The Tea Spot Blue Mountain Nilgiri Organic Black Tea Review

MmMmm chocolate shavings....

The first thing that came to my mind when I looked that the Tea Spot Blue Mountain Nilgiri was chocolate. Why? Because the tea leaves look exact like chocolate chip flakes!  Mmm!  The tea leaves looked like chocolate shavings ranging from dark chocolate to milk chocolate when I started steeping them in my cup.

A little background before we begin.  This tea is single estate from the Nilgiri Mountains in India.  I love single estate teas.  I can understand why people would want to blend teas from different regions to get the best cup, but there is something special about drinking a tea from a specific region.  You get to taste the characteristics that comes from that the specific region and appreciate the quality of the tea from that area.  When you brew loose green tea for example.  You don’t combine Chinese gunpowder tea with a Japanese bancha.  You could, but you drink the teas separately to appreciate the flavours that come with each individual tea.

Anyways back to this single estate tea.  I used 1 teaspoon and steeped for 3-5 minutes in about 250ml of boiling water.  The liquor appears at first to haev turned a beautiful earthy brown, but upon closer inspection its a deep orange hue.  The tea had nice gentle fragrant aroma to it, it definitely reminded me of a Darjeeling.  Wow, I really liked this tea.  It was medium in body and had a very nice finish that lasts in your mouth.  It is quite gentle to start on the palate, but finishes off rich and a bit smoky.  There is caffeine in this cup, but lighter in caffeine then some heavier black teas I’ve had.  Organic and fair trade as well.  It’s a win win win situation.  I just wish I was actually in India sipping this, not at home in front of my computer.  Sigh.

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Two Leaves and a Bud – Organic Darjeeling Afternoon Tea and Earl Grey Tea Review

Today I’m reviewing two black teas from Two Leaves and a Bud – Organic Darjeeling Afternoon Tea and Organic Earl Grey Tea. Monday I’ll be reviewing the last four Two Leaves and a Bud teas I have – all green teas.

A nice complex darjeeling

I’ll be starting with the Organic Darjeeling Afternoon Tea first. Darjeeling, one of the highest growing regions of tea in the world, is from Northern India. This Darjeeling is 100% pure FTGFOP#1 = Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. One of the best and most expensive qualities of tea consisting of a high proportion of tips and buds.

There wasn’t much aroma to this tea, even the wet tea bad didn’t have much scent – so I’m expecting this tea to be delicate. The color was a golden medium brown. Wow. I generally love all Darjeeling teas I sample. This one was a complex yet delicate tea on the palate just as I expected. Even though I steeped for only 4 minutes, there was a hint of a bitterness on the end note indicative of a high tannin content characteristic of black teas. This tea is astringent in nature and is high in caffeine! I can feel right away even after the first sip. Phew! The flavours of the tea linger in your mouth even after a few minutes and create a umami. Not a beginners black tea.

Ceylon OP#1 - Orange Pekoe

Next is the classic Earl Grey – a black tea base scented with bergamot. The ingredients in this one are Ceylon tea with begamot. This tea was darker in color, a brown color with a slight aubergine undertone. If you click on the image on the left you can see the beautiful color of the broken tea leaves. I could see the oil of begamot form a thin film at the top of the tea. This tea definitely has a kick to it. The tea starts off with a hint of bergamot with a sharp and slighty astringent flavour of tea. The end notes are lemony and clean. My feeling is that is has less caffeine than the Darjeeling. If you like a sharp tasting Earl Grey then this is the tea for you.

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C-ICE Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea

I'm going to guess this is THC free.

I was browsing through TreeHugger and look what I came across -  Swiss cannabis ice tea.

Speaking of tea, C-ICE Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea is made of black tea with 5% hemp bloom syrup, and 0.0015% hemp bloom extract, for those who want a different sort of pick-me-up.

Has anyone tried this?  I absolutely love hemp nuts, hemp seed butter, hemp protein powder and generally all things hemp.  So I would love to try this, but I’ve never seen it in any health food stores in Toronto.  Browsing on a few sites, it seems although it’s only available in Europe.

Are there any North American distributors who would be willing to pick this up?  I’m sure there would be a huge market for this in Canada and the US.

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Tealightful Treasures Sweet Cherry & Tealightful Afternoon Tea Review

My personal package from Tealightful Treasures

Lisa from Tealightful Treasures of Rochester, New York sent me this adorable package in the mail.  She tucked the tea samples into an adorable hand written card.  I absolutely love personalized things and attention to detail so they get brownie points for this.  Tealightful Treasures is actually a home party company.  Meaning they can help you organize your very own tea party in the comfort of your own home complete with fine china and scones.  This company has been featured in USA Today, Parents and Rochester Healthy Living magazine just to show you how popular they are.

