Tag: Herbal/Fruit Infusion

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Wize Monkey’s Minty Marvel

Minty Marvel by Wize Monkey
Herbal Tisane / Flavoured
$10.49 for 35g (15 sachets)

Wize Monkey has provided me with Minty Marvel for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Spring has me feeling the bright colours lately, and check out the bright aqua that Wize Monkey has chosen for their Minty Marvel! I’m a picky herbal lover, and I really have to be ‘in the mood’ for certain flavours – mint being one of them. I was happy to open up the packaging on these sachets to give them a try. Minty Marvel comes in pyramid sachets, much like the other Wize Monkey blends that I’ve tried so far. The mint aroma is strong, I can’t quite pinpoint with my nose which mint that I smell though.

Minty Marvel consists of arabica leaves and natural mint flavour.

Preparation

Wize Monkey recommends steeping Minty Marvel at 95C (203F) for as long as you’d like. The fun thing about coffee leaf is that, unlike tea leaves, it doesn’t get bitter if it gets steeped for a long time. My initial steep of Minty Marvel was for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Minty Marvel steeps to a beautiful golden orange that is really pleasant to look at. The aroma from Minty Marvel is undoubtedly mint. I get the strong minty aroma right off the bat and it’s got a refreshing aroma that makes me think of summer. The flavour of this minty tisane is primarily that of the coffee leaf base, with a coolness that kind of just coats the inside of my mouth as I drink it. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s conflicting as I’m drinking a cup of hot coffee leaf tea while having this cooling sensation in my mouth. The coffee leaf base has a nice roasted nuts quality about it, and the mint flavour is just kind of hanging out at the end of each sip.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Minty Marvel once, and found it to be mostly the coffee leaf base on resteep. I would say that Minty Marvel is good for one steep.

My Overall Impression

I thought that Wize Monkey’s Minty Marvel was just okay. I enjoyed the coolness from the mint flavouring, and the coffee leaf base was pleasant to taste. I wish the mint flavouring had been more pronounced, since it was aromatically present in the dry leaf and in the aroma of the steeped tea. I think it could be improved with the addition of mint leaves in the blend, or a heavier hand with the mint flavouring. That said, if you’re a fan of the coffee leaf tea base, I think you’d be quite happy with this one since it retains the flavour of the coffee leaf quite well throughout.

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Maison de la Chicoutai’s Cloudberry Herbal Tea

Cloudberry Herbal Tea by Maison de la Chicoutai
Herbal Infusion / Flavoured
$15.00 for 30g (12 sachets)

Mint and Honey has provided me with Maison de la Chicoutai’s Cloudberry Herbal Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Cloudberry Herbal Tea came to me in this cute tin with some lovely floral artwork on it – I love all things floral these days, it just makes for a more cheerful moment. There’s some information printed on the side of the tin about cloudberry about where it’s found (Minganie in Quebec) and its history. The name of this berry in French is  Chicoutai, which means fire – for the colour of the berry. Traditionally, cloudberry is used to help with coughs, fever, and lung ailments. This fruit is high in vitamin C and was important for helping to prevent scurvy, back in the day.

Cloudberry Herbal Tea consists of cloudberry leaves, hibiscus flowers, apple granules, rosehips, berries, roasted chicory root, orange peel, natural flavours, and orange peel. Cloudberry Herbal Tea came preportioned into pyramid sachets, so I just popped one into my teacup for steeping. This herbal blend has an amazingly sweet, fruity aroma to it. There’s a lot of berry aromas in there. I’ve never had the opportunity to taste cloudberry before, so I couldn’t tell you if that’s what I smell from the sachet or if it’s one of the other fruity ingredients (but it sure smells good!).

Preparation

Maison de la Chicoutai recommends steeping Cloudberry Herbal Tea in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 3 to 5 minutes, and suggests sweetening it with honey if sweetener is needed. I opted to do my initial steep of Cloudberry Herbal Tea for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Cloudberry Herbal Tea steeps to a beautiful scarlet red, I’m not sure how much of that is from the hibiscus and how much is from the other ingredients. It’s such a lovely colour. I found that the aroma is quite fruity – I can smell berries for sure. The taste of this tisane is sweet, fruit, and tart. I’ve found in the past that blends with hibiscus can be a touch too tart, but I don’t find that to be the case with Cloudberry Herbal Tea. It causes just enough mouthpucker to let you know that it’s tart, but it’s balanced out by the sweetness from all the fruit ingredients.

