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Apr 25

Peppermint and Licorice from Pukka

Flavored Tea,Herbal Tisanes,Pukka,Tea Review 3:35 am | 3 Comments

  • Type Of leaves: Herbal Tisane
  • Name Of Tea: Peppermint and Licorice
  • Available From: Pukka

Peppermint and licorice from Pukka

Good Morning tea-lovers!

I stumbled across this in my local herbal store and thought I just needed to try it.

This is Peppermint & Licorice organic herbal tea from Pukka.

I have tried Pukka’s teas in the past but this one really caught my eye with its jazzy packaging and I particularly like the idea of the flavour combination.

I love peppermint tea and I love licorice so whats not to like?

I prepare my kettle for boiling.

This tea is in bagged form so its very handy for carrying around for when you need a pick-me-up!

My kettle has now boiled so I pour the hot liquid over the bag in my cup and wait for the flavours to mingle together.

On the Pukka website it states that the tea should be left to infuse for 5 minutes.

After a couple of minutes the liquid is dark in colour and has a slight golden hue to it.

I cannot fully explain how lovely the smells are in the area that I am doing the tasting.

This tea smells absolutely delicious!

Pukka describes this tea as-

Using a delicious blend of peppermint & FairWild licorice this new tea blend is particularly close to our hearts. Not only does is celebrate 10 Pukka Years, but with 20p from every pack going towards supporting WWF conservation projects, it’s also helping protect the natural world we love.

We are committed to creating a beautiful world in everything we do and are working with a number of regeneration projects to help us all enjoy a healthier relationship with nature. So pop the kettle on, brew a cuppa and sit back and enjoy the incredible power of nature with refreshing peppermint to soothe the digestion and naturally sweet, soothing licorice to calm and nourish.

preparation
Infuse the tea bag for at least 5 minutes in freshly boiled water

I hope you can feel good knowing that as well as taking care of yourself, you’re doing your own little bit to create a beautiful world too. Enjoy and stay well

ingredients

Naturally caffeine-free and ethically sourced. 100% organically grown ingredients: Peppermint leaf (60%), licorice root (40%), Contains licorice – people suffering from hypertension should avoid excessive consumption. 40% FairWild certified ingredients by dry weight.

We use sachets to protect the high essential oil content of our incredible organic herbs to bring you the fullest flavour.

contents

20 Sachets

Overall I would give this tea 10/10. The tea is light, refreshing and very true on flavour. Thank you Pukka!


The Tea Guru
The Tea Guru
http://www.teareviewblog.com


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Apr 04

Christmas Bakery from Tea for All Reasons

Flavored Tea,Rooibos,Tea For All Reasons,Tea Review 3:37 am | 2 Comments

[Tea for All Reasons]This is a seasonal tea, one of many that Tea for All Reasons (TFAR) makes. And as with many of their teas that are made for holidays, the very first thing one has to do when one opens the package is just look at it. Because TFAR’s teas have several features that make them some of the most attractive teas to look at! In this case, the tea has one of TFAR’s signature features, “sprinkles.” These aren’t sprinkles like ice cream sprinkles; they are little candy bits, usually shaped and colored. The sprinkles in this one are little gingerbread men (and by little, I mean that they are about a quarter of an inch) in red and brown. They look so cute! The sprinkles dissolve a little bit when steeped in hot water, so they add the tiniest amount of sweetness to the tea, but really not much. Since I prefer my tea unsweetened, I am glad that candy sprinkles don’t make it too sweet, and that also means that you’ll be able to add the sweetener of your choice, if you like your tea sweeter, rather than treating it as pre-sweetened. Rooibos has a little bit of a sweet-ish taste itself, and that’s what the base of this tea is; rooibos also tastes just a bit spicy, and that complements some of the spices in the tea.

The gingerbread sprinkles give away one of the flavors in this tea – there are slivers of dried ginger root in there; another flavor is almonds, and one can see the almond slivers in the loose tea. One can also see the bits of cacao, tiny pieces of cinnamon, and the seeds of other spices in the tea as well. Over all, the taste is not quite as spicy as a chai tea, but it conveys the impression of spiced baked goods quite nicely – I always feel as though the addition of almonds to a tea makes it taste more like cookies!

Since this is a specialty tea for the Christmas holiday, it isn’t always available – as I write this review, a couple of months after Christmas, it is not on TFAR’s web site, nor are any of their other Christmas teas. The link that occurs on the picture above is to the “Specialty teas” page of TFAR’s web site, where you’ll find the current offerings – perhaps one with a sprinkle of candy shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day will be there, or one with little candy flowers for spring, or little candy yellow ribbons in the Returning Heroes blend. And then, after fall comes ’round again, there will be more Christmas teas there.

