One Lady’s Discovery of Tea

Ok, let’s get one thing straight: Pop Tarts aren’t good for you. They aren’t a part of any nutritious breakfast. Given that I am rather serious about this weight-loss thing, Pop-Tarts are definitely not on my “permitted foods” list.

But I still love them. I love that pasty-pastry crust and the hot gooey filling and that crisped/crystalized frosting  . . . nom, nom, nom. . .you know what I mean?

So occasionally I’ll give in to my baser instincts and buy a Pop-Tart pack from my office vending machine.  The last time I had a Pop-Tart was back in October when I paired Blueberry Pop-Tarts with Bigelow Earl Grey. Yesterday I once again felt the need for a Pop-Tart and decided to pair it with our tea.

Our vending machine is funny in that while there are generally two varieties of Pop-Tart available, they vary from week-to-week. This week I had a choice of brown sugar and cherry. . .I chose the cherry, despite not being overly fond of that variety.

So what tea to match with it?

I chose Mighty Leaf’s Organic Spring Jasmine: I don’t care for cherry Pop-Tarts because I find cherry to be overly sweet. I thought the perfume-y but “dry” nature of the jasmine blended with green tea would make an excellent foil to the cloying cherry.

I was right.

In addition to the flavors of cherry/jasmine/green tea meshing well, the tea also did a fantastic job of sweeping my palette between bites and not leaving my mouth feel as sticky/sweet as it normally does after a Pop-Tart.

All-in-all, another winning combo!

Affiliate Links in this Post: Yes

(Note: The purpose of this new series of reviews is not to evaluate the quality of either a merchant’s products, its marketing techniques, or its customer service. Instead, I am reviewing tea merchant sites for their value as information resources and how well they serve the tea community by providing accurate and accessible information about tea.)

Merchant Name/URL: Bigelow Tea

Review: While the Bigelow website’s focus is on showcasing its products, it does include several more generic tea-related resources. The “For Your Health” section lists various recent news stories and journal articles on the health benefits of tea drinking. A recipes section features the use of Bigelow’s teas in cooking, while the entertaining section has tips for brewing tea and holding various types of tea parties. Bigelow also hosts several videos on its website, including instructions on how to use Bigelow teas in cocktails.

(Incidentally, there is a Spanish version of the site available, but as I do not read Spanish, I have no idea as to what information it contains!)

Blog?: Yes, the aptly named “Constant Comments”, named after Bigelow’s flagship product. Primarily a newsy/promotional blog with information about Bigelow products and tea’s health benefits as reported in the media.

Affiliate Links in this Post?: No

Name: China Yunnan Golden Downy Pekoe

Brand: TeaGshwendner

Type: Black Tea

Form: Loose Leaf

Cost:$9.80 for 100 grams (quantity discounts available)

Review: I really, really wanted to like this tea. For one thing it has a lovely, delicate spicy nose whilst dry, and infuses to a gorgeous burnished copper in the pot.  It is fun to watch it steep: Its large, lovely leaves and buds unfurl so gracefully. The steeped tea has a nose is of honey and some gentle caramel.

Unfortunately, it is when I actually drink the stuff that everything goes wrong. This tea’s mouthfeel is thin, with a very slight astringency in the finish. The caramel and honey notes are present in the mouth: Unfortunately, the light body and briskness can’t support the caramel/honey flavors: These sweet notes seem insipid, rather than compelling. Even the spice-promise of the dry nose is completely lost.

I tried this tea several times, and each time experienced the same disappointment.

Recommendation: This is an uber-refined black tea and therein lies its problem: It just isn’t substantial enough to warrant either its price or even its consumption. It is certainly a pretty tea, with a lovely nose, but taste-wise, it just doesn’t live up to its promise.

Affiliate Links in this Post?: No

Name: Black Currant Tea

Brand: Ocean Of Tea

Type: Black tea with natural black currant flavor and strawberry leaves

Form: Loose Leaf

Cost:$3.60 for 2 ounces (quantity discounts available)

Review:

I tried Ocean of Tea’s black currant tea as part of their recent Friday Twitter Tea Party promotion and am quite glad I did!

