Tea Review 90 - Portsmouth Tea Company (x3)

Irish Breakfast
Satin Oolong
Avalanche Rooibos
Portsmouth Tea Company

The good people at Portsmouth Tea Company sent along samples of a few of their teas recently. Here's my two cents worth.

Irish Breakfast
I haven't run across many breakfast blends that I really liked, but this one was a happy exception. Though they don't get as much attention as other types of tea, a topnotch Assam is a thing of wonder. This "hearty Assam blend" compares favorably with some of the best I've tasted and the tin was empty in no time.

Satin Oolong
I'm still not sure what to make of this one. It's described as a "milk-infused oolong," which means that the leaves are soaked in milk. This gives it a very strong buttery aroma. Not being a fan of butter or its awful aroma, I was put off by it and set it aside for a while. When I finally gave it a go I found that I could get past the aroma and the tea itself was quite good otherwise.

Avalanche Rooibos
Portsmouth calls this one "a delightful combination of apple bits, lemongrass, ginger, orange peels, basil and red pepper." Works for me. I don't care much for rooibos served hot, but I've taken to drinking quite a bit of it iced these days. This made for a nice change of pace from straight up rooibos, though my preference was to tone this one down a bit by mixing the two.


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Tea Review 89 - Tavalon (x4))

New York City Breakfast
Serenity
After Dark
Organic Kama Chai Sutra
Tavalon LLC

The good people at New York City's Tavalon recently passed along samples of a few of their blended teas and tisanes. Here's the lowdown:

New York City Breakfast
"A hearty blend of the world's best black teas from India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia created for the New Yorker palate."
A new one on me and apparently a Tavalon creation. I like Assam and Yunnan black teas, but have never been much of a fan of breakfast blends. This one was better than most when served hot and even better than that iced.

Serenity/After Dark
"A relaxing caffeine-free herbal blend consisting of Chamomile, Peppermint, Lemongrass, Rooibos and Vanilla."
"A sweet & sour, caffeine & sugar-free blend of Chamomile, Blood Orange, Cranberry, Apple, Cherry and Hibiscus flowers."
Chamomile is another "tea" that's never done much for me. But both of these tisanes benefit considerably from the fresh and intensely aromatic ingredients that have gone into them. Serenity worked better for me than the very fruity After Dark, but that's a personal preference again.

Organic Kama Chai Sutra
"An organic blend of Assam tea, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla beans."
I've tried to come to terms with chai (Earl Grey and lapsang souchong too). I really have. But I've determined that none of these items are really my cup of tea. Once again, though, the ingredients in this one seemed to be very fresh and flavorful. If you are a chai lover it might be worth looking into.

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Tea Review 88 - Anteadote Oolong

Tea Review 88 - Anteadote Organic Oolong Tea
Adagio Teas

I don't drink tea with milk, sugar, lemon or anything else. I don't look down my nose at anyone who does - it's just a personal preference. Ditto for bottled teas. Right off the top of my head I can think of a few (lightly) sweetened ones that were okay, but none that really bowled me over. Which is why I like Adagio's Anteadote line of bottled teas so much. No sweeteners.

I've reviewed several of the Anteadote flavors already (black, jasmine, white), but I recently had a chance to try them all again, including the newly released oolong. This one debuted in early October, according to Adagio. It's made with a Ti Kuan Yin tea variety from Fujian, China and, like all Anteadote flavors, contains nothing else but water and citric acid.

I've never been a fan of the heaver, more oxidized oolongs, but fortunately this is not one of those. It has a nice light, slightly floral taste. While it won't unseat Anteadote's white as my favorite of their five flavors, it's good enough to take the second place slot.

Recommended.


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Tea Review 87 - Jun Shan Yin Zhen (Yellow Tea)

Jun Shan Yin Zhen (Yellow Tea)
Upton Tea Imports

As I read through the section on yellow tea in Mary Lou and Robert Heiss's excellent book, The Story of Tea, it occurred to me that I'd never actually tasted any yellow tea.

Well, I decided it was time to resolve this matter and set about getting my hands on some. I'm not inclined to buy tea in quantity without tasting it first, so I found myself patronizing Upton Tea Imports, who make all of their stock available in sample sizes (if you know of anyone else who offers yellow tea samples, do tell).

