Just Organic Tea

I enjoyed this sample very much. I am beginning to think Assam is one of my favorite blacks, at least if they all have the malty qualities I have experienced so far. This one was no exception. Strong, malty and full.

This is a very bergamot heavy earl grey, which is not my cup of tea. However, with a dash of milk…awesomeness happens. I find plain earl grey to taste a bit soapy on it’s own when it is this strong, but that just means a bit of creaminess is needed to help mellow that sharp flavor a little. The bergamot still shines through with the dash of milk so I can taste it, but no soapy aftertaste. Very good.

Probably the Just Organic Tea I was most excited to try! After tasting the yummy spicyness of the Orange Spice, I knew I had to have the chai next, and I knew it would be good!
Very strongly scented, I was in heaven while this was steeping. So warm and spicy smelling, I couldn’t wait to take a sip.
With a dash of milk and a sprinkle of sugar, this really hit the spot. Creamy spice sweet yummy goodness. Not too heavy on the cinnamon, this was a nice mix of spices. I’m sad to see it go, and when I use up some of my other chais, I might restock.

I can be picky with black teas, I’m always afraid of them being bitter. (Though in hindsight, that’s probably due more to the fact that I never used to watch the brew times and would wayy oversteep everything). But, this morning I was feeling fruity, and after receiving this sample from just organic I found myself steeping this for my first cup of the day.
This tea smelled so yummy, kind of spicy, kind of citrusy. Sipping, I taste mostly cinnamon and spice. This isn’t a bad thing since I love chai so much, but it didn’t satisfy my fruity craving. I wish there was more orange to this spice, but over all I enjoyed it.

First, thank you to the kind folks at Just Organic Tea for the amazingly generous set of samples they sent. I’m looking forward to trying them all!

Just Outstanding Orange Spice was the sample I originally requested, so it is the one I chose to try first. The dry leaf smells amazing. It made my entire kitchen smell like Christmas, all cinnamon and clove.

I steeped the tea according to the directions on the label (195 degrees for 3- 5 minutes). The liquid was pale amber, and the smell was still full of spice, but it wasn’t as strong as the dry leaf. The taste, not surprisingly, was also spice. The dominate spice was cinnamon, but there was a fair amount of clove as well. I could not pick up any orange flavor which was kind of disappointing. I will say that the base tea is really, really good and has a presence even with the strong spices. It is smooth with no bitterness or astringency. There is also a forest floor note that I really liked.

If I were in the mood for an orange tea I’d have to look elsewhere, but if I were in the mood for a cinnamon or spice tea I would happily take a cup of this.

Ok so disclaimer – sugar is sugar to me. This definitely tastes more like the raw sugars that have more of a mollasses taste, but in the end, it is just sugar. Recommended because it is basically impossible to screw up sugar, but whether or not I would ever purchase it would depend entirely on whether the price is competitive with similar brands of sugar.

This was very good – it has distinct spicy flavor that frankly doesn’t remind me of any other chai I have had, and I have had many. I wish I could pinpoint what it is. I had it with a sprinkle of the sugar that came in the sample pack, as well as a dash of milk, and the spiciness still shone through. I could have used more milk and it would have made it even better.

I’m so thankful to get a package of samples from Just Organic Tea! Thank you so much! Quite a few samples. This one is up first. It’s an interesting list of ingredients: green rooibos, blueberries, hibiscus, cinnamon and some flowers. I haven’t seen a blend like this yet. And it’s decaf which is why I picked it tonight. The dry leaves smell sweet. They went into one of my T-Sacs. Just Organic Tea suggests 195 degrees for 4-5 minutes.

Steep #1 // 12 minutes after boiling // 4 – 4 1/2 minutes
I was expecting a red cup, but I realized this is GREEN rooibos. Don’t see many of those! The pinkish color is coming from the blueberry or the hibiscus then. It’s not a red cup, so it’s not a dreaded level of hibiscus. The flavor is a nice combination: I get a hint of blueberry and a little more hibiscus. The hibiscus isn’t an extreme amount, but it is dominant… that’s sad, as I would have loved a dessert-like blueberry and cinnamon cup. There isn’t much of a cinnamon presence either. I don’t like the flavor of green rooibos more than red rooibos, but this works! It’s not a blend I could be in love with, but it’s nice for what is. I’ll love the other teas from Just Organic Tea more…

This smells like pancake syrup or maple syrup to me… though it does not taste anything like either…. haha. It is definitely very warm and pleasant smelling.

I have no idea what Carob tastes like, so I couldn’t tell you if it lends its flavor to this tea or not. I don’t taste a whole lot of vanilla, but it is evident that it is there. Some of the blame for me not being able to taste the flavors entirely is probably on the fact that my water was a little cooler than it called for… but I our water cooler at work only does one temperature… 180 is the best I could do this morning.

