Tea Review 75 - Voyant Chai Cream

Voyant Chai Cream Liqueur

If you like the taste of chai tea but you find yourself longing for something with a little more muscle, Voyant Chai Cream Liqueur might be just what the doctor ordered.

Voyant, which bills itself as "the original chai cream liqueur," is a mix of "Aged Virgin Island Rum, Fresh Dutch Cream, Black Tea from India, Premium Spirits from Holland and a Distinctive Blend of Spices."

Since I first mentioned this product a while back, I've had a chance to sample it. I should say that I'm not much of a tippler these days and I've always been impervious to the charms of chai. With that in mind, I've got to admit that I found Voyant Chai Cream surprisingly tasty.

I didn't catch too much of the tea flavor, but that's not surprising, given the nature of the other ingredients. The creaminess was appealing and the chai component didn't overpower the other elements, which was a big plus for me.

Voyant Chai Cream also gets points for the eye-catching design of its bottle. I'm not much for knick-knacks, but I was tempted to keep one on hand just for decoration.

More about Voyant Chai Cream at their Web site. For cocktail and food recipes that use the product, visit the Voyant Creations section.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, chai

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Tea Review 74 - Lipton Black Pearl

Black Pearl Pure Long-Leaf Black Tea
Lipton

I was really wishing that this would be the one. I crossed my fingers and hoped that Lipton's Black Pearl would be that rare tea that you could pick up at your local grocery, at about $3 for a pack of 20 pyramid tea bags ($2.89 in my neck of the woods), a black tea that would taste so good that you wouldn't need to bother with mail order.

But I kind of knew better and, in the end, I was right. Black Pearl is not that tea. But, as $3 20-packs of "big name" tea go, I guess it's not all that bad either. It's just not really what I'm looking for.

We should give Lipton credit for trying to do some things right, starting with the surprisingly attractive packaging. Then there are those pyramid tea bags. For those who haven't encountered these before, they're just that - a pyramid-shaped bag that allows the tea to expand and the water to circulate better among the leaves than with the standard issue bag.

Then there's the matter of tea leaves. Examine your average bag of Lipton black tea and you're not likely to find any actual tea leaves in the mix. This is the kind of tea that typically uses the smaller "fannings" and "dust." So a thumbs-up to Lipton for going with a "long-leaf." Though I have to quibble on this point and say that the leaves are a lot smaller than the name led me to believe.

In the end, it all comes down to taste - or at least it does for me. Black Pearl is a Ceylon tea, the name still given to tea grown on the island of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon. I don't have a wide range of experience with Ceylons, but I've never been overwhelmed with the ones I've sampled.

Including this one. Lipton recommends a three-minute brew, which sounded much too long to me. The first cup I brewed was for one minute. I admit to having mixed feelings about sampling it so I let it sit until it was almost cold. If the truth be told, the flavor was not all that bad. There was little bitterness, but then again, there wasn't much taste to it either. Kind of flat for my likes.

To be fair, I went ahead and brewed a cup for three minutes. This one I found way too astringent and completely undrinkable. The one I brewed for ninety seconds was in the same ballpark as the first, but by that time I was tired of the whole exercise.

I'm not really a cream, sweetener or lemon kind of guy when it comes to black tea - or any other kind, for that matter. But I suspect that if this is how you like yours you might not find Black Pearl to be all that bad. In fact, you might even find it to be worth the modest additional investment.

As for me, I'm going to move this one into my hand-me-down pile and start putting together another mail order.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, Lipton, Black Pearl

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Tea Review 73 - Sol Mate Energy Beverage

Sol Mate Sparkling Yerba Mate, Original
Sol Mate Sparkling Yerba Mate, Lemon Lime
Sol Mate Beverage Group Ltd.

Tea Guy has nothing against bottled teas and tea-based soda type drinks, at least not in theory. In practice, it seems that a lot of manufacturers pushing these beverages err on the side of over sweetening. But that could just be me, since I'm not really a sweetened beverage kind of guy.

I wrote about Sol Mate a few months ago, but recently I had a chance to sample both of their flavors. The company says the product is "the world’s first organic sparkling mate energy beverage." Which kind of makes it sound like an energy drink. In reality, at least in my ever so humble opinion, it's closer to a soda, albeit a rather lightly sweetened one.