The two samples I received were Tealightful Afternoon, a black tea, and Sweet Cherry, a rooibos tea.  Black teas and rooibos should be steeped 2-5 and 4-6 minutes in boiling water respectively.  I used two T-Sac’s two hold the teas and started with the black tea first.  I figured I would end with the dessert tea!

Ceylon tea and Rooibos tea

Tealightful Afternoon is a Kenilworth OP (Orange Pekoe) Estate Ceylon (Sri Lanken) Tea.  I’ve had many Sri Lanken Teas and I love them so I’m looking forward to this.  The smell of this black tea is very mild and the tea is very light.  It’s body is comparable to a green tea.  It’s not bitter at all.  I’m guessing there is a lot of caffeine to this tea, as I’m feeling the effects of it even after a few sips!  If you want a tea with a caffeine kick and like a tea with a lighter body, this is the tea for you.  Side note:  If you prefer teas that are lighter in caffeine and you adore a black tea, go organic.  Organic teas actually have less caffeine.

Next is the Sweet Cherry Tea.  The ingredients are: rooibos, flavoring, heather petals, and freeze dried sour cherry pieces.  I love roobios and all things cherry, except for artificial cherry pieces because of all the food coloring!, so I’m bias to this.  This cherry tea is light and delicate on the palate.  The smell of the cherry notes are very subtle.  If you like rooibos tea and only a hint of cherry, then this is the tea for you.  This would be a very good dessert tea after a heavy meal.  It would also make an excellent iced tea in the summer with some agave or honey.

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Oregon Chai The Original Instant Chai Tea Latte Mix Review

too bad it leaves a film on your tongue =P

Tea review number two from the CRFA show on Monday.

Just add water, is the claim that the Oregon Chai Mix makes.  It’s that simple.

The ingredients are: Sugar, dried whole milk, dried nonfat milk, dried honey, tapioca maltodextrin, natural flavours, dried black tea and salt.  Yes it contains milk, so this instant tea is not for the vegan.  The directions on the packet state: Add Oregon Chai Mix to 8oz hot water.  For a cold chai, add ice.  For a creamier experience, add a splash of milk or your favourite dairy substitute.  For me this would be almond, rice or hemp milk.

It’s important to note that 8oz is equivalent to about 237ml, roughly about a regular sized cup of water.  I don’t like my drinks too sweet so I used maybe 330ml or so of water.  My review is based on a “watered down” version of the chai, the way I like it.

When I first added hot water, I found the powder wasn’t dissolving too well.  I stirred the chai with a chopstick and a spoon and let it sit for a while before it “seemed” like everything was mixed in well (when I poured out the tea later, I found a lot of sediment was at the bottom of the cup).  Upon initial wafting of the steam, the chai smelled like milk more than tea.  The essence of the tea was not very strong even when I drank it, and the milkiness of the tea definately came out more than the tea taste itself.  This shouldn’t have been surprising though as tea is the second last ingredient next to salt!  Also, the chai left a film on my tongue and coated it like paint on a wall.  Yuk.  I think it may have been the maltodextrin or the dried milk that was causing the problem.  Not a fan, sorry.  Making your own chai from scratch although more time consuming would be more rewarding and worth the effort.

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Organic Garden Pure Ceylon Ginger Black Tea

I am not a huge fan of black tea, mainly because there are so many bad tasting ones out there.  I don’t like the heavy taste and the nasty films a lot of black teas that come in teabags leave you.  But surprisingly the Organic Garden Black Ginger Tea I picked up at Essence of Life on my recent downtown Toronto Tea Trip was not too shabby!  The taste is smooth and not too strong, the ginger really comes through well on the first steeping.  The flavour gradually subsides on 2nd steeping and it’s pretty much dead after 3rd round.

I actually didn’t notice that it was black tea when I purchased it because the packaging only states Certified Organic Ginger Tea on the front.  It’s only when you look closely at the ingredients that you see its a blend of: Organic black tea and organic ginger.

Like Celestial Seasonings, Organic Garden packages their tea in one large bag as opposed to individual packets.  They have their tags in tact however.  Inside the box of tea is an extremely cute and informative pamphlet that can be used as a bookmark about the benefits of organic tea versus non organic.

Elimination of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides prevents environmental pollution.  Application of compost and sustainable agricultural practices develops an organic rich soil hoizon, vegetation diversity and forest cover.

This tea also states on the front of the packaging that it is low in caffeine.  Black tea is to my understanding is high in caffine, but I have read it varies from tea plant and also that white tea is the highest in caffeine according to The Guide to Tea by Michael Harney.

I was actually feeling like crap, and ate 4 Ferrero Rocher’s to bring up my energy (ya gross I know), but the tea really helped me.  I feel much calmer and the tension in my head subsided.  Yay.  I love tea.  25 unbleached tea bags cost me $2.99 at the Essence of Life.

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