Novus Tea

So I am a tea drinker, TEA TEA more tea, this is as good as any flavor I may have ever had. I stack a few boxes at all times. The only other tea is Tettley’s Elachi Flavor, and Tapal Tea from Pakistan. You need to boil water , and then heat the cup with hot running water before you place the hot water in the cup, then the tea bag must be left for 90 secs . Most american resturants bring cold cups and luke warm water , and no cover on the tea pot to keep it warm. Tea has to be enjoyed a sip at a time , and very very hot.

Picked up a free sample at the Toronto Tea Festival this past Saturday. I’ve always been a little unsure of Bigelow teas – are they high end or low end? – but their Novus brand seems firmly aimed at luxury tea consumers. Their Sapphire Earl Grey is pleasant but not distinctive. The bergamot gets a little lost and the malvus flowers don’t seem to add much. Satisfying, but unremarkable. Still, I feel encouraged to try other Novus bags.

Tried this again, at 4 minutes, still with milk and sugar. I would say basically the same thing, except 4 minutes is barely enough time to get some flavor out of this single sachet… I think 5 minutes is a better amount of time for a single cup of this tea.

Got individual packets of this tea at a conference at a Hilton hotel. It uses the finer-quality mesh bags (pyramid shape) as The Mighty Leaf brand, and is a full-leaf tea in the sachets. I don’t believe I’ve had Kenilworth Ceylon before, or if I had, I didn’t know it. There were no English Breakfast options, so I went with this, which seemed to be the closest thing. It brewed up a bit mild, even when I let it steep for more than 4 minutes, and had a vaguely smoky flavor similar to a very mild lapsang souchong, and a honey-colored liquor. I tried mine the first couple of times with milk and sugar (and once with milk and a bit of honey) and found that it didn’t stand up to those additions very well compared to other black teas I have had. I suspect it would be much nicer without milk and sugar, or maybe with a bit of lemon and honey instead. It reminds me a little bit of Twinings Lady Grey, but without any of the floral notes or fruitiness… just the relatively mild flavor that you can’t seem to brew any stronger, no matter how long it steeps. I also noticed that as it steeped beyond 5 minutes, it started to have a more tannic feel on the tongue and a more wet-moss smell to it. Not unpleasant in either case, but I think if I drink this again in the near future I will stick to 4-5 minutes with water just off the boil, and maybe avoid milk and sugar. As for the packaging of the tea in the individual foil packets, it’s one of the nicer package designs I have seen, and indicates that the tea is not only gluten-free, but Kosher as well. The package says it is a “full bodied black tea” but I found it not nearly as full bodied as other teas I have had recently.

Not bad as far as herbals go. Had this on a whim in a Mt. Dora tea shop to avoid caffeine. I was worried the hibiscus – the primary ingredient – would be too tart and overpowering. At first, it was, but throwing a packet of raw sugar really helped being out the flavors, such as the berries. I also tried this ice without the sugar, and I think it’s better iced. Overall, not bad, and there’s an impressive list of fruit in these teas.

It is probably not fair for me to review this tea because I have to confess that I just do not like tea that tastes like flowers. Jasmine flavored tea almost makes me gag. However, since I took the time and made the effort to down a whole cup of this tea this morning, I guess I have earned the right to put my two cents in (you can decide if my two cents are worth that much to you).

I tried to clear my mind of all prejudices as I took the first careful sip. I knew immediately that I did not like the taste of the Malva flowers. To me, flowered tea is like drinking perfume. I like flowers in the garden and perfume on my woman, but neither down my throat.

Even more disappointing to me was that I did not taste even a hint of Bergamot. Perhaps the Bergamot presence was so weak that the Malva beat it into submission.

The advertisement on the tea bag wrapper states that the “Bergamot and malva flowers add an innovative twist to traditional Earl Grey.” Personally, I think the Malva flowers twisted the life out of the Bergamot.

Proof that whole leaf tea is better that tea from fannings. This is a bright, mellow, but superbly tasting tea that exemplifies why darjeeling is called “the champagne of teas.” Great aroma too. Novus is Bigelow’s restaurant tea but can be bought online.

I had this tea last night at a fancy restaurant. I was impressed at how delicious it was, so I knew I had to do a tasting note even if my tasting conditions were less than ideal. This is all from memory, and about halfway through my cup a dessert of smoked almond ice cream came and made some sips taste like a lapsang souchong. But still! Very tasty tea.