Yellow tea is probably the least known type of tea. According to the Heiss's, it's similar to a green tea, except that after the initial drying and just before the first firing, it goes through a step "called men huan, during which yellow leaf tea is lightly and slowly steamed, then covered with a cloth to allow the leaves to breathe."

Here's what Upton has to say about their Jun Shan Yin Zhen:

"This rare yellow tea from the Hunan province has a rich history, and was once a famous tribute tea. The flavor is light yet richly layered, with floral notes, a light, fruity aroma and a gentle bite on the palate. Very limited supplies."

As far as the dry leaf goes, Jun Shan Yin Zhen is reminiscent of white tea, with small, narrow leaves that may or may not have a yellowish cast to them. It seemed that they might, but perhaps I was just in a suggestible state.

The aroma of the dry leaf, as well as the brewed tea, is very subtle and the latter has a light golden/yellow color. The flavor is just as low-key, though my perception might be affected by the fact that I've been drinking a lot of heavy Assam teas lately.

Mouth feel is exceptionally smooth, without even a hint of bite or bitterness. The best part was a lingering, sweet aftertaste that was still around a half hour later and may have lingered longer if I hadn't taken a drink of water.

If you're a fan of full-flavored teas only, Jun Shan Yin Zhen is probably not what you're looking for. For those who like white and light green teas, it may be worth a try.

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Tea Review 86 - Revolution Variety Pack I

Variety Pack I
Revolution Tea

Revolution Tea's niche seems mostly to be flavored teas and tisanes. They've made it to a few store shelves in my part of the world, but I'd never gotten around to tasting any. Recently the company was kind enough to send a few sample packs. Here, briefly stated, are some thoughts on one of them.

Tropical Green - A real mix of flavors, including orange peel, peppermint, jasmine, lemon verbena, marigold, blue malva and pineapple. I prefer my green tea straight up, but this one's not bad.

Sweet Ginger Peach - I didn't taste much ginger here, but I've always liked the mix of peach with black tea. This one reminded me of a smoother version of Good Earth's China Black.

Earl Grey Lavender - Earl Grey has always ranked low on my list of preferred teas. The lavender in this one actually made it tolerable, though I might not choose it for everyday drinking.

English Breakfast - A good Assam tea is one of the finer things in life. I wish I was so fond of Ceylon, but I'm not. If you don't share my anti-Ceylon bias, you'll probably like this one just fine.

Golden Flowers Herbal - I've always found chamomile kind of bland. Revolution remedies that with a good dose of peppermint - and some marigold flowers. A nice blend.


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Tea Review 85 - Chinese Breakfast Tea

Chinese Breakfast Tea
Numi Tea

If you want to lay your hands on high-quality tea, you're probably going to have to mail order it. Unless you're fortunate enough to have a good tea shop in your general vicinity. I'm not.

While I do a good bit of mail ordering, I also got to thinking recently that it would be nice to have an "everyday" tea of at least passable quality to fill in the gaps between orders. But given the selection in grocery stores around these parts (central PA), I had almost despaired of finding such a thing.

I reviewed Numi Tea's sampler pack a while back, but I picked another one last week, in hopes that there might be something therein that would serve as an everyday tea. And what do you know - their Chinese Breakfast seemed to fit the bill.

Numi's Chinese Breakfast is made from 100% organic, full-leaf Yunnan tea (in a tea bag) - the packaging and Web site don't say whether it's a blend or a single estate variety. In any event, it's a very dark tea, even though I steeped it for just under 2.5 minutes, less than the 3-5 Numi recommends.

The next thing I noticed, after the color, was a nice, sweet aroma that was so strong that I could smell it without even lifting the cup to my nose. The taste didn't disappoint either. I've been drinking a lot of green and white teas lately, so it could just be that I was primed for a good shot of black. This was a welcome change of pace and one that I'll be keeping on hand from now on. I've also got my eye on Numi's Breakfast Blend, so stay tuned.

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Tea Review 84 - Snapple Red Tea

Mandarin Orange Red Tea
Snapple

As a general rule, bottled tea doesn't float my boat. I can sum up my reasons pretty succinctly - too sweet. There are exceptions, but they're few and far between.

