JusTea

Sipdown! (27 | 374)

This was an okay chai, but not my favorite.

It’s a bit strong on the clove, and there’s also a lot of fennel. I don’t mind fennel and anise flavors, but here it’s just a bit too much. And for some reason it comes off a bit soapy to me? I’m not sure why, there are a few rose petals but I can’t imagine that’s enough to make a difference. There’s also not enough black tea here for me, I can’t really taste it under the spices.

Anyway, it’s not terrible or anything, just not the chai for me I guess.

Sipdown! (21 | 368)

Finally drinking some tea from the JusTea trio sets I bought in September! We won’t discuss the fact that I just ordered their holiday trio a couple of days ago, without having tried any of their other teas. Oops? It’s hard to resist the combination of holiday tea, beautiful packaging, and supporting a great cause…

This is a very flavorful and high quality tea, but wasn’t a favorite for me. I’m not sure if it’s because it was next to their Earl Grey in the trio, but it has a very noticeable floral-esque sort of note to it for me. Which is odd because I read some of the other notes and didn’t see anyone mention that, so that’s why I’m wondering if it’s a scent contamination thing. Otherwise it’s fairly smooth, has a nice deep, slightly tart fruitiness to it and a hint of a vegetal note. Almost a bit winey, like a Qimen tea. It does remind me a bit of a Sri Lankan black tea as well, with that underlying “tea” flavor and metallic character.

Very nice tea though! I would be interested to try it again, in a format where it wasn’t stored next to the Earl Grey, and see if it tastes different.

I got this tea for Xmas in a tin set that stacks three of their teas on each other. I didn’t realize this one had so much hibiscus in it and that I already have one of the teas or I wouldn’t have put it on my wishlist.
This steeps up tart, but not as obnoxious as most hib. I think the lemongrass mellows it out a bit and rounds out the tartness. There is only a hint of alkaline flatness from the hib. I’m actually enjoying this tea, which is weird for me and such a hib heavy mix. I can drink it as long as I keep pretending it’s a lemon tea.

Came across a tin of this in the kitchen of where I am staying. Nice malty backbone. The bergamot is strong but does not assault like some do. Earl Grey just the way I like it.

I added milk because hooray for a functioning fridge!

And how is everyone coping in these strange and bewildering days?

Sipdown 25- 2021
Another sip down from Dustin’s advent. I really, really like this one. It’s definitely one of the best chocolate teas I’ve ever tried. It’s not artificial tasting at all, and tastes more like unsweetened cocoa powder than a bar of chocolate. Really tasty, and something I’ll be purchasing once I get my cupboard a bit more under control.

Advent from Dustin Day 5
(backlog)
I’ve only tried a couple purple teas, and they’ve all been unflavored, so I was quite excited to see this!
Brewed, this smell extremely chocolatey- like a fresh cup of hot chocolate.
The chocolate flavor is really good. Not at all artificial or thin like so many chocolate teas tend to be. The chocolate also works extremely well with the purple tea, which is earthy and rich on its own.

Thursday 9/24/2020 in North Carolina 71 Degree Rainy and Overcast Afternoon Still under Covid 19 Dumbness,Looking for a Bright Delight this afternoon, Steeped a Mug of Purple Rain (1st Steep) This was the Fruity Brightness that I needed today, Nice Balance of all the Fruit Flavors, LemonGrass, Hibiscus, Apple Pieces, Rosehips, Passion Fruit. I’ll Make the 2nd Cup a Little Hotter first was 195* Gonna keep on Steepin On

Well, I’m back. Again. I’d like to thank whomever’s idea it was to give me a boatload of SNAP because it allowed me the chance to indulge in a couple luxuries I could never afford previously.

This was one of those luxuries.

I’ll start by saying this is a beautiful tea. The presentation in the window top tin, with wooden serving spoon on the side is just divine. I love it. So kudos to Justea for that.