I found there to be just enough sweetness from the ingredients that I didn’t need to add any honey to my cup.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Cloudberry Herbal Tea once, for a total of 6 minutes, and found it to be wonderfully fruity. The colouring wasn’t as intense as the initial steep, and the tartness was considerably less in comparison. The second steep is more fruity and sweet and reminded me of a fruit punch.

My Overall Impression

I loved Maison de la Chicoutai’s Cloudberry Herbal Tea. I’m so glad that Honey and Mint decided to send this one to me! The flavours in both the initial steep and resteep were enjoyable. If you’re not fond of tart, I’d would recommend adding some honey to temper the hibiscus a bit. I think that this would be wonderful iced, the berry flavours would do well as part of an iced tea (or mixed with some soda water). I would recommend resteeping it, because having an herbal tisane that tastes like fruit punch is a wonderful summery treat.

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Teatourist’s Ravish & Lavish Tea Adventure

Ravish & Lavish Tea Adventure (April 2018) by Teatourist
£15 for 1 box, plus shipping (+£3-5 per box)

Teatourist has provided me with the Ravish & Lavish Tea Adventure for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I was really excited with the Ravish & Lavish Tea Adventure because the first item I really laid eyes on was the complimentary brew buddy, which was the Vegan Creme Egg Fudge by Fab Fudge. I pretty much ate that quick and it was delicious! It had a lovely chocolate texture and reminded me a lot of a Cadbury Creme Egg. There’s not a lot of photos that I took of that one, unfortunately. The only thing that would have it better if there had been more of it.

This collection had six teas: Mountain Mint by Nazani Tea (herbal infusion), Blooming Marvelous by eteaket (green tea), Pedernales Green Yaupon by CatSpring Yaupon (herbal infusion), Shakti Masala Chai by Sonya’s Chai (black tea), Belgian Chocolate Rooibos by Cheshire Tea (rooibos), and Breakfast In Bed by teatourist (black tea). From what I learned from teatourist, this is their first signature tea blend, so I was really looking to trying it when I saw it!

Mountain Mint is an herbal tisane that I would describe as being very fluffy. It just has a very fluffy, airy dry leaf. This mint tisane is 100% wild mountain mint and harvested 1800m above sea level. It has an obviously minty aroma to it. Blooming Marvelous has a very strong strawberry aroma to it, which is quite nice. It’s made up of green Chinese sencha, rosebuds, strawberries, mallow, sunflower petals, and natural flavouring (lemon, vanilla, and red fruit). Now, I’m not sure what ‘red fruit’ is, but I’m assuming it helps to amplify the strawberry flavouring of the tea. Pedernales Green Yaupon has flakey dry green leaves. There’s something about the aroma of this yaupon that reminds me of kale. Pedernales Green Yaupon is 100% organic yaupon.

From left to right: Mountain Mint, Blooming Marvelous, and Pedernales Green Yaupon.

Shakti Original Masala Chai has some strong spice aromas from the dry leaf, I can smell primarily the cardamom, clove, and black pepper. This chai consists of Assam black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, anise seed, black pepper, clove, and fennel. Belgian Chocolate Rooibos has a sweet chocolate aroma, along with the medicinal aroma from the rooibos base. It consists of rooibos, cacao bean pieces, calendula petals, and natural flavours. Breakfast In Bed has a strong black tea aroma, and I can smell and sweet the vanilla bean pieces. The aroma makes me think of cake, but I believe that to be due to the vanilla bean. Teatourist’s signature blend consists of black tea, vanilla pieces, and flavouring.

From left to right: Shakti Original Masala Chai, Belgian Chocolate Roobios, and Breakfast In Bed.

Preparation

Nazani Tea recommends steeping Mountain Mint in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 to 5 minutes. I did an initial steep of 4 minutes.

eteaket recommends steeping Blooming Marvelous in 80°C (176°F) water for 2 to 3 minutes. I did an initial steep of 2 minutes in 79°C (175°F) water.

