Tag: Green Tea

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Murchie’s Earl’s Garden

Earl’s Garden by Murchie’s
Green Tea & Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$7.95 for 2oz (56g)

Murchie’s has provided me with Earl’s Garden for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I was very excited and eager to try this tea when I opened my package from Murchie’s. Any tea name with the word “Earl” in the title makes me think of Earl Grey – which is a lovely classic black tea blend that I love and also have really high standards for. Earl’s Garden came in a plastic sealed, resealable bag with some information on the front of it.

The label calls it a green tea, but there were was clearly some oolong in that blend there – along with some jasmine. Which basically made me think that I’m in for a real treat! The first thing I noticed is the strong aroma of the jasmine and a hint of citrus from the bergamot. The green tea and oolong tea are both present, I’d hazard a guess that it’s maybe a 50-50 blend (or possibly just leaning a bit more towards the green tea). Earl’s Garden consists of: Chinese green tea, oolong tea, natural and artificial flavouring, jasmine flowers, and bergamot oil.

Preparation

Murchie’s recommends steeping Earl’s Garden in 175-180°F (79-82°C) water for 2 to 3 minutes. My initial steep was in 175°F water for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Earl’s Garden steeps to a beautiful golden yellow with a very fragrant floral aroma from the tea itself. I found that the flavour of jasmine is the most obvious, followed by the floral and creamy notes from the green and oolong tea base. There’s a light hint of citrus notes in the background of the tea, which is strong enough for me to know that it is bergamot. It does remind me of being in garden, because the jasmine is very present.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Earl’s Garden twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each steep. On the first resteep, I noticed that the jasmine flavour was considerably less, along with the bergamot and both flavours were virtually gone by the second resteep. The base teas – green tea and oolong tea – do resteep quite well. There’s still that natural floral and creamy flavours that I noticed in the initial steep that are very much present throughout each steep.

If you’re a fan of the jasmine and bergamot, I would do at least one more steep. If you’re a fan of the green tea and oolong base, continue steeping until you exhaust the flavours.

My Overall Impression

I loved Murchie’s Earl’s Garden. I think it’s a clever spin on a popular classic. While I had initially hoped that the bergamot would have been added in with a heavier hand, I found it to be quite pleasant. Present in the flavour profile, but not overpowering the flavours of the green tea, oolong tea, or the jasmine flowers. I think that the tea was very well balanced between each ingredient, and found that the flavour to very pleasant. I never once found that the tea was overly perfumed with the floral notes, which is always a risk when using any sort of floral ingredient. This tea definitely feels a bit delicate tasting though, and would be a lovely tea option to have with a spring or summer tea party.

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Whisk Premium Matcha’s Be My Rose

Be My Rose by Whisk Premium Matcha, in collaboration with The Good Chocolatier
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$10.00 for 1 bar (42g)

Whisk Premium Matcha has provided me with Be My Rose for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Like a lot of other people in the world, I’m a fan of chocolate. I first tried Whisk Premium Matcha’s Matcha Cremsicle chocolate (plant-based matcha white chocolate) when I bought a bar at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival. I was absolutely tickled when they very kindly sent me a bar of Be My Rose, which is a very similar chocolate bar – plant-based matcha white chocolate with dried rose petals embedded into the chocolate.

The bar of chocolate itself came in a plastic sleeve that’s resealable. The chocolate is molded into square segments, with a floral and leaf pattern molded onto the front, while dried rose petals are present on the backside of the chocolate. Be My Rose consists of: Ecuadorian raw cacao butter, coconut cream powder, coconut sugar, organic matcha, rose petals, maple syrup, and vanilla. Each bar contains a 1.5 servings of matcha per bar of chocolate. There’s a strong matcha aroma from the chocolate, with a very light, sweet floral fragrance that comes off from the rose petals.

First Taste

I broke off a few squares of the Be My Rose to try. There’s a very strong matcha flavour in this chocolate. I love white chocolate, and often find it sweet compared to milk or dark chocolate. Be My Rose is surprisingly not that sweet. It has a rich matcha flavour, with a floral flavour through each nibble from the rose petals. The chocolate has a nice creaminess to it – I don’t taste coconut in it, in case anyone doesn’t want to taste coconut in their chocolate. The matcha flavour has nice sweet notes to it.

My Overall Impression

I loved Whisk Premium Matcha’s Be My Rose. I really enjoyed eating the chocolate, found it to be delicious. It’s definitely unlike any other chocolate that I’ve had before – a lot of matcha chocolate is often sweet, and the label specifically mentions that it is free of refined sugar – finding the sweetness from coconut sugar and maple syrup. It’s a fun little treat, although I don’t find myself eating more than 1-2 squares at a time, due to the richness in the chocolate itself – so despite the cost for each bar, it goes a long way!

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Murchie’s Paris Afternoon

Paris Afternoon by Murchie’s
Black Tea & Green Tea / Flavoured
$6.95 for 2oz (56g)

Murchie’s has provided me with Paris Afternoon for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Paris Afternoon is the first of three tea reviews that I’ll be writing about for teas that I received from Murchie’s. I wrote about my first Murchie’s visit back in 2015 when I reviewed Canadian Breakfast. This green and black tea blend came in a sealed (and resealable!) plastic bag. There’s a clear window in the front where you can see the tea leaves. I can definitely see more black tea than green tea present in the blend. The black tea leaves appear to be smaller while the green tea is more bunched together – especially the Gunpowder.

Paris Afternoon consists of black tea (Ceylon, Keemun, Assam, and Yunnan black teas), green tea (Himalyan and Gunpowder green teas), natural and artificial flavouring. The aroma of the dry leaf is primarily caramel, with hints of vanilla that make me think that I’ve stepped into a bakery somewhere. It’s a very inviting aroma that’s present in Paris Afternoon.

Preparation

Murchie’s recommends steeping Paris Afternoon in 180-212F (82-100C) water for 3 to 4 minutes. My initial steep of Paris Afternoon was in 185F (85C) water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Paris Afternoon steeps to a beautiful golden orange. The aroma of the steeped tea reminds me a lot of caramel. I found on first taste, that I got a nice sweetness, with strong caramel notes. There is a creamy texture to the tea, with the flavour of vanilla, that I found in this, which made for a pleasant cup of tea. I found with the sweetness that I didn’t feel like I needed to add sweetener to it, but at the same time I think that Paris Afternoon would be a great afternoon tea option because it would be great with cream and sugar.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Paris Afternoon twice, adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found the first resteep was very similar to my initial steep, it had lighter caramel flavours and a mild vanilla flavour to it. For the second resteep, I found that it was really lacking the vanilla flavours, but the sweetness was still there. I would recommend Paris Afternoon for one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Murchie’s Paris Afternoon. I think that this black and green tea blend does a beautiful job of being a dessert tea. There’s a nice flavour and sweetness to this tea that reminds me of some kind of caramel pastry – the creamy vanilla notes just make it so tasty. I think it’d be a great alternative tea to Earl Grey for afternoon tea. It does nicely for a resteep, which is a great quality in a tea that contains flavouring – which normally doesn’t do well for a resteep. It makes for a great mid-afternoon or post-dinner tea as the sweetness definitely evokes the feeling like you’re drinking something laden with sugar.

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