Tag: Black Tea

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Hawaiian Islands Tea Company’s Pineapple Waikiki

Pineapple Waikiki by Hawaiian Islands Tea Company
Black Tea / Flavoured
$5.95USD for 36g (20 tea bags)

First Impressions

I received Pineapple Waikiki as a gift for cat-sitting while the cat’s owners were away in Hawaii (lucky butts!). Pineapple Waikiki is a flavoured black tea that comes in a colourful printed cardstock box. There’s a perforated opening at the front where you can slide out each tea bag by itself. The tea itself comes in individually wrapped tea bags. The packets are made of plastic, with the tea bags inside each one. The steeping instructions are on the individual packets.

Pineapple Waikiki is made of black tea and natural flavouring. I would hazard a guess that the flavouring is pineapple as the pineapple area is very strong – it smells fruity and sweet! It does a great job of representing pineapple.

Preparation

Hawaiian Islands Tea Company recommends steeping Pineapple Waikiki in boiling water (100°C/212°F) water for 1 to 3 minutes. My initial steep was for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Pineapple Waikiki steeps to a dark reddish orange colour. There’s a very bright pineapple aroma from the tea, which is nice. There’s a light sweet, fruity flavour to the tea. I found that the black tea base is a bit malty, with a mild astringency to the tail end of each sip. If this bothers you, I would opt to steep it for a shorter time (try 1 or 2 minutes). The pineapple flavour is very present in the steeped tea.

I would recommend trying this tea iced – perhaps even cold-steeping it since the pineapple flavouring make it ideal as an iced tea.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Pineapple Waikiki and found that it didn’t do very well on resteep. The pineapple flavour was very weak in the resteep. I would say that Pineapple Waikiki is good for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked Hawaiian Islands Tea Company’s Pineapple Waikiki. The pineapple aroma and flavour in the dry leaf and steeped tea were just divine. I loved how inviting the tea is and how bright the tropical fruity flavours are in this black tea. I do wish that the tea did better on resteep, something that could be remedied with some dried candied pineapple pieces in the blend, perhaps? I think this tea would be great iced, and it’ll be fun to have it iced as the weather continues to warm up.

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Little White House’s Creme de la Earl Grey Tea

Creme de la Earl Grey by Little White House
Black Tea / Flavoured
$14.00 for 100g

First Impressions

Creme de la Earl Grey is the standard black tea that comes with the afternoon tea at Little White House (you can find my review of their afternoon tea service here), and the tea is also available for purchase if you want the opportunity to recreate the feeling of afternoon tea at home. Creme de la Earl Grey comes in a plastic pouch that is resealable with a gold tabbed wire. It isn’t air-tight, so I would up transferring the tea into an empty tea tin.

The dry leaf has a beautiful and inviting bergamot and vanilla aroma to it, with light floral notes in the background. Creme de la Earl Grey consists of: Assam and Ceylon black teas, vanilla, bergamot, flower blossoms, and flavouring.

Preparation

Little White House recommends steeping Creme de la Earl Grey in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 3 minutes, then to stir, and steep for an additional 2 minutes (5 minutes total). I followed the steeping instructions for my initial steep.

First Taste

Creme de la Earl Grey steeps to a golden orange. There’s a very strong bergamot aroma that wafts up from the tea. There is a noticeable flavour of bergamot and creamy vanilla in the tea, as well as the flavours of the strong black tea base. There is a robust malty flavour and I found it to be pleasantly strong, like a breakfast tea.

I’ve had this tea as part of the afternoon tea service and I’ve had it both straight and with some additions added (sugar cubes, cream/milk). I opted to have it straight/plain at home, and found it to be quite enjoyable although I do think my favourite way to drink Creme de la Earl Grey is to have it with a touch of honey and evaporated milk.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Creme de la Earl Grey twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour of Creme de la Earl Grey stayed fairly consistent with each resteep, although the bergamot and vanilla flavours do get a bit weaker with each steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Little White House’s Creme de la Earl Grey. I found the flavour of this Earl Grey blend to be quite pleasant, and the strong creamy vanilla notes really set it apart from other Earl Grey blends. I liked the tea plain, but I enjoy it best when made with cream and sweetener (local honey is always a good choice!). Creme de la Earl Grey is a great tea choice if you’re having afternoon tea at home.

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Field to Cup’s April Adventurer Box

April Adventurer Box by Field to Cup
$34.97USD for 1 Adventurer Box (per month)
$356.69USD for 12 Months ($29.72/mo)

Field to Cup has provided me with the April Adventurer Box for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

It’s always a fun treat to open up the Adventurer Box from Field to Cup. As always, Field to Cup offers a variety of boxes (from traditional teas in the Adventurer option to seasonal blends in the Explorer option). The April Adventurer Box features five teas – four black teas and one white tea. Each tea comes in a sealed (and resealable) foil pouch with a label that has information regarding tasting notes, steeping instructions, and ingredients.

From left to right: Organic Nilgiri Highlands, Golden Jin Luo, and Chai Bazaar.

