Tavalon | Purity

Purity by Tavalon: “A detoxifying blend of premium Ceylon black tea with peppermint leaves and ginger root”

This was a fun tea to drink.  I wasn’t certain if I was going to enjoy the peppermint leaves mixed with Ceylon black tea.  I really like the overall presentation of the tea.  It has a nice mix of dark tea leaf and vibrant peppermint green colors popping out at you.  The scent is just as inviting as you can imagine (unless you absolutely dislike peppermint, ginger root, or black tea).  The peppermint is the absolute dominate scent from the dried product.  Having said that, you can still detect the black tea and a little ginger root on the nose.

I typically steeped the tea for about 3 minutes in water that I let cool slightly from a boil (around 200 degrees).  The liquor is very dark.  The peppermint leaves float to the top of the pot while the Ceylon tea leaves rest on the bottom during the steeping process.  The first sip is full of peppermint flavor.  It really awakens the senses – must be part of the detoxifying experience.  It’s interesting to me how the black tea supports the peppermint.  The Ceylon is not totally lost in the flavor despite the strong flavors of peppermint.  The ginger flavor accents the black tea and peppermint well.  The ginger is present in a mild dose and  it’s not too intrusive to the overall tea.  The Ceylon flavor continues to shine through as the tea cools.  I really like this tea…  I don’t add anything to it.  There are plenty of natural flavors that make this tea a great option for me.  It is perfect to help get you going in the morning.  I find it enjoyable any time of the day (keep in mind it does have caffeine).

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Adagio Chai

By now, most of you know what tea vendors are talking about when Chai is mentioned.  Sure the word “Chai” means tea in many languages, but most of us relate to Chai as an often spicey/sometimes sweet/always aromatic/great tasting black tea that originated in India – known as Masala Chai.  You can find Chai at your local grocery store or online tea shop in the following types: powder form, liquid concentrate, standard tea bag, and loose leaf.  Many tea vendors keep evolving their product lines and now you can find chais that use green tea and rooibos as its tea base.  These alternatives to the traditional Masala Chai give the consumer more variety.  Adagio has recently started its own line of Chais.  I was fortunate to try all of the selections.  Chai is a fun tea that is full of character.  It’s not for everyone because it is packed with intense flavors and aromas.

Adagio Chai

Adagio’s Masala Chai (black tea/caffeine): This is a solid effort at the traditional Masala Chai.  You can see a mix of cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, and ginger mixed throughout the Ceylon black tea.  Of the 6 chais I tried from Adagio, this one had the most intense flavors.  If you like chai that makes your tongue tingle, this is the one for you.  The dominant flavors found in the mix of spices blend to create a very powerful flavored black tea.  If you’re new to Chai, the flavor comes from the spices.  The quality of the spices and tea used by the tea vendor are crucial to the end result.  My only complaint about this version is the use of Ceylon tea.  I would have preferred an Assam black tea base.  Assam black tea (in my opinion – especially CTC) supports the flavors of the spices better and it can withstand longer steeping times without tasting bitter.  Having said that, I enjoy Ceylon teas – just not as the base of the chai.

Adagio’s Thai Chai (black tea/caffeine): Thai Chai just might be my favorite in the bunch.  It was the one that I found myself picking over the others.  It has a creative and inviting personality.  It tastes and looks like they left the clove out of the batch and inserted coconut and lemongrass.  The addition of the coconut and lemongrass gives the chai a sweeter flavor and silkier texture.  It’s a bit more tame than the traditional Masala Chai.  Thai Chai might be more suitable for the casual black tea drinker.  Although the tea is not as spicey, that doesn’t mean it is any less flavorful.  In fact, this tea bursts with flavor.  The aroma of this tea is mouth watering.  The lemongrass gives the tea an excellent finish.  If you enjoy lemongrass in your black tea, I definitely recommend Thai Chai.

Adagio’s Bengal Green Chai (green tea/caffeine): Very similar to the Masala Chai, but you will find China green tea in place of the Ceylon black tea.  All of the same fiery spices are present in this Chai.  I really like this…  The texture of the liquid is changed simply by substituting black tea for green tea (very smooth).  There is a slight vegetal flavor, but it’s quickly masked by the spices.  This tea has a very clean finish to it with a pleasant aftertaste.  If you are more of a green tea drinker than a black tea drinker, this is your obvious choice to enjoy spiced Chai.

Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai (black tea/caffeine): I thought the apple flavor paired well with the chai spices; which made it an incredibly warming beverage.  This is perfect for a cold evening.  I haven’t tried it iced, but you might be able to sweeten-up the tea to make a tasty iced chai.  The apple flavor is certainly present, but it’s just an accent to the already powerful blend of spices.  I think it’s an excellent compliment, but you still have to like Chai to enjoy this tea.  Simply liking apple flavored black tea might not be enough to enjoy Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai due to the spiced nature of the Chai.  The aroma of this Chai is sure to get your attention and anyone standing within 10 feet of your cup – very aromatic.

