Tag: Black Tea

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Teatourist’s Nourish & Flourish Collection

Nourish & Flourish Collection (January 2018) by Teatourist
£11-15 for 1 box, plus shipping (+£3-5 per box)

Teatourist has provided me with the Nourish & Flourish Collection for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Nourish & Flourish is Teatourist’s January 2018 box – with all these wellness teas and tisanes to help you start your year off right. If you ever want to go back and order a previous curated collection, you can do so on the Teatourist website! Any boxes that you were interested in? If they have it in stock, you can order it!

The Nourish & Flourish Collection consists of six teas and tisanes. The first three are: Bamboo Leaf and Nettle by Wise Owl Tea, Chakra Tea Flora by SWILK, Traditional Green Yaupon by Yaupon Brothers. All three are herbals/tisanes as none of them actually contain tea leaves.

From left to right: Bamboo Leaf and Nettle, Chakra Tea Flora, and Traditional Green Yaupon.

Bamboo Leaf and Nettle consists of wild picked bamboo leaf and nettle leaf, which has a very grassy aroma to it. The dry leaf actually reminded me a bit of celery of all things. This was the only blend that came in tea bags instead of loose leaf tea. Chakra Tea Flora is an amazingly floral blend. It has a very strong lavender and rose aroma to the dry leaf and all of the ingredients are easily seen – peppermint, hibiscus, lavender, marigold, chamomile, rose, and cornflower. Traditional Green Yaupon is (surprise!) a straight yaupon holly tisane, which is grown in Florida, USA.

The second half of this curated collection is Organic Time to Drink – Clean by Caley’s Apothecary, Simply Green by The Tea Leaf Company, and Black Tea with Turmeric by O-Teas.

From left to right: Organic Time to Drink – Clean, Simply Green, and Black Tea with Turmeric.

Organic Time to Drink – Clean has a very mild aroma to it – an interesting blend of lemongrass and grass. The ingredients of this blend are lemongrass, green tea, nettle, and bilberries. Simply Green is simply a Ceylon green tea and has sweet vegetal aroma with a mild licorice fragrance to it. Black Tea with Turmeric smells strongly of tumeric, and this tea is just how it sounds – black tea with tumeric.

Preparation

Wise Owl Tea recommends steeping Bamboo Leaf and Nettle in 70-80°C (158-176°F) for 5+ minutes. I steeped this tisane in 80C (176F) for 5 minutes.

SWILK recommends steeping Chakra Tea Flora in 100°C (212°F) for 4 to 5 minutes. I steeped this floral tisane for 5 minutes.

Yaupon Brothers recommends steeping Traditional Green Yaupon in 100°C (212°F) for 5 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions.

Caley’s Apothecary recommends steeping Organic Time to Drink – Clean in 100°C (212°F) for 5 to 7 minutes. I steeped this herbal tisane for 7 minutes.

The Tea Leaf Company recommends steeping Simply Green in 80°C (176°F) for 2 to 5 minutes. I steeped this straight green tea for 3 minutes.

O-Teas recommends steeping Black Tea with Turmeric in 100°C (212°F) for 5 to 6 minutes. I steeped this black tea blend for 5 minutes.

First Taste

From left to right: Bamboo Leaf and Nettle, Chakra Tea Flora, and Traditional Green Yaupon.

Bamboo Leaf and Nettle steeps to a yellow green and actually reminds me a lot of green tea in colour, although it’s a touch more cloudy than I’m used to. There’s some nice grassy aromas, and it tastes like it smells. There’s a slight saltiness to this tisane that adds a great umami flavour to it. I like that it reminds me of a green tea, but it doesn’t have any caffeine so it makes for a nice option.

Chakra Tea Flora steeps to a reddish orange, there is a very strong mint and lavender aroma to it. It’s actually quite perfumey because of all the floral ingredients. I think this would be a nice tisane to relax with considering all the soothing floral ingredients in this blend.

Traditional Green Yaupon steeps to an orange, and it actually has a really strong grassy and hay aroma do it. I found that this leafy tisane had very strong hay flavours to it, but it was missing the honeyed sweetness that was in the description of the tisane.

From left to right: Organic Time to Drink – Clean, Simply Green, and Black Tea with Turmeric.

Organic Time to Drink – Clean has an almost dark honey colouring to it. This herbal blend has very mild aromas to it – with citrus and lemongrass playing strong characters in the flavour profile. It wasn’t a very strong herbal tisane, and I mostly got citrus from it.

Simply Green steeps to quite the bright sunshine yellow. It has a very subtle aroma that is easy to miss. I found that it had some great grassy and vegetal flavours to it. There was just the hint of bitterness to this tea, but a smooth texture overall. I’d recommend steeping this one for less than 3 minutes, 2 minutes would probably be better for an initial steep.

Black Tea with Turmeric steeps to a very dark, warm brown. It’s smells honey sweet. I found this tea to be surprisingly strong – it’s astringent and tangy with a strong mouth-puckering amount of flavouring. There’s the slight warming sensation, and I found it to be too astringent for me to really enjoy, although the aroma is delightful.

A Second Cup

From left to right: Bamboo Leaf and Nettle, Chakra Tea Flora, and Traditional Green Yaupon.

I resteeped the following and found that the flavours were much weaker compared to the first/initial steep: Bamboo Leaf and Nettle, Chakra Tea Flora, Traditional Green Yaupon, Organic Time to Drink – Clean, and Black Tea with Turmeric.