Given that, I wasn't prepared to be impressed by Snapple's new line of red teas, which are made with rooibos, an herb grown in South Africa. But I figured I'd try to keep an open mind.

Snapple Red is available in Acai Mixed Berry, Peach Pomegranate, and Mandarin Tangerine flavors. I sampled the latter. According to the label, Snapple Red "contributes to a healthy immune system." Yeah, whatever. Ingredients include crystalline fructose sugar and pear juice concentrate, among others. Rooibos is number five on the ingredients list, oddly enough. I'm not sure what to make of that.

As I drank this one, I kept telling myself I could taste the rooibos, but I wasn't really sure that I could. The tangerine flavor was a bit more pronounced, but overall things were pretty understated and - surprise - not over sweetened. This one's also caffeine-free, for what it's worth.

Not too bad, but I think it would probably go down a lot better on a blazing summer day, as opposed to a frigid winter night.

I doubt that I'll seek out another Snapple Red, but if I was really hot and thirsty I probably wouldn't turn one down.


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Tea Review 83 - Mateveza Yerba Mate Ale

Mateveza Yerba Mate Ale
Mateveza LLC

I've mentioned Mateveza a few times now. Recently the good people who make it were kind enough to send me a bottle.

Mateveza is made with yerba mate. If you scout around here at the site you'll find that I've written about it a good bit. I don't drink beer much these days but I discovered yerba mate a few years back and developed quite a taste for it.

Along with the sample of Mateveza, I also received a small amount of the yerba mate used to make it. It was good, but I suspect that I'm not quite enough of a connoisseur to make much of a distinction between different yerba mate varieties.

As for Mateveza, I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to expect. But I was pleasantly surprised. What I found most interesting about the product was that there were two very distinct flavors happening at the same time - the sweetness of the ale and the bitterness of the yerba mate.

Which worked quite well, in my opinion. The two tastes offset each other nicely. If you're not a fan of yerba mate - and it can be an acquired taste - you may not agree. But it's certainly worth a try.

Recommended.

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Tea Review 82 - Rishi Jasmine Pearl

Jasmine Pearl
Rishi Tea

As I tend to mention just about every time the subject of flavored teas comes up, I'm not much of a fan of them. I guess I could be accused of belaboring the point.

A good jasmine-flavored green would generally be an exception, though. Rishi's Jasmine Pearl fits my description of a good jasmine-flavored green.

If you haven't run across Jasmine Pearl before, it would be worth your while to give it a whirl. As you can see from the photo, it's composed of small balls of jasmine-scented green tea, in this case an organic green from China's Fujian province. The jasmine flowers used for flavoring are also organic.

Here's part of Rishi's description of Jasmine Pearl:
"The most tender green tea leaves and buds are hand rolled into small pearls and infused with the essence of fresh jasmine blossoms. The fragrant blossoms are mixed with our reserve Dragon Pearl green tea according to a traditional tea scenting process that dates back more than 9 centuries."

This one has a very smooth taste. Like most good green teas, it stands up well to repeated brewings. I brewed it at 90 seconds, rather than Rishi's recommended 3-4 minutes, but I find myself underbrewing these days with almost every tea I drink.

If you're a fan of display teas, Jasmine Pearl pretty much fits the bill on that count too. It's fun and relaxing to watch the pearls unfurl while you're waiting for your cup of tea.

Recommended.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Tea Review 81 - Rishi Pu-erh Ginger

Pu-Erh Ginger
Rishi Tea

As you may have gathered from reading the last few reviews, the fine people at Rishi Tea were good enough to send some samples my way recently. Of that bunch of stuff, the one that turned out to be something of a surprise was the Pu-erh Ginger.

I haven't had a lot of experience with Pu-erh. In fact, I've tasted exactly two varieties. One was not bad at all and the other was...let's just call it an acquired taste.

So I wasn't necessarily expecting too much from this experience. Especially since, as I've mentioned before, I'm not overly keen on flavored teas. Even though I'm quite a big fan of ginger, I wasn't expecting to have much good to say about this one.