Which is a good thing, if you ask me. Both flavors have a light taste with just a little bit of sweetness. If you're looking for a strong yerba mate taste, you're likely to be disappointed. The yerba mate content here is very understated. But that's probably a good thing if the company's planning to get their product to the largest numbers of consumers possible - and I'm assuming they are.

As I was drinking Sol Mate, I couldn't thinking of Steaz, who make a similar product that's based on green tea, instead of yerba mate. Both products are quite a bit lighter and less sweet than the average soda or bottled tea and both are quite nice. Another reference point would be Kombucha Wonder Drink, who do something along the same lines, but with kombucha as the base for the drink.

In any event, both flavors of Sol Mate get the thumbs up. Give 'em a shot.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, yerba mate, Sol Mate, Steaz

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Tea Review 72 - Assam, Nahorhabi Estate

Nahorhabi Estate FTGFOP1 SPL CL
Upton Tea Imports

If you weren't hanging around these parts during March, 2006 then you missed Assam Month. This, as you might have guessed, was a month's worth of posts largely devoted to the unique joys of higher end Assam varieties, for which I've become something of a cheerleader.

I tasted some great teas during that month, as noted at the end of this piece. I also tasted some mediocre ones and even a few lousy ones - no need to name names. Oh, and I tasted a decaf Assam that was downright appalling, but that's generally been the case with any decafs I've sampled.

A while back I got the hankering for some more Assam, so I ordered a few sample packs from Upton, as I'm sometimes wont to do. One of the varieties that really impressed me was Nahorhabi Estate FTGFOP1 SPL CL. In fact, it impressed me so much that I did something I haven't really done before - I ordered a larger package (100 grams).

This was a switch. As I've said, on many occasions, I'm very much in favor of sampling as many varieties of tea as I can. With about 60 varieties of Assam in stock at any given time Upton makes that easy to do.

Nahorhabi Estate may not be the perfect Assam tea, but it's close. It's a very robust variety that brews up very dark in the cup but seems to resist going bitter no matter what. Then again, I didn't really experiment with longer brewing times since I didn't want to waste even one cup of this fine stuff.

Nahorhabi Estate has a surprisingly sweet taste, with perhaps the faintest hint of cinnamon or clove. It's a very smooth taste - with no tannins or bitterness apparent to my coarse tongue.

All in all, a great experience. Very highly recommended.

tea, green tea, food, food and drink, tea review, Assam

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Tea Review 71 - Boston Tea Campaign Darjeeling

First Flush Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Darjeeling (FTGFOP1)
Boston Tea Campaign

You get what you pay for - or so I've always assumed. So as much as I'd love to be able to obtain really topnotch tea at bargain basement prices, I have to admit that I'm skeptical when anyone offers such a thing.

Just as I was skeptical when I found that Boston Tea Campaign's First Flush Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP1) was going for $16 a pound plus $5 shipping.

Tea Guy really hasn't had as much experience with Darjeeling tea as I'd like. As far as Indian teas go I've tended to focus my interests a little more on the Assam varieties. But I know enough about Darjeeling tea to know that one dollar an ounce is really cheap. Which, as I said, made me more than a bit skeptical.

But, as it turns out, my skepticism was mostly unfounded. Though I don't have a lot of other Darjeeling experiences to compare this one to, I found it to be not bad at all. It has quite a light, pleasant taste. It's perhaps not quite as fruity or aromatic as some of the few Darjeelings I've tried, but it's not bad, especially if you consider the price.

My only other complaint - but it's one that applies to most Darjeeling tea I've tasted - is that they tend to be a bit on the bitter side. Perhaps I just haven't yet found the optimum brewing criteria. I started out using boiling water for about 3-4 minutes and now I've got that down to about two minutes. It's still a little more bitter than I like so maybe I'll back off to 1.5 minutes, or even one.

But, a pretty good experience and you sure can't beat the price. How does Boston Tea Campaign offer their wares so cheaply? As they tell it, they're "an offspring of Teekampagne, located in Berlin, Germany. Founded 20 years ago, Teekampagne has evolved into the largest mail order tea business in Germany and become the world’s largest single importer of Darjeeling tea."

So the trick here, apparently, is to offer one product and one only and to buy it up in sufficient quantities that you can sell it really cheap.

