Teaviews.com » Vanessa

Review: Suffuse Tea Goudekop Cinnamon Rooibos

Vanessa — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:00:22 +0000

Suffuse Tea’s Rooibos Cinnamon comes packaged in white sachets making the contents hard to discern. In the case of this tea, however, I am guessing the ingredients list is rather simple, and so I don’t feel like I am missing out too much by not being able to clearly see the rooibos and cinnamon specks. I drank two cups of this tea without really thinking much of it, making me force myself to focus on the next one. I then realized that the reason the first two cups went down so quickly was that this brew lacks a “wow” factor, thereby lending it to easy and mindless sipping rather than savoring and contemplation. The rooibos flavor was sweet and nutty, but not as fresh as I have sampled from other selections. The cinnamon flavor was very mild, almost what I would describe as weak. I would have appreciated a stronger contribution of the cinnamon. I feel that this is a decent enough tea whose mild flavor profile would not be considered offensive or strong by too many people. This is a tea that I would certainly drink again if it was offered to me, but I would certainly not search this tea out, nor would I recommend it on the basis of it being a cinnamon-flavored blend, as I don’t think it delivers in that aspect.

Review: LeafSpa Banaspaty Bliss

Vanessa — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:00:21 +0000

Banaspaty Bliss is a black tea that hails from, not surprisingly, the Banaspaty Estate, which is in the Assam region of India. This tea is organic and fair-trade certified, which is always nice to see. The tea had a rich cocoa and malty aroma that was on par with what I would expect from an Assam tea. The fairly long, thin leaves are very dark in color. The LeafSpa website recommends a five-minute brew time in boiling water. I almost never infuse black tea leaves for that long, so I chose to use a more modest two-minute steep time. As it turns out, that was a very wise decision. I found the tea to be very harsh and, quite frankly, not that enjoyable. I think a five minute infusion would have made the tea downright undrinkable. The term ‘heavy’ is all that comes to mind. This tea reminded me of old, concentrated coffee, and it had an aftertaste that endured for quite some time. I had to add sugar to make this tea drinkable, and even so, it still wasn’t something all that tasty to me. The LeafSpa website’s description of this tea includes terms such as ‘delicate’, ‘smooth’, and ‘easy to drink’, making me wonder if I am drinking the same tea as that one being described. A couple of hits from a quick Google search on this tea shows that this tea has received positive reviews, so I am struggling to reconcile how I found this tea to be so heavy and harsh while others remark on its smooth, medium body. In any event, based on my personal experience, this isn’t a tea I would recommend, as I think that there are far better black teas available. Perhaps this would be a good choice for those looking for a rather sturdy substitute for strong coffee.

Review: KTeas Golden Monkey

Vanessa — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:00:19 +0000

The first thing that impressed me about my sample of KTeas Golden Monkey is the color. When they say golden, they weren’t kidding. The long, wiry leaves are various shades of light brown and yellows, almost having a golden mustard-colored tinge to them. This Yunnan-based tea is USDA certified organic and the KTeas website states ‘Don’t mistake this for lower grade teas of this type. This is a premium grade golden monkey that is not to be missed!”. The dry blend has a rich malty aroma that promised a decent cup of tea. I prepared several cups of this tea using just-boiling water and infusion times ranging from three to four minutes. Each cup was equally delicious, indicating that this tea isn’t a high-maintenance tea and doesn’t require high-precision brewing operations. The tea has a natural sweetness that, although subtle, hints at cocoa or caramel flavors that underlie the general and more prominent maltiness. This tea definitely holds its own as a robust and satisfying tea. I found it to offer just the right level of depth and body without being too heavy. I didn’t have any desire to add milk or sugar to this one, but it is a sturdy enough brew that I think it would take either or both of these just fine. KTeas writes of this tea’s lingering finish, and I certainly agree with them. The finish was detectable in terms of the flavor as well as the substance. The malty flavor had a crisp astringency that endured on my tongue long after I finished a sip, while I could also enjoy the filling mouthfeel that this tea provided. If you like Golden Monkey tea and/or are looking for a robust black tea, I would highly recommend KTeas Golden Monkey. This tea is a little bit more costly (but not excessively so) than some of their other offerings, but this one seems well worth it.

