Tag: Black Tea

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Yellowstone Foods’ Wild Huckleberry Tea

Wild Huckleberry Tea by Yellowstone Foods
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.99USD for 30g

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First Impressions

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Wild Huckleberry Tea was one of the souvenirs that I bought for myself when I ventured to Yellowstone (I also bought a huge mug!) – it just seemed like an excellent idea to pick up tea for myself! The packaging is actually a thin sheet of wood that is so thin that it is pliable and able to bend around to form a cylinder. The tea bags come in a silver-tone packaging that has no way to reseal, so I put the tea bags into a freezer zip bag. Part of the problem I found with this tea is that it lacks an ingredients list – I can tell by smelling it that there is huckleberry flavouring somewhere, and it’s a black tea. The huckleberry smell is very strong and it smells sweet.

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Preparation

As there were no recommended steeping instructions, I opted to follow the usual black tea steeping times and temperatures that I go with: 212°F (100°C)/boiling water steeped for 3-5 minutes (I went with 4 minutes).

First Taste

Wild Huckleberry steeps to a reddish orange, and smells like berries! I can make out the black tea base in the smell. Tasting the tea for the first time, I find that there is a mild astringency that isn’t off-putting, and that the berries taste is quite mild compared to what was expected based on the stronger huckleberry smell. It is tasty though. I wound up adding a little bit of honey to the tea while it was still hot, and I found that it brought out the huckleberry taste a bit more in the flavour of the tea. It never quite reached what I was expecting (based on the smell of the steeped tea), but it did get closer.

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A Second Cup?

I did attempt to resteep Wild Huckleberry and I found that it did very poorly for a second steep as the huckleberry flavouring was all but gone – it was present in the aroma of the tea, but gone in the taste.

My Overall Impression

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I liked Yellowstone Foods’ Wild Huckleberry Tea. It is a bit pricey for what it is (works out to be $0.53USD/cup!) and I would love to find a less expensive version of it, I find having the huckleberry flavouring in the black tea is a nice change to a plainer bagged black tea. I definitely feel that the tea benefits from having a sweetener, and I think it would make a fantastic tea latte. It’s a yummy tea, but I’ve always been a fan of black teas. Despite the cost, I would still have bought it while on vacation because it doubles as a tasty souvenir.

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Tea Farm’s Cowichan Caravan

Cowichan Caravan by Tea Farm
Black Tea / Flavoured
$15.00 for 125g

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First Impressions

Tea Farm sparked my interest when I first read about them in local-ish news. Tea Farm is a Canadian tea company that is locate on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. They are growing tea plants and waiting for the plants to be mature enough prior to harvesting and creating their own teas. Until then, they source teas from elsewhere in the world for their organic loose leaf teas. I came across their tea for sale at a winery during this past summer (Tea? At a winery? Don’t mind if I do!) and I couldn’t resist buying some, as a tea enthusiast does. Cowichan Caravan is a black tea blend, made up of: Assam, Ceylon, Keemun, oolong, Lapsang, and lavender.

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The dry leaf of Cowichan Caravan has an incredibly strong smokey smell to it, the lapsang is obvious when it comes to the aroma that comes out of the tin. There are lavender buds in the tea that are visible, but I cannot pick out any floral aromas from the tea at all. The label wasn’t lying when it stated that it is “perfectly smokey”.

Preparation

Tea Farm recommends using boiling water for each 2g of tea and to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted for the black tea function of my variable temperature kettle (one of my utmost favourite purchases), and steeped the tea for about 3 minutes for the first steep.

First Taste

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As the tea begins to steep, it is pretty much an instant golden red in my tea pot. The smokey flavour wafts up me as the tea steeps, right before I pop the lid of the teapot on. I first poured a little bit of the tea into a sampling cup and it is just this beautiful golden yellow colour that reminds me of marigolds. The tea itself has this smooth texture to it, there’s a light smokiness that isn’t unappealing, and there is just this slight floral sweetness to the tea. While I know that the only floral component is the lavender, I can’t make it out as being specifically lavender, just a nice overall floral sweetness to the tea. Steeping for the recommended time results in tea that isn’t bitter, which I can always appreciate.

A Second Cup?

Cowichan Caravan resteeps well, I found that the smokiness is lighter and there is a stronger malty flavour to the tea (likely from the Assam). The sweet floral notes in the first steep are very much present and lovely on the palate. Cowichan Caravan steeps to a more bright yellow for the subsequent steeps with less of an orange hue to it. I enjoyed the second steep better than the first. I did do a few more subsequent steeps, and found that the flavour really begins to fade by the fifth steep.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Tea Farm’s Cowichan Caravan. I really enjoyed Cowichan Caravan, and always appreciate a tea that can be resteeped over and over again. Smokey flavours aren’t generally my favourite, but I think that the second steep was the best steep out of all five that I did. The smokey flavour with the malty Assam base go very well together and it makes for an enjoyable cup of tea. It is quite the savory tea, despite the addition of the lavender buds, I think it would be a lovely tea to have with a meal instead of a tea that you have for an afternoon tea.

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Ahmad Tea’s Earl Grey

Earl Grey by Ahmad Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
£4.00 for 100g

This was a tea I received as a gift from a friend who went to Europe this year! It came in a cute souvenir-friendly tin. The pricing I found online was for the tea in a tin that was not illustrated as below.

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First Impressions

Ahmad Tea’s Earl Grey came in a delightful little tin that’s illustrated like a double-decker bus – complete with people and fun little details. The windows of the bus actually dip in a little, and some other details, like where the engine of the bus might be, stick out. The bottom of the tin is where there is information about the tea (the company, ingredients, and best before date). The tin itself seems to be quite air tight – the tea is loose in the tin and I cannot smell the tea when the tin is closed, an excellent design of the snug lid fit on this tin.

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The Earl Grey smells very strongly of the bergamot flavouring, which seems to overpower the black tea base. The tea leaves themselves seem to be generally quite small. The ingredients of this Earl Grey are: black tea and bergamot flavouring. The bottom of the tin states that it is “pure Ceylon tea packed in Sri Lanka”.

Preparation

I steeped Ahmad Tea’s Earl Grey in boiling water (100C/212F) for 4 minutes. If you are ever at a loss for how long to steep what teas, I do have a list of steeping times on One More Steep.

First Taste

Earl Grey steeps to a deep clear orange-brown. There’s a strong bergamot fragrance to the tea itself. I can definitely taste the citrus in the tea, and it is quite strong in flavour. I find that it does compliment the black tea base fairly well, although it could be a little bit less strong. I found that after adding a bit of sugar and evaporated milk, the bergamot flavour was toned down and I was able to taste the black tea base a lot more.

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A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep this Earl Grey, but found it to be significantly weaker. The first steep was the best, and I wouldn’t recommend one more steep for this tea.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Ahmad Tea’s Earl Grey was just okay. I am usually a pretty big fan of Earl Grey teas – there’s just something about a good black tea with bergamot that makes me smile. While this tea was enjoyable, I found that the black tea itself was a bit lacking. This would likely be due to the fact that the bergamot flavouring is just so strong in comparison that there’s no competition between the bergamot and the black tea itself. I think this tea definitely benefits from having evaporated milk or cream, as it helps tone down the strong citrus flavours and allows the tea to actually make itself known.

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