Category: Review

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Tetley’s Green Tea Earl Grey

Green Tea Earl Grey by Tetley
Green Tea / Flavoured
$4.99 for 48g (24 sachets)

First Impressions

Green Tea Earl Grey was another one of my Tetley purchases recently. I picked out this one because I love me some Earl Grey, so I had to give it a try. As usual. Tetley packages their teas in a carton tube with a plastic lid – there’s a foil seal for freshness over the sachets. If you’ve never had a Tetley tea before, the sachets are all round with no strings or tags.

Green Tea Earl Grey has the aroma of bergamot with a slight green tea aroma. It’s not a very strong citrus aroma, not like I’m used to with most Earl Grey teas. There’s very fine/small tea particles inside of the tea bag with no large leaf pieces present. Green Tea Earl Grey consists of pure green tea with natural flavouring.

Preparation

Tetley recommends boiling water, allowing it to cool to 80°C (175°F), pour water over the tea bag, and to let it steep for 1-2 minutes. I steeped Green Tea Earl Grey in 175°F water for 90 seconds.

First Taste

Green Tea Earl Grey steeps to a yellow-brown, with a light bergamot aroma. I don’t really smell the green tea base in the aroma. The flavour of the tea has a light bergamot flavour, with a slight bitter aftertaste to the green tea base. I don’t really get an Earl Grey-vibe from this tea, mostly because I’m far more used to it being a black tea base for a traditional Earl Grey.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Green Tea Earl Grey, but found the flavour to be lacking in the resteep. I would keep Green Tea Earl Grey to just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Tetley’s Green Tea Earl Grey. I love a good Earl Grey, but there was just something about the combination of bergamot with a green tea base in this blend that just wasn’t doing it for me. I’m much more of a fan of a bold Earl Grey (see: black tea), and the green tea in this one wasn’t just up to my taste or expectations. I do appreciate the attempt at a variation of Earl Grey, but I do think it is a classic for a reason.

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Rakuzan’s Hojicha

Hojicha by Rokuzan
Green Tea / Straight
756¥ for 100g

I received Rakuzan’s Hojicha as a gift from a friend who travelled to Japan.

First Impressions

Hojicha came to me in foil packaging, it left like a very air-filled brick because it was so dense but so light at the same time. The packaging itself is not resealable, which was fine because I had spare empty tea tins to use for it. The tea itself is a mix of leaves and sticks, with a beautiful roasted aroma that has subtle rice notes to it.

Hojicha is a very light tea – this light but dense brick was a total of 100g but took up so much room! It has a smell that makes me think a bit of campfire as well.

Preparation

The recommendations on the packaging suggested to steep Hojicha in 100°C (212°F) for 30 seconds. I followed the steeping instructions.

Please note that Hojicha is a green tea, and green teas are typically steeped in lower temperature waters in case you don’t like the flavour that you end up with or think it’s too bitter.

First Taste

Hojicha steeps to a deep orange after a 30 second steep. There’s a beautiful roasted aroma from tea that reminds me a lot of the toasted rice in a genmaicha. I found that it had a very full-bodied flavour, which a lot of strength in that flavour. The tea is quite smooth, with no bitterness, and has a slight aftertaste of the roasted rice flavour. There’s a slight smokiness to the flavour, but it’s nowhere as strong as the smoke flavour in a lapsang souchong tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Hojicha four times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that it resteeped very well with similar flavour every time.

My Overall Impression

I liked Rakuzan’s Hojicha. From the dry leaf, to the steeped tea, the flavour and aroma remains very consistent throughout. The steeping instructions were spot-on because of the lack of bitterness from the green tea, I do admit that I was a bit considered considering it was boiling water that I was using. The flavour is delicious though, and I think it’d be a great tea to have at any time of day. I do think that having a roasted tea is a bit more of an acquired taste, and hopefully more of my guests will enjoy it as well since I have so much of it!

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DavidsTea’s Perfect Spoon

Perfect Spoon by DavidsTea
Stainless Steel
$7.00

First Impressions

So this was not the first time I used the Perfect Spoon from DavidsTea. I may have several (and a few that didn’t make it into the photo). The spoons themselves are stainless steel – they frequently release coloured ones that are either sold by themselves or as part of a set. I got the red and green ones from the past winter collections as part of sets. I typically only use the silver one because it was my first Perfect Spoon.

The coating on the coloured spoons are not durable or dishwasher-friendly. I’ve seen many complaints online of the coloured spoons getting damaged and the coating flaking off. I think this is part of the reason why I don’t use the coloured spoons. For reference, the price of the silver/plain Perfect Spoon is the same as the coloured Perfect Spoons (at the time of writing). There’s been limited edition spoons that have been more expensive in the past and some of them come in boxed packaging (e.g. rose gold).

A Perfect Spoon is 2½ teaspoons.

Preparation

I hand wash all of my Perfect Spoons after use, and I store them in a cup. Since I only use them for tea, I generally just rinse in warm water and use dish soap when I use it to scoop an ‘oily’ tea (e.g. Earl Grey, some herbal/fruit infusions).

First Use

The Perfect Spoon performs its job well. It’s a spoon, it scoops! That said, not all teas should be measured out by how many spoonfuls. As you can see in the photo, an airy tea like Sau-Mei will have a lot of ’empty’ space between the leaves – which is why I do a heaping spoonful. For teas that are denser or have larger pieces (e.g. teas with dried fruit pieces, a rolled tea like Jasmine Pearls) will need more or less tea. Fancier tea connoisseurs than I am will use digital food/kitchen scales to measure out their tea instead of spoons. Since I’m not that fancy yet, I typically use my Perfect Spoon and just eye-ball it.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Perfect Spoon. I’ve used it pretty much consistently since I’ve gotten it – with zero issues from the silver Perfect Spoon. I’m too leery about having the coloured coating come off in my tea, which is why I opt to not use them. I mostly just have the coloured ones because they came in gift sets that I had bought (for myself). That said, it isn’t the cheapest of spoons. If you already have a teaspoon-sized measuring spoon in your kitchen, you might not want to get it because who needs another spoon that isn’t a standard unit of measurement? I’ve gotten all of my Perfect Spoons as part of promotional sales or as part of a boxed gift set, so I haven’t purchased a Perfect Spoon by itself just yet (pro-tip if you’re wanting one but don’t want to spend $7 on a spoon…).

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