Review: Suffuse Red Rooibos Tea Sceletium Tortuosum Infusion

Vanessa — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:00:52 +0000

Suffuse is a company that specializes in red rooibos blends, some of which are more conventional than others. Today, I sampled their Red Rooibos Tea Sceletium Tortuosum Infusion. Of course I have to admit total ignorance about Sceletium Tortuosum, but luckily the Suffuse website provides some good information about this ingredient, including the following little tidbit of knowledge: “This mood-enhancing plant is Africa’s oldest natural anti-depressant and relaxant, first producing euphoria and alertness which gently fades into relaxation”. Hmmm, it sounded a little bit odd to me, but really, who am I to judge? On with the brew…

The tea came packaged in a teabag which I used for the infusion, but then opened up to examine the contents after steeping. I tended to think that rooibos was fairly standard across the board, but as it turns out, the contents in the teabag were not as whole/intact as I would have liked and indeed were comparable to the tea dust and fannings of lower-qualityblack tea bags. Most of the rooibos particles were quite small and clumpy rather than being long individual strands. According to the Suffuse website, rooibos leaf makes up 93% of this blend. I did see an occasional tan-colored speck of something other than rooibos, which I imagine must have been pieces of the Sceletium Tortuosum which make up the remaining 7% of the blend. Flavorwise, this tea is certainly drinkable, but really not memorable. This tea offers a standard rooibos flavor profile, although the nuttiness was not as bold as other, perhaps higher quality, rooibos blends I have sampled. If I really tried, I could detect a teensy bit of a medicinal flavor; perhaps this was the contribution of the Sceletium Tortuosum. I can’t say that I personally experienced any elevated euphoria or alertness as a result of drinking this tea, but I will say that shortly after consuming this tea, I did settle into one of the heaviest slumbers I have had in a long time. This tea is one which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend based upon its flavor, which is bland and forgettable, but I would recommend this to anyone looking to experiment with exotic and unconventional ingredients or to anyone looking for a good bedtime brew.

Review: KTeas Rooibush Orange Peppermint

Vanessa — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:00:56 +0000

Rooibush Orange Peppermint is not currently listed on KTeas website, so I imagine this must be a new blend in their lineup. By looking at the tea, I can tell that it consists of rooibos, orange peels, and peppermint. Of course, because I don’t have the ingredients list available to me, I can’t say if there are other ingredients, such as “natural flavors” present. After sampling this tea, the first thing I thought to myself was that I wished I had discovered this little flavor combination earlier. If you are like me, you may have initially found the combination of orange and mint to be rather off-putting, as these are two strong flavors and perhaps not ingredients that would play nice together. Luckily for my sake, my preconceived notion could not be more wrong. The orange and peppermint combine in a most unique way. At the first sip, I thought “Wow, that’s a great orange flavor”. In the next sip, I found myself thinking “Wow, that’s a great mint flavor”. And so went the back-and-forth flavor display for the remainder of my first cup…and second cup…and third cup…and fourth cup, until sadly my entire sample had been consumed. The orange and peppermint each held their own, never really combining into one fused flavor. Rather, each ingredient could be tasted distinctly, with the other ingredient providing a subtle flavor in the background. The rooibos was, for me, the least exciting part of this blend, as it was very mild and easily overpowered by the orange and peppermint flavors. The orange flavor was refreshing and clean, the peppermint flavor invigorating and crisp, and the overall effect was a tea that was downright delicious. Even though this is a caffeine-free blend, the flavors are intense enough that this could work as a morning pick-me-up. Of course, because it is naturally caffeine-free, it is also perfectly suited for dessert and late-night tea drinking. I experimented with adding sugar to my fourth cup of this blend, but really I think the tea is naturally sweet on its own. Add sugar if you must, but you’ll probably find it unnecessary. In all, this was a surprisingly delicious blend and one I will purchase as well as recommend.

