Category: Review

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Masters Teas’ Rohini Gold Wire

Rohini Gold Wire by Masters Teas
Oolong Tea / Straight
$19.00USD for 2oz

Masters Teas has provided me with Rohini Gold Wire for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

One of my favourite types of tea is oolong – and I’m not shy about sharing that. It’s not one that I drank a lot growing up (mostly black and green), but it was one that was had on occasion. So when someone asks if I want the opportunity to try out a single origin oolong tea, I’m not about to say no. Rohini Gold Wire is a single origin oolong from Darjeeling, India. Single origin is an interest term that’s been used a lot lately in the tea industry (and probably other industries as well). Basically what it means that the tea is only from one area, or farm. When you get a grocery store tea, it’ll be (for example) a black tea, but you don’t necessarily know where it came from. Sometimes it’s from multiple farm sources and they get blended together. But a single origin tea is basically as labelled – single origin.

Rohini Gold Wire comes in a sealed, resealable pouch with some information on it from Masters Teas. As it came in sample packaging, I did have to go to the product page on their website to find out more information about it. This is the February 2021 harvest, and is said to be similar to oolongs from China – which makes me really curious and excited to give it a try. The aroma of it is sweet, fruity, and nutty. The leaves are really quite pretty with a nice range in colours that I get to enjoy. There’s that nice pop of spring green in there that is nice to see among the darker shades of green-brown in there.

Preparation

Masters Teas recommends steeping Rohini Gold Wire in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions for my initial steep of Rohini Gold Wire.

First Taste

Rohini Gold Wire steeps to a very inviting and friendly shade of yellow. The aroma of this tea is fruity – it reminds me of grapes and peaches – and it has a nice sweetness to it. There’s a slightly thickened texture to the tea, but it’s really quite smooth and I find no bitterness or astringency to it. It’s a nice tea to sip and has a really full-bodied flavour that that can be found throughout each sip and it just is easy to drink. I found the sweetness to remind me of honey and that there was a slight toasted note at the tail end of each sip, but I can’t really place what it reminds me of.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Rohini Gold wire a total of five times (six steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The tea itself became a more darker, golden colour. The flavour turned more fruity and less sweet, but nonetheless easy to drink and tasty.

My Overall Impression

I loved Masters Teas’ Rohini Gold Wire. There was just something really pleasant about this tea to drink. It had a great flavour from start to finish, and I found that the flavour stayed fairly consistent, despite getting less sweet. The leaves themselves performed beautifully and did a great job with resteeping, so I would highly recommend going that route so you can get your money’s worth with this tea. This would be a lovely tea to share with friends or family over some nice bites of something sweet to tea because I think it could compliment both sweets and savouries quite well (but I would reach for the sweets).

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Teakan’s Moonlight White

Moonlight White by Teakan
White Tea / Straight
$30.00 for 66g

Moonlight White is part of Teakan’s Volume 3 Exploration Kit, a collection of five single origin teas. Moonlight White makes up 10g of the 66g kit.

First Impressions

A good white tea is occasionally hard to come by. There’s just something lovely about a minimally processed tea – something as close to being freshly plucked off of the plant as you can get… And then there’s Teakan with their Moonlight White as part of their 3rd Exploration Kit. Moonlight White was harvested in spring 2020, so it’s pretty new to the world. It is from Simao, Yunnan, China. It comes in the very familiar kraft paper pouch that is sealed and resealable with the minimalistic labeling design that Teakan uses – white with plain black lettering. Just something about it that I love. While this pouch only contains 10g of tea (it is part of a sampler, after all), 10g can go along way when it comes to a straight tea. Plus,  I feel like the leaves just take up so much space and it definitely feels like more than 10g of tea.

The leaves are wildly diverse in colour – ranging from pale cream to dark brown. There’s lots of feathery bits visible in the leaves, it’s quite amazing how detailed the leaves are after going through the drying process to become tea. There’s minimal to no twist in the leaves and they honestly look like someone plucked them and just dropped them onto a tray to dry. But look! They just take up so much space, so you really get quite an airy tea for 10g. The aroma of Moonlight White is honey sweet and floral – it reminds me of spring and taking walks in the forest after a rain – it just has a freshness about it.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Moonlight White in 90°C (194°F) water for 2-3 minutes if steeping western style and 25-30 seconds if steeping gongfu style. For my own personal preference, I opted to steep Moonlight White in the western style for an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

As you can see, Moonlight White steeps quite a pale yellow in the initial steep. The aroma of the steeped tea is very similar to the dry leaf – sweet and floral. The floral is really light, but doesn’t taste as being like a floral perfume which is a huge plus. I enjoy the gentle sweetness in each sip and it has a great mouthfeel to it, just a lightly thickened texture to it. A pleasant and smooth cup of tea to drink.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Moonlight White a total of seven times (eight steeps total with the same leaves). The tea itself got darker and more golden yellow as I did more resteeps, and the flavour skewed more towards floral while I think the level of sweetness remained fairly similar to the initial steep. There was also more fruity notes as I continued steeping, but it remains floral-forward. It reminds of the fruity flavours of lychee if I needed to give it a label.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Moonlight White. This is such a pleasant white tea and I feel like it was just so giving – so good to resteep, a great flavour with a natural sweetness, and just makes for a nice cup of tea. I would highly recommend resteeping this if you have the time for it because it’s well worth it. Beautiful leaves with a beautiful flavour. This is the type of tea that just makes me really appreciate the tea plant in its purest form.

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DavidsTea’s Flamingo Fresca

Flamingo Fresca by DavidsTea
White Tea / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

Flamingo Fresca was available as an online exclusive.

First Impressions

I’m forever a sucker for pretty teas, and even though I know better than to trust how good a tea will taste based on how pretty the dry blend looks, I still want to give it a try. Flamingo Fresca is one of those teas that snuck into my house based on how pretty it looked in photographs. I know, I know, I’m my own worst enemy sometimes. But this is Flamingo Fresca, it comes in a sealed, resealable silver pouch with a pale blue label across the front with all the information you’ll need about this pretty tea blend.

Flamingo Fresca consists of: apple, pineapple, hibiscus blossoms, white tea, sprinkles, carrots, orange peel, lemongrass, strawberry, passion fruit, marigold blossoms, and natural flavouring. Flamingo Fresca basically smells like all the tropical fruits in the world fell into a blender. It has really strong aromas of pineapple, strawberry and passion fruit. I really don’t smell the white tea, but I’m also not surprised based on the other ingredients present in this blend. Plus, look at the cute pink flamingo sprinkles!

Preparation

Davidstea recommends steeping Flamingo Fresca in 90°C (195°F) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions and did an initial steep for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Surprise, surprise, Flamingo Fresca steeps to a bright, deep pink. Thank you to the hibiscus in this blend because it has that beautiful, rich pink colour. The aroma is very similar to the dry leaf – pineapple, strawberry, apples. It’s very fruity and quite sweet, but not to the point that I feel like it’s too much. It has a great flavour, there’s the tartness from the hibiscus that makes me think that this really needs to be made as an iced tea (and perhaps with a fresh squeeze of lemon or lime). Good thing that summer is just around the corner!

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Flamingo Fresca, but I was unsurprised to find that the first resteep (second steep of the same leaves) did not render a very good tasting cup of tea. Such is the nature of a fruity blended tea.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Flamingo Fresca. I think the flavour was good and it’ll be really nice as an iced tea versus having hot. The level of fruitiness is good, but I feel like it really needs more of a citrus punch to make me think of fresca (which has grapefruit), and it would be perfect for patio if prepared with ice, a splash of lemonade, and an extra lemon wedge for that punch of flavour.

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