Tag: Green Tea

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Wild Orchard Green Tea’s Late Spring

Late Spring by Wild Orchard Green Tea
Green Tea / Straight
$12.00 for 35g

First Impressions

Late Spring is a green tea from Wild Orchard Green Tea that I picked up during the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival. This green tea wasn’t available for sampling in steeped for, but I did have the opportunity to smell it and it was just intriguing. The tea comes inside of a tin (with a little clear circle sticker over the opening. Inside is a sealed silver pouch.

The leaves themselves are gorgeous. Wiry, varying shades of green, with a lovely vegetal aroma to it. It has notes that remind me of asparagus and hints of floral notes. Late Spring is harvested between May and June, basically right before summer begins. This organic green tea is from South Korea – just check out those shades of green!

Preparation

Wild Orchard Green Tea recommends steeping Late Spring in 176°F (80°C) water for 1 minute. I opted to do an initial steep at 175°F (79°C) for 1 minute, because that’s the lowest temperature setting available on my variable temperature kettle (Breville IQ Kettle review).

First Taste

Late Spring steeps to a golden yellow after just the short one minute steep. There’s a nice aroma to it – it reminds me a lot of the dry leaf aroma (asparagus, grassy, vegetal notes). There’s a slight hint of floral in the background. The flavour of Late Spring is interesting. I found it to be sweet, floral, strong vegetal notes (that still remind me of asparagus!), and there’s a mild astringency at the tail end of each sip that is coupled with some nice umami notes with a slight saline quality to it. Just fascinatingly contrasting flavours that somehow all work together because it’s not a bad cup of tea.

A Second Cup?

Wild Orchard Green Tea suggests that Late Spring can be steeped 2-3 times, which means up to 2 resteeps. This obviously means that I had to push it and attempt four total steeps (three resteeps). I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent resteep, and found that the flavour remained fairly similar to the initial steep. The umami notes lessened while the astringency stayed the same. I found that the flavour got more vegetal and continued to remind me of asparagus, while the floral notes just faded away. It did well with being resteeped and I found even the third resteep was still quite tasty.

My Overall Impression

I loved Wild Orchard Green Tea’s Late Spring. I found the flavour of this green tea to just be fascinating because it has so many nuances to it, that it’s difficulty to simply describe yet somehow it all just works together. While I didn’t particularly like the astringency, it balanced well against the umami quality and the interesting vegetal and floral flavours. I just found it to be a nice experience, because a lot of the time when you do get a spring harvest, you don’t know when in the harvest season that the leaves were harvested/plucked. I find that early spring (or first flush) harvested teas are quite sweet because of how tender the leaves are, so it’s nice to experience the leaves that have been allowed to mature a bit before being harvested and processed.

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Dessert by Deb’s Cherry Lemonade

Cherry Lemonade by Dessert by Deb
Green Tea / Flavoured
$16.00 for 75g

Cherry Lemonade is an exclusive blend for Dessert by Deb subscription subscribers and is available for purchase by subscribers only at this time.

First Impressions

Cherry Lemonade was a tea that showed up in my March/April subscription box from Dessert by Deb. I’ve reviewed a lot of her teas since the launch and I’ve been happily subscribing since the subscription box launched – it’s one box every two months (so 6 boxes in 12 months/1 year). Cherry Lemonade is a green tea blend and is part of the “The Tea Society Club”, which means that it is a subscriber exclusive. It’s a fun perk of being a member!

Cherry Lemonade comes in a sealed, resealable pouch with a colourful label. This is a really pretty blend. The aroma of the dry leaf is mostly lemongrass to me, I think that’s because lemongrass has such a strong fragrant compared to some of the other ingredients. Cherry Lemonade consists of organic: green tea, cherries, lemon peel, hibiscus, lemongrass, rosehips, palm sugar, and safflower.

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Cherry Lemonade in 200°F (93°C) water for 5 to 6 minutes. My initial steep was for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Cherry Lemonade steeps to a really pretty pink colour, which I credit to the hibiscus. The aroma of the tea is mostly that of lemongrass, with a hint of lemon. The taste is mostly lemongrass, with some lemon and cherry notes in the background. It’s not as sweet as I thought it might be, given the presence of palm sugar. I don’t really taste the green tea base, probably because the lemongrass is a strong ingredient.

A Second Cup?

I attempted resteeping Cherry Lemonade, but found that the resteep was mostly lemongrass in flavour so I wasn’t too keen on it.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Dessert by Deb’s Cherry Lemonade. I was hopeful for a lot of cherry and lemon flavours in this green tea blend, especially given the name. I think that the lemongrass was really heavy, which really detracted from the other ingredients. It’s quite a pretty blend, and I like the lemongrass. I would have liked it to have more lemon and cherry and perhaps even more hibiscus, to give it that tartness to amplify the idea of lemonade. If you’re a fan of lemongrass, you’ll probably like this one.

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Adagio Teas’s Lemon Meringue Green

Lemon Meringue Green by Adagio Teas
Green Tea / Flavoured
$9.00USD for 3oz

Adagio Teas has provided me with Lemon Meringue Green for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

Lemon Meringue Green comes in a familiar coloured pouch, courtesy of Adagio Teas. The sealed, resealable package has a nice little printed label on the front that lets me know the details of the tea. The leaf itself is quite fragrant – with some really strong lemon and orange notes, as well as some lingering vanilla notes in the background.

The tea leaves are quite pretty – it reminds me of a sencha in appearance, the leaves are flatten. Smelling Lemon Meringue Green outside of the pouch, it definitely reminds me of the aroma of a lemon pound cake. Hints of buttery deliciousness and quite inviting! Lemon Meringue Green consists of: green tea, apple pieces, orange peels, natural lemon flavour, marigold flowers, natural vanilla flavour, and natural creme flavour.

Preparation

Adagio Teas recommends steeping Lemon Meringue Green in 180°F (82°C) water for 2 to 3 minutes. I opted to do a steep in 175°F (79°C) water for 3 minutes to start off.

First Taste

Lemon Meringue Green steeps to a very pale greeny-yellow colour. It smells like lemon and vanilla, which is nice. The flavour of the tea wasn’t surprising as it mimics the fragrance of the dry leaf quite well. I can taste vanilla, something buttery, lemon, and sweetness. It basically reminds me of lemon pound cake from start to finish, which is quite nice. At the temperature of water I used with the steep time, there was zero astringency or bitterness in this green tea blend.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Lemon Meringue Green once, adding an additional 30 seconds to the first resteep. I found that it was lacking in vanilla while the lemon/citrus notes stayed fairly consistent. Missing the vanilla meant that it didn’t quite remind me of lemon pound cake anymore.

My Overall Impression

I loved Adagio Teas’s Lemon Meringue Green. I appreciated how well the tea behaved from dry leaf to steeped tea, and how it stayed consistent in aroma to taste for the initial steep. The aroma of the dry leaf is so inviting, and I think this green tea blend would be a pleasant tea option for afternoon tea, and perhaps paired with dessert. The nature of it being citrus heavy makes me think that it would also be an excellent iced tea drink as well – if you’re concerned about over steeping the green tea base, you can always cold steep it.

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