Author: Michelle

Posted on

Clearview Tea Co’s Crème de Menthe

Crème de Menthe by Clearview Tea Co
Black Tea / Flavoured
$9.00 for 40g

Clearview Tea Co’s Crème de Menthe came to me as part of The Sugared Teacup’s December themed subscription box.

First Impressions

I have such a love for mint and black tea blends, it’s almost embarrassing (except it’s really not). I was so in love with basically everything that I got in my December tea box (and yes, I am still sad about the end of The Sugared Teacup – so if you have any recommendations for tea subscription boxes send me an email!), and getting a peppermint black tea was basically the best thing ever. Crème de Menthe came in a foil pouch that has a clear plastic back to it – the packaging is resealable, which is one of the best features to have in tea packaging. The leaves are visible and the labelling is clear regarding ingredients, temperature, and steep time (although I do think the font size could be bigger – I found it small and I already wear glasses!).

There’s a very strong peppermint aroma to the dry leaf, and I do pick up a bit of vanilla undertones to this black tea blend. The black tea isn’t very prominent in the aroma of the dry leaf. Crème de Menthe consists of: organic black tea, organic peppermint, organic vanilla, and natural flavour.

Preparation

Clearview Tea Co recommends steeping Crème de Menthe in 190-205°F (88-97°C) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted to steep at 200°F (95°C) water for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Crème de Menthe steeps to a beautiful golden red colour, and has a strong peppermint aroma. The flavour of tea itself has a much more mild peppermint flavour in comparison to the dry leaf, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The peppermint is mild and this couples nicely with a creamy vanilla flavour and I can taste the black tea base – it has a nice flavour to it that reminds me of a robust breakfast tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Crème de Menthe twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that it resteeped pretty well for the first resteep, but the flavours were quite muted for the second resteep. I would say that Crème de Menthe is good for just one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Clearview Tea Co’s Crème de Menthe. As previously mentioned, I love peppermint black tea blends, so it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise that I really enjoyed this blend from Clearview! I think that the addition of vanilla was smart because it does add a different flavour to the blend that results in a pleasant creaminess. I think this tea would do very well as part of an afternoon tea (black teas often take well to cream and sugar), and it would also pair well with desserts – thanks to those vanilla notes.

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

Posted on

kyth + kyn’s Cure

Cure by kyth + kyn
Herbal Infusion / Straight
$11.99 for Mini (makes 10 cups)

First Impressions

Cure is described by kyth + kyn has a blend to help with all your #yolo life decisions, in relation to drinking, and it made me laugh when I first heard it (and after tasting it, I really wanted to buy it). If you saw my previous review of kyth + kyn’s Glow, the packaging is fairly similar. Cure comes in a kraft paper pouch that’s resealable, has as plastic liner inside to help keep all the ingredients dry and keeps everything from getting stale.

The first ingredient that I really smelled when I opened the pouch was the ginger. I found that it was quite strong, and I could also smell something else that was almost spicy that was not the ginger, but I’m not familiar enough with the other ingredients to really know what it is… It smells good though, whatever it is!

Cure consists of: winter melon seed, pueraria, mulberry leaf, and ginger root.

Preparation

kyth + kyn suggests steeping 1 to 2 teaspoons in hot water and to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. The recommendation is to add honey or other sweetener to taste. I opted to do an initial steep in 200°F (93°C) water for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Cure steeps to a beautiful orange colour that has a strong ginger and spicy aroma that is very similar to the dry leaf. I found that the ginger flavour is pleasant, with a bit of natural sweetness surrounding it. I can taste that there are other ingredients in it, I don’t know what winter melon seed or pueraria are supposed to taste like, but I presume that one of them offers that spicy flavour that I’m getting from the tea. It’s not like a chili oil or hot pepper type of spice, but more of a spices type of spicy (think chai, but not in ingredients that I’m familiar with). The warming qualities from the ginger are nice and really warm me up!

