Nature's Tea Leaf

Gmathis and Ashmanra’s comments the last few days have me craving this one. It’s a dreary gray rain-soaked December morning – the perfect time for a great hearty tea. Malt, grain, and cocoa, and that is before it ever hits the water. If you don’t have a clear steeping vessel, you really owe it to yourself to get one. I use a so-called 4-cup Bodum French Press. It is really a two-mug press but what do I know. Anyway, the leaf danced the entire time this was steeping. I am sure it was a ‘happy, happy, joy, joy’ dance. This is a very dark, rich, luxurious cup of tea. It’s even better than I remembered. AND when it gets cold it is super delicious. Staying with this one the rest of the day. Upping the rating. Highly recommend!

Someone who is well gifted with words and the craft of separating flavor notes should do a side by side of this, Bailin Gongfu, and Golden Monkey – my three favorite black teas. They are similar but very different at the same time, though I can’t describe how they are different.

The dry leaf is dark, small, sharp, and wiry. It smells a bit of grain. I used 1 1/2tsp for 12oz of water heated to approx 195F. I steeped for 2 1/2 minutes in my press. The brew is dark caramel and still has the grain scent as does the wet leaf. The leaf is small fairly evenly cut pieces and chocolate in appearance.

There is no question this is a Fujian tea from the very first sip. It has that honey sweet, grainy goodness with more than a hint of malt. It has the yam notes. Yet there is something unique about it as well. It has what I can only describe as a darker edge way low underneath that comes out more in the sweet lingering aftertaste. The cooler the cup becomes the more I am detecting this as a roasted note or light smoke.

As the cup emptied I noticed the scent of the leaf still in the press. It was fruity with hints of chocolate. I needed a refill. Cup two is similar to cup one, sweeter with less of the darker notes.

Cup three is lighter. Still very flavorful. I read a description somewhere on the net that compared Fujian Congou to a cross between Yunnan and Keemun. Yes, I agree.

Thanks Nature’s Tea Leaf!
The samples came today in a nicely packed box. They look and smell wonderful, and there’s a whole ounce of each! This is my first Fuijan black, so take my review with a pinch of salt. :)

Dry leaves: Opening the pouch, there is a bold aroma of pepper and clove with a melon coolness. The leaves are longer than those of most blacks, and are jet black in color with a few golden tips.

Steeping: This tea brews up to a nice warm brown color. The leaves expand and unfurl to a smooth muddy, melted chocolate brown.

Tasting: This is a nice, bold black tea. It’s pleasantly bitter with a woody, peppery body and notes of cocoa, clove, and citrus.

I’ve been craving this tea for awhile now, and finally gave in. I love white teas, but it’s another tea I tend to conserve and not drink too often.

This pot will not last long. I was up most of the night sick with I don’t know what, but I feel like my head is going to freeze off. I’m chugging this tea to stay warm. I like the sweetness here, but since I was impatient, I just chucked in the leaves so it’s getting oversteeped and weird bruised fruit tasting.

I’m going to sit with my rabbit and drink tea. He’s nice and warm.

Thank you out to NaturesTeaLeaf for a sample of this for review! Very generous amount too, so I made a pot’s worth for this tasting!

Silver Needle white tea, hmmm. I don’t drink too many unflavored white teas, but I have a couple in my tea stash. Ones I do have I find kinda flat with not much flavor. Let’s see how this tea does.

DRY LEAF: Fresh earthy smell. Very light weight tea. The leaves were kinda fuzzy /petpet

STEEPED: Smells slightly sweet and fruity with a hint of earthyness. Nice pale yellow gold tea.

TASTE: Sweet and rich! The sweetness flavoring reminds me of golden raisins almost as it has a warm, fruity, gold sweetness to it. This tea is full of flavor but light. Very refreshing and pure tasting.

COMMENTS: Very good, I enjoyed how much flavor is in this tea – I didn’t know white tea packed this much taste on its own! I should really explore into the unflavored white teas some more.

I’m amazed at how much this SMELLED like actual Cider! It was spot-on! Awesomely juicy, spicy, festive blend of flavors! Once infusion was complete – the aroma died down a bit – but it was still a gentle yet true cider aroma. The color of the tea-liquid was that of a weaker-black but the taste was great!

The apple flavors were PERFECT here! The spices were ‘just right’ and this cup was VERY true to it’s name and quite enjoyable. Very tasty! Satisfying! Natural tasting! I have to say…I really REALLY like this! Nice home-run!

