Tag: Green Tea

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Adagio Teas’s Motherhood Teas (Collection)

Motherhood Teas by Adagio Teas
Black Tea, Green Tea, White Tea, Honeybush, Tisane / Flavoured
$24.00USD for 6 0.5oz tins

Adagio Teas has provided me with Motherhood Teas for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

Motherhood Teas is a super sweet little set of six limited edition blends designed for moms and the mother figures in your lives. The adorably illustrated tins slide open and are jam-packed with the tea/tisane inside. The tins neatly fit into a dark pink box and it’s basically already packaged up for you to gift to your mom (and Mother’s Day is coming up, so you best go and order now if you haven’t already gotten your mom a present!).

Each tin is adorable – there’s Love, Admiration, Hug, Hero, Wisdom and Truth.

From left to right: Hug, Admiration, and Love.

Love has a slight rose aroma, I can also smell the black tea base and it has some vanilla notes. Love consists of: black tea, heart sprinkles, rose petals, rose flavor, and natural creme flavor.

Admiration is a honeybush blend, but it does have some rooibos qualities to it and I can definitely smell that medicinal quality behind it. There’s a nuttiness in the background though, which I find intriguing. Admiration consists of: honeybush, flower sprinkles, cocoa nibs, natural hazelnut flavor, and natural chocolate flavor

Hug has a lovely aroma – lemongrass, berries, roses and ginger are all mingling in there. Hug consists of: rose hips, hibiscus, apple pieces, rose petals, blue cornflowers, lemon grass, natural creme flavor, licorice root, blueberries, strawberries, raspberry leaves, natural strawberry flavor, natural blueberry flavor, raspberries, ginger root, natural blackberry flavor, peppermint leaves, safflower, and blue cornflowers.

From left to right: Trust, Wisdom, and Hero.

Hero has the cutest tin, by far! This green tea blend smells grassy, floral, and has some lovely vanilla notes to it. Hero consists of: green tea, hibiscus, confetti sprinkles, natural vanilla flavor, orange peels, natural bergamot flavor, and blue cornflowers.

Wisdom is a white tea blend – I can smell vanilla and chocolate, I don’t really smell the white tea base or the coconut that exists in here, but bonus because I can’t smell the rooibos either. Wisdom consists of: white tea, rooibos, apple pieces, white chocolate chips, hibiscus, blueberries, natural strawberry flavor, strawberries, blue cornflowers, coconuts, rose petals, and natural vanilla flavor.

Last, but certainly not least, is Trust. Trust smells like apricots, vanilla, and cream to me. This green tea blend consists of: green tea, butterfly sprinkles, lavender, vanilla pieces, apple pieces, natural apricot flavor, strawberry pieces, apricots, and marigold.

Preparation

Adagio Teas recommends steeping Love, Admiration and Hug in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 minutes (Love) and 5-10 minutes (Admiration and Hug). I followed the steeping instructions and did 3, 5 and 5 minutes.

For Hero, Wisdom, and Trust, Adagio Teas recommends steeping in 82°C (180°F) for 2-3 minutes (Hero), 3-5 minutes (Wisdom), and 2-3 minutes (Trust). I used 80C (175F) water to steep these three and did the initial steeps for 3, 5 and 5 minutes.

First Taste

Left to right: Love, Admiration, and Hug.

Love steeps to a golden brown colour. I found the aroma to be very similar to the dry leaf – I get the rose, vanilla and black tea base. The flavour is pretty good, I found it to be sweet with some light floral notes without being over the top perfume. It’s pleasant and I think it’d be great with cream and sugar, or paired with an afternoon tea.

Admiration tastes like rooibos, which is never my favourite ingredient. I found it to have some light chocolate flavours with a honeyed sweetness. I do like the sweet part of this tisane, and I think fans of rooibos and honeybush would enjoy this one.

Hug has a really strong lemongrass and ginger aroma and flavour to it. It steeps to a lovely yellow-brown colour. There’s some nice warming qualities about it that I think are really enjoyable and would be nice for busy moms who want something to drink while unwinding after a long day of balancing working from home and home schooling.

Left to right: Hero, Wisdom, and Trust.

Hero has a great aroma to it – it steeps to a peachy yellow, which was surprisingly not pink despite the fact that hibiscus is in the blend. There’s some grassy and vanilla notes to Hero. I found the flavour to be grassy, with hints of vanilla and a nice creamy quality to it. It’s quite light enough that I think it’d be nice as an iced tea too – since if you’re a hero, you’re a hero throughout the year and that includes different seasons.

Wisdom steeps to a golden orange with some oils floating on top – I think it’s from either the chocolate or coconut (or both). I still can’t taste the coconut. It has some nice vanilla and chocolate notes to it. I found it to be smooth, with a lovely texture despite the oils floating on top (it doesn’t taste heavy at all). It’s sweet too, and reminds me of a dessert. I think this one means to be paired with some strawberry shortcake or a freshly baked scone with strawberry preserves.

Trust steeps to a light yellow – I love the colour. It smells like apricot and vanilla. There’s a very pleasant sweetness to this that I enjoy. I found it to be light and pleasant – the apricot flavour is the best. I think this one would be a great iced as well, as it’s just got that lightness to it that goes well with iced teas.

A Second Cup?

I found that Hero, Wisdom, and Trust resteeped the best (for one resteep). A lot of the added flavourings were missing in the second steep of the same leaves.