But don't take my word for it. If you ask nice, BTC will send you a sample of their tea and, right now, first time customers can pick up a pound of this variety for only $10.

tea, food, food and drink, Darjeeling, first flush

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Tea Review 70 - O-Cha.com Shincha

First-Flush Shizuoka Sencha "Hatsumi"
O-Cha.com

Observant readers will note that O-Cha.com is now included in our advertisers section here at TGS. Which may lead one to speculate how objective Tea Guy will be when it comes to reviewing their tea. Fair enough, but frankly I'd rather provide readers with honest, straightforward information, even if it means sacrificing a few bucks in potential ad revenues.

Having said that, I'll now go on record as saying that O-Cha.com distributes some kick-ass Japanese green teas. This is nothing new. I previously reviewed their Matcha-iri teabags and their Uji green tea (before taking them on as advertisers, I might add) and came to the same conclusion.

Here's the lowdown on the product, lifted from the company's Web site - "From Shizuoka, a first rate, first flush green tea. Harvested from the first round of young spring leaves. The first batch is known as "Shincha".

First rate, indeed. I should say so. Like all of the other teas I've tasted from O-Cha.com, this one was very fresh and very, very green - almost to the point of fluorescence. It's got a strong grassy taste with lots of fine particles floating in the cup.

My standard procedure was to heat the leaves for about 30 seconds, in hopes of leaching out a little caffeine. From there it was good for at least two infusions of about 30-45 seconds. Be sure to watch your brewing times and temperatures with this one, friends. Like all quality greens, it doesn't respond well to boiling water and long steeping.

Highly recommended.

Image: O-Cha.com

tea, food, food and drink, green tea, shincha, sencha

Tea Review 69 - O-Cha.com Matcha-iri

Matcha-iri-Teabags
O-Cha.com

I ranked O-Cha.com's Uji Green tea as one of the best green teas I had the pleasure to taste in 2005. It's a designation that was well-deserved. Read my review of it here.

O-Cha.com's Matcha-iri, which also comes in tea bag form, is another truly topnotch Japanese green tea. I'll defer to the manufacturer's description, rather than devise one of my own - "a concentrated sencha grown in Shizuoka Prefecture. A combination of loose leaf green tea and powdered sencha (not tea dust)...This is a strong green tea, and is especially recommended for iced tea, or for use with a larger sushi teacup. For iced tea, we recommend one teabag per liter/quart."

What this description doesn't really tell you is that this is a very fresh, very green-tasting tea. O-Cha.com claims to take packaging and freshness very seriously and it shows. Because the Matcha-iri tea bags are so strong I generally steeped them in a large glass and threw out the first cup. The second cup was always quite excellent and the large bags are generally good for several more brewings, depending on your preference.

O-Cha.com's $14.95 price for 20 tea bags may seem a bit steep at first, but keep in mind that these are large tea bags, good for making more tea than a standard bag. Most important of all is the quality of the tea, which is right up there at the top of the heap.

Highly recommended.

tea, food, food and drink, green tea, matcha, sencha

Tea Review 68 - Yerba Mate (x2)

Del Cebador Superior
Sara Suave

I've had my say about sample packages of tea. I'm not going to go off on that tangent again, except to say that it's nice to be able to try teas without having to buy a large amount. Ditto for yerba mate.

I recently ordered six quarter pounds of loose yerba mate. As I've been working my way through the pile, I've found a surprising amount of difference between the different brands. Last time around I reviewed Canarias and Amanda, products of Brazil and Argentina.

This time I'm going with two brands from Uruguay, a place where - if I've got my story straight - they drink more yerba mate than just about anywhere in the world.

At first glance these two brands seem quite similar. Both are pretty finely ground, with no obvious traces of stems. Aroma is pretty similar too. Both kind of reminded me of the burnt sawdust smell of a heavily used wood shop. That might sound like a bad thing, but it's not really.

As for the taste, the first time out I liked the Sara Suave and not the Del Cebador Superior. After some more sampling I reversed my position. To my clunky taste buds Sara Suave seemed kind of tasteless, while Del Cebador Superior had a nice smoky overtone - tasting kind of like it smelled, actually. I definitely prefer the latter over the former, but I would take the Amanda over either and probably over the Canarias as well.

