Author: Michelle

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Purdys Chocolatier’s Matcha

Matcha by Purdys Chocolatier
Green Tea (Matcha) / Chocolate
$11.00 for 6 pieces (70g)

First Impressions

I love chocolate as much as the next girl, but when it comes mixed with tea? You know I had to give it a try! If you’re not familiar with Purdys, they are a chocolate company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Their stores feature chocolates, candies, ice cream, and more. The purple and gold store fronts can also be found across Canada, and I picked up this box of Matcha at a store near me.

Inside the box, there are six beautiful chocolates. Each one has a unique speckled design on it – according to the product page, Purdys uses a spirulina-based dye mixed with cocoa butter to create the colours. Matcha is a unique truffle that consists of a blend of white chocolate and matcha green tea powder, inside of a milk chocolate shell. Each chocolate is nestled in its own brown paper cup. The aroma that I get from the chocolate is milk chocolate.

The ingredients in Matcha are: sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, coconut oil, matcha powder, natural and artificial flavours, soy lecithin, turmeric, spirulina concentrate, apple concentrate, titanium dioxide, water, sunflower oil, maltodextrin, and citric acid.

First Taste

I cut my first Matcha chocolate in half. The green centre of the Matcha has a sweet, grassy aroma to it. The flavour reminds me a lot of a matcha latté – there’s a touch of honeyed sweetness, grassy notes, a touch of saltiness, and the milk chocolate shell just melts in your mouth. Despite it being a fairly hefty chocolate, it’s quite light in terms of the mouthfeel – there’s a nice decadence to it.

My Overall Impression

I loved Purdys Chocolatier’s Matcha. I think that the matcha flavour really shines through. The speckled decoration is beautiful, and I really like how they used natural dyes to create the colours. The milk chocolate shell is superb, but as someone who’s grown up eating Purdys, I don’t expect anything less. These are nice for a treat, at the price of $11 for 6 pieces, it’s definitely not something that I’ll have around all the time, but they’re quite tasty and I would recommend trying it out if you’re a fan of matcha and chocolate.

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Tetley’s Dream Camomile Lemon

Dream Camomile Lemon by Tetley
Herbal Infusion /Flavoured
$3.67 for 30g (20 sachets)

First Impressions

One of my favourite grocery stores had a bunch of Tetley teas on sale a while back, so I picked up several flavours to try. Not the usual type of tea that I review and feature on One More Steep, but I recently had a friend point out to me that I share a lot of teas that aren’t as easy to get a hold of (e.g. teas from stores local to me or online from overseas), so I wanted to take a moment to also include some easily accessible teas as well, hence the Tetley.

Dream Camomile Lemon comes in a cardboard container with a tight fitting plastic lid. Under the lid, there’s a foil seal to make it airtight. Tetley’s teas come in round tea bags, with no strings or tags. The aroma from Dream Camomile Lemon reminds me primarily of lemon and chamomile. The ingredients in Dream Camomile Lemon are: camomile, licorice, natural flavour, natural lemon flavour. I think it would have been a nice, and welcome, addition if there had been lemon peel or lemon grass included in the blend.

Preparation

Tetley recommends steeping Dream Camomile Lemon in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 3-5 minutes and to serve clear (e.g. no cream/milk, sugar, etc.). I followed the recommended steeping instructions and did an initial steep of 4 minutes.

First Taste

Dream Camomile Lemon steeps to an cloudy light amber colour. It has a lovely lemon aroma to it. There’s a pleasant flavour on first taste, I notice that the lemon is quite strong while the chamomile is in the background – there’s just a light floral flavour to it. For those who like their teas sweet, there is a nice sweetness to the tea and no sourness from the lemon itself.

I also iced a cup of Dream Camomile Lemon and found it to be very pleasant iced, it would make a nice summer iced tea.

A Second Cup?

Resteeping Dream Camomile Lemon went about as well as I had thought it would. The primary flavour in the resteep was the chamomile with its floral sweetness. There was very minimal lemon flavour in the resteep.

My Overall Impression

I liked Tetley’s Dream Camomile Lemon. I thought that the flavour was quite tasty for the initial steep, but found that it did really quite poorly in the resteep. I think this could be improved with adding more lemon ingredients into the blend, just to allow it to be more present. The flavour balance of the chamomile and the lemon was really nice though, and I think it does really well both hot and iced.

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The Chinese Tea Shop’s Blooming Green Tea

Blooming Green Tea by The Chinese Tea Shop
Green Tea / Flavoured
$35.95 for 200g

First Impressions

The Chinese Tea Shop’s Blooming Green Tea was a purchase at the most recent Vancouver Tea Festival (and I’m just writing about it now – shame on me!). If you’ve been reading here for a while now, or following me on Instagram (@onemoresteep), you will know that I’m a sucker for a good blooming/flowering tea. The unfortunate thing about blooming teas is that they are just not cheap – it takes skill to make them and they’re just beautiful to watch unfold and bloom in your teapot. I always recommend steeping one of these in a clear glass teapot (or teacup, if that’s more of your style) just so you can watch the magic happen.

So the bag I had bought contains seven different shapes (designs). These tea leaves are tied together, by hand, using silk thread. There’s not even a little hint from the dry tea ball about what colour the flowers are on the inside. The aroma from this little ball is sweet floral, with a light background of the green tea.

Preparation

There weren’t any steeping instructions on the packaging. I filled up a glass teapot with water that was heated to 79°C (175°F) and dropped the ball in. I waited until it had fully bloomed prior to pouring myself a cup – the whole process took about 2 minutes (120 seconds).

First Taste

Blooming Green Tea steeps to a pale orange, with a pleasant floral aroma. There’s a nice sweetness to this tea, which is capitalized by the fact that there is no bitterness or astringency given the length of time I steeped it for. This flowering tea made for a smooth cup of tea and it was very pleasant to drink.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Blooming Green Tea twice (three times total) and found that the floral flavours stayed present throughout. A few petals and tea leaves were knocked loose each time I filled up the teapot, which wasn’t too much of a hassle for me to pull it out.

The flowers are really quite beautiful. I’m not an expert, but I believe they are globe amaranth, chrysanthemum, and jasmine.

My Overall Impression

I loved The Chinese Tea Shop’s Blooming Green Tea. There is just something really relaxing about watching a ball of tea open up and ‘bloom’. If you’ve never had the opportunity to try one, I definitely recommend it. It’s just a lovely experience to watch – and the fact that the tea is tasty and holds up to resteeping doesn’t hurt either!

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