Pukka

Day 18 of Sara’s Old Tea! Part 2 of 6

Since it’s an herbal, I poured boiling water over the bag and left the bag in.

What kind of cinnamon is this? It stands out while pairing nicely with the licorice flavors! There’s also a bit of cocoa flavor towards the end of the sip. Excellent herbal.

I remember picking this up at a convenience store in Dublin, Ireland, last year. It was my first time seeing that brand, but now I see it at the local Safeway too, though not quite so many varieties.

If you hate licorice, don’t bother with this one. More for me!

Day 18 of Sara’s Old Tea! Part 1 of 6?

So, for Day 18, Sara gave me:
Pukka Tulsi Clarity
Pukka Licorice & Cinnamon
Trader Joe’s Moroccan Mint Tea
(these three are teas I’ve sent her)
Tazo Glazed Lemon Loaf
Stash Cinnamon Apple
(I think these were both herbals we got on vacation to the Oregon coast)
Simple Truth Organic Mint Blend Herbal Tea
(I don’t recognize this one)

I poured 12 oz of boiling water over the bag and left it in till it cooled off enough for me to drink it. Mmm, there’s that familiar peppery tulsi and some kind of minty note. Simple and tasty. My cat Rory keeps sniffing my mug though. I don’t think I should give him any.

checks

There’s no catnip in here, only three different varieties of tulsi. I can taste something like chamomile in it too.

Pukka Days of Christmas #18

Yesterday, I was out most of the day, so I didn´t take my advent calender tea…something for later on! Today´s selection is another blend with licorice…Pukka seems to like it ;-) And they sure make sure the licorice (or the cinnamon, come to think of it) doesn´t dominate the blend, but rather harmoniously blends in. I like licorice, not so keen on cinnamon however, but here it works out nicely. In nose a lot of cinnamon, with some cacao notes as well, once steeped it smells like speculoos, the Belgian Sint-Nicholas cookie…so obviously, a great plus for me. In mouth a warm, seasonal drink with subtle cinnamon and licorice notes…a nice surprise overall!

Pukka Days of Christmas #16

I wonder why tea companies consider that having a chamomile based tea makes you relax. For me it´s more likely an infusion I might take if I have eaten too much ;-) Anyway, here we have another “relax” named blend, with chamomile, fennel and marshmallow root (honestly, I don´t have a clue what this ingredient is)…and although I didn´t see a relaxing effect, it´s a drink I took almost w/o paying too much attention to it. So, not bad but on the other hand not standing out either.

Pukka Days of Christmas #15

Ginger is a subtle presence in this blend, which I defintely agree with. Lemongrass tend to give this tea a citrusy character w/o the acid association with citrus fruits, which is a plus for people like me who can get reflux related problems when having citrus fruit juices. It´s fresh, crisp and balanced but I think I prefer a somewhat stronger brew. Maybe I should have infused it longer, as it says on the teabag you an leave it up to 15 minutes.

Pukka Days of Christmas #14

Today, I had a wonderful surprise : the postwoman rang to say there was a parcel sticking out of our letterbox, so better to get it inmediately…which I did, and it was a present from my friend Dianne…not only with a lovely Xmas card (that would already have made my day…I´m terribly late this year and tomorrow, I´ll be sending out my “crismas”), but also including Pukka´s advent calender.
So, I hung the calendar, and decided to start with today´s teabag. And that was a very wise choice LOL…the peppermint dominates in nose, but when drinking the tea, the licorice balances the cold crispness of the mint to lengthen and warm the taste. I like it, and it reminds me of a tea another friend of mine, Melanie, recommended (sleepytime, from Celestial Seasonings)… as I remember that tea, as I haven´t drunk it in ages.
A very well balanced blend, and I might buy myself a box next time in UK.

I used to have Ginseng Tea(or I might actually still have a bit left, but not much), that was just tea and ginseng. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find that anymore. So I thought I’d buy this, because it’s tea with ginseng, and it’s also organic, so I thought, hey, upside is I get an upgrade … except that upgrade isn’t available in stores. Organic supermarkets have mostly thrown out Pukka, probably because it was bought up by Unilever. In theory it’s supposed to be available at Rossmann, but in practice they don’t have this one. Apparently the only place to buy this is on Amazon Marketplace. I tried to find an organic Ginseng Tea, but no luck. Non-organic ones are available, but not from anywhere that I would have felt confident buying from. So I bought this, even though it seemed ridiculous to buy a bagged tea on Amazon Marketplace.

