The Naked Leaf

Great Canadian TTB

I don’t usually like chai but I am a fan of maple. Luckily, this leans towards maple and thus I am finding the cup quite pleasant. I don’t think it is something I want stocked but I am thankful to Kirlika for the opportunity to try it :)

just for fun i cold brewed this the other night too… i have to say, it’s also pretty tasty this way, though i prefer it warm :)

Final count: 150 (though i technically still have 5 to add that i received today…but i’m lazy, so maybe tomorrow…)

GCTTB
Another one from the Naked Leaf that less expensive than the blergamot one. I really enjoyed this one even though i accidentally let it get cold. I think this would be nice with a bit of honey or steeped with apple juice, similarly to the elderberry from verdant that i like. On the whole, it was nice getting to try out a few new teas and vendors through the travelling teabox. The downside being that because i only sampled a few teas, it was almost a challenge to make room for my teas hahaha. I don’t envy variaTEA :P

GCTTB

Another one from the box that i’ve added to steepster since i couldn’t’ find it anywhere. Soooo for the record, i almost added this to steepster as Blergamot Sage. heh. I picked this one because i was curious how the evil B would fare in a herbal. Turns out that this is a nice enough balance of B and other flavours, that it didn’t overwhelm or overpower things. It took a back seat to the sage, peppermint and lemon thyme and verbena. Even the peppermint blended nicely. The only downside, as i discovered in transposing info from the website…i think this company might be off their rocker in terms of pricing.
18$ for 50g of a herbal? on what planet? was i just drinking liquid gold? eesh! otherwise… a pretty tasty blend.

GCTTB

A miss for me. I had high hopes for this one but sadly upon brewing it, it became largely a mess of bitter black tea with hints of cinnamon and ginger. Disappointing but im’ glad i got to try it since this totally would have been something i would have ordered!

GCTTB I pulled this one out since it was added in an earlier round and still around – since i enjoyed it. Just enough left for a decent sized cup. Still enjoy this one so it’s nice to see that my taste buds haven’t decided this one isn’t still to enjoy :) It was nice to revisit!

GCTTB

I quite like this one. Thankfully the licorice root isn’t overpowering the rest of the tea, turning it into a sweet hot mess. I dislike i when licorice does that! I wish the ginger was a little more present in this one, so that it was a bit spicier, but overall it was pretty darn good! Love travelling tea boxes!

Great Canadian Travelling Tea Box

Hmm… something about this one isn’t quite doing it for me. I’m not sure if it’s the licorice or the fennel… maybe the pepper? It kind of reminds me of the same flavor I experienced with the Davidstea Love Elixir for Her, so I think it’s the licorice. While I have a mini argument with myself, I’ll wrap up this tasting note with a “it’s not bad, but not for me” ending.

Had some more of this today, was a nice warm way to start a really hectic morning/day. I don’t often do additives in tea but this one works really well with some cream and honey to smooth things out.

This is another of the local teas that I sent along with the GCTTB, and like the one last week it’s also one of their most popular blends. The first time I heard of this chai (I hadn’t even had a chance to smell it yet) I knew I had to have some.

The first thing you notice upon smelling the dry tea leaves is maple, but not the super sweet grocery store kind of maple, this is the authentic maple scent. Underneath that come the spices… I always worry with a chai that the cinnamon will be overdone and that it’s scent (and flavor) would be the only thing that I find, but not with this one. The clove, cinnamon and cardamom all work together quite nicely and are well balanced, though not as prominent as one might expect. You can also catch a hint of the pink peppercorn (which also gives it a nice visual pop as well) and a bit of matiness from the Assam tea. It’s a really dark, warm and well-rounded scent profile with the occasional highlight from the safflower petals.

The liquor is a deep orange-gold with a fair amount of particulate, and smells of malt, maple and a nice touch of spice. Again it’s not super sweet but the malt and the maple combine to form a very interesting aroma, they complement each other in a way I really can’t quite describe… but the smell is lovely.

I don’t however get a lot of spice notes in the flavor, don’t get me wrong they are there, I can taste the cinnamon and clove with just a touch of cardamom and a slight tingle from the peppercorn but it’s not “Chai like” to me (kinda similar to DT’s Pumpkin Chai, it’s more spiced than Chai, at least in the way I see/taste :)) I was also really surprised the first time I tasted this, I expected much more maple in the flavor profile, but it actually serves more as a supporting note, complementing the slightly astringent Assam base nicely with true maple flavor. Nor is it as sweet as I was expecting (again not a bad thing! It’s just that this tea kept blowing all my preconceived notions away!) but at the same time it holds up well to extra sweetener too if you’re looking for sweet.

