Murmur

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

First of all, the packaging is pretty cool! It is all stacked neatly into a box which is then tied with twine and sealed with a wax seal. Pretty snazzy! Inside the box, there are four tins: One large tin that holds the blended tea, and three small tins that hold the components of the tea – white peony, dried strawberries, and cacao nibs. I like this, not just because one can customize their cup of tea the way they want it, but also because you can easily judge the quality of each component (I like that I will be able to brew a separate cup of white peony so that I can judge it without the strawberry and cacao nib)

But it also causes me to wonder … is this blended with JUST the dried strawberry or with strawberry flavor also? If it’s jut the dried strawberry, I’m in for a pretty dismal strawberry experience, I fear. I guess I will have to wait until the tasting …

Yep, it is as I feared… the strawberry notes are very faint. VERY faint. If you were to order this “flavor” with thoughts of chocolate strawberries dancing in your head, you would be sorely disappointed. This is white tea. First and foremost. It’s a fine white tea though. It is sweet with honey-esque tones and a fresh vegetal tone. A very nice white peony: flavorful yet delicate.

The strawberry flavor is there. But it is very subdued, and noticeable primarily toward the finish and in the aftertaste where I note a taste much like I’d experience if I had just eaten a fresh berry. The aftertaste is very similar to that. During the sip though, the strawberry is not there.

The chocolate is even more pale in flavor than the strawberry. However, it IS noticeable in the sip, around mid-sip, I notice a delicious chocolate-y note that washes over the palate. It’s wonderfully delicious, even if it is a bit on the softer side. And when it comes to chocolate, more is better.

I think for my next pot of this tea, I shall add a few more of the cacao nibs and perhaps a little more strawberry to bring these flavors out. And before that, I intend to try some of the white peony on its own to see how that experience differs from this one. For now, though, I think I shall hold off on the rating, because, while it is enjoyable for what it is… it isn’t what I think I wanted it to be, so I find myself a little disappointed because of that.

I seriously LOVE the whole concept of this company! Everything about the company shouts QUALITY!

Caleb sent me a good size tin of this lovely white tea offering along with 3 small sample tins. In each sample tin were each of the 3 individual ingredients that were in this tea. He does this because we wants tea lovers and his customers to be able to see, touch/feel, and smell each of the ingredients stand-alone. Another PLUS for doing this is if a specific tea drinker would like a little extra of one flavor in the tea they are able to add a little more if they wish! GENIUS! How many times have we said…I wish such and such had a little bit more (enter ingredient here).

Caleb also sends great information along with the tea! This is wonderful! It tells me he’s really taken the time and effort with his tea offerings!

His packaging is just as impressive! Like I mentioned above the tins are wonderful but the labels are great as well! And…the brown fitted boxes that hold the tins that hold the tea are neat, too! He secures the box with twine and presses a good-ole-fashion wax seal on top!

As for this specific tea…I think it’s very good! I have to say the White Peony, alone, is right up there with the best quality of Peony I have tried! The dried strawberries are amazing! The cacao nibs are mixed sparingly thru-out the loose leaf mix…I must admit I purposely added a little more from the sample tin! I TOTALLY LOVE THE FACT I CAN DO THIS!!!!

The flavor is great! The Peony and Strawberry combo is the highlight and the cacao is like a back-up dancer! Very nice!

This is a treat from start to finish!

My first selection from my second sampler box from LiberTEAS – thank you so much for putting this box together for me!

I’ve been wanting to try Handmade Teas for a while, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to actually subscribe to their tea of the month program before trying some of their tea. I’m really anti-commitment and I can never make up my mind about things like tea clubs…it’s just too hard to choose which one to join so I end up just completely avoiding making the decision by not joining any haha! Silly I know…

I love the way the dry tea smells. Fruity and sweet. Once brewed though I’m not really smelling much aside from the white tea base. Upon tasting I do taste the strawberry, but it isn’t a very bold in-your-face type of flavor. I’m actually really enjoying the fact that the strawberry seems very light and natural. The chocolate adds a really interesting aspect. I feel like it makes the cup a little “fuller” if that makes any sense. The white tea base was a good choice for such a light flavor profile.

I think that Murmur is the perfect name for this tea. It really does fit the way the tea tastes. It really is a murmur… soft, quiet, natural, almost illusive but I actually found these things quite enjoyable. Such a relaxing lovely cup!

I received this in my super amazing sampler box from LiberTEAS!

I think I must have made this wrong… I just got a grassy bland flavor from this that I am sad to say that I ended up pouring out. The description sounds lovely and the tea looks delicious too. Bah.

This one was a share from VariaTEA – and I believe it was actually one of the teas she received in her subscription box from Handmade tea that I got her as a present one year…

The concept of this tea sounded really, really nice to me and the dry leaf was aesthetically stunning to me despite the very broken up white tea leaf. However, it was practically flavorless – just the tiniest hint of strawberry, with a slightly oily mouthfeel? I found the cup really disappointing – which hurt even more because I wanted to love it, and I wanted it to be something that she’d love, since it was a gift.

Sample from VariaTEA. This was a whole lot of subdued strawberry. I didn’t get much cacao. Not sure how old this one is but i feel like given the other reviews here, that it should be way more intense :)

I tried this both as a plain hot tea and as a chocolate milk latte. Of the two, the plain tea was far superior as it allowed for flavors other than cocoa to come through. However, despite the copious amount of strawberry in the dry leaf, this fell flat. What should have been a chocolate covered strawberry was ultimately more just a chocolatey/fruity white tea. Still it was fun to try and experiment with so thank you Roswell Strange for sending this my way.

Check out the full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/11/28/murmur-from-handmade-tea/

This is yummy! It has a light strawberry flavor. I don’t pick up much cocoa, but I like it anyway. I did need to sweeten this with a little rock sugar to enjoy it more. Without sweetener, the strawberry didn’t pop!

Thanks to Hapatite for the sample!

Thanks for this sample Hepatite! Thanks for giving me enough to put in the Brevile since I have to use enough tea for 2 cups. That is about the only problem with a Breville, it has to make a minimum of 500 ml.
Caleb Brown from Handmade Tea was kind enough to respond to my question about purchasing from Handmade Tea. All I had been able to see on line was their subscription program. :-( But Caleb let me know that now they also have started having a General Store where tea purchases have been made available to us without a subscription. :-D