Category: Review

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Pique Tea’s Mint Sencha

Mint Sencha by Pique Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.99USD for 14 packets per carton (0.3oz / 8.4g)

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Pique Tea has provided me with Mint Sencha for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

When Pique Tea asked me if I wanted to try their tea, I was intrigued. It’s not my first time having an ‘instant’ tea, but I’ve really grown to like sencha so the idea of an instant sencha powder did make me a little bit apprehensive. They sent me a package of their Mint Sencha, and inside the cardboard carton was 14 foil packets.

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It’s a lot of packaging, but luckily the cardboard carton is fully recyclable. You can find more information about the process of how Pique Tea creates this crystallized tea on their website. When I opened the packet, I found that the tea reminded me a lot of golden sugar – just smaller granules. I tried to sniff the tea, but didn’t really smell anything. I didn’t get my nose too close because I wanted to drink this tea, not inhale it. Mint Sencha is made of organic green tea and organic spearmint.

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Preparation

Pique Tea recommends mixing 1 packet per 8oz of water, and recommended 175°F (79°C) water for this green tea. Fun tip, when I was on the Pique Tea website I learned that their crystallized green teas can be fully dissolved in cold water (but their black teas cannot), this is due to some of the properties of black tea.

First Taste

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After adding hot water to the tea crystals, I found that it fully dissolved without any mixing on my part. The tea itself is fairly yellow. It has a very strong minty aroma to it. There’s a strong grassy and vegetal taste to this tea, which I contribute to the sencha part of this tea, with the light freshness of spearmint. I found it quite tasty. The colour isn’t quite what I was expecting, it’s a lot brighter than I usually expect my sencha to be, but I suspect that’s partially because of the spearmint as well. Because it had a strong mint fragrance, I expect it to be more minty in flavour. Thankfully, I’m not likening it to toothpaste, because actual amount of mint in the flavour isn’t overwhelming (thank goodness).

I iced a second cup of this tea and found it to be tastier iced than hot because of the refreshing qualities of the mint.

A Second Cup?

No second steeps for this tea as it fully dissolved and there was nothing to resteep!

My Overall Impression

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I liked Pique Tea’s Mint Sencha. I thought that overall this tea was quite tasty, with some good sencha flavours with the added mint. I was happy that the mint wasn’t as overwhelming as I expected it to be. I found Mint Sencha to be better iced than hot (and thankfully it fully dissolves in cold water). With the way the packets work, you only get 14 servings per package (making each serving $0.57). This is cheaper than buying a to-go cup of tea at a coffee shop for sure, but it is more expensive than buying loose leaf tea by itself. That said, this is a product of convenience. I think tea bag drinkers will love this, because it means that they don’t have to be schlepping wet tea bags around (or worry about oversteeping their tea). For the convenience factor, I think it would be worth the cost per serving. I generally steep tea at home, so I’ll be using the remainder of the packets when I’m on-the-go or when I’m at work (as I don’t have the luxury of a desk job).

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Yunomi’s Shimane Oolong Tea

Shimane Oolong Tea by Yunomi
Oolong Tea / Straight
$7.50USD for 20g

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Yunomi has provided me with Shimane Oolong Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Shimane Oolong Tea is part of Yunomi’s collection of teas from the Takarabako Tea Farm, located in Oba Sorayama District, Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. While the sample packaging for this tea was not resealable, it has a soft, papery feel to the outside of the foil bag.

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Shimane Oolong Tea is described as being organic on Yunomi’s product page for this tea. It is a straight oolong tea, and I was pleasantly greeted with the aroma of this tea when I cut open the packaging. The dry leaf smells like golden raisins and freshly made toast. Inside, the dry leaf consists of mostly medium sized leaves with some broken stems.

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Preparation

Yunomi recommends steeping Shimane Oolong Tea in 90°C (194°F) water for 3 minutes. I did my initial steep for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Shimane Oolong Tea steeps to a pale honey colour, the aroma of this tea is primarily golden raisins with something that reminds me of peaches. The tea itself has a very mild astringency, not too much that it caused me any mouth-puckering. It has a slight sweetness, which goes well with the raisins and peaches, and it also has a refreshing crispness to the tea. Each sip of this oolong ended with a slight bitterness, I didn’t find it incredibly off-putting so I continue to drink the tea.

