Tea Tasting: Tea Forte's Orchid Vanilla

 There are shades of vanilla flavoring -- sometimes it's floral, sometimes it's warm and honey-toned like sugar cookies.  Tea Forte's Orchid Vanilla tends towards the floral, but it's not so flowery that it becomes unpleasant.  It put me in mind of the orchid gardens in Hawaii.  The black tea underneath the vanilla is good and rich, supplying a satisfying base for the vanilla.   It's not my favorite vanilla tea, but it's very very good and warms my soul as we slide towards the cold time of year.   I recommend it as a worthy A- tea.

Tea & Absinthe's Elixir of Wisdom (Ravenclaw)

 The Elixir of Wisdom (Ravenclaw) from Tea & Absinthe is a black Ceylon tea with mallow petals, jasmine petals, lychee pieces.  It doesn't have a particularly strong aroma or flavor apart from the tea.  The jasmine presents itself as a slight aftertaste.  For me, that's all to the good because I don't like a heavy hand with jasmine.  If there's lychee in here, I don't taste it at all or get any sweetness out of it.  Overall, the tea is pleasant but unremarkable.  A solid B tea.

I've finished the sample that was sent to me and, while it was a nice enough morning drink on the first cool day of September, I'm unlikely to order it again.

Guest Review: The Making of a Minty Franken-Tea

Today's guest review is from my friend Lilie:

I like iced teas when it's warm out, and I love a good minty iced tea. In the summer that cool flavor really helps. A few years back I discovered Inko's Hint-O-Mint unsweetened, which hit that perfect spot. White tea, with just a cool hint of mint. I could chug that forever when it's hot out. 

The shelves at my local grocery have been bare of this summer treat this year (*pout pout*). I was getting pretty desperate. And desperate people often do weird things to tea.

Couple of weeks ago I stumbled across Yogi Peppermint tea. Yogi? Well - turns out the company does 'medicinal' teas - no-caffeine herbal stuff. Tasted warm, it does soothe the tummy. But I knew it was NOT going to hit that iced-tea spot I was looking for. 

So what to do? My tea-shelf had the answer. A canister of The Republic of Tea plain Green Tea. Not white tea, a little stronger, but it would do. Cackling. I set the kettle to boil and put 8 of the peppermint bags in a jug with 6 of the green tea bags. Boiled water and 10 minutes later I strained out the soggy bags and put the concoction in the fridge to cool. 

And it worked! Franken-tea works! Just enough of the mint, just enough of the cool, and a minor hint of tea-tang underneath. Hubby thought it was a touch too tea-bitter for him, but I said just put a drop or two of honey in and you'd have what you want. Turns out, I was right. Nyah! 

So, I have my minty iced tea. Until Inko's gets its act together, muhahaha! 

Tea and Absinthe's Starry Night

Another Tea & Absinthe sample from a friend - this time it's Starry Night, a blend of black teas with almond and coconut.  I approve of this tea, with just a few caveats.

First of all, believe the steeping time on this one.  You want to steep it for 5 minutes to get the proper flavor.  Otherwise the coconut and almond flavors don't come out strongly enough to distinguish it from any other good quality black. 

Second of all, if you're going to use it for iced tea, either think again or double the amount of tea and triple the steep time.  It doesn't hold up to icing otherwise.

Honestly, I think this one is best used for hot tea anyway.  Fortunately, the weather here turned gray and cool and rainy enough that hot tea seemed like a good idea today and I was finally able to get this tea at its best.   The almond and coconut flavors aren't strong.  They build up and enhance the tones of the black tea.  This quality comes out best when the tea is hot.  (People who don't like coconut still won't like this tea, though). 

This is a solid B+ tea, definitely will buy some when I finish working through the many generous tea samples people have sent me.

Tea and Absinthe's TARDIS 10 tea

A lovely friend sent me a number of samples, including today's TARDIS 10 black tea from Tea and Absinthe, a geeky tea company.  "TARDIS 10" is, of course, a reference to Doctor Who and specifically to the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant.

TARDIS 10 is a blend of black tea flavored with coconut and banana.  I was dubious about banana in tea, but you know what?  It really really works.  It shouldn't work.  But it does, it really does.  I drank it iced because it's dreadfully hot out in NJ right now, and I think it's probably best iced instead of hot.   The coconut is the strongest flavor element, followed by the tea flavors, with the banana lurking in the background waving insouciantly.   It's like a black tea daiquiri and I mean that in the best way possible.

I'd be careful with over-steeping this one.  Two to 2.5 minutes was enough, even for icing.  More than that and the tea notes are likely to get a little bitter.

I imagine this tea would work really well sweetened.  I'm going to try it tomorrow with the amber sugar so that I get the brown sugar/molasses notes.  I also imagine that this iced tea would work astoundingly well with rum, but someone else will have to try that experiment.

Addendum:  Yep, amber sugar works amazingly well, and I don't even like sweet tea most of the time.  I imagine Sugar in the Raw would get the same flavor.

Tiesta Tea's Passion Berry Jolt

A new tea company to me, another fruity black tea to try for making iced tea.  Tiesta Tea's Passion Berry Jolt is a black tea base with maté added for the "jolt" plus pieces of raspberry, pineapple and passion fruit.   It's darn okay.   It does, however, pack sufficient punch that a pot (3.5 glasses of iced tea) gets me through a 12-hour work day.  So that's a thing.

This tea needs a right proper steep to get enough flavor to hold up to icing.  Unless it's steeped for 4-5 minutes, it's largely flavorless.

The flavor is good enough.  It's generically fruity, without distinct tones of any particular fruit.  If I squint, I can get the pineapple and/or passion fruit.  This tea isn't bad, it's simply missing something that would make it really excellent. I won't go out of my way to buy it again.

Ahmad Tea's Mango Magic Black

In the summer, I like fruity black teas to use for making iced tea.  I'm very very pleased with Ahmad Tea's Mango Magic black tea for this purpose.   The underlying black tea is good quality.  It doesn't go bitter when I get interrupted by work and end up over-steeping it.  The Ahmad Teas website says it's a Kenyan black.  I've heard a lot of good things about Kenyan teas and need to try more of them.

The mango flavor is wielded with a medium hand.  It's not too sweet but it is strong enough to come out in the aroma of the brew even after it's iced.  Flavorwise, it definitely stands up to icing.  I can taste both the tea flavors and the mango flavors distinctly.  It's a summery and delightful drink, particularly welcome on gray, muggy rainy days like today. 

I haven't tried the tea hot yet.  It might be a little overly fruity side for drinking as hot tea.