This is certainly a rainbow of a blend! Wow, ten ingredients. I think it matters what ingredients you get in your infuser as to what this tastes like, since there are so many big flowers here. I tried to pack my infuser as much as possible. My steep color is a light green, though apparently it is supposed to be amber? The first taste I get is mint. I think there is a hint of the rosemary and lemon but it’s really a fresh and clean flavor. I’m not getting any of the flavor of any of the flowers or the pu-erh but maybe with so many flavors they are combining into one unique flavor! It seems to me like most teas would be “slimming” since you are drinking tea and not something with calories, but I like that this has a ton of other health benefits too. I’ll be trying this again since it seems every cup of this would be different (three of these flowers, four of these flowers… that sort of thing.) Thanks so much for the samples, Nature’s Tea Leaf!

Naturestealeaf.com sent me a coupon code for anyone to use for 10% off before 10/31: STEEPTY10OFF

Not bad, not bad. I don’t like hibiscus, as I’ve mentioned many times, but, when it’s not brewed too long it doesn’t taste bad at all. And because I only steep green teas about 2 minutes (which is exactly how long I brewed this) the hibiscus didn’t have enough time to get too tart or syrupy. It adds a nice berry-like tartness to the cup which melds nicely with the orange notes.

Overall, it’s pretty good. It’s got a sweet and sour thing going on, with the tart notes most noticeable near the tail end of the sip and in to the after taste, while the sweeter notes are up front.

An interesting cuppa.

This is the first iced tea I’ve made! Basically because Nature’s Tea Leaf was kind enough to send me samples and this one is supposed to be iced. I just brewed it normally and stuck in the fridge for a while. That probably wasn’t the right way to do it! But it seems like I wouldn’t get much flavor if I just steep a tea with cold water. I love the rosemary in this one! It’s very savory and reminded me of Thanksgiving or something! Otherwise, it was very bitter. I’m not sure from what… maybe the lemon? Ginger isn’t really my thing either. I know what the white peony tea should taste like, since I’ve had Teavivre’s, but I couldn’t tell this was a white peony tea upon tasting it.

I decided to also try it as a hot tea with fresh leaves, since I might not be giving it a fair review as an iced tea. I like it better hot! It isn’t bitter at all, like it was when it was cold. The rosemary tasted better (or stronger?) in the iced tea, but while sipping it hot, it was like I was drinking soup! Fun. That’s not something that usually happens when I’m drinking a tea! I’d say the rosemary is the strongest flavor here. This tea is okay, the rosemary definitely helps it, but again, I might not be brewing it right.

Naturestealeaf.com sent me this coupon to share with anyone on Steepster for 10% off an order before 10/31: STEEPTY10OFF

I do love all the natural flavorings in Nature’s Tea Leaf’s teas. Not “natural flavors” but: my cinnamon oolong has big chunks of cinnamon bark in with the oolong tea – and that’s all. Using dried herbs, fruits, and flowers makes the flavors more real, but also often makes them blend better in my experience.

This is a green oolong, which I generally find buttery and floral, but a pretty light one. There’s a lot of cinnamon in the aroma, but the taste is well-balanced and, yes, buttery. therefore it reminds me of cinnamon rolls :D It’s not like eating a cinnamon roll – not sweet enough, also liquid – but it’s intensely reminiscent of one.

there’s a little bit of astringency or dryness when drinking – not enough to be unpleasant, rather it gives the tea some heft and character. There’s a lovely lingering aftertaste that has some of those floral notes I was expecting, and that were subdued in the scent and drinking taste.

ETA: On a second steep the cinnamon is less pronounced, but still present and adding a pleasant sweet/spicy richness to the oolong.

Very enjoyable! Unique and highly recommended

2tsp leaf to 8oz water, as recommended

I cold-brewed this, probably for ~8-10 hours, instead of steeping hot and pouring over ice as it says on the pouch. Sadly I don’t have the capability to create ice!
Thanks to Nature’s Tea Leaf for the sample of this!

It’s okay. I’m not a big ginger person, so that’s a bit of a negative for me. I get some of the orange more in the orange rind flavor than anything. There’s a little bit of sweet fuzziness from the bai mudan.

It’s not really my thing, but it’s okay.

Sweet and sour is right! I was expecting this to be very tart – I drank straight hibiscus tea for quite awhile until I burned out on it, so recognized the smell right away. The color is quite pink for green tea, but also a bit orangey – I’d say a rich salmon hue overall :)

Upon sipping, at first the flavor is just like the smell: sour and fruit. But then I got a lot of sencha on the middle- and after-taste, which surprised me (pleasantly!) The sencha gives a really solid base to the tea, adding some savoriness to balance the sour. I often add honey to fruit teas, but something about the sencha flavor made me want to drink this straight – it just blended so interestingly with the fruit, I didn’t want to overwhelm that with sweetness and lose the complexity.