CatSpring Yaupon recommends steeping Pedernales Green Yaupon in 95°C (203°F) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I did an initial steep of 4 minutes in 93°C (200°F) water.

Sonya’s Chai recommends steeping Shakti Original Masala Chai in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions for the initial steep.

Cheshire Tea recommends steeping Belgian Chocolate Rooibos in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 to 7 minutes. I did an initial steep of 5 minutes.

teatourist recommends steeping Breakfast In Bed in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 to 5 minutes. I did an initial steep of 4 minutes.

First Taste

From left to right: Mountain Mint, Blooming Marvelous, and Pedernales Green Yaupon.

Mountain Mint steeps to a nice orange colour. It has a minty aroma, and has a great minty flavour to it. The description on the packaging described it as being both warm and refreshing, which I do agree with. I think it’d to have iced this summer.

Blooming Marvelous steeps to a light yellow colour. I can taste the sencha base, it has a pleasant vegetal flavour to it. I found that it had a nice light fruity sweetness, and pleasant floral notes to it. The strawberry/berry flavours shine through when I sip at this one.

Pedernales Green Yaupon steeps to a brownish-yellow. I found that it has a bit of a spinach and earthy aroma to it. There’s a very light sweetness to it, and some earthy notes in this infusion that reminds me a lot of dark green leafy vegetables and mushrooms.

From left to right: Shakti Original Masala Chai, Belgian Chocolate Roobios, and Breakfast In Bed.

Shakti Original Masala Chai steeps to a deep red. I found that it had a nice spice aroma and flavour to it. I like my chai a tiny bit sweeter than this one is, so I did add a little bit of honey. I can definitely taste the ginger and cinnamon in it. This chai blend also goes well with a splash of milk.

Belgian Chocolate Rooibos steeps to a deep red. I found the chocolate aroma wasn’t very strong compared to the smell of the rooibos base. The chocolate flavour was very mild compared to the medicinal flavour of the rooibos.

Breakfast In Bed also steeps to a deep red. There’s a slight sweetness to this black tea, with a nice vanilla flavour. The black tea base has a touch of astringency to it, which isn’t overwhelming the vanilla – it reminds me a bit of a breakfast tea (either English or Irish). The vanilla adds a bit of creaminess to the tea. I think it’d do well with some cream and sugar.

A Second Cup?

For the first trio, I attempted resteeps for all three. Mountain Mint did well on the first resteep at 7 minutes and had an enjoyable flavour. In a second resteep attempt, Mountain Mint did poorly, it’s a tisane that is good for just the one more steep. Blooming Marvelous didn’t do well on the resteep, I found that the flavour profile wasn’t similar to the initial steep. The sencha was the main star for the resteep, so if you’re like sencha, you’ll probably enjoy the resteep of the same leaves. Pedenerales Green Yaupon tasted fairly similar to the initial steep with those earthy flavours.

From left to right: Mountain Mint, Blooming Marvelous, and Pedernales Green Yaupon.

In the second half of the Ravish & Lavish Tea Adventure, I resteeped all of them once. I found that Shakti Original Masala Chai wasn’t quite as spicy as the initial steep. It’s still tasty, but the flavour wasn’t as intense as the first steep. Belgian Chocolate Rooibos didn’t do that well with the second steep, I found it to be all rooibos with no chocolate flavour to it. Breakfast In Bed resteeped well. The vanilla flavour wasn’t as strong as the initial steep, but it was noticeable. The black tea still had a mild astringency to it, but wasn’t off-putting.

From left to right: Shakti Original Masala Chai, Belgian Chocolate Roobios, and Breakfast In Bed.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teatourist’s Ravish & Lavish Tea Adventure. I really did enjoy the Vegan Creme Egg Fudge, it was a very tasty morsel! The stand outs in this collection for me were Blooming Marvelous, Shakti Original Masala Chai, and Breakfast In Bed. I really enjoyed the black teas in this collection, and getting introduced to all these flavour combinations is one of my favourite parts of receiving a monthly subscription box. The fun part of the boxes is getting teas that I probably wouldn’t buy on my own, but then I would have missed out of getting to try them. I really would recommend trying it out if you have the spare funds because it’s a really fun treat.

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