Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Les 2 Marmottes
Tea Description:
This Tea will be your partner throughout the day as part of your weight loss mission. Flexible, it adapts to any situation. It is hot, warm or even cold, it is always delicious. Temptations no longer have control. You’re all set!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It was exciting to receive this box of samples – all the way from France! This Retour a La Ligne Green Tea Blend is the first that I’m trying from this new-to-me company, Les 2 Marmottes.
When you visit the Les 2 Marmottes website, you’ll find that you need to translate the website … unless you are able to read French. Alas … I am not, thankfully Google Chrome will translate it for me.
The dry leaf smells strongly of mint. Of course, this could be not only because of the spearmint but because of the meadowsweet. It’s a very fresh and uplifting fragrance. The brewed tea has a slightly softer mint aroma and I can detect the notes of the green tea and verbena now.
The flavor is much more subdued than I expected it to be, given the strong minty fragrance. The mint notes here are subtle but refreshing. The green tea has a sweet, buttery taste. There is a herbaceous overtone to this, tasting a bit more like an herbal tisane made of green herbals rather than a green tea.
I taste distant notes of fruit too, but they are a little difficult to discern because they’re off in the distance somewhere behind the stronger herbal notes. It’s a calming drink to sip, I find myself relaxing more with each sip I take.
Overall, this is a pleasant, mild tasting beverage. I don’t know if I taste anything from the tail cherries (or cherry stems), then again, I can’t recall ever having a tea with tail cherries in the list of ingredients so I don’t know what kind of contribution this ingredient makes to the overall flavor of the tea. I do taste spearmint and I do taste green tea. I taste notes of verbena and a slight sharp note from the meadowsweet.
It’s an interesting cuppa! With my first few sips, I was a little unsure if I was liking it, but now that I’ve nearly finished the cup, I find myself wanting a little more, so that’s gotta tell you something, right?
Houjicha Ichiban Green Tea from Steepster
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Steepster Select
Tea Description:
Roasted in small batches, this houjicha comes from exclusive 1st flush leaves and stems. Constant monitoring during production ensures a perfectly balanced sweet (caramel-like) and salty (umami richness) flavor profile. A daily favorite at Steepster!
Taster’s Review:
When I opened the single serving pouch of this Houjicha Ichiban Green Tea from Steepster (the second tea that I’m sampling from my February Steepster Select Box!) I was greeted with a delicious, roasty-toasty scent. I love the aroma of a good Houjicha, it smells so warm and cozy, like comfort food. Houjicha is comfort tea!
And this is an amazing Houjicha! It is sweet and delicious with its warm, toasty nut flavor. Some of the other tasting notes written about this tea suggest a grassy taste, but I don’t get a lot of grassy/vegetative notes from this tea nor can I recall any Houjicha right off hand that I’ve tasted where I’ve experienced a vegetative note. Usually, the roasting of the leaves turns the vegetal notes of the green tea into a nuttier flavor, and that’s what I’m tasting now.
But I do taste a slight buttery quality and hints of chocolate … a very subtle chocolate note that I can’t recall noticing in a Houjicha before. Interesting! And I also do taste a slight “saltiness” to this that accentuates the nutty flavors very nicely. It’s a nice balance between savory and sweet.
This is a mighty fine Houjicha! I’m glad I got to try it!
Learn more about Steepster Select here.
Butterscotch Toffee Black Tea Blend from Compass Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Compass Teas
Tea Description:
A Brand New Dessert tea! We suggest sweetening it with Amber Sugar Gems.Ingredients: Black Tea, Camellia Sinensis Stems, Sunflower Petals, Safflower Petals, Flavoring
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I measured out this Butterscotch Toffee Black Tea Blend from Compass Teas, I was kind of surprised to see all the stems in the tea. I thought to myself, this is a really “stemmy” tea … which is sometimes indicative of a poor quality tea, but, in this case, I don’t think that’s true. After reading the description and ingredient list on the Compass Teas Website, and seeing “Camellia Sinensis Stems” as one of the ingredients, I realize this is supposed to be a stemmy tea!
My first couple of sips of this tea … all I could really taste was a strong, earthy, somewhat “roasted” tea flavor, but nothing that resembled either butterscotch or toffee. Then I allowed it to cool for a few minutes (maybe five minutes? The tea was still pleasantly hot, but not piping hot), and the flavors began to pop. Now I could taste a rich, buttery taste along with a sweet, caramel-y note. YUM!
And even though this is a sweet tasting tea, and even with a name like Butterscotch Toffee … I’m not finding this to be a cloyingly sweet tea. It is definitely what I’d call a dessert tea, but, it doesn’t taste too sweet.
I’m also gratified to find that the strongest flavors of this cup are not the butterscotch or the toffee … but the tea! The tea is a robust black tea … it’s good and strong, and I think that the stems of the Camellia Sinensis gives this tea a pleasantly “roasted” kind of flavor that almost mimics a coffee-like richness. This is a tea that would be very satisfying served as a breakfast tea, it has that hearty flavor that I want first thing in the morning … and that it is a Butterscotch Toffee tea … makes it a delightful indulgence too.
I recommend trying this as a latte too … it makes a really decadent treat!
Blueberry Green Kukicha from Frontier Co-Op
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Frontier Co-Op
Product Description:
Enjoy this wonderful Japanese organic karigane (green kukicha stem) tea combined with flash freeze-dried organic blueberries. Fresh fruity vegetal flavors deliver very low caffeine content in a satisfying, healthy tea that also happens to help satisfy sweet-tooth cravings.
Taster’s Review:
This is an interesting tea.
The dry leaf (err… stem?) has a scent that is similar to freshly cut grass and blueberry. It is a very pleasant fragrance. Once brewed, the aroma of the tea is different. It still smells of blueberry, but instead of the grassy scent, I am getting a sort of steamed asparagus essence. These two scents together – blueberry and asparagus – make for a somewhat odd smell. Not off-putting, just … odd.
But the flavor is very enjoyable. It tastes strongly of blueberries (a good thing for a blueberry tea to taste strongly of!), and the Kukicha has a vegetative presence. It is grassy with a light astringency at the tail. Kukicha tends to be a lighter tasting tea than, say a Sencha, so the vegetative tone seems relatively strong for the lightness of the tea. But, since I have grown quite fond of that vegetative taste, I don’t mind that at all.
Overall, I found this to be a tasty cup. It’s good hot or iced, and with it being so hot, I’m inclined at the moment to say that I prefer it iced. Ask me again in the middle of winter, and I might flip-flop on that.
I like Frontier Co-Op’s products. These are good quality, organic teas at reasonable prices. And they’re tasty too!