There is still a lot of hibiscus and rosehip flavor overall (the orange is less prominent to me), but this is a pretty good blend considering the tendency of hibiscus to dominate anything it touches.

I expect this will last more than one steep, and I’m curious how the balance will shift. It would probably also be very good cold!

thanks again Naturestealeaf.com for providing samples for me to try! I was a bit worried about this one — rosehips, hibiscus, and orange peel? Hmm.. but I haven’t had much sencha, even though I love it (usually the sencha I have is in Genmaicha.) This blend looks like a good mix of sencha and fruit. I’m not sure if I waited too long to steep after it cooled, since the steep color was a light pink, so I steeped for five minutes rather than the recommended one minute. As I predicted, the sencha disappeared behind the usually stronger other flavors of orange and hibiscus. But it IS interesting that the sencha had a flavor that I had assumed was only from the popcorn and rice in genmaicha! I don’t love this tea, but it isn’t terrible. (I really don’t like orange, rosehips or hibiscus in ANY tea, so it isn’t Nature’s Tea Leaf’s fault.) This MUST be the worst offering from Nature’s Tea Leaf, because all of their other teas look delicious!

I hot-brewed this and let it cool instead of cold-brewing it. I’m still not particularly keen on cold-brewing loose leaf because of the messiness factor. One of these days I’ll get over that. But for now, I’ll enjoy this hot-brewed!

And it is quite nice. I took a few sips of it while it was still hot, just to see what it was like, and I enjoyed it hot too, but, I do think this tea really excels as an iced tea. Hot, it tastes a bit like something you’d want to drink if you’re feeling under the weather … the spices are warming and soothing, and the citrus brightens the cup.

But as an iced tea … the flavors just come together in a totally different way. The spices taste … savory! This is not at all what I expected from this tea … when I read “spice tea” I think CHAI. But this is not a chai! The spices come together in a deliciously savory way which is so refreshing and unique for the palate that expects a sweet-spicy-hot flavor from a spiced tea.

I think I’m going to try this in my Steep & Go and see how it fairs… I’m really liking this!

My laptop died a few days ago (though I think the data is all going to be recoverable, I just need to reformat my HD due to a lovely corrupted OS), so I am SO behind on my tasting notes! I actually have a desktop for emergencies, but I was so sad about my poor little laptop that I didn’t have the heart to write about tea. It’s been with me for almost 6 years, the disk drive hasn’t worked for 3, it’s old and beaten up but I’ve grown very attached to it. So I actually had this tea 3 days ago (!) and never logged it. Oops! I have a lot of catching up to do, but I thought I’d start with my last sample from Nature’s Leaf Tea.

I cold brewed this overnight—sure, it’s cool outside, but I drink iced tea all year round! The color of this was almost hot pink when it was done, very pretty! Though usually that kind of coloration comes from hibiscus, here it’s the rosehips. And it’s tart because of them—quite tart! Not hibiscus icky tart, it’s nice and refreshing, though it’s hard to drink a lot at once due to the kind of sour aspects. They’re balanced by the orange quite well, and there really is a lot of orange flavor! I feel like the sencha is kind of lost though, since rosehip and orange are such strong flavors. It took a bit of getting used to, but it’s an interesting flavor combo! A bit sour/tart for my palette, but good nonetheless.

Drinking this again today, probably my favorite of the 5 Nature’s Tea Leaf teas I got to try. Something about the interaction of the pu’erh and flowers just keeps tasting spicy to me! I’ve resteeped this a couple of times today; it’s a great choice for a rough day as it’s very forgiving of different steep times and temps, re-steeps several times, and the pu’erh gives me a good non-jittery energy kick.

But drinking this reminds me – as a thank you for reviewing, Nature’s Tea Leaf gave me a shareable coupon for 10% off! Feel free to use STEEPTY10OFF if you’re thinking of buying something! It expires at the end of October.

Oh this is neat: a floral and approachable pu’erh blend. The lavender is distinctive (prominent and unusual) and blends with the pu’erh in very interesting ways – reminds me of cinnamon, somehow, with the combination of earthiness and menthol. The flavors meld quite well overall, which I didn’t expect from rose, jasmine, lavender and pu’erh. The jasmine is probably the hardest for me to pick out. I was dubious about the steeping instructions too, but it came out just right. I’m quite curious to see if this will resteep well, as that’s one of the things I like about pu-erh

A second steep (higher temp, longer time since I forgot about it..) is mostly pu’erh, with only a hint of flowers to soften it. Still quite tasty! but the first steep is the one I’d hand to someone dubious about pu’erh :)

This is the second of my free samples from Nature’s Tea Leaf, and my favorite so far! I also really like the steeping instructions on their packaging, customized for each tea and right on the front label.

