Organic Greek Mountain Tea from Kilo. . . .

My sample of Organic Greek Mountain Tea from Kilo looked so unusual in the bag I had to give it a try.  It looks a bit like sage or a white tea, grey-green in color and fuzzy to the touch, with a chain of full, yellow blossoms.  I needed my big infuser to handle all the lush stems, leaves, and blossoms of this tea.

I followed my usual pattern for lightly flavored herbal teas and steeped these leaves with boiling water, lots of leaves, and waited a good ten minutes.

Brewed the tea is very fragrant, vegetal but sweet, almost like brown sugar and okra.  There’s a hint of something in the scent that reminds me of savory dishes in the kitchen, like black pepper or oregano: herbal but spicy.

The taste of this tea has some of the familiar lemon and chamomile notes, gently floral, sweet and bright.  But this tea goes behind the chamomile flavors and has a more fermented great tea base beneath all that sweet lemon.  The sweetness is worth noting, there is a very forward, almost-caramel note in the scent and aftertaste.

This was a unique blend in looks, smell, and taste, not to mention it is an herbal tea packed with good things to help you live a long and healthy life.  Unless you go into the mountains to pick some more tea and encounter the gods of Mount Olympus, that is.  Safe travels and happy brewing!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Kilo
Description:

This variety, Sideritis Scardica, comes from the legendary Mount Olympus, in the Balkans, situated between Thessaly and Macedonia. It has been tested for antioxidants by Brunswick Labs, (www.brunswicklabs.com) the leader in bio-analtyical testing. It has a mild and very pleasant taste and aroma.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Snow Chrysanthemum Flower Tea (Xue Ju Hua Cha) from Teasenz

snow_chrysanthemum_teaTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Flower

Where to Buy:  Teasenz

Tea Description:

A ‘heavenly’ rare flower tea that is grown only in the Kunlun mountains, where slow flower growth results in a delicious flower taste with notes of caramel and dark red tea liquor. Snow Chrysanthemum flower tea contains high amounts of amino acids and proteins, which are beneficial to your health by lowering blood sugar, reducing high cholesterol, and preventing heart diseases. A Teasenz favorite.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I have tried a few chrysanthemum teas in the past, but I have never tried a chrysanthemum tea like this Snow Chrysanthemum tea from Teasenz.  The flowers are dark red – burgundy! – the chrysanthemum teas I’ve had in the past have been white, and the petals are yellow.  The aroma of the dry flowers is (not surprisingly!) floral and sweet.

The tea brews up dark.  After reading more of the information provided about this tea on the website, I may have oversteeped these flowers, since it says that you should stop steeping when the liquid turns slightly red.  This liquid has a deep burgundy hue similar to the color of the centers of the flowers.  (For point of reference, I steeped these for five minutes.)

But the flavor is delightful, so I’m not complaining!  I’m not upset … this doesn’t taste like over-steeped tea to me!

It has a wonderful, honey-caramel flavor.  And even though the color would indicate that it’s “over-steeped” as I said, the flavor offers no such indication.  It’s not bitter, and the flavor is remarkably mild and beautifully sweet with pleasing notes of flower.  It’s very smooth from start to finish.  The aftertaste is lightly sweet, reminiscent of the aftertaste I might experience if I were to have eaten some wildflower honey.

According to the Teasenz website, this is not only a tasty beverage, but a healthy one too:

Due to 18 kinds amino acids, researchers claim that it can prevent high blood pressurehigh cholesterolhigh blood sugar, coronary heart diseases, inflammation, colds, and insomnia when consumed in form of tea. Wild Kunlun snow daisy has been passed down from generation to generation as a Uighur medicinal herbal flower tea.

Now, I don’t usually drink something just because it’s healthy.  There has to be a flavor payoff for me too.  I have to like the way it tastes.  What can I say?  Life’s too short to drink something that tastes bad.  But this doesn’t taste bad!  It’s actually quite a tasty tisane!

It’s a very relaxing, soothing drink.  I found it most enjoyable while the tea was hot.  As it cooled, the flavors diminished somewhat, but it was still quite tasty.  That is to say, it’s better when it’s hot, but it’s still good when it’s cold.

PRODUCT REVIEW: Raspberry Chocolate Matcha Latte from Matcha Mountains

Where to Buy:  Where Matcha Mountains Products are sold

Product Description:

Rich berry flavour with a hint of chocolate, using fair-trade organic dutch cocoa powder. This all time favourite is perfect for a hot beverage or milkshake. Raspberries and chocolate are a perfect pairing, liquid dessert in a cup!

Taster’s Review:

I held on to this sample for a while … not because I didn’t think I’d like it (the way I often do with samples of herbal tisanes, for example), but because I knew I would.  I wanted to save it for a day when I could really savor it.  Well, many moments like that have passed, but this matcha latte mix didn’t cross my mind until now.

