Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Tea Shelf
Tea Description:
A signature spring harvest tea from the mystical hills of Darjeeling, the fluffy soft textured admixture of single leaves, both rolled and open, are complete with bright silver buds. The light golden liquid is a very clean tasting tea, with a subtle floral bouquet accompanied by notes of apple and honey. A remarkable tea which expresses itself beautifully.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea’s pouch was one of those teas that I happily found int he back of my tea stash. One of the problems with having a nice large stash of tea, teas seem to hide and almost get forgotten. I was excited to see I still had a few offerings from The Tea Shelf to try. So far, I’ve enjoyed checking out their selection.
From the very first looks of this tea, it looks just bright and happy. The tea leaves are a gorgeous light green with twinges of yellow popping thru here and there. Just a tea that screams for spring to come back to us here in the Midwest.
Brewed up per the package instructions, this tea’s brew has such a gorgeous color, a really lovely amber coloring. First sip in and this tea is just spot on. All of those gorgeous slightly vegetal notes combined with a subtle malty flavor with hints of a floral touch. A really nice complex cuppa that gives you a variety of different flavors in each sip. I would almost say this tea is a nice cross between a black, white, and green tea.
I’ll be sipping on this tea for some time. Just gorgeous and hitting on the right notes for me today! Yum!
Australia Houjicha Green from What-Cha
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Tea Description:
Two Rivers Green Tea started producing tea in 2001 with the aid and encouragement of Japanese tea experts who were seeking to encourage Japanese style tea production for the domestic Japanese market. The Two Rivers farm was selected as it has the same latitude of southern Japanese tea farms, idea temperatures, rainfall and great quality topsoil.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Recently I placed a What-Cha order for myself, and one of the things I was looking for was a Houjicha to stock up since it’s one of my favourite kinds of green tea and while I currently have a Genmaicha stocked that I really like there’s a hole in my cupboard where a good Houjicha should be. This one comes from Australia, and personally I’ve never tried an Australian grown tea before though I was aware that they were produced. Australia is one of those regions that isn’t typically thought of as a tea growing region among people who aren’t more learned tea drinkers the same way people don’t realize tea is grown in places like Kenya or Hawaii and I’m very excited to get my first taste of an Australian tea, especially considering how affordable this blend was. It was an easy thing to gamble on.
I do think this was worth the gamble. While it’s not as straightforwardly roasty as I tend to prefer from a good Houjicha there are some very, very nice subtle nuanced flavour notes that more than makes up the different. For starters, there’s an interesting nutty notes that seems to make itself known in each part of the sip in a different way. With that first initial taste it’s light lightly toasted nuts, and then in the body it weaves in and out between the other flavours. In the aftertaste, you’re tasting the shadow of the nut flavour which once was.
There’s also some really nice sweeter notes like caramel and cocoa which gently stretch out across the surface of your tongue, creating this really nice, smooth body flavour. The finish is lightly smokey, and leaves you wanting to go back in for another sip so you can experience the flavour dynamics all over again. Overall it’s a very warming and welcoming cuppa.
I definitely think I’ll clear my purchase of this easily, and will probably go back for more after that. More than that, this only gets me even more excited to try more of what Australia has to offer!
Rooibush Panna Cotta Rhubarb Cream from TeaGschwendner
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: TeaGschwendner
Tea Description:
Dessert in a teacup! The dazzling combination of Italian Panna Cotta, tart rhubarb and sweet cream combine for a flavor as delicious as the aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rooibush Panna Cotta Rhubarb Cream is probably the longest tea blend name ever…
Well, not really. It is pretty lengthy, though. And tacking on the “TeaGshwendner” certainly doesn’t help.
Ok; starting off with a confession: Not only have I never had Panna Cotta, but prior to trying this tea I didn’t know what it was either. I most certainly had to do an internet search, but now that I do know what it is I’m actually kind of embarrassed I didn’t. What originally caught my attention with this one was absolutely the rhubarb; I’ve been on a bit of a personal rhubarb kick lately: beer, pie, jam, yogurt and of course tea.
Dry, there isn’t a whole lot to this tea. It has a very, very mildly fruity scent but nothing super characteristic of rooibos and apart from one small little piece of cube shaped rhubarb my measured out leaf is all fine pieces of rooibos. As the tea was steeping, it started to smell a little bit stronger but still mostly maintained a predominantly rooibos only sort of scent.
The taste thankfully delivers some flavour although not nearly as much as I’m wanting. The whole front end of the sip is straight rooibos – albeit a pretty good one without any medicinal or woodchip kind of notes present. That said, people who dislike the taste of rooibos, good or bad, will want to steer clear of this one: trust me, you’re going to taste a lot of it. The other flavour kicks in the end of the sip and the aftertaste. And it’s pretty subtle; a bit of sweetness and a little bit of tang similar to the natural tartness of rhubarb. It’s also a little bit apple-y. I’m struggling a little bit to pick up the cream/custard of the ‘Panna Cotta’ but there is something about the tartness of the rhubarb that reminds me a little bit of Greek Yogurt, so perhaps that’s more derived from the panna cotta.
I don’t sweeten my teas, but I could possibly be inclined to add the tiniest pinch of sugar to this one because I just have that gut feeling that it’d make a world of difference. However, without the sugar the flavour of this one is definitely lacking. However, this could be a winner for someone who doesn’t mind rooibos and who is looking for something subtly flavoured.
Peach Oolong from Art of Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tea Description:
Delightful and refreshing, this wonderfully distinctive tea exhibits a rich Autumnal flavor of ripened peaches with lingering hints of oak and a long honey finish.
Water Temperature: 185 – 206 F degrees
Caffeine Content: Medium
Steep Time: 3-5 minutes
Suggested Serving Size: 1 Tbsp/8oz
Ingredients: Organic Oolong Tea, Organic Rosehips, Organic Marigolds, Natural Flavors
Origin: Art of Tea Blend
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was happy to receive this tea from a tea swap partner recently. I love peach flavored teas and I love oolong! I also recently placed my first order with Art of Tea so I was excited to sample their teas before my order arrives.
I have to say that I am not getting much peach in this cup. Granted it is a naturally flavored tea and organic which I love, and like in many organic and naturally flavored teas the flavor is going to be a bit lighter, so I anticipated this. However, it still seems to be a little too much on the light side for my liking. If I had not been aware that this was supposed to be peach flavored it would have been difficult for me to determine what if any flavor was in it.
I attempted to liven up the flavor of the peach by adding german rock sugar but unfortunately that only made my tea sweet.
In all honesty – the oolong base itself was not all that outstanding. Not a bad base, nothing unsavory about it, just not that strong or bold.
In all fairness, desperate to figure out if I was simply missing the boat on this tea, I searched up other’s reviews on it. What I discovered is that most others felt as I did about this tea, while there are a few who loved how subtle the peach notes were. So for some, this tea is splendrous so if you are one who really likes a tea with subtle, gentle flavors, this may be the perfect peach for you!
It is indeed a gentle tea. Still I am looking forward to my order from Art of Tea, the flavors I have coming sound scrumptious! This just simply is not MY cup of tea.
