Author: Michelle

Posted on

Annie’s Tea Treat’s Miss Autumn Black Tea

Miss Autumn Black Tea by Annie’s Tea Treat
Black Tea / Straight
$15.50USD for 50g

Annie’s Tea Treat has provided me with Miss Autumn Black Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Miss Autumn Black Tea came to me in a resealable black foil pouch. Not a whole lot of information is on the packaging, but that was easily remedied by going onto the Annie’s Tea Treat website (and with a little help from Google Translate). The tea itself consists of some beautiful large, wiry leaves.

The aroma of this black tea is a mix of plums and floral notes. These leaves were grown at a high altitude, in Nantou County of Taiwan. Miss Autumn Black Tea is a straight black tea. The aroma of the dry leaf is quite inviting because of the fruity notes.

Preparation

Annie’s Tea Treat recommends steeping Miss Autumn Black Tea in 100°C (212°F) water for 3-4 minutes. My initial step of Miss Autumn Black Tea was for 3 minutes with 5 teaspoons of leaves.

First Taste

Miss Autumn Black Tea steeps to a dark golden orange, with a really fruity aroma to it. I mostly smell plums and some apple notes, with a hint of flowery goodness in the background. The taste of this straight black tea is more complex than I anticipated. I get hints of plum, apple, and floral notes, as well as a honey sweetness that just plays very well with all of the flavours that I’m getting from this tea. I find that the honey notes linger at the end of each sip, which balances well with the initial burst of plum notes.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Miss Autumn Black Tea four times, adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that as I continued to steep these black tea leaves, the flavour became less sweet and more floral. The apple and plum notes stayed pretty consistent while the honey and floral flavours became to shift. Overall, the tea had a nice flavour balance to it and was tasty throughout.

Due to the natural sweetness in the leaves, I didn’t find that the tea require any sweetener. That said, it is a black tea so I think it would take to the addition of sweetener quite easily.

My Overall Impression

I loved Annie’s Tea Treat’s Miss Autumn Black Tea. I really enjoyed this tea from dry leaf to resteeping. The flavour profile was well balanced between fruity, floral, and honey notes. I think this is a great tea to try straight, so you can experience the subtle changes in flavour with each steep. I really enjoyed the plum and honey notes the most with each steep.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

Posted on

Health Benefits of Tea

I was a mess last week with being sick.

I had a fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat and was terribly lethargic to the point where the only thing I did in the first 24 hours after getting home after my fifth 12 hour shift in a row was sleep. I woke up briefly from time to time only to sleep again. I didn’t eat anything for over 24 hours, and I barely drank anything because I was so fatigued. I did, however, manage to drink water and tea. The combination of Tylenol Cold & Sinus, my fever finally breaking at 5am, and tea were the hallmarks of an extended long weekend – along with binge watching Netflix’s You (which I highly recommend watching while slightly delirious with a fever because it makes all of Dan Humphrey’s Joe’s stalker antics hilarious instead of creepy).

Obviously I’m feeling a little bit better now as I’m able to put together sentences coherently.

The thing that I did think about when I was awake and taking in a psychological thriller is that I haven’t written about the health benefits of tea here. Now, I know we all know that tea tastes great. Of course it does, because why would we continue to grow it, produce it, lovingly store it, and drink tea if it didn’t taste great. I think I can safely say we would all drink something else if tea was disgusting (which is it not).

Tea, green tea in particular, contains polyphenols. Polyphenols are antioxidants, which helps to neutralize oxidants (high levels of oxidants in the blood are generally considered bad, they can cause blood vessel damage and contribute to cardiovascular disease). You’ve probably heard about antioxidants in the media in the last few years in reference to “superfoods” – blueberries, acai berries, and dark chocolate are all high in antioxidants, although I don’t know anyone but me who refers to chocolate as a superfood. Polyphenols can also help with regulating blood sugar, so if you’re someone who is predisposed to developing diabetes this can be a good thing.¹

Drinking tea has also been associated with decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease – heart disease and stroke in particular, and also by improving blood cholesterol levels.¹ I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that tea drinkers often try to have a healthier lifestyle – either by eating well or exercising. People who drink tea are often more hydrated than those who drink coffee because tea generally contains left caffeine in comparison.² For those who do not know, caffeine is a diuretic which means that it will make you lose water – but taking in more water and less caffeine as it is in tea vs. coffee means that tea drinkers are more hydrated. This also result in better weight management because you’re taking in a drink that is high in water, lower in caffeine, and with no calories (unless you’re having a tea latte).