But, I am so happy to be sitting here, tasting it now!  It is so good!  Rich, creamy and decadent.  Just as the description above suggests, this is really a “liquid dessert in a cup!”  Or should I say “liquid dessert in a chawan”?

It has a very good balance of chocolate and raspberry flavor.  I don’t taste as much of the green tea flavor, but it does manage to weave its way in and out of the sip.  Hints of its bittersweet vegetative taste unite so harmoniously with the creamy chocolate and tart and tangy raspberry that tickles the tongue in the aftertaste.  The contrast of flavors is very nice.   Sweet, rich and deeee-lish … and much better than anything I’ve ever ordered from the local coffee shop!

I recommend using a little less milk than called for in the instructions.  I heated up the full 12 ounces, but ended up using only about 10 ounces in my latte, and it came out perfectly.  It froths up to create a very rich and creamy bowl of matcha that’s good to the last bit (and it stayed blended throughout – no need to re-whisk as I arrived toward the bottom of the bowl.

Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe Tea from Verdant Tea

Tea Type:
Oolong

Where To Buy:
Verdant Tea

Product Description:

It took Verdant Tea 4 months of sampling to find a Big Red Robe unique and delicious enough to really justify importing. This incredible tea from the rocky cliffs of Wuyi mountain offers a side of Big Red Robe that most people have never seen. Usually all you get is caramel, chocolate and floral notes. This goes far beyond. In early steepings, there is an intriguing sensation on the tongue, almost like the metallic vibrations of a bronze cast bell, or the idea of fast moving water flowing over slate. As the tea opens up, there is a perfectly synthesized note of orange and elderberry that dominates, and lingers in the back of the throat. In middle steepings, the elderberry orange flavor splits into fruity wine grape notes, hibiscus-infused dark chocolate, and molasses cookies with crystalized Thai ginger. In late steepings, the thick beany and malty flavor of Laoshan green comes through, combined with the lilac sweetness of Tieguanyin. One of our favorite aspects of this tea is that it was expertly roasted in a way that lets so much complexity come through the caramel notes of any darker oolong. If you are interested in oolongs, or seek a very comforting yet engaging tea, give this a try for a new perspective.

Tasters Review:

When I see a tea with the word Mountain in the name it really makes me want to travel to the place of origin.  I would LOVE to travel to far away lands to see, smell, and touch the leaves, the soil, before, during, and after.  I guess in a way it’s much like a Fairy Tale of Tea…but this one is a dream come true!

I think this is another reason I am a fan of Verdant Teas overall!  David is an amazing story-teller!  I LOVE reading his descriptions.  If you post comments about a Verdant Tea over at Steepster it’s common to see a thoughtful response from the man himself.  I enjoy reading about the personal connections he has with the people he buys the tea from…the farmers themselves!

With Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe from Verdant Tea you can tell he searched high and low for this quality of tea.  He didn’t settle!  I appreciate that.  This truly is a lovely Oolong!

At first I could smell a bit of charcoal in the aroma of this tea.  It made me wonder if that is what it was going to taste like – which would have been completely fine – as I do like a nice charcoal type tea – but this morphed.  The taste actually morphs from start to finish, too!  At first there was a woodsy/earthy type flavor but then it turned sweet!  I could taste slight fruity notes as well as sugary notes, too!  The fruity notes did change-up to a more defined berry-type taste for a few seconds.  It left a pleasant roasted aftertaste, too!

This is special.  It shows it – from start to finish – and then some!  It’s more than a tea…it’s a journey!

PRODUCT REVIEW: Chai Matcha Latte from Matcha Mountains

Where to Buy:  Where Matcha Mountains Products are sold

Product Description:

Spice up your life this season with our chai matcha latte made from organic freshly ground spices cardamon, cinnamon, cloves… and japanese matcha. Accent our chai with a cinnamon stick or dollop of whip cream and enjoy hot or cold.

Taster’s Review:

THIS IS SO YUMMY!

This is a perfect Matcha Latte … and a perfect Chai Latte for that matter.  It is so good.

This is gently spiced – not something I would categorize as spicy.  More like warm and soothing.  It is sweet but not cloying.  It is smooth, rich and creamy.  The combination of adding steaming milk and the Matcha make for a very foamy, frothy beverage.

The Matcha base tastes vibrant.  It has a light vegetative taste.  It isn’t as vegetal as a typical Matcha.  Perhaps that is because it’s a latte mix, or perhaps it’s because the spices cancel out some of the grassy tones, or it could be because the milk offsets the vegetative qualities of the Matcha.  But if you’ve tried Matcha in the past and found that strong vegetative taste to be a little off-putting, try this!

I absolutely LOVE this Matcha Latte.  I love it so much, in fact, that my cup is empty!  I don’t usually finish off the cup before I finish writing the review… but, in this case, it tasted so good I couldn’t stop!  It’s a yummy treat!