#tea review

My family got me one of those David’s Tea advent calendars, so I’ve been drawing little mini-reviews in my sketchbook to help me remember my favorites. Here’s all 24!

Totem tea contacted me about trying their tea and incense and I could not refuse!

I brewed this tea at 205F starting with 10 second infusions and gradually increasing .

The liquor comes out a a strong yellow with hints of red and smells floral with notes of smokiness. I paired this tea with the sandalwood incense that they sent and it made for a beautiful combination. Both had opposite profiles but complimented each other in ways I did not expect. Ruby 8 is a black tea from Taiwan and is so delicately creamy with zero bitterness. I found that the tea reminded me of cocoa mixed with lighter floral notes. Even if I left this tea to cool for too long it still tasted sweet and delightful at colder temperatures. They sell this tea on their website for $13/oz if you would like some of your own you can pick it up here.

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask! 

xoxo

Jordan

Totealy contacted me about reviewing their tea and they sent some delectable samples!

I steeped this lightly roasted oolong at 195F starting with 15 sec infusions, working my way up.

Zushan Spring is a lightly roasted oolong from Taiwan, a spring harvest tea from a garden at 1700ft. This tea starts off with a strong bold flavor of toasted nut, bark and misted grass transitioning to a delicately sweet floral flavor reminiscent of honeysuckle. The combination of these flavors contrast but provide a beautiful story as you resteep and drink in all the angles this leaf has to offer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tea and I just love how different oolongs can range depending on their processing. If you are looking for a roasted oolong but not something that is too smokey, I highly recommend this which you can find here.

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

Peppermint patty is a blend of rooibos, peppermint, chocolate chips and chocolate flavor.

Steep this tea at 212F for 5 minutes.

Peppermint Patty sips in with a heavy note of peppermint with a light chocolate flavor chasing it. This tea is extremely delicious as a dessert tea or for any time of day. The chocolate isn’t the main focus so it doesn’t feel like too much of an indulgent but just enough to cure that aching sweet tooth. The rooibos adds a an extra dimension to the tea making it balance out between peppermint, chocolate and a fruity undertone. This strongly reminds me of a york peppermint patty which happens to be my favorite candy!  If this tea sounds delicious to you, pick it up here!

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask! 

xoxo

Jordan

Snake River Tea contacted me on instagram to try some of their teas! Here we have Citrus Mint Sencha which is a house blend of menthos green tea, lemon jade sencha and lemongrass.

Steep this tea at 175-180F for 3 minutes.

Citrus Mint Sencha reminds me of the Jade citrus mint green tea from Teavana. But here are the differences, Citrus Mint Sencha is a lot higher quality when it comes to the leaf and more subdued. It’s not in any way overpowering and each flavor compliments it well. I found this tea to be extremely refreshing between the mint, the grassy notes of the sencha and gunpowder green tea and the bite of lemony citrus towards the end. I truly enjoyed what this tea had to offer and I highly recommend it! If you would like to get some for yourself you can find it here

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxoJordan

Pique reached out to me about reviewing their tea and I agreed. The tea comes in little packets, not unlike crystal light that you get from the grocery store. Out comes this yellow orange crystal powder that smells faintly of mint.

The instructions state to put the crystals in your cup first and then add 175F water on top - no stirring is needed

As you can see, the tea comes out a similar color as the crystals, just deeper shade of orange.
PIQUE tea is handcrafted from organic whole leaves, they cold brew the tea and lock in the flavor by using cold crystallization, giving you the tea crystals you see above.
So how does it taste? I mostly taste spearmint with a hint of vegetal from the sencha and it is sweet with a little bit of tang. PIQUE tea crystals are easy. It also makes great iced tea as well which is how I prefer it. If you are a workaholic and find yourself wanting to get a tea fix but not able to invest the time, this product is definitely for you. It doesn’t take up much space and aside from having a mug and hot water, nothing else is needed.
This is the best instant I’ve had so far - it’s great on the go, but it doesn’t fit in my routine since I use tea as a way to slow down and meditate.  That’s not to say - that it might fit right into your routine. So if you want to enjoy tea but don’t have the time, give PIQUE tea a try, I enjoyed their tea crystals.

