Miss Starfish Send Message

I’m actually wondering if the tea I have received is off or old. I smelled the dry leaves and…nothing. No scent. My nose is extremely sensitive too. I’ve never had a tea that hasn’t smelled like something before. I ground a few of the curls up and there was a little scent, but barely.

I steeped this tea for just under 5 minutes. It tasted a bit odd. Slightly malty, but mostly just something I couldn’t put my finger on and it wasn’t very pleasant. Surprisingly weak for such a long steep.

Overall, I think I may have got a bad batch – at least, I hope so! Very disappointing. Not leaving a rating.

This tea was a result of a nationwide contest to create a popular breakfast blend. While only supposed to be produced for a limited time, it proved so popular that Twinings introduced it to their normal lineup.

I’m so glad they did.

Twinings heartily suggests adding milk and sugar, which is what I’m drinking right now. MmMm. Yum.

Previously, I have had this tea straight (at 3 minutes) and loved it. The key word I want to impress on this review is “smooth”. This tea is so very very smooth. Not a trace of bitterness (or astringency), even when over steeped (oops! second cup was 7 minutes). The scent of Manuka Honey is very fitting for a NZ Breakfast. There’s a bit of smoke, which reminds me of school camps in the bush and the teacher’s brewing their tea on the fire.

Lovely on it’s own, or with milk and sugar.

Edit: Wow, this has turned into a staple for me. I never would have guessed. It’s SO good. When I start swapping I’m going to make all of you try this, seriously. I know some look down on Twinings, but HOT DAMN this is excellent!

I picked this up on sale during the last supermarket run as an impulse purchase and wow! Colour me surprised at the outcome. It’s really really delicious! Whenever hibiscus or rosehips are in a tea, I usually find they overpower everything, but I’m not tasting them very much in this tea at all. Mainly getting Tangerine, Orange, and berry. As with a lot of fruit teas, it smells absolutely amazing. The taste matches the smell too, which have never found when it comes to tisanes. I love that it’s caffeine free as well, as I’ve been missing something to drink before bed.

It says on the box that it’s made using imported ingredients from Germany. I’m wondering if it’s the large German tea manufacturer that a lot of brands (David’s Tea, Adagio, Zen etc) use for a lot of their teas. I’m hoping so, as it would be nice to have something that’s decent quality for less than the usual $16 per small bag here.

I’ll definitely be keeping this in my cupboard and be trialing other flavours!

Great blend by Zen Tea – Thank you for giving me the opportunity to try it.

Suggested steeping time was 4-5 minutes. I’ve found that Zen’s steeping times are always spot on in every tea I’ve tried from them. I steeped some batches a bit longer, at 8 and 16 minutes respectively.

At 4-5 minutes; You’ve got a beautiful tisane. Really lovely.

8 minutes; Very strong tisane.

16 minutes; Extremely juice-like. My man likes super strong flavours, so I was making this batch for him as an iced drink.

Flavours overall didn’t go through much of a transformation, which I think is good because they were already so well balanced to begin with. On the whole, I tasted currants and hibiscus the most. There were definitely blueberries in the berry mix, but it became a little hard to pick individual notes out. I didn’t find a yogurt note anywhere, nor did my man.

I liked this tea, but didn’t love it – which comes down to personal taste preferences really. It seemed like a wonderfully balanced blend and good quality however, so I’m pretty keen to try it in another flavor (Strawberry Cream, I’m looking at you!) at some point.

Noooo, Steepster ate my huge tasting note!

Dry, the leaves look thin, dark and spindly. There’s beautiful sea-spray and freshly cut grass scents to the leaves and brewed tea.

Very light liquor – like a green tinted white tea. Smooth, slight hint of seaweed, grassy and “fresh”. Depending on how resteeps go, this could definitely belong in my cupboard.

I certainly wasn’t expecting this to be as vegetal (reasonably “strong” bok choy note) as it turned out to be. I’m used to [naturally] sweeter white tea’s I suppose. The liquor was very light even when steeped for 3 minutes, like water. Not something I’d keep in stock as I much prefer Teavivre’s Silver Needle, but interesting nonetheless.

Edit: The second steeping of this was way better, for my taste buds anyway. The vegetal flavour is more balanced and a little of the sweetness I’ve come to know with white tea’s has come out. The man (who isn’t a fan of tea…yet!) took his usual cautionary sip, then 3 gulps followed by a sigh and a “I could get used to this”. Hooray for progress!

Edit 2: Third steep was just like drinking hot water – nothing there.

I tried a sample of this quite a while ago and absolutely LOVED it. I loved it so much that I asked Harney NZ if they would consider starting to import it as our country didn’t stock it at the time. Well, we do now and I’m very grateful to Harney NZ and their fantastic customer service!

Firstly, this smells AMAZING. I’ve caught my man going into my tea cupboard just to smell this and he is not exactly a fan of tea or the room it takes up…

The guava is the standout scent and flavour with hibiscus following. I don’t taste coconut (granted my bag seems to be devoid of coconut flakes), more of a melange of delicious tropical fruits. If a sweetener were to be used, I think various kinds of honey would compliment the flavours very well.

Since this is a green/black blend, I make sure to give the bag a good shake before scooping as all the green tea tends to settle on the bottom. Steeping wise, I treat this as a green, ignoring Harney’s suggestions to brew as you would a black tea as it then comes out very bitter I find. I also find this quite strong, so use less tea than I would usually. Today I’m doing a test steeping, just to make sure I’m 100% happy before making a huge iced batch.

Something that has rubbed me the wrong way is the review on Harney’s website. Specifically the text “Being a woman, she had to make it look pretty, and she added in flowers, the yellow of marigolds and blue of cornflowers”. Some men like making things look pretty, and not all women enjoy doing so either. Just saying.

It’s overcast and foggy today, so you would think it would finally be a day for tea… Sadly the wind is warm and super strong (it blew the magnets of the fridge earlier), so iced tea it is!

I followed brewing instructions from the Harney US website, as the NZ Harney’s instructions are lacking and confusing [US says one pouch= 1 gallon of tea (3.78 Liters), NZ says one pouch= 1 Liter (0.26 gallons). Hmmmm…]

I steeped 2 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes (at which point it tasted really bitter and I was afraid I had overstepped it) and then mixed in around 6 cups of cold. Now it doesn’t taste bitter at all and I wish that I had steeped it longer for a stronger taste. I ended up making just over 3 Liters worth (under a gallon) due to bottle size constraints. Overall, I’m quite confused as to how much water I should have used due to the contradictions. Anyone know?

I love whites, I really do.

This tea was interesting – not at all what I was expecting when reading the ingredients. It was quite dark for a white. I got a large note of white chocolate, and then marzipan which will have been the almond, vanilla and mint. Zero cardamon, which is probably what threw me off the most since I was expecting it warily.

Certainly a tea that could be enjoyed year round.

This is super backdated, as I’ve since placed and received an order for this incredibly soothing tea. The Jasmine is strong, but also light at the same time. I was originally afraid it might be a bit cloying, but that wasn’t the case at all. I’m a huge fan of Teavivre’s Silver Needle, so anything using it as a base is almost a guaranteed home run in my books.

I figured I’d attempt to unwind from the holiday craziness with some aromathera-tea and I have to say it’s working very well.

I blind purchased Teavivres Jasmine Pearls as a Christmas gift for my mother. I’m looking forward to sharing a cup with her and seeing how they compare to this lovely tea (superb as usual for Teavivre, I’m sure).