Review: Up N’ Atom Chai Organic Green Tea

Vanessa — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:00:24 +0000

Up N’ Atom Chai is a company that is new to me. Their website, www.greatchai.com, provides some information about the products they offer. They offer only four chai blends, but it is clear from the descriptions on the website as well as by examining my sample of their Organic Green Tea chai that their products are high quality. Most of my prior experiences with chai have resulted in me associating the word chai with a black tea blend in which there are specks of spices, including cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. With Up N’ Atom Chai, however, the blend is heavily composed of the spices. In fact, I had a hard time picking out the green tea in my blend because there was such an abundance of large pieces of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom pods, cloves, allspice and black pepper. I always like when a chai blend contains black pepper, as not all of them do. And I am pretty sure this is the first allspice-containing chai blend I have sampled. It is clear from inspecting this blend that this tea is ALL about the spices and whether one ends up loving or hating it, there could be little argument over the fact that high-quality ingredients are used.

Before really examining the Up N’ Atom website, I prepared a cup of this tea using standard brewing parameters. My tea was certainly spicy, enjoyable, and for me, in need of a generous scoop of sugar to soften out the cardamom, which I always find to be rather harsh. The green tea flavor was very delicate and easily overpowerd by the strong spices involved. After drinking that cup, I spent some time at the Up N’ Atom website and read their recommended preparation guidelines, which includes the following statements: “Simmer the spices for the 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it sit over night. The long steep really helps to blend the flavors and gives plenty of time for everything to settle, making it easier to strain in the morning.”.

Really, an overnight infusion? Given that this blend appears to be almost 95% spices and only 5% tea leaves, I couldn’t even imagine how potent this tea could be. So, of course I had to give this alternate brewing approach a shot and left my leaves to steep overnight while visions of black pepper and cardamom pods danced in my head. The next morning, my entire kitchen smelled like chai. The liquid sitting in my saucepan was syrupy-thick and cloudy. The green tea leaves, which were once hard to spot amidst the large chunks of spices, were now clearly displayed as large open leaves on the surface of the brew. I sieved the liquid and took a sip. Whoa. This was some potent stuff. And I mean really potent. I then added a generous helping of milk and sugar, which sadly did very little to tone down the intensity of this brew. As I mentioned before, the ingredients in this tea are clearly top-quality, so it’s just a matter of experimenting to find the proper water-to-tea ratio and adequate brew time to make the tea to your likings. I found the overnight steeping to be way too much for me, but if you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I need a chai blend that, in a pinch, could substitute effectively for smelling salts”, then perhaps you should try the extended steep! Still, my first experience with Up N’ Atom green chai was a positive one, and I would certainly recommend this tea to others.

Review: KTeas Rooibush Apple Streudel

Vanessa — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:00:56 +0000

Rooibush Apple Streudel is an herbal concoction consisting of rooibos (or rooibush, if you insist on saying it that way), apple pieces, chopped almonds, and other natural flavors, Upon examining my sample, I could see small pieces of almond, but really couldn’t see the pieces of apple. The tea’s aroma was primarily nutty, likely resulting from the rooibos itself, as well as the almonds (and perhaps the other natural flavors added, although its hard to say without knowing what those flavors are). After brewing this tea and mulling ot over for some time, I have decided that this tea is not fantastic, but nor is it undrinkable. I guess I would call it decent. My main criticism of this tea was that it failed to deliver the apple flavor that its name suggested it would carry. Even the almond flavor was fairly weak. For the most part, this tea drinks like a naturally nutty rooibos with a tiny smidge of added almond. Again, it’s not that it was bad, but I do think it could have been better. On my second attempt with this tea, I added some sugar, and while this sweetened the tea and seemed to round out the nuttiness, it didn’t help coax out the apple flavor. I also should note that only a little bit of sugar was needed; this tea seems easy to oversweeten so that the essence of the tea itself is lost beneath the over-sugared water. Having reviewed a large number of KTeas blends, I know that KTeas is a great company with some nice teas to offer. I personally don’t find this one to be among their best, but those that like mellow rooibos blends might enjoy this one.