Adagio’s Chocolate Chai (black tea/caffeine): I love chocolate, but I wasn’t thrilled with this Chai.  It lacked the same zing as the other flavors.  It does have a pleasing aroma – sweet chocolate, but the flat flavor really brought this one down.  With the Ceylon black tea used as the base, Adagio’s Chocolate Chai simply tasted like a flavored version of black tea.  It wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t get into the chocolate flavoring while still considering this to be a chai.

Adagio’s Rooibos Vanilla Chai (herbal-Rooibos/caffeine free): This is a great offering for people trying to avoid caffeine.  Rooibos is a South African shrub that is loaded with antioxidants and it’s naturally caffeine free.  I was really surprised to be able to taste the silky-sweet Rooibos through the mix of powerful spices.  The addition of vanilla is a tasty compliment to the Rooibos.  If you’ve never tried chai spices with Rooibos, this is a good place to start.

Have fun with Chai.  Sweeten it to your liking.  Add milk or soy to give it more of a creamy texture.

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Ito En Mango

This was really interesting for me.  The majority of the Ito En teas I’ve tried have been serious with pure and authentic strong tea flavors. You had to be an experienced tea drinker to appreciate the quality of the ready-to-drink teas they offer. Until now…this Mango flavored black tea changed all the rules.  I didn’t look at the label before taking my first drink.  Other than knowing it was mango flavored, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  When the lush mango flavors mixed with sweet natural cane sugar hit my tongue, I was pleasantly surprised.  The flavor of this tea is simple: Sweet Mango.  The tropical fruit flavor definitely out weighs the black tea in this mix.  I think this is a great addition to their line of products because it has a fun factor to it.  I could see me drinking an Oi Ocha when I’m craving a pure and unsweetened green tea. Then I can switch to this sweetened mango flavored black tea when I’m in the mood for something with a few more calories. The bottle label states that there are 50 calories & 14g sugars per 8 fl oz.  There’s no doubt that this was a good tasting beverage – if you like sweet mango flavors.  If you are looking for a strong black tea flavor, you’re not going to find it in this bottle.

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Keemun Golden Buds (Organic/Fair Trade)

Rishi Keemun Golden Buds

I just noticed that according to my blog counter that this is my 100th black tea blog.  Rishi’s Organic and Fair Trade Keemun Golden Buds from the Xuan En Yulu Fair Trade project in southwestern Hubei, China definitely makes for an excellent 100th black tea blog.  The Keemun Golden Buds experience starts with its presentation.  The small golden and dark colored leaves present well.  The scent of the Keemun is fantastic.  The scent is a harmonious blend of a bold and malty black tea mixed with a sweet grape-like aroma.  After steeping the tea in a water temp of 200°F for about 5 minutes, you are left with a dark liquor.  The flavor of the tea is perfect for me in the morning.  It has a way of waking me up with each sip.  It has a strong flavor mixed with a natural sweetness; which makes for a perfect combination early in the morning.  I have to say, this tea reminds me of an Assam.  It’s very bold, but yet with a mild astringency it’s very easy to sip.  Although the color of the liquor is very dark, this tea is very smooth in texture.  The natural sweetness in the flavor will make this more appealing to those that don’t like their black tea over-the-top strong.  All-in-all I really had fun drinking this tea.  Another awesome selection by Rishi.

Rishi describes the tea as: “Our Keemun Golden Buds is a very unique Gong Fu tea, which is hand harvested according to a one leaf and one bud standard. This tightly rolled, well-fermented tea is super tippy with a very unique leaf style. Its deep red infusion is full flavored with rich notes of caramelized sugar and fresh pine. This is one of our premier black teas from the Xuan En Yulu Fair Trade project in southwestern Hubei, China.”

My only disagreement with their description is that I’m not picking up on the pine flavor.  I’ve spent a couple of weeks trying to find it – to no avail.  I can’t say I miss it.

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Snapple | Lemon Iced Tea

I’ve been excited for the weather to warm up so I could start enjoying iced tea.  RTDs are a huge part of the tea industry.  The convenience, potential health benefits, and delicious flavor are just a few of the reasons why ready-to-drink teas are so popular.  Unfortunately, Snapple’s Lemon wasn’t a good start for me this year.  I noticed when I popped the lid on the bottle that the scent wasn’t as lemony or pleasant as I anticipated.  It had a vague bitter/sweet scent to it.

With 23g of sugars per 8 fl oz, I was hoping for a more pleasing flavor.  I’m not tasting a natural black tea flavor nor am I picking up on a natural lemon flavor.  The flavors just do not blend well for me.  Lemon is obviously a strong flavor, so I was anticipating a mouth puckering sour blast.  Having said that, the odd flavored sweetener just didn’t taste very pleasing to me.  If the black tea pulled its weight against the sweetener, this would have been 100 times better.  I don’t think this one has been perfected yet.  I definitely recommend trying one of Snapple’s other bottled teas over this one.   If you want to give it a try and you like it  – let me know  – twitter.com/organictea.

