Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices & Herbs

http://sororiteasisters.com/2016/04/15/jackfruit-delight-mahamosa-tea-spice/
for more!

additional notes: How in the heck does this only get a rating of 88 from me when I thought it was one of my most treasured teas I dread finishing?? Raising the rating and it is almost gone. I wish there were more teas like this… but looking through google, I don’t see this type of tea existing AT ALL anymore, other than green tea.

Thanks so much, Nicole! I’m amazed that I’ve loved basically all of the teas you sent along. Your tea collection must be astronomically delicious to part with these teas! The only type of tea like this I think I’ve tried was in Butiki’s Three Friends (that I adore.) But Three Friends is actually a Zhen Qu base. I’m not sure what the difference is but the leaves certainly look the same. Dark curly crumbly fuzzies with a lot of twists to the leaves and a lot of gold. The scent of the dry leaves is very much like dried grass. The flavor is deep and dark with two teaspoons… a lot of dark chocolate flavor but it’s a very smooth tea and never astringent while also being a very strong cup. My favorite type of black tea: dark, strong, but smooth and never astringent! I certainly like it with two teaspoons. I think it was too weak when I tried it with one teaspoon.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Okay, so I had this tea again and had to increase the rating.. I used 3 tsp for 16 oz, then added 1 tsp of a strawberry/apple tisane. It really brought out the natural flavor of the tea and the lychee was noticeable even when brewing at 175. I think the blend just needs a tad more strawberry, so I’m glad that I have some laying around!

Tricky to brew.. Not a lot of strawberry/lychee flavor. When I steep at 150 for three minutes, then more of the fruit flavors come out, but they’re still subtle.

This was a refreshing tea that I drank iced without sugar. I brewed it strong and added ice. It was nice and fruity. Marco Polo TTB

Thanks to carol who for the sample! Up to this point, all of the Yerba Mate I’ve had has been roasted. This is green and mixed with green tea, which gives it a completely different flavor! It’s surprisingly fresh-tasting for an almond tea and I think I’m getting a bit of a fruity flavor as well…maybe cherry? An interesting, complex tea blend.

This actually does taste like pear to me! Not my favourite pear tea, I think that would be the Fauchon one, but this one is infinitely more accessible to me.

It’s definitely a fruity pear and tastes like a soft green tea. The leaves looked green to me when I was steeping and I don’t know where the white tea is going into unless it’s just softening the green tea up for me. The dry smell out of the bag was so very strong and the tea itself is very very nice.

And now back to binders. Binders binders binders. And sitting on the floor at work.

This is a sipdown, though I don’t think I ever actually added it to my cupboard for some reason. Whatever, it’s gone now.

Made a full pot on tonight, the night of probably no sleep. Had a medication reaction to my ADD meds earlier (changed dosage) and now I’ve been having somewhere between an anxiety attack and a manic episode since about 9am this morning. 13 hours now. Hopefully I can sleep tonight, but I’m not counting on it. Doing some cleaning while I try to calm down.

This tea was interesting. I can taste the chocolate but the rooibos is a bit strong for me. I added a bit of milk for the first cup and I’m not sure I should have but it’s definitely creamy. I like it, but it won’t go on my restock list.

I normally do NOT like smokey teas. At all.

This is one that has a hint of smoke but doesn’t overwhelm the taste of the tea at all, and is perfect for this 40 degree fall morning. I don’t think I enjoy it enough to buy a lot of it, but I will enjoy what I have very much.

I wanted to try this because it sounded so fruity, and there was no hibiscus. It smells like these fruit snacks I liked as a kid. They came in either cherry or kiwi, and with rolled coconut. The flavour is on the apple side. Reminds me of fruit punch, which I’m having warm for some reason. There isn’t much kiwi flavour though.

Praise be to the Giver of Fruits!

Now catching up on the show Forever (kinda makes me think of Castle/ Sherlock Holmes/ Highlander. The male lead makes it even more watchable.) I wanted to try this because it reminds me so much of a blend at the ‘local’ shop. This smells like pumpkin and melons. While I’m used to the certain spice blend, this one tastes like a pumpkin shake. It’s nicely creamy. Overall, a good evening cup.

I made the mistake of taking a bite of really sweet marionberry greek yogurt in the middle of this first cup. So what tasted sweet and berry on the first few sips turned rather bland afterward in comparison (because I am very sensitive to contaminating flavours like that). But I really enjoyed the first couple of sips and I’m going to hold off rating this until I have a real idea of how it tastes normally. Also I put too much milk in because it’s all the way in the break room and that’s a long way to walk and I don’t judge milk in an empty mug very well.

In other news, I hate everything.

Sent a bit of this off to Lariel this morning and what’s left was just enough for my normal pot size. I offered a cup to my lead because she likes the caffeine free teas at this time of night (6pm-ish for reference) and she accepted. I kinda wish she hadn’t because this was really very very good.

No hibiscus in this blend for which I am eternally grateful. It was slightly tart, which likely came from the cranberry ingredient. But it was a pleasant tart and the coconut was a nice taste to this very very fruity tea. I couldn’t identify what made it kiwi, possibly because I’m not very familiar with that fruit, but the sour cherry was spectacular. I recommend this highly.

I wish I had more to try it iced but it will go on my wishlist for my next Mahamosa order, which I’m sure will happen eventually.

This tea was a bit of a toss up on whether I would like it or not with so few tasting notes and the mediocre rating but I gave it a try anyway and I am glad that I did. I was looking for something sweet this morning to go with my amazing local greek yogurt and picked this since it arrived at my doorstep yesterday.