Review: KTeas Lemon Ginger Snap

Vanessa — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:00:18 +0000

Lemon Ginger Snap is an herbal-green tea blend offered by K Teas. At the time of writing this review, the tea is not listed on their website, so I suspect this one is new to their tea line-up. The blend appears to consist of lemongrass, small pieces of ginger, green tea and perhaps some lemon myrtle. The lemongrass appears to be the most abundant ingredient, followed by the ginger. The scent of this tea is dominated by a very authentic and potent ginger component. I really couldn’t get much of a lemon component in the fragrance of the dried blend. Because the amount of green tea leaves in the blend was fairly insignificant when compared to the herbal ingredients, I prepared this tea using hotter (but not quite boiling) water than I normally would use on green tea. The tea brewed to a somewhat opaque copper color that gave off a sinus-clearing ginger aroma. The flavor of this tea is strong, spicy, and dominated by ginger. The lemon flavor from the lemongrass and lemon myrtle was also present, but certainly not as potent or noticeable as the ginger. The lemon-ginger combination did had a medicinal quality, but I still found the tea to be tasty. I found that adding a teaspoon of sugar was needed to smooth out the ginger flavor, which could otherwise be perceived by some as being too intense and too coarse. The green tea really seemed to be an insignificant part of this blend. I couldn’t taste it because the ginger and lemon flavors dominated and are far more potent than any green tea flavor. I would characterize this much more as an herbal blend rather than a green tea blend. It would be interesting to try a variation of this blend without the green tea to see if the green tea does actually influence the final flavor. In all, this is a hot-and-spicy blend that is sure to satisfy any ginger craving. If you are not absolutely head-over-heels about ginger, you may find this one a bit too potent.

Review: The Necessiteas Strawberry Shortcake

Vanessa — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:00:52 +0000

The Necessiteas website describes their Strawberry Shortcake tea as “a blend of white tea, angel food cake and bavarian cream flavors topped off with sliced strawberries”. To me that sounded both delicious and intriguing, particularly because I love angel food cake, although I don’t quite know what exactly gives angel food cake its characteristic flavor. I prepared my first cup as an iced tea, then an immediate second cup as a hot tea. I can’t write much about the iced tea version except that it is highly recommended. The reason I can’t write much about the iced tea is that it was just so tasty that I near about guzzled it down in record timing without giving it proper consideration for review. With the hot tea version, I took more time to explore the flavor profile. While the strawberry is the lead player in this blend, it is not overpowering, and there really is a well-developed cake-like flavor in the blend. I have had strawberry-flavored white tea before, but the Necessiteas’ Strawberry Shortcake takes it up a few steps with the addition of the well-done dessert cake flavors. The white tea base is a gentle and subtle version of a white tea that accepts the fruit and cake flavors well. The end result is an amazingly refreshing brew. The strawberry flavor sweetens the blend, so I didn’t even consider having to add sugar to the tea. This tea is entirely delicious, and something I do plan to purchase for myself. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a new flavored blend, particularly for anyone looking for a new iced tea. In all, this was a big hit for me.

Review: KTeas Orange Spice Black Tea

Vanessa — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:00:39 +0000

When I tap way back into my memory, I think a cinnamon-orange tea, perhaps by Celestial Seasonings or Bigelow, was one of the first flavored teas I really fell in love with. Over the years, it’s a flavor combination I return to, and so of course I was more than open to reviewing K Teas’ Orange Spice Black Tea. At the time of writing this review, K Teas does not have this tea listed on their online store, so I assume that this must be a newer blend that will soon be unveiled on their website. Because it is not listed, I can’t know for sure what the ingredients are, but taking advantage of my trusty senses, I am betting that the ingredients list reads: black tea, orange peel, cinnamon. The cinnamon aroma is sweet and inviting, reminding me a bit of the spicy fragrances of holiday gift shops. I brewed this tea in boiling water for three minutes and was rather pleased with the results. The tea’s flavor is strong, but not too potent, and both the orange and cinnamon play nicely together. Because the cinnamon fragrance was rather sweet, I expected the flavor of this tea to be naturally sweet on its own as well. However, I found that adding a packet of sugar was needed to smooth out the cinnamon flavor. This is a comforting tea that I see best being consumed during winter months and rainy days. If you are interested in preparing this as a hot tea, I would recommend experimenting with a reduced volume of leaves and/or a shorter infusion time in order to achieve a more lightly flavored brew. Bottom line: this is a really tasty tea with just enough orange and spice to satisfy the taste buds.