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tea, food, food and drink, yerba mate

Tea Review 67 - Anteadote Jasmine

Anteadote Pure Jasmine Tea
Adagio Teas

A while back I finally made my peace with jasmine tea, but it's still not one of the first things I'd reach for if confronted with a variety of teas.

But, having sampled Adagio's Pure Jasmine Tea, I've now realized that jasmine tea is a dish - ummm - best served cold, or at least that's what works best for me.

Like Anteadote's other three bottled teas (black, green, white) jasmine is an exercise in minimalism. It contains only three ingredients - tea, water and vitamin C. And it needs nothing else.

Now, if it were a hot day and I was looking for something cold to drink and I was confronted with a variety of bottled teas I might just go for the Anteadote Pure Jasmine.

Good stuff.

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tea, food, food and drink, jasmine tea

Tea Review 66 - Yerba Mate (X2)

Canarias Yerba Mate
Amanda Yerba Mate

I know - yerba mate is not tea, at least not in the strictest sense of the word. But, as you've probably noticed, we take a pretty loose approach to semantics here at TGS.

Canarias yerba mate was the first "real" yerba mate I ever tasted. Real, in this sense, referring to loose yerba mate, consumed from a gourd (mate) using a filtered metal straw (bombilla).

Though I'd tasted yerba mate in tea bag form before, my first experience with Canarias almost caused me to spew a huge mouthful of it across the room. Given the fact that, since then, I've worked my way down to the dregs of a one kilogram bag, I guess you could say I've developed a taste for the stuff.

Canarias is apparently a product of Brazil. It's a mix of smaller leaves and what I'll refer to as dust - I'm not sure of the correct terminology. It's got a pretty strong flavor, compared to some of the other yerba mate I've tasted since, and it's got more than a hint of bitterness. That's not necessarily a bad thing, at least not as far as I'm concerned, and I think I actually prefer it to some of the smoother yerba I've tasted.

Amanda hails from Argentina and it's one of those smoother varieties of yerba mate, though not by much. It's got less dust, larger leaves and some light colored stems. I gather that the latter are not considered a desirable quality when it comes to yerba mate, but I could be mistaken about that.

Amanda was not nearly as pungent as Canarias and it had a fresher taste, kind of "greener", you might say. I don't know that I preferred either of these over the other. I think it's just a matter of what you're in the mood for.

There are a quite a few yerba mate merchants on the Web nowadays. Do a little snooping around to see which one you like the best. I ordered the Canarias from Natural Latitudes, who were kind enough to provide me with my mate and bombilla, and the Amanda from Yerba Mate Cafe. Also noteworthy are Yerba Mate CC, who claim to have "the most complete inventory of Yerba Mate Tea from South America, available anywhere!"

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tea, food, food and drink, yerba mate

Tea Review 65 - Pixie Mate Limon & Lush Tropics

Lush Tropics Mate
Mate Limon
Pixie Mate

My last experience with Pixie Mate was their Chai Mate Latte and Dark Roast Mate Latte, which I reviewed here. These are boxed concentrate type drinks, but Pixie Mate also sells yerba mate in tea bag form, as well as the loose stuff.

Mate Limon and Lush Tropics Mate both fall into the tea bag category. Lush Tropics is made from all organic ingredients, including yerba mate, hibiscus, roasted chicory root, licorice root and the ever popular "natural flavors".

I'm not averse to some herbal teas, but I have to admit that I have limited patience for the rosehips and hibiscus type. Having said that, I'll also say that Lush Tropics wasn't so bad, as far as this sort of thing goes. I think the problem is that I'm just not the right audience for this stuff. So I'll shut up about it.

Mate Limon worked better for me. Although I'd never dream of ruining tea - or yerba mate - with lemon I do have kind of a weakness for lemon flavored stuff. Mate Limon's got kind of a sweet flavor and really only the vaguest hint of lemon, or at least that's what my taste buds told me. There's also an equally subtle undertone of yerba mate going on here, but it all adds up to a nice taste. I could see myself drinking this one now and then.

As for ingredients, Mate Limon is composed of yerba mate, lemon verbena, black tea, lemongrass, licorice root, natural flavors and ginger - and all of it organic.

tea, food, food and drink, yerba mate

Tea Review 64 - Anteadote Pure White Tea

Anteadote Pure White Tea
Adagio Teas

Now this is the way bottled tea was meant to taste. If you ask me, that is. Not that you did. But I'll inflict my opinion on you anyway. Toss those sickly sweet tea-like beverages in the bin and give Anteadote a whirl.

