Tag: Black Tea

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DavidsTea’s Honey Black

Honey Black by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Straight
$14.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

First off, this was DavidsTea’s December Tea of the Month. Since I’ve started on my tea adventure (addiction? obsession? hobby?) they had not had a straight tea be their tea of the month, so I was quite excited. I find that straight teas resteep much better than flavoured teas, and the overall quality is generally higher. This may also be reflected by the higher price tag. If you’re interested in trying Honey Black, DavidsTea recently announced via Facebook that they were discontinuing this tea due to issues with the supply.

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Honey Black is described as being “from a small garden on the east coast of Taiwan” and that the leaves are hand-plucked. The tea leaves are definitely lovely, there’s so much detail to be seen in the twisted tea leaves. The smell of the dry tea is a very mild sweet aroma that mingles with the natural tea fragrance itself. The ingredient listed is simply “Black tea from the east coast of Taiwan”.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping in 96°C (204°F) water for 4-7 minutes. I steeped mine for about 4 minutes.

First Taste

The tea itself smells great once steeped. There’s an aroma that is a bit malty, like an Assam tea, with very slight smell of sweetness. The tea is a lovely golden brown colour that is quite welcoming. It does taste a bit malty but not as strong as Assam teas generally are, but it’s also a bit bitter and astringent. True to its name, there is a bit of honey taste to it, but it’s not overwhelming or overly sweet. The sweetness is just enough that I don’t think additional sweetener is necessary. The astringency and bitterness isn’t completely unpleasant, but I do think it would be if I had steeped for the full 7 minutes. I would definitely recommend steeping for a lower amount of time.

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A Second Cup?

Because Honey Black is a straight tea, I really wanted to see how it would do with being resteeped. It does well for the second resteep. I steeped it for about 4 minutes and had less of the bitterness that the first cup had, but the bitterness and astringency was still there.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Honey Black was just okay. While the tea itself is nice and enjoyable (especially if steeped for less than 4 minutes at the recommended water temperature), I think that it’s expensive for what it is – which is a solid black tea. Honey Black makes for a good cup of tea, but there are better options out there for black teas that aren’t as expensive. If you are interested in trying it before it leaves DavidsTea forever, I’d recommend heading to a store to get a small sample bag (I’ve gotten 10g bags before in store!) before committing to a larger purchase, if you have a local store nearby.

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Tazo Tea’s Chai Latte Concentrate

Chai Latte Concentrate by Tazo Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$5.75 for 32 fl oz

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First Impressions

My first Starbucks love was their classic Chai latte. Ignore the new one that came out a couple years ago with Oprah, and just focus on the original Chai latte. It’s creamy, spicy, bursting with great flavour and it’s also expensive after a while. At over $4 a cup (I usually get grande), I always wanted to be able to make it at home without having to fork over nearly $5 for every cup. The Chai Latte Concentrate is not a product that I’m new to, it’s something that I buy on occasion because it’s definitely cheaper and more budget friendly to buy the carton of tea concentrate than it is to pop into a Starbucks location every single time that I want a Chai latte.

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The tea concentrate is a dark, almost murky reddish brown colour. The aroma of the Chai Latte Concentrate is all of the familiar spices that you would expect to find in a Chai: cloves, cardamom, cinnamon. It also smells like it is very, very sweet. Deliciousness in a cup! The ingredients for the tea concentrate are as follows: water, black tea, black pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, natural flavours, cane sugar, honey, ginger juice, natural flavours, vanilla extract, and citric acid. Everything from water to the first natural flavours is the infusion, and then the added ingredients after it. Cane sugar and honey would account for the very, very sweet aroma and taste to the tea concentrate.

Preparation

The directions on the carton from Tazo Tea is to shake the carton and then mix equal parts of the concentrate with milk (or dairy alternative of your choice). It can be served over ice, heated on a stove, or heated in a microwave. I mixed half a cup of tea concentrate with half a cup of 1% milk and heated it in the microwave.

First Taste

The colour of the Chai latte after it was done in the microwave (and I gave it a little stir) is a pleasant light brown colour that is very similar to the colouring of a Chai latte made in a Starbucks, if not the same. I had to let mine cool for a bit since it was too hot to sip coming from the microwave. While I don’t get the foam that I often have on top of my lattes that I get from Starbucks or other cafes, it’s quite good. If you’re not fond of sweet things, this product will probably not be for you (and perhaps making your own tea concentrate would be something you could try in the future). I personally really enjoy Chai lattes, so I really like the flavour of this tea concentrate. It definitely has the spice and heat that I would expect from a Chai (thanks to all that ginger!), the flavours of cinnamon really come out well and the creaminess that the milk adds really helps to cool down some of that heat.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Tazo Tea’s Chai Latte Concentrate. As I previously mentioned, this was not my first time having this product (and it certainly will not be my last!). I find it really nice to be able to have my favourite ‘treat’ (a Chai latte) without having to spend the money in the local Starbucks. The unused portion of the carton keeps for up to 7 days in the fridge after opening, and for someone who really enjoys Chai lattes, it is cheaper to go with the carton of tea concentrate than it is to get it made in-store. That said, it would be even cheaper to just make my own Chai lattes from scratch (I know, I know), but for a quick, pretty fool-proof latte, this tea concentrate works really well as a nice treat from time to time.

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Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s Coconut Chai

Coconut Chai by Zhena’s Gypsy Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.99 USD for 36g (for the entire sampler)

This is a review of a tea that I received for my birthday in 2015. I won’t be doing too much digging into the costs of the gifts that I’ve received.

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First Impressions

The dry leaf smells interesting. There’s the definite aroma of the spices that I know, love, and associate with Chai. And then there’s the subtle fragrance of coconut that mingles with the spices. I couldn’t really smell the black tea base, which is a bit of shame, as the spices overpower the base completely.

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Coconut Chai is made up of: Indian black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom pods, whole cloves, orange peels, nutmeg, black pepper, natural coconut flavour, natural cinnamon flavour. I’m a little confused as to why natural cinnamon flavouring is used when cinnamon is already an ingredient in the tea. While cinnamon is a great spice, and I can definitely taste it in the mix of spices used for this Chai tea, it just doesn’t seem necessary to have the flavouring when the real deal is in the tea itself.

Preparation

As with the other Chai blends in the Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s sampler, the directions call for boiling water with one tea sachet and to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. I steeped mine closer to 5 minutes in hopes of getting more coconut flavour i n the tea.

First Taste

There is coconut in the aroma of the steeped tea! It blends in well with the fragrance of the spices of the Coconut Chai, I think it smells lovely. The taste leaves a little to be desired though, as the coconut flavouring sadly does not come out well in the taste of the steeped tea. Coconut Chai does have that oomph of spice that I expect (and love!) in my Chai though, so it does hit all those spicy notes properly. The tea itself steeps to a lovely reddish orange colour and it smells really good. When steeped according to the directions, there’s a mild sweetness to the tea with no bitterness or astringency. It’s quite pleasant.

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A Second Cup?

Coconut Chai sadly does not steep well for a second cup, the spice level leaves something to be desired when being steeped again.

My Overall Impression

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I liked Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s Coconut Chai. I wish the coconut flavouring came out more in the actual taste of the tea rather than in just the aroma of the dry and steeped tea. Overall, it does hit all the right notes for a Chai for me, but I do think the lack of coconut makes it a tea that I wouldn’t reach for on a regular basis. The taste is great as a Chai, and it’s got a good amount of spice, but it does need more coconut in the actual tea blend itself in order to have the taste of coconut come through. As a Chai, it works great though, I think it’d taste well with the addition of a sweetener or a cream to give it some added richness.

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