Left to right: Love, Admiration, and Hug.

For Love, I found a lot of the rose flavour to be missing. While for Admiration and Hug, the flavours were just a bit muddled and didn’t like the initial steep.

Left to right: Hero, Wisdom, and Trust.

My Overall Impression

I loved Adagio Teas’s Motherhood Teas collection. I think it comes well packaged, with adorable illustrations, and a nice collection of blends that allows moms to try something new and perhaps find a new favourite. Hug, Hero, and Trust were my top picks/favourites out the six – and if I had to pick an absolute favourite, it’d be Trust.

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

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Dalgona Matcha (Vegan)

Dalgona coffee has been trending over the last few weeks as people are looking for something to do. If you’ve ever looked up dalgona, it’s actually a Korean candy that resembles honeycomb toffee (yum!) – which has no part in the dalgona coffee recipes that I’ve come across at all. The work from home and required social distancing is reason enough to look for something to at home as people become better (or worse?) cooks and baristas at at home.

As someone who doesn’t drink coffee, I definitely scoffed at this idea of making a whipped coffee. That is, until I saw photos of a matcha version pop up on Instagram. But most people were sharing photos of it without a recipe (for shame!). So I challenged myself to make it at home with what I had on hand. It took a few attempts, but I finally got something that tasted good, looked mostly right – and I did it all with ingredients I had available – win! Because of the ingredients I used, this is vegan, you’re perfectly welcome to sub in non-vegan/vegetarian ingredients…

Just don’t use coconut milk. I tried that (and it was gross).

Dalgona Matcha – Serves 2

1 tbs matcha powder¹
2 tbs agave syrup
4 tbs aquafaba²
Soy milk³
Handheld milk frother or whisk

¹I used DavidsTea’s Grand Cru Matcha.

²Aquafaba is this fascinating stuff that is the water from cooking legumes (like chickpeas!). I got the aquafaba from this recipe from opening up a can of chickpeas, but you can cook your own and use the water from that.

³I use Silk’s Unsweetened Organic Soy Milk as my non-dairy milk of choice.

In a bowl (or measuring cup), froth the aquafaba until it is approximately tripled in volume and white.
Slowly mix in agave syrup, continue to froth.
With handheld frother off, sift in matcha. Stir it in with a spoon before turning on the milk frother again and fully incorporate the matcha.
Fill 2 glasses approximately ¾ full with your soy milk.
Top with frothed matcha foam.
Take a photo (or two) for the ‘gram & enjoy!

If you make this Dalgona Matcha, I’d love to see your photos! Be sure to tag me on Instagram (@onemoresteep #onemoresteep) or comment below with a link to the photo!

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Wild Orchard Green Tea’s Twig Tea

Twig Tea by Wild Orchard Green Tea
Green Tea / Straight
$10.00 for 55g

First Impressions

Twig Tea was a 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival purchase from the Seasonglass Green Tea booth – the same organization that was behind the Belcarra Seasonglass Green Tea Festival that I attended last year. While Twig Tea was described to me as being roasted green tea made with stems of the tea plant, I asked how it differed from hojicha as some types of hojicha are made using the stems of the tea leaves as well. I was told that the flavour was different, but it wasn’t available to taste test at the time. But for $10, where could I go wrong?

Teas from Wild Orchard Green Tea are washed following harvest, and before the tea leaves are processed. Not surprisingly, Twig Tea appears to be a bunch of little twigs or stems, all brown in colour. There’s a delightful nutty aroma to it, and it does remind me a bit of hojicha. Twig Tea consists of organic green tea stems from South Korea.

Preparation

Wild Orchard Green Tea recommends steeping Twig Tea at 85°C (185°F) for 1 minute. I followed the steeping instructions. They also say that the leaves can be steeped up to 2-3 times… but more on that later.

First Taste

Twig Tea steeps to a lovely light golden orange. I did steep this in a tea pot that has a stainless steel infuser basket – as you can see some little bits of the tea got out (so if this bugs you…. use a filter bag? If not, just carry on as usual). Twig Tea has a delightfully smooth mouthfeel to it, very pleasant and smooth. There’s a slight thickness to it that almost makes it feel savoury. There is zero bitterness or astringency, Twig Tea has a nice roasted and nutty flavour to it, I quite like it. It reminds me of a milder version of hojicha, which is not necessarily a bad thing (since I know some people don’t like an over-the-top roasted flavour).

A Second Cup?

So the packaging suggests steeping 2-3 times, which means 1-2 resteeps. I opted to try 3 resteeps (so 4 steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour was best at the first resteep (best = strongest). The second resteep was a bit weaker than the initial steep, while the third resteep was a bit weaker than that. Still drinkable with plenty of flavour and colour though, so definitely push those limits and get as much tea as you can out of your leaves!

My Overall Impression

I loved Wild Orchard Green Tea’s Twig Tea. While it doesn’t pack quite as big of a punch as hojicha does for me, Twig Tea does exhibit a lot of the qualities that I enjoy in hojicha in a milder, well-mannered format. A lovely drink with ‘leaves’ that resteep quite well with a good amount of flavour, so I really haven’t anything negative to say. It’s definitely a green tea that I would drink again (and again) because it’s smooth and could be a great tea to have while studying or doing a task – tasty, but doesn’t make me stop and think about what I’m drinking.

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