Category: Review

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Ahista Tea’s Mojito

Mojito by Ahista Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$14.99 for 100g

Ahista Tea has provided me with Mojito for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

The sample of Mojito came prepackaged into tea sachets, almost like a gauze-material was used. When I tore the bag open to get a better look at the tea leaves, there were a lot of small thin, white fibres. The aroma of Mojito has a strong lemongrass and citrus aroma, with a hint of mint throughout. The aroma of the mint wasn’t as strong as I would have wanted in a blend called Mojito, but lemongrass is a hard ingredient to overcome.

The ingredients are clearly identifiable when you look at it, which is nice. There are some large, dried citrus pieces – it’s quite beautiful! Mojito consists of: green tea, lime pieces, lime leaves, peppermint, and lemongrass.

Preparation

Ahista Tea recommends steeping Mojito in 90-100°C (194-212°F) water for 3 minutes. I opted to steep closer to 90°C, and steeped my initial steep of Mojito at 91°C (195°F) as green tea is an ingredient in this blend and green teas tend not to do that well when steeped at higher temperatures.

If you’re ever questioning a recommended temperature, I always suggest steeping at a lower temperature because you can always steep it for a longer period of time. If you opt to steep at a higher temperature, the tea could wind up being bitter or astringent and there’s no going back from that!

First Taste

Mojito steeps to a light yellow colour, with a strong lemongrass aroma to it. The smell of the mint is a bit overpowered by the lemongrass again, like it was with the dry leaf. Not surprising considering how strong of an ingredient lemongrass can be. The first thing I notice when tasting Mojito is the sweetness – then followed by citrus notes, lemongrass, and mint. The mint adds a nice refreshing quality to each sip, but it is still not as strong as the lemongrass. Unfortunately, I don’t really taste the green tea base.

When iced, I found that the mint flavour came out more in comparison to the lemongrass. I would recommend either having it iced (and perhaps adding some freshly muddled mint leaves) or cold steeping it.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Mojito once but found that the flavours were lacking. I think that the majority of the flavour went into the initial steep. I would recommend Mojito for just the one steep.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Ahista Tea’s Mojito. I found that the green tea wasn’t very present in the flavour – neither in the aroma of the dry leaf or in the flavor of the steeped tea. For a drink called Mojito, the tea that I made could have had a strong hand with the mint leaves. It could very well be that other tea sachets made have more mint leaves in them, but the ones that I had received were lacking in the mint aroma and flavour – especially when compared to the lemongrass. I would recommend cold steeping Mojito in comparison to steeping in hot water because I think it does help to bring out more of the mint flavour – another great way to amplify the mint flavour would be to make it iced with some freshly muddled mint leaves..

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Harrods’s Earl Grey

Earl Grey by Harrods
Black Tea / Flavoured
£9.50 for 125g

First Impressions

I received Earl Grey as a gift from a family member, and I was pretty stoked. I love Earl Grey and the tin that Harrods sells their Earl Grey in is quite beautiful. It came shrink wrapped, and the lid screws on/off to provide a decent seal. The aroma of the leaves is bright citrus. The leaves themselves are dark brown and smell lovely and inviting – which is what I look for in an Earl Grey.

Earl Grey consists of black tea, natural bergamot flavouring, and other natural flavouring. I wish I could let you smell this tea through your screen – the bergamot is amazing.

Preparation

Harrods recommends steeping Earl Grey in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 3 to 5 minutes, and to serve in fine china and to add milk, sugar or honey to taste.

I opted to steep for 4 minutes and had it both plain and with evaporated milk and honey.

First Taste

Earl Grey steeps to a beautiful orange red colour. The aroma is mostly the bergamot, very inviting. There’s the boldness from the black tea base that almost seems like it has a bit of astringency, but falls short of providing a mouth puckering feel to it. There is a natural sweetness from the bergamot, which I appreciate and enjoy.

I did also make Earl Grey with a touch of evaporated milk and locally sourced honey, which helped temper that slight astringency and made the tea all that more creamy and enjoyable.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Earl Grey once, adding an additional 30 seconds to the steeping time. I found that the bergamot flavour was still present although weaker than the initial steep. Earl Grey did pretty okay, so I would recommend doing a resteep with these leaves.

My Overall Impression

I loved Harrods’s Earl Grey. From the presentation and dry leaf to the first taste and being able to resteep the leaves, I found that Earl Grey was very pleasant to drink. I’m a huge fan of Earl Grey (of course), so I’ve gotten to be a bit picking out Earl Grey teas to drink. I find that this Earl Grey does well both on its own and when mixed with milk and sugar – and I think it’d be a great candidate for a London Fog as well.

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Hawaiian Island Tea Company’s Coconut Macadamia Herbal

Coconut Macadamia Herbal by Hawaiian Islands Tea Company
Rooibos / Flavoured
$5.95USD for 36g (20 sachets)

First Impressions

Coconut Macadamia Herbal is a rooibos-based infusion that I received as a gift for cat-sitting. The packaging definitely screams tropical to me in the glossy cardstock box. Coconut Macadamia Herbal is portioned into individually packaged tea sachets, where the blend inside basically looks just like rooibos only.

The aroma of Coconut Macadamia Herbal smells like coconut and rooibos, I don’t really get a lot of the macadamia nut fragrance in there. Unfortunately, I do smell quite a bit of the rooibos – it has a strong medicinal fragrance to me. Coconut Macadamia Herbal consists of rooibos and natural flavouring.

Preparation

Hawaiian Islands Tea Company recommends steeping Coconut Macadamia Herbal in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 1 to 3 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Coconut Macadamia Herbal steeps to a dark reddish orange. The aroma of the steeped tea is very similar to the dry leaf – I can smell the rooibos base with its medicinal quality, along with the aroma of the coconut. The flavour is very much rooibos with hints of coconut and macadamia nuts in the background. There’s a light sweetness. I do wish that both the coconut and macadamia nut flavours were stronger to help balance against the strong medicinal flavours of the rooibos.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Coconut Macadamia Herbal once and found that all I got was the flavour of plain rooibos (so it’s great if you’re a rooibos fan!).

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Hawaiian Islands Tea Company’s Coconut Macadamia Herbal. Unfortunately, I found the rooibos base to just be too strong in comparison to the coconut and macadamia flavouring. I wish both flavourings were stronger so that the flavours were better balanced against the medicinal, earthy nature of the rooibos base. If you’re a fan of rooibos, I think you’ll really enjoy this blend since it does have a strong rooibos base and its present throughout each steep..

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