As the office “tea lady”, I am constantly faced with the challenge of bringing in new and different teas with which I might tempt my co-worker’s tastebuds. Many of my colleagues prefer flavored teas, so it is great fun to source new flavors.  Ocean of Tea’s black currant has proven to be a huge hit: The nose on this tea is remarkable (it actually smells like, um, black currant jam) and people have been “sold” on this tea as soon as I let them sniff the leaves!

The tea infuses to a dark, robust brew, again with that lovely black currant scent and flavor. I’ve never added any sweetening to this tea: It is fruity enough (though not sweet) without any additions.

I would note that the black tea is definitely secondary to the black currant flavor. If you are looking for a more subtly flavored tea, this is not for you.

Recommendation:

This tea is all about the fruit flavor. Yes, there is a backnote of black tea, which is fine, but it is aggressively currant-y.  This is not a bad thing: It is genuinely delicious, but don’t expect the tea itself to shine, which may be just as well for non-tea lovers. I suspect that this would be great iced.  It is very good at breakfast-time, particularly with toast or bagels.

(I also suspect it would be utterly decadent if blended with a chocolate flavored tea.)

(As an aside, I have added virgin coconut oil to my diet during the past few months, and have found that a spoonful of the oil in this tea is very tasty indeed.)

Affiliate Links in this Post?:  No

Greetings!

First of all, I’d like to thank all of my loyal readers and especially those of you who take the time to comment on my posts. It has been wonderful getting to know you all, and I do appreciate your support. Please feel free to contact me with suggestions and ideas. I’d love to hear them.

Secondly, I have some wonderful news. I have had the honor of this blog being selected as one of the tea feeds on Alltop. Alltop is a “magazine rack” of blogs and feeds, and it is a remarkably easy-to-use service for anyone who wants to find quality blog feeds on any topic.  I encourage you to check it out.

Thirdly, I’d like to remind everyone that I am hosting a monthly giveaway open to anyone in the USA, UK, or Canada who subscribes to my blog feed via email. Each month I am giving away a book on tea: This month’s book is Harney & Son’s Guide to Tea by Michael Harney.  You only need to subscribe to my email feed once, and no matter how many times I post in a day, you will only recieve one email each day containing that day’s postings.

Finally, I would like to ask that, if you like a post, you share it with others. I have an “Add This” button at the bottom of every post which makes it easy to submit a post to Stumbleupon, Digg, Delicious, FoodBuzz, or any other social bookmarking/media service.  I’d particularly like to point out the new social news site, Kirtsy, which specifically focuses on stories of interest to women. Please feel free to add me as a friend on these services, and send me your own best articles/posts/whatever. I’d love to see them!

I do wish you all a marvelous weekend! Thanks again for visiting!

Name:
Monkey Picked Oolong Tea

Brand:

Type: Oolong

Form: Loose Leaf

Cost: $25.00 for two ounces (discounts are available for larger quantities) $5.50 for a cup at the Teavana shop in Chicago–Watertower Place

Review: Normally I do my reviews at home, cup of tea in hand, typing as I sip. Tonight is an exception, because I just had an exceptional cup of tea.

I visited Teavana again, and have some new teas to review. However, while the Monkey Picked Oolong (at $25 for two ounces) is a bit rich for my blood, I did give in to temptation and sampled a cup.

Oh my stars!

I love oolongs and I particularly love Monkey Picked Oolong (The tea is so-called because legend has it that monks trained monkeys to pick the tea. However the modern use of the term “monkey” in a tea name simply denotes a very high grade of tea.). One of the extraordinary things about an oolong of this quality is its creaminess: Yes it is “just” tea, but the mouthfeel is that of heavy cream. In fact, as I sipped my drink walking down Michigan Avenue, I realized that while the tea was not at all sweet (or chocolatey), the drink felt like hot chocolate in my mouth. Truly extraordinary.

