Tag: Green Tea

Posted on

Pique Tea’s Mint Sencha

Mint Sencha by Pique Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.99USD for 14 packets per carton (0.3oz / 8.4g)

20170811-piquemintsencha

Pique Tea has provided me with Mint Sencha for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

When Pique Tea asked me if I wanted to try their tea, I was intrigued. It’s not my first time having an ‘instant’ tea, but I’ve really grown to like sencha so the idea of an instant sencha powder did make me a little bit apprehensive. They sent me a package of their Mint Sencha, and inside the cardboard carton was 14 foil packets.

20170811-piquemintsencha1

It’s a lot of packaging, but luckily the cardboard carton is fully recyclable. You can find more information about the process of how Pique Tea creates this crystallized tea on their website. When I opened the packet, I found that the tea reminded me a lot of golden sugar – just smaller granules. I tried to sniff the tea, but didn’t really smell anything. I didn’t get my nose too close because I wanted to drink this tea, not inhale it. Mint Sencha is made of organic green tea and organic spearmint.

20170811-piquemintsencha3

20170811-piquemintsencha4

Preparation

Pique Tea recommends mixing 1 packet per 8oz of water, and recommended 175°F (79°C) water for this green tea. Fun tip, when I was on the Pique Tea website I learned that their crystallized green teas can be fully dissolved in cold water (but their black teas cannot), this is due to some of the properties of black tea.

First Taste

20170811-piquemintsencha5

After adding hot water to the tea crystals, I found that it fully dissolved without any mixing on my part. The tea itself is fairly yellow. It has a very strong minty aroma to it. There’s a strong grassy and vegetal taste to this tea, which I contribute to the sencha part of this tea, with the light freshness of spearmint. I found it quite tasty. The colour isn’t quite what I was expecting, it’s a lot brighter than I usually expect my sencha to be, but I suspect that’s partially because of the spearmint as well. Because it had a strong mint fragrance, I expect it to be more minty in flavour. Thankfully, I’m not likening it to toothpaste, because actual amount of mint in the flavour isn’t overwhelming (thank goodness).

I iced a second cup of this tea and found it to be tastier iced than hot because of the refreshing qualities of the mint.

A Second Cup?

No second steeps for this tea as it fully dissolved and there was nothing to resteep!

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked Pique Tea’s Mint Sencha. I thought that overall this tea was quite tasty, with some good sencha flavours with the added mint. I was happy that the mint wasn’t as overwhelming as I expected it to be. I found Mint Sencha to be better iced than hot (and thankfully it fully dissolves in cold water). With the way the packets work, you only get 14 servings per package (making each serving $0.57). This is cheaper than buying a to-go cup of tea at a coffee shop for sure, but it is more expensive than buying loose leaf tea by itself. That said, this is a product of convenience. I think tea bag drinkers will love this, because it means that they don’t have to be schlepping wet tea bags around (or worry about oversteeping their tea). For the convenience factor, I think it would be worth the cost per serving. I generally steep tea at home, so I’ll be using the remainder of the packets when I’m on-the-go or when I’m at work (as I don’t have the luxury of a desk job).

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

Posted on

Tealish’s Northern Lights

Northern Lights by Tealish
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.50 for 50g

20170731-tealishnorthernlights

Tealish’s Northern Lights came to me as part of The Sugared Teacup’s July themed subscription box.

First Impressions

20170731-tealishnorthernlights1

Northern Lights came in a super cute little white tin. I was a little bit rough when opening the tin though, and it came off with a pop and some of the tea came out so I would caution you to be careful if you get it in a small white tin as well. This is my first exposure to Tealish and I really like their label – it’s simple, tells me the name and type of the tea. Unfortunately, the label on this little tin didn’t list the ingredients or steeping instructions, so I had to hop onto their website for that. The dry leaf has a very bright citrus aroma to it, it also smells sweetly of apples.

20170731-tealishnorthernlights2

Northern Lights consists of: green tea, apple cubes, orange peels, fennel seeds, flavouring, and calendula petals. I quite like that I can see the ingredients in this tea (obviously minus the flavouring). It smells really good, has a great fruity aroma to it.