I enjoy this tea, it’s brisk but smooth, spiced but yet just sweet enough and a has a really good balance between the flavors and the “base” Assam tea. (Though I do think the title’s a bit misleading but again I’m particular that way ;) )

sigh I really hate -30C wind chills, I can never get warm… even hours after I’m still freezing. As such I was looking for something with good amounts of spice to it and this is what I reached for (my work stash is diminishing by leaps and bounds and I need to restock it all from home.)

Warm and quite spicy this one was perfect for what I needed. I love how all the spices balance with each other, it really makes for a complex flavor profile. It was a bit sweeter than previous times but I didn’t mind that (just not sure what changed…) It re-steepes really well too.

Ok back to work. BTW if anyone figures out how to clone themselves, let me know… I need at least one more me to get all my work done :P

This is one of the teas that I’ve added in as my “local” tea to the GCTTB. It’s one of their most popular blends and one that I find has a very interesting (and unique in my experiences so far) spice combination.

Dry the tea is quite visually compelling, you can definitely see all the spices mixed into it; my one “complaint” though is that the green tea portion is made up of smaller broken pieces of leaf, it’s not necessarily a bad thing but it made me wonder exactly how much of the green tea I’d be able to taste once it had been steeped. The aroma though… oh ya I liked it from the first time I smelled it. The mix of spices was warm and refreshing, and there wasn’t anyone spice that was predominant over another. At the same time they weren’t all muddled together, I could distinctly smell each spice (except for maybe the clove) layered and interweaving with each other to form a complex but wonderfully full scent profile. I don’t however get much from the green tea, a few grassy undertones but that’s mostly hidden by all the spice.

The steeped liquor is a deep, clear gold (almost orange-gold) and smells of spice over top of a deep almost dried hay scent from the green tea. The peppermint is the highlight of the scent profile at this time, while the fennel, cardamom and ginger bring a bit of warm sweet heat to the mix. I found it to be a very compelling scent, though much darker than the dry profile.

Now, bear in mind that I over steeped this one a touch (the wonders of phone calls where someone says to you “it’s not working, fix it for me!” ah well :)), but even at that I didn’t find it bitter at all which surprised me. The green tea (yes I can taste them!) base delivered some warm dried grass/hay notes, forming a wonderful foundation to lift the spice medley up to new heights and giving it a remarkable, well rounded flavor profile. The spice mix isn’t too heavy either, my mouth has a pleasant tingle at the end of every sip and I’ve got a lingering aftertaste of peppermint which is very refreshing. I also found that the spices distinct flavors have soften at this point, but that’s a good thing in my mind as otherwise the tea could taste very “disjointed”.

You just can’t beat teas that just hit all the right notes: fresh, warm, spicy, just sweet enough… Yum. It’s overall a lovely tea, one that I’ll be keeping in stock for some time to come.

The thing that really hooked me in about this tea is the smell – it’s crazy good. I found it steeped best at the recommended time of 5 minutes – any less and it’s not quite strong enough to stand up to milk. But when it’s done right, it’s a delicious cup of tea. Best with milk and a bit of sugar to really bring out the maple flavour and add creaminess – it’s like dessert in a mug.

I really want to try boiling this tea in milk on the stove, the traditional chai way, to see how it tastes. I have high hopes!

This is a very nice tea. The orange makes this smell wonderful, though the flavor is more subtle then the smell. It’s not an overpowering orange flavor, and I don’t get much vanilla from this. I suspect that while I can’t taste it, that it’s there mellowing out the orange. Over all, I find this to be smooth, mellow, and very nicely balanced.

This is my first order from this company. It’s just a small shop in downtown Calgary and I’ve finally broken down and ordered. I really love the tins that thier teas come in. They’re free with the order and have different artworks printed on them…I think they’re awesome, and I’ll deffinately be hanging on to them.

I was really excited opening up the package. And opening up this tea…the smell just hit me. It smells just like christmas. I have no idea why, I can’t quite place it. But it totally reminds me of Christmas when I was a little kid. Smells so good it makes my toes curl.

The leaf is really super dark, it looks amazing. First thing I had to do was run to the kitchen and make some. I didn’t add any milk or sugar to this, I wanted to try out the flavor on it’s own first. It’s wonderfuly smooth. I can really taste the cinnamon and cloves…absolutely delicious. I’m thinking this is my new favorite tea place. Woohoo!