Gurmano Tea

This is an alright flavoured green tea. It has a distinct mango flavour and a bit of a tang that reminds of me orange juice (from concentrate, not fresh stuff). Sadly, the green tea base doesn’t shine through too much, and I’m finding myself pickier and pickier about flavoured greens.

There’s nothing wrong with this – it may be getting a bit old but it hasn’t aged too badly. I think it’s mostly just not to my taste any more.

This tisane is what originally motivated me to place my giant Gurmano Tea order a while back. I used to go for afternoon tea on a regular basis at International House of Tea, and for a while they had this amazing Turkish Apple tea, which was just apple pieces, but had a beautiful lemony note when steeped. It got discontinued and so in my hunt for a pure apple tisane that would replace it, I ordered this.

There’s nothing at all wrong with this, but I had a very specific flavour profile in mind when I bought it, and this doesn’t match. There’s tartness, but it’s not a lemony kind of tartness – more of an apple skin tart, and the flavour just isn’t as full bodied and balanced as I was hoping. It leaves me wishing for a different kind of tart and more appley sweetness.

A bit of palm sugar and a drop of lemon juice helps it along, though I can’t help but wish it was something else.

If anyone can recommend a really bright, lemony apple tisane, that would make me super happy.

Edit: Omg, I think they brought it back! I don’t remember it having extra flavourings, but I could easily have been mistaken. Dear god, I need to resist the impulse to order more. ToT http://www.internationalhouseoftea.com/products/turkish-apple-fruit-tisane-elma-cay

I bought this tea over a year ago, and I must have quite liked it at the time, because the bag is almost empty, and I still have half full bags of other teas from that order.

Last night’s cup was okay but not something I’d reach for. A nice amount of pineapple, but the most medicinal tasting rooibos I have ever had. I don’t know if I enjoyed that flavour more in the past, or if it’s developed as this tea has aged a bit.

Drinkable, but way too medicinal.

Pleasant but nondescript. It’s got a kind of generic fruity green tea thing going, and nothing distinctive that I can identify. To be fair it’s also been sitting in my cupboard for ages. Really easy to drink, but not memorable.

I probably have at least an ounce of this left, but I’d hate to run out of this (the company I bought it from doesn’t appear to stock it anymore, but I think I found another seller.)

The dried leaf is really pretty – pale grey-green bamboo leaves cut diagonally into rhombus shape, sprinkled with bits of candied fruit.

The taste is really unique – it’s sweet and fruity, a touch tart, and there’s this slightly grassy, slightly earthy, almost peachy taste that I can only assume is from the bamboo leaves. But for all the bamboo I’ve eaten in savoury dishes, I’ve never actually had the leaves before.

There’s a bit of lemon, some lychee and pineapple, but for the most part the flavours blend together pretty seamlessly, which makes it delicious but hard to pick out distinct notes.

This is a nice green. Sencha base with a bit of vegetal and juicy fruit notes, mango, strawberry, pineapple. Touch of astringency, a bit perfumey.

This is a nice green tea base, with a hint of peachiness. There are vegetal notes and a lot of dry hay taste, a bit earthy, a bit tangy, and a wee bit sweet and fruity.

It’s not terribly exciting, but it was a pleasant cup for this evening. Second steep was less peach and fairly mild tasting overall.

Down to the last bits in the bag. This one is pleasant. Lots of summer fruit – peach and pear. Light, with a fair bit of tang on the nose and a touch on the tongue. A hint of creaminess. Vegetal notes from the green tea – fairly sure it’s a sencha. A smooth, easy drink.

A pleasant cup to drink, but nothing really distinctive about it. The strawberry comes out a bit, and there’s maybe a hint of rhubarb tartness at the back of the mouth, but it’s more of a generic green tea with fruit flavour (though at least it’s not just generic tart fruit, which I tend to really dislike.) There’s a touch of astringentness that lingers on the tongue after the sip. but isn’t really noticeable immediately.