Preparation

Tealish recommends steeping Northern Lights in 80°C (176°F) water for 1-3 minutes. My initial steep was for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Northern Lights steeps to a pale yellow, and there are a lot of tiny particles to this tea so in hindsight I wish I had used a filter bag instead of a stainless steel infuser for this tea – learn from my mistakes if you don’t like drinking pieces of tea. This green tea blend has a sweet aroma to it, the citrus fragrance from the orange peel and the apple pieces mingle well to create a very fruity smell. On first taste, I can taste the natural sweetness from the fruit (and can make out the apple flavour), and a light sweetness from the green tea base. The green tea itself is quite light, and has just a hint of sweetness to it that is enjoyable.

I poured some of my initial steep into a mason jar to cool and then I added some ice cubes to it. This tea is delicious iced – I usually find a lot of fruity teas to be good iced, and Northern Lights was good. I might even like it better iced than hot.

20170731-tealishnorthernlights4

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Northern Lights and found for the second steep, the flavours that I loved in the initial steep were quite lacking in the second steep. It was hard to find the orange and the apple in the second round so I would say that Northern Lights is good for one steep only.

20170731-tealishnorthernlights7

My Overall Impression

3cups-2

I liked Tealish’s Northern Lights. I really like the flavour profile and the fact that I could taste the orange, the apple, and the green tea all separately and the flavours balanced with each other quite well. I also think that Northern Lights does quite well when iced, and I’ll probably wind up cold steeping or icing this tea when I have it again. It doesn’t do well with resteeping, which was quite disappointing. I also wish that the label had more information about this tea (but I also acknowledge that Tealish may have changed their packaging/labeling for the tea that went into The Sugared Teacup subscription boxes).

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

Posted on

Citizen Tea’s Cactus Fig Green

Cactus Fig Green by Citizen Tea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$6.50 for 50g

20170717-citizenteacactusfiggreen

Citizen Tea has provided me with Cactus Fig Green for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I’ve had aloe juice before – it’s delicious and has little chunks of jelly in it (at least the brand I buy does), so when I saw that this green tea blend had aloe vera in it, I was both intrigued and confused. Mostly because I know there wouldn’t be little chunks of jelly in this tea, so I was curious about how it would taste. On first smell, I can tell you that it smells sweet, which is the first thing I would tell you about aloe juice as well. I can smell the sweetness from the aloe and the figs.

20170717-citizenteacactusfiggreen1

Cactus Fig Green is made up of: green tea, fig pieces, aloe vera pieces, sandalwood, orange flower petals, and flavouring. I’m not entirely sure what sandalwood is supposed to smell like, but I can definitely see it in this blend and there’s something that reminds me a smoked wood aroma from this tea, so it might be that.

20170717-citizenteacactusfiggreen2

Preparation

Citizen Tea suggests steeping Cactus Fig Green in in 80°C (176°F) water for 2-3 minutes, which I followed. My initial steep was for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Cactus Fig Green steeps to a pale yellow, there was some little bits of the tea that made it through my stainless steel infuser so I would recommend steeping with a drawstring teabag if that bothers you. The tea itself has a very fresh smell to it, which is honestly the best way that I could describe it. The aloe aroma is a very ‘clean’ smell, it’s bright and fruity. The taste of aloe vera is very much present in this green tea blend. I found the tea to be light and smooth, no bitterness to note. There was a sweetness to this tea that I attribute to the aloe and the figs. The sweet fruitiness of the figs was tasty, but I think the aloe was just a little bit more in the forefront of the flavour profile. The green tea base has a light grassy taste to it that is complimented well by the flavours of the aloe and the fig.

20170717-citizenteacactusfiggreen4

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Cactus Fig Green once, at the same water temperature for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. I found the flavour to be a lot lighter, with more grassy notes. The overall flavour felt a bit flat to me, but the green tea base was starting to reveal itself more so I think it’s worth a resteep to have a different flavour experience.

20170717-citizenteacactusfiggreen5

My Overall Impression

rating4

I loved Citizen Tea’s Cactus Fig Green. As I mentioned at the beginning, I’m a huge fan of aloe and I found that the flavours of the aloe and the fig played really well together with the green tea base that Citizen Tea used. It’s quite a refreshing tea, the flavour is sweet and light with a bit of fruity goodness in it. I think this tea would do really well if cold steeped or iced, which makes it a good summer time tea. I don’t even think you’d have to add any sweetener to it because the aloe and fig provide enough sweetness to this blend.

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