2 generous tsp leaf to 8oz water

A full review will be on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 20th
This is what I am calling the ninja tea as its buttery creamy goodness sneaks up on you in the aftertaste and lingers around as it wishes!
The cinnamon is well balanced and does not overpower.
I did not think I was going to like this initially but have been proven wrong!
What an unusual and wonderful blend!
Thank you Nature’s Tea Leaf for allowing me to try this!
Please see the full review on the 20th at 6pm est here http://sororiteasisters.com/

Thanks to Nature’s Tea Leaf for this sample!

Upon opening the box and delightfully sorting through the contents, this was the first one I grabbed. After the utter decadence of David’s Creme Brulee, I wanted something a little bit more natural.

The dry leaf is all oolong and cinnamon stick pieces. Cool. It smells very much like cinnamon. I can’t smell the oolong too strongly, but that’s okay.

In steeping, it’s actually the opposite for me. I get a bit of woodsy oolong flavor with a hint of cinnamon, especially in the smell. I like it. The cinnamon doesn’t overcome the tea, but rather blends with it harmoniously.

Thanks again to Nature’s Tea Leaf for choosing me to sample their teas! Very excited to try this one! It sounded so unique! It’s like a holy trinity of delicious flowers: lavender, jasmine, and tiny rosebuds.. just gorgeous. All on the base of a pu-erh. It’s kind of like beauty and the beast, since pu-erh is the tea that seems most unfitting with flowers! This is actually the second pu-erh I’ve tried… the first one was a couple days ago. I find that they don’t have too much flavor… a typical black tea has way more flavor. But this is perfect here, as I would much rather be able to appreciate the flowers instead of them being drowned in a black tea. My infuser was FULL of flowers, even though I tried to get as much pu-erh in there as possible. The steep color is a medium brown. The first sip, I get a ton of lavender flavor, which is interesting because I didn’t notice too much lavender in the infuser, but the lavender is delicious. I don’t taste a ton of jasmine and rose, and the second infusion doesn’t have much of them either.. maybe it’s just my palate! Looking at the infused tea, the roses have lost most of their pink color! I’m very happy that hibiscus wasn’t included in this one — it would have ruined it. Another great tea! Naturestealeaf.com

Ancient Alphabet challenge – C

Oh I forget how much I love this one.  It’s so good.  It’s like a bakery sort of cinnamon, even though there are HUGE cinnamon stick pieces in this blend.    But I love this sort of cinnamon on this oolong that is still so good.  Probably should have been used on its own, but I think I have some Nature’s Tea Leaf Tie Guan Yin without the cinnamon around here too. Three great steeps that become more and more like a starchy cinnamon roll. I will wish I could stock up on this one when it’s gone, but it looks like Nature’s Tea Leaf is gone now.  I also miss their Chocolate Midnight Black tea but that’s what I get for only trying samples (the shop closes). So far, I’m really enjoying the OLD teas from this alphabet challenge!

A huge thank you to Nature’s Tea Leaf for sending me some VERY generous samples! I’m honored you chose me! naturestealeaf.com

I was a bit curious how a cinnamon oolong would taste! I LOVE a good oolong. Opening the bag, there are some huge pieces of cinnamon bark in the bag… so big that I had to snap them in half to fit in my infuser! The oolong itself is gorgeous bright green leafy bundles.

First steep: 3 1/2 minutes
This definitely smells like cinnamon! It almost smells more like cinnamon than it tastes, but as it cools it tastes more like cinnamon too. The oolong for the first cup is delicious and DOES pair well with the cinnamon. It is one of my favorite oolong flavors: light, smooth and floral. The flavor is slightly vegetal yet very sweet AND there is even a slight hint of a fruit flavor, maybe peach? I haven’t tasted peach in an oolong before.

Second steep: 5 minutes
Still a lovely cinnamony scent and taste. The steep color is yellow. Now the oolong is a bit more peachy! Still not floral, but peachy! Yum! A flavor that really lingers! Cinnamon & peaches… seems like it should be a dessert of some kind!

Third steep: 7 1/2 minutes
I’ve found with flavored oolongs, the first steep has the most flavor that isn’t from the oolong itself, but with subsequent steeps, the oolong flavor itself keeps getting better. This had more cinnamon since I steeped it at a higher temp. The oolong is a bit buttery this time, less peachy! On my oolong flavor strength rating scale, in which one is light and floral and five is the strongest, I’d give this one a three. I really could keep re-steeping these leaves, but since I always steep a full mug, I can only drink so much tea! I think I need to get in the habit of steeping tiny cups so I can try a bunch more steeps. Nature’s Leaf sent me a huge sample, so maybe one day! This is very impressive!