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The first time I bought teas from The Capsoul, I must admit the beautiful tins were part of its charm. So far, the teas inside haven´t really been overwhelming me, but this is a nice surprise! I´m more of a black tea fan, so green teas often seem grassy and weak to me. However, the addition of jasmine flowers and flavourings, and of mint, bring out the essence of the green tea! Jasmine and mint tend to overwhelm, but this isn´t the case here : jasmine is everywhere in nose – both for the dry loose leaf tea as for the brewed tea – and is very subtle in mouth, while the mint only shows itself in the aftertaste. I could drink this tea all day, so balanced it is. The only draw-back is the very fine cut of the tea leaves, which makes it necessary to filter the liquid before drinking.

From my Bruu tea subscription a couple of months ago. I need to make sure I write a review before the sample is finished!

What Bruu writes about this tea :
This extraordinary blend of black tea with a portion of green tea enjoys great popularity. This tea is not only strikingly decorated, the selected ingredients unite to create a completely new taste experience: the sweet papaya interacts harmoniously with the fine tartness of the intensely red, shining rose hip peel.
What it is? Magic Moon is an aesthetically pleasing tea, with generous cubes of sweet papaya combined with rose-hip peel.
Why we love it? The selected ingredients unite to create a completely new taste experience. The sweet papaya interacts harmoniously with the fine tartness of the intensely red, shining rose hip peel. a unique taste sensation. Simply magical!
Where it’s from? Assam Green and Black Tea, India. In Assam’s subtropical conditions, the plants suffer for nothing, least of all water: Assam is one of the wettest places on the planet. In the tropical moisture, the tea bushes draw from the rich, alluvial soil to generate thick, big leaves from May through June. In the humid air, tea makers have to rush to process the tea.
How our drink hits the senses? The crisp sweet and fruity, refreshing smells hit the senses as soon as you open the pack, there is no saving this tea for later it smells just too good!
The taste journey : Bursting with fruity flavours of select, high quality, exotic but also popular domestic fruits. Each sip makes you quickly take another and another and before you know it you’re BRUUing another pot.

This is primarily a black tea, but a bit of green tea and other – sweet – additions make this a very easy drinking tea for all to enjoy. I cannot really say there´s papaya in the blend, but the warning “contains sugar” is easy to understand when drinking the tea. Lovely to see, lovely to smell, lovely to drink, not giving any hard feelings at all, but I prefer my black teas more tea and less add-ons.

When I returned to León (northern Spain) last year, I needed to return to the wonderful tea shop “La tienda del té” there as well. Apart from the pu erh caramelo belga I bought this other pu erh, recommended to me by the teashop´s owner.
In nose the orange is quite subtle, while the strawberry gives a gentle aroma. Once brewed, the aroma´s are less fruity and more biscuitty, and in mouth this pu erh is quite similar to the caramelo belga version, minus the caramel sweetness. I definitely prefer the caramelo belga pu erh, but this is a balanced and easy drinking afternoon tea.

12 days of (Christmas) tea (Tea Revv) – Day 5

What it says on Tea Revv´s website : A rooibos and fruit blend with sweet cinnamon, pear and apple. Try this Cinnabon as a lattea with hot frothed milk and a drop of Honey.

My experience : firstly, this is a rooibos based tea, so not that easy to drink when using a ceramic filter for the loose tea (the rooibos goes straight through the holes of the filter); the dry loose tea doesn´t have a nice smell, more like an artificial wine flavour coming through. Fortunately, this changes – for the better – when steeped : it reminds me of pears prepared in wine, with some cinnamon…a dessert I really like. In mouth I cannot find the pear anymore, it´s a kind of mulled wine taste according to me. Not bad, and certainly in line with the season, but lacking elegance. Although Tea Revv recommends drinking this tea with milk, I cannot really see its interest.

