Nature's Tea Leaf

When I opened my box of samples from Nature’s Tea, I wasn’t really sure when I was going to drink this one. It smells a lot like Rishi’s Pu-erh Ginger, which I associate with cooler weather and sore throats. It’s been warm out, and I wasn’t sick, so it just didn’t seem like something I would be in the mood for. And I hate drinking tea I don’t feel like drinking: it really ruins the experience for me and I wanted to give this sample my full attention!

Well, as (un)luck would have it, there’s some kind of bug going around and the bf and I are both getting sore throats. Hooray… not. Well, I guess it’s the perfect opportunity to try this out! In the bag the smell is all ginger, but brewed you can pick out the rosemary and lemon a bit more. I added honey to both of ours, since it’s good for your throat and it seems to go really well with lemon & ginger flavor profiles.

This tea packs a punch! The ginger adds some serious spice, though it doesn’t overwhelm the cup. The rosemary is really strong as well, bringing to mind another Rishi tea—Bergamont Sage! It adds an interesting savory quality, which I always enjoy. The lemon is also there, though it takes a backseat to the rosemary/ginger combo. Of course you can taste the white tea too, not too much but enough to keep this from tasting like a straight-up tisane and more like actual tea.

It’s an interesting flavor profile—perhaps not one I’d reach for every day, but great for sore throats, lazy days and cold weather! The little sheet I got from them mentions that this is actually meant to be tried iced, so I am interested to see how that works as well. I’m guessing the lemon would be a lot stronger that way, so I plan on doing a cold brew soon to see what other flavors I can bring out of this blend.

About a week or so ago I was browsing through teas and this one caught my eye. Looking back, I can’t really remember how I found it: maybe in the Steepster database? Or I was linked to Nature’s Tea’s main website? In any case, I love floral teas so I really wanted to order it but I am broke so I held off on it. Miraculously, a few days after lusting after this tea, NTL announced that they were looking for people to do reviews—and this tea was included in the ones they’d be sending! I crossed my fingers and applied, and lo and behold I was chosen and got my teas 2 days later! Of course this is the one I wanted to try the most, but I really wanted to cold brew it so I ended up trying two of their teas hot while this one was in the fridge.

Like the Slimming Tea, it’s a really pretty blend, lots of whole rosebuds and jasmine flowers studded with lavender blossoms. Of course there’s pu-erh too, more in this blend considerably than in the Slimming Tea. I gave it a 12-hour steep, and it brewed up to a lovely golden color. Lighter than usual for a pu-erh, but I chalk that up to all the pretty flowers!

This is a VERY floral tea. Of course I love floral blends so I really enjoyed it: the rose and lavender are definitely the most prominent, with little wisps of jasmine coming in at the end of the sip. Rose and lavender can be really overpowering, but I don’t think either one outshines the other. They do seem to be significantly stronger than the jasmine, but not in an entirely negative way. I feel like I can taste other flavors “through” rose and lavender, but jasmine usually seems kind of overpowering so I’m glad it isn’t heavy-handed in this tea.

Finally there’s, of course, the pu-erh! I wouldn’t say this is a very strongly pu-erh blend, it’s more used as a base for the other flavors. It does add a distinctly earthy tone, and really grounds the floral taste. There’s a little bit of hay and a nutty background, which I’d attribute to the base tea. I do think it was a better choice than a straight black, since really we’ve all had floral blacks a million times. But the combo of floral tastes as well as the pu-erh really make this a pretty unique floral blend!

Another sample thanks to Nature’s Tea Leaf! I was really intrigued by this one: cinnamon and oolong aren’t a combination I think of as going together, especially not with the light oolong chosen for this blend. But it smells incredibly delicious, so so cinammon-y, and there’s also huge chunks of cinnamon bark in there! The bf looooves cinnamon, so I made him up a cup of this. Of course I sneaked a sip first though—and I’m going to be making myself a cup REALLY soon because this is so tasty.

The aroma of this once brewed is really POW in your face, powerful cinnamon. But like cinnamon sticks/bark, not dry cinnamon. It’s a small distinction, but since I bake a lot it matters to me. Dry cinnamon is more holiday bake-y whereas bark is more for everyday use—in fact, my favorite place to use it is in chili! Trust me, it’s delicious. With cocoa powder and coffee and chilies… mmmm. Anyway, back on topic. This tea also brewed up super pale, as I’d expect a light oolong to, so it was off to a good start.

Holy COW this is good! It’s got all the markers of a very nice light oolong: floral, a bit creamy, with natural sweetness and very nice vegetal notes. There’s a lovely cinnamon taste, obviously very natural tasting since it comes from bark and not just flavoring. Not, you know, that flavoring always tastes fake but I find with spices I like the real deal! And, amazingly, the oolong and cinnamon are a perfect pair. Spicy, sweet, sooo good. I could drink this all day long, what a winner! I really want to try it cold too, I bet this would be fantastic hot and iced.

EDIT: I forgot to update this yesterday, but I got 3 hot brews AND a cold brew out of the leaves! It is sooo good iced, I think the oolong is more prominent though the cinnamon is definitely still present. Upping the rating a bit since this is equally good hot and cold, plus you can get a ton of brews out of it which is always nice.

I was lucky enough to get some review samples from Nature’s Tea Leaf and they came in TWO DAYS! Talk about fast shipping! Not only that, but they’re all one ounce which is pretty awesome. I wanted to dive in right away, and this one called to me just because it’s so darn pretty. Tons of whole, intact flowers and leaves, it’s really gorgeous. And it smells good, too!

I wasn’t exactly sure how to steep this: it’s a pu-erh blend but there are more herbal elements, so I did boiling water for 6 minutes. Thankfully that seemed like the right choice, since no one flavor is too overpowering or under-represented. There’s a lot going on here: I don’t think you could pick out any one flavor and say “it’s dominantly x!” There’s chrysanthemum, which I find to be kind of like a tastier version of chamomile. Then there’s mint, but it’s not so pervasive that it reads as a mint blend. There’s a hint of earthiness running through the cup, from the pu-erh and I suppose the lotus as well? Floral elements peek in from the rose, and there’s a bit of tartness (though not overpoweringly so) from the hibiscus. Oh, and a bit of citrus too from the lemon!

There is a LOT going on, but it all balances out into a very tasty blend. It’s a good “I don’t know what mood I am in” tea since it’s got a bit of everything: floral, earthy, tart, mint, citrus-y. It also seems like it’d be a good, calming night time tea. I think I’m going to be running through my ounce of this pretty quickly!