I’ve never had a tea with malva flowers in it before, but from what I can tell from some online research, they’re more for visual and textural effects than for taste. This tea came in a pyramid sachet, and dried it smelled like bergamot with a distinct sweetness. The aroma of the brewed tea and the taste matched the dried smell pretty perfectly. For a while I was having a time trying to identify what about this tea was making it so delicious; there was no bitterness, the black tea base was very smooth, and there was that sense of sweetness to the tea. The ingredients on the package list only black tea, malva flowers and bergamot, so I was surprised when I finally realized that I was getting fairly strong vanilla cream notes from it, like a really nice Earl Grey cream. I might have to grab a box of this one because I really did enjoy it immensely.

A very nice Earl, and I love the idea of loose leaf in a bag. Better than tea filters, I think.

I too, am not a big fan of fruity herbal teas, but this one is probably the best one I’ve had in a long time. I added a little bit of sugar to mine, which brought out the fruit flavor nicely.
On another note, I realize that most tea-bags are designed for environmental and cost factors, but Novus has a decent design to their pyramid bags. I feel like their pyramid tea bags allow for better expansion of the tea leaves than most brands. So, kudos on that one.

So my choir is on tour, currently in Columbia, SC, and yesterday we went out to DiPrato’s and had sandwiches. I saw this tea on their rack (Novus was the brand they carry, apparently… never had heard of it before) and just had to get it. Needless to day, I’ve found a new favorite. It’s delicate, but reasonably strong flavor. I steeped it 4 times before I could part with it! I can’t remember the exact taste (I’m not good at isolating flavors), but all I know is that this one really fits me. I practically swooned at the first sip! Definitely need to try more white varieties, when I can afford them.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag / 2.2 g
Additives: none
Water: 12 ounces boiling filtered
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Cold

Tasting Notes:
Smell: mint
Flavor: mint
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: mint
Liquor: medium brown

Iced is a much nicer, refreshing cup of tea. I think it may need a bit of sweetener when chilled.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag / 2.2 g
Additives: none
Water: 12 ounces boiling filtered
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Smell: mint
Flavor: tingly mint
Body: Full
Aftertaste: warm sweet mint
Liquor: medium brown

OMG overwhelming mint, too much mint for me. However we both agree the tea itself is very well done. Not that we’re gonna buy it again. Well maybe it depends how it turns out as iced tea, this could be a wonderful summer iced tea.

Post-Steep Additives: honey, lots of honey, and it was now sickeningly sweet mint

Resteep: 5 min, 16 ounces, yea still one heck of a minty brew, value for your money right here.

My mother received a box of this tea as a gift and she passed it along to me. I love to make chai by hand so I was interested to see how well ‘chai in a bag’ would taste, esp. since I have been generally unimpressed by other companies’ chai tea bags (e.g. Stash). This tea was excellent, imo. Mellow and flavorful and a very good blend of spices in which the cinnamon was not overwhelming and the black tea not too acidic or bitter. I drank this tea with with cream (I generally do not use milk) and splenda, and I nuked the water in the microwave as I often do with bagged teas. I’ve tried a few variations of temperatures and steep times and found the tea to be very forgiving.

For a teabag, these are pretty nice teabags. lots of room, and the leaves inside are close to whole leaf.

This tea is a nice generic green. A little vegital, slightly grassy, no other notes.

My training class got out early today, so I got to go explore the environs. I made it down to Franklin, and found the other local tea shop (Franklin Tea) where they were having a 50% off sale because things were in the wrong color of bag. So I took it upon myself to help them out, and took some of the burden of their extra tea upon myself. Seriously, when I get home, I’m going to have so much tea, I won’t be able to see my front door.

What lovely problems to have!

Anyway, after shopping, and wandering around downtown, I ended up eating at a local restaurant called the Red Pony. Wow. If this was a food site, rather than a tea site, I’d try to channel Takgoti and wax eloquent about the food for pages. If this was another type of site, I’d wax poetic about the cute waiter who was almost, but not quite, flirting with me (sigh) probably with a giggle and a blush as I typed. Since this is our tea site, I’ll talk about the tea.

I tried my first non-flavored white tea just earlier this week (A silver needle from World Cup of Tea) and really liked it a lot. This one was also good, but not as good. This one didn’t have the hidden complexities or buttery aftertastes, but it did have a clean, crisp flavor and was just an all-around yummy tea.

Especially when the cute waiter* was talking to me about his time with tea in China as I sipped it. Double sigh. :)

*Cute waiter not included with tea. Cute waiter not necessary to enjoy tea experience, however this upgrade is strongly reccomended whenever possible.

Good tea. I made this batch in the microwave at work, don’t do it, much better with properly boiled water.

This was terrific! Backlogging from my weekend to Watkins Glen Area. Might have to try and find it locally. Nummy.

Backlogging from the weekend. I’m usually not into fruity herbals but this one would prob be ok iced for those who do. It was fairly good for a fruit herbal…from someone who doesn’t usually like them…so I will give a thumbs up.