I brewed this up western style, 2tsp/190F/4min/12oz

Taste is… MMM that’s fruity. I never thought I’d see the day when someone did hibi right, but here we are. I didn’t add sweetener to this, and it’s tart. But not overpoweringly tart. It’s just the right balance of tart and sweet, without additives. Also, the liquor is a lovely majenta/purple color from the hibi and I love it in my white mug.

This stuff is just so good and balanced. That’s the key word here – balanced. Hibiscus teas are usually wretched because they come out unbearably sour. This, however, is lovely. I’m glad the tin is pretty decently sized because I can see me going back to this one, and who knows how long they will be handing out extra money.

All in all, great tea.
Now, if I can just figure out how to properly make the matcha I bought, I’ll be golden.

I picked this tea tonight because I am feeling sentimental this Christmas Eve. My husband has been sick for several days, mostly tired and achey and a bit of a sore throat with some upper respiratory issues. We hardly ever have chai and almost never have lattes, but I made him one a few weeks ago and he liked it, so I thought it would be a nice treat tonight.

The reason this is so special is because it is from the last samples ever sent to me by our Steepster friend, K S, before he passed on. You see, he could read between the lines and when he sent me a “you okay?” message, he didn’t believe my “I’m fine!” (I wasn’t.) So he mailed me some tea and an encouraging note.

I wanted it to be extra rich and comforting, so I heated some milk on the stove with a bit of sugar and put in the whole sample pouch of tea and spices. I know true chai is usually half milk and half water, but I am going for Christmas Eve level comfort here!

I strained it into mugs and we drank it while we listened to an old radio broadcast of It’s A Wonderful Life. It was very good, and I see more chai lattes in our future this winter, especially when we have cold spells, something we don’t see an awful lot.

I checked to make sure this company was still in business before posting. They are, and this tea is available on amazon. I like the Justea business model, providing sustainable jobs in Kenya. I hope they do well.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I bought this at the SF Int’ Tea Festival because I’ve heard of Kenyan tea but not have had a chance to sample. I tried their jasmine flavored version and thought it was good. A friend tried the chocolate or mint and also found it tasty. However, I really just wanted to try JUST the Kenyan purple tea without any flavors. I had to ask them if I could taste JUST the purple tea without any flavoring, but they didn’t have it brewed, so I bought this untasted.

The tea leaves are small and have a purple tinge to them.
The dry leaves smell faintly of plum.
The warm (not wet) leaves smell more of plum and a light roast.

I brewed this in two different ways.
- Western
- GongFu

TL;DR — Western Style: Hardly any flavor
GongFu style — MUCH too bitter, even at a low temp/short steep times.

WESTERN:
I brewed this per their recommendation on the bag: Western Style 1tsp (3g) for 1cup water @ 175F for 3 minutes. (NOTE: Their website suggests 3g at BOILING WATER for 3-5 minutes)

Steep 1 : Tea broth: a very pale dirty yellow
Flavor: Extremely mild flavor. There’s hardly any initial flavors, only hints of toasted flavors, but nothing discernible. There’s an extremely mild astringency as my whole tongue dries out just ever so slightly. The water at 175 deg F isn’t helping leach out any of the flavors. (This is when I check their website and find that they recommend BOILING WATER)

Steep 2: 4 minutes @ 208degF
Leaf aroma: there’s a vegetal / roasted scent
Liquid aroma: A very mild fruity (not plum, no stone fruit) scent.
Flavor: There’s an extremely mild sweet vegetal notes. And a bit more astringency than the first steep. It’s not really all that much flavorful than the first steep

Conclusion for Western: When brewed to their recommendation, this tea has hardly any flavor, which is why they probably mix it with other things.

GongFu
Tea: 5grams / Water: 150ml

Flavor: First thing that hits your mouth is BITTER. I can’t even finish drinking it as it’s so bitter.

Conclusion: Won’t drink this stuff as GF. A higher tea to water ratio does not necessarily make this tea flavorful.