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Adagio's Fujian Baroque

I was excited to try a newer black tea from Adagio.  As a long-time tea drinker and Adagio customer, I started to feel like I tried all the major black teas supplied by Adagio – until now.  Fujian Baroque is an interesting tea (if you haven’t guessed, it’s from the Fujian region of China).  It has a very dark brittle dry tea leaf.  The scent is very mellow.  I detect a very light sweet and peppery aroma, but it’s nothing too exciting.  After steeping the tea leaves in water around 200 degrees for about 3-4 minutes, you are left with a very flavorful, simple cup of black tea.

Fujian Baroque in the cup

I never  judge a tea totally by the scent of its dry leaves.  It certainly can help determine the quality of the tea and add to the overall experience, but it’s not the deciding factor in how a tea will taste.  The flavor of Fujian Baroque is very refreshing.  It has a very clean and naturally sweet flavor.  I’m detecting processing similar to a classic Ceylon, but this tea’s real charm comes from its natural sweetness.  I bet this would make an awesome iced tea.  It’s very smooth and easy to drink.  Anyone that enjoys a classic black tea will really like this.  This is the kind of tea you can brew and just sit back and enjoy.  You’re not going to be blown away by dominant flavors, but you will be reminded how “awesome” simple can be.

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The term “breakfast tea” always bothers me for some reason, but I don’t see the name changing any time soon.  Tea can be consumed at any time of the day.  Breakfast blends are obviously excellent compliments to your morning meal, but don’t let the name stop you from enjoying it after-hours.  It does contain caffeine, but it’s a much smaller amount than a cup of coffee. Breakfast blends are usually the consolidation of strong black teas from around the globe that combine to create a full-bodied, bold cup of black tea.  This blend combines teas from: China, India, Ceylon and Kenya.  The tea itself was very smooth in flavor.  I enjoyed the fresh scent rising from the cup. Overall I felt the tea did offer enough flavor for me to recommend to tea drinkers looking for a good mix of popular & authentic black tea flavors.  This particular blend came in one of The REPUBLIC of TEA’s round tea bags.  It’s also important that I note that this tea is Certified Kosher.

The REPUBLIC of TEA gives this interesting fact: “This blend is our version of the popular blend called “English Breakfast” which is a name tea marketers created to describe Britain’s popular morning blend. Usually this blend has a substantial amount of China teas as opposed to “Irish Breakfast” which has dominance of India teas.”

If you like English Breakfast teas (traditional tea bag), you might want to give this one a shot.

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What a perfect name for this black tea.  The golden leaves are very vibrant and the fresh aroma of the dried tea leaves is very spring-like.  Like most of my favorite teas, I enjoy the aroma just as much as the flavor.  I’m not sure why, but whenever I find a tea with a golden color, I have to try it.  A lot of my favorite Yunnan varieties have a similar color.  I’m assuming Adagio named this tea after the fact that it is from Fujian Province and it’s harvested in the early spring

Adagio.com describes the tea as: “A delicate black tea from Fujian Province harvested early in the Spring. The leaves are panfried and hand-rolled, capturing a fresh, sweet flavor unique to the season. Downy golden curled buds are interspersed throughout this majestic tea evoking visual color-play between gold and black. The heady aroma of both the dried and infused leaves has a distinct savory-sweet note that transcends richly into the cup. A decadent, almost “meaty” aftertaste makes for a very satisfying umami-sweet experience.”

Often, I don’t agree with the tea vendors description, but this one is pretty much perfect.  You have the great visual of the golden panfried and hand-rolled tea leaves.  For the few times that I get to make tea for people, it’s nice to have one on the shelf that looks “cool”, but I know people will enjoy it. The aroma reminds me of the smells you would experience standing next to a calmly flowing stream carving its way through the mountains where all the wild flowers and grasses are absorbing all the morning dew as the sun just starts to shine (it reminds me of Colorado).  At times I detect a slight tobacco scent to it – a sweet tobacco smell. I even detect a faint grape-like aroma.

To prepare the tea, I let the water cool from a boil for about 2 minutes (maybe 200 degrees).  After about 3-5 minutes of steeping, you’re left with a delicious cup of tea.  I’ve had 6 cups and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each one.  Having said that, this tea is unique.  I sometimes find the sweetness in the flavor that I detected in the scent of the dry tea.  Other times, it is more earthy with a classic smooth (lighter) Yunnan flavor to it.  Either way, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with its flavor.  If you like stronger teas, this one might come up short.  If you want one with a great presentation, aroma, and pleasant flavor – give this a try.

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