Tag: Arbor Teas

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Arbor Tea’s Nepal Black

Nepal Black by Arbor Teas
Black Tea / Straight
$15.50USD for 2.5oz

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

First Impressions

Nepal Black comes in the now-familiar environmentally friendly packaging that is compost ready. With a quick snip of the scissors across the top, the tea leaves spilled out because there was just so much of it! The leaves of Nepal Black are wiry – dark twisted leaves with golden yellow tips. The lighter parts of the leaves still have the visibly downy ‘feathery’ parts to the leaves.

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Nepal Black is an organic Nepalese black tea. The leaves are beautiful in this tea. The dry tea leaves of Nepal Black have a rich honey and brown sugar smell to it, the combination remind me a bit of molasses.

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Preparation

Arbor Teas recommends steeping Nepal Black in 212°F (1oo°C) water for 3-5 minutes. My initial steep of this organic black tea was for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Nepal Black’s initial step yields a lovely golden orange cup of tea. The aroma of this tea is strongly of honey and brown sugar – what a sweet combination. The taste of Nepal Black isn’t as sweet as the aroma led me to believe. It has a very strong flavour – reminds me a lot of breakfast teas in how strong it is (fans of English or Irish Breakfast teas will know what I’m talking about). It’s a full-bodied flavour that is matched with a touch of astringency that I often find with strong black teas. The honey and brown sugar flavours are present, albeit not as strong as the just overall strength of the black tea – it has a great mouthfeel to it and is just overall very strong. I think it could be tempered down with some cream or milk, if you were one of those people that like to doctor up your tea.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Nepal Black a few times (four resteeps in total), with an additional 30 seconds in steeping time for each subsequent steep. I found that the colour of this tea kept getting darker, becoming a beautiful amber colour as it steeped. The overall flavour of Nepal Black could be described in a word: robust. It’s very strong, the astringency did get stronger as I continued steeping it, although the brown sugar flavour was still holding its own by the last resteep.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Arbor Teas’ Nepal Black. I think Nepal Black works really well as a strong, straight black tea. The astringency isn’t off-putting, and the strength behind this tea really packs a punch. I wish the sweetness that I could smell from the tea was stronger in this tea, as I felt it really could benefit from some added sweetness (honey or sugar would be great for this tea to help amplify the honey flavour). Overall, I really liked Nepal Black. It’s an overall good cup of tea, and I think it’d be good for someone who’s looking to replace or go beyond a basic breakfast tea. This organic black tea really packs a punch with the strength behind the tea, but it’s a bit bolder and more complex in flavour.

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Arbor Tea’s Emerald Spring Lung Ching

Emerald Spring Lung Ching by Arbor Teas
Green Tea / Straight
$17.95USD for 2oz

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Arbor Teas has provided me with Emerald Spring Lung Ching 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 love a good Dragon Well, so I was pleased when Arbor Teas sent me a sample of their Emerald Spring Lung Ching to try. As mentioned in my earlier reviews of teas from Arbor Teas, they pride themselves on being organic as well as being environmentally friendly. I haven’t tested how quickly the packaging can decompose, but they do have a nifty video about how they went on the hunt for environment friendly packaging, stickers, and adhesives.

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The dry leaf of Emerald Spring Lung Ching has a very mild aroma. It smells floral to me, with a light sweetness. The flat leaves are beautiful, and I’m looking forward to steeping (and resteeping!) this green tea. Emerald Spring Lung Ching consists only of organic Chinese green tea so what you see is what you get.

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Did you know? Dragon Well is the direct English translation for Lung Ching or Longjing. Long is dragon and jing is well.

Preparation

Arbor Teas recommends steeping Emerald Spring Lung Ching in 180°F (82°C) water for 2-3 minutes. I steeped mine in 175°F water for 3 minutes (my Breville IQ Kettle has temperature settings for 175°F and 185°F, but not 180°F).

