Category: Review

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Oollo Tea’s Red Jade Black Tea

Red Jade Black Tea by Oollo Tea
Black Tea / Straight
$10.00 for 25g

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Oollo Tea has provided me with Red Jade Black Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

One of the sample packets I got from Oollo Tea back in November 2016, this their Red Jade Black Tea. The tea leaves are long and wiry with how they are twisted together. The leaves themselves are dark, and when I opened up the bag the first thing I smelled was plums. There’s the sweet smell of plums mixed in with raisins. It’s an intriguing mix of fruit flavours, and it’s got my interest piqued.

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Red Jade Black Tea is a straight black tea, consisting of tea from Yuchi, Nantou, Taiwan.

Preparation

Oollo Tea recommends steeping in 90-95°C (194-203°F) water for 1-4 minutes. For those who’ve read my previous reviews before, you know how much I rely on my Breville IQ Kettle for the perfect temperature water – I used the Oolong setting (91°C/195°F) and did an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

Red Jade Black Tea steeps to a really pretty light golden orange – it reminds me a lot of the orange found in sunsets (which then makes me think of summer and how we’ve been having a lot of snow here…). There’s a nice plum and raisin aroma that comes from the tea when I smell it after it has steeped. On first sip, the first thing I taste is the taste of the plums and raisins. Then comes just a slight astringency at the end of sip that is met with a cool minty taste. As I continue to sip this tea, I find notes of warming cinnamon spice flavour, that really balances well with the sweetness of the plums. The minty flavour isn’t as prominent as the cinnamon, but it does make for quite the variation in flavour in the same cup of tea. Overall, I really like that this is a full-bodied tea, it has a great mouthfeel to it without being oily, and there’s a complex blend of flavours that makes it really fun to drink.

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A Second Cup?

The packaging suggested that I could steep this tea three times, so of course I did just that. I added an additional 30 seconds per subsequent resteep. I found that the tea has very similar flavours in steeps 2 and 3, but found that the plum flavour is far more pronounced in steeps 2 and 3 than the flavour of raisins.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Oollo Tea’s Red Jade Black Tea. What I thought was going to be a fairly straightforward black tea ended up being this delicious roller coaster of flavour. From the beginning to the end, each sip takes you on this crazy journey that starts off with the warming flavour of cinnamon and ends off with a cool bit of mint. It might be the most complex and interesting black tea that I’ve ever had the pleasure of steeping. And all the while, the notes of plum and raisin hang in there to balance out the warming and cooling flavours. It’s just plain delicious.

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The Key of Tea’s Signature Chai

Signature Chai by The Key of Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.50USD for 2oz

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The Key of Tea has provided me with Signature Chai 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 was contacted by Claire, the owner of The Key of Tea, wondering if I’d be interested in trying out some organic hand crafted tea blends and the answer was (and is always) yes. This is the first of three reviews of teas from The Key of Tea, I received samples of each one. My tea samples arrived in sealed plastic bags, this is not the same as the commercial packaging used by The Key of Tea, but Claire was nice enough to include a photo of her retail packaging for me to share:

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Signature Chai is a black tea blend that has a very strong ginger, cinnamon, peppermint and peppercorn aromas in the dry leaf. It smells delicious and has the right level of spices in the dry leaf that I would expect for any kind of chai. Signature Chai consists of: black tea, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, peppermint, cloves, peppercorn, cardamom, and coriander.

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Preparation

There weren’t any preparation recommendations on the sample or on the website, I used my trusty Breville IQ Kettle‘s black tea setting (100°C/212°F) and steeped Signature Chai for an initial steep of 4 minutes.

