3 Leaf Tea

When I opened this bag I was greeted by the strong fresh scent of oranges! It reminded me of my parent’s house in California where there is a grafted tree that produces oranges all year round.
My first sip was concentrated and unpleasant, but after the addition of some creamer to dilute it, it turned to a really nice creamsicle type flavor. The orange flavor is really true to life and full. I don’t really taste much matcha beyond the orange, but that cup was enjoyed and went down the hatch faster than I expected!

I’ve finally made my way to this brew. The powder is glowing! This matcha has a beautiful color. I absolutely love it! The powder carries a fresh and creamy spring scent. I take in short sniffs of vegetation and wildflowers. This is a very nice matcha. I prepare my chawan and get to brewing. The warmed powder has a deep creamy scent. It’s an almost chocolate milk aroma. I prepared this usucha and koicha. This is so creamy and delicious. I was able to whisk up a thick and textured froth in my chawan. The brew remains a vibrant emerald green. The smell is of pure life. I take a sip from my bowl, and it’s as if you can feel your body awaken. The taste is smooth with incredible depth. I take in tones of vegetal, algae, cream, and almost an almond flavor. I recommend if you are brewing koicha to reaaaally sift the powder. This matcha does clump very easily. Otherwise, this is an incredible drink. I really appreciate being able to try this. I shared my brew with many others, and they agree that it is a brilliant brew.

https://instagram.com/p/8G-0vbzGcs/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://instagram.com/p/8G_7sLTGfI/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

First tasting note in a long time! I used to write tasting notes at work all the time but we’ve been SWAMPED lately.

I recently ran out of flavored matcha and decided to finally place a 3 Leaf tea order. I believe it was thelastdodo who gave me a sample of their coconut matcha a while back. I love coconut and for the price their flavored matchas are a steal. I ordered a large package of coconut matcha and a sample of the raspberry. I drank the raspberry in cold milk with no sweetner this morning and it was very nice! Not artificial or weird tasting at all. This is one I will pick up more of in the future along with the coconut of course :)

It smells like fresh raspberries. The taste is a little perfume like, but raspberry is in there. It tastes a bit better with cream and the fruity taste would probably be rounded out well with some sweetener. It isn’t something I’m going to be running out to buy, but it does have attention.

I know this is not tea but it is blended by a tea company and hey, it’s hot chocolate! This morning started out at 45 F. The beginning of the month it thought it was July. Now it thinks it is October first thing in the morning. Perfect weather for this one.

Frothed this up in a mug of micronuked milk. I am in love. I am used to the grocery store variety of peppermint cocoa powder. They sort of work. This is a way better. The first sip is so rich, creamy, and chocolaty. Mom use to mix hot cocoa on the stove in the winter. This brings those old memories to mind, however this is like an adult version.

It is sweet but not overly so. I probably notice the sweetness of the pure cane sugar more because I never use real sugar. As I am indulging myself in this decadent mug, I suddenly think where is the peppermint. No sooner does that enter my head, my mouth is filled with the wonderful cooling sensation of the mint. To me that shows great restraint.

When I drink flavored tea, I want to taste the tea first then the flavor. That is exactly what 3 Leaf has done with this hot chocolate. First, deep rich chocolate and then a little something extra to add to it, not distract or take away.

Very nice job!

Water: 8oz

Leaves: small uneven rolls

Steep: 3m

Aroma: Unsure

Color: Golden yellow

Taste: I didn’t realize its been 2 years since my last oolong review. As a result I decided to give this tea a try. As with the previous tea this too was also damaged during shipment. The tea leaves have a distinct aroma but it’s difficult to describe. I started out by rinsing the oolong for 15s followed by a 3m steep (well a little over since i forgot to start my timer lol) The small rolled leaves expanded while brewing they ended up being huge! The little 1 teaspoon grew to being 1/4 cup when I removed the leaved from my cup! The color was golden yellow with great clarity. The flavor of the tea was light, the aroma was stronger than the taste. With the first sip I got bitterness but after with more sips it faded. Overall I found this to be an okay tea.

