NORD-T

This tea invokes a lot of nostalgia for me. I first discovered it during my last visit to Helsinki and quickly fell in love. I had taken the ferry out onto the Baltic Sea to visit the old sea fortress Suomenlinna where there was a quaint cafe stocked with all sorts of Finnish/Nordic goodies. Was very surprised to find high quality tea made so far north on the planet. The most magical aspect of this tea is that most of the ingredients this company uses (except the Camellia Sinensis and probably vanilla) were foraged in the Finnish wilderness! They also don’t use additives of any kind, including essential oils. So they are naturally organic, pesticide-free, and sustainably harvested. Excellent.

Although this is a black tea blend, NORD-T recommends brewing with 80°C water for about 4 minutes (Western style). I think this is a wise choice, although I tend to let my cup steep for another minute or two longer to bring out the spices and sometimes bring the temperature up a degree or two. The black tea flavour is much more prominent when you use 95°C water which honestly takes away from the experience of tasting mother nature in all her glory.

The flavour profile is pretty much as you’d expect, spicy and slightly sweet like a chai, but with less of a bite as there’s no ginger, and the spices used are more minimal. The vanilla ties it all together. This is noticeably different from any Indian chai that I’ve sipped. I will need to order more soon and will probably try some of their other tea blends too, many of which use more uniquely Finnish ingredients. I would give this tea a higher rating if the flavour wasn’t so similar to any other chai, but my god is it ever delicious.