Category: Review

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Tielka’s Earl Royale

Earl Royale by Tielka
Black Tea / Flavoured
$10.00CAD for 24g (12 tea sachets)

Tielka has provided me with Earl Royale for the purposes of writing an honest review.

Until June 14th 2020, when you order a pouch of Earl Royale from Tielka, you’ll receive a free storage tin with your order when you mention One More Steep in the comments of your order!

First Impressions

Earl Royale comes in an adorable green cardstock box with a white leaf design. The information of the tea comes on a printed label that seals the packaging. Inside of the cardstock box is a foil package that helps keep the tea fresh, which I do appreciate! The tea itself comes portioned into pyramid tea sachets, which is a nice touch. They’re very translucent, so you can really see the details of the tea – which of course I tore open for a photo.

There’s an amazingly strong bergamot aroma, which is what I like when it comes to Earl Grey. The packaging tells me that this Earl Grey features Dianhong black tea, which is from Yunnan Province, China – which is a lot of information for a blended tea. The tea is certified organic and fair-trade, and the tea sachet material is plastic-free and plant-based fibres (pretty cool!). Earl Royale consists of: black tea, sweet orange peel, cornflower petals, and bergamot oil.

Preparation

Tielka recommends steeping Earl Royale in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions for the initial steep.

First Taste

Earl Royale steeps to a lovely golden orange colour with a strong bergamot aroma. There’s a pleasant smoothness from the tea – no bitterness or astringency – with a nice citrus profile, a sweet and mild floral taste in the background, all supported by the black tea base that has a slight earthiness to it that I think just balances really nicely with the citrus notes.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Earl Royale once, adding an additional 30 seconds for the subsequent steep. I found that the bergamot and orange flavours just weren’t as strong as they were for the initial steep, but the black tea base shined through a bit more with a nice earthy flavour with just a touch of umami in it. If you’re a bigger fan of Earl Grey than regular black tea, I would stick to the initial steep (but if you also like a more traditional black tea, resteep Earl Royale because there’s still flavour in those teas!).

My Overall Impression

I loved Tielka’s Earl Royale. I’m a fan of Earl Grey – as anyone who’s read my website before knows. I really enjoyed the balance of bergamot to the sweet orange peel, and also how well the black tea based shined through. I didn’t add anything to my initial steep of Earl Royale, but I think this would do beautifully as the base of a London Fog as well and would do very nicely as a tea addition to your afternoon tea menu, as it would take nicely to cream and sweetener, if needed.

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Whisk Premium Matcha’s Organic Hojicha Powder

Organic Hojicha Powder by Whisk Premium Matcha
Green Tea / Straight
$29.00 for 100g

First Impressions

Out of the purchases I had shared from the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival in my Instagram stories, the Organic Hojicha Powder that I picked up from Kimmy at Whisk Premium Matcha did garner the most interest. What do you do with it? What does it taste like? Is it better than matcha? Answers: whatever you want (drink, use in baking, smoothies, etc); I’m going to get to that; and no? yes? I guess that really depends on if you like matcha or not.

Organic Hojicha Powder comes in a big shiny black pouch that is sealed and resealable with lovely black printed labels on the front and back. Whisk Premium Matcha describes Organic Hojicha Powder as a roasted and ground Japanese green tea, it’s single-origin and farm direct, USDA organic and from Uji, Kyoto, Japan.The power itself has a warm brown cocoa-like appearance. There is a strong roasted tea aroma that seems much stronger than a typical hojicha that hasn’t been ground into a fine powder (which I also like).

Preparation

Whisk Premium Matcha recommends whisking Organic Hojicha Powder with some warm water. No temperature suggestions were given, so I simply went with the lowest temperature setting on my Breville IQ Kettle (still my best purchase 4 years later and going strong every day!) – which is 175°F (79°C).

I did prepare Organic Hojicha Powder much like I do matcha – I scooped some of the powder up and sifted it into my matcha bowl, added a bit of water, whisked it, and then added further water to thin it out. I went over the basics of preparing matcha a while ago, but linking it here for easy reference!

First Taste

Organic Hojicha Powder easily whisks up to a dark almost chocolate brown. It has a really strong roasted and nutty aroma to it – reminds me of a steeped hojicha tea, but amplified. The flavour is very strong – roasted, toasted nutty flavours, just a soft and mild floral note in the background. I found the strong nutty flavour really lingers on the tongue. Organic Hojicha Powder is intense compared to a regular hojicha in terms of flavour.

A Second Cup?

Like a matcha, Organic Hojicha Powder is a suspension so there are no second steeps with the same powder.

My Overall Impression

I loved Whisk Premium Matcha’s Organic Hojicha Powder. There’s just something really great about it that just punches you in the taste buds with all of those intense flavours – roasted and toasted flavours, the nuttiness throughout, the sweet that just peeks through the flavour profile to make itself known. I can definitely see myself utilizing this in a hojicha latte, or using it in baking in place of cocoa or matcha – I think it’d be pretty tasty!

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Teakan’s Laoshan Green

Laoshan Green by Teakan
Green Tea / Straight
$25.00 for 70g

Laoshan Green is part of the Teakan’s Spring 2020 Exploration box, which I purchased at the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival back in March. This Exploration Box consists of 5 teas and Laoshan Green was 15g of the 70g.

First Impressions

Laoshan Green is a green tea that was a 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival purchase. The tea comes in a sealed, resealable kraft paper pouch with the minimalism white and black label on the packaging. I still appreciate the simplicity of the label because it just really allows the tea itself to shine. No fancy packaging, no glitzy illustrations – just simple.

Laoshan Green is a Chinese green tea from Laoshan, Shandong, China. The leaves were harvested in autumn 2019. The leaves are thin and wiry. The colours vary from a light grass green to a deep olive green. Such variation in shades of green! And it has a sweet, grassy aroma – which I find both inviting and tempting because I love a good green tea.

Preparation

Teakan offers two different steeping recommendations. With the gongfu method, Teakan recommends 80°C (176°F) water for 5 seconds and the western method at 80°C (176°F) water for 3o seconds.

Because 5 seconds was just a wee bit too quick for me, I opted to steep Laoshan Green in the western method.

First Taste

Laoshan Green steeps to a beautiful pale yellow-green colour. The aroma is grassy, with hints of honey sweetness in the background. The flavour of the tea has a mix of grass and vegetables – it has a nice crispness to it that reminds me a lot of green beans – which I like. There’s a sweetness to it that reminds me of honey, but it’s not overpowering the other flavours in this green tea.

A Second Cup?

I did four resteeps of Laoshan Green (five steeps total). I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The green bean and grassy notes are most intense in the first resteep, and slowly begin to wane after that. I found that the flavour stayed really nice throughout each steep, and I think I could have gone further if I had wanted to put in more time into steeping it. It’s pleasant and tasty though, so I quite enjoyed it.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Laosha Green. I really enjoyed the flavour of the tea, I found the grassy and green bean notes to be delightful and be a treat to steep because of how well the tea resteeped and how much I liked the flavours. The honey sweetness that was present was enjoyable, and didn’t overwhelm the grassy notes. I love the flavour profile found in this straight tea, and found the sweet balanced really nicely against the green bean and grassy notes that I found in Laoshan Green.

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