The first three teas I tried were all black teas. Organic Nilgiri Highlands is a black tea from Indian. This straight tea from the Thiashola Estate in the Nilgiris District of India has a lot of dark reddish-brown leaf pieces. There’s a light citrus aroma from the leaves. The tasting notes provided by Field to Cup suggest curry notes, but I don’t really smell those in the dry leaf. Golden Jin Luo is a black tea from China, specifically the Guanxi Province. This tea has some beautiful leaves – the dry leaves are twisted into spirals, with plenty of light golden orange tips as well as some dark brown portions to the leaves. The aroma of the leaves reminds me a lot of yeast (for those that bake, you know what I’m talking about) and slightly malty, like an assam. Chai Bazaar has a gorgeous aroma. I instantly smelled the cardamom and ginger and it’s just so inviting. It smells a lot like other chais that I’ve had before, but there’s just something curious about it – most other chai blends I’ve had before have had cinnamon, which this blend lacks. Chai Bazaar consists of: black tea, rooibos, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and saffron. Luckily I don’t smell the rooibos in the blend.

From left to right: Organic Nilgiri Highlands, Golden Jin Luo, and Chai Bazaar.

From left to right: Organic Water Sprite and Pure Gold.

The second two teas that I tried were the Organic Water Sprite (white tea) and Pure Gold (black tea). Organic Water Sprite has a light floral aroma to it. Despite the bag being larger than the other tea pouches, it contained a similar weight of tea (20g) – making it a considerably more airy tea. This straight white tea is from the Fujian Province of China, it has some downy feathery leaves in it. Visually, it almost reminds me a of a blend of silver needle and white peony (which are both excellent types of white tea). Pure Gold has some lovely wiry, golden leaves that have some feathery features to it that remind me of a golden silver needle. There’s a sweet, fruity aroma to the dry leaf that reminds me a lot of lychee fruit. This black tea is from the Guangxi Province of China.

From left to right: Organic Water Sprite and Pure Gold.

Preparation

Organic Nilgiri Highlands is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 3 minutes.

Golden Jin Luo is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 4 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 4 minutes.

Chai Bazaar is recommended to steep in 205°F (96°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 200°F (93°C) water for 3 minutes.

Organic Water Sprite is recommended to steep in 180°F (82°C) water for 2 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F (79°C) water for 2 minutes.

Chai Bazaar is recommended to steep in 195°F (90°C) water for 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 195°F (90°C) water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

From left to right: Organic Nilgiri Highlands, Golden Jin Luo, and Chai Bazaar.

Organic Nilgiri Highlands steeps to a light orange. There’s a noticeable citrus aroma that reminds me a lot of oranges. There is a light spicy note at the end of each sip, which I thought was really pleasant. I think that’s what Field to Cup is referencing in terms of the curry notes.

Golden Jin Luo has a nice orange brown colour after it steeps. There is still a malty aroma to it. I found it tasted lovely though, there was a nice strength behind it – although it wasn’t as strong as an assam is, with a nice lingering taste to it. It feels like it would be a higher caffeinated tea, almost like a breakfast tea, but without the potential bitterness.

Chai Bazaar has a dark brown colour to it. I found it has an inviting aroma to it – I found that I could taste the ginger, cardamom, and saffron. I found this chai blend to be both spicy and sweet – the cloves are a bit strong for me, I found. If you find the cloves to be a bit strong, adding a little bit of milk to it would help temper the flavour of the cloves (and perhaps you could have a chai latte).

From left to right: Organic Water Sprite and Pure Gold.

Organic Water Sprite steeps to a pale yellow colour. I found that it has a beautiful floral aroma – the flavour of the white tea is a pleasant sweetness with a smooth floral flavour that is present from start to finish. It has a light buttery quality to it that I found delightful as the sweetness lingers as an aftertaste.

Pure Gold steeps to a golden orange colour. I found the tea to be sweet, and I would agree with Field to Cup’s tasting notes that it tastes like molasses and fruit, as I get a flavour that reminds me a lot of brown sugar as well as lychee fruit and apricots. It’s quite pleasant and I found it to have a very pleasant mouthfeel.

A Second Cup?

As always with my resteeps, I add an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent resteep and keep the water temperature the same as the initial steep (I use a variable temperature water kettle – Breville’s IQ Kettle).

From left to right: Organic Nilgiri Highlands, Golden Jin Luo, and Chai Bazaar.

I resteeped both Organic Nilgiri Highlands and Golden Jin Luo three times, I found the flavour to be pleasant and quite similar to the initial steep for the first two resteeps. They were both considerably weaker by the third resteep, so I could recommend an additional two resteeps for those teas. Chai Bazaar did decently well for the first resteep, and poorly for the second so I would say that this chai blend is good for just one more steep.

From left to right: Organic Water Sprite and Pure Gold.

For Organic Water Sprite, I resteeped the same tea leaves a total of seven times. I found that the flavour stayed consistent and deepened for the first three resteeps, while it slowly lessened with each steep after that. It did a fantastic job with being resteeped. Pure Golden was good for resteeping as well, I managed to resteep a total of four times before I thought it was getting too weak in flavour to have again.

My Overall Impression

I loved Field to Cup’s April Adventurer Box. I really enjoyed trying each of the teas and I found that they were all of good quality. If you’re looking for some delicious black teas to try, this month’s box really fits the bill. Almost all of the teas can handle being resteeped more than once – which shows the quality of the leaves (and the box as a whole!). My favourites from this month’s box are Organic Water Sprite, Pure Gold, and Golden Jin Luo. If you ever decide that you just want to try one of the teas out of a box, you can purchase the teas à la carte from Field to Cup.

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