Lemon Kandy

I was craving for citrusy black tea this morning. And when I saw a Alvin’s of San Francisco Earl Grey, I knew it’s not it. So I picked a fresh batch (crafted 8th December) of teakruthi teas, I bought myself, but it’s only second tea I have opened.

I used 5 grams. I wanted to do it western, but my ball strainer was too small. So I just decided for grandpa and just after I have filled the cup with water, I thought I should use empty bags I actually have. Well. 5 grams for grandpa sounds terribly strong. But caffeine needed in the morning… it was just right I guess.

As I have opened the bag, I was thrilled with lemon zest and lemon candy aroma. Very fresh and feeling a bit juicy.

Brewed… I was truly afraid that I used too much leaf; but apparently not. It was delicious, lemony taste. Malty base. It’s like the iced teas, but not overdone with sugar. Actually it doesn’t contain any sweet stuff and just pure lemon pieces, marigold flowers and tea. That’s something I highly appreciate.
Certainly need to re-brew with less leaf to see more from the base; but still great.

This is my favorite tea from teakruthi (so far), so I recently ordered a larger bag. I also added several samples to my order, so I have lots of new teas to try. As if I don’t already have plenty! But tea mail is always fun and I really enjoy having the variety, so I’m certainly not complaining.

Today’s cup is just so delicious – slight lemon flavor, bold black tea base. The steeping parameters on the bag work perfectly for me. I have one cup’s worth left in my first bag and then I can start working through the new batch.

Last week was a doozy, incredibly busy and full of the unexpected, so I’m behind on all my tasting notes. Hoping to get those added to Steepster today. So grateful I planned to take vacation this week. It turned out to be perfect timing. Finally sitting down to rest today, even though there’s still so much I need to do. It never really ends, does it? :)

Holy Lemon, Batman! POW! ZAM! BAP! It’s like having a dessert without all the extra calories. Speaking of desserts there are many dessert teas like this one but many add natural or artificial flavor. This tea gets the job done without any of that! The taste starts with a tango of lemon flavor reminiscent of lemon drops and switches to a quirky quick-step with woodsy notes. The aroma is tantalizing with fresh lemon and tropical ocean forest notes. But also slightly weird because sometimes I get a hint of Country Time ‘lemonade’. The name of the tea is also great. At first I thought Kandy was a play on words using Kandy for candy and the ultimate meaning being it tastes like lemon candy. The meaning is much deeper and steeped in the country from which is came. Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Finally got around to drinking some of my accumulating but neglected loose leaf tea, and felt it deserved a note. I quite like how the lemon flavor is handled here, the lemon is convincing but has a touch of sweetness. The teakruthi teas in general seem a little on the weak side though, and I always find myself using more leaf than I normally would, so not sure what that’s about.

In other news, Inktober has started and I’m not sure why I do this to myself, but I guess I just wanted an excuse to draw my favorite book characters. Already tired though. https://www.instagram.com/p/CF2vTUsByKt/

Sipdown (256)

Thank you teakruthi for the sample!

Malt and lemon and a metallic twang at the end. This was alright but not a favourite. The lemon never quite worked for me and was always a little more pledge than citrus fruit.

Another sample from Teakruthi!  Thanks so much. This is fantastic stuff.  Any lemon fan — you need to try this!  It’s so fresh and bright, and does have that hint of sweetness that makes it KANDY.  But really, it comes from the Kandy district in Sri Lanka, so that makes the name of the tea accurate as well.  The black tea is perfect with this lemon.  It tastes like fresh lemon, squeezed into the tea. Wow.  The second steep was somehow very light in flavor — maybe I steeped it stronger in the first cup.  If the second steep was stronger, this would be a perfect tea.  If you’re looking for a lemon black tea, this might be the best lemon tea I’ve ever had.  Unlike the Vanilla Earl (which I sipped recently), which is fickle, this tea is very straightforward and exactly as described.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2-2 teaspoons for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 4 minutes after boiling  // 3-4 minute steep  

Edit: with the black friday sale, this tea would be around $5 for 100 grams! Their prices couldn’t be better! Free shipping is at $20…

Thanks very much to teakruthi for sending such a generous number of samples! I was drawn to this one first, and it was pretty delicious! The tea tastes high quality. It’s flavorful, not at all bitter. The lemon doesn’t overpower it at all. It’s just a tasty hint. The resteep tastes only of the black tea, but it’s still good. I don’t drink teas with this much caffeine often, and I could really feel it when I finished my cup, so this could be a good morning brew for those who are looking for that kind of thing.

