Tag: Black Tea

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Liquid Proust Teas’ Smoked Breakfast

Smoked Breakfast by Liquid Proust Teas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$5USD for 1 ounce

Liquid Proust Teas has provided me with Smoked Breakfast for the purposes of providing an honest review.
I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

I first came across Liquid Proust Teas on Instagram shortly after I had posted my first blog entry here on One More Steep. Andrew Richardson, the owner of Liquid Proust Teas, had liked my screenshot and I saw that he was looking for bloggers to review some teas. We communicated and a couple weeks later I got a package of tea to review! This is the first of four reviews of Liquid Proust Teas.

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First Impressions

The bag that this sample of Liquid Proust Teas’ Smoked Breakfast came in is very sturdy, I thought I was going to rip the thing apart trying to get it open! But onto the tea… The aroma of smoke is very, very strong and it reminds me a lot of the smell of a campfire. There is an underlying scent that reminds me of star anise, which is not listed on the ingredients list at all. The tea itself is quite nice, I can see a lot of texture in the dried leaves and the leaves themselves are decently sized.

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Smoked Breakfast contains the following ingredients: Chinese black tea (FOP), lapsang souchong, cinnamon pieces, and flavouring. For those who’ve never had a tea with lapsang souchong before, it is a smoked tea (which accounts for the strong smoke smell). Despite cinnamon being on the list (and being able to see the cinnamon), I can’t smell it at all when the tea is dry. I would have liked it if the ingredients list identified the flavouring as natural or artificial.

Preparation

Liquid Proust Teas recommends steeping Smoked Breakfast in 205°F (96°C) water for just 60 seconds. I thought this was a typo a first, given that black teas are normally steeped for a few minutes, but I did check the Etsy page for this tea and it is not a typo. So I gave it a go at 60 seconds.

First Taste

The tea was steeped for 60 seconds and it still smells smokey although it is not as strong as when the tea was dry, it is a lot more muted now it’s been steeped. I did have to let it cool down a bit as 60 seconds is not a long time to allow water to cool down. To my surprise, Smoked Breakfast is a very smooth tea. It wasn’t bitter and it doesn’t taste smokey. Instead, it tastes a bit sweet. There’s not spiciness that I would have expected from the cinnamon, I can’t taste it all. The tea itself is delightful. The subdued smell of campfire promotes a sense of nostalgia.

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A Second Cup?

I opted to try steeping Smoked Breakfast for a second time. This time I steeped it for longer than the initial 60 seconds (probably around 90 seconds). The campfire aroma is still gentle and not over-powering, and the taste of the tea remains true to the first cup. I love it when a tea can be steeped again and taste great! It would probably do very well for a third or even fourth resteep, although I didn’t try it as it was quite late in the day when I had resteeped this tea.

My Overall Impression

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I liked Liquid Proust Teas’ Smoked Breakfast. The heavy smoke aroma is very strong and can be off-putting if you’re not prepared for it. I find that the smokey aroma doesn’t transfer into the flavour of the tea itself, and overall it is a very nice tea. I quite like the taste of it and the gentle smoke aroma when the tea is ready to go is quite pleasant. The 60 seconds recommended steeping time was a good call by Liquid Proust Teas, and it did pretty well with the second steeping. Being able to resteep a tea and have it taste great is a great quality to find in any tea.

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

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DavidsTea’s Pumpkin Chai

Pumpkin Chai by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$7.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

I’m a big fan of nice quality tea bags (for storage) – especially like the ones from DavidsTea that keep the air and light out of the bags. One of the nice things about DavidsTea is that they’re usually quite willing to make up little bags of teas if you just want to try something – I think the smallest bag I’ve ever had weighed out was 10g. Pumpkin Chai is one of their seasonal teas and it’s been brought back for several years in a row, according to the internet. It’s quite a sweet smelling black tea. I can definitely smell the cinnamon and it reminds me a lot of pumpkin pie in a way.