And now that I’ve had it? Meh. It doesn’t taste bad, but the Ginseng Tea was way better. Suppose it’s my own fault for being an idiot and forgetting to check the ingredient list.
But I think I’ll end up buying ginseng so I can blend my own Ginseng Tea.

The ingredients list on this one is so smart! Oat flower, licorice root, chamomile, lavender, lime (linden) flower, Valerian root, green Rama tulsi. One of the nicest-tasting and most effective bedtime blends I’ve ever tried (and I have tried many!). It’s slightly sweet without being cloying and has a nice, bready mouthfeel. Doesn’t taste like candied soggy hay, which many chamomile- and- licorice- based herbal blends run the risk of, IMHO. I didn’t get much of the lavender or Valerian, which is OK with me, as those can be overpowering too if not balanced correctly.
I was already pretty tired when I drank this, but I was out like a light within 15 minutes of finishing this cup. Pretty good for a bagged grocery store tea!

Apparently another oldie (BB 2016.01.10.)

And what is the tea-like in this tea? Almost nothing! Yep, brews dark copper colour. It’s even clear. But rest? It is like black tea with fruit syrup added (my grandma used to do it). Yep, it is black tea – they claim Nam Lanh wild tea; then 14 % of 1.8 gram BAG (not sachet) is licorice root. Yep sweet!

And then there is (should be) ginseng (not in taste), and black maca root (what is it?).

But yeah, it is sweet black tea. Sweet, almost syrupy. Only thing is is is not so viscous. I can finish it, because – yep, it is just sweet without any other bad notes.

Another oldie Pukka tea. BB 2016.01.14

Earl grey with lavender sounds nice, but I am bit afraid flavours will be gone already.

Tea itself should be from Dunsandle, India. Never heard about it but still I have to learn a lot.

I rather went short on steeping time again. Well, some bergamot and lavender is there for sure.

This short time was just right. Tea itself is not noticable too much, maybe because it is still too hot – but berrgamot and lavender is there, and at least it is not overwhelming. I think, if I steeped for longer – it would bring more tea flavours which are bit lacking now. Oily feeling – not what I would enjoy. I would rather enjoy real stuff in.

Watery lemon and ginger and little licorice and turmeric. It wasn’t bad, just super watery for steeping 1 bag in a mug for 15 minutes. Why so weak? The bag smelled so promising.

They claim they used Nam Lanh tea which was hand-picked by local tribal people. Who knows if it is true or false? Anyway, it is organic and fairtrade tea. And best before: 2016.01.11

Oh, oldie.

It wasn’t much aromatic while dry and in tea bag. I shook the tea bag and still nothing present. Added boiling water to my favourite glass cup, added the tea bag, waited 4 minutes… took bag out.

Brews clear, bit darker copper colour with not much of aroma. It was like classic black tea from tea bag. But on sip it was different and, although old, full of taste. It was bold black tea, very rich in taste, I noticed tobbaco, woody taste, malt and drying (no particular order). It was indeed very drying tea, maybe too much it wasn’t super enjoyable.

But that it was so full in taste kinda surprised me, since it have to be around 5 years since it was picked. Foil wrapping made the great job probably. Too bad it seems it was discontinued.

I had this last night. I hate to have a nearly full box of tea that I don’t want to drink. But I don’t really like this one, so I think it will languish. It was actually a little better than I first time I made it, but I still only managed half the cup. Sad, huh?

I over ate yesterday. I tend to do that, especially around the holidays, so I picked up a box of this on Thursday. I had first put the 3 gingers in my cart, but decided on this one instead. Too bad I didn’t check the tea notes first. The 3 ginger one has better ratings. However, I didn’t hate this one. It won’t be one I reach for just for the pleasure of its taste, but it’s drinkable. I kinda got the sweet burn of the ginger, and at the end of the sip was a sour note from (I presume) the lemon. The Pukka teas were almost twice the price of the Bigelow teas, but it did seem to help my tummy, so it was worth it.