Monsoon Tea / Monteaco

Another one I very much wanted to try.  Thanks so much, Cameron B!  Huge green tea leaves from Thailand, with an occasional bit of fruit (mango, coconut).   I love sticky rice teas, so this should be a good one.  And it is!  The green tea seems to me more like a Wen Shan Bao Zhong oolong, and that’s what I would guess in a taste test. The coconut is at the forefront and tastes more like toasted coconut.  Really only hints of the mango and sticky rice.  But the base is very buttery, so pairs really well with these flavors.   Even the third steep doesn’t seem overdone at such hot temp, meaning I really do think this is an oolong, not a green tea… unless Thailand green tea is very forgiving with hot brewing.  But it’s a great base for these subtle flavors!  So it’s another tea that found another great new home. Where Cameron B was tasting suntan lotion coconut, I didn’t notice that at all— I noticed toasty coconut. And note to self: do a third steep.  And also, next time, try the third steep at boiling. 
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // 24 min after boiling // 2 min steep

Sipdown! (42 | 240)

The last of my Monsoon teas, wooooo!

The name on this one is interesting to me, I don’t personally associate mountains with mangosteen or citrus, but it definitely makes sense for Thailand. Also it’s worth noting, this tea is meant to have their rolled oolong as the base, but it seems they ran out of that tea this season, so they substituted their more oxidized unrolled oolong instead.

This is a nice enough tea. The mangosteen flavor is the star, and I’m not sure I detect the kaffir lime or lemongrass alongside it. I’ve never had a mangosteen, but it seems somewhat similar to passionfruit to me, with a nice sweet-tart flavor. Maybe with a touch of peach or mango mixed in? I do pick up a hint of lime adding a bit of citrus tartness. The base here is not my favorite. I find it very light in flavor, and it struggles to stand up to the strong flavoring. Also it gets bitter quite easily, I found I needed to steep it for only 2 minutes to get a smooth cup, and even then there are some hints of bitterness around the edges.

Would be interested to try this with the original rolled oolong, since that one had a more assertive flavor IMO (but also got bitter easily). Regardless, happy to have sipped through all of my Monsoon teas! There were several that I enjoyed, and I am planning to reorder a couple and try some others. Maybe once the Christmas blend is back in stock!

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This one sounds so good to me – a black tea with apple, orange, and ginger.

However, I find in practice I mostly just taste the ginger, and it’s very earthy. I do like ginger, but here it’s too much. It overpowers the other ingredients, including the black tea to an extent, and it is actually making the cup taste a bit bitter. There’s maybe the tiniest hint of apple in the background?

Anyway, a bit disappointing to be sure. I only have one more Monsoon tea left to finish now though! Is it bad that I’m already looking at which of their teas I want to try next…? XD

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So this is a green tea with peach, pandan, and chamomile.

Unfortunately, it ends up mostly just tasting like chamomile to me. I can smell the peach in the dry leaf, but I don’t taste it. There is a custardy note from the pandan in the background, but mostly I taste chamomile. I tried removing all of the chamomile blossoms before steeping, but even then it tastes strongly of chamomile. I suppose because the ingredients have been mixed for a while, the chamomile blossoms sort of “scented” the blend.

I do like chamomile, so it wasn’t terrible, just disappointing vs. my expectations of a more peach and pandan forward tea.

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Really enjoyed this one. It’s described as a “black tea flavoured with cinnamon, clove, and kaffir lime”, but honestly I didn’t really taste the lime at all. I only noticed one or two kaffir lime leaves in my bag. Also I definitely saw some dried ginger root, which isn’t mentioned.

But definitely not complaining, what I did taste was a subtly spiced malty and smooth black tea. The gentle warm spices (cinnamon, clove, ginger) were detectable but didn’t overpower the tea and gave a nice warm and cozy feeling, and a touch of sweetness. I could almost swear I tasted a hint of cooked apple, but maybe it was just my brain making an association with the cinnamon. Or perhaps the black tea has a bit of a fruity note to it.

Regardless, such a nice tea and one that I can definitely see myself reordering, especially in the coming fall and winter months. It does an excellent job of being slightly festive without tasting flavored, and letting the yummy black tea shine through.

Sipdown! (31 | 186)

This one was just sort of bland.

I can taste hints of floral notes, mostly the rose (not that I know what lotus tastes like), but not really anything resembling orange or vanilla. The green tea itself is also very mild, maybe I should steep their greens a bit longer than I normally do. Though weirdly, their rolled oolong gets bitter rather quickly.

Anyway, it’s a meh.

Sipdown! (18 | 215)

Really enjoyed this one as my first tea of the day. It has kaffir lime instead of bergamot, but it does still give me Earl vibes.

The base tea is very smooth and malty, and the lime bright and refreshing. It has an interesting dill note to it that gives a more savory note, which goes well with the malty tea.

Would definitely consider getting this one again!

Random tea of the day!

I’ve been trying to sip down my Monsoon Teas, but this is one I hadn’t gotten to yet. It’s meant to be a sort of Thai spin on an Earl Grey, with kaffir lime instead of bergamot.

I’m not super familiar with the taste of kaffir lime on its own. I definitely get those limey citrusy notes here, but there’s also an interesting savoriness to it that’s reminding me of caraway seed and Fujian black teas. The lime is quite aromatic and it does actually come off as being similar to bergamot, with the same sort of complexity. The black tea is quite malty and smooth, with a satisfying chew to it.

I’m surprised that I do find more similarity to an Earl Grey than I would expect given the lack of bergamot. But the base here is quite different from those generally used in Earls, it’s thicker and meatier and holds its own against the lime. An interesting and tasty tea!

