KittyLovesTea Send Message

I tried this warm and found it be ‘nice’ but nothing special, so this morning I decided to cold brew some to have with dinner. It’s amazing! The cold steep has brought out the lemongrass but also some floral and cream tones. It’s refreshing, light and crisp. Everything I was hoping it would be in warm form.

I have another steep or two worth of leaves left and I will definitely be cold steeping it.

I found this tea in my cupboard from the last Tea Moments order I placed. Mixing Pu Erh into a blend was what attracted me, I’ve only liked a few others and they tended to be spicy blends (like chai). This one mixed Pu Erh and Rooibos…that I had not tried before. On top of that it contained fruits and flowers. My curiosity peaked again for this one so I pulled it out of the cupboard and cold steeped it in my bottle. Coincidentally I wrote a review for my cold steeping bottle from Whittard of Chelsea.

http://www.kittylovestea.co.uk/2014/10/20/my-return-with-cold-brew-bottle-review-from-whittard-of-chelsea/

I steeped this for a couple of days which is longer than I usually would, honestly I got carried away with things in the mean time. My nephew in law is down again for four days and I’m being kept busy with that. Anyway I poured the tea into a large mason jar mug this morning and noted it was a golden honey colour. A little thick I thought by looking at it but I thought I should try it before deciding.

So sip, sip sip and many tastings later I an thankfully say it’s not too strong though it is on the strong side. It’s not bitter nor sour and the long steep tastes intentional. It has a Rooibos thickness though it’s clean tasting from the cold steep, and before it becomes too much it fills out with a highly floral affair in the after taste. A little sweet and I think I can taste generic fruitiness though it’s not a major part of it.

So to sum up this blend cold steep tastes: Thick but fresh Rooibos with a high floral after taste and some fruity sweetness.

It may not be a new favourite but I like it, though I’m not sure how well it would translate to being steeped normally with boiling water. Thinking about it now it tastes like a floral Chinese iced tea I had before from my local Chinese supermarket…just less sweet than that was. Got 50g of the blend so another 4 or so cold steeps :)

This tea boasted being a “woman hairdressing tea” and “a beauty to raise color outique” purchased from the now famous Jerry Tea Trade on AliExpress. My purchase of this tea was for purely comical translation reasons, though that being said I actually do like rose based teas.

Well this arrived a few days ago and I have just found the time to try it. The teabags are square and made of rather thick paper, with a lot of herbal blend in them.

Flavour is thickly herbal with light rose sweetness. Not a huge fan of herbal teas, particularly dried herbal blends, though this one is easily drinkable. I think it’s the rose that makes it less dry and more appealing. It’s only soft but it’s enough.

Other than general mixed herbs and the rose I can’t taste much of anything else. While it might not be a new favourite I’m just happy I can drink it and should have no problem finishing the other 44 tea bags.

The second tea I have to try from Teatoxy. I’ve been out for a lovely three course Italian meal with family and my day has gone very well (so far), now it’s time to relax and play Pokemon before bedtime.

This blend is sweet and very minty in it’s raw state. Large leaves and fruit pieces all of which look and smell natural make up this amazing sounding blend. It’s a nice refreshing peppermint scent, nothing too strong nor dry.

It suggests leaving the tea to steep for 10 minutes to receive the full benefits and I will give it a go, I don’t mind strong tea :)

Colour is red/purple and it smells softly of mint and flowers.
Flavour is also fairly light and fresh. Light mint and hibiscus (though honestly it is minimum hibiscus ie non thick, nor super sour) with a herby after taste. A little sour but also with a touch of sweetness.

It’s a nice mint tea, nothing is too strong despite the long steep and after such a large meal my stomach has been settled. The mint is fresh and has no bits nor dryness. I love mint teas but have had some tragic blends over the years…happily this is not one of them. It’s lovely!

I found a sealed 25g pack of this in my cupboard so I decided to finish it off. My rating was disappointed taken from the last time I tried it, some 2 years ago. I previously made this iced via standard method ie warming and then cooling. This time I cold steeped it to see if it tasted any better than previously.

Well it’s somewhat perfumed and dry with a mild sweetness and mixed tropical fruity after taste. Cleaner tasting than I remember though it’s still only a little improvement overall. At least that was the last of it! After 2 years you have been eliminated.

Quick review as I’m playing Pokemon Sapphire while I try this tea. This was a random tea purchase from AliExpress, I don’t remember trying this tea before as white is not a favourite of mine, but it was cheap enough for me to give it a go. £2.34 for 50g – roughly 10 balls.

I used 2 balls which are large and made of dark brown and silver tipped leaves. They have a sweet yet wooden scent. I used 2 balls as the instructions says to try 3 or 4 in a gaiwan, that would fill my gaiwan with no room to expand so 2 balls roughly 10g should suffice.