The taste is incredibly refined and complex. There are certainly vegital-green notes (a hint of spinach, perhaps) along with some roasted leeks. . .but there is also a decided woody-ness that almost becomes bitter, but never actually follows through.  This is a decidedly sophisticated tea that demands attention.

Recommendation: This tea is absolutely delicious, but many of its qualities may be lost on novice tea drinkers. Regular tea drinkers, especially lovers of oolong tea, must try this. It is wonderful.

Affiliate Links: Yes

Tea Name: Kuki Matcha

Brand:

Type: Green tea: Matcha and Kukicha blend

Form: Loose Leaf

Cost:$7.80 for two ounces, discounts available in larger quantities

Review: Kuki Matcha meshes two different types of green tea into one drink: Matcha (powdered green tea) and kukicha, which is made of roasted stems, twigs, and stalks of the tea plant.  The two combine to make a hearty, creamy, savory tea that I enjoyed very much. The liquor is a lovely bright green, and the tea itself has a wonderful creamed spinach quality in the mouth. I did not detect any bitterness: The roasted kukicha added a nuttiness to the tea which increased the smoothness. I found that the tea stood up well to multiple infusions: You should be able to steep this tea at least three times.

Note: Because this tea contains matcha, you will find that the fine matcha powder settles on the bottom of the cup. This doesn’t look very nice, but is harmless: Just give the tea good stir.

Recommendation:The combination of the kukicha and matcha makes for a substantial green tea: For those who like a hearty tea/hot beverage, this is just the thing. The lack of bitterness might make it an excellent introduction to green tea for newbies or those who have not enjoyed green tea in the past. A great Fall/Winter green tea.

Affiliate Links: Yes

Last week my vegan friend John Plummer and myself began a series of reviews on adding non-dairy “milks” to tea. Here is our latest in this series. Enjoy!

The Milk: Pacific Organic Unsweetened Almond Beverage

John’s Take: John describes the milk as  “A bit thinner than the hazelnut [We reviewed hazelnut milk last week, ed.], very mild, pleasant, with a background nutty flavor.”.

Lainie’s Take:

The almond milk is very different from the hazelnut milk that I tried for the previous review. It has a nice consistency, but was not nearly as rick as the hazelnut milk: Whereas the hazelnut milk’s consistency is similar to whole milk, the almond milk is closer to 1% milk.

The almond taste is not so pronounced: This is an unsweetened milk, so that may have had something to do with it. I did detect a faintly bitter almond note in the finish: Not a bad thing, actually, but also didn’t inspire me to drink the almond milk straight-up as I did the sweetened hazelnut milk.

The Tea: Choice Organic English Breakfast Tea

Check out our previous review for our opinions of this tea.

The Milk in the Tea:

John’s Take: John thinks that “The milk makes the tea smoother and milder, but not particularly milky in flavor or mouth feel.” He also added it cold to the hot tea and there was no breaking, separating, oil rising to the top, or sediment.

Lainie’s Take: The almond milk seemed less like milk in the tea and closer to a “flavoring”. This might be because the milk is relatively thin compared to the hazelnut milk. I am not sure.  However, I actually preferred the almond milk to the hazelnut milk in the Choice Organic English Breakfast tea, as I thought that it didn’t smooth it out as much and the slight bitterness added an extra “bite”.

John’s Extra Tastings: John had some Almond Breeze brand unsweetened almond milk in the house, and noted that it was thicker, creamier and had a more pronounced almond taste than the Pacific milk, both on its own and in the tea (where it behaved/tasted more like milk as well). He did caution that the Almond Breeze will sometimes break and separate when added cold to hot tea, but that this can be avoided by warming it first.