As it turns out, I rather liked it. Some Pu-erh has a reputation for having a flavor that you might call earthy. Or you might call it like drinking from a mud puddle, depending on your inclination.

I thought I caught a faint undertone of earthiness in this variety, but the ginger and orange peel worked to tone down any strong flavors and make the taste rather pleasurable. Granted, the ginger bite might not be for everyone, but it's not too pronounced. I think I could find myself getting used to this one.

Recommended.

For an in-depth backgrounder on Pu-erh, go to Rishi's Store and click Pu-erh Tea.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Tea Review 80 - Rishi Rooibos (x2)

Jamaica Red Bush
Blueberry Rooibos
Rishi Tea

I've never been much of a fan of flavored tea. That's tea, in the strictest sense of the word, as in the beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. But when it comes to rooibos and its African cousin, honey bush, it's a different story. While I can drink either one plain, in my opinion, they both benefit from the judicious addition of flavorings.

Which Rishi Tea does quite nicely, at least with the two flavors under consideration here. What caught my attention with both of these blends is how strong and fresh the flavoring is. In each case, when I opened the package, I was nearly bowled over by the aroma - and I mean that in a good way.

Jamaica Red Bush was a little less to my liking than the blueberry, but that's a matter of personal taste. Its a blend of organic ingredients, including rooibos, hibiscus, honey bush, lemongrass, schizandra berries (a new one on me), rosehips, licorice root, orange peel, natural passion fruit flavor, natural essential oils of orange, tangerine and clove, and natural mango flavor (sheesh). The overall aroma and taste of this one tends toward citrus and it's very nice.

But it's the Blueberry Rooibos that made me sit up and take notice. These Rishi guys are on to something with this one. It's a blend of rooibos, blueberries, schizandra berries, hibiscus, natural blueberry and strawberry flavors. The interesting touch here is that the blueberries are real or, as the packaging puts it - "real wild blueberries."

As a result, the aroma is so strong that you could actually use it as potpourri if you didn't care to drink it. Or you could do both. I made some into a batch of iced tea and the smell permeated the entire apartment. Oh, and it tastes good too.

Recommended on both counts, with a very high recommendation for the Blueberry Rooibos.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Tea Review 79 - Rishi Snow Buds White

Snow Buds (Xue Ya), Organic White Tea
Rishi Tea

I've sampled assorted and sundry white teas before. I remember liking most of them, but nothing really stood up head and shoulders above the pack. But just recently I found myself really impressed with Snow Buds, from Rishi Tea.

This is an excellent white tea, or at least so say I, but I think part of the fact that I liked it so much had to do with my tea drinking habits lately. Which has pretty much consisted of a whole lot of strong, heavy black teas - Yunnans and Assams mostly.

To suddenly make a changeover to a delicate white tea was a nice switch and served to remind me that black is not the be all and end all of tea.

Rishi describes Snow Buds as "a rare white tea that is hand harvested in very limited quantities for Rishi on the high mountain peaks of northern Fujian, China."

As for the flavor, there's no point in me reinventing the wheel, when Rishi has already offered up a good description, "its clear infusion offers a fresh green note with a complex savory flavor and aroma that can be likened to toasted grains and baked sweet potato."

I don't know that I'd have been clever enough to isolate the two latter components of the flavor, but I also won't argue with that description.

If you're looking for a nice, light white tea, whether as an antidote to too much black or just because, you could do a lot worse than Snow Buds.

Highly recommended.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Tea Review 78 - American Classic Tea

Our last tea review covered Tregothnan's teas, which are made from the only tea plants grown in England for commercial use. With that in mind it seemed logical that the next review should be of American Classic Tea, which is the currently the only tea being grown for commercial use in the United States.

It all takes place in South Carolina, at Bigelow Tea's Charleston Tea Plantation. The Plantation's Web site is located here. There have been a flurry of articles in various newspapers about the Plantation over the last few months. Here's a recent one by the Associated Press. Here's a good article, from TeaMuse, about tea production in the United States. It's kind of a limited topic and the article is about five years old, but it's still worth a look.

American Classic Tea, as far as I can tell, is only available in tea bag form. It's a black tea and my understanding is, that because there's not a whopping amount of tea produced at the Plantation, it's blended with other black teas. While it would be interesting to taste the Plantation's tea on it's own, in loose tea form, apparently that's not possible right now.

