Category: Review

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DavidsTea’s Strawberry Lemonade

Strawberry Lemonade by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I picked up a small bag of Strawberry Lemonade when I was at a local DavidsTea location. This fruit infusion smelled amazing in store when I smelled the dry leaf. Essentially, Strawberry Lemonade smells like its name. There’s strawberries and there’s a bright citrus aroma that makes me think of lemons. Now, there’s also a lot of other ingredients, and I find that just makes it smell fruity for the most part. It’s very bright and fresh smelling, and it makes me think of warmer weather.

Strawberry Lemonade consists of apple, hibiscus blossoms, blackberry leaves, candied papaya, lemongrass, beetroot, strawberries, marigold blossoms and natural flavouring. I’m not sure what natural flavouring was needed, considering the ingredients already listed. I imagine that it might be some strawberry flavouring to just give it a bit of a flavour boost.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Strawberry Lemonade in “near-boiling” water for 4 to 7 minutes. My initial steep of Strawberry Lemonade was in 93°C (200°F) water for 6 minutes.

First Taste

Strawberry Lemonade steeps to a very pretty pink – a millennial pink, if you will. It smells remarkably like strawberry and lemons, and the really nice thing is that Strawberry Lemonade also tastes like its name suggests as well. There’s a significant amount of tart and sour from the fruity tisane, but there’s also the added sweetness from the strawberry and sweeter fruits, such as the apple and candied papaya. It’s nice that they managed to match the flavour pretty well with the name that they opted to give it.

A Second Cup?

I did attempt to resteep Strawberry Lemonade with little success. The colour just wasn’t there, I think the beetroot and hibiscus was just tapped out of colour. The flavour was rather watery compared to the initial steep, and I found the diluted flavour to just be lackluster compared to what the flavour was.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Strawberry Lemonade. I really enjoyed the initial steep of this fruit infusion and thought that the flavours (and the name!) was just spot-on. While I wish that this tisane could be resteeped, I was impressed by the flavour that I got from the first steep and found it so enjoyable that I’m overlooking it a little bit. I think if it could be resteeped, it’d be a much better purchase to make since the ingredients are heavy and you don’t get a lot of the tisane in a bag. But the flavours are really good and the colour is perfectly on trend with the summer so I can’t say too many bad things about it.

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Shanti Tea’s Rest and Digest

Rest and Digest by Shanti Tea
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$12.75 for 33g (15 sachets, 2.2g/sachet)

Mint and Honey has provided me with Shanti Tea’s Rest and Digest for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I received a sample package of Rest and Digest by Shanti Tea from Mint and Honey. The pyramid tea sachets came to me in a resealable kraft paper pouch. The aroma from the herbal infusion blend is primarily that of mint, although I can definitely see other ingredients in the blend – including the chamomile.

Rest and Digest does contain more than mint and chamomile though, this herbal blend consists of: chamomile, anise, fennel, lemon balm, ginger root, peppermint and safflower – all organic ingredients. Surprisingly, the ginger isn’t the most aromatic ingredient in this blend, I’m quite used to ginger being very much in the forefront of herbal blends when it’s in there, but this one is more subdued. I really have to concentrate in order to pick it out.

Preparation

Shanti Tea recommends steeping Rest and Digest in 100°C (212°F) water for 5 to 10 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep of 7 minutes.

First Taste

Rest and Digest steeps to a bright, golden yellow colour. The aroma from this herbal infusion is mostly that of the mint. The flavour from the tisane is that of mint, with a slight heat from the ginger. There’s some light floral notes in it as well, with a nice sweetness to it, but I do find myself wishing that the chamomile was more present. There’s some cooling refreshness at the tail end of each sip from the mint with some warming sensation from the ginger.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Rest and Digest once, I found that flavour was okay. It was bit diluted compared to the initial steep, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as the initial steep. The warming flavours from the ginger weren’t just as present.

My Overall Impression

I liked Shanti Tea’s Rest and Digest. I really enjoyed the blend of flavours – the mint, ginger, and chamomile play off nicely together. I found that the initial steep of Rest and Digest was quite tasty and found the contrasting warming and cooling sensations in the flavour profile to be really enjoyable. I do wish it had done a bit better with being resteeped, but it is an herbal tisane so I’m not too surprised that it didn’t do well.

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Grand Tea’s Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea

Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea by Grand Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$40.00HKD for 25g

Grand Tea has provided me with Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea came to me in a gold sample packet with enough tea to have three pots of tea. The tea leaves are beautiful with each leaf curled, with varying colours of dark olive green and a pale, cream colour. The lighter part of each leaf has visible downy feathers on it. The aroma from the dry leaf is primarily that of the jasmine – the dry tea is bright and floral.

Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea is a Chinese green tea that has been scented with jasmine flowers and is from the Yunnan Province. I’m really quite fascinated by how the tea leaves look, since the colours have such a high contrast which makes them beautiful to look at.

Preparation

I couldn’t find any steeping instructions for Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea. My initial steep of this green tea was in 79°C (175°F) water for 90 seconds.

First Taste

Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea steeps to a light yellow with a very floral aroma. It smells almost sweet with the strong jasmine fragrance. The taste of this tea carries a light sweetness, there’s the jasmine/floral notes with a slight creamy flavour to it – almost buttery. I found that the tea was smooth with zero bitterness or astringency at the temperature that I steeped it for.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea six times (seven steeps total with the same leaves), and I added an additional 30 seconds for each steep. I found that the flavour profile stayed fairly consistent throughout, although it did become less sweet despite the floral notes remaining strong. The flavour began to decline by the fourth resteep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Grand Tea’s Bai Yu Luo Jasmine Tea. I found that this tea was both beautiful in the dry leaf and in the flavour of the steeped tea. I really enjoyed the floral sweetness that I found in the initial steep, and the creaminess I found in this green tea was a pleasant surprise. I think that this tea did beautifully when resteeped and would really recommend resteeping it to get all of the flavour out of the leaves.

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