Category: Review

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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.

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

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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.

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Tea Experience: Bay Moorings

Bay Moorings Restaurant
Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver
High Tea $35 each

Bay Moorings Restaurant is located in Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. For those who’ve ever gotten onto the ferry at that location, Bay Moorings Restaurant is literally across the street from the ferry terminal – so if you’re a foot passenger, it’s a stop you could make before getting on with your adventures. The views from their patio are amazing – you get the water with the marina, and then you can see the picturesque BC mountains.

Honestly, the view is gorgeous.

The High Tea at Bay Moorings features tea from Mighty Leaf. I picked the Organic Spring Jasmine (green tea) while my sister opted for the Organic African Nectar (rooibos). We received our teas in cute personal-sized teapots, the teas themselves were in tea bag form. Organic Spring Jasmine has a lovely jasmine aroma to it. This green tea steeped to a pleasant golden orange colour and had a great floral flavour to it. I did have my teapot refilled once, and the flavour was still quite strong, which made the tea enjoyable.

The food came in two tiers with the desserts on top and savouries on the bottom. For the savouries, there were four items each. There was a ham & cheese sandwich, a smoked salmon wrap, a pate and caviar open-face sandwich, and a ginger duck confit. I found the ham & cheese cheese sandwich and pate & caviar sandwich to be a little bit lackluster with nothing to exciting about each of them. The smoked salmon wrap itself wasn’t very picture-worthy, but the flavour was delicious. It had a lot of sauce and dill inside of the wrap though, and I think it might have been better with a bit less sauce inside of the wrap. The winner was the duck confit, followed by the smoked salmon wrap. The duck confit had a lovely ginger flavour, the fat was rendered beautifully, and the meat was moist and well-cooked.

Duck confit.

The desserts featured French macaron, tiramisu, panna cotta, and a slice of coconut cream cake. We each received a different flavour macaron – I ate the green pistachio one while my sister had the lemon. The macaron was nicely made with the crisp outer cookie shell. I’m not a fan of coffee, but the tiramisu had a great custard layer and the cake layer did taste a lot like coffee (unfortunately for me). The panna cotta was delicious – I’ve made panna cotta before so I know it can be a bit of pain to keep the smooth texture, this one was delicious and I would definitely have it again. Lastly, the coconut cream cake had a great cream between the layers. I found the cake itself to be on the dry side (or maybe it’s just me thinking that there should just be a lot more cream!). I’m generally a fan of cakes that have more cream/frosting/icing on it, so that might be where I’m coming from. My favourite desserts were definitely the macaron and the panna cotta.

Above: tiramisu. Below: panna cotta.

For those who aren’t in West Vancouver, Bay Moorings might be a bit of a drive. Luckily it was mostly highway driving for me to get there, and traffic wasn’t too bad when I was going to and from Horseshoe Bay. It was a beautiful day that my sister and I opted to go to Bay Moorings to check out their high tea. Good tea with good views. I’d go back for the smoked salmon wrap, duck confit, and that panna cotta.

Coconut cream cake.