Nature's Tea Leaf

I went to Nature’s Tea Leaf just now and saw a few reviews that look like they were taken from Steepster people – I hope they put the reviews there themselves and they weren’t taken from the site (it’s happened before with other companies).

Anyway this is a really nice yunnan! I bought a lot of flavored pu-erhs from Nature’s tea Leaf which I was not totally crazy about but this is really good. It does have a rich, honey type of taste mixed with some woodiness and a bit of pepper. That does sound strange but it’s so good. Smooth and mellow too. This is one of the only few yunnans I have in my tea collection and I have no idea why. I will definitely enjoy finishing off the rest of the tin.

I would order from Nature’s Tea Leaf again, they have a range of interesting looking teas in their line including some herbals.

Sipdown, 164. Cold brew.

The cold brew of this unfortunately did not taste like much. I did use a little less leaf than normal because I’ve been having green teas “oversteep” when cold brewing, but this still turned a deep yellow so I’m not sure it was the leaf amount. As it warmed up a bit it tasted more like grass, and finally at the end I got a hit of bergamot. It was perfectly drinkable merely because it was very inoffensive, but still, it wasn’t very tasty anyway.

I got a sample of this a while ago from Lazey, but just found it in one of my tea boxes recently. Thanks!

Also I went through my cupboard and discovered two teas in there that shouldn’t have been there, thus I am down to 164. Woohoo!

So this fits into my recent trend of disliking most flavored green teas, particularly sencha bases. Especially when I sipped it hot, it was too peppery and savory, with a strong grassiness as well. As it has cooled down it’s mellowed, and the bergamot is coming out more as well. Definitely better cool than hot, and probably better still cold, which is probably what I will do with the rest of my sample.

Finally, a tea that has just about enough chocolate flavour! ;-)

I could smell the chocolate and vanilla a little more than I could taste it, and I, too, found a kind of bitter aftertaste, and also something a little odd about the chocolate, maybe. But still, it was a nice flavoured tea.

I’m still finding my way with black teas, and I’m not familiar wtih Yunnan, so maybe it had to do with the flavour of Yunnan. I liked the chocolate curls, and I didn’t mind the murkiness they made in the tea.

I steeped this at 195F for 2.75 minutes, and added sugar and skim milk.

I’m so sorry I have taken so long with the Traveling Tea Box…I’m almost thru it and ready to send it along! Last week I was ‘missing’ because I was super busy and in and out of the Chiro’s office! Eeeek! But…I am back and trying to catch up!

Nature’s Tea Leaf has some herbals that are coated with tangy hibiscus/rosehips/fruit ingredients and some straight-up herbals or fruity flavors that are all across the board. I’m glad they have so many offerings but some are hit and miss for me.

This one is alright…not on my faves list but ok. It has that tangy Rosehip/Roselle Flavor going on along side the Orange-Citrus. Those ingredients alone pack-a-punch but there are some green tea flavors as well as some herbally notes that popping thru too!

It’s a bit tart for me but is ok iced…so I am rating with the tarty factor in mind as well as the cold brewed idea, too!

Wow, I’m impressed with this cup and how it brews…perfect cup every time! The lemon is a bit pronounced, but I was very satisfied with this tea. Perfect before bed in my opinion…but I’m not sure if I’m the biggest fan of chamomile or not yet!

Backlog:

I really liked this tea. I loved the curls of chocolate in the dry leaf. Oh, sure, I realize that cacao nibs are better at flavoring the tea, and that chocolate chips (or chocolate curls like in this tea) tend to cloud up the tea a bit, but, I don’t care because it’s chocolate and chocolate makes me happy.

The chocolate and mint seemed to bring out different notes in the white peony leaves that I found very intriguing. Less vegetative, more earthy. I thought the earthy notes worked well with the chocolate as well as the herbaceous notes of the mint.

Very good! Here is my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/02/14/chocolate-mint-whisper-white-tea-from-natures-tea-leaf/

Additional notes: ICED! This is my first oolong to try iced, and I don’t love this one hot, so why not try this one cold. Not my favorite oolong, not even from Nature’s Tea Leaf. A couple days coldbrewing and this one isn’t bad. There is a bit of a bitterness to it, but really I think that was just because the leaves had been steeping for days. I think it’s much better just brewing it cold than if I had hot brewed it and then left it in the fridge. But I almost expected more bitterness from leaves that had been sitting so long! I love seeing a mason jar full of leaves though. It looks like a tea snow globe!

thanks so much Dinosara for this one! I think I should have realized that I have a couple Nature’s oolongs already, so this one might have been similar. I think this one is the Cinnamon oolong… just without cinnamon. I could be wrong! After a three minute steep, I get a buttery yellow cup and a buttery flavor too. There are also notes of cinnamon (oddly enough), peach, pineapple and a little bit of a vegetal flavor. Pretty good! The second cup might have been steeping for four minutes which seems too long. This cup ended up having mostly a vegetal flavor… so the first cup was better. The leaves in my infuser are huge though! It’s sad that I never knew they would unravel that much in my other infusers. Overall, I think I like Nature’s Tea Leaf’s other oolongs more than this one.