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Cure twice, adding an extra 30 seconds for each steep, and I found that the flavours were quite nice still. The flavours stayed pretty comparable to the initial steep and I thoroughly enjoyed it each time. I’d probably really like this one if I had it when under the weather or had a stomach bug because I think it would help settle the stomach quite easily.

My Overall Impression

I loved kyth + kyn’s Cure. I found that the herbal blend did a very good job with resteeping, the ginger flavour was very enjoyable and it balanced well with the other ingredients. I wish I knew what the other ingredients tasted like or smelled like on their own so I could describe it better, but I found that the flavour was delicious and I didn’t have to add any sweetener to it to make it palatable. I do love the ginger in this blend though, and thought it was tasty.

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

Posted on

Woash Wellness’s Revive

Revive by Woash Wellness
Green Tea / Flavoured
$12.50 for 40g

First Impressions

I was first introduced to Woash Wellness via Instagram, prior to the launch of their teas in the autumn of 2018. I got to meet Cassy of Woash Wellness at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival, which was pretty neat. After following her account on Instagram and seeing all these beautiful teas, I got to sample them before buying them. I often find it a struggle to decide if I want to buy online based on a photo or a description because so much of what I love about tea and tea drinking is the aroma and the taste of it – that’s why I always try to do my best to describe the flavour profile of any tea that I’m reviewing.

Revive is one of the teas that I bought directly from Cassy of Woash Wellness. The tea blends from Woash come in this fun, dark blue pouches – they’re sealed, resealable and the labels have all the necessary information regarding steeping instructions and ingredients. Revive is described as a tea meant to help the morning-after a fun night out, if you know what I mean… The first thing I noticed about Revive is the strong smell of ginger. Ginger is a very overpowering ingredient at the best of times, and it’s definitely very strong here. I can also smell the lemon and a hint of the green tea base.

Revive consists of: sencha green tea, ginger, milk thistle, lemon peel, ginkgo, and calendula. All of the ingredients are very much visible, and I didn’t even have to shake up the pouch – I don’t think a lot of settling has happened with this blend for me.

Preparation

Woash Wellness recommends steeping Revive at 175°F (80°C) for 3 to 4 minutes. Because of the green tea base, I followed the steeping instructions and opted to keep my initial steep of Revive at 3 minutes.

First Taste

Revive steeps to a pale yellow-green colour. The aroma is primarily that of the ginger, which isn’t a very big surprise considering how prominent it was in the dry leaf. There’s a light sweetness to this tea, and I found some mild umami notes from the sencha. I noted that Revive does have the nice warming qualities from the ginger, which makes it very pleasant and would also serve to help settle the stomach while well if you were to drink this while hungover or with an upset stomach of other origins. I like how the ginger is balanced against the sweetness and the umami qualities of this blend so it wasn’t just ginger that hit me in the taste buds.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Revive two times, adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour was quite comparable to the initial steep for the first resteep and still had a good amount of ginger flavour. The second steep was a bit watery in comparison, so I would recommend keeping Revive to just one more steep – unless you had a little bit of fresh or dried ginger on hand to help boost the flavour a little bit.

My Overall Impression

I loved Woash Wellness’ Revive. I’ve been in quite the ‘ginger’ kick lately and I think this just really worked for me. I didn’t drink it while hungover, but I do like the effects of ginger on the stomach – it’s such a great ingredient that really does help to settle stomachs and just really works in warming you from the inside out, a fantastic quality in a tea that I’m drinking when it’s -2°C outside (that’s below freezing for my friends who use Fahrenheit…). I really enjoyed how well balanced the sencha green tea was with the ginger – I was expecting the ginger to overpower the green tea and was really happy that this was not the case. While I do wish that the lemon was more prominent, I do understand that it was competing with some very strong flavours in the blend but I like to think that the lemon did attribute to the sweetness that I found in my cup.

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