From left to right: Organic Time to Drink – Clean, Simply Green, and Black Tea with Turmeric.

I resteeped Simply Green three times, I found that the flavour got stronger for the first resteep, and gradually waned in flavour for the second and third resteep. The balance of grassy and vegetal flavours remained the same as the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teatourist’s Nourish & Flourish Collection. This collection has a great variety – although of the six only three contain tea, so if you’re not interested in tisanes, this may not be the collection for you. That said, I really enjoyed the variety in blends, because I’ve never tried Yaupon before, or a tea with tumeric, and I’m not sure that I would have necessarily gone out of my way to pick it up if I were just out tea shopping.

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DavidsTea’s Sun Moon Black

Sun Moon Black by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Straight
$19.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Sun Moon Black is one of DavidsTea’s latest straight teas. This has been described as a black tea with a “distinctive minty fresh”. Because I’m able to pop into a local DavidsTea storefront, I’m able to purchase less than 50g of tea at a time, which is great for trying out new teas. When buying loose leaf tea at their stores, you can receive the tea in resealable foil bags (like the one pictured), or in tea tins (like the one shown in my review of DavidsTea’s Organic Earl Grey).

The tea leaves are long and wiry, an almost dark purple colour. The aroma from the dry leaf reminds me of a little bit of sweetness with plum notes. Sun Moon Black is a straight black tea from Taiwan, DavidsTea’s product page describes the tea as having been grown on near Sun Moon Lake in Nantou.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Sun Moon Black in “near-boiling” water for 4 to 7 minutes. Near-boiling is 90-95°C (194-203°F). I did an initial steep of Sun Moon Black for 3 minutes at 93°C (200°F).

First Taste

Sun Moon Black steeps to a beautiful golden orange, with a very lovely aroma – it reminds me of plums and honey. The flavour is strong, almost overly so – it reminds of the robustness packing a punch behind a breakfast tea. There’s a nice honeyed sweetness to this tea that is delightful. I note the description of this tea includes a “minty finish”, but I don’t really taste anything that reminds me of mint. Sun Moon Black has a nice smoothness to it though, with zero astringency or bitterness.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Sun Moon Black a total of four times (five steeps overall), keeping my water temperature consistent throughout all of the steeps and adding 30 seconds for each additional steep. This tea strengthened in flavour for the first and second resteeps, and began to lose flavour for the third and fourth. The balance of plum and honey stayed the same throughout all the steeps, just differed in intensity.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Sun Moon Black. This wiry black tea makes for a delicious cup of tea, and I found that the flavours were easy to drink. The smoothness of this tea makes for a good cup of tea, and I really enjoyed being able to resteep the tea leaves over and over again. I do wish that this tea was less expensive, as it’s on the pricey side for a black tea – that’s one of the factors that will probably be preventing me from keeping a large amount of it in my tea stash.

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DavidsTea’s Organic Earl Grey

Organic Earl Grey by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$5.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I realized a little while ago that I haven’t reviewed DavidsTea’s Organic Earl Grey yet. Which seems quite odd to me because this is one of those teas that I’ve bought repeatedly and gotten full tins of since I started this tea journey, that I almost feel like it was an oversight. I get Organic Earl Grey 100g at a time, which either means that I get a tin refilled or I get a free tin with purchase. In the case of the last time I got this refilled, there was these cute sheep tins so I opted to get the cute tin because sheep.

Organic Earl Grey consists of: organic black tea, cornflower petals, and natural flavouring. This tea does contain bergamot oil, which is the ‘natural flavouring’ and a staple in Earl Grey blends. This black tea blend has a very strong aroma – it smells of oranges and it almost smells astringent, just a bit too harsh.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Organic Earl Grey in near-boiling water for 4 to 7 minutes. Near-boiling means 90-95°C (194-203°F). I opted to steep at 93°C (200°F) for 4 minutes, which is the oolong tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle.

First Taste

Organic Earl Grey steeps to a beautiful golden orange. The strong, almost astringent orange aroma from the dry leaf is considerably mellow in the steeped tea. I find that the aroma has a certain level of citrus, but it’s not overwhelmingly so. The flavour is smooth – there’s a light citrus aroma and flavour, with the black tea base that is robust in the way that an breakfast blend would be, but just not quite as strong. This may be because of the citrus notes. I can detect a mild sweetness, which may be due to the flower petals in this tea.

I typically drink Earl Grey with a bit of sweetener (typically honey) with some evaporated milk. It’s my preferred method of drinking Earl Grey. I find that a bit of sweetener helps accentuate the citrus flavours, while the milk helps to temper some of the strength behind the black tea to make it a bit more palatable at any time of day.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Organic Earl Grey. I find the first resteep to be fairly close to the first steep, just a bit less citrus flavour but the same robustness. The second resteep tends to be weaker in flavour and colour overall. I find Organic Earl Grey to be good for just one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Organic Earl Grey. This probably comes as no surprise. It’s not the most inexpensive Earl Grey tea out there, but it is one of the better tasting Earl Grey blends that I’ve tried. It’s a staple in my tea stash for a reason – and that’s because I just really drinking it. This is one of those teas that I find to be good at any time of day – although it is caffeinated so it that bothers you, probably not a wise choice after mid-afternoon.

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