First Taste

Emerald Spring Lung Ching has a very soft aroma to it, it’s not overwhelming to the senses. This green tea steeps to a very pale yellow which is lovely to look at. I found that with the initial steep, Emerald Spring Lung Ching is a very pleasant cup of green tea. There’s no bitterness or astringency to note, there’s a buttery quality to this tea that is smooth and light floral notes. Because of the floral notes, there’s some sweetness to this tea that make it enjoyable.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Emerald Spring Lung Ching a total of four times. The colour gets to be a darker, more golden yellow with the subsequent steeps. There’s an increase in the creamy butter quality that makes this tea delicious. It reminds me a lot of some oolongs as sometimes oolongs can have a great buttery quality to it. The floral sweetness gets to be the strongest by the second resteep, and starts to lessen in intensity. As per my usual, when I resteep teas I added an extra 30 seconds in steep time for each subsequent resteep.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Arbor Tea’s Emerald Spring Lung Ching. I found this green tea to be delicious. It lacks the seaweed/vegetal flavours that a lot of green teas have, which I did appreciate as I think that it wouldn’t have balanced well with the natural butter and floral flavours in this straight green tea. This dragon well resteeps well, and I really enjoyed having this tea throughout the afternoon. I loved that it had a natural sweetness to it, since I tend to like sweets in general.

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Arbor Teas’ Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane

Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane by Arbor Teas
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$9.95USD for 2.5oz

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

First Impressions

When I read the list of ingredients for Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane, I was thinking to myself that I needed to keep this for when I have a sore throat or an upset stomach. The ingredients that make up this herbal infusion are: organic lemongrass, organic orange peel, organic cinnamon, organic ginger root, and natural cinnamon and orange flavouring. Typically, you can find a lot of lemongrass and ginger in herbal infusions that are meant for people feeling a bit under the weather. I know that for me, growing up, my mom made a lot of batches of ginger tea that had a bit of lemon and not quite enough honey to kill the spice of the ginger that she would slice up to put into the water. That said, let’s get into it!

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The packaging is the same as the other sample that I received from Arbor Teas (Silver Needle), so I won’t be getting into about how their packaging is very cool and compostable (which I think is fantastic for the environment). This blend has a great lemongrass aroma to it as soon as I cut open the packaging. The lemongrass, orange peel, ginger root and cinnamon are all very obvious visually in this blend, with lemongrass clearly being the star. I can smell the lemongrass, orange, and ginger. It definitely reminds me of the lemon-ginger-honey ‘tea’ that my mom would make for me when I was sick, this leads to a very comforting feel the aroma of this blend.

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Preparation

Arbor Teas recommends steeping Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane in boiling (100°C/212°F) water for 5 to 7 minutes. My initial steep of Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane was for 6 minutes.

The nice thing about this being an herbal infusion is that you can’t really “oversteep” this. With tea blends that have tea leaves in them, you run the risk of ‘burning’ the leaves or oversteeping them, which can lead to very bitter or very astringent cups of tea. With herbal infusions, there are no tea leaves so you can’t really do much damage to them. That said, the longer you steep this blend, the more intense the ginger and cinnamon flavours will be, which may lead to a spicier cup.

First Taste

Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane has a very bright fragrance to it – the orange and lemongrass play nicely together in bringing forward bold citrus scents, while the ginger is in the background with just a hint of spice. I can’t really smell the cinnamon after this has been steeped, but that’s fine by me as I didn’t really smell it in the dry leaf either. This herbal infusion steeps to a nice bright yellowy-orange, I quite like it! It’s a very cheerful colour. The taste is primarily lemongrass, with hints of orange and ginger. The ginger has a bit of spice to it, which was to be expected.

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A Second Cup?

I typically don’t resteep herbal or fruit infusions, but I did try this one for a resteep. I found the flavours in the resteep to be very mild compared to the initial steep. The impact of the lemongrass wasn’t as strong, and the orange was hard to find in my cup. The ginger wasn’t as strong either, which led to it being a bit disappointing. I would say that this tisane is good for one steep.

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My Overall Impression

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I thought that Arbor Tea’s Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane was just okay. This isn’t an herbal blend that I would have picked out for myself, mostly because of the lemongrass and ginger. It definitely does make me feel like I should have an upset stomach or be feeling under the weather while having this tisane because of what my mom used to make for me when I was sick. That said, the lemongrass and ginger flavours are strong and they go very well together. The longer you steep it, the stronger the ginger flavour will be in the resulting cup. I think that Orange Spice Lemongrass Tisane would be great if you’re looking for something to tame an upset stomach, or if you’re looking for a caffeine-free alternative to tea or coffee.

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