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask! xoxoJordan

Alright - just do yourself a favor, and skip the review and purchase this tea here

Still Reading? Okay okay.. I guess I’ll write a review… Steep 1tsp of tea per cup with boiling water for 3-5 minutes.

The dry leaf aroma of this tea is pretty powerful because of the lavender and rose.

Now how does it taste… Well. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tear up drinking it for the first time. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve had a black tea blend western style and enjoyed it. Its always bitter (having to cut it with lots of sugar and milk) so I swore off black teas unless I gongfu’d them. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive about buying this blend but it can’t be everyones favorite without a reason right? 

Reading nook blend sips in strong with a malty flavor delicately balanced with the lavender, rose and chamomile. I really want to say that the chamomile mellows out the sometimes overpowering flavor of lavender and creates such a unique cup of tea. I was able to taste every flavor and not have anything over power each other, it was delicate but strong, floral and malty. And NO BITTERNESS. I want this to be my go to tea blend when I read a book but at the rate I read, I would be out of tea with in a couple of days - so I am savoring until I can justify making another big purchase to Plum Deluxe. 

A little about the company - they hand blend their teas every month keeping it fresh and use organic ingredients. They are also based in Oregon (my home state!) And! They have a tea of the month club for 10 dollars. My only gripe is everything, and I mean every tea in their store is 7$ an oz. Not very cheap but it is so worth it. I bought 5-6 teas from them. Reading nook blend came into 1st place and Oregon Breakfast tea came in a close second (black tea with hazelnut and orange.. so good).

Now if you are familiar with any of my reviews from the dawn of this blog, I used to post so much about Butiki teas - they made awesome blends and most of it tasted divine. But, they closed. Plum Deluxe is now my new butiki teas. They are my holy grail for tea blends and I honestly can’t wait to make another order. (Slowly I will TRY EVERYTHING!!!) So if there is a tea from their website you would like to hear about before possibly buying, send me a PM and I will buy it for you and drink it and I guess… review it :P

Oh - and if you are curious as to what I am reading it is “Heir of Fire” from the “Throne of Glass” series!

Be sure to follow my instagram! @tea_tography

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

In Nature teas contacted me on my instagram to review a tea from them!

They sent me one of my favorite kinds of tea which is milk oolong. I was confused by the name when I saw it but once I smelled the tea I instantly knew it was milk oolong and google helped confirm that. 

I heated up my kettle to 195F - using 5.5g of leaf I steeped it for 15 seconds initially.

I love watching the leaf unfurl in my pot. BTW This is a brand new tea pot from Bitter leaf teas. it’s 110ml and it pours really fast! Absolutely love it.

Look at that golden color! Beautiful <3

Time for my thoughts. This tea has a light buttery flavor kind of like popcorn mixed with some hints of caramel. It really starts to shine around the 3rd steeping and around the 6th it tapers off. I always love milk oolongs for their creamy-ness and overall sweetness they can bring, it’s like having desert without the calories! My only gripe about this tea is when it steeped there was quite a bit of sediment sitting at the bottom of the cup so I strongly recommend using a fine filter with it. Some of the leaves were broken and I found a few stems but overall it didn’t affect the taste of this tea. If you are looking to try milk oolong but don’t want to pay the steep price a lot of companies have this one is very affordable! Almost 8$ for 50g (2~ ounces) AND SURPRISE! They sent me a discount code for my followers which is like OMG? Hello? Why don’t more companies do this? For 20% off of their teas be sure to use the code Jordan20 !!! Or don’t, I do not get anything out of it, I just find it awesome that you have the chance to get a 20% discount if you liked this review and want some of the tea! In Nature teas is a UK based company so I highly recommend getting some if you are in the UK especially! 