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The ingredients include: black tea, cinnamon, cloves, caramel, carrot, lemon peel, pumpkin candies, pumpkin flakes, natural and artificial flavouring. It also includes an allergen warning for milk and soy products. At first glance, I can see cute pumpkins sprinkles as well as pretty big pieces of cinnamon and the pumpkin flakes.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping in 96°C water for 4-7 minutes. As I love chai spicy, I opted to steep the tea until around the 6-7 minute mark.

First Taste

Pumpkin Chai smells really good when it’s done steeping. It smells like a mix of pumpkin spices and tea – which is a good thing given the name of the tea. It’s a beautiful red golden brown colour. When I take my first sip, I definitely get the feel of mouthcoating. The richness in the tea and the oily sensation may be due to the oils in the pumpkin candies. It’s not an off-putting sensation though, and I didn’t get a visible oil slick across the surface of the tea like I did with DavidsTea’s Birthday Cake. The cinnamon flavour is even more pronounced in the steeped tea than it was in dry format. I quite like it and I can see why Pumpkin Chai is popular enough to be brought back year after year. I am curious about how well this tea will do with one more steep because it does contain some ingredients that usually do not do well when steeped again (primarily candies and flavouring).

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A Second Cup?

Surprisingly, Pumpkin Chai did okay on the second steep! It still has a pumpkin aroma and still tastes alright. It’s not as good as it was in the first steep, but it’s hard to expect the added flavouring to hold up for a second steep. I would not expect this tea to hold up very well for a third steep though.

My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Pumpkin Chai. The adorable pumpkin candies and the great smell and flavour make it a must-have for me. I can definitely see myself stocking up on a bit more of this tea in the near future to continue to have some great tasting pumpkin tea throughout the autumn. If you are interested in getting some Pumpkin Chai for yourself, do keep in mind that it is a limited/seasonal tea. I don’t think this tea is for everyone – if you’re not into sprinkles/candies in your teas, or you’re not a fan of artificial colours (because there is nothing naturally colouring those sprinkles to be a bright orange), I’d steer away from this one. I personally really enjoyed Pumpkin Chai though! And I’ve heard that it can be really good as part of a tea latte – as a fan of chai lattes I can see that being true, especially when you consider that chai is traditionally made with milk (or some milk and water) instead of straight water.

As an aside, the tea menu for DavidsTea’s fall 2015 collection has a recipe for “The Ultimate Pumpkin Chai” latte on the back that I will be giving a whirl soon – and writing about it!

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

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Stash Tea Company’s Earl Grey

Earl Grey by Stash Tea Company
Black Tea/ Flavoured
$2.50 for 38g

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First Impressions

I got my Stash Tea when it was 2 boxes for $5. Each box of Earl Grey contains 20 tea bags, which works out to be 1.9g of tea per tea bag which isn’t bad at all. The box for the Stash Tea Company’s Earl Grey makes me smile. It’s a very simple card stock box with two perforated openings to choose from. I opted for the opening at the bottom, so I can sit the box upright and the tea is accessible out the bottom. The other way to open it is to use your finger to punch in the side, and one whole side of the box lifts up (and can be tucked back in. Stash Teas come in individually packaged tea bags. For those that love loose leaf teas, you may be frowning at me right now but that’s okay. Tea bags can be useful! Especially if you’re travelling and don’t want to deal with spoons and infusers – or if you don’t want to make up your own tea bags with filters.

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The foil wrapper for the tea bags are a nice touch. While it does result in more waste, it does keep the tea bag in a sealed environment that protects it from air and light. There’s a handy cut at the top of the packaging which makes it easier to rip that sucker open. Almost instantaneously, I can smell the fragrant bergamot oil – one of my favourite parts of any good Earl Grey tea. Stash Tea’s Earl Grey lists the following as ingredients: premium black teas with oil of bergamot. The bright citrus smell with the scent of the black tea makes me eager about what is coming up next.

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