TFAR describes their specialty teas like this:

Tea For All Reasons offers a wide selection of the freshest premium teas for the most sophisticated tea lover, as well as custom blends for special occasions.

The specialty teas they offer include custom blends for weddings, and teas for birthdays, children’s tea parties, and other special occasions that aren’t exactly holidays.



BunRab
BunRab
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Mar 26

Blackcurrant Bracer from London Fruit & Herb Company

Flavored Tea,Herbal Tisanes,London Fruit & Herb Co,Tea Review 4:13 am | 2 Comments

[Blackcurrant Bracer from London Fruit & Herb]This herbal tea has the blackcurrant-y-est blackcurrant flavor of any flavored tea I’ve tried!

I love blackcurrant, a flavor I first discovered on a visit to Canada back in the 70′s; it’s still more popular in the UK and other parts of the British Empire than it is in the US, though this is changing a bit since some of the big supermarket tea brands have introduced blackcurrant-flavored black teas. None of those has as fruity and full-bodied a blackcurrant taste as this one, though!

The tea is in bags, so there’s not as much aroma to the dry teabag as there would be to tea leaves. Once brewed, however, the blackcurrant aroma is unmistakeable, and the taste is even stronger than the aroma.

For people in the US who may not be familiar with the taste, imagine a cross between purple grapes and a blend of berries, especially blueberry and blackberry.

Since the blend is herbal, there is no caffeine, so this can be drunk late at night. Which is when I tend to drink it, sometimes several cups in one evening.

In the UK, this tea is available in stores or from an online store that London Fruit & Herb Company shares with Typhoo. In the US, one will occasionally find this tea in discount-remainder stores such as Home Goods or Ross, but more reliably one will find it on Amazon.com.

London Fruit & Herb describes this tea as:

The London Fruit and Herb Company have adopted a philosophy of creating great tasting blends that are good for you. So dedicated are we to achieving this that we have developed a unique process to provide you with a range of fruit flavours which really taste as good as they smell. Format: String, tag and envelope.

Ingredients: Hibiscus, Blackberry Leaves, Flavourings, Liquorice Root, Apple Pomace, Blackcurrant Juice (2%), Blackcurrants (2%), Blackcurrant Leaves (1%), Rosehips, Citric Acid, Strawberry Juice.

Not only is this a tasty warm tea, it reminds me of summer with its fruity taste, and therefore helps me look forward to summer (as I write this, it is a few days into the start of spring here in Maryland, and we are expecting snow this weekend.) Speaking of summer, this also makes an excellent iced tea. When made iced, add a bit of sugar to keep the fruit flavor to the forefront. A few frozen berries dropped into it make an excellent garnish, or a wedge of orange, or even kumquat, works well.

Before I stop talking about how much I love blackcurrant, I have to tell you what I often eat for breakfast: 2/3 cup plain yogurt, 2/3 cup Kashi Black Currant Walnut cereal (has freeze-dried blackcurrants in it) and 2 heaping tablespoons blackcurrant jam, all mixed together. The blackcurrant jam adds enough sweetness to make it better than already-flavored yogurt, and the cereal stays crunchier with yogurt instead of milk. Could I make this any more blackcurrant-y?

 



BunRab
BunRab
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Mar 07

Cardamon Cinnamon from Republic of Tea

Flavored Tea,Herbal Tisanes,Republic of Tea,Tea Review 4:07 am | 3 Comments

[Cardamon Cinnamon from Republic of Tea]Yes, it is sort of cutesy that they have called this cardaMON to go with cinnaMON, instead of just using the name of the spice, cardamoM. But, cardamom is quite possibly my favorite spice in the whole world, so I am willing to forgive a bit of cutesiness.

What we get here is a nice blend of chai spices with a bit extra – a bit of carob and chicory are added, along with the usual chai spices. There are no tea leaves, not even rooibos or other herbal “tea” bases – just spices! Which means that it’s caffeine-free, and that you can taste every bit of the spice without any distractions from, say, the slightly spicy flavor that red rooibos has.

The tea doesn’t have much body, but it’s warming nonetheless. The brew is fairly pale in color, but gets a little darker if you steep it longer – and since it’s purely herbal, you can steep it longer, without any worries about bitterness, too much caffeine, and so on.

Because this is in paper tea bags – round, tagless – it’s easy to brew – and also easy to use a bag as additional flavoring by adding a bag of this to a pot of otherwise plain black tea, or to the milk one is heating for hot cocoa, or to other things that are being steeped. It’s also easy to use this brewed up instead of plain water if you are making scones from a mix that calls for adding water – it adds a subtle but definite depth to the taste of the scones! Try a bag in your water for rice, as well – instant flavored rice to serve with your ethnic recipes!