Adagio Teas makes four different flavors of Anteadote bottle tea, including black - which I reviewed here - jasmine, green and white. Each contains nothing more than purified water, tea and vitamin C, which works for me just fine. What else do you need?

What surprised me the most about Anteadote White was just how strong the flavor was. I admit to not having a real wide experience with white tea, but those that I have sampled - both hot and bottled - have always been very subtle. Anteadote White has quite a bite, kind of a like a robust green without quite so much of the greenish flavor, if that makes even the least bit of sense.

Highly recommended. Down with sugar.

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tea, food, food and drink, white tea

Tea Review 63 - Pixie Mate Chai Latte

Chai Mate Latte
Dark Roast Mate Latte
Pixie Mate

Mrs. Tea Guy is a long time c***** drinker, who has developed a taste for yerba mate and who drinks tea once in a while. A fan of chai and various sweet and iced c***** drinks and whatnot, she recently tried Pixie Mate's Chai Mate Latte and gave it the thumbs up.

Spawn of Tea Guy is not a real big fan of either c***** or tea, though she does go for a latte-type drink now and then. Her few encounters with straight up yerba mate left her decidedly unimpressed. She cautiously sampled Chai Mate Latte and also gave it her seal of approval.

Tea Guy is...well, a tea guy who loves yerba mate, loathes c***** and doesn't get too worked up over sweet stuff. Tea Guy tasted Chai Mate Latte and decreed that it's not so bad if that's the sort of thing you like. This might sound like rather grudging praise, but it's actually a pretty big thumbs up, considering my biases and especially considering the fact that I'm not that fond of chai.

The tasting team didn't all get to take part in testing Dark Roast Mate Latte. Mrs. Tea Guy seemed to like it, but held the opinion that it might not be for everyone. Tea Guy also didn't think it was too bad, though it definitely had quite a bite. All of Pixie's latte drinks seem to be geared toward c***** drinkers, but they appear to be pushing this one a little harder to those potential defectors from the ranks. Makes sense, given the robust flavor.

Both of these drinks are organic concentrates intended to be mixed with equal amounts of whatever you like in your lattes. The TGS tasting team used vanilla soy milk. Both beverages contained filtered water and evaporated cane juice. The Chai version also adds yerba mate, black tea and a mix of six chai spices. In addition to yerba mate, Dark Roast adds roasted chicory root, roasted ramon nut, cinnamon and vanilla.

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tea, food, food and drink, yerba mate, chai, latte

Tea Review 62 - Hattialli & Tippy Orthodox

Hattialli Estate GFBOP SPL
Tippy Orthodox GFOP
Upton Tea Imports

Yerba Mate Month is almost upon us, Assam Month is fading and the tea cupboard is almost bare of the latter. Oh, woe. But we'll usher out the month with a bang - specifically with one of the better of the dozen or so Assams I've tasted lately.

Hattialli Estate gets the best in show award, as far as Assam Month goes. It's not cheap. As a matter of fact, at $4.50 for a 15 gram sample, it's the most expensive of the sixty or so Assam varieties that Upton sells. But it's worth it.

This is one of several varieties that Upton offers from this estate. It's overflowing with nice tips, not to mention an outstanding aroma and flavor and a mouth feel that's smooth as silk.

Here's the full description from Upton's site, to which I say a resounding "amen":

"This renowned estate has produced many top-notch teas in recent years. This example has a beautiful, broken leaf, with a high percentage of golden-copper tips. The fresh, invigorating aroma and thick liquor are backed by the full, complex Assam flavor."

If you'd rather not spend so much but you'd still like a nice tasting Assam you could do a lot worse than the Tippy Orthodox. One hundred grams of this one sells for just a little more than the sample of the Hattialli and yet it ranks right up there with some of the other top Assams I've had the pleasure to taste this month.

Recommended in both cases, but if you really want a thrill cough up a little extra cash and go with the Hattialli.

tea, food, food and drink, Assam

Tea Review 61 - Three More Assams

Rembeng Estate TGFOP
Romai Estate TFBOP
Season's Pick Assam Dejoo GFBOP
Upton Tea Imports

Assam Month may be winding down but it ain't dead just yet. This review is a bit of an anticlimax, coming after the quite yummy Khagorijan and Bukhial varieties that I expounded upon last time around, but these three aren't all that bad either.

