: lemongrass, lemon myrtle, orange peel, rose petals, lemon balm, spearmint, chamomile, lavender

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot…that just sounds lovely, doesn’t it?  Well…it IS!  I’m usually not BIG on herbal tisanes but this Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot is something that sparks my interest that is for sure!

The product description and profile said the ingredients of this herbal tisane were lemon, rose, mint, chamomile, and lavender and that it is good hot or cold.  I agree!  First I want to point out how well these 5 ingredients meshed together so nicely!  The ratio seemed to be 1/5 – 1/5 across the board…at least that is what my taste buds seemed to pick up!  I’m glad because I don’t generally like or side with chamomile flavors but if you pair chamomile with mint I’m more apt to try it.  Lemon is always a plus.  Rose and Lavender I can be hot and cold on but here it worked!

Pink Rose Lemonade from The Tea Spot is refreshing this or any time of year!  This is probably on my short list of favorite herbal tisane offerings to date!

 

 

Pomegranate Detox from Tea Drift

pomegranatedetoxTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy: Tea Drift

Tea Description:

You’ll truly enjoy this tea with a delightful fruity aroma. It’s a smooth, full-bodied tea with mild berry notes. This tea is tasty over ice or steaming hot.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The first thing to say about this one is that it smells so, so good. Strong, rich, fruity pomegranate, as soon as you open the bag! The leaf itself is a pretty thing to look at, too, with whole golden chrysanthemum flowers plus a few stray petals, and tightly rolled oolong pellets. The scent, though! I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in water cooled to around 180 degrees.

 Once brewed, it still smells really good, and looking at the leaf I think it might possibly resteep pretty well. The oolong has just about started to unfurl, and the pomegranate scent is still very prominent. The liquor is a pale yellow-green.
To taste, this is pretty much exactly as I hoped it’d be. The pomegranate flavour is right at the forefront, and it’s delicately sweet. It’s not quite as intense as the scent of the dry leaf would suggest, but that’s a good thing I think because it would be pretty overpowering if that were the case. Instead, it’s very natural tasting and spot-on flavour accurate, very reminiscent of pomegranate juice. I can hardly taste the oolong base at all, which from a flavoured tea perspective is a complete triumph. It would also be a good thing for those who are looking for an easy way in to drinking oolong, without an overload of scary flavours, or who are looking primarily for the health benefits and want a tasty drink to provide those. This is definitely a tea for flavoured tea fans; oolong connoisseurs probably won’t find much here.
As I’m not much of an oolong connoisseur myself, I’m pretty pleased with the flavouring here. It’s not at all artificial, and it reminds me quite a lot of lychee which is one of my favourite tea flavours of all time. I don’t feel I’ve drank enough of this one to really comment on the detox properties, but it’s certainly one of the more pleasant “detox” drinks I’ve tried. I’d also recommend it to pomegranate fiends, because that aspect is second to none. I found this to be a very enjoyable cup.

Rose de Mai Oolong from Dammann Freres

rose-de-maiTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy: Dammann Freres (However it’s not currently listed)

Tea Description:

“Rose de Mai” is a subtle blend of the vegetal notes of a spring oolong tea, to those fresh, bright and dazzling of a 1st press rose essential oil extracted from a rose of exception. A well-balanced tea for lovers of resolutely flowery notes.

Learn more about this tea on Steepster.

Taster’s Review:

Since I haven’t done one in a while, I decided that I’d do a blind tasting with this blend! Obviously it’s got rose in it, but I wanted to see what I noticed by drinking my cold brew prior to do any reading on it. I actually had some interesting results this time around:

My immediate observation was that this was a highly floral from the rose but also from the natural floral notes of the greener oolong base; specifically I thought I picked up notes of both orchid and sweet jasmine. There were a few sips where the intensity of all the floral elements felt a little overwhelming and I definitely think those wary of floral teas in general will find this too much, but overall I think they were all pretty well balanced/in check.

The big surprised was that throughout the entire cold brew I kept tasting the same juicy fruit note that I thought tasted pretty obviously of lychee. I was quite surprised when I finally did look up the tea ingredients only to see that there’s no added lychee flavouring. For me, that flavour was unmistakably present. I suppose, since lychee is quite a floral fruit, all of the other floral components of this tea could have contributed to the flavour, though.

Regardless, I thought this was a really pleasant cold brew; quite refreshing and thankfully with flavours other than a flat, monotone rose note. I’d definitely revisit this one, perhaps trying it hot instead of cold brewed.