Thank you 3 Leaf Tea for this sample

Rich, creamy, coconut matcha with almond milk. Is there a better way to start your morning off? Sipdown #28!

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/09/02/making-coconut-matcha-from-3leaf-tea/

Found this with the pumpkin pie matcha I had yesterday. Prepared as a cold latte with sweetener. Peaches and cream. Very yummy.

So, flavored matcha. Besides the green tea Frappe addiction and my own vanilla or caramel syrup creations, I haven’t had any experience. You have to start somewhere, right? Turns out I didn’t need to be apprehensive. This matcha base is from Japan. It is bright spring green. Using my new milk frother (that I am now totally sold on) this mixed super easy and created a super foamy drink. I used Splenda instead of sugar because the monkey misses me. My first impression was this tasted somewhere between the old Stash peach I used to love and actual peach. Then I read Oolong Owl’s excellent review. Of course – peaches and cream, how did I miss that? Smooth and creamy without a hint of bitterness. Definitely a refreshing afternoon sip for me.

The aroma of these pearls is intensely sweet with a heady jasmine scent. It’s like jasmine cotton candy!
The aroma is still decent in the brewed tea, which is a deep straw color. The flavor is unfortunately quite light, for the first steep. The pearls are just looking a little ragged, not really unfurled. The jasmine flavor is present but light. Still the tea is decently silky and lightly perfumed as well as lightly sweet. I am enjoying my cup, but I am a floral lover, and I’m finding myself wishing that the flavor was knocked up a notch. I will be doing a more steeps!
Seconds steep (add 30 seconds) is more jasmine-y and deeper in flavor overall. I thik the base tea is starting to come through.
Third steep (add 1 min): The jasmine flavor is much stronger, and now there’s a cooling evergreen sensation to the steeped liquid.
Fourth steep (+1 min): Little more than a pleasant vague jasmine scent and that silky, pine-y feeling on the tongue.

Pretty darned good, but I wish it had a little more flavor from both the jasmine and the base tea, though I really enjoyed the evergreen aspect, it reminded me of yabao for some reason.

Water: 12oz

Leaves: mini pearls

Steep: 2m

Aroma: Floral

Color: Pale almost clear

Taste: The packing of this tea was in a small plastic sachet, the downside to this is that a majority of the jasmine pearls were crushed during shipment. Besides that the aroma of this tea was great! Having the crushed pearls made brewing a more messy than expected. So i followed threw with brewing for 2m as stated of the packaging. The flavor was light, the aroma remained strong & present after the steeping process.

Thank you 3 Leaf Tea for this sample

Sample was provided for this review. Thank you so much, 3 Leaf Tea!

Prepared Western method, in a disposable filter and mug.

The leaf aroma has notes charcoal and honey BBQ sauce. The liquor, a light gold in color, is medium-bodied and clear. Texture is absent. At first, I mostly taste burning wood and light gray smoke. After a few sips, I become accustomed to the smokiness and I am able to discern a sweet and spicy note, very much like a BBQ sauce. This sweetness dominates for the rest of the cup, with the wood and smoke in the background.

This is a lighter and sweeter Lapsang Souchong. It doesn’t feel heavy and there is not as much smoke as I’m used to. I especially like the simultaneous sweet and spicy flavor.

Sample was provided for this review. Thank you, 3 Leaf Tea!

Brewed in a glass test tube steeper. Steeping times: 2 minutes, 4, 6.

The dry leaf aroma smells of malt and gingersnap cookies, while the wet leaf aroma is almost purely cocoa, with a touch of cinnamon. The liquor color is a lovely dark amber. Fuzzies from the leaf float around, and it’s not until the third steeping the infusion is clear. Smooth-textured with a medium body, the liquor has notes of malt, clove, and nutmeg initially. In the second in infusion there is not as much malt, replaced by sweet potatoes. And the spices from before stand out.

