One More Steep – Page 200 – a bit of sugar and sass in your tea

December 21, 2017December 21, 2017

ShakTea’s Morning Dew

Morning Dew by ShakTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

My first experience with Morning Dew was at the Vancouver Tea Festival back in November of this year, where I smelled a sample of the dry leaves and just fell in love. The best way to describe this scented green tea is it smells fresh – which makes me think that it’s an appropriately named green tea. Morning Dew came to me in this cute metal tin – the tea was in a plastic bag inside, which I emptied out into the tin.

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There’s a brightness to the aroma that smells like roses and citrus. Morning Dew consists of “Japanese sencha, sunflower bits, cornflower bits, rose petals, and fruit essence”. Now I’m not too sure what “fruit essence” is, but I imagine that some part of it must be citrus based since the aroma of citrus (primarily oranges?) is very much present in this tea.

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Preparation

There were no steeping instructions on the packaging, and I didn’t find any recommendations on the ShakTea website. I used the green tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle (175°F/80°C) and steeped the tea for 3 minutes.

First Taste

My initial steep of 3 minutes was far too long! I found Morning Dew to be much too bitter and nearly undrinkable. So I restarted the process and steeped it for 90 seconds. I found that the green tea steeped to a nice yellow colour, while having a very bright aroma. I could smell the floral sweetness wafting up, along with the presence of citrus – so bright and refreshing smelling! My first sip of Morning Dew (the second time around) was sweet, with an underlying flavour of saltiness, which I attribute to the sencha base. There’s a mild citrus flavour that isn’t as strong as the floral flavours – I believe that to be the case because it’s fruit ‘essence’ versus the flower ‘bits’.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Morning Dew for a quick 2 minutes, and found the flavours to be quite muted in comparison to the initial steep. I found the citrus flavour to be quite dilute, but the floral and sencha base are still very much present. It’s a slightly less bright version of the initial steep. It’s still tasty, but not quite the same.

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My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked ShakTea’s Morning Dew. I do think that this is a very delicate green tea blend, and would highly caution against using water that is too hot or steeping too long, because it just gets to be very bitter, very quickly, if you’re not careful. I really enjoyed it once I tried steeping some fresh tea leaves, because the flavours are quite nice. I found that the initial steep was the best, although the second steep allowed the sencha base to shine more on its own. The added citrus in this blend is nice, I really liked how bright it made the tea feel. ShakTea’s website suggests that this can be enjoyed hot or iced – I feel like it would be a great candidate for cold steeping so you don’t accidentally oversteep the leaves in hot water

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December 13, 2017December 12, 2017

Necessitea’s Mojito

Mojito by Necessitea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$6.00USD for 2oz

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Necessitea has provided me with Mojito for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

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Mojito came to me from Necessitea in a resealable package. When I first opened the package, I first smelled the mint, and then the black tea base. I definitely smell the orange pekoe and the mint. Holly of Necessitea had included a letter with the package and described this blend as being inspired by the mojito drink, to give the option of a virgin tea version of the alcoholic drink (and could be mixed as well). I love the smell of the mint.

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Mojito is a black tea blend made up of orange pekoe black tea, mint, and lime. The lime is a bit harder to pick out of the tea, but I can definitely smell the mint in there.

Preparation

There were no steeping instructions on the packaging or the Necessitea website, but I did an initial steep at 100°C (212°F) for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Mojito steeps to a beautiful golden orange. The aroma that comes from this tea is richly of mint, with the fragrances of a strong orange pekoe. The tea base comes through and the mint isn’t too overwhelming. I found the lime present in the steeped tea, it just adds a touch of freshness in this tea and it primarily shines through at the beginning of tea sip. The tea has a slight sweetness to it, but I found it benefited from the addition of a bit of honey (I used a locally harvested clover honey), which helped to amplify the flavours of lime and mint.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Mojito a couple of times. I found the first resteep to be fairly similar to the initial steep, while I found the second resteep to be quite a bit watery. I would say that Mojito would be good for just one more steep.

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My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked Necessitea’s Mojito. I really enjoyed the mint flavours in this black tea blend, and the freshness that the mint leaves added to the tea. I wish that the lime was stronger, because I feel like it would have highlighted the mojito experience. I really liked this black tea with a touch of honey, and I think it would make an excellent iced tea if it had been hotter weather. If you like black teas with mint, I think you’ll really enjoy this black tea blend.

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