The Tea Spot Green Roasted Mint Loose Leaf Tea Review

Super minty with a hint of smokiness.

I’m reviewing The Tea Spot Green Roasted Mint loose leaf tea today.  I actually steeped the tea this morning but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to drink it and now I’m redoing the review again and it’s 11pm!  In the morning, me and Dean went to Dynamic Wheatgrass Farms and Charlinda’s (they have hot chocolate comparable to Max Brenner’s in NYC).  And in the evening I went to buy a house with my parents.  I’m super excited to move in because I’m going to have a huge storage space in my kitchen just for my teas!

The ingredients of this tea are peppermint and Hojicha, a roasted Japanese green tea.  A little background about this tea,

Hojicha is naturally lower in caffeine than other green teas, while peppermint aids with muscle relaxation and digestion.

I had a bit of an oily dinner, so I am looking forward to having this to help me digest all the food!  The nose on this tea is minty and refreshing.  The liquor of the tea came out a beautiful brown with a hint of gold.  Taste test time.  Mmm.  The tea is very minty.  Unfortunately, the peppermint really overpowers the more subtle taste of the Hojicha.  This is still a very good tea, cold or hot.  I just wish the taste of the Hojicha was stronger.  Velvety smooth, it’s helping me digest my meal very very well.  There is a hint of a smoky finish on the end which is very nice.  A nice twist to a classic tea.

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Mighty Leaf Tea – Oolongs – Jade & Wuyi

I am reviewing two Mighty Leaf Oolongs today.  A little background on Oolongs before we start. Whereas white teas are not fermented and black teas are fully fermented, Oolongs are somewhere in the middle. The percentage can range depending on how the farmer chooses to produce the oolongs. Fermenting the tea gives it more complex flavours and can bring out more nutrients. This is why cabbage rejuvelac, kombucha and kimchi are so healthy because they are purposefully fermented to increase its nutrition.

Oolong has a long history of health benefits ranging from weight loss (as the wuyi oolong tea has been recently popularized for… you know those annoying facebook ads promoting it as a magical weight loss tea) to lowering the fat intake of food.  So yes it is definitely a tea you must try if you are a budding tea connoisseur.  The experience of a white, green, black, oolong, puerh, to herbal tea are all different experiences.

The Jade Oolong was very vegetal.  The smell of the dried leaves was very intense.  It reminded me of the smell of the marijuana plant.  The color of the tea came out a peachy yellow.  You can see from the picture.  The body was light and it left a very golden taste in my mouth and throat after consumption.  A very good sign of a good tea is how long you can still taste the “goldenness” of the tea after consumption.  Yum.  There are some extremely expensive teas that allow the tea drinker to experience the taste hours afterward.  People pay for this!  So pay attention when you are sampling teas.

The Wuyi Oolong was heavy in body than the Jade.  The color came out reddish brown.  It was definitely more rich in tannins that the Jade which is why the color is richer as well.  Tannins are what gives reds its brownish color.  It’s interesting to note that when I swirled the tea around in my mouth and spat it out, I caught notes of apricot in the tea.  Yum!  I love the fruity notes in the teas.  The Jade oolong after I spat it out had more vegetable notes like bok choy and leeks.

The leaves expanded significantly after steeping.  The green tea leaves actually expanded more than 50% and were fighting for space in the tea ball.  If anyone has any better tea steeping utensils feel free to send them my way!  I need new tea accessories.  I will give you a huge shoutout and thank you!  The tea ball I used for the Wuyi tea is heinous and an embarrassment to tea around the world.  I found a full sized tea leaf in the Jade Oolong pile while digging so that was pretty cool!  The Wuyi tea leaves were a lot more broken down.  I hope you understand from this image and from the tea comparisons how two oolong teas can be so different in character side by side.  Just like people I guess!

All good oolongs can be steeped for multiple infusions.  So for the tea conscious drinker this works out to pennies per cup.  The  Wuyi Oolong costs $30.32 for 4 oz or 113.4g.  If you use about 2g of tea per teacup, this should get you about 56 cups of tea and if you steep multiple times we’re talking about 16 cents a cup.  Way cheaper than going to a “coffee” shop.  The Jade Oolong is priced at $49.80 for 4oz about.  Click on the Mighty Leaf link on the side of my website and you will get a 25% discount.  Have a tea-riffic day!

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