Lainie’s Extra Tastings: I also tried the almond milk in Harney & Son’s Organic English Breakfast Tea (which I reviewed at Jeff Cutler’s blog) and Teavana’s Formosa Nut Oolong.  Unlike most English Breakfast teas, Harney & Son’s uses China black tea, rather than Indian/Sri Lankan teas. This results in a smoother cup which is complimented by the slight bitterness of unsweetened almond milk. The Formosa Nut Oolong, however, did not fare so well. The addition of the milk was overkill and masked the other flavors of that decadent, nutty tea.

Affiliate Links in this Post?: Yes.

Republic of Tea Cardamon Cinnamon loose-leaf

(From Lainie: My dear friend Sensuous Wife has contributed a guest review today! Enjoy!)

I went to my favorite place to buy loose-leaf tea because I had a hankerin’ for my favorite Ginger Peach tea.

But I was so taken by the look of the Cardamon Cinnamon full leaf that I had to buy some. Loose in the glass jar at the tea store, this tea looks like potpourri. It smells like potpourri.

Standing there in the store, I had a flashback to smelling yummy Thanksgiving scented potpourri that my mama would boil on the stove. The colors and textures and fragrances were so appealing that I wanted to pop one of those colorful bits in my mouth. But the label had a big ugly warning. You know the kind that’s on candles and potpourri and anything else that smells good but you should NOT put in your mouth: Warning! Not for human consumption. All these thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant. Immediately a mischiveious gleam shone in my eyes and a sly grin wove it’s way across my face. I stood there in the store grinning like a naughty child and I said, “Hah! This is pretty potpourri and THIS time I’m gonna DRINK it!!”

The fragrance is a good overwhelming. I cannot emphasize enough what a sensuous joy this tea is before leaves ever touch boiling water.

As to the taste? It’s like Fall in a cup. Like every autumnal delicious smell you’ve ever smelled in a Yankee Candle shop. ‘cept this time you get to drink it.

Sensuous Wife
I’m a woman who is deliberately choosing to live alive to pleasure received through the senses.

Tea Name: Formosa Nut Oolong Tea

Brand:

Type: Oolong, flavored 

Form: Loose Leaf

Cost: $9.20 for 2 ounces, greater discounts in quantity

Review: When I visited Teavana a few days ago, my plan was to pick up a few green teas: This plan was thwarted, however, by the sales technique that Teavana’s people employ so well.  You see, all of the tea at Teavana’s shop is stored along its back wall in airtight tins. If you inquire about a tea, the shop assistant takes out the tin, opens the lid, and fans the lid over the bin. This results in the beautiful scents of Teavana’s teas being directed toward your nose, upon which all restraint is scattered along with the tea-scent, and your wallet is opened wider than you ever expected.

Ahem. . .<regains composure>

In any case, the scent of almonds, apples, candied violets, pistachios and oolong tea proved too much for me to bear. I did get some green tea, but the Formosa Nut Oolong was also lovingly nestled beside it in one of Teavana’s beautiful bags.

(Naturally, the Formosa Nut Ooling was also the first tea I sampled that evening.)

As the name suggests, this is a nutty tea, though not as heavy-bodied as one might expect. Instead it has a fairly light mouthfeel, is sweet, and has an almost candy-like taste. The oolong is primarily a backdrop to the other flavors: One can pick up on the slightly roasted notes of the oolong in the back, but the nuts (along with a hint of apple) predominate. Like many oolongs, this tea can be steeped numerous times, and in my opinion, actually improves as some of the stronger nut/fruit/candied violet notes dissipate and the taste of the oolong emerges.

Recommendation: This is a warm and comforting tea: I am looking forward to sipping it in the winter months. Flavors are strong: The tea itself isn’t that obvious, which is great for those who are interested in drinking tea as an alternative to coffee and/or other beverages, but who are not overly fond of tea itself.  This tea is already sweet, so don’t add any sweetener until you have sampled it first: You can then adjust the sweetness as necessary.

One nit: Tea purists will likely find this tea over-the-top as far as non-tea flavors are concerned.

Affiliate Links: Yes