Tag: Green Tea

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DavidsTea’s Traditional Tea Discovery Kit

Traditional Tea Discovery Kit by DavidsTea
Black Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea, and White Tea / Straight
$35.00 for 110g

First Impressions

This is the Traditional Tea Discovery Kit, which was released as part of the Origins Collection from DavidsTea (there is also a Green Tea Discovery Kit and Black Tea Discovery Kit). The Traditional Discovery Kit consists of 6 teas that each come in a cute metal tin: 24g of Organic Zen Pearls (white tea), 12g of Organic Mao Jian Jade (green tea), 24g of Organic Gyokuro Yamashiro (green tea), 22g of Guangzhou Milk Oolong (oolong tea), 16g of Orange Pekoe (black tea), and 12g of Organic Nepal Black (black tea). I’ve linked previously written reviews to the teas that I have tried previously, and I will be showcasing the Organic Zen Pearls and Organic Gyokuro Yamashiro in this review.

From left to right: Organic Zen Pearls, Organic Gyokuro Yamashiro

Organic Zen Pearls has a beautiful jasmine aroma, and the tea comes in cute pea-sized pearls. There is a nice differing range of colours of the leaves from a dark olive to a light cream. Zen Pearls are rolled white teas from Fujian Province, China – scented with jasmine flowers. Gyokuro Yamashiro has these shiny dark green leaves, that have a slightly salty, umami notes. Gyokuro Yamashiro consists of organic steamed green tea from Kagoshima, Japan.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Zen Pearls in 90°C (195°F) water for 3 to 5 minutes. My initial steep was for 3 minutes.

DavidsTea recommends steeping Gyokuro Yamashiro in 80°C (175°F) water for 1 to 2 minutes. My initial steep was for 1 minute.

First Taste

Zen Pearls steeps to a light orange colour. There’s a light jasmine aroma to this tea, which is nice and sweet. I found that this tea has a smooth mouthfeel. There’s light jasmine floral flavouring throughout, with no astringency or bitterness. I found it to put me in a very zen mood since I find it very relaxing to have a jasmine tea.

From left to right: Organic Zen Pearls, Organic Gyokuro Yamashiro

Gyokuro Yamashiro steeps to a yellow. There are obvious umami notes from the aroma that comes off from the tea. I found that there is a full mouthfeel from this tea – it’s smooth and has a light sweetness. There is a nice savoury quality from this tea, which I think comes from the umami notes.

A Second Cup?

For each resteep, I kept to the same temperature of water as the initial steep, and added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep.

From left to right: Organic Zen Pearls, Organic Gyokuro Yamashiro

For Zen Pearls, I did 5 resteeps. I found that the jasmine flavouring stayed fairly consistent and it was nice to watch the leaves unfurl further with each steep.

For Gyokuro Yamashiro, I did 3 resteeps. I found that umami quality got a bit lighter with each resteep, becoming more sweet.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Traditional Tea Discovery Kit. I really love the presentation of this tea kit, and the adorable printed tea tins. For the new-to-me teas, I really enjoyed the flavours and I think that DavidsTea did a great job of putting together an assortment of quality traditional teas to allow people to sample a variety of teas. The only thing that would have made it better is if they had included Butterfly Jasmine in it.

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Ahista Tea’s Mojito

Mojito by Ahista Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$14.99 for 100g

Ahista Tea has provided me with Mojito for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

The sample of Mojito came prepackaged into tea sachets, almost like a gauze-material was used. When I tore the bag open to get a better look at the tea leaves, there were a lot of small thin, white fibres. The aroma of Mojito has a strong lemongrass and citrus aroma, with a hint of mint throughout. The aroma of the mint wasn’t as strong as I would have wanted in a blend called Mojito, but lemongrass is a hard ingredient to overcome.

The ingredients are clearly identifiable when you look at it, which is nice. There are some large, dried citrus pieces – it’s quite beautiful! Mojito consists of: green tea, lime pieces, lime leaves, peppermint, and lemongrass.

Preparation

Ahista Tea recommends steeping Mojito in 90-100°C (194-212°F) water for 3 minutes. I opted to steep closer to 90°C, and steeped my initial steep of Mojito at 91°C (195°F) as green tea is an ingredient in this blend and green teas tend not to do that well when steeped at higher temperatures.

