Category: Review

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Aroma Tea House’s Jasmine Pearls

Jasmine Pearls by Aroma Tea House
Green Tea / Straight
$16.00 for 100g

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First Impressions

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This was a tea that I picked up from Aroma Tea House’s vendor table at the 2017 Vancouver Tea Festival. Jasmine Pearls came to me in a resealable bag with a little window to see the tea leaves. The tea leaves are tightly wound into tiny pearls, and they’re quite fragrant. These green tea pearls have a beautiful floral aroma, the tea pearls have a sweet floral aroma that is inviting.

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Preparation

There were no tea preparation notes on the packaging, or on the Aroma Tea House’s product page. I did the initial steep at 175°F (80°C) for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Jasmine Pearls steeps to a very pale yellow after the first two minutes of steeping time. I found the flavour to be very mild and noted that the pearls to be only partially opened. There’s a mild earthiness that I noted with the tea, and the tea has a very smooth texture to it. I enjoyed having the first steep.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped the Jasmine Pearls a total of four times. With the first two resteeped, the leaves opened up a bit more each time. I found that the colour got darker, and the flavour got more pronounced. I kept the steeps short (adding an additional 30 seconds with each steep), and found that there was zero bitterness or astringency with this green tea.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Aroma Tea House’s Jasmine Pearls. The pearls are beautiful to watch unfurl, and I really enjoyed the jasmine fragrance from the dry tea leaves and the steeped tea. The tea steeps well at the temperature and length of time I picked, and found the lack of bitterness or astringency to make the tea quite enjoyable. I think it’d be a nice tea with sweets because of the light floral sweetness in the tea.

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InNature Teas’ Red Rose Tea

Red Rose Tea by InNature Teas
Black Tea / Flavoured
£5.95 for 50g

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InNature Teas has provided me with Red Rose Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

With a name like Red Rose, it makes me think of the long-standing brand of orange pekoe that I grew up drinking. InNature Teas sent me Red Rose, a black tea, in a thick, square cardboard carton. On the outside, the packaging details the health benefits to drinking tea. On the inside, the tea came in a sealed paper packaging with a piece of paper titled Pure Fresh Teas Instructions. There’s some information regarding the history of tea, how to make the perfect cup of tea, and health benefits.

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Red Rose Tea is a black tea, from the Zhejiang region, and red rose buds, from Jiangsu. The aroma is that of floral and woody earthiness.

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Preparation

The piece of paper that InNature Teas provided suggested hot water, with no suggested temperature for black teas. The product page for Red Rose Tea suggested 75-80°C after describing the tea as a silver needle (white) tea. With that in mind, I used 80°C (175°F) water and steeped it for 3  minutes.

First Taste

Red Rose Tea steeps to a deep orange. The tea is quite aromatic, the aroma of the roses is strong with the natural woodiness from the black tea base. There’s an earthiness that mixes well with the floral rose fragrance that is tasty. I found that there’s a lovely sweetness at the end of each sip, and it is a nice finish. InNature Teas suggests that Red Rose Tea can be had straight or with a bit of milk and sugar.

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A Second Cup?

InNature Teas suggests that Red Rose Tea can be steeped up to three times. I resteeped Red Rose Tea three times (four infusions total), and found that the flavours seemed stronger for the first resteep, but became gradually weaker with each subsequent steep.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved InNature Teas’ Red Rose Tea. This black tea blended with red rose buds is delightful – I really enjoyed the floral flavours and the woodiness from the black tea base. I really enjoy the sweet, floral finish at the end of each sip. This tea is really tasty, and a nice change from a straight black tea. This tea also does well with a bit of honey and evaporated milk, and I think it would be a nice addition to an afternoon tea as it would couple nicely with savouries and sweets.

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ShakTea’s Morning Dew

Morning Dew by ShakTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

My first experience with Morning Dew was at the Vancouver Tea Festival back in November of this year, where I smelled a sample of the dry leaves and just fell in love. The best way to describe this scented green tea is it smells fresh – which makes me think that it’s an appropriately named green tea. Morning Dew came to me in this cute metal tin – the tea was in a plastic bag inside, which I emptied out into the tin.

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There’s a brightness to the aroma that smells like roses and citrus. Morning Dew consists of “Japanese sencha, sunflower bits, cornflower bits, rose petals, and fruit essence”. Now I’m not too sure what “fruit essence” is, but I imagine that some part of it must be citrus based since the aroma of citrus (primarily oranges?) is very much present in this tea.

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Preparation

There were no steeping instructions on the packaging, and I didn’t find any recommendations on the ShakTea website. I used the green tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle (175°F/80°C) and steeped the tea for 3 minutes.

First Taste

My initial steep of 3 minutes was far too long! I found Morning Dew to be much too bitter and nearly undrinkable. So I restarted the process and steeped it for 90 seconds. I found that the green tea steeped to a nice yellow colour, while having a very bright aroma. I could smell the floral sweetness wafting up, along with the presence of citrus – so bright and refreshing smelling! My first sip of Morning Dew (the second time around) was sweet, with an underlying flavour of saltiness, which I attribute to the sencha base. There’s a mild citrus flavour that isn’t as strong as the floral flavours – I believe that to be the case because it’s fruit ‘essence’ versus the flower ‘bits’.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Morning Dew for a quick 2 minutes, and found the flavours to be quite muted in comparison to the initial steep. I found the citrus flavour to be quite dilute, but the floral and sencha base are still very much present. It’s a slightly less bright version of the initial steep. It’s still tasty, but not quite the same.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked ShakTea’s Morning Dew. I do think that this is a very delicate green tea blend, and would highly caution against using water that is too hot or steeping too long, because it just gets to be very bitter, very quickly, if you’re not careful. I really enjoyed it once I tried steeping some fresh tea leaves, because the flavours are quite nice. I found that the initial steep was the best, although the second steep allowed the sencha base to shine more on its own. The added citrus in this blend is nice, I really liked how bright it made the tea feel. ShakTea’s website suggests that this can be enjoyed hot or iced – I feel like it would be a great candidate for cold steeping so you don’t accidentally oversteep the leaves in hot water

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