12 days of (Christmas) tea (Tea Revv) – Day 4
“Tea and biscuits in one! A black tea with a sweet honey and maple cookie taste, blooming with rose, jasmine and cornflower petals. Try this one as a lattea with hot frothed milk.” Tea Revv describes its Cookie tea blend like this.
As far as I am concerned, it might have worked as a lattea, but I hate milk in my coffee or my tea, so it comes down to the blend for me, and that hasn´t been a huge success, I´m afraid. I don´t associate the aroma´s with a cookie, and neither does the taste indicates anything biscuit-like. Especially in nose it makes me think of a grog, and not exactly one made with the best alcohol. That´s also the smell that lingers on in the mug after having drunk the tea.
Well, hopefully back to something better tomorrow…

I remember buying apple tea when I went for a long weekend (coinciding with the European Championships basketball, in September 2001 : because Turkey ended up playing the final, it was almost impossible to get tickets, but I managed to get one for the second semi final Yugoslavia-Spain because many Turkish fans left after the first semi-final) to Istanbul. I was offered apple tea whenever I visited a market, and ended up buying a huge sample to take home. It was a type of soluble tea, which I admit tasted much better in Turkey than it did when I prepared it at home ;-) … but here Bruu has sent me a tea called “Turkish apple” and I was kind of expecting what I first discovered in 2001. Nothing further from the truth, I think…this is primarily a real dried fruit based infusion, and it needs more than 10´of steeping, but it then is possibly the best fruit infusion I ever had! Fruity, but nothing overly sweet, elegant both in nose and mouth, a bit tending towards a sparkling wine sort of experience, without the alcohol, and with a balanced little acidic touch to it…great!

Bruu says : The finest West Indian lemon grass, sweet apple pieces grown and dried in the hot Turkish sun with succulent latin American pineapple. It is a soothing hot beverage during cold winter months and a refreshing thirst quencher in the summer when served over ice.

I´m not sure whether there will still be sample left to get to summer and try the iced version ;-)

12 days of (Christmas) tea (Tea Revv) – Day 3
Today´s tea is a very traditional Christmas blend called Christmas Spice…and although I´m not a huge fan of chai and other very spiced tea blends, I could really appreciate this one : when opening the pouch, it smelled like “peperkoek”, a typical Belgian type of cake we have for Saint-Nicholas day on 6th December. I had some the other day with coffee, mmm.
So, this tea then : it smells really great, “peperkoek” entirely. A while back, I bought a tea called Biscottea from Bruu, which has a very similar smell; and it also tastes great, peppery spicy without overdoing the sweetness or the cinnamon-like touches to it. This tea performs a bit worse in mouth : it seems like a de-theine-ated ;-) version of Biscottea, lacking some of the peppery spiciness it truly shows in nose. But even then, it´s still a very balanced brew, which I wouldn´t mind repeating some day…

12 days of (Christmas) tea (Tea Revv) – Day 2
“Stack the pancakes high to the sky”, that´s how Tea Revv describes this black tea blend. I´m not sure whether the tea is supposed to match the taste of pancakes or whether it´s only a nice drink to go with pancakes. Anyway, in nose I get floral tones, but in mouth it´s mainly black tea…and in the back somewhere a sweet touch which might well come from the real maple syrup, but very subtle it is! I admit I left the tea steeping for 1-2 minutes longer than it should have, and there was indeed an added bitterness to it, but this only confirmed the blend not being that balanced, I think.

I´ve been away for more than a month and had two Bruu monthly tea club boxes waiting for me when I returned. So, plenty of new teas to try.
This half-fermented oolong shows very green, grassy aroma´s but once steeped all the grass seems to be gone. A balanced tea, which can be appreciated by black tea lovers as well.

From Bruu´s website :
An absolute Oolong classic from the Chinese school. Unlike many white or green Chinese teas, whose production peak takes place in spring, the Ti Kuan Yin Oolong qualities tend to be produced in the autumn. These teas captivate the senses with their ripeness and highly aromatic full body. Ti Kuan Yin (also spelled Tieguanyin) is a legendary oolong tea from Jiangxi, Fujian province in China. It is one of China’s most beloved oolongs and is extremely time-consuming to produce. Jiangxi, located on the Eastern side of China, is surrounded by mountains on three sides and sits comfortably in a subtropical climate, making it an excellent place for growing tea.
How our drink hits the senses : Notes of toasted walnut and tender collard greens. Intriguing lingering floral aroma, lightly orchid and gentle astringency.
The taste journey : Deliciously floral and creamy with subtle hints of peach, it is also rumoured to be great for the waistline! The taste builds with each Mouthful. No fuss, no frills classic Oolong.

12 days of (Christmas) tea (Tea Revv) – Day1
About the only white chocolate tablet I like is the one with popped rice in it, and this tea reminds me a lot of that chocolate : very sweet and popped rice! Tastes as if made with rooibos as well, but it is really black tea based.
I wouldn´t buy this tea to have on a regular basis, but as a special festive treat it´s more than OK.