Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: T-Oolong Tea
Tea Description:
This quality Alishan Charcoal Fire Heavy Roast Oolong is handpicked, handcrafted and produced from Alishan oolong tea. Use only the charcoal made of either Taiwan Longan wood or Taiwan Acacia wood to roast the tea (NOT by electric roasters), and follow old traditional method. This tea has an intense charcoal aroma and taste mixing with flavors of Alishan oolong. The aftertaste is enjoyable and long lasting. It tastes sweet, rich and complex, and stands up very well to multiple infusions.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had an occasional charcoal roasted Oolong, but I can’t recall having very many AliShan charcoal roasted Oolong teas! I know I’ve had at least one, but, I can’t recall many others. So, I’m very happy to have this opportunity to try this AliShan Charcoal Fire Heavy Roast Oolong Tea from T-Oolong Tea!
This is lovely!
To brew, I reached for my gaiwan. I measured a bamboo scoop of tea and put it into the gaiwan. I heated the water to 180°F and after performing a quick rinse (15 seconds), I started the first infusion, steeping it for 45 seconds. I added 15 seconds onto each subsequent infusions. Since this is a charcoal roasted AliShan, I opted not to use my designated AliShan Oolong Yixing mug and instead put the tea in one of my favorite tea cups. This tea cup holds two infusions perfectly, so I combined the first two infusions to make one cup. Then the third and fourth infusion combined made the second cup and so on.
With my first cup, the roasty-toasty flavors brought as smile to my face. It’s deliciously nutty and sweet. While an unroasted AliShan may taste floral and even a little ‘milky’ – this instead tastes nutty, creamy and sweet. I taste notes of the charcoal. It’s remarkably smooth with very little astringency and no bitterness.
My second cup was even more ‘roasty-toasty’ and I could pick up on more of the charcoal notes. Still deliciously nutty and sweet! The creaminess has subsided somewhat. This cup is less thick than the first, and there is a slight dryness to it. Still really nice.
The third cup was a little more mellow than the second cup. I’m starting to pick up on some light floral notes – like toasted orchid! It’s an interesting contrast of flavors. I think that this is the most interesting of the three cups. The cup is softer in texture. The charcoal notes are more pronounced. This cup isn’t as nutty as the first and second cups were but there are still some nutty tones. This is still roasty-toasty and really pleasant to sip.
I really enjoyed this tea.
California Sweet Peach Herbal Tea from M&K’s Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit/Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
Sweet orange peel roasted in honey, real grade-A Madagascar vanilla beans, actual peaches! California Sweet Peach is our signature herbal infusion. We are proud to roast our own orange peel in local honey and use peaches straight from California! Our natural peach flavor is supplied by Silver Cloud Estates and is a blend of different natural extracts and oils, enabling us to boost the taste of peaches. This blend is part of the Original 20 M&K’s Blends. Note: California Sweet Peach contains no tea, as it is an herbal infusion. We chose to include the term “herbal tea” in the title due to its categorical popularity.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This California Sweet Peach Herbal Tea from M&K’s Tea Company is an interesting tisane. As I sit here, sipping it, I’m trying to determine whether or not I like it. I can’t say that immediately upon taking my first few sips that I was blown away by it. At the same time, I can’t say that immediately upon taking my first few sips that I wasn’t intrigued. I felt the need to keep on sipping. It’s interesting enough to keep me sipping but there’s something about it that hasn’t yet ‘won me over’ – at least not yet.
I like that the hibiscus is not a strong presence in this cup. Normally, when I am about to taste a tea or tisane with hibiscus, my thought is “why?” Why hibiscus? But, after drinking about half a cup now, I can see why the hibiscus is in this blend. It adds a little bit of body to the cup (but I wouldn’t recommend steeping it longer than 6 minutes or so to avoid having a thick or syrupy body) and the little bit of tartness that it brings to the cup adds balance to the warm notes of the licorice and the sweetness of the peach, honey and vanilla notes.
The star of this cup is – obviously – the peach. I like the flavor of the peach here and I think that’s what’s keeping my interest. The peach is a genuine peach-y note. It doesn’t taste chemical or artificial. It tastes true to the fruit. I also like the orange in this. The orange adds a touch of bright flavor to the sweet peach notes.
Now that I’ve finished the cup I can say that I enjoyed this. It had a strong peach flavor but there was enough other stuff going on in this that it didn’t end up being all about the peach. I liked the different flavors going on. And even though this does have hibiscus in it – like so many other fruit/herbal tisanes to – this is not your ordinary tisane.
Just as an aside: it’s something when I finish the tea before I finish the review. Take that for what it’s worth, but it doesn’t happen often. I must have enjoyed what I was drinking!
