Oteas’s Black Tea with Turmeric

Black Tea with Turmeric by Oteas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.49 for 33.75g (15 sachets)

Oteas has provided me with Black Tea with Turmeric for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

This is my first time getting to experience the new plastic-free packaging from Oteas. I noticed that the box is a bit shorter than the previous boxes, and doesn’t have plastic shrink wrap over the box. The cardstock box is recyclable, the inner liner and the tea sachets are all made from plant-based materials and are compostable in home composts – so nothing fancy is required! I think that’s really neat and shows a huge commitment to being environmentally friendly by using green-friendly materials.

Now onto the tea itself – it does come portioned out into tea sachets with a string and tag, I did open it up to get a better look at the tea itself. Black Tea with Turmeric contains just two ingredients: black tea and turmeric powder. Both ingredients are very visible in the tea itself. I mostly smell the turmeric, I can’t really smell the black tea base because the turmeric is such a strong ingredient.

Side note about turmeric – if you often use a plastic gravity tea infuser or steep in anything made of plastic, turmeric will stain it yellow. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it – it will stain. So to get away from that, steep in something ceramic or use a stainless steel infuser – much easier to clean and keep your teaware stain-free!

Preparation

Oteas recommends steeping Black Tea with Turmeric using 100°C (212°F) water for 5 to 6 minutes. I opted to do an initial step for 6 minutes at the recommended temperature.

First Taste

Black Tea with Turmeric steeps to a deep reddish orange – not nearly as yellow as one might expect, but I think the black tea base as a lot to do with that. I can definitely smell the turmeric. There’s a nice smoothness to the tea, with a strong turmeric flavour that gives it a bit of tang and mouthfeel that lends itself to a pucker. No astringency or bitterness noted, I did find that there was a nice malty flavour from the black tea base, which does shine through the strong turmeric flavour.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Black Tea with Turmeric. I found that it didn’t resteep very well as the turmeric wasn’t as strong. So if you’re a fan of the turmeric, stick to the initial steep (6 minutes over 5 minutes, for sure!). If you’re a fan of a black tea with milder turmeric flavours, keep resteeping!

My Overall Impression

I liked Oteas’s Black Tea with Turmeric. I love the environmentally friendly recyclable and compostable packaging, I think it’s a great direction for any company in this day and age to go, especially for something that is single use. The initial steep of Black Tea with Turmeric was definitely a favourite over the resteep, because the turmeric is just that much more strong and enjoyable – so it really depends on what you like in your tea (I really wished that the turmeric had more of a presence in the second steep!).

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