The Key of Tea’s ImmuniTea

ImmuniTea by The Key of Tea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$8.00USD for 2oz

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The Key of Tea has provided me with ImmuniTea for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

ImmuniTea has an excellent punny name and the Key of Tea’s website states that this blend is of immune-boosting herbs. ImmunitTea consists of: elderberry, rosehips, peppermint, lavender, sage, hibiscus, ginger root, and echinacea. The ingredient that really stands out the most to me when smell the dry herbal blend is the ginger. Ginger in general can be a pretty strong ingredient, so I’m not surprised that it overpowers the other ingredients before it’s been steeped. It’s a very pretty blend though, I love how I can see the individual ingredients in the blend.

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A word of advice, some herbs can interact with prescription medications so it’s always a good idea to talk to your physicians/pharmacists and let them know that you’ll be taking any herbal supplements. Here is an image of the retail packaging, provided by The of Key of Tea:

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Preparation

The Key of Tea’s website didn’t have any preparation recommendations for ImmuniTea, I used boiling water (100°C/212°F) and steeped it for 5 minutes.

First Taste

ImmuniTea steeps to a very pretty reddish-orange. I love the smell of it as I poured it into my tea cup – the smell of ginger, lavender, and peppermint wafts up to me and it just puts me into a really good mood! There’s just something about it that smell delicious and inviting. On first sip, I note that ImmuniTea has a light sweetness. There’s a strong ginger flavour, with a freshness at the end of each sip. I found that the combination of ingredients makes for a nice warming sensation.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped ImmuniTea twice with an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found the first resteep was a bit milder than the first, and the second resteep wasn’t as good. I think that ImmuniTea is good for a total of two steeps.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved The Key of Tea’s ImmuniTea. The warming sensation was a delight, thanks to the ginger. I loved the freshness at the end of each sip, that I attribute to the peppermint. The sweetness of this herbal blend adds a little extra something to it, and makes it a tasty delight. It’s a good blend of herbal ingredients and I do enjoy a good herbal tea from time to time because the lack of caffeine means I can drink it at 9pm and not feel energized all night long. The ginger is the strongest ingredient in the dry leaf and steeped tea, and it’s just so good and works well as a pick-me-up.

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The Key of Tea’s Tummy Love

Tummy Love by The Key of Tea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$7.50USD for 2oz

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The Key of Tea has provided me with Tummy Love for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

The Key of Tea describes Tummy Love on their website as being a “warming blend of herbs and spices to aid in digestion” and looking at the list of ingredients I can see why that might be the case! Tummy Love is an herbal blend that consists of lemon balm, cinnamon, lemon peel, ginger root, fennel, and dandelion. When I opened the sample bag, I can definitely smell the lemon, ginger, and cinnamon. I can’t really make out the fennel or dandelion in the aroma of the dry leaf, but I can see them and I’m not surprised that I can’t smell them with the strong fragrances of the other ingredients. It looks lovely though, and I can see the different ingredients which is quite nice.

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Claire of The Key of Tea provided a photograph of the retail packaging for Tummy Love:

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Preparation

There weren’t any steeping instructions on the website or packaging, but Claire of The Key of Tea recommended steeping the tea at minimum 5 minutes. I steeped Tummy Love in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 5 minutes for the initial steep.

First Taste

Tummy Love steeps to a really nice yellow colour, it reminds me of sunshine in a cup and it’s just very cheerful. The herbal blend has a strong lemon and ginger aroma to it after it’s steeped, it smells quite inviting. On first sip, I’m surprised that the lemon isn’t as strong as I had expected. The ginger flavour is the strongest out of all of the ingredients and it’s the first thing that I notice when I drink it. I love the strength of the ginger, it has a great warming quality about it that I appreciate from ginger.

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I did add some honey to the tea to see how it would do when sweetened. I found that Tummy Love did great with the honey – the ginger was more toned down, and it tasted like candied ginger, and the other ingredients were able to come out when the ginger was toned down so I could taste the lemon and cinnamon.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Tummy Love a total of three times – I found that the first two resteeps were quite good and had great flavour, the herbal blend was tapped out of flavour by the third resteep, so I would say that Tummy Love is good for two resteeps. With my usual steeping pattern, I added an extra 30 seconds per additional steep.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved The Key of Tea’s Tummy Love. I found that the herbal blend smells delicious, and I really liked the ginger flavour. I found it did great with the addition of sweetener, and the honey did help to temper the ginger and let the other flavours shine through. That sad, Tummy Love is great without sweetener and has a really nice, strong ginger flavour.

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The Key of Tea’s Signature Chai

Signature Chai by The Key of Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.50USD for 2oz

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The Key of Tea has provided me with Signature Chai for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I was contacted by Claire, the owner of The Key of Tea, wondering if I’d be interested in trying out some organic hand crafted tea blends and the answer was (and is always) yes. This is the first of three reviews of teas from The Key of Tea, I received samples of each one. My tea samples arrived in sealed plastic bags, this is not the same as the commercial packaging used by The Key of Tea, but Claire was nice enough to include a photo of her retail packaging for me to share:

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Signature Chai is a black tea blend that has a very strong ginger, cinnamon, peppermint and peppercorn aromas in the dry leaf. It smells delicious and has the right level of spices in the dry leaf that I would expect for any kind of chai. Signature Chai consists of: black tea, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, peppermint, cloves, peppercorn, cardamom, and coriander.

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Preparation

There weren’t any preparation recommendations on the sample or on the website, I used my trusty Breville IQ Kettle‘s black tea setting (100°C/212°F) and steeped Signature Chai for an initial steep of 4 minutes.

First Taste

Signature Chai steeps to a nice medium orange colour, there’s very strong smells of cinnamon and ginger that just waft up from my tea cup. It’s a very inviting smell. On first taste of Signature Chai, I can definitely taste the cinnamon and the ginger in the tea blend – both ingredients have great warming qualities and I like that about them. There’s a rather light freshness in each sip of tea, which I attribute to the peppermint even though I can’t really taste anything overly minty in this tea. The freshness is a welcome counterbalance to the warming qualities of the ginger and cinnamon in the blend. Unfortunately, while I could smell the peppercorn in the dry leaf of this Signature Chai, I find that I can’t really taste the peppercorn – perhaps it would come across more in the tea’s flavours if they had been crushed or ground prior to being put into the mix. There’s a gingery aftertaste to this blend that is surprising, as it did help me to open up the sinuses a bit as it was a bit strong (but not off-putting in the slightest).

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Signature Chai an additional two times, adding 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the flavours noted in the initial steep hold up well throughout all of the steeps. This tea does do well with the addition of sugar and milk, so don’t hesitate to mix it up a little bit and make to your liking.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked The Key of Tea’s Signature Chai. The warming qualities of the ginger and cinnamon are great, and I really like the addition of peppermint in a chai blend – I don’t think I’ve ever had that before and it’s actually quite refreshing. I do wish that the peppercorns came across more in the steeped tea, I think it would be a very different flavour if they had been crushed or ground instead of being whole peppercorns (although it is prettier to look at when they’re whole). Overall, Signature Chai is delicious and I think it has a good balance of flavours, I just wish that the peppercorns were present in the flavour profile of the steeped tea.

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