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I chilled a cup of Shimane Oolong Tea in the fridge and it’s delicious cold as well, in case you’re not feeling like a hot cup of tea during the hot summer days.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Shimane Oolong Tea eight times over the course of a day. I wasn’t overly careful with my steeping times towards the end, but the tea remained tasty with the flavours of golden raisins and peaches. I found that astringency remained in the tea throughout all the steeping of these leaves, but it wasn’t overwhelming. If you’re not a fan of astringent teas, I would recommend steeping for less time for the initial steep. The tea itself got to be a more golden yellow colour, and began to lose flavour by the seventh resteep. The bitterness that I had encountered at the end of each sip lingered on throughout all of the steeps.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Yunomi’s Shimane Ooolong Tea. I found that this oolong was quite tasty. There was such a complexity to the aroma and the flavours of this tea, that it was really enjoyable to drink. If you’re not a fan of astringency, I would recommend steeping less than the suggested length of time. The flavours are well balanced in this tea, both for the initial steep and the subsequent resteeps. I think this would be a great tea to have with a savoury meal because it’s not too sweet (even with the flavours of golden raisins and peaches), and it’s definitely a tea that I think should be resteeped again and again because the tea leaves are such high quality.

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Pluck’s Spadina Blend

Spadina Blend by Pluck
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.00 for 30g

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Pluck’s Spadina Blend came to me as part of The Sugared Teacup’s June themed subscription box.

First Impressions

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Spadina Blend is described as being inspired by Toronto’s Chinatown, and it’s not surprising based on the ingredients found in this black tea blend. Pluck describes it as having notes of “lychee, lemongrass, ginger, and coconut” and besides the coconut, the rest of the ingredients are very familiar to me as someone who grew up going to Vancouver’s historic Chinatown on a weekly basis. The first thing I could smell when I opened up the bag of tea was the mix of lemongrass, ginger, and coconut. The lychee fruit has a sweet floral aroma to it, and I did note some sweet fruity smells to it, but nothing overly floral. I must acknowledge the fact that lemongrass and ginger are both very strong aromas, so it’s hard for something delicate and floral to make an impact in comparison.

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In Spadina Blend is the following ingredients: black tea, lemongrass, dried ginger pieces, dried mango, unsweetened coconut, lime leaves, natural flavours.

Preparation

Pluck recommends steeping Spadina Blend in 100°C (212°F) water for 5 to 7 minutes. I opted to do my initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Spadina Blend steeps to a beautiful golden orange, it’s such an inviting colour! The aroma from this tea is primarily ginger and lemongrass, which I don’t find surprising given how intense those ingredients can be on their own, in teas, or in a dish. This tea honestly reminds me a lot of when I was younger and if I was sick or had a sore throat, because my mom would make me a drink that had a lot of ginger in it (and honey).

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The taste of this black tea blend is primarily lemongrass and ginger to me, I didn’t really taste a lot of coconut or the mango, but I can smell the lime from the lime leaves. There’s a hint of spice to this tea from the ginger, and sweetness that I believe to be derived from all the fruit that is in this tea, which helps to balance out the ginger.

I set aside a cup of this tea to cool down to room temperature before I added some ice. I think it makes a fantastic iced tea, the ginger adds a bit of refreshing heat but the other flavours get to be more forward when the ginger is toned down. There’s more fruity notes that I can make out when the tea is iced and it allows me to taste more of the other ingredients, which is nice.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Spadina Blend once, and found that the flavours were lacking compared to the initial steep. The intensity of the lemongrass and ginger wasn’t there anymore, and the rest of the flavours were a bit muddled in the background. I would say that Spadina Blend is good for one steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Pluck’s Spadina Blend. The ingredients are a nice window into Chinese ingredients, and the ginger and lemongrass were very forward and bold ingredients that Pluck had chosen for this black tea blend. I found that when hot, this tea reminded me a lot of the times when I was sick as a child and that the ginger was the strongest part of this tea. However, when iced this tea is so different. The other flavours get to come out to play, and there are more fruity notes in this tea which balance well with the strength of the ginger.

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