First Taste

Signature Chai steeps to a nice medium orange colour, there’s very strong smells of cinnamon and ginger that just waft up from my tea cup. It’s a very inviting smell. On first taste of Signature Chai, I can definitely taste the cinnamon and the ginger in the tea blend – both ingredients have great warming qualities and I like that about them. There’s a rather light freshness in each sip of tea, which I attribute to the peppermint even though I can’t really taste anything overly minty in this tea. The freshness is a welcome counterbalance to the warming qualities of the ginger and cinnamon in the blend. Unfortunately, while I could smell the peppercorn in the dry leaf of this Signature Chai, I find that I can’t really taste the peppercorn – perhaps it would come across more in the tea’s flavours if they had been crushed or ground prior to being put into the mix. There’s a gingery aftertaste to this blend that is surprising, as it did help me to open up the sinuses a bit as it was a bit strong (but not off-putting in the slightest).

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Signature Chai an additional two times, adding 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the flavours noted in the initial steep hold up well throughout all of the steeps. This tea does do well with the addition of sugar and milk, so don’t hesitate to mix it up a little bit and make to your liking.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked The Key of Tea’s Signature Chai. The warming qualities of the ginger and cinnamon are great, and I really like the addition of peppermint in a chai blend – I don’t think I’ve ever had that before and it’s actually quite refreshing. I do wish that the peppercorns came across more in the steeped tea, I think it would be a very different flavour if they had been crushed or ground instead of being whole peppercorns (although it is prettier to look at when they’re whole). Overall, Signature Chai is delicious and I think it has a good balance of flavours, I just wish that the peppercorns were present in the flavour profile of the steeped tea.

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The Virginia Tea Company’s Winter Cheer

Winter Cheer by The Virginia Tea Company
Black Tea / Flavoured
$15.00USD for 2oz (20 pyramid tea bags)

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The Virginia Tea Company has provided me with Winter Cheer for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

Winter Cheer came in a cardboard carton, but unlike the other teas from The Virginia Tea Company that I’ve reviewed so far, this one came preportioned in tea bags. Another option that they offer, this one is 2oz of tea in 20 pyramid tea bags for $15.00USD. For ease of seeing the tea itself, I cut open the tea bags to get a better look at the tea. There’s a strong smell of peppermint and cinnamon in this tea blend, I quite like it. The smell of peppermint and cinnamon both remind me of the holidays. It may be March, but it snowed this past week where I live, so it still feels like winter!

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It’s very easy to see all of the ingredients: black tea, peppermint, and cinnamon. As per the product page, all of the ingredients are organic. This tea is 66% fair trade and 100% organic, which is quite nice to learn! I like knowing that the people who helped to produce the tea are being paid a living wage for their area.

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Preparation

The Virginia Tea Company recommends steeping Winter Cheer in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 2 to 3 minutes. I steeped it for 2 minutes for the initial steep. They suggest that the tea leaves can be resteeped up to 3 times.

First Taste

Winter Cheer steeps to a clear reddish orange liquor. There’s a strong peppermint smell to it that’s quite inviting. On first sip, I can make out the black tea base – it has wonderful malty notes to it. The cinnamon is warming, and it provides a light amount of sweetness to the tea. The peppermint offers a minty freshness with each sip that reminds me of candy canes during the holidays. It’s been a while since I’ve had a tea blend where I could make out each individual flavour, it’s quite nice to be able to do that and taste how well balanced the flavours are!  They complement each other nicely.

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A Second Cup?

Because it was suggested that the tea leaves could be resteeped up to three times, I had to give it a go – and three resteeps was right on money. The mint and cinnamon flavours were still present by the third resteep, they were just a bit weaker. I think the flavours would be more muddled if I had attempted a fourth resteep. I added 30 seconds for each additional resteep.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved The Virginia Tea Company’s Winter Cheer. It may seem like the wrong month for it, but the crazy amount of snow I’ve been experiencing lately has gotten me into a bit of a sour mood so a cup of Winter Cheer suited me just fine as a pick-me-up. I found the flavours of all three ingredients to be well balanced in creating an enjoyable flavour. The fact the tea leaves can be resteeped up to three times is quite nice, the flavours are still present – just getting a smidgen weaker.

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