Republic of Tea says about this tea:

Warm the Heart Herb Tea – Native to the shadier regions of India & Ceylon, cardamom has a gentle, airy taste of the forest itself – reminiscent of ginger with a pinch of pine. Cinnamon brings a spicy depth. Also, great over ice!

Ingredients

Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, carob, chicory, black pepper, Chinese star anise, cloves and cassia oil

Sometimes Republic of Tea thinks a little highly of themselves. But their nice canisters keep the tea fresher than a box does, and there are 36 bags to the canister, rather than the 18-20 in most boxes of supermarket brands – AND, of course, there’s second steepings to reduce the cost per cup. Use slightly less than boiling water, rather than boiling, and you can still get flavor out of a second steeping. Alternatively, use this to make a 12-16 ounce mug of tea, rather than a six-ounce cup; just let it steep longer!



BunRab
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Feb 22

Chocolate Chai from Zhena’s Gypsy Tea

Chai Tea,Flavored Tea,Rooibos,Tea Review,Zhena's Gyspy Tea 3:27 am | 2 Comments

[Chocolate Chai from Zhena's Gypsy TeaThis chai is based on rooibos, rather than black tea, so that it is virtually caffeine-free. The rooibos itself is completely caffeine-free; the only reason I leave a tiny bit of wiggle room in the description is because chocolate does contain some caffeine, and the amounts of cacao powder and chocolate flavouring in this tea may contain a teensy-weensy amount of caffeine. If you are extremely sensitive to caffeine, you probably already know this about chocolate, and know not to drink anything with chocolate in it late at night.

That said, this is otherwise an herbal tea, a “red tea.” The ingredients in this tea are:

Cacao powder, rooibos, cinnamon, chicory root roasted, ginger, chocolate flavouring, licorice root, cardamom, cloves, nutment, shortbread flavouring, orange peel, pepper.

All of the above except the shortbread flavouring are certified organic.

The chocolate taste in this tea is actually pretty mild – the spices and the natural spiciness of rooibos mostly overpower the chocolate. I don’t really taste much of the chicory, either – chicory is something I look for, one of my favorite herbal flavors, and I can barely detect it here. Adding a bit of sugar brings out the chocolate a little bit more, but then adding milk pretty much mutes the chocolate again. What one winds up with is a spicy, milky tea with a faint hint of chocolate. Tasty, but not very chocolate-y.

Zhena’s Gypsy Tea describes this tea as:

From the Cedarburg Mountain Region of South Africa comes this superior grade, caffeine-free organic Rooibos, blended with the rich, exotic taste of Mediterranean carob and the zest of ginger and cinnamon bark. Chicory and licorice root, round out this delicious thick, warming cup. Wonderful with a splash of milk.

That description mentions carob, but I don’t see any carob listed in the ingredients. Perhaps there was a change in formulation, and the lack of carob is why the chocolate taste isn’t as strong? As I said, the taste is far more spicy than it is chocolate-y, so I enjoyed it for the cinnamon and ginger anyway.

Remember how our parents used to give us hot milk to help us get to sleep? Try adding already-warmed milk to this chai, to have it as your late-night bedtime snack!



BunRab
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Jan 17

Organic Citrus Ginger Guayusa from Tea District

Green Tea,Guayusa,Tea District,Tea Review 4:49 am | 2 Comments

Tea Name: Organic Citrus Ginger Guayusa

Company: Tea District

Ingredients: Organic Amazon Guayusa, Organic ginger, and Organic orange peel.

Tea Type/Varietal: green/herbal

Region: Amazon

Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf:  cup/ loose leaf

Liquor Color: darken brown with orange base

Leaf Characteristics: very bright green leaves, finely cut with bits of ginger and orange peel.

 

 

1st Steeping:

Water temperature:  195 Fahrenheit

Time:    4 minutes

I took one teaspoon of this tea and put it in my cup and poured in the boiled water. I then covered it and left it  to steep for several minutes. When I remove the cover from the tea and strain out the tea leaves, I find that the tea’s color is darken brown but when held under the light it is bright orange. The  teas aroma is of ginger and orange peel. When I take a sip of the tea, I taste the ginger which is very strong (piquant/spicy) a bracing note even and the orange peel hovering in the back ground.

2nd Steeping:

Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit

Time: 3 minutes

Using the same leaves I take freshly cold tap water and put this in my cup and microwave the tea’s mixture in the cup for two minutes with an extra steep without the oven on.

The tea is simply hotter and more of the ginger spiciness is revealed which adds to the warming effect of the ginger and the orange peel. Guayusa botanicals are filled with energy to awaken the senses.

Overall tasting notes observed:

Tea color: darkish brown with an orange base under the light

Characteristics: a sweet herbal aroma mixed with the guayusa botanicals and herbs like ginger and orange peel.

