Tag: Trudy Ann’s

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Trudy Ann’s Assam Black Tea

Assam Black Tea by Trudy Ann’s
Black Tea / Straight
$13.99 for 100g

First Impressions

Assam Black Tea was a 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival purchase that I made earlier this month. I love nice strong black teas, and Assam is usually one that fits the bill. Assam Black Tea came in a sealed, resealable kraft pouch in a generous 100g weight.

There’s a strong malty aroma from the dry leaf, it has slightly earthy note to it. Assam Black Tea consists only of organic Assam black tea. Loving the malty aroma from it all though, since it has a nice earthy note to it and it makes it all the more inviting.

Preparation

Trudy Ann’s recommends steeping it in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. Because Assam Black Tea is a black tea, I opted to steep in 100°C (212°F) water for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Assam Black Tea steeps to a beautiful golden orange. The aroma is mostly earthy. The tea itself has a strong, thicken mouthfeel to it. The flavour has a pleasantly bold mix of malty and earthy, almost some mineral qualities to it. It certainly does pack a bit of a punch to it though, with the strength of the flavours. There’s no bitterness noted with the 5 minute initial steep, I did find a mild astringency at the tail end of each sip.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Assam Black Tea three more times (four steeps total), adding an extra minute for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour was fairly similar to the original steep, but got slightly weaker with each steep – but still flavourful by the third resteep!

My Overall Impression

I loved Trudy Ann’s Assam Black Tea. I really enjoyed the malty and earthy notes in this black tea. I think it was very pleasant plain, but would be pretty good with some cream and sugar as well. It makes for a nice morning tea because it’s so flavourful and is quite bold, so it’d be a nice punch of flavour to wake up to in the morning. I also loved that it resteeped quite well, so you get some more flavour out of the tea leaves.

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Trudy Ann’s Apple Pie Chai

Apple Pie Chai by Trudy Ann’s
Rooibos / Flavoured
$14.99 for 100g

First Impressions

Trudy Ann’s Apple Pie Chai is another tea that I got at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival (oh yes, I spent a lot of time at her booth!). Surprisingly, this is a rooibos blend. I know what you’re all thinking, “But Michelle, you don’t like rooibos blends”. That’s right, traditionally I don’t. There’s just something not tasty about the medicinal-like base that straight rooibos has, and there are some rooibos blends that I enjoy. Apple Pie Chai smells pretty much like apple pie, and I can’t smell the rooibos blend – so I consider that a win overall and it makes me willing to give it a try.

Apple Pie Chai consists of: rooibos, apple, cinnamon, and cloves. I think it’s the combination of the cinnamon and cloves that really makes me think about apple pie. They’re just such classic ingredients that it makes me think of that warm, autumn dessert. The ingredients are fairly easy to pick out, especially the very generous amount of dried apple pieces.

Preparation

Trudy Ann’s recommends steeping Apple Pie Chai in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. I opted to steep with 100°C (212°F) water for 7 minutes.

First Taste

Apple Pie Chai steeps to a deep reddish orange. My initial steep of Apple Pie Chai was with a stainless steel infuser, and I found that a lot of the little ‘bits’ came out into the tea. If this bothers you, I’d recommend using a filter bag to steep your Apple Pie Chai for a clearer steep. I can smell the rooibos base in the steeped tea, but I can also smell the apple and cinnamon. The cloves aren’t as strong compared to the dry base. Apple Pie Chai has a thickened mouthfeel to it, and I can taste the apple and the cinnamon. A pleasant surprise I found with the Apple Pie Chai is that I cannot taste the rooibos blend – win!

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep of Apple Pie Chai and steeped it for 10 minutes. I found that a lot of the flavours that I loved in the initial steep were quite muted, and the rooibos base is quite pronounced. So if you love the taste of rooibos, I would recommend resteeping Apple Pie Chai. If you’re like me and enjoy the other flavours more, I would stick to one steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Trudy Ann’s Apple Pie Chai. I love that the dry leaf and the steeped tea smells just like apple pie, it definitely makes me think of the dessert. The flavour of this rooibos base are delicious, and it makes for a great caffeine-free dessert tea. If you’re not a fan of the flavour of rooibos, I would highly recommend just sticking to the initial steep.

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Trudy Ann’s Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai

Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai by Trudy Ann’s
Black Tea / Flavoured
$21.95 for 60g (40 cups)

First Impressions

I first got to try Trudy Ann’s Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival. It was one of the teas on sample and just oh-so-good. I kept going back to the booth to sample some more before I finally broke down and bought some. Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai comes in a kraft paper pouch that is plastic lined and resealable. When I opened up the packaging, I did wind up giving it a little bit of a shake to redistribute the ingredients, I did have it sitting for a little bit after November so some of the smaller ingredients did settle a bit. If you ever run into that issue with any of your tea blends, I recommend closing it back up and then just giving it a few gentle shakes. This helps to redistribute the ingredients and results in tea that tastes a lot closer to what the company intended!

The aroma of cardamom, tumeric, and ginger are the strongest in the dry leaf of this tea – the ingredients are well represented and easily identifiable. Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai consists of organic: black tea, saffron, cardamom, tumeric, and ginger.

Preparation

Trudy Ann’s gives multiple directions of steeping – ranging from steeping in a cup, stove top, or iced. I opted to follow the instructions for a cup, which was to steep in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and then strain out the tea leaves. I opted to use 100°C (212°F) water and steeped for 7 minutes.

For the iced chai instructions, it is to steep 1tsp of tea in ½ cup of hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and then add a ½ cup of ice cubes and then pour the whole thing over vanilla ice cream. This sounds like a most excellent idea for the summer time!

First Taste

Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai steeps to a beautiful deep red with a bit of a yellow glow to it. The aroma is primarily that of the cardamon and tumeric, with a hint of the ginger in the background. The flavour of the tea is sweet, I can taste the cardamom, ginger and tumeric with just a hint of the saffron in the background. Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai has a surprisingly thick mouthfeel to it, it’s very pleasant and I found it to be quite smooth.

I honestly think this would be so good as a tea latte, it’d be a pleasant mix of golden milk (tumeric + milk) and a chai latte.

A Second Cup?

The packaging of Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai includes instructions for a second steep, which is to steep for 10 to 15 minutes. I opted to steep for 12 minutes and found that the resteep was very tasty. It lacked that thick mouthfeel that I found in the initial steep, but the flavour profile was still very similar to the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Trudy Ann’s Kashmiri Golden Saffron Cardamom Chai. I found the balance of flavour between the cardamom, ginger, and tumeric to be so well balanced, it made for just such an enjoyable cup of tea. The hint of saffron, which played quite nicely with the heavier flavours of the spices, just made this tea feel a little bit luxurious to smell, steep, and drink. And for anyone who’s frowning heavily at the cost of a bag, which I honestly did when I first thought about buying it until I realized I drank a dozen small cups worth of samples – it works out to be $0.55/cup which is so much cheaper than a tea to go at a local coffee shop and with more expensive & delicious ingredients!

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