Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zest Tea
Tea Description:
At Zest, we start every morning with a Mojito. This aromatic blend of young hyson green tea, peppermint, lime, and pomegranate will bring back memories of lounging on a beach, or maybe whatever memories you have left of college. Either way, our Pomegranate Mojito Green Tea is an amazingly refreshing blend, great for any time of day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Zest High-Octane Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I took the opportunity to taste this tea several times before I sat down and write a review about it, and I’m glad that I did. This is one blend that took a little “tweaking” on my part to find the right brewing temperature and time to get the most out of the tea.
Normally, I’ll brew a green tea from 175° – 180°F. I found that this tea works better with the lower temperature. I usually steep a green tea for 1 – 2 minutes, but I found that this tea required about 2 1/2 minutes to get the most out of the pomegranate, lime and peppermint flavors. I tried a 3 minute steep time too, and I wasn’t very happy with that result, so my recommendation for this tea is a temperature somewhere between 170° – 175°F and a steep time of 2 1/2 minutes.
And while it does seem like this is a lot of effort to put forth to find the “sweet spot” brewing parameters for a tea, it’s well worth the effort! This is a tasty green tea!
The peppermint is the prominent flavor of this cup, with notes of lime weaving their way in and out throughout the sip. The green tea notes are sweet and buttery. The pomegranate is a little more difficult for me to discern, but after a few sips, I started to notice hints of pomegranate arriving at the tail of the sip. The aftertaste is mostly pomegranate and lime with a crisp, clean minty note.
Of the three teas that I’ve reviewed thus far from Zest Tea, I think this one is my least favorite. I really enjoyed the Blue Lady and the Apple Cinnamon black teas, and I’m enjoying this one as well, but, there is something about this tea that is less appealing than the other two. A slight “chemical-y” off taste to it that I didn’t notice with the other two teas. It is a very slight taste though, and I still find the lime and mint notes to be quite delightful as well as the notes of pomegranate in the finish and aftertaste. It’s a tasty tea, it’s just not my favorite.
I also really like the energizing BOOST that I get from these Zest Teas!
Apple Cinnamon Black Tea from Zest Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zest Tea
Tea Description:
We looked to American icons when creating this blend and what’s more American than Apple Pie? Unfortunately, football and the Grand Canyon didn’t make for great teas. This blend of premium Orange Pekoe black tea smothered in real bits of apple and cinnamon is a nod to your grandmother’s 4th of July specialty. Even modern teas can have a traditional twist.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Zest High-Octane Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
From the moment I cut into the pouch of this Apple Cinnamon Black Tea from Zest Tea, I could smell the apple! It took me a little by surprise because I figured I’d probably smell the cinnamon – and I do! – because cinnamon is a very fragrant spice but apple can sometimes be a subtle aroma in flavored teas like this. But the apple here is abundant and very aromatic, right along with the cinnamon. It’s lovely!
And the flavor is lovely too. It is sweet with apple and cinnamon notes, but, I like that I’m also tasting black tea. There is a really pleasing presentation of all three components. The black tea is a smooth, rich backdrop of flavor, while the apple and cinnamon play in the foreground.
The apple and cinnamon flavors are blended in a really nice way. I like the amount of flavor I taste. There is just enough of each ingredient to please the palate without it being too much of either one. More specifically, there isn’t too much cinnamon which can sometimes be an aggressive spice. I don’t taste an overpowering cinnamon-y flavor with hints of apple. I taste apple and I taste cinnamon and these don’t compete with each other; they bring out the very best in each other.
Zest Tea offers “extra caffeine” in each of their blends, and I have to tell you that the more I’m trying the “extra caffeine” teas like this, the more I’m liking them. They get me alert faster in the morning but without the jolt that I’d get from coffee – that same jolt is what gives me the sickly feeling about three hours after I consume coffee. I don’t get that with these Zest Teas! I just get a steady stream of strong caffeine to get my day started!
And I like that I don’t “taste” the caffeine. I don’t taste an extra “weird” taste in my tea. It tastes like a smooth, rich, deliciously flavored black tea. This one is a sweet tea, but not too sweet. This tea makes it OK to have a little bit of “apple pie” at breakfast time!
If you’re looking for that extra charge in the morning, these teas from Zest Tea may be just what you’re looking for!