This is a wonderful tea good for when it is especially cold and needing warmth or to aid with ones digestion as ginger has a soothing effect in coating the stomach.

In all, the ginger in this tea is invigorating and adds pungency in the tea’s flavor; in that it has that peppery ‘bite’ to it, while the oils from the orange peel softens the tea’s pungency.

Tea District describes this tea as-

An Amazonian blend of energizing guayusa with loads of orange peel and ginger.

Health Benefits of Drinking Guayusa*:

  • Boosts Metabolism
  • Traditionally used to support weight loss programs
  • Aids digestion1
  • Traditionally used to balance blood sugar and support diabetics2
  • Boosts Physical Energy
  • Increased mental clarity and alertness

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Balanced Energy

Guayusa does contain caffeine – more than other teas but less than coffee. One cup of guayusa offers 90 mg of caffeine. Interestingly, guayusa also contains other stimulants in the same family as caffeine, known as methylxanthine alkaloids. Theophylline is a clarifying and uplifting compound also found in green tea. Theobromine is the stimulant found in dark chocolate that offers that pleasant whole body feeling many are familiar with. Theobromine is known to offer a settled and bodily energy. Guayusa’s unique mix of caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine is what gives the balanced energy effect without any jitters, crash, or jolted buzz.

Overall I would describe this tea as a sweet herbal aroma mixed with the guayusa botanicals and herbs like ginger and orange peel.



seule771
seule771
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Dec 12

Chocolate Monkey from Art of Tea

Art of Tea,Herbal Tisanes,Rooibos,Tea Review 4:57 am | 2 Comments

Put a new image here, aligned to the left, sized appropriately, non-captioned but with a title and linked to the store which sells this tea online

Mrteaman and I tasted the Art of Tea Chocolate Monkey dessert tea together. We each used a porcelain cupping set and 2.3 grams of tea.

This tea was part of a 4 dessert tea sampler mrteaman purchased for me. I need to be mindful of caffeine intake, and rooibos infusions usually deliver a dark infusion I enjoy with none of the caffeine of true teas.

Chocolate Monkey is an organic herbal ‘tea’ or tisane blended with a base of rooibos and honeybush (or as mrteaman describes them – pencil shavings). Art of Tea adds cacao nibs, chocolate seeds, apple bits, banana bits, pink peppercorns and natural flavors. I was able to pick out the cacao nibs and apple bits and munch on them. I did not recognize banana bits or chocolate seeds. It is an attractive blend to look at. The banana aroma is pronounced, the chocolate second.

We infused the tisane in boiling water for 5 minutes. I would not use less time.

The liquor infused to a bright copper – similar to a keemun. As is often the case with rooibos and honeybush, some smaller particles found their way into the infusion.  The aroma of the liquor was a more blended combination of the banana, chocolate and peppercorns.

The taste is a much more mellow presentation of the individual flavor profiles of the separate ingredients in the blend. More sophisticated. The chocolate and peppercorns fade to the background. I had forgotten all about the apple, it disappeared altogether. Mrteaman has little patience for rooibos or honeybush tisanes. He feels the body has not depth – is flat. I agree, but I like them anyway.

This a standalone tea, perfect for what it was blended for – dessert – especially after dinner. A little bit of sweetener enhanced the natural sweetness. That was enough.

I did feel like doing a little experimentation. I added just a few drops of real cream (I know that is a no-no usually) and it did not do much either way. I would avoid adding milk or cream. Mrteaman thought a dollop of whipped cream would be fun. I think it would be too much.

Noting that the chocolate flavor profile fell behind the stronger banana, I thought why not do something to enhance the chocolate. Crème de Cacao! Oh yes. I infused an 8-10 oz mug (a lovely crystal cut clear glass mug) with fresh Chocolate Monkey (as described above) and added 1 teaspoon of Crème de Cacao. The liqueur enhanced the natural sweetness, backed up the chocolate note and deepened the color while taking nothing away from the tisane. A match made in heaven. The perfect sophisticated after dinner drink.

Art of Tea describes this tea as:

“Envelope your palette with this bewitchingly sweet blend of ripened bananas swirling in a symphony of rich, silky chocolate and spicy pink peppercorns.

Water Temperature: 206 F degrees
Caffeine Content: Chocolate may contain trace amounts of caffeine
Steep Time: 5-7 minutes
Ingredients: Organic Fair Trade South African Rooibos, Organic South African Honeybush, Organic Cacao Nibs, Organic Apple Bits, Organic Banana Bits, Organic Pink Peppercorn, Chocolate Seeds, Natural Flavors
Origin: Art of Tea Blend”



Stephanie Thompson
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http://www.tealovergiftbaskets.com


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