Overall its a nice smooth black tea with a warm pleasant flavor, but not one I would run out to purchase again.

It’s cold, rainy, and grey outside this morning….perfect day for a nice Assam, and this tea is exactly what I was looking for.
Bold and malty, refreshing and delightful.
Just a really great cup of tea.
The briskness is ideal for me, since I don’t add sugar or milk to my tea, usually.
This is definitely something I would reach for often.
Thanks Just Organic Tea, for sending me this sample to try.

I was very excited yesterday to find a package full of samples in my mailbox from Just Organic Teas! I was expecting this one and one other, but instead got all twelve of their current offerings! Very exciting stuff.

I love the way this one smells. Such a rich chai with so many spicy layers. I knew I wanted to use this one to try a homemade chai latte for the first time, which is exactly what I did this morning.

I steeped it in about half the water I would normally steep tea in and then whisked in hot vanilla almond milk with a pinch of Just Organic Teas sugar, which was also included in the package I recieved. It turned out pretty tasty, but I think next time I would do two things differently, steep the chai for a bit longer (or use a bit more chai) and use regular almond or soy milk not vanilla. The almond milk definitely masked a lot of the spiciness from the chai, so I don’t feel like I got a chance to really taste this one. It still made for a flavorful and delicious chai latte that I drank every last drop of.

As a side note, making my own chai latte highlighted just how much sugar is really in those starbucks chai lattes… holy cow. I think I am a homemade chai latte convert. And I do believe I will be picking this chai up!

This was one of the teas that I really wanted to try from Just Organic Tea. I love orange – orange everything. The color, the fruit, the flavor. Looking around my desk I have an orange iPad cover, orange headphones, stuffed orange poofy flower thingie, you name it. It’s a signature for me.

Sadly, I did not get much orange from this tea. I liked it, and if you like clove and cinnamon you will like it too. There are bits of orange peel in the mix, but they couldn’t rise above the spice part of the mixture. When I was brewing it I caught myself thinking that it would work great as a holiday potpourri, it smelled that strong.

So a nice tea, for sure – but not an orange tea.

It’s funny how differently reviews come in for teas, isn’t it? Although I guess things taste different to all of us, otherwise we would all like the same things.

I looked through the other reviews for this tea, and saw one that said it was a bold and hearty tea. I didn’t find that to be the case. I thought it was smooth, nice, not very hearty but still good. It had a pleasant flavor. I didn’t expect much flavor because I didn’t smell much from the leaves (even the wet ones), so I was pleasantly surprised when I drank the cup. I could see where the tea could be considered “blissful” since it wasn’t very strong or very weak, it was just sort of in a zen place.

The best way for me to describe this one is hearty. It is a full tasting tea that is a hair astringent but not bitter. It has fruity tastes, but is most definitely not light to me. Great for a chilly cloudy spring morning like today.

I enjoyed this, but think it might be better off iced. It is very fruity but that bit of cinnamon is definitely there. I couldn’t taste many flavors specifically besides mostly fruit and a bit of cinnamon. It was very pleasant, but not necessarily super unique, if that is something you are seeking.

I received this from Just Organic Tea for review. Like most organic sugars I’ve tried, and like another reviewer said, this has a hint of molasses. I actually enjoy that because it makes it a more interesting additive to other things, like adding a very light brown sugar to things. And unlike some other organic sugars I’ve tried, this is easier to dissolve, though still not as easily dissolved as regular sugar. In all, I really enjoy this sugar.

This came in the post today, which was totally when I was excepting it. Yay! It smells like many an orange spice tea I’ve had before. There is a nice scent of orange (made stronger ’cause I just had an orange), cinnamon, and a little cloves. Mmm… spice. The flavour is a bit like an orange chai. I like this one a lot. Thanks Just Organic Teas.

I received a bag of samples from Just Organic Tea and this is the first one I tried. This is a very “warm”-smelling vanilla – the smell sort of reminded me of French toast, in a way. It’s a very natural vanilla, that’s for sure. No fakeness or cloying aroma at all. The black tea base brews up medium-strong. I tend to like really strong black teas, so ideally it would have been a bit stronger, but it’s not bad. Adding milk and brown sugar brought out a biscuity note, and the taste of this was so smooth! The carob might be what’s contributing to that creaminess, but I didn’t really taste a pure carob note (or maybe it has just been a long time since I had carob). This is not like other vanilla teas I’ve tried, but in a good way. Pleasant and easy-drinking. Could work as a dessert tea.

First off, I invited http://steepster.com/lyssakitteh to Steepster today, and she could use some friends if you can follow her!

