Category: Review

Posted on

DavidsTea’s Maple Matcha

Maple Matcha by DavidsTea
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Maple Matcha was a tea that I opted to buy when I was placing an online order. It intrigued me mostly because I do love maple so I was curious as to how it translated in terms of flavour in a matcha blend. It came in a sealed, resealable foil pouch with a light green label on the from with all of the information about the tea. DavidsTea refers to Maple Matcha as a drink mix, although it is found under the matcha category on their website.

Maple Matcha has a bit of a dull pistachio green colour to it. There’s a pleasant maple aroma, but it’s not as strong as say a maple syrup would be. I can’t really make out the aroma of the matcha base. Maple Matcha consists of: cane sugar, green tea, and natural maple flavouring. I am a bit disappointed that cane sugar is the leading ingredient, because that does mean that it is the most prominent ingredient in the blend.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends whisking Maple Matcha in hot water, which is 85°C (185°F). I prepared Maple Matcha by sifting the drink mix into my matcha bowl, and then whisking it. If you’re new to matcha, I have an article about preparing matcha.

First Taste

Maple Matcha easily whisks up and it was easy to create a fine layer of broth on the top of the matcha. There’s a sweet maple aroma from the tea. The flavour of Maple Matcha is primarily sweetness and maple, with a slight grassy background that is noticeable with each sip. I found it to be quite pleasant, although I feel like it could have had a little bit less sugar in it because it was almost too sweet.

I feel like Maple Matcha would lend itself well to being added to a glass with ice and lemonade, or as a latte (either hot or cold). I don’t feel that Maple Matcha needs any additional sweetener added to it, unless you have an even larger sweet tooth than I do.

A Second Cup?

As Maple Matcha is a (matcha) drink mix, it was fully used up in my initial cup.

My Overall Impression

I thought that DavidsTea’s Maple Matcha was just okay. While I really enjoyed the maple flavour, I found this drink mix to be on the sweet side and I was hoping that the matcha would be more prominent in the flavour profile. Maple Matcha is great if you’re looking for something sweet to drink that’s easy to prepare, it would make for an excellent matcha lemonade or a latte. Bonus points if you have it as an iced latte on July 1st in Canada.

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

Posted on

Oteas’s Earl Grey

Earl Grey by Oteas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$6.95 for 30g (12 sachets)

Oteas has provided me with Earl Grey for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Earl Grey and I go way back.  It’s pretty much always been a tea stash staple for me. It’s a very approachable tea – easy to source out and find, easy to steep, and easy to muck around with when it comes to adding sweetener and cream. I was pleased to find Earl Grey in the package that Oteas sent me, primarily because I’m always looking forward to try new-to-me Earl Grey.

Like the other Oteas flavours that I’ve reviewed previously, this one contains teas in biodegradable sachets – which is great for the environment! The tea has the very classic Earl Grey aroma – I can smell both the black tea base and the bergamot. Earl Grey consists of: black tea, cornflower, and essence of bergamot.

Preparation

Oteas recommends steeping Earl Grey in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 to 4 minutes. My initial steep of Earl Grey was for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Earl Grey steeps to a lovely reddish brown. There’s a nice bergamot aroma to it, which is one of my favourite features of Earl Grey. The black tea base is tasty, although I note a touch of astringency at the tail end of each steep. The citrus notes from the bergamot are bright and add a sense of freshness to the tea itself. If you’re not a fan of the astringency, you can always opt to steep for a shorter period of time (e.g. 3 minutes) or add a touch of milk or cream to help temper the astringency. It is not off-putting though, and I find the tea to be quite tasty.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Earl Grey. I found that it wasn’t as delicious as the initial steep, primarily because most of the bergamot notes weren’t as strong as they were in the first steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oteas’s Earl Grey. I really enjoy a well balanced Earl Grey, and I found that this one was quite pleasing to the taste buds. I drink Earl Grey quite often at home, but having the tea already preportioned into sachets makes it easier to drink tea on the go, or to steep a cup at work without having to deal with spoons and filter bags – just one less step to take before getting some tea! The bergamot flavour is delightful, and everything that I look for in a tasty Earl Grey.

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

Posted on

Oollo Tea’s Classic Oolong

Classic Oolong by Oollo Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight

First Impressions

I bought Classic Oolong as part of a mystery bag from Oollo Tea’s booth at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival – unfortunately I’m unable to find the product page on their website so I can’t tell you how much it costs at this time (I’ll update this review if I get a hold of the information). This sampler contains 15g and the tea itself came in a vaccuum-sealed foil pouch (not resealable) inside of a floral patterned paper envelope.

The leaves are bright green, tightly bunched together. The aroma of the dry leaf reminds me of floral and pine tree. Classic Oolong comes from Maliba, Nantou, Taiwan and is single origin. Single origin describes the fact that it comes from one location – usually one tea farm/farmer and can be directly traced to the original location where the tea was harvested and processed. This is a huge difference from the majority of tea available via grocery stores, as you often don’t know where the tea came from aside from a general area or country of origin.

Preparation

There were no steeping instructions with Classic Oolong, so I went back to my own steeping guide. I steeped Classic Oolong using my Breville IQ Kettle‘s oolong setting (90°C/195°F) and my initial steep was for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Classic Oolong steeps to a light yellow. There’s a beautiful light floral aroma from the tea. On first sip, I can taste the floral, with a touch of pine in the background. It adds a bit of a ‘woodsy’ flavour to it, which is pleasant as it’s well-balanced against the floral notes. There’s some creamy notes that I can taste as well, which are delicious.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Classic Oolong a total of six times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The colour of the tea got deeper for the first three resteeps – becoming more of a golden yellow colour. The flavour became more floral and creamy and less pine. I found that by the third resteep, Classic Oolong had a very buttery flavour to it with a thick mouthfeel compared to the initial steep. I found it to be very pleasant.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oollo Tea’s Classic Oolong. I felt that it made for a lovely cup (pot…) of tea, and loved how the flavour profile shifted a little bit with each steep. I do wish that I could tell you more about the tea, so hopefully that information becomes available to me in the near future. The pine notes were a bit of a surprise, but I love how it gave way to a more buttery flavour profile. The leaves are a good quality though, as they resteep beautifully and allow for a good amount of flavour with each steep.

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