Alright…it’s oonlong afternoon for a little bit so that I can get through a few of the teas that i really need to at least try. Thanks again to Nature’s Tea leaf for this sample! I picked this one, not because I love oolongs (as most of you know by now, i dislike strongly) but because i figure someday i’ll find some amazing oolongs that rock my socks.

This tea? It’s not half bad for an oolong. It doesn’t have that overly vegetal taste that i can’t handle in oolongs, nor does the smell permeate my nose. Instead this is a bit darker, while not quite being a truly dark oolong. There is a sweetness, but it’s not overly strong. Overall a pretty decent oolong (high praise from me!)

Special thanks to Azzrian for this one!

It’s a nice Sechong! It’s been a while since my last cup and this was a nice welcome-back to the Sechong world!

It’s thick – like brothy or like a soup. It’s woodsy and slightly sweet and a bit vegetal – not like leafy greens but more like sweet peas, almost.

It has a pinch of creaminess to it too! A delight!

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Thanks to Lazey for this sample. I am taking a break from sipdowns (mostly because I have no one-cup sipdowns left) to try some teas I got in recent swaps before I forget who they came from.

They are not kidding when they say there are chocolate curls in this tea. There are tons! And they definitely dissolve and make the tea a murky brown. They do add a certain thickness to the tea, but not quite enough really. It becomes some kind of half-tea-half-hot chocolate mixture. I didn’t really taste the base tea much, although what was there was fine and not bitter or astringent.

All in all this is a pretty tasty tea, but I think I prefer not to have actual chocolate pieces in my tea. A really chocolatey tea doesn’t need them, and they just murkify everything.

Woah, this tea is STRONG! I mean, pu-erh is obviously a dense, flavor-packed tea, but I always expect it to be lighter in blends. In fact, the Nature’s Tea Leaf pu blends (oh god that sounds horrible out of context… pu blends…) have been pretty light on that signature flavor to me. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I was not prepared for this!

The tea is so dark and murky, almost coffee-colored. The lavender is quite assertive but the earthy, rich flavor of the base makes it oddly enough a not very floral tea. Woodsy and an almost chicory note? Very tasty but a big pow of flavor and I did get a bit more buzzed from it than I normally do with tea (even though pu is apparently lower in caffeine?). I think this would be a good morning brew! Thanks to Kasumi for the sample.

This afternoon I had a sudden and overwhelming craving for chocolate. That typically doesn’t happen to me all that often. Even though I had a few squares of chocolate already, I thought that it was about time that I tried this tea. I received it a while ago and just didn’t think that there had been a time that was appropriate to drink this blend.

I was so happy to see that there truly are large curls of chocolate amongst the oolong leaves! Sometimes tea photos are misleading in that they show all of these great ingredients and the actual tea never ends up looking like what was advertised. This tea is a real exception to some of my experience. I would almost say that there is an equal amount of chocolate curls to oolong leaves!

The scent is of a toasty, almost green oolong with just a touch of chocolate in the background. It’s surprising that the oolong steps up to the front after all of that chocolate has melted!

Sipping… What I get first is a very toasty, dark oolong. I do prefer greener oolongs, but this one is not too bad. I was at first disappointed to taste just the rather vegetal roasted oolong, but as I sip I do get a bit of creamy white chocolate. It’s not very pronounced, so you do have to look for it. As I get down to the bottom of the cup, I taste something rather milky and a bit like hot chocolate. It’s not milky so much in texture as it is in flavor. I like it!

I did enjoy this cup of tea, but I wish there could be more of the milky hot chocolate bit and a bit less of the toasted flavor. I would be interested in seeing how this tea would taste with a different base. Thank you very much to Nature’s Tea Leaf for a sample!

Sipdown, 237. Thanks to Kasumi no Chajin for this sample!

I have been curious about lotus teas for a while. Mostly lotus flower/florals, but lotus nut is interesting too. I do love a nutty green tea. I knew I was using kind of a lot of leaf for this one, so I only steeped it one minute. The liquor is already a lovely light amber color and smells both vegetal and nutty. Not in a chestnutty way like some green teas, just… different. But definitely nutty.

Mmm, this is quite pleasant. It seems like a completely unflavored green in many senses, as it has the same type of leafy nuttiness that you get in some types of green tea. It’s not buttery like some of those, but it works well anyway. There is maybe also a hint of toastiness. Overally a tasty tea; I think it would be a good meal-time green as well.