Second, holy fritos I can’t believe how many samples Just Organic sent me. I had offered to sample/review two of their teas, and they sent TWELVE samples. What a nice surprise!

You know I like my Earl Greys, so this was the first one I pulled out of the pile. They included enough or a good sized cup (maybe a teaspoon and a half, which is perfect). I like it a lot. It’s heavy on bergamot, but that’s…my cuppa tea (had to get it in here somewhere). As another reviewer said, there’s nothing fancy in here like mallow flowers, just black tea and oil of bergamot. It’s really working for me on this nasty, rainy afternoon.

Really impressed with Just Organic so far!

When I opened my mailbox this morning, the samples from Just Organic Tea were there, and they sent quite a few to try! :) Thank you for letting me try your tea!
I glanced through the samples and this one caught my eye…I saw carob, and had to try it. A vanilla with carob?
Opening the little sample baggie, the scent was very pleasing, with carob accenting the vanilla in such a balanced, harmonious way. This doesn’t smell like your run of the mill vanilla black.
The liquor smelled sweet with hints of vanilla and caramel.
There’s no vanilla burn here—just very soft, natural flavours—nothing artificial.
I find the carob to be really interesting here, providing a base note to each sip. The mouth feel is smooth and lovely.
The cup doesn’t scream out vanilla to me, but I’m ok with that. What it does is much more interesting than just a straight up vanilla. As the cup cools, the caramel notes come to the front.
This is a really lovely cup of tea.
Thanks again, Just Organic Tea for offering up these samples to try!

I feel super bad I didn’t get to this one and the Oothu Black during the Kickstarter for Just Organic Tea, but I’ve been really kind of failing at life all over the place lately. So there’s that.

There were whole chunks of cinnamon and clove in the little sample, so I was expecting something kinda spicy. Unfortunately with a bit of milk and sugar, I ended up finding this kind of lacking in that area. The pumpkin flavor is tasty; it’s very much like pumpkin pie, but I think if I were to drink this again I would have to double or triple the amount of leaf to hit the amount of flavor and spice I would typically want in a chai.

Mmm, Earl Grey. One of my absolute favorites. As far as these teas go, this one smells great as it steeps. Pretty heavy on the bergamot oil, but not quite as heavy as what I’ve been drinking from Harney & Sons.

It brews up to a nice dark reddish brown and has a smooth black tea base. Nothing too harsh or bitter. The bergamot is lemony and pleasant. Not overpowering, but it does leave my mouth tingling a bit. Overall, this is a very satisfying Earl Grey. I admit it’s not a very stand-out version, but I like it.

Just Organic Tea’s Kickstarter is in it’s last 5 days! If you can spare a few bucks to help these kind folks out, please do. They’re still about $1300 short of their goal.(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/justorganictea/just-organic-tea-the-very-best-tea-delivered)

Sipdown (203/206)!

So I guess I unknowingly saved the best Just Organic Tea sample for last! I’m not really a chai fan so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this one, but it was really good and really pleasant.

I will start by saying that if you don’t like cloves then this probably isn’t going to be your cup of tea, because cloves were probably the dominating flavour. Personally, I love cloves so I was tickled pink that they were so prominent (Cloves and Fennel are what really sell a Chai for me). It definitely doesn’t hurt that the pumpkin was also nice and sweet and smooth and pretty darn present too. And just a touch of sweet maltiness.

Honestly, I like this better than DT’s highly revered Pumpkin Chai, and once I’m done what I have left of that one I can see myself opting for this instead.

Also, if you haven’t done so you should really check out Just Organic Tea’s Kickstarter Campaign, which will be drawing to a close in about a week. Maybe consider backing them, since they’re only about half way to their goal. Hey, you could even get some of their teas – which have all been quite impressive (especially this one and Oothu Black).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/justorganictea/just-organic-tea-the-very-best-tea-delivered

Sipdown (206/209)!

I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did, but on the whole I was really impressed just like I have been with practically all Just Organic Tea’s samples thus far. In fact, this may be my favourite so far.

I was careful steeping this up, and then I almost added milk without tasting it because often I do cave and add milk in with straight blacks, but I’m really happy I didn’t because this was outstanding on its own. I was actually reminded of Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black (which I’m currently having a hot and heavy love affair with) in some ways, and my first though was that this could be a really suitable replacement for that one if it were ever not available.

The tea was very smooth with no bitterness or astringency, and it had a very thick and full mouthfeel to it, which is always welcomed. I hate tea that seems thin. Taste wise, I picked up notes of baked bread as well as some lovely maltiness and sweetness that was maybe borderline fruity. I think I’ve narrowed down now that what I really love in a straight black is that malt or baked bread flavour, so this having both just sold it for me.

Very good.