Overall, I liked it, but I’m neutral (there is nothing that I dislike about this per se). The dry leaf has a very nice presentation, and the aromas were yummy, but the taste doesn’t really suit me.

I usually gong fu my oolongs, as of late, but some truly do shine brighter when brewed Western style. I chose to follow the directions on the sample package I received from 3 Leaf, which gave the steeping directions in Western style.
The dry leaf, small balls of emerald green, didn’t smell like much, as often green oolongs are wont to. Maybe a slight sweetness. Brewing, the steam reminded me of Teavivre’s unflavored milk oolong in that it smells like a slightly sweet, green spring day, which at this point is almost a ‘generic high mountain oolong’ smell to me (can you tell that I’ve left off drinking low quality tea? LOL). The leaves unfurled into mostly whole leaves, some looking a bit ragged and a few in pieces.
The liquid is a straw yellow, smooth, and lightly floral. This is not a knock-your-socks-off lilac, like Verdant’s Spring TGY, but it has that light essence of high mountain wildflower-like floral, with a light minerality like a cool snow melt mountain stream. A light sweetness and minerality lingers on the tongue.
To me, the tea is not as floral as many high mountain oolongs, not buttery like a TGY, and not cloyingly sweet like many milk oolongs. This tea would be labelled a high mountain green oolong in a blind taste test, and it very much embodies it’s name.
This is a good every day drinker, when you’re feeling like green oolong but don’t want to be knocked around by powerful flavors. This instead is a good, peaceful drinker.

EDIT: I got a second steep out of this that was much sweeter and a bit buttery; brewed for 4 minutes.

*Note: this tea was provided as a free sample for review from 3 Leaf Tea.

My new phone arrived, yay! Of course the yay is also prefaced with an annoyed groan because I have to learn how to use this one, get all the settings to where I like them, get all the apps, and contacts, and all that fun stuff situated. Electronics can be so complicated in their enjoyment!

Today is Monday, meaning a Matcha day! Today we are looking at 3 Leaf Tea’s Ceremonial Grade Matcha, a vibrantly green little number from Uji, Kyoto. The color on this Matcha really is quite fantastic, the photos don’t do it justice, it is luminous in its greenness, which is a good sign. The aroma of the Matcha pre-whisking is very sweet and creamy, notes of hay and sweetgrass mix with sweet cream and a distant fruitiness. Somewhere between berries in bananas, very light but it adds an interesting depth.

After a sifting and whisking I am greeted with some excellent froth and morimo-algae green liquid. Also, as a side note, when did morimo algae balls get so expensive? They used to be fairly cheap little aquarium friends. Anyway, the aroma of the now frothy Matcha is very sweet and creamy with a slightly green kelp note, very pleasant on my nose. Ok, moment of truth, I have had so many bad Matcha lately that I kinda live in fear now…and yeah, I had nothing to fear, this is some good stuff! It starts sweet, stays sweet, and end sweet, not a hint of bitterness to be found. The underlying notes are intense green, like kelp, zucchini, lettuce and freshly cut grass. On top of that is creamy squash and sweet cream, this Matcha has a lot going on, and I like that, this Matcha was a breath of fresh green air, a pleasant return to tasty form!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/08/3-leaf-tea-ceremonial-grade-matcha.html

Sample was provided for this review.

I loosely followed the directions on the packet. Brewed the packet’s entire contents on the stove top in 8oz of water, brought to a boil, simmered on low for ten minutes, added four ounces of milk and a tablespoon of sugar, and finally brought to a boil again. In the end, an eight-ounce cup was produced, the total amount as the directions recommended.

I’m pleased with the spices included – they are typical, but there are also a good number mixed in. I smelled the clove and the cinnamon as the leaf brewed. As far as taste goes, I’m loving it. I usually don’t add so much milk (even though that’s what one is supposed to do with traditional masala chai) because I’m afraid that the spices would be heavily muted – for blends I purchase from vendor, that is. I have had experiences in which pre-made blends even brewed with only ONE ounce of milk are very weak. So disappointing. But the spices in this blend, especially the black peppercorns, taste fresh and come through strongly. They linger minutes after I swallow and touch the back of my throat.

