Category: Review

Posted on

Arbor Teas’ Silver Needle

Silver Needle by Arbor Teas
White Tea / Straight
$21.00USD for 2oz

20170509-arborteassilverneedle

Arbor Teas has provided me with Silver Needle for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

Silver Needle came to me from Arbor Teas in a sealed plastic packet. The text on the packaging told me that it was all biodegradable to be environmentally friendly, which I think is really neat. The nice thing about tea is that it is biodegradable, so it is really encouraging when the packaging is as well. Arbor Teas states on their website that they are certified organic.

20170509-arborteassilverneedle1

Silver Needle is an organic Chinese white tea, with no additional ingredients. The leaves themselves are long and skinny, with the white feathery down on the leaves. They’re quite beautiful to look at. Because of the shape and size of the leaves, it’s quite a bulky amount of tea in this package! There’s a sweet honeyed smell to the dry leaf that’s quite inviting.

20170509-arborteassilverneedle2

Preparation

Arbor Teas recommends steeping Silver Needle in 180F water for 2-3 minutes. My initial steep of Silver Needle was for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Silver Needle steeps to a very pale yellow that you can almost miss, if you don’t have the best light. The tea itself has a light scent to it, floral and honey is the best way for me to describe it. My first sips were so enjoyable. There’s a lightness to this tea that is the opposite of ‘heavier’ teas (black teas, I’m looking at you!). There is zero astringency, absolutely no bitterness. Silver Needle has a beautiful honeyed flavouring to it that balances well with this light floral flavour. The lightness of this tea makes it easy to drink.

20170509-arborteassilverneedle4

A Second Cup?

Silver Needle gets darker with each resteep until it gets to be a bright, golden yellow. I resteeped Arbor Teas’ Silver Needle a total of six times (seven steeps overall), adding an additional 30 seconds per steep. The tea gets almost thicker in texture, with an increase in floral-honey taste. Silver Needle is still light and very much enjoyable, despite getting thicker as it gets darker. I found my last steep got to be a little bit lacking in flavour, but I was able to get five resteeps that were a complete joy for the taste buds.

20170509-arborteassilverneedle5

20170509-arborteassilverneedle6

My Overall Impression

rating4

I loved Arbor Teas’ Silver Needle. Such a beautiful tea from the dry leaf to the first (and last) cup. The honey floral flavour of this white tea are delicious, and the capability of this tea to handle steep after steep is a testament to the quality of the young leaves. In a way, this Silver Needle got a little bit more complex in flavour with each steep because it got darker and thicker and just more delicious. I think it would be great as a post-meal tea if you’re looking for something a little sweet, or as a tea to pair up with an afternoon tea that is skewed more heavily to the sweets and pastries over savoury food options.

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

Posted on

TeaHaus’s Victorian Earl Grey

Victorian Earl Grey by TeaHaus
Black Tea / Flavoured
$6.30USD for 50g

20170505-teahausvictorianearlgrey

TeaHaus has provided me with Victorian Earl Grey for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I make it no secret that one of my favourite teas is Earl Grey, so I was really excited with TeaHaus sent me a sample of their Earl Grey blend, Victorian Earl Grey. The dry tea is lovely, I love being able to see the lavender buds and rosemary in the tea. The bergamot oil in this tea isn’t overpowering the black tea base, but there is a nice brightness with the bergamot. I can also smell the lavender and the rosemary, which is nice, although I can’t smell the rose blossoms in the dry leaf.

20170505-teahausvictorianearlgrey1

Victorian Earl Grey consists of: black tea, first-rate bergamot oil, lavender, rosemary, and rose blossoms. All of the ingredients are visible, aside from the bergamot oil.

20170505-teahausvictorianearlgrey3

Preparation

TeaHaus recommends steeping Victorian Earl Grey in boiling water for 2.5 minutes. As my usual, I used the black tea setting on my variable temperature kettle and used water that was 100C (212F) and I steeped the tea for 2.5 minutes.

First Taste

Victorian Earl Grey steeps to a lovely deep orange colour. There’s a subtle mix of bergamot and floral aromas that waft up from the tea as I poured it into my tea cup and it’s quite inviting. When sipping the tea, there’s a lovely balance in the flavour profile of this Earl Grey. I can’t really make out the rosemary in the steeped tea, which is a bit disappointing since it was noticeable in the dry leaf. However, the lavender/floral notes are quite strong in the steeped tea and it balances very well with the bright citrus notes from the bergamot oil. I found that the black tea base played a good supporting role to this tea blend – there was no bitterness or astringency noted in the steeped tea.