Yeah. I’d drink this again. I enjoyed it. This one has earned my approval. Even if it does have hibiscus in it!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 2)
As I mentioned in yesterday’s article – I’m back with “Part 2” of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club review of February’s shipment! Today’s article will highlight my experiences with two more Hojicha teas as well as another Japanese Oolong – I’m excited to get started, so let’s not dilly-dally! Let’s jump right in!
The first tea that I’ll be discussing is Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from Takeo Tea Farm. The first thing I noticed about this tea is that it starts out delicately. My first few sips were very softly flavored. I could taste light notes of sweet, toasty nut flavor, but they were quite subtle. It wasn’t until the third or fourth sip that the flavors started to become more focused. Now that I’m about halfway through the cup, the flavors are sweet, roasty-toasty, and nutty … and very well defined!
With those initial first couple of sips, I was starting to think that this tea was much more delicate than the Hojicha I had tasted for yesterday’s article, but now, I’m thinking twice about that. These two Hojicha are very similar though, but I think that this one might taste a little more ‘roasted.’ Both are spectacular varieties of Hojicha, though, and I’d heartily recommend either, but this is the one I’d point you toward if you were looking for a stronger roasted flavor.
The next tea that I’m tasting from Yunomi’s Tea Discoveries February package is #03 Black Oolong Tea from Kaneban Higuchi Tea Factory. I found myself wondering as I brewed this tea in my gaiwan how much different it would be from last night’s experience with the Oolong tea from Takeo.
And there are some distinct differences in the two. This has more of a sweet potato flavor to it! I love that I’m tasting sweet potato! There are hints of smoke to the flavor. This reminds me more of a black tea than an Oolong. It doesn’t have the same texture as I experienced with the Oolong from Takeo.
If I were to attempt to describe this tea in one sentence, it might go something like this: this tea is what I’d imagine the love child of a Japanese black tea and Formosa Oolong tea would taste like. I’m getting that rich flavor that I remember from the few Japanese black teas that I’ve tried, and I’m tasting notes of peach that I’d taste in a Formosa Oolong. Along with the softest hint of smoke.
Quite lovely!
The final tea in this month’s Tea Discoveries package is Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea. When I opened this pouch, the roasty-toasty aroma filled the air. This tea seems to have more roasty-toasty-ness to it.
And that’s evident in the flavor too. The flavor here is much stronger, right from the very first sip. The roasted flavors are intense. I can almost taste the charred wood notes of the wood that was used to roast this tea. Most Hojicha – including the previous two teas that I tasted from this month’s Tea Discoveries Club – tend to have a delicate flavor. This tea is more in your face. Very roasty. Very toasty! Very nutty and sweet. I’m getting mineral notes and a distinct charcoal-y flavor from it too.
And smoke! I don’t usually taste smoke from a Hojicha. I taste the roasty-toasty, nutty flavors, but the smoke? No, not always. I might have noticed smoke on an occasion or two, but here, the smoke is evident, particularly in the aftertaste. Nice!
This is the tea for those who liked Hojicha but wanted a stronger flavor to it. This tea delivers that! It’s warm and cozy and comforting, but it’s also offers a bold flavor that is not common in your average Hojicha.
This month’s Tea Discoveries Club just reaffirms to me that YOU should be joining me on these discoveries! The teas are remarkable and it’s really interesting for me to see how teas – like Hojicha – can differ from producer to producer. You should never judge your like/dislike of a particular tea type based only on one sampling. You should give yourself a chance to explore the teas – even those you may not have enjoyed from other tea companies – because you never know what you might be missing.
The Tea Discoveries Club gives you the unique opportunity to really explore Japanese Teas!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 1)
As with last month’s review of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club (You can check out part 1 of that review here), I’ll be doing the review of this month’s package in two parts. This first article will feature the review of two teas and the second article, published tomorrow at the same time, will feature three teas.
This month, we received five teas featuring Hojicha Roasted Green teas as well as Japanese-made Oolong teas. Exciting! I haven’t tried a lot of Japanese Oolong teas – most of my Oolong experiences have been with Taiwanese Oolongs and to a slightly lesser extent, Chinese Oolongs. Japanese Oolong teas aren’t as common a tea to find – another reason that this Tea Discoveries Club from Yunomi is a GREAT deal!
The teas featured in this month’s package are: three Hojicha teas (Hojicha Roasted Green Tea, Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea and Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea) and two Japanese Oolong teas (Oolong Tea and Black Oolong Tea). I’m so excited to try these! I love Hojicha and I love Oolong and am especially excited to try something rare like Japanese Oolong!
Also included in this month’s package is a pamphlet that offers steeping and tasting notes as well as some other interesting information including tea-related Japanese phrases and terms and the cutest little origami Crane!
So let’s jump right in and get started with the Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea.
