An organic orange spice white tea.  The tea is very spicy…

Ingredients: Organic Cinnamon, Organic Orange Peel, Organic Cloves, Fair Trade Certified and Organic Pai Mu Tan white tea, Organic Hibiscus, Organic Allspice, Organic Ginger, Organic Schizandra Berries, Organic Lemongrass, Dried Lime.

The first thing you notice with this flavored white tea is the powerful aroma coming from the dried ingredients. The cloves are very strong.  I detect a faint scent of orange peel.  Honestly, the tea sachet has such a high-powered aroma, I can’t detect many of the ingredients due to the cloves.  After steeping the tea in near boiling water for about 6 minutes. The first sip tingles my tongue with an explosion of flavors.  The flavor is spicy like an authentic chai and tangy like a citrus beverage.  The aroma from the tea is just too much for me to thoroughly enjoy.  It’s reminiscent of an air freshener or potpourri.  The white tea is really lost in this mix.  There are too many dominant flavors working against each other.  I was looking forward to an orange flavored white tea with a light spice accent, but this tea was over-the-top. Unfortunately, this tea did not appeal to me.  As always, I still greatly respect Numi.  Their efforts to incorporate fair trade and organic ingredients in their products should not go unnoticed.

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Numi offers an organic breakfast blend of black teas

Ingredients: Fair Trade Certified & Organic Keemun black tea, Fair Trade Certified & Organic Darjeeling black tea, Fair Trade Certified & Organic Ceylon black tea, and Fair Trade Certified & Organic Assam black tea.

The breakfast blend brews to make a very bold cup of black tea.  Dominant flavors coming from the Assam and Keemun can easily be detected.  Having said that, sometimes I detect a slight Ceylon flavor.  The bottom line is you are getting a strong black tea to help start your morning.  As I take focused sips of this tea, I wish it was just a tad stronger.  It is very smooth and balanced.  The Morning Rise breakfast blend is not bitter, and it is strong enough to handle milk. I decided to drink the tea without milk.  If you like strong black bagged teas, and you like to align your tea drinking with responsible companies, Numi is a good choice.  I prefer a slightly stronger breakfast blend, but this tea is in no way bad. The flavor is consistent, balanced, and refreshing. Don’t let the breakfast blend label fool you, if you can handle caffeine – drink it whenever you would normally drink caffeinated beverages.

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Monkey King Jasmine Green Tea is an organic green tea selection from Numi.  It offers the tea consumer a lightly floral flavored cup of green tea.  The package does not indicate an origin for the green tea.  I enjoy jasmine flavored teas.  With any flavoring, balance is the key.  Tea companies can’t blend and flavor their teas for everyone.  They must have standards in place to produce a cup of tea that consistently satisfies their quality control as well as the consumer (ultimately we decide with our spending).  Just as important, the quality of tea must meet or exceed the expectation of the consumer.  A bitter, flat, flavored tea cannot be saved by coating it with jasmine flavoring.  Tea consumers have more choices than ever these days.  If a tea brand is not satisfying our taste buds, we’ll move on to one that does.

Numi strives to meet many standards to satisfy a diverse group of tea drinkers.  Label readers will be happy to see many icons on Numi products indicating the product is: Organic, Kosher, Halal, and Fair Trade Certified.  The green tea I’m drinking today, comes in a standard tea bag (sachet) form.  The tea in the bag will not overwhelm you with its shape or size.  Having said that, after letting the boiled water cool below 200 degrees and soaking the sachet for 2-3 minutes, it does create a decent cup of green tea.  I detect a bit of smokiness to the green tea. I do like how the jasmine flower flavors balance with the smoky notes of the green tea.  The jasmine flavoring is not overpowering. I think it’s balanced well.  If I’m drinking green tea, I like to taste the green tea.

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Gunpowder green tea in a tea bag…Numi offers the green tea lover an organic gunpowder green tea. This green tea is not for the green tea rookie. I would not recommend this tea if you are new to green tea because it has a very complex flavor. At first scent, tar comes to my mind. As the water cools, the tea scent and flavor mellow to produce an enjoyable cup of green tea. The tea has a light veggie flavor with almost smoky and pepper-like notes to it. This tea is lower in caffeine, and it is perfect during the fall and winter months. My only complaint about gunpowder green tea in a tea bag is the fact that its dry presentation is lost. You don’t get to see the small pellets unfurl as the tea steeps. That said, this is not my favorite green tea, but it is a classic that I like to come back to as the weather starts to cool.

From a past marTEA blog (Gunpowder shoots for the green tea lover):

Gunpowder tea gets its name because it simply looks like gunpowder pellets. The tea is rolled into small pellets usually by created by machinery; however, the higher-grade teas are still rolled by hand. Rolling the tea into pellets helps to preserve the natural freshness of the tea leaves. As the tea is steeping, the leaves unfurl and dance in the pot. I steep the tea in 180 degree water for 3-4 minutes.

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Rooibos is a popular tisane that has really made a splash in the tea industry. There are a lot of herbal teas (tisanes), but Rooibos has emerged as the dominant herbal that appears to he here to stay. Rooibos is a South African shrub. It’s claim to fame is that it is known to have a lot of antioxidants, and it is caffeine free. Rooibos has a naturally sweet flavor to it. It does not taste like tea. It has a flavor all its own. I really enjoy Rooibos, but it’s primary selling point is the reason I mainly avoid it – no caffeine. That said, it’s important to note that its lack of caffeine is not a bad thing. If you are looking for a smooth, flavorful, and relaxing hot beverage to sip at night, Rooibos is perfect.

This is the first time I’ve ever tried Rooibos in a “tea” bag. Also, this is the first time I’ve tried a variety that was not flavored. I have to say, I think I liked this better. The Rooibos seemed to be very flavorful. There was no mess, and the Rooibos had the same silky-smooth texture to it that I’ve grown to appreciate. After trying Numi’s Rooibos in a bag, I have to say I really enjoyed it.

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