I’m finding it difficult not to down all of my cup at once. This an excellent blend. Many thanks to 3 Leaf Tea for the free sample!

The weather has been brutal the last week (compared to the rest of winter so far) but today we are getting a brief reprieve. The temp hit abt 50 F! The snow is quickly going away and I am happy happy happy. Tuesday night went to band practice and almost didn’t get out of the car. The sidewalk was excellent but the parking lot was pretty scary.

Anyway, almost grabbed a coke but tea won the debate over lazy. Just a little of this left. Brewed it western style. The instructions say 3 minutes but I went 2. 3 would be better, it is a little light. Dry it smells fruity and of hay. Once steeped the cup is between damp earth and barn. The taste is light and a little dusty with wood, earth, and mild leather notes there is more than a hint of fruit towards the end. It is coating my throat with a sweet syrupy feel.

Note overly complex but more satisfying than what I started to grab.

3 Leaf Tea offered samples for review. I asked for this one in particular as I have never tried a tangerine pu’erh. The brewing instructions are for a western style brewed cup. 1 tsp of leaf and a cup of boiling water with a 3 minute steep.

The dry leaf is very pleasant to sniff. It is hay and fruit. The steeped leaf is barnyard but I know this seldom translates into the cup. The brew is almost ‘tea’ colored but a little more ruby tinted than your average orange pekoe.

The taste is dusty dry spiciness with a hint of tangerine zest. It is not astringent or bitter. There is a gentle but deep earthiness that confirms this is pu’erh. The second cup was pretty much like the first except maybe a touch more towards sweet. Goes down easily.

Not a deeply complex tea but a nice everyday sipper. Seems like a good base to play with your herbs and spices to see what you can invent.

Having this with anime, as it’s not movie time yet. It smells sweet, and nicely floral. There is a floral (perhaps orchid) flavours, with some vegetal/ herbal notes.

Thanks for the sample.

My samples arrived pretty quickly. At about the same time as my DVD from Texas, actually. The leaves have that pretty gold hue. There is lovely yam scent, with a bit of sweetness. It has a mostly sweet potato flavour, with hints of honey. I need to try more later to see how well it goes with historical Chinese movies. Because science?

Thanks to 3 Leaf for this sample. :)

Can’t wait to get home amd make this with some almond milk. Just mixing it with water in a cup I can tell it’s good but doesn’t quite do it justice.

On a trip right now so have to brew the matcha in whatever fashion I can. Most of the time it involves dumping it into a small water bottle and shaking vigorously. This I brewed with hot water and stired with a plastic stir stick. Real fancy…

Definitely getting some hints of sunshine state oranges in there. Not as much…. Uh… Orange zing? As I thought there would be though.

After a few months of gazing longingly at 3 Leaf Tea’s website, I finally decided to place my first order. I ordered butterscotch matcha (60g package) and this raspberry hot chocolate (1/2 Ib package with sugar, not raw cacao). The weather here was pretty bleak, so I decided to try the hot chocolate first…..and now I’m in love.
My first impression of powder was that it smelled divine. The biggest fear I had was that I wouldn’t be able to taste the raspberry, but I was pleasantly surprised. The raspberry was definitely there, but it didn’t over power the taste of the cacao itself. I also think the amount of sugar in the hot chocolate is just the right amount, it takes the bitter edge off the cacao, but not so much that it tastes like your eating a chocolate bar. I definitely look forward to trying 3 Leaf’s other flavors!!

I tried this orange matcha from the Matcha and Green TTB. It’s pretty good, but I wish it had more of the citrus spark from the orange. It tasted more like plain old matcha with a hint of orange. The base was good though – not bitter.