This Hojicha delivers all the flavors that you’d expect from a Hojicha. It’s got that wonderfully cozy, roasty-toasty flavor. It’s lightly sweet and nutty. It’s a very autumnal type of flavor – it evokes thoughts of autumn for me. I think of the cooler weather, the crispness in the air and the smell of smoke from the neighborhood chimneys. It’s the kind of flavor that you want to curl up to.
I like that this particular Hojicha is light. It doesn’t have a heavy flavor to it. It’s the kind of drink that you want after you’ve had a heavy meal. It’s soothing and gentle.
The second tea that I’ll be examining in this article is Organic Oolong Tea from Takeo Tea Farm. This is a tea that I explored previously in another review (read that review here).
Dry, this tea looks a lot like a black tea. It reminds me of a black tea with its dark, slender leaves. If I were given the dry leaves ‘blindly’ (without knowing that it was an Oolong) I would not have guessed it was an Oolong by the appearance of the dry leaf.
The tea brews up dark too. The only real “Oolong-like” indication I started to recognize is after the rinse and first infusion, I noticed how much the leaves had expanded and it was very “Oolong-esque.” (Oolong teas tend to expand quite a bit during the brewing process!)
Now the flavor … this does taste like an Oolong. It reminds me a lot of a darker Oolong, like perhaps a Formosa Oolong or a Oriental Beauty Oolong. It has that deep, fruity flavor and the really lovely, full texture of an Oolong. It’s sweet and really quite pleasant.
It has an almost ‘wine-like’ quality to it too, much more so than teas that I often call ‘wine-like.’ I can really taste a fermented grape flavor here. The tea has a very rich, full and satisfying flavor. This is truly a unique Oolong tea – one that should be experienced to be understood fully. (In other words – try this tea as soon as you can!)
My first cup (infusions 1 and 2) was probably the most intensely flavored cup of the three that I enjoyed. I found that with my second cup, the flavors were beginning to mellow slightly. The tea was still very strongly flavored and I still got a very distinct fermented grape-like flavor to the cup. But the flavors in the cups that would follow were a little less focused. (Still quite enjoyable though – it’s well worth the effort to keep on steeping!)
With the third cup, I started to notice that the fruit notes were becoming sweeter. It wasn’t as ‘fermented’ a taste as I noticed in the first two cups. Floral notes began to emerge as did a sweet note that evoked thoughts of honey. A really lovely cup!
I can’t wait to explore the other three teas! Read about them in tomorrow’s article!
Honey Vanilla Chamomile Herbal Tea from M&K’s Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: M&K’s Tea Company on Etsy
Tea Description:
Egyptian chamomile, sweet licorice root roasted in honey, and grade-A Madagascar vanilla beans! This is a great herbal infusion for the late night: perfect for relaxing. Our Honey Vanilla Chamomile is just that: honey (with licorice root), vanilla, chamomile. Nothing else. This blend is part of the Original 20 M&K’s Blends. Note: Honey Vanilla Chamomile contains no tea, as it is an herbal infusion. We chose to include the term “herbal tea” in the title due to its categorical popularity.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a little while (at least a week or so!) since I last had chamomile and tonight I’m in need of relaxation: chamomile style! So, I grabbed this Honey Vanilla Chamomile blend from M&K’s Tea Company.
To brew it, I poured the contents from the sampler pouch into the basket of my Kati tumbler and added 12 ounces of water heated to 195°F. I let it steep for eight minutes.
The aroma is distinctly chamomile, but I can also pick up on the notes of honey and licorice root. The vanilla notes are not as noticeable but there is a very faint vanilla fragrance.
Wow! I’m liking this. The licorice root is the strongest flavor here, but the often sharp flavor of the licorice is softened somewhat by the honey roasting. And I like the honey in this, it complements the natural honey-like flavors of the chamomile.
The chamomile is also prominent. It has that expected honeyed, apple-y flavor. I like the way the zesty, warm flavor of the licorice contrasts with the softer, lighter flavor of the chamomile. It’s a really unique flavor combination, but it’s working for me.
The vanilla is the softest flavor of this blend, but I do taste a subtle sweet and creamy note from the vanilla bean. It may be the softest flavor here but it ties everything together. I don’t think this blend would taste quite the same without that whisper of vanilla.
I drank this while it was hot. I’m not a big fan of chilled chamomile. But, I did find that after the tea cooled slightly – still warm but not piping hot – the flavors seemed to become slightly more seamless. It was like the vanilla came forward a bit more and softened everything just a little more. The licorice seemed smoother, and the other flavors seemed to meld together to create a very unified flavor.
I know not everyone out there is a big fan of licorice root – if you’re one of them, this tisane isn’t for you. But if you like that snappy flavor of licorice, you should give this herbal tea a try. I found it to be quite delightful and it also does what it’s supposed to do: it helped me relax! It’s a very soothing, calming drink that doesn’t taste like every other chamomile blend out there. Bonus points for that!
M&K’s earns another thumbs up from me for this blend.