Category: Review

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Field to Cup’s March Adventurer Box

March Adventurer Box by Field to Cup
$34.97USD for 1 Adventurer Box (per month)
$356.69USD for 12 Months ($29.72/mo)

Field to Cup has provided me with the March Adventurer Box for the purposes of providing an honest review.

Use coupon code Onemoresteep20 for 20% off your first order of teas or first month of subscription boxes from Field to Cup!

First Impressions

I wrote a bit about how the Field to Cup subscription boxes work (multi-month options, different tea options) in my review of their February Adventurer Box. I’m so pleased to be sharing my review of the March Adventurer Box with you all. Again, the Adventurer Box is geared towards fans of primarily traditional tea types, and have at least four teas per box. The March box contains five teas – four of which are labelled as premium teas and one is the ‘extra’ bonus tea for the month. Each tea comes in a sealed, resealable foil pouch with a black and white label on the front that includes steeping instructions, resteeping instructions, ingredients, and flavour notes.

The first three are: Bergamot Bliss (green tea), Plus Belle (pouchong tea), and Organic Nilgiri Silk (black tea). I found Bergamot Bliss to be very rich in bergamot aroma, it’s very bright and inviting and reminds me a lot of an Earl Grey. Because of the strength of the bergamot, I can’t really make out the aroma of the green tea base. This green tea blend consists of green tea and bergamot oil. For Plus Belle, a pouchong tea (which – an internet search told me – is fairly close to an oolong tea), this is a Taiwanese tea from Nantou County. The leaves are bright and green with a mild grassy aroma to it. Organic Nilgiri Silk has some light malty notes, coupled with the dark wiry leaves. The tea itself is an organic black tea from the Nilgiris District in India.

From left to right: Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, Organic Nilgiri Silk.

The next two teas in the box are: Organic Green Jewel (green tea) and Formosa Bai Hao (oolong tea). Organic Green Jewel consists of a fine green leaves – they were quite small and coated my teaspoon due to the static electricity. There’s a light salty aroma to it. The tasting notes mentioned a lime zest, but I don’t really get that from the dry leaf. Formosa Bai Hao has a mix of dark brown, reddish brown, and pale brown wiry leaves. The aroma of the dry leaf is mostly that of a honeyed floral aroma.

From left to right: Organic Green Jewel, Formosa Bai Hao.

Preparation

Bergamot Bliss is recommended to steep in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 3 minutes.

Plus Belle is recommended to steep in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 3 minutes.

Organic Nilgiri Silk is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 4 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 4 minutes.

Organic Green Jewel is recommended to steep in 170°F (77°C) water for 2 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 2 minutes.

Formosa Bai Hao is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

From left to right: Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, Organic Nilgiri Silk.

Bergamot Bliss steeps to a light green-yellow with a surprisingly not overpowering aroma of bergamot from the steeped tea. There’s something inviting about the citrus notes that make me think that this may be nice as an ice tea. I found that the bergamot flavour is nice and citrusy and balances well with the light grassy notes from the green tea.

Plus Belle steeps to a pale yellow. There is mix of floral and grassy flavours in the aroma of this tea. I found the taste to be sweet, with hints of floral and grassy flavour, as well as a light buttery cream in the background. Overall, I found this tea to be very smooth and easy to drink.

Organic Nilgiri Silk has a golden reddish orange colour, with a sweet aroma to it. The flavour is primarily sweet honeyed notes, with a malty flavour that almost has a bit of a yeasty quality to it – if you’re a baker, you may know what I mean. There’s a nice robustness to the flavour.

From left to right: Organic Green Jewel, Formosa Bai Hao.

Organic Green Jewel has a bright yellow colour. I found that the aroma is salty and grassy, while the flavour of this green tea has hints of salt, grassy/vegetal flavours, as well as a bit of lime in the steeped tea. The lime surprised me a bit since I didn’t really get that from the dry tea or even from the steeped tea, until I tasted it! It adds a burst of freshness to the flavour profile.

Formosa Bai Hao steeps to an orange brown. The darkness in the colour reflects the deep honeyed notes well, along with the floral sweetness and some dried apricot flavours. It’s quite pleasant, and I feel like it would pair well with a savoury dish.

A Second Cup?

Bergamot Bliss resteeped well, I did it twice and found that the bergamot was still very much present with each steep. Plus Belle was resteeped three times and I found it to be still light and almost delicate tasting throughout. It remained nicely sweet and floral with each steep. Organic Nilgiri Silk was resteeped twice, I found that the first resteep was much closer to the initial steep than the second steep – the deep malty notes weren’t as strong for the second resteep.

From left to right: Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, Organic Nilgiri Silk.

Organic Green Jewel was resteeped twice and I found the flavour weakened a little bit with each steep, but that little burst of lime freshness was still in the tea throughout each steep. Formosa Bai Hao was the real resteeping winner in this box – I did four resteeps and found that the flavour stayed pretty consistent throughout and was tasty through each steep of the same leaves.

From left to right: Organic Green Jewel, Formosa Bai Hao.