Teabox Tuesday! This is one of the teas I’ve had stashed from the Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you to tea-sipper for organizing and all those that participated and shared! I always meant to try this sooner, and I think my brain thinking that a lot of these teas “should” be drunk gong fu style is what has held me back, as I rarely have the time to do a session. Finally today I just said “screw it” and made it western (easier for me, especially as I can take that out the door to work in my thermos). I had 3.3g in my sample and just brewed it all up in 450ml of water, and since I had no idea how purple leaf tea should be brewed, I used the recommendations from their website for 175F water and a 3 minute steep.

The leaf unfurls to be very full, reminding me a Jin Xuan oolong in appearance, with a strong stewed vegetal aroma. The color of the tea is a pinkish-brown color that is very pretty. The flavor is reminding me of a mellow Chinese green tea, as I’m getting that slight beany flavor that I find in Long Jings and Pi Lo Chuns; there is also a weak, floral oolong quality, though the vegetal flavor comes on stronger. There is no bitterness on the sip, but the tea does leave my tongue with a fairly strong lip-smacking/tongue-drying aftertaste. I’m curious if cold-steeping this would eliminate that and create a more refreshing “clean green” flavor.

It’s a nice enough mellow, afternoon pot of tea sort of brew, and I’m glad for the opportunity to try it!

Yesterday morning I woke up early.
It was chilly in the house and I knew I needed a good strong, hot cuppa.
Since I was sleeping over at my boyfriend’s house, I didn’t have my full cupboard.
Lucky for me, I did bring Justea’s Earl Grey.
It had been quite awhile since I’d had a cup, but when I popped the lid off the tin….
Ahhhhh, heaven in a sniff.
I enjoyed my morning brew so much, I ended up having 3 more cups through the day.
It’s a lovely, well-balanced Earl Grey.
Not too bitter or astringent, and just enough bergamot to be tasted but not overwhelming.
I remember why this is my favorite.

Wasn’t too strong, I loved this even unsweetened. 4.5/5

Discovery TTB #20

The purple oolong from this box was a surprise hit for me, so I decided to sample the other purple tea as well. There was barely a teaspoon of this tea left in the box, so I brewed up a single cup and finished it off. The color wasn’t as “purple” as I was hoping…more of a light, slightly blueish brown. And the flavor was surprisingly light (it tasted like a very mild green tea) and unpleasantly astringent. Not a fan!

These leaves are very dark with a purple tint to them. Once steeped, they unfurl to show they are rather large, green, and purple. The color of the brew is a pale green. It has an earthy smell. The taste is faint at first, also earthy, but lingers a bit. It doesn’t really have much flavor, in my opinion. And what it does have, isn’t that great. This was a sample. I don’t think I will drink this again.

It’s the first day of National Black History Month! I looked through my teas and couldn’t find a single tea that was from a black owned company! :( Second best thing is this tea, which is picked by Kenyan farmers. Jamilla is the farmer who is featured on my tin.

I’ve gone through half this tin in two years. It’s a good tea, but I usually want more from chocolate than just chocolate alone so I feel like I really have to be in an extra chocolatey mood to appreciate it. It’s very raw dark chocolate like. It has that sour tang that dark chocolate gets. Maybe it’s the addition sugar that usually mellows that out? It’s more of a raw than a refined chocolate taste. It reminds me both of the smell of walking into a shop that actually grinds their own beans to make chocolate and the biproduct of the process, the shells, that get sold in giant bags for gardening purposes. I’ve bought a bag of that ground cover before and it goes through stages of smelling really good and chocolatey like this tea and going a bit sour when it starts to decompose and stay damp under a few layers. I can’t pick out the tea in this under the chocolate domination. I’d love to see this company expand on the use of cacao shells with chocolate orange or chocolate mint combos, much like Tikal used to do. So few companies experimenting with cacao shells!

Tried some of this tea at the SF tea festival a few weeks ago. From what I understand, purple tea is a type of tea leaf that isn’t commonly used. I recall Butiki having a purple tea offering, but I don’t recall being taken by it. Anyways, there were four blends this company had made with purple tea. I chose this one because of the chocolate aspect. It reminded me of Mezzo’s now discontinued chocolate tisane that I loved. This blend lacks the cinnamon and coconut that the other blend has, but it is nice on it’s own. I don’t get much tea flavor coming through, mostly the chocolate notes. I over steeped and any bitter notes are blending well with the chocolate. It looses a little bit of it’s appeal as it cools, but adding cream at that point makes it interesting again. I’m expecting this tea to become a favorite.