Taiwan AliShan High Mountain Oolong Tea (Competition Grade) from Cameron Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Cameron Tea
Tea Description:
AliShan is one the famous oolong tea growing areas in Taiwan. Located at altitude of 1500m, the mountain has a rich soil and ideal climactic conditions. The cool climate and moist from daily mists make the plants to grow very slowly and produce tender, flavourful tea leaves and buds.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yay! AliShan! I love AliShan Oolong! I love LOVE love it!
And this competition grade Taiwan AliShan High Mountain Oolong Tea from Cameron Tea is LOVELY! It is definitely worthy of all the love I bestow onto AliShan Oolong teas.
The dry leaves have a sweet, floral scent with hints of fruit. The aroma of the brewed liquid smells very much like the dry leaf, with a little more floral notes and fewer fruity notes.
I brew the leaves in my gaiwan, but since this is an AliShan and it’s a rather special tea to me, rather than using my usual Oolong tea cup that holds two infusions of an Oolong, I combined the first five infusions of this tea into my Yi Xing Mug that is specially designated for AliShan Oolong teas.
The first five infusions mingling together in my tea mug produce a sweet, creamy, luscious flavor. The overall flavor and texture of the cup is delicate. Notes of flower, hints of fruit and vegetation, and a light honeyed sweetness wash over the palate. I would describe the honey notes as a “thinned” honey, it isn’t a thick or heavy sweetness, it’s more like a watered down honey-esque tone that melds with the floral notes in a really delightful way, softening the flowery sharpness.
There is also a distinct, roasted nutty tone to this tea. This is a distant flavor, something that sort of plays off in the background while these other flavors serve as the primary flavors tasted.
The sip starts out with a fresh, crisp floral note that is immediately followed by a hint of sweet, buttery vegetative taste. Fruit notes weave their way in and out of the sip while the thinned honey flavors sort of provide an undercurrent of sweetness. Mid-sip, I start to notice the hint of roasted, nutty tones. The finish is sweet and crisp with a faint but lingering aftertaste of sweet flower.
A really lovely Alishan Oolong! Admittedly, I haven’t yet found an Alishan that I’m not fond of, but, I have to say that this Competition Grade from Cameron Tea is certainly an excellent example of this, my favorite Oolong. I highly recommend it.
Blue Lady Black Tea from Zest Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zest Tea
Tea Description:
Our Blue Lady Black blends a sultry South Indian black tea base with an aromatic mix of orange, lemon, passion fruit, and hibiscus. A peppering of vivid blue cornflower petals and bits of orange peel make for a visual spectacle. Blue lady will excite all of your senses. No wonder this is a favorite among hot and chilled tea drinkers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Zest High-Octane Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I thought that this Blue Lady Black Tea from Zest Tea was the ideal tea to review on tax day. We got to get those taxes done and in the mail, right? Actually, I finished my taxes in the first week of February, but, I know that there are those who don’t get them done and April 15th always seems to be crunch day, right? So, this one’s for you!
Zest Teas are “High-Octane” teas, that is to say that there is more caffeine in this cup of tea than in the average cup of flavored black tea. The goal, according to the makers of Zest Tea, was to create a high quality cup of tea that had the caffeine of a cup of coffee.
My one concern was this: I can’t drink coffee. Coffee makes me sick. I used to drink coffee every morning until I realized that the reason I was feeling sick around 11 am was that the coffee I was drinking every morning was making me feel that way. Was this “High-Octane” Zest Tea going to have the same effect on me? I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn’t.
This tea is VERY aromatic. When I opened the pouch, I was greeted with a very fruity “punch” of fragrance: I could smell citrus notes of orange and lemon and I could smell the passion fruit. And despite the images that the “High-Octane” evoked in my head, it doesn’t smell of gasoline. Not one bit. It smells like a fruit flavored black tea. I like that smell.
It tastes great! The fruit notes of citrus and passion fruit are strong, but I also taste the Nilgiri black tea base. It has a pleasing flavor: rich and smooth, no bitterness, and it has lovely notes of malt.
I like the way the notes of malt play with the notes of lemon and orange. I also appreciate the balance that has been achieved in this blend: I taste the strong fruit notes but there is a full-flavored black tea base to fill in the background. There is also an agreeable balance of tart and sweet here. It is neither too sweet nor too tart.
