Author: Michelle

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Woash Wellness’s Think

Think by Woash Wellness
Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$12.50 for 40g

First Impressions

The thing that drew me to Think when I was looking at Woash Wellness’s offerings at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival was the fact that it had an obvious oolong base – and even before looking at the ingredients list, I could smell that it was a milk oolong. In my previous experiences with milk oolong, it’s often creamy, has a light sweetness, and some lovely long-lasting floral notes that are just buttery and good. Think is said to “help to improve mental performance and alertness, while increasing memory retention and lower stress levels”. I think we could all do with a little bit of that in of our lives!

The dry leaf of Think smells primarily of milk oolong – there’s that pleasant, floral and dairy aroma of the oolong base, and I can also smell the lemongrass and potentially the lemon verbana as I can smell a bit of a lemon/citrus in the background. Think consists of: milk oolong, lemongrass, rosehips, lemon verbana, and gingko.

Preparation

Woash Wellness recommends steeping Think in 195°F (90°C) water for 3 to 4 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions for my initial steep of Think and steeped for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Think steeps to a bright golden yellow. The aroma from this oolong blend is primarily creamy, buttery notes for me. I find that there’s a light hint of citrus in the background that I’m attributing to the lemongrass and lemon verbana. It adds a nice brightness to the fragrance. On first taste, I can definitely taste the oolong base – creamy, buttery – everything that I enjoy in a milk oolong. The lemongrass and lemon verbana really offer a burst of citrus that is almost invigorating for the senses. If you’ve ever eaten citrus early in the morning and gotten that burst of energy just from that bright flavour, you may understand what I’m trying to convey here. I do taste the other ingredients, but not enough to be able to pick each one out individually – although it does add for another layer of complexity to Think. There’s a nice sweetness to this oolong blend that balances well with the buttery flavours of the milk oolong.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Think three times, adding an extra 30 seconds to the steep time in each subsequent steep. I found in the first resteep that the colour of ht tea was even a brighter yellow, if that’s even possible. The flavour was undoubtedly more buttery, and the texture of the tea had a thicker mouthfeel to it. The flavour and colour became consistently lighter after that, but the balance between the butter flavours and citrus notes remain well balanced throughout each steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Woash Wellness’s Think. I think that the milk oolong is cleverly balanced against the citrus/lemon notes from the lemongrass and lemon verbana. It has a great burst of flavour, with all the pleasant textures that I enjoy in milk oolong. What Woash Wellness was striving for – a tea to help with mental alertness – was a goal that was met in my opinion, especially with those citrus flavours that really wake you up. It’s a very pleasant take on a milk oolong blend that I haven’t experienced before and really enjoyed.

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DIY: Green Tea Sheet Mask

Sheet masks are one of my favourite aspects of self-care. I didn’t always pay too much attention to my skin beyond washing it and not leaving make-up on before bedtime. However, the last few holiday seasons a certain someone (*cough*mom*cough*) gave me skin care products because apparently I’m not getting any younger… One of the things that I’ve really grown to love is using sheet masks because they really force me to actually stop and relax for a bit since if you move too much, the darn things fall off, and they just feel really good.

Korean sheet masks, or sheet masks from other countries of origin, are all very trendy right now – and they can also be quite expensive. A quick look at the price tags at my local drug store showed me prices anywhere from $2.99 to $14.99 (and no, the one that is $15 doesn’t come with a cup of tea). I buy mine from a local Asian supermarket where I get them for $1 each (or less, depending on if there’s a sale or not). That said, I know there’s a better (frugal) way of doing it, so I did a little bit of research to figure out what I’d need to make my own.

I am not a skin care expert, but I do know that what works for one person’s skin might not work for someone else! So take care in trying this out, but hopefully it works for you!

You will need:

1 sheet mask
¼ cup steeped green tea, cooled to room temperature
½ tsp glycerin
1 vitamin E oil capsule

Soak the mask in the green tea until it’s fully saturated. If you’re using a compressed sheet mask like I am, it’ll open up in the tea as it gets saturated.

Move the mask into a bowl (or plate), add the glycerin and the contents of the vitamin E capsule. You can pierce open vitamin E capsules with a pin and then squeeze out the contents. Mix it around – you can use your fingers for this part!

Apply sheet mask to your (clean) face. Leave on for about 30 minutes. After removing the sheet mask, I usually rub in the remaining sheet mask mixture into my skin.

Curious about the purpose of each ingredient?

Glycerin is a humectant, which means that it helps to moisturize the skin by drawing in moisture.

Green tea can help decrease inflammation and clear clogged pores, plus it’ll smell good!

Vitamin E is an antioxidant, it helps to moisturize the skin and help reduce UV damage.

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Trudy Ann’s Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai

Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai by Trudy Ann’s
Black Tea / Flavoured
$21.95 for 60g (40 cups)

First Impressions

I first got to try Trudy Ann’s Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival. It was one of the teas on sample and just oh-so-good. I kept going back to the booth to sample some more before I finally broke down and bought some. Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai comes in a kraft paper pouch that is plastic lined and resealable. When I opened up the packaging, I did wind up giving it a little bit of a shake to redistribute the ingredients, I did have it sitting for a little bit after November so some of the smaller ingredients did settle a bit. If you ever run into that issue with any of your tea blends, I recommend closing it back up and then just giving it a few gentle shakes. This helps to redistribute the ingredients and results in tea that tastes a lot closer to what the company intended!

The aroma of cardamom, tumeric, and ginger are the strongest in the dry leaf of this tea – the ingredients are well represented and easily identifiable. Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai consists of organic: black tea, saffron, cardamom, tumeric, and ginger.

Preparation

Trudy Ann’s gives multiple directions of steeping – ranging from steeping in a cup, stove top, or iced. I opted to follow the instructions for a cup, which was to steep in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and then strain out the tea leaves. I opted to use 100°C (212°F) water and steeped for 7 minutes.

For the iced chai instructions, it is to steep 1tsp of tea in ½ cup of hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and then add a ½ cup of ice cubes and then pour the whole thing over vanilla ice cream. This sounds like a most excellent idea for the summer time!

First Taste

Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai steeps to a beautiful deep red with a bit of a yellow glow to it. The aroma is primarily that of the cardamon and tumeric, with a hint of the ginger in the background. The flavour of the tea is sweet, I can taste the cardamom, ginger and tumeric with just a hint of the saffron in the background. Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai has a surprisingly thick mouthfeel to it, it’s very pleasant and I found it to be quite smooth.

I honestly think this would be so good as a tea latte, it’d be a pleasant mix of golden milk (tumeric + milk) and a chai latte.

A Second Cup?

The packaging of Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai includes instructions for a second steep, which is to steep for 10 to 15 minutes. I opted to steep for 12 minutes and found that the resteep was very tasty. It lacked that thick mouthfeel that I found in the initial steep, but the flavour profile was still very similar to the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Trudy Ann’s Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai. I found the balance of flavour between the cardamom, ginger, and tumeric to be so well balanced, it made for just such an enjoyable cup of tea. The hint of saffron, which played quite nicely with the heavier flavours of the spices, just made this tea feel a little bit luxurious to smell, steep, and drink. And for anyone who’s frowning heavily at the cost of a bag, which I honestly did when I first thought about buying it until I realized I drank a dozen small cups worth of samples – it works out to be $0.55/cup which is so much cheaper than a tea to go at a local coffee shop and with more expensive & delicious ingredients!

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