If you’re ever questioning a recommended temperature, I always suggest steeping at a lower temperature because you can always steep it for a longer period of time. If you opt to steep at a higher temperature, the tea could wind up being bitter or astringent and there’s no going back from that!

First Taste

Mojito steeps to a light yellow colour, with a strong lemongrass aroma to it. The smell of the mint is a bit overpowered by the lemongrass again, like it was with the dry leaf. Not surprising considering how strong of an ingredient lemongrass can be. The first thing I notice when tasting Mojito is the sweetness – then followed by citrus notes, lemongrass, and mint. The mint adds a nice refreshing quality to each sip, but it is still not as strong as the lemongrass. Unfortunately, I don’t really taste the green tea base.

When iced, I found that the mint flavour came out more in comparison to the lemongrass. I would recommend either having it iced (and perhaps adding some freshly muddled mint leaves) or cold steeping it.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Mojito once but found that the flavours were lacking. I think that the majority of the flavour went into the initial steep. I would recommend Mojito for just the one steep.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Ahista Tea’s Mojito. I found that the green tea wasn’t very present in the flavour – neither in the aroma of the dry leaf or in the flavor of the steeped tea. For a drink called Mojito, the tea that I made could have had a strong hand with the mint leaves. It could very well be that other tea sachets made have more mint leaves in them, but the ones that I had received were lacking in the mint aroma and flavour – especially when compared to the lemongrass. I would recommend cold steeping Mojito in comparison to steeping in hot water because I think it does help to bring out more of the mint flavour – another great way to amplify the mint flavour would be to make it iced with some freshly muddled mint leaves..

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Oteas’s Organic Matcha with Mint

Organic Matcha with Mint by Oteas
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$8.99 for 12g (12 packets)

Oteas has provided me with Organic Matcha with Mint for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

I was quite excited to find Organic Matcha with Mint in the package that Oteas so kindly put together for me. I’ve gotten quite interested in matcha recently – as evidenced by the influx of matcha reviews. Organic Matcha with Mint comes portioned into 1g “serving sticks”, which is nice for those who want to drink matcha on-the-go.

The packaging for Organic Matcha with Mint is more blue-green compared the other packaging it the review I had done for Oteas’s Organic Pure Matcha. Organic Matcha with Mint consists of: organic Japanese green tea leaves, peppermint powder, licorice root powder. The colour of the powder is a dark spring green, although there’s little fibrous bits throughout that I believe to be from the licorice root. It smells quite strongly of the peppermint – although not too over-the-top that it reminds me of toothpaste.

Preparation

Oteas recommends whisking the contents of 1 serving stick of Organic Matcha with Mint in 80-90°C (176-194°F) water “until a smooth, creamy consistency”. I used 85°C (185°F) water and prepared it in my matcha bowl with whisk.

First Taste

Organic Matcha with Mint whisks to a dark green. Small flecks of the licorice root fibres float within the cup of matcha, which makes it a bit pretty to look at. There’s a strong minty aroma from the tea, which I can appreciate. On first taste, I notice the minty sweetness. The matcha base is slightly grassy, but I mostly taste the mint. I don’t really make out the licorice root too much, but I suspect it does attribute some sweetness as I often find it to be sweet.

A Second Cup?

As always, matcha cannot be resteeped as it is a suspension.

My Overall Impression

I liked Oteas’s Organic Matcha with Mint. I really enjoyed the minty flavour of the peppermint in the blend, and I do like the single serving style – it makes it easier to have some matcha at work since I can’t have my full tea set up there when I’m busy with the hustle and bustle of work. For travelers or people with equally restrictive work spaces, you may appreciate the single serving nature of the Oteas matcha “sticks”. I had wished that the flavour of the matcha would have been stronger and more prominent. I really enjoyed the flavour of the matcha in the Organic Pure Matcha and wish that more of that flavour came through. If you’re a fan of peppermint, I think you’ll enjoy this matcha blend – it’s not too strong that it reminds me of toothpaste, which I think we can all appreciate.

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