20170505-teahausvictorianearlgrey4

I often doctor up my Earl Grey and I made no exception for this tea. I tried it with honey, which helped to really brighten up the bergamot and lavender flavours. I also made it into a tea latte (London Fog) and it made a great base for a London Fog. The lavender was significantly toned down compared to the bergamot oil after the addition of milk, which was very nice and I do tend to prefer my London Fogs without lavender. I make my tea lattes at home without any fancy frothers or equipment, check out my post about making lattes at home.

20170505-teahausvictorianearlgrey5

A Second Cup?

I did resteep Victorian Earl Grey three times (four steeps overall). I found for the subsequent steeps that the flavours were very similar to the initial steep for the first two resteeps, although the second resteep was a bit weaker. I found the third resteep to be weakest overall and would recommend two resteeps for this Earl Grey blend.

20170505-teahausvictorianearlgrey6

My Overall Impression

rating4

I loved TeaHaus’s Victorian Earl Grey. I am very fond for Earl Grey, so I am a little bit picky about it. I generally don’t like lavender in my Earl Grey, but I did find this one to be quite palatable. The floral notes were not over powering the bergamot, which is one of my favourite qualities of a cup of Earl Grey, so it was quite good. The balance of floral and citrus notes make it a tasty cup of tea. I love that the tea holds well with being modified a little bit, what with honey and milk. I do think this tea benefits from a sweetener as it helps brighten up the flavours added into this tea blend.

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

Posted on

DavidsTea’s Happy Valley Darjeeling

Happy Valley Darjeeling by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Straight
$14.98 for 50g

20170502-davidsteahappyvalleydarjeeling

First Impressions

When I found out that DavidsTea was getting a new collection of straight teas in, I was curious. I’m a sucker for a good straight tea so when I walked into my local DavidsTea shop I asked to smell all of them (there are three) and then I went ahead and bought a small bag of each. The nice thing about living locally to a DavidsTea location is that I don’t have to purchase a full 50g of each tea (like I would if I was ordering online).

20170502-davidsteahappyvalleydarjeeling1

Happy Valley Darjeeling is an organic black tea from Darjeeling, India. As per the product page, DavidsTea describes the tea as a second flush tea from Happy Valley, a tea estate in Darjeeling with a long, rich history of producing tea. First flush is tea harvested in mid-March while second flush is harvested in June. The tea leaves of Happy Valley Darjeeling have a very bright fruity smell to it, I mostly smell fruity tones that remind me of stone fruits (like plums).

20170502-davidsteahappyvalleydarjeeling2

Preparation

DavidsTea’s packaging suggests steeping this in “near-boiling water” for 4 to 7 minutes. Their website suggests that near-boiling is 90-95°C (194-203°F). I did my initial steep at the recommended water temperature for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Happy Valley Darjeeling steeps to a beautiful golden orange, there’s a great aroma that wafts up from the tea that reminds me a lot of plums still. There’s a bit of sweetness to this steeped tea that can be smelled. On first sip, I note that the tea is a bit astringent. It’s not overpowering the overall flavour of the tea, so it’s still quite palatable. The plum notes are soft, with the natural fruity sweetness of this tea. The plum notes are delicious, and play well with the astringency in this steeped tea.

20170502-davidsteahappyvalleydarjeeling5

A Second Cup?

As Happy Valley Darjeeling is a straight tea, I couldn’t help myself when it came to resteeping this tea. I steeped the leaves again at the same temperature of water, just adding an additional 30 seconds per each subsequent steep. I did a total of three resteeps (four steeps overall) before the flavour started to really be a ghost of what the initial steep resembled. The astringency doesn’t mellow with additional resteeps, and the sweet plum notes held up well until the last steep that I did. I would suggest doing a maximum of two resteeps for this straight black tea.

20170502-davidsteahappyvalleydarjeeling6

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked DavidsTea’s Happy Valley Darjeeling. I think as a straight tea, the flavours are nice. The sweet plum flavours mix very well with the astringency in this black tea, and the tea leaves hold up well for a few resteeps to get more flavour and value out of the leaves. I’m a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to get more steeps out of these leaves, but I found that the steeped leaves were quite broken up once they had opened up and I could see that they weren’t whole leaves. For the price, I would have expected a few more steeps, but the tea itself is quite good for the steeps that I did do with it. I think the plum sweetness is a delight for the taste buds, and this tea doesn’t need additional sweetener (although that may help to temper the astringency if that isn’t your cup of tea).

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