Flavour has mild sweetness with a touch of malt and wood. The balls are not breaking down easy, even after a two minute steep. But the flavour does get a little stronger over time. It’s like a black tea, it’s super sweet and malty…I didn’t think this was possible for a white tea.

It’s pretty nice but I just wish the balls would break down a bit…perhaps a few steeps should sort this out. Otherwise the flavour is very pleasant and to my taste. So far, so good.

This tea arrived this morning after a string of recent purchases on AliExpress. I’ve wanted some Meng Shan Yun Wu – Cloud Mist for a while and finally decided to give this one a try. It was organic and moderately priced so I though it was worth the risk.

It was packed in a vacuum sealed foil pack and had a sticker on the front with it’s name and date. Something I don’t take for granted as some I’ve received before from other orders didn’t say which tea was which!

I opened the pack and was overwhelmed by an amazing sweet grass scent. Very thick and honeyed. So beautiful! Very fresh smelling and much nicer than I had hoped for.

Tea liquid is misty yellow. Flavour is thick, sweet, grassy, floral and mineral. Reminds me of kale and broccoli with sweet grass and gladiola. There is some bitterness and dryness in the after taste.

Despite it’s bitterness it actually tastes more mineral like, broccoli to me has a natural bitterness and this tea acts in a similar way. In other words it’s not bad bitterness. It’s thickness however is a bit much, but it just means I should have perhaps done a shorter steep, the second steep was almost perfect. (My first steep was around 40 seconds and second steep around 10 seconds). First steep was so long because I forgot about my tea thanks to Pokemon being on tv and I got excited because Togepi was on it.

Anyway this is a very nice, strong green tea and it’s fresh. My risk purchase paid off it would seem. 50g was only £3.46 including delivery. For £6 I can get 250g :) Will do that when I run out.

My Teatoxy order arrived this morning :D It was packed beautifully and presented well.
http://tinypic.com/r/6f8bjs/8

The leaves are a large and rough blend, looking very floral and firm though also natural and good quality. They smell lightly herbal, nothing specific standing out though, perhaps the lemongrass if any.

I steeped a large pot of this and watched the liquid diffuse into gorgeous blue liquid. My husband had a wtf? reaction to it’s colour as I hadn’t told him about bluechai flowers before. I had to take a picture, because when I say it’s blue I literally mean it. Unfortunately I don’t have any lemon in the house to turn it purple. It was a long 8 minute steep though I expected as much from a herbal tea anyway.

http://tinypic.com/r/2hx6lnl/8

Tasting time. I took a large sip without knowing what to expect. It’s thickly lemongrass though there is a toasted element to it also. So toasted lemongrass, unusual yet very nice at the same time, and it lingers sweetly in the after taste. There is also a mixed herbal thickness though it is blended in well enough to not be a negative factor, and it tastes fairly fresh.

I’ve had a few cups of this now from my large pot and I really like it. I love lemongrass tea in general but this blend gives it another depth that I haven’t really tried before. It’s still a lemongrass tea but with the toasty and sweet herby elements it becomes something else! An excellent introduction to this company so far. And as far as my energy level goes this has picked me up somewhat.

My husband chose this tea after our recent Japanese tea binge over the last few days.

This tea is rather finely chopped with some largish stem pieces present amongst the dark/medium green shiny leaves. It has a sweet grass scent with a dry, perfume finish.

Yellow tea liquid is produced with a toasted grass scent, mild but still with some sweetness.

Strength is mild with toasted rice and grass flavours. There is a slight bitterness but nothing major. Also a dominant grassy after taste which sweetens and becomes dry.

A further steep reveals more grass notes with bitterness though it remains mild. Still plenty of flavour for a second steep.

Overall it’s a nice Bancha, the sort that would suit every day drinking. Yes it’s considered low grade in terms of quality but it doesn’t taste nor feel that way at all.

After watching my husband play Blitzball (the side game for Final Fantasy X) for the best part of two hours I decided he can actually do something today and it was his turn to make the tea. In fairness I also let him pick which tea to try and this was what he chose. That doesn’t surprise me, he tends to like blackberry flavoured teas.

The tea smells a little like blackberry but more leaf than fruit, lightly sweet though mostly malty and smoky from the black base.

Flavour is rather nice actually, sweet and creamy vanilla dominates a malt and light blackberry after taste. Perhaps too ‘creamy’ or vanilla based for this blend, or not enough blackberry, which ruins expectations but even after that I’m enjoying it. I think that’s only because I love vanilla otherwise this would be extremely disappointing.

It’s nice but just not well balanced and as such I wouldn’t order this. While I like vanilla teas this is nothing better than an average vanilla blend.