135/365

From the Regional Group Buy. The leaves have a purple tinge to them, but the tea itself brews up a pale green-ish brown. At least, it does for me. It’s nothing like the purple in the picture on the card that came with this one, but maybe it’s my fault for keeping it too long. I’m thinking probably not, but since I actually don’t know I think we’ll just move along…

In flavour terms, it tastes a lot like a green tea. It’s fairly sweet, with a light edamame flavour. There’s something else there in the background, too; a flavour almost like the smell of melted plastic? I’m aware that makes very little sense, but it’s what I’m getting, and right at the back of the throat.

I’m okay with this one, but it’s not quite as unique as I hoped. I’ve tried two purple teas before (one from Butiki and one from Tealux, I think, which came in the form of unicorn horns.) I don’t remember either being quite what I expected, and this one isn’t either, so perhaps purple tea just isn’t my thing. Always worth a try, though.

133/365

From the Regional Group Buy. This black is one I’d characterise as “lighter” in terms of both flavour and mouthfeel. Something I’m enjoying about trying these teas close together is the level of contrast between teas from the same geographical area – especially given that most of them are either black or oolong. Both of the group buys I participated in with LP have been illuminating in this way, and I love how it makes me question my assumptions and preconceptions (some of them I didn’t even know I’d made…)

Anyway. This one is interesting, because at first sip it reminds me very much of whisky; it has both a richness and a peaty, earthy sweetness. The end of the sip is smooth and honey-like, but the whisky vibe remains throughout and lingers well into the aftertaste. It’s almost like the teas was aged in barrels, but I’m almost certain that wasn’t the case here.

Although the flavour is distinctive, it’s not heavy. It seems almost to dance across the palate. I have another tea from this grower that I’m now really excited to try, and I’d certainly seek them out again in the future.

2022 Sipdown 29/365!

I never really got this tea to work for me – it was a bit astringent, and didn’t really have a distinct flavour that I could correlate with it being “purple”. Perhaps I didn’t brew it carefully enough? Either way, thanks for the share, whoever sent this to me! It was interesting to try despite the disappointment!

Unsure who this sample is from (Sil, VariaTEA?) as it was in the bag of teas from Sil’s house. Decided to give it a shot tonight, and I think I may have oversteeped it or overleafed, as it’s pretty astringent. It does remind me of the purple spear tea (unicorn? I don’t remember what they were called) from… a company… although I’m not sure if I would have made that association if I didn’t know this was a purple tea. (My memory is super bad tonight, maybe I’ll fill in the details later if I remember.)

I’ll have to give it another try more carefully. Thanks for the sample, guys!

additional notes: Forgot about this favorite! I guess it’s January… the time I usually rediscover some good teas I haven’t had in a while and not the last servings of teas in a rush to meet sipdown goals by the end of the year. A nice soothing, light mint with some creamy properties. Very little purple tea, at least in my sample, but I’d buy this again for the mint. I don’t expect these ingredients to meld THIS WELL. Note to self: one teaspoon is enough. It’s available on Justea’s site right this very moment… Raising the rating from 90.

I’m very thankful you sent this over, JusTea! A lovely mint tea on a hot day. The tea looks like mostly mint with a piece of rose petal or purple leaf occasionally in the blend, maybe that is just my sample. The mint is mmmmm delicious. Sweet and strong, just the way I like it. The second steep is even more magic, sweet and full minty flavor. I figured I could steep close to boiling on the second cup because it is mostly mint. I didn’t try to add lemon to make it purple this time. I wanted to enjoy the lovely mint as is! If you want a great mint option, this one is perfect.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug// 27 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

Finished this one off as well – this is a damn fine mint tea when you want mint around. What i didn’t try, but might be fun with this one, would be to use it to make a mojito :)