ALSO! I launched my blogger website for dedicated tea reviews! If you prefer that platform - be sure to check it out here!

Be sure to follow my instagram! @tea_tography

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

Here’s all of my matcha gear! Whisk, chawan, matcha and scoop

It recommends 2-3 scoops of matcha into your chawan. However, you always want to preheat your chawan with hot water first. 

Sift your matcha into the chawan and then you can add hot water - 165-170F 

First add a little bit of water (20-50ml) and whisk it to a watery paste, this will help when you add the rest of the water to get good froth. 

Now whisk back and forth in zig zag motions really fast! This was my second time making matcha so my foam wasn’t on point, but I can assure you, its much better now! You want nice thick foam with small bubbles. 

For the taste test! This Matcha is extremely good, its in the middle of being sweet and grassy. You can take it like a shot or make huge slurps as you down it. I found this to be really flavorful and definitely way better than anything you would get at a store - most of the Matcha you will buy at a store has an overpowering bitterness. This was nice and sweet and I find that the froth really cuts the bitterness. Weird, huh? O-cha has a lot of amazing options for Japanese tea so you should check out their store here

ALSO! I launched my blogger website for dedicated tea reviews! If you prefer that platform - be sure to check it out here!

Be sure to follow my instagram! @tea_tography

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

As you can see, this tea is in the shape of a heart! It smells like rose florals and woodsy black tea.

Steep this tea at 205F for 2-3 minutes. You can get roughly 3+ steeps out of it.

The brewed aroma is strong but not purfumey like I expected. The tea broke up into a lovely brew and the color was like dark amber. Taste wise this tea had tones of rose, smooth woodsy notes and lingering floral. Overall this tea is very pleasant and easy to sip on a chilly day. It had its own level of sweetness so I didnt’ feel like I had to add anything extra. For a scented black tea this is a great choice. 

Unfortunately this tea is part of a kick starter that I helped photography wise so you can’t get it individually, but if you are slightly new to the tea journey dipping your toes into loose leaf, I definitely recommend getting a subscription from them! You can find this tea here.

ALSO! I launched my blogger website for dedicated tea reviews! If you prefer that platform - be sure to check it out here!

Be sure to follow my instagram! @tea_tography

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

Today’s tea is Museum Tea. A rough day calls for a cast-iron teapot, and mine makes about a cup and a half; that means two tea scoops instead of one and a half. The math might be funny but it seems to work!

I don’t usually care as much for flavoured teas. They can be fun, but the flavourings often obscure the taste of the tea. (I don’t have this problem with coffee - witness my desperate love of frappuccinos.) But this one is just berries and rose hips, and somehow it really works. It’s almost like a lightly flavoured sweetener was added to the tea, and you can still *tell* it’s tea.

I originally ordered this on a friend’s recommendation and next time will get a bigger tin!

Six-minute steep in cast-iron pot. Bit of sugar, less milk than usual.

So I decided I may as well keep a tea log, partly to keep track of teas I want to buy again and partly so I can look back on it and laugh at myself. And possibly a book log, but that’s for another day. Today’s tea is quite a nice Assam. It’s a single-estate organic fair-trade (though I’m not certain offhand who certifies either of those things). They recommend 1-2 Perfect Spoons and a 2-7 minute steep. I typically use a spoon and a half or so, and this time tried a 6-minute steep. It comes out strong and naturally quite sweet, though it didn’t seem particularly malty for an Assam, and it holds up well to milk and sugar. DAVIDsTEA doesn’t mention whether it’s first or second flush (so I’m kind of assuming first).

I really enjoy this tea, but (tea snob alert (yes, I consider myself a tea snob even though I add milk and sugar (sorry Mom))) I would probably like it even more if I hadn’t once had an SFTGFOP. The struggle is real.

Snobbery aside, this one is going on the Buy Again list.