Category: Review

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Wildwood Botanicals’ Lunar Cycle

Lunar Cycle by Wildwood Botanicals
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$9.00 for 50g

Wildwood Botanicals has provided me with Lunar Cycle for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Lunar Cycle is described by Wildwood Botanicals as an herbal tea that is designed to help manage cramps, mood-swings and other PMS discomfort. Each ingredient was picked with helping women in mind, and it’s obvious with each ingredient. Because these herbs have medicinal properties, I would strongly urge people who are on prescription medications to consult with a healthcare professional, as it is possible for herbs to interact with medications.

Lunar Cycle consists of organic nettle leaf, organic alfalfa, organic lemon balm, and organic peppermint. When I opened the bag (a resealable kraft paper bag), the first thing that I can smell is the peppermint with a hint of lemon balm. The description of the ingredients on the label (and product page) includes all the benefits of each ingredient – ranging from pain relief, improved digestion, muscle relaxation, and boosting ones immune system.

Preparation

Wildwood Botanicals recommends steeping Lunar Cycle in 100°C (212°F) for 8 to 10 minutes. My initial steep of Lunar Cycle was for 8 minutes.

First Taste

Lunar Cycle steeps to a dark orange, and has a wonderful minty aroma to it. When I sip it, it reminds me a lot of a peppermint tea. I’m not sure what nettle or alfalfa leaf is supposed to taste like, and unfortunately I don’t really taste the lemon balm. The peppermint flavour is strong though, and quite tasty.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Lunar Cycle and found the the flavours wanting. I would say that Lunar Cycle is good for one steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Wildwood Botanicals’ Lunar Cycle. Now, I didn’t do any research into the medicinal properties of the ingredients to tell you if they really work, but I can tell you that Lunar Cycle makes a particularly tasty cup of tea, especially if you are a fan of peppermint. If you suffer from cramps or other monthly discomforts, it’s always worth it to try something new if what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working.

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DavidsTea’s Sun Moon Black

Sun Moon Black by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Straight
$19.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Sun Moon Black is one of DavidsTea’s latest straight teas. This has been described as a black tea with a “distinctive minty fresh”. Because I’m able to pop into a local DavidsTea storefront, I’m able to purchase less than 50g of tea at a time, which is great for trying out new teas. When buying loose leaf tea at their stores, you can receive the tea in resealable foil bags (like the one pictured), or in tea tins (like the one shown in my review of DavidsTea’s Organic Earl Grey).

The tea leaves are long and wiry, an almost dark purple colour. The aroma from the dry leaf reminds me of a little bit of sweetness with plum notes. Sun Moon Black is a straight black tea from Taiwan, DavidsTea’s product page describes the tea as having been grown on near Sun Moon Lake in Nantou.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Sun Moon Black in “near-boiling” water for 4 to 7 minutes. Near-boiling is 90-95°C (194-203°F). I did an initial steep of Sun Moon Black for 3 minutes at 93°C (200°F).

First Taste

Sun Moon Black steeps to a beautiful golden orange, with a very lovely aroma – it reminds me of plums and honey. The flavour is strong, almost overly so – it reminds of the robustness packing a punch behind a breakfast tea. There’s a nice honeyed sweetness to this tea that is delightful. I note the description of this tea includes a “minty finish”, but I don’t really taste anything that reminds me of mint. Sun Moon Black has a nice smoothness to it though, with zero astringency or bitterness.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Sun Moon Black a total of four times (five steeps overall), keeping my water temperature consistent throughout all of the steeps and adding 30 seconds for each additional steep. This tea strengthened in flavour for the first and second resteeps, and began to lose flavour for the third and fourth. The balance of plum and honey stayed the same throughout all the steeps, just differed in intensity.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Sun Moon Black. This wiry black tea makes for a delicious cup of tea, and I found that the flavours were easy to drink. The smoothness of this tea makes for a good cup of tea, and I really enjoyed being able to resteep the tea leaves over and over again. I do wish that this tea was less expensive, as it’s on the pricey side for a black tea – that’s one of the factors that will probably be preventing me from keeping a large amount of it in my tea stash.

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Harney & Sons’ Bancha

Bancha by Harney & Sons
Green Tea / Straight
$6.75USD for 4oz

First Impressions

I purchased a selection of tins of teas from Harney & Sons’ SoHo location when I was in New York City back in October, 2017. This is the first of three tea reviews of my tea purchases from the store. Harney & Sons describes Bancha as a Japanese “summertime green tea” on their website. This tea came to me in a small metal tin, the tea itself comes inside in a silver foil package – no resealable, but the lid on the tin is pretty snug so I’m pretty okay with keeping it in the tin with the foil package open.

The aroma of Bancha is grassy, and reminds me of the smell of grass after a rain. The tea leaves are dark green, they’re short and flattened. This is a straight Japanese green tea and smells delightful. The Wikipedia page for this tea suggests that it’s a low grade Japanese green tea, but otherwise it smells good.

Preparation

Harney & Sons recommends steeping green tea, which includes Bancha, in 175°F (79°C) water for 1 to 3 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep of 1 minute.

First Taste

Bancha steeps to a nice buttercup yellow. The aroma from this tea is a bit grassy, it stills reminds me of that ‘fresh rain’ smell that happens when you go for a walk after a good downpour. There’s a slight grassy flavour to this tea, I find it quite tasty. I noticed that Bancha makes for a nice smooth cup of tea, no bitterness or astringency noted.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Bancha three times (four times total with the same leaves), adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I noticed that the colour deepened for the first resteep, and got lighter for the following two steeps. The flavour stayed the same, not really watering down until the last resteep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Harney & Sons’ Bancha. This green tea did remarkably well with resteeping, and I really enjoyed the grassy notes. The flavour of this tea is pleasant, smooth, and a makes for a nice cup. I think the 60 seconds for the initial steep was a good starting point, green teas can often be a little delicate with the steeping process – too hot or too long of a steep and the tea becomes bitter.

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