I like Teakruthi’s minimalist approach to their flavoured teas. Where many vendors would have a whole grocery list of ingredients, this company has only black tea and lemon. I steeped 2 teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 190F for 4, 6, and 10 minutes.

When I opened the bag, a strong lemon scent wafted out, which made me worry that the tea would taste like drain cleaner. Fortunately, the first steep is mild, with a nice balance of natural lemon and malty, slightly drying black tea. Unlike the few other lemon teas I’ve had, the flavours don’t seem to be competing with each other as to which will be the stronger. Subsequent steeps retain this good balance, but are weaker in taste with a greater amount of dryness. There are also huge lemon pieces among the spent leaves.

This is a pleasant, unfussy brew that I enjoyed. I found that the lemon distracted me from paying attention to the base tea, but this just shows how well integrated it is. I probably won’t purchase it because I don’t tend to go for lemon teas, but I recommend it highly for those who do.

Thanks very much to teakruthi for generously sending me nine different tea samples from their website to explore! I’ve tried five so far, and plan to try the remaining four over the course of next week! I’ll get more into the meat of the tea review in a moment, but I just wanted to start by saying that I was impressed by the company in two ways even before ever steeping the teas up…

To start, the shipping was really quick. Whenever I’m ordering from somewhere outside of North America I generally have an expectation that shipping isn’t going to be quick – but this only took around a week and from Sri Lanka no less! So, that was impressive! Plus, it looks like the free shipping threshold on the site year round is really low as well, so I’m definitely going to be really taking note of my favourite teas I try because restocking seems like it would be a very feasible option!

Second is just in how the company really appears to have listed to my preferences when selecting my teas; I told them that I wanted to try this tea and White Gold in particular (both they sent) and then let them know that I do drink all other tea types, with the exception of green tea, and am comfortable with straight & flavoured teas but have more of a preference to low and mid grown Sri Lankan blacks – and really I don’t see a single tea in my sample assortment that deviates from those parameters. Whenever a company offers to send me tea for free to review I’m always grateful for anything they send and I will definitely still try anything I receive (even if it goes outside my normal preferences) at least once with an open mind – but it’s always just a pleasant experience when a company really takes the time to listen to what will resonate best with you and then actually matches that in their offerings.

However, onto the tea!

So, this is the first thing I tried – I had specially requested two teas so I thought it might be a nice idea to start my sample tasting with one of them and then end with the other. So far, this has been my favourite of the five I’ve tried thus far – perhaps an indicator that I know my tastes quite well? Though I feel like there’s HIGH potential for a lemon black tea to be really unpleasant (“Pledge/cleaning agent” tasting lemon, or just really pithy and bitter) and this didn’t fall into any of those areas where I had hesitant/reservation.

Browsing the website, and based on the samples I recieved, it appears that even though teakruthi does carry flavoured/blended teas they take a very simplistic approach to them – and I actually really like and respect that. A lot of companies go very intense in their flavourings or build tea blends around giant concepts or really dive into complex flavour pairings and there is a place/need for that but sometimes I also just want a very simple, clean blend that just really executes one particular flavour quite well. In this case, it’s lemon.

I’ve never really found a simple lemon black tea that I really enjoy that didn’t have some other type of twist on it – but this feels like a classic lemon black in the way that I’ve always envisioned in my head. The tea itself is still front and center; brisk and clean with hints of malt, honey, and red fruit (all of this makes sense; Kandy, ironically given the name, is a region that I think is known for tasting a fair bit sweeter than others) – however it’s married to a really natural lemon; a little bit of sweetness but only so far as what you’d get in the actual fruit – it doesn’t feel boosted/helped along by anything like stevia/blackberry leaves/flavouring. The natural honey note in the black tea adds some support. Not really tangy and sharp, but has a TINY bit of acidity which makes the flavours pop a bit more. It tastes clearly and purely of lemon – the way a basket of lemons might smell. The finish is very round and clean.

I’m incredibly impressed by this one – and given that it was the first tea I tried from the company I think it may have set up some sharp expectations. I’ve tried five teas now, and to be perfectly honest none of the other four have come close to making me feel as satisfied as this blend did; not to say they’re bad – but I think this, as a Classic lemon and black tea profile, is a star.

EDIT: Side note – just needed to point out how much I love the name too; not sure if it’s intentional play on words or not but I just found it really clever.