The hibiscus in this blend adds a little bit of body to the cup and a hint of tart flavor that complements the citrus notes. Not a lot of hibiscus flavor, just enough tart and tangy taste to contrast with the sweeter notes of the fruit.
There are no weird/funky flavors associated with the extra dose of caffeine in the tea. Not that I thought there would be, but for those of you who might have thought: “What will that “High-Octane” thing do to the flavor?” I’m here to tell you that I don’t notice anything off with the flavor at all. This tastes like tea. It doesn’t taste different or off or funky in any way. It just tastes like a tasty tea with lovely notes of citrus and passion fruit.
So far, I really like what I’ve tasted from this tea. I’ll come back in a couple of hours to let you know if I felt any ill after-effects from the caffeine.
OK … so a few hours have lapsed since I finished the cup of tea, and here’s what I noticed:
- More energy: Yep. I could feel the extra burst of caffeine. But it didn’t feel like the jolt you’d get from a cup of coffee. It was stronger than the usual energy flow that I’d get from the usual cup of tea, though. A bit more like the unbridled jolt from coffee, but, I didn’t feel jittery or … well, I didn’t feel like I had just consumed a cup of coffee. But there is definitely an elevated level of invigorated energy from this tea.
- No ill effects: I didn’t feel that icky feeling that I would feel after I drank a cup of coffee in the morning. Big bonus points for that.
- No “crash”: After drinking coffee and experiencing that jolt, a few hours later, I usually feel the crash. I feel a lack of energy, like I need another cup of coffee to get me going again. Now, the lack of crash could be from the fact that I drink tea throughout the day, but, my tea drinking today has been limited to this one cup of tea from Zest Tea and then a couple of glasses of cold-brewed black iced tea. I don’t know the level of caffeine from the iced tea, but, I will say that I don’t usually feel “energized” after I drink iced tea. I feel refreshed and I feel my thirst has been quenched, but I don’t feel the burst of caffeinated energy from iced tea.
OK, so there you have it. I like this stuff … it’s a great way to get your act together in the morning on those days that you really need to get it together. And it tastes great too. This tea has it going on.
Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Concubine Oolong Tea from Eco Cha
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Eco-Cha
Tea Description:
These leaves were cultivated by the same artisan who produced our previous batch of Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Concubine Oolong. It’s a relatively small farm, managed by a husband and wife team who transformed their plot of virgin high mountain bamboo forest into a tea garden just ten years ago.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Having previously enjoyed and reviewed the Shan Lin Xi High Mountain Oolong from Eco Cha, I was of course curious how the Concubine would make this tea different. The dry leaf immediately greets me with a different aroma than I experienced with the aforementioned tea. This smells very vegetative, reminiscent of a homemade vegetable broth. The brewed tea has a softer fragrance but still smells of cooked veggies.
My first cup of this tea is the combination of my first two infusions in my gaiwan (following a 15 second rinse) and the flavor here is rather delicate. It is sweet and tastes less vegetal than the aroma suggests. There is still a light vegetative note, but I taste more of a sweet vanilla and orchid note here than I do vegetable.
I taste notes of resinous pine and nutty notes. This first cup also has a very “airy” quality to it, like the crisp air in the mountains. Unlike the “non-Concubine” variety of this tea, I am experiencing less astringency with this tea, at least in these early infusions.
My second cup (infusions 3 and 4) was slightly more astringent than the first. The flavors are more pronounced with this cup, and it is still a sweet and very smooth tasting tea. The floral notes are coming forward, and the pine notes are more apparent as well. The vegetal notes are still rather delicate, and I’m not noticing the vanilla tones that I could taste in the first cup.
With the third cup (infusions 5 and 6) I could notice the flavors begin to wane, but this is still a flavorful cup. Of the three cups that I enjoyed today, I found this one to be the most astringent, but, this is not what I’d call an overly astringent tea. The flowery notes are more pronounced and I can taste notes of osmanthus with the orchid. The resin notes are softer now, and I don’t really notice much of the vegetal notes at all now. Of the three cups, this is the most floral tasting.
A beautiful Oolong. This is a company that I highly recommend! They offer great customer service (so friendly!) and I LOVE their packaging – it’s so classy. And oh … of course, the most important thing: the teas are amazing!