As for the tea itself, well, I have to say that I wasn't exactly bowled over by the taste. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was bad, but I found it to be a little bit on the harsh side. Of course, I typically drink everything straight up - no additives. If you're keen on milk, sugar, lemon and whatnot, you might find American Classic to be much more agreeable.

You can order American Classic Tea directly from Bigelow, but you'll have to buy a minimum of six boxes (144 bags total). I haven't done any research into where to buy it in smaller quantities, but I'm sure Bigelow could answer that one, if you'd like to know.

Image: Bigelow Tea

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Tea Review 77 - Tregothnan Tea

English Estate Classic Tea
English Estate Afternoon Tea
English Estate Green Tea
English Estate Earl Grey Tea
Tregothnan Tea

Tea and Britain. They go together like peanut and butter, like cup and cake, like sand and wich. Well, you get the point, however awkwardly made.

Of course, all of the millions (billions? trillions? gazillions?) of gallons of tea the British have guzzled over the last few centuries have been imported. Until recently there was no other option.

Enter Tregothnan Tea, the first company to offer tea that's actually grown in Britain. It all takes place at Tregothnan, an estate in Cornwall, in western England, that's been around since 1335.

The good people at Tregothnan were kind enough to send samples of each of their four teas. They are all blends of the tea grown at Tregothnan with assorted and sundry other varieties. They also offer a limited-edition, single-estate variety that is 100% Tregothnan. Unfortunately, it's so limited that it's currently not available.

I wasn't sure what the expect from these teas, but for the most part I was pleasantly surprised. Here are a few brief notes on each. Though they're available in tea bags, in each case I sampled them in loose form.

English Estate Classic Tea
Tregothnan's Classic Tea is a robust black that's similar to a breakfast tea. Which is okay by me. It mixes the Estate's tea with black varieties from China and Assam. A nice blend, with a good flavor and very little bitterness. Takes milk and sugar well, as they say in the tea catalogs, though that sort of thing is not my...cup of tea.

English Estate Afternoon Tea
Though I tend to gravitate more toward the stout Assam varieties than the delicate Darjeelings, I'd have to say that this blend was probably my favorite of the four. As I've already suggested, it takes Tregothnan's homegrown and mixes it with Darjeeling. Though I could taste a hint of the latter, overall it's an interesting mix that I can't quite compare to anything else.

English Estate Green Tea
This one is blended with what's simply described as "specially selected green tea." I'm going to assume that it was selected from China. I could swear that I tasted just the faintest hint of the gunpowder variety in there. This one's not really the bright shade of green you might expect if you're accustomed to Japanese teas, but more of a yellowish-golden color.

English Estate Earl Grey Tea
I've never been able to make my piece with bergamot - the "active" ingredient in Earl Grey tea. Though I have tried. So I won't offer much in the way of comment on this one, except to say that the flavoring is rather low-key. If I've got my story straight, the bergamot, as well as the tea, is grown at the estate.

Image: Tregothnan Tea

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Tea Review 76 - Inko's White Tea Energy

Inko's White Tea Energy
Inko's White Tea

Until now my experiences with energy drinks have been rather limited and totally unsatisfactory. In fact, the full extent of my experience has been about two sips each of a couple of the big name ones - which shall remain nameless and which really sucked, if I may be blunt. But maybe taste is not a key factor when it comes to selecting these products.

If you're looking for an energy drink that doesn't taste like cough syrup, you could start with Inko's White Tea Energy. Inko's also makes a quite fine line of bottled white teas, with nine flavors in all, most of which we've reviewed here at TGS.

Inko's White Tea Energy comes in an attractive, blue 15.5 ounce can and contains 92.4 milligrams of caffeine, which Inko's claims is "jitter-free." Since I'm fairly sensitive to caffeine, I decided not to test their claim by downing a whole can of the stuff. But I did taste it and found the taste to be quite nice, kind of like a lightly sweetened lemonade.

While I didn't really pick up much of a white tea flavor, it's nice all the same and it sure beats those carbonated Robitussin knockoffs.

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