May 04
Review: Red Leaf Tea Blue Moon
Black Tea, Blue Mallow Tea, Marigold Tea, Red Leaf Tea, Safflower Tea Add commentsGeoff’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "I couldn't taste the black tea, nor did I note any floral flavor. But, damn, it was perfect."
|
Red Leaf Tea touts this as being an extremely rare blend from Europe. In my tea travels, travails, and Internetting, I've never run across any mention of it. As such, they're probably right, it is rare. Chock one for the Red Leaf team.The ingredients for this can best be described as "floral". Safflower, marigolds, and blue mallow round out the botanical aspect of this blend. The Red Leaf website touts that any inherent sweetness stems from the marigold touch. Indeed, it does. The dry leaf batch had a candied smell to it, like eating fruit-filled doughnuts in a greenhouse. Amidst the burnt black tea leaves were flecks of red and green flora; quite lively.
Since it was a black tea, I didn't observe any rigid brewing temperature. I brought 16 ounces to a rolling boil, poured it over 2 teaspoons worth of the merry mixture, and waited for five minutes. The liquid smelled like how I imagined a description from an Irish romantic ballad. "Her hair was berry-scented as she danced through the garden"...or something like that.
Taste-wise, I didn't think the sweetness would carry over, but it did with a punch. The marigold, combined with the blue mallow, created a blueberry tinge. I couldn't taste the black tea, nor did I note any floral flavor. But, damn, it was perfect.
As an added note: I tried to duplicate this with blue malva, dried marigold, safflower, and a blended Ceylon black. The results were - how should I put it? - lacking. I guess I'll leave perfection to the professionals.
— To purchase Red Leaf Tea Blue Moon, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
 |
Geoff Teaviews.com Reviewer » Read more about this reviewer on Geoff's profile page. » Find a list of recent posts by Geoff. |
May 4th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
[...] You can read my write-up on it HERE. [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Your links give a 404. They point to http://www.redleaftea.com/Black-Tea/Blue-Moon when they should point to http://www.redleaftea.com/Black-Tea/Blue-Moon-1. Besides that love the site and the reviews.
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Actually, those links mentioned above are dead links as well (and those were just updated a month ago??) – looks like the correct link is now http://www.redleaftea.com/product_info.php?cPath=3&products_id=106
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Well, bloody heck. It worked when I posted it. *heh*
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
They seem to have a content management system that is constantly changing their urls… bad practice if they want folks linking to their site! I guess from now on its best to just have Red Leaf Tea reviews link to their homepage, and not individual product pages.