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My last mini tin from Monsoon! Now I have several 50g bags I need to sip down… >.<

This is quite nice though. Like their other rolled oolongs, it tastes more like a green tea to me, and it also does better with a cooler water temperature. This is described as having longan, mangosteen, rose, and chrysanthemum, but mostly I’m just tasting the sweet-tart mangosteen. It reminds me a bit of passion fruit, actually. Maybe there’s a teeny hint of chrysanthemum’s savoriness?

Still very enjoyable as mostly a mangosteen oolong. I believe I have another tea with mangosteen among the pouches, so now I’m looking forward to that one! :)

Sipdown! (29 | 151)

So this one is described as having jasmine, spearmint, and rose. But it doesn’t really taste like any of those things to me…

There’s a minty sort of note, but it tastes more heavily mentholated than spearmint, more like eucalyptus or even a menthol Chapstick. As for the jasmine, not getting that at all, which doesn’t surprise me since I think it’s just jasmine blossoms mixed in, the tea isn’t actually scented. There’s also a slight fruitiness that isn’t accounted for in the description, definitely a bit tropical and tart like passion fruit.

Anyway, a strange one to be sure.

Sipdown! (25 | 147)

So this one sounded good to me – it’s a black tea with mango, cardamom, and lavender. However, the lavender tends to overpower the other flavors in my experience. The mango and cardamom are both very subtle so it ends up mostly tasting like a lavender black tea. Not that the lavender is crazy strong or anything, just the other two flavors are so light that I can barely taste them.

For this last cup, I picked out all of the lavender flowers to see how it would affect the taste. I still taste a bit of lavender, just from the flavors melding as the loose tea sits. There’s virtually no mango to speak of, which is really disappointing to me. I do taste some cardamom, but it’s fairly light as well given how many pods were present.

A shame, the idea of this one sounded really good but it’s just missing a lot of the flavors I was excited for.

Sipdown! (19 | 141)

Last one from my Chiang Mai sampler.

This is a black tea with coconut, pandan, and rose. I’m not the biggest coconut fan, but I’m enjoying it in this blend. Maybe because it’s not super strong, I often find coconut overwhelming in other teas. The pandan also gives it a nice custardy edge that makes it taste like sticky rice with coconut sauce. Thankfully, I don’t taste much rose.

I’m not sure I would order it, but it’s quite good for a coconut tea. I definitely like it better than the Mango Sticky Rice green tea. I still have several Monsoon teas to sip through, and yet I’ve already been browsing their site for more blends. Sigh…

Sipdown! (18 | 140)

Ended up steeping this one like a green tea, because for some reason this rolled green oolong from Monsoon tastes more like a green tea to me, and it does get somewhat bitter if I steep it like an oolong.

I really like it though. I can taste the custardy flavor of the pandan and there’s a nice sweet fruitiness from the longan. It doesn’t specifically taste like longan, but that’s the only fruit mentioned in the description. The oolong is somewhat vegetal and savory and reminds me of a Chinese green tea. Anyway, an interesting combination of flavors and one I would consider ordering more of.

Sipdown! (15 | 137)

Admittedly, wasn’t a huge fan of this one.

It just has so many floral notes, it becomes perfumey to me. There’s jasmine, rose, lavender, and lotus here, and the combination is just so so soapy IMO. I do taste a little of the strawberry fruitiness, though it’s not that specific to my tastebuds.

Luckily I only had a small 10-gram tin of this one, I don’t think I could’ve managed more heh.

Sipdown! (10 | 132)

This one wasn’t quite what I expected. First of all, the base tastes more like a green tea than an oolong IMO, even though it looks like a rolled oolong. It has a strong vegetal flavor reminiscent of cooked collard greens, along with hints of bitterness, and it causes the whole blend to lean quite savory. It ends up tasting a bit like a citrusy vegetable broth?

Not bad, just not the citrus oolong that I was expecting. I do enjoy the flavor of the kaffir lime leaves though, and they pair well with the vegetal base.

Sipdown! (5 | 127)

I honestly don’t get a ton of mango from this one. I think I may have used a bit too much tea for this last cup, as I mostly taste the malty and grainy notes of the black tea, with just a little hint of tropical fruitiness. There’s also quite a bit of chrysanthemum going on, but it’s not peppery. It tastes more like the smell of a dandelion.

Anyway, not impressed with this one. At least I couldn’t taste the rose though. :P

Sipdown! (4 | 126)

Trying to make an effort to sip through some of these Monsoon teas I ordered last year that have just been sitting around, neglected. They’re all made with really gorgeous giant twisty leaves that apparently grow wild in Thailand.

This was tasty but not a favorite for me, because the coconut overwhelmed all of the other flavors. I couldn’t tell there was supposed to be pineapple at all. The coconut was nice enough, not too fake-tasting, but I’m just not a coconut lover. The green tea base was extremely mellow with sweet notes of dry grass and a touch of nuttiness. Very mild though, and a bit difficult to taste underneath the coconut.

So pleasant tea, but not one I would reorder.

So I have this bad habit of making orders from companies and being really excited about the teas, but then neglecting them because I’m trying to sip down other things. So I’m trying to make an effort to keep a tea from each haul on the counter with my sipdown teas, and right now I’m working on Monsoon and Simpson & Vail.

All that to say, this is the first tea I’ve tried from my order back in October! Sadly, for some reason it just doesn’t quite jive with me. It’s a green tea with mango and coconut flavors and pandan leaf. I think it’s the coconut that I’m not loving? It’s a little bit suntan lotion-y. Overall something about it is just slightly off for me. A shame, as the tea leaves are beautiful – huge and spindly.

So I think this is destined for the rehoming pile, as I’m sure someone else who loves coconut more than I do would probably appreciate it.