Not to make too much of this price vs. taste thing that I've been going on about, but the Rembeng Estate, the most expensive of these three, was also the one that impressed me the least. Upton says that it has a pleasant aroma with floral nuances and hints of honey. I found the aroma to be a bit on the harsh side and the taste kind of so-so. Not bad, but just nothing to get worked up about. Upton also sells a cheaper tea from this estate, the Rembeng Estate CTC BOP.

The Romai Estate fared a little better. It was surprisingly smooth and tasty and I found nothing to quibble with in Upton's assertion that it's "a rich Assam with raisin-like aroma and robust character." It appears, just from my cursory research, that Upton is the only merchant - or at least the only merchant with a Web presence - to offer tea from this estate.

The best of this bunch, at least in my humble estimation, was also the least pricey. That would be the Dejoo GFBOP, which is "a blend of select lots from the 2005 Dejoo Estate harvest." There are a lot of tips in this one and I thought that it had a rather light taste for an Assam. Perhaps a bit at odds with Upton's description of it as a "hearty cup," but what the Sam Hill do I know anyway? Well, I know I liked it and that's good enough for me. Upton also carries two other, more expensive, teas from this estate - SFTGFOP1S and SFTGFOP1, which might be worth looking into.

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tea, food, food and drink, Assam

Tea Review 60 - Khagorijan & Bukhial

Assam - Bukhial Estate
The Tea Smith

Assam - Khagorijan Estate STGFOP1 SPL
Upton Tea Imports

Sometimes you do get what you pay for. As I've been working my way through Assam Month, I've had the opportunity to taste about a dozen or more samples of tea from this region. I haven't always found a correlation between price and taste, as a few of the more modestly priced items turned out to be surprisingly good.

But in the case of the Khagorijan Estate there is a correlation between price and flavor. This is one of two teas from this estate that Upton offers. Of the 60 Assam varieties that they currently sell it's the sixth most expensive, just a few notches behind the Khagorijan Estate GFBOP CH SPL, the third priciest.

And it's well worth it, I should add. I'd rank this one at the top of the Assam heap - so far. I'm not too swift when it comes to devising those clever descriptions of what teas taste like, so I'll quote from Upton's clever description - "a top selection with an elegant, flowery aroma and complex flavor profile. The subtle layers of fruit and maltiness are balanced with a gentle pungency, creating a superb cup."

That works for me. A superb cup, indeed. As far as I can tell, from doing some cursory research, it's a superb cup that you won't find too readily. In fact, I didn't find any other vendors who handled it, though I didn't quite break my back looking for them either.

If you're up for another "superb cup" you should take a crack at Bukhial Estate. I obtained a sample of this one from the fine people at Nebraska's The Tea Smith. I'd rank it as only slightly less superb than the Khagorijan and roughly on a par with the Singlijan that I reviewed here.

And don't even think about spoiling the subtle flavors of these excellent teas with milk, sugar and all that rot. Or, if you absolutely have to, keep it to yourself. I don't think I could take it.

Tea Review 59 - Anteadote Black

Anteadote Pure Black Tea
Adagio Teas

It's still Assam Month, but we're going to take another brief detour from the region, this time to China's Yunnan province. It's here that the tea for Anteadote's Pure Black Tea is grown. Whatever they're doing in Yunnan nowadays they need to keep on doing it, as this is one of the more distinctive bottled teas I've tasted.

Pure Black is one of Anteadote's four flavors - the others are Pure White, Pure Green and Pure Jasmine. Anteadote comes to us from New Jersey's Adagio Teas, who, until now, have mostly been doing loose and bagged gourmet teas and assorted and sundry accessories.

It's what Anteadote lacks that sets it apart from most bottled teas, and that would be sweeteners. It's billed as "pure black tea unsweetened with no carbs or calories." Ingredients are purified water, black tea and vitamin C. I'm not even going to bother going into one of my "ruining perfectly good tea with sugar" rants. All I have to say about the Anteadote concept is a resounding "amen."