This tea is really quite lovely and although I did add some extra sweetener to bump up the sweet flavour to compete with the yogurt, the caramel and rooibos flavour come through as well and I really enjoyed this. I think I only have about 1 more serving in the pack (seems to make about 3 of my big mugs) and I’ll have to remember this one for future Mahamosa orders.

No free tea this time because they sent me a free container! It’s pretty sweet and nice and red with one of those clear tops (probably UV protected, I didn’t look but that’s how they usually are of that style). It’s really quite lovely and fits the 2oz package I got in this order very nicely.

Lewis & Clark Traveling Teabox – Tea #21
I feel like I’ve had this tea before under a different name… a few times. However, I don’t see the vanilla pieces I usually see. The vanilla is the same color as black tea though! A nice sweet pastry vanilla smoothness. It’s like Della Terra’s Cafe Vanille.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // just boiled // 4 min

Marco Polo TTB

Yuck, yuck, yuck, I have no motivation to do anything today. I feel as though my brain and body is trapped inside a Slime and that Slime is too lazy to move, the fatigue is real, yo. Me thinks after I write this tea’s review I shall make like a pile of leaves and take a nice long soak in hot water. Preferably while reading a book, maybe I will bring some tea to sip as well, just submit myself to complete relaxation. Ah memories, when I was a kid, the most decadent thing I could think to do was to take a hot bath while eating ice cream, especially if it was pistachio ice cream, if you have not tried eating ice cream while soaking I most certainly recommend it.

Today we are taking a look at Mahamosa Gourmet Teas, Spices & Herbs Caramel, an herbal dessert tea. A blend of Rooibos, Cream Caramel Pieces, Brittle (specifically hazelnut) pieces, and Flavoring, this tea sounds like a real sweet treat. The aroma of the dry leaves certainly has me believing that it will be a sweet treat, with notes of caramel, sweet nuttiness, and woody, slightly sour, rooibos as a base. It is very sweet, the caramel plays well off the naturally caramel notes of the rooibos.

Steeping the tea leaves fills my room with an intense sweetness. The little red leaves smell woody and sweet with notes of caramel, nuttiness, and a bit like a caramel latte, complete with coffee. The liquid is creamy and sweet with very strong notes of caramel, it smells like candy and richness.

Tasting time, luckily for me I am having a sweetness craving, so if this tea tastes as sweet as it smells I will be in a very happy place. The sipping starts off sweet and woody, like a typically sweet, woody, and dry rooibos with an extra caramel coating. This turns into a creamy midtaste and toasted nuttiness that gives it that bit of a latte flair. The finish is dry and woody, just like I expect from a rooibos, the tea was not cloyingly sweet like a mouthful of caramel, but it is quite sweet so it certainly fits its goal of being a dessert tea. Plus you can sip it before sleep thanks to it not having caffeine!

For Blog and Photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/mahamosa-gourmet-teas-spices-herbs.html

From the Lewis and Clark TTB.

While vanilla flavoring is prominent enough, the cardamon aspect isn’t so strong. I can taste it, and the aftertaste is certainly a little spicy (it’s in the back of my throat), but it’s not enough for me. When I see spice on label I expect spice.

I hope it’s alright if my dad had a serving (there should be enough in the packet until the box is done traveling). He loves masala chai, and he feels the same way about it “needing to be more peppery.”

A little outside of my comfort zone, as I am not usually a fan of cherry anything aside from actual cherries, but I really liked this one. There is a really nice subtle toasted coconut flavor from that lingers throughout and then finishes with a refreshing sour cherry flavor just on the back end. Would likely make a lovely sweetened iced tea.

I’ve been drinking a lot of rooibos over the last few years, and I think it’s mostly because I still can’t decide whether I like it or not. The flavor of the rooibos does not come through very much, but then again it was a pretty weak tea overall. There was a fairly strong vanilla extract scent when I opened the bag, and it remains when the tea is brewed, but the flavors are all very subtle. It has potential however, so I am going to try this again with double the amount of tea and see how I feel after that.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I don’t generally go for flavored teas in the morning (errr… early afternoon) but I just happened to open this pouch and take a sniff… and then I had to make it, lol. It smells amazing. Tart and berry, a mixture of blueberry candy and cranberry sauce. There was also a whole dried goji berry in my teaspoon! The green tea itself looks like sencha to me, the leaves are definitely steamed flat. There are also large pieces of dried lemongrass.

The brewed aroma has much more blueberry in it, which I love. I can still smell the tartness of the pomegranate and goji, too. As far as the taste goes, the berry flavor is a bit too light for me. I mostly taste slightly oversteeped green tea (I guess I should have gone for 2 minutes) with a bit of a blueberry and pomegranate hint near the end. The lemongrass does blend with the green tea and give it some added dimension, which is nice. There’s also a bit of the powdered sugar-like taste that I sometimes get from flavored teas.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Vanilla is one of my favorite flavors, so I had to try this one. :D The leaves are pretty generic-looking black tea leaves. It smells very sweet and vanilla custardy, but there’s also another smell that I’m having a hard time placing. I know, it reminds me of those vanilla-flavored calcium chews! Lol…

Brewed, it smells like vanilla custard, om nom nom! To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of vanilla flavor in my cup. I’m not sure whether I didn’t get any vanilla bean or what, but it pretty much tastes like a mediocre black tea with a hint of vanilla at the end. :( Sad day.