This is another tea that I never seem to drink unless I’m sick. I have no idea why, since it is actually very tasty. Sweet and savory at the same time! I think perhaps drinking rosemary is a little bit weird for me, I like rosemary but I normally associate it with food. It’s really good on grilled vegetables!

I should get to drinking this soon because I’ve had it for around a year according to Steepster. Would anyone like a sample?

Tea of the afternoon here. I’ve been feeling crappy since yesterday morning and I didn’t go to work today. I had some burdock tea earlier today but rosemary is also supposed to be good for colds and I figure the antioxidants in the white tea can’t hurt. This is an interesting blend of sweet/spicy. I always use rosemary when roasting potatoes so it’s difficult to get that association out of my mind. This is good however.

This came in my Nature’s Tea Leaf order but I haven’t had the chance to try it yet. I know that rosemary is supposed to have a lot of health benefits and I do use it a lot in cooking, though I’ve never had it in a tea before.

This is a lot better than I thought it would be, the white tea has a nice fruity sweetness which complements the rosemary. There is a definite nuttiness to this, which reminds me of sesame or almond oil. I was worried it would be too “savory” but the rosemary is a bit on the subtle side. I’ll have to remember to drink this the next time I have a cold!

P.S. I really don’t think there’s any Vitamin B12 in rosemary, despite the claims made by Nature’s Tea Leaf.

Heeey, sipdown and rose tea! 244 (I discovered somhow steepster removed a Verdant tea from my cupboard that should have been there, so my number didn’t drop this time). This is a sample thanks to Kasumi no Chajin!

You see a lot of rose blacks, and a good amount of rose whites, but not a lot of rose greens, so I was interested in trying this one. This tea has possibly a higher rose petal to leaf ratio than any I’ve ever seen! It basically looks just like the picture. The steeped tea is darker than I expected (almost brown) and is less rosy smelling than expected. It’s certainly got some green floral notes, but not a thick, rich rose. It’s a fresh, grassy rose.

This is definitely a light floral tea, and thus possibly a good option for people who find rose perfumy. This isn’t perfumy at all, and the green tea has some light buttery notes as well as the green vegetal notes that are the main notes. For me, I want more rose, because I always want more rose (except in cases where there cannot possibly be more rose, see: Harney’s Rose Scented). But this is a really nice tea nonetheless.

Jasmine Blossom is really pretty with all the amazing pale yellow flowers. Of course, this tea taste super floral – if you love floral, this is the tea for you!

I dig this tea, but I think I’ll mix it with other teas, unless I’m in a floral mood.

Full review on my blog, oolong owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/jasmine-blossom-from-natures-tea-leaf-tea-review/

Thanks to Kasumi for this sample! I’ve tried some savory teas before, but usually with sage. I’ve had two blends with rosemary and one was great (Victorian EG) and one was… weird (Sakurambo). So I approached this tea with a bit of trepidation.

The taste is SO unique. The white base is light and soft and almost fruity-sweet, and lets the rosemary really shine. It’s herby, woodsy, a little nutty and has just the right hint of grassiness. It definitely tastes like rosemary, but so different from the preparation it usually gets. It’s like there was a whole sweet side to this herb I never knew about!

Now I really want to experiment with rosemary in sweets. I have a recipe for olive oil rosemary tea cakes, maybe that would be a good place to start? Certainly seems fitting, considering how tea-obsessed I am!

Spdown! Figured thiswould be a good one to have since I’m not well today…both the piers and the cherry being strong enough to it through any sick that might be messing with my taste buds. Haha I was right. While this is a pretty good puerile blend from natures tea leaf, I’d prefer to see if they have a flavour other than cherry since this one is a little artificial tasting as you go through the package. I love that the puerh taste doesn’t get drowned out by the cherry flavour! Over all a really nice tea from natures tea leaf, just would rather a different flavour :)

I don’t love this as much as the first few times i had this, but it is a fun sort of flavoured puerh blending. While it’s still very cherry, the puerh isn’t lost in the taste and flavour!

mmmmm Another sample that NTL was kind enough to send my way. I probably won’t get to the third tonight but it’s on my list for this week. This tea is another wonderful tea from NTL. If you like cherry flavoured things, this is a pu-erh for you to try! The aroma even before the water hits the tea is CHERRY! What i also like about this pu-erh is that it’s more like a deep rich black earthy base to complement the cherry flavouring. Pu-erh newbies need not be afraid! I’m not nearly experienced as others with pu-erh but this is a wonderful blend of the deep pu-erh taste that I’ve come to associate with the puerhs that i’ve tried, and the fruitiness of the cherry tea.

Thank you so much Nature’s Tea Leaf for this sample!