Author: Michelle

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Oteas’s Organic Darjeeling

Organic Darjeeling by Oteas
Black Tea / Straight
$6.95 for 30g (12 sachets)

Oteas has provided me with Organic Darjeeling for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Oteas’s Organic Darjeeling came in what is now a very familiar cardstock box. Inside was the tea bags inside of a plastic bag for all that freshness. The tea sachets are biodegradable, which is always a feature I like to point out because being environmentally friendly is a good thing.

Darjeeling has an interesting aroma – I find it to be a mix of earthy and nutty notes that is inviting. There’s a nice mix of shade of browns with hints of green in the tea leaves, along with some reddish browns. It’s amazing how many different colours can be found in a single tea.

Preparation

Oteas recommends steeping Organic Darjeeling in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 to 5 minutes. My initial steep of this black tea was for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Organic Darjeeling steeps to a golden reddish orange. The aroma of the tea is a lighter earthy fragrance compared to the dry leaf. There’s some roasted nutty notes in the flavour of the tea, and I found it to be mildly astringent when the tea’s been steeped for four minutes. It made for a pleasant cup of tea. If you’re not fond of astringency in your tea, I would add a bit of cream or milk to help temper the tea. As a black tea, it would take sweetener well also.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Organic Darjeeling twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each steep. Look at how much those leaves opened up! I found that the flavour stayed pretty consistent throughout, with the astringency lessening with each steep – which made it increasingly pleasant.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oteas’s Organic Darjeeling. I love the flavour of Organic Darjeeling has and how it’s reflected in the aroma of the dry leaf. Bonus points for the astringency not being too strong and lessening with each steep – a quality that is easily fixed if you’re not a fan of the astringency. But I enjoyed the roasted nutty flavours throughout, it makes for a nice savoury cup of tea that’s a nice option for afternoon tea.

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DavidsTea’s Zomba Pearls

Zomba Pearls by DavidsTea
White Tea / Straight
$19.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I’m a sucker for rolled teas because I always find them that much more impressive than other teas – I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there’s a lot more care and consideration put into the teas during the processing of the leaves. Zomba Pearls is one of those teas that didn’t hesitate to impress me. I ordered Zomba Pearls online from the DavidsTea website (the tea, at the time of writing, is part of their current sale!). Zomba Pearls comes in a sealed, resealable foil pouch that has a seafoam green label that has the information regarding the tea on one side.

Zomba Pearls comes in large, almost oval-shaped pearls – no round pearls here! The dry leaf has a light vegetal and grassy notes to it. The leaf detail is lovely, and the pearls are tightly wound together. I noticed that there was a beautiful variation in the colour of the leaves that I could see, raging from green to brown to almost black.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Zomba Pearls in hot water for 4 to 7 minutes, according to the product label. As per the product page, that would be 90°C (195°F) for 3 to 5 minutes – a bit inconsistent. I opted to use the white tea temperature setting on my Breville IQ Kettle (85°C/185°F) for 4 minutes, and I used 4 pearls in a 600ml teapot.

First Taste

Zomba Pearls steeps to a light golden yellow colour. There’s a warm vegetal aroma from the cup. I found that Zomba Pearls has a light sweetness to it, there’s a buttery/creamy quality to both the texture and flavour of the tea. I didn’t find the flavour to be too grassy, despite smelling that it the dry leaf. Zomba Pearls has a pleasant, smooth mouthfeel to it and the lack of bitterness or astringency makes for a pleasant cup of tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Zomba Pearls a total of seven times (eight steeps total with the same leaves). I opted to keep using the white tea temperature setting on my variable temperature kettle, and I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavours deepened for the first three resteeps from the initial steep and got a bit more floral with each steep, and then the tea began to slowly lose flavour after that. There was still a considerable amount of creamy flavour by the last steep, so I do think that I could have just continued.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Zomba Pearls. I was just really impressed with this tea from my first impression of the dry leaf, to the flavour of the first cup, and all those many cups after that. While this tea may be on the pricier side (and you can get it on sale right now!), I found that there’s that much more value in the leaves that you can find with the additional steepings of the same leaves to just get all of that flavour out of there. I only used 4 pearls and got eight steeps out of those pearls, so it steeps pretty darn well and tastes good too!

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Naked Teas Galore’s Matcha Latte

Organic Matcha Latte by Naked Teas Galore
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$3.25 for 25g sampler or $14.95 for 227g

First Impressions

Organic Matcha Latte was a little packet I picked up when I was at the Naked Teas Galore retail location in Langley, BC some time ago. I really appreciated that their flavoured matcha selection was available in both sample packets as well as much larger bags (25g vs 227g!). I opted for a few 25g packets so I could get a couple cups to try before committing to a larger bag or tin. Organic Matcha Latte comes in a sealed, resealable foiled bag. The front label tells me the name and ingredients, the back provides preparation instructions.

Organic Matcha Latte isn’t as green as I expected, nor bright. The colour reminds me of a shade of green I might find in some moss or something like that. There is a considerable amount of cane sugar granules, so I really wasn’t able to sift the powder when preparing it. Organic Matcha Latte consists of: organic cane sugar, organic matcha, and citric acid. The powder blend smells a bit sweet, I can’t really smell the matcha.

Preparation

Naked Teas Galore provides preparation instructions for making this either hot or cold. For hot, it’s mix with a hot milk of your choice. For cold, it’s to add the powder blend to a shaker cup, and then add ice and milk. I didn’t sift the powder, because the cane sugar granules are so large, and I mixed this with heated unsweetened organic soy milk directly in the cup.

First Taste

Organic Matcha Latte doesn’t really colour the soy milk too much – soy milk is naturally a bit of a cream colour, and the Organic Matcha Latte just gives it a slightly dull green colour. Organic Matcha Latte does taste sweet – I can taste all that cane sugar! I found that the matcha flavour was very mild – I didn’t note any grassy or umami flavour notes in the profile of the drink, with just a hint of matcha flavour at the tail end of each sip.

A Second Cup?

As always, matcha cannot be ‘resteeped’ because you drink everything all up.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Naked Teas Galore’s Organic Matcha Latte. I think this blend was just disappointing to me from the get-go. From the lack of green in the powder, to the colour of the drink after mixing it – it just wasn’t what I was expecting it to smell, look, or taste like because it lacked the flavour profile of matcha for me.

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