After saturating myself with a bunch of heavy, malty Assam teas for the past few weeks, Pure Black really caught me off guard. It's got a bright, almost pungent, aroma and a taste to match. The label would have us believe that it's a "smooth peppery taste." After some reflection I've decided that I don't see anything wrong with that description. This is also one with a very long finish, as they say in the trade. That's not a bad thing - it's just a thing. There's also some flavor note in there that I just can't place (as is so often the case with this amateur taster). Frustrating not to be able to identify it, but this is good stuff nonetheless.

Recommended - and what do you know, it won't be long before iced tea season is upon us.

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Tea Review 58 - Fatikcherra Estate GBOP

Fatikcherra Estate GBOP (Assam)
Upton Tea Imports

Here's an organic Assam tea from Fatikcherra Estate, which Upton's blurb says is "well known for producing teas with a strong character." I'm not sure if I know exactly what that means, nor could I quite fathom the comment that "the enticing cup has a solid flavor, which is enhanced by milk or cream." Ditto for "great for everyday consumption."

I think what they're getting at here, without coming right out and saying it, is that this one isn't much to get excited about. And it's not. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a bad tea, but I guess "solid flavor" is not so far off the mark after all.

This one has broken leaves - quite small ones - as the grading would suggest. I used a slightly shorter brew time to compensate, but still came up with a cup that had a slightly harsh aroma and a taste pretty much to match. Okay, maybe harsh is just a bit too strong, but Fatikcherra definitely lacks the mellow taste and nice smooth mouth feel of some of the other Assam teas I've tasted recently. It reminded me of a certain very well known name brand, which I wont name, but you can probably figure it out.

I wouldn't recommend this for drinking straight up. I'm not a milk, cream or sugar guy so I didn't try that, but I suspect it's shortcomings wouldn't be quite as noticeable that way.

Tea Review 57 - Sessa & Sessa (Assam)

Sessa Estate
The Tea Smith

Sessa B Estate STGFOP1 S
Upton Tea Imports

As luck would have it, I recently found myself with samples of Assam Sessa Estate from two tea merchants. That's luck, as in good luck, but we'll get to that in a minute.

When I decided to devote a month to Assam tea I ordered samples from Upton's Web site. With sixty to choose from, I admit that I was a overwhelmed. So I sorted them by price and picked out ten samples from across the range. Not long after, the fine people at Tea Smith (yes, Virginia, there is good tea in Nebraska) were kind enough to contribute a few samples for Assam Month. Lo and behold, there was a bag of Sessa.

Upton's Sessa is near the low end of the price range and Tea Smith's is also rather affordable. As a general rule, I think we're conditioned that we're going to get what we pay for. Therefore I didn't expect these samples to be anything special. But once again I've found that there is not always a correlation between price and taste (though sometimes that's true). Granted, the Sessa was not up there with some of the better Assams I've tasted - the Singlijan I reviewed here and the Khagorijan that I'll be reviewing soon - but it's not so shabby either.

I was curious to see if the two samples tasted any different and they didn't, though we could check that up to my relatively unsophisticated palate. Both have relatively large leaves and a lot of nice golden tips. Upton suggest trying theirs without milk - always my preference - and say that it "combines a sweet maltiness with a delightful floral note." It may be the untrained palate talking again, but I didn't really catch the latter. I did notice that both tended toward bitterness when oversteeped even a little, something that I've found that a lot Assams tend to be more forgiving of.

But, all in all, these are both good teas, especially given the price. Not quite the top of the heap, but recommended nonetheless.

Tea Review 56 - Adagio Osmanthus

Osmanthus Herbal Tea
Adagio Teas


Confession time. Here I am, not even a third of the way into Assam Month and already I'm starting to feel distinctly twitchy. As I've mentioned before, I don't do caffeine so well. Which kind of sucks when tea is really your only vice, but oh well.

Which is not to suggest that I don't like my Assam, because I certainly do. But it was time to strike a little balance, I thought, and so why not do it with Osmanthus, an herbal selection from Adagio?

Osmanthus comes in Adagio's pyramid-shaped tea bags, which are good for a large cup or a small pot of tea and are packaged 15 to a box. The tea brews up to a nice pale golden hue with a very distinctive aroma that I still can't quite pin down - I guess you could call it a little bit floral and a little bit weedy.

As for the taste, that one's kind of tricky too. I think the closest reference point for me would be lemongrass, though with a more subtle flavor.

Recommended to anyone who wants an herbal beverage that's a little offbeat and on the low key side.