My Overall Impression

I loved Field to Cup’s March Adventurer Box. I really enjoyed the variety of teas, and learned a little something about pouchong tea. My favourites in this month’s box would have to be the Bergamot Bliss, Plus Belle, and Formosa Bai Hao. I really enjoyed trying each tea and tasting the flavours mentioned in the tasting notes.

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

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Oteas’s Green Tea with Peppermint

Green Tea with Peppermint by Oteas
Green Tea / Flavoured
$6.95 for 30g (12 sachets)

Oteas has provided me with Green Tea with Peppermint for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Green Tea with Peppermint came in what is now a very familiar to me cardstock box. This one was plastic shrink-wrapped, which meant not plastic bag inside holding the tea bags. The tea bags are, again, biodegradable – which I think is so great because every little bit helps when it comes to the environment!

The first thing I smelled when opening up this box was the peppermint (and more peppermint). I can’t really smell the green tea base, but that’s not too surprising given how strong of an ingredient peppermint (and any other mint) can be. Green Tea with Peppermint consists of: green tea and peppermint.

Preparation

Oteas recommends steeping Green Tea with Peppermint in 85-90°C (185-194°F) water for 2 to 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 85°C water for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Green Tea with Peppermint steeps to a dark golden yellow. There’s a very obvious peppermint aroma from the tea, it’s very pleasant – although also makes me feel like I should be going to sleep soon because I do sometimes associate peppermint and other similar herbal infusions to be more of a sleepy time/bedtime tea than anything else. There’s a nice freshness to the blend that I found pleasant – there’s the brightness from the peppermint and it’s quite strong. The green tea base is considerably lighter in flavour compared to the peppermint, but the mint is such strong aroma and flavour that I’m not overly surprised by that.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Green Tea with Peppermint once and found that the flavour was very similar to the initial steep, just not as strong in peppermint, which is to be expected. It was pleasant and tasty.

My Overall Impression

I liked OTeas’s Green Tea with Peppermint. I think if you’re a fan of peppermint tea, you’ll be really pleased with this one. The peppermint flavour is really strong throughout and it does well for a resteep to get that extra flavour and value out of your tea sachet. I’m not a huge fan of peppermint usually, so it’s not likely to be a tea that I’m wind up stocking in my tea stash (and that’s the primarily reason for a lower score). I still think it’s really tasty and tastes as I had expected it to. I think if I was a fan of peppermint, it’d definitely be blend that I’d want to keep on hand.

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

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Murchie’s Earl’s Garden

Earl’s Garden by Murchie’s
Green Tea & Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$7.95 for 2oz (56g)

Murchie’s has provided me with Earl’s Garden for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I was very excited and eager to try this tea when I opened my package from Murchie’s. Any tea name with the word “Earl” in the title makes me think of Earl Grey – which is a lovely classic black tea blend that I love and also have really high standards for. Earl’s Garden came in a plastic sealed, resealable bag with some information on the front of it.

The label calls it a green tea, but there were was clearly some oolong in that blend there – along with some jasmine. Which basically made me think that I’m in for a real treat! The first thing I noticed is the strong aroma of the jasmine and a hint of citrus from the bergamot. The green tea and oolong tea are both present, I’d hazard a guess that it’s maybe a 50-50 blend (or possibly just leaning a bit more towards the green tea). Earl’s Garden consists of: Chinese green tea, oolong tea, natural and artificial flavouring, jasmine flowers, and bergamot oil.

Preparation

Murchie’s recommends steeping Earl’s Garden in 175-180°F (79-82°C) water for 2 to 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F water for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Earl’s Garden steeps to a beautiful golden yellow with a very fragrant floral aroma from the tea itself. I found that the flavour of jasmine is the most obvious, followed by the floral and creamy notes from the green and oolong tea base. There’s a light hint of citrus notes in the background of the tea, which is strong enough for me to know that it is bergamot. It does remind me of being in garden, because the jasmine is very present.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Earl’s Garden twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each steep. On the first resteep, I noticed that the jasmine flavour was considerably less, along with the bergamot and both flavours were virtually gone by the second resteep. The base teas – green tea and oolong tea – do resteep quite well. There’s still that natural floral and creamy flavours that I noticed in the initial steep that are very much present throughout each steep.

If you’re a fan of the jasmine and bergamot, I would do at least one more steep. If you’re a fan of the green tea and oolong base, continue steeping until you exhaust the flavours.

My Overall Impression

I loved Murchie’s Earl’s Garden. I think it’s a clever spin on a popular classic. While I had initially hoped that the bergamot would have been added in with a heavier hand, I found it to be quite pleasant. Present in the flavour profile, but not overpowering the flavours of the green tea, oolong tea, or the jasmine flowers. I think that the tea was very well balanced between each ingredient, and found that the flavour to very pleasant. I never once found that the tea was overly perfumed with the floral notes, which is always a risk when using any sort of floral ingredient. This tea definitely feels a bit delicate tasting though, and would be a lovely tea option to have with a spring or summer tea party.

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