Just Organic Tea

Sipdown! This smells nicely fruity and lighter than most EGs—in my case this is good, because some bases get way too strong for me. I prefer more bergamot and less black tea kick.

The taste is pretty standard for an EG. Not particularly offensive but I don’t love it. It is a little bitter for my taste but it’s not nearly as bad as some EGs I’ve tried. So far all of this company’s teas are solid, but this isn’t one I’d buy.

Sipdown! (227) I’m alternating high-caffeine teas with lower ones today so hopefully I won’t get the caffeine headaches I sometimes get. Although I have a headache from the weather already, so maybe it wouldn’t make much difference anyway…

I brewed this lower this time since the bag said to, and I think it’s produced a good cup. The smell is somewhere between a Ceylon and Sinharaja, which is a very good thing to smell like in my opinion. The taste is like a honeyed Ceylon—the same bright, citrusy flavor, but slightly sweeter and more mellow. I’m impressed with this one! If I didn’t already have enough of this type of tea I’d restock it.

Brewed this a little different from the steeping instructions, because it was already getting really dark and I didn’t want it to get up and walk away! As before this smells strong. I think it might be the base. There’s a lot of black tea smell and a little apricot, and I’m getting lemon myrtle too.

This is a decent fruity black tea. There’s no bitterness to the base like I’ve noticed with other apricot teas, but it is too astringent for my taste. The lemon keeps it from being boring, and there’s a juiciness to the aftertaste. I probably wouldn’t restock but this cup is pretty good!

Sipdown! Although technically not because it wasn’t in my cupboard yet. The look of the dry tea is good: the spice chunks are much larger than I expected. It also smells really spicy, which is a good start.

The taste of this is intensely spiced. For me this is a good thing, but for people who don’t like cloves and ginger I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s not a sweet spice tea at all, so it stands up well to sugar, and when I added a little milk it became the closest thing to pumpkin pie tea I’ve had. This was a great cup to wake up with!

I was also sent a sample of sugar with my tea samples, and I admit I am no sugar expert, so forgive any lack of nuance that a real connoisseur of sugar might notice. The Organic Sugar is made from evaporated cane juice and it tastes quite pure, only having a faint molasses aftertaste along with the sweetness. Adding it to tea does not alter the taste the way some sweeteners do (for example, honey makes the tea taste like tea with honey and not just sweetened tea) and it does not make it exceptionally sweet.

If you are anything like me, then you are hiding from the Super Bowl and all of its fanfare someplace far away. Yes, I am not much of an American Football kind of person (I will watch real Football though, that I enjoy) and find this time of year tedious because it is EVERYWHERE, see, it even managed to sneak onto my blog. One thing I do admire is the player’s and fan’s level of commitment to their passion, because it is supposed to get cold. Speaking of cold, how about some hot tea?

Today’s tea is Oothu Black Tea from Just Organic Tea (who also has an awesome Kickstarter running) a black tea from the Oothu Tea Estate in Manimuttar, India. This tea is both Fair Trade and Organic, which is awesome, assuming the tea taste good. The aroma of the tea is quite sweet, blending notes of molasses and baking bread with a slight undertone of roasted peanuts. It is rich and warming, just what one expects from a black tea.

Once the leaves have taken a dip in the steeping Jacuzzi, the aroma becomes bright and oaky with a hint of loam, it fades to caramel sweetness with an end note of roasted peanuts. The liquid is also bright and oaky with a loamy quality and tiny hint of peanuts. Again the aroma is rich and warming, I swear that has nothing to do with being cold!

Time to sip the dark delights in my fancy German teacup (in all honesty I think it is supposed to be a coffee cup.) The taste is surprisingly sweet and creamy, it manages to be fairly smooth while also being brisk and a touch astringent. The taste is a blend between molasses and oak wood, and has a slightly dry mouth feel. Adding a bit of cream and sugar brings out more of the caramelized sugar quality and takes away the tiny bit of astringency, but it also loses its edge. I definitely prefer this one straight.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/02/just-organic-tea-oothu-black-tea-review.html

Just had my first cup of hot tea from Just Organic Tea. I had the Pumpkin Spice Chai and it was really good. Very smooth with no grainy aftertaste. It also was a good balance of spices. Looking forward to more!

I had this tea as an iced tea and it was perfect! It blended well, was extremely smooth, and a rich but not overwhelming flavor (I had it a little less strong which I liked). I will definitely drink this tea again.