So while you may not get that jolt of caffeine in the morning like a cup of joe might do for you, tea can be a healthy drink choice. Whatever tea you’re looking to drink – the healthiest choice is a straight tea with no added sugars. Keep it calorie free, keep yourself hydrated while lowering your risk of heart disease and stroke. But at the same time, life is all about moderation – it isn’t to say that I’m not going to have a London Fog from time to time (because that would be a lie, I love London Fogs), but it isn’t an every day sort of drink because it’s an indulgence (and a tasty one at that!).

¹ https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/tea-a-cup-of-good-health
² https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nbu.12150

Posted on

Tea Experience: Tracycakes Bakery Cafe

Tracycakes Bakery Cafe
Murrayville, Langley, BC
Signature High Tea – $25 each

I recently had the opportunity to have the Signature High Tea at Tracycakes Bakery Cafe, located in Murrayville, Langley. There is also another location of Tracycakes, which is located in Abbotsford, BC. Tracycakes is located in a quaint little building at 5 corners, which is a 5-way intersection with a roundabout in Langley, BC. The intersection is historic, with some of the buildings lovingly kept up for over 130 years.

Inside of Tracycakes, there’s cute table settings on each of the marble topped tables, with chalk artwork throughout. Copies of newsarticles about Tracycakes adorn the walls, with a long, comfy benchseat along one wall. There’s meal options, along with the Signature High Tea, on the menu – and you can also order food to-go. The dishes for our table settings were white and stood out nicely against the white and grey marble table top.

My friend and I both ordered the Signature High Tea, which came with a top of tea for each of us – she had the Cream of Earl Grey while I had the Earl Grey Lavender. Both of which are black teas and quite traditional for afternoon tea. There was also sugar bowls on the table with silver tongs, and a miniature pitcher of milk. The lavender aroma from the Earl Grey Lavender stood out quite nicely.

And then there was the food! There were two tiers -sandwiches and savouries on the bottom with the pastries and sweets on the top.

For the sandwiches, we each received a quarter-sandwich of egg salad, cucumber, tomato & basil, and turkey & cranberry. What I found interesting was that the egg salad had white bread on one side and whole wheat on the other, although it didn’t really affect the taste too much. My favourite of the four sandwich offerings was the tomato and basil because the basil was just so flavourful.

With the savouries was also a savoury palmier, which consisted of basil and cheese. This was really nice, had a nice crisp to it with a nice salty quality to it, thanks to the cheese.

And now… the sweets! Starting with the confectioner sugar dusted scone, the scone was loaded with poppyseed and cranberry. The cranberries themselves were a touch tart, but it balanced well with the sweetness of the confectioners sugar. To pair with the scone, Tracycakes included devonshire cream, raspberry jam, and lemon curd. I opted to pair my scone with devonshire cream and raspberry jam since I decided the lemon curd may be a bit much with the cranberries in the scone.

We each got a brownie square, which I found to be very sweet with the icing on top. For someone who loves sugar, I was just not feeling it that morning. There was also a variety of cupcakes. One of them was vanilla and coconut, while another was vanilla and lavender. My friend had the lavender cupcake but said she couldn’t really taste the lavender. I found the coconut one to be very rich in flavour for both the frosting and the cake itself, it was really tasty and I would go back for a cupcake.

There was a small triangle cookie, which I believe to have been a sugar cookie. Also had icing on top, very sweet – but had a great buttery flavour to it and was flakey, so I definitely enjoyed that cookie and it was one of my favourites of the sweets tier.

Throughout both tiers, we had some fresh fruit (primarily sliced strawberries, with a couple of blueberries), which was nice considering it can be hard to find nice fresh fruit with the current season. I really liked Tracycakes’ creative use of egg cups as containers to hold the lemon curd and one of the cupcakes, it just really added another level of whimsy to it.

Tracycakes wasn’t too busy when my friend and I first arrived, but the cafe was quite bustling with activity by the time we had left – with plenty of reserved signs on tables for people wanting their own high tea on a Wednesday. I really enjoyed the variety in food that was offered with the Signature High Tea, and found that the flavours were overall enjoyable. I really did like my tea selection (Earl Grey Lavender), and found that it worked well with a little bit of sugar and milk – although the lavender flavour and aroma was quite strong without any additives as well. For the price, I definitely think that Tracycakes puts on a good Signature High Tea and would go again. It seemed like quite a child-friendly location – there were a few tables that had babies and young children – so it’s an option for those who maybe don’t want to take their kids to a location with a lot of vintage tea cups everywhere.