Sandy Creek Herb Co.

This was another sample provided by the good folks at our local Provisions store. So far, I’ve enjoyed three other selections by this company and was anxious to see how this Pomegranate sencha (Japanese) green tea with rose petals matched up with the others. The word “sencha” means “simmered tea,” referring to the method that the tea beverage is made from the dried tea leaves (Wikipedia gets the credit for this definition).

When I opened the sample package, my nose was bombarded with a loud and very sweet fruity aroma. I didn’t detect any rose smells. Perhaps a rose by any other name WOULDN’T smell as sweet as this unbrewed tea.

I steeped the full green leaves and pink rose petals for four minutes at 175 degrees. The finished product was a light greenish yellow. A powerful fruity aroma burst up from the pot.

My first taste of this tea produced an extremely sweet and fruity flavor. I’m not a pomegranate connoisseur, but based on my limited experience with the fruit, the flavor of this tea was like the pomegranate that I remembered. I thought this was admirable since the ingredients listed on the package stated that it was “artificial pomegranate flavoring”. The fruity sweetness of this selection was too dominant for me to even notice any rose presence.

The very sweet fruity flavors remained strong and steady, but without bitterness, throughout my cup. If you like to add sweetener to your tea, I would recommend abstaining from it for this blend. I have a mouth full of sweet teeth and this tea tasted incredibly candy-coated straight-up.

The aftertaste was long-lasting but nicely subdued. I thought that was surprising considering the exceptionally robust flavors.

To sum it all up, this is another fine tea from Sandy Creek Herb Co. I enjoyed two cups of it very much. It even scratched my usual itch for something sugary like a donut or cookie to accompany my cups!

The folks at our local Provisions store kindly gave me some samples of Sandy Creek Herb Company’s teas to take for a spin. I had already purchased and reviewed two other tea products by this company. I was excited to try additional selections!

The unbrewed black tea leaves and yellowish calendula petals smelled both fruity and like tea. The combination produced a unique sweet smell.

I steeped the tea for five minutes at 212 degrees. The color was like honey. The aroma was fruity and recognizable as mango.

My first sip produced a sweet and faint mango taste. The tea flavor residing behind it appeared later and was largely overshadowed, but not regrettably so. I don’t know what calendula is supposed to taste like but I couldn’t distinguish any other familiar flavors.

All in all, the flavor was smooth, fruity, and medium-strength. I didn’t experience any bitterness. The aftertaste was light and pleasant.

Studies have shown that consumers wouldn’t buy quiet vacuum cleaners (even though the technology exists) because they equate loud noise with powerful cleaning power. Some tea drinkers may have a similar reaction to this tea and believe that a good black tea must have a strong and robust tea taste. I prefer the turbo-charged black teas in the morning myself, but this tea would be just fine for me in the afternoon.

I had a nice experience with Sandy Creek Herb Company’s Southern Mint Tea that I purchased from our local Provisions store about a month ago. So, I was more than willing to take a chance on their new Vanilla Tea when we dropped by the store last weekend.

I love black tea with sweet flavors so I had high hopes for this one. When I opened the package, a strong (but not overpowering) and sweet vanilla aroma wafted up from the zip-locked container.

Sandy Creek Herb Company doesn’t include brewing instructions for their teas. I called upon my most commonly used black tea settings (212 degrees for four minutes) to steep the sweet-smelling short black leaves.

A slight vanilla aroma emerged from the brewed blend. The color was a bright amber.

With the very first sip, a well-harmonized vanilla and black tea concerto was performed merrily on my taste buds. Every sip thereafter, throughout two cups, was consistently sweet and full-flavored without bitterness or artificial aftertaste.

The vanilla flavor is balanced perfectly with the black tea so that neither outshines the other. And, the smooth black tea taste is expertly complemented by the natural vanilla accompaniment. Although I like to chug my black tea in the morning, this fine selection would also be a big hit as a dessert tea at lunch or dinner.

In summary, this is another great tasting tea from Sandy Creek Herb Co. They are now two for two with the offerings that I have tried. Since two of their Provisions stores are less than a 20-minute drive from my house, I see more Sandy Creek Herb Company teas in my future!

I stumbled upon this little gem at our local Provisions store. This tea comes from a company that I was familiar with for its herbs and spices, but not teas. These folks knew what they were doing when they decided to whip up a blend of black tea and mint herbs.

When I opened the two-ounce packet of leaves, a very fresh spearmint/peppermint (both herbs are in this blend) aroma was present. There was such a generous portion of mint in this selection that I had to read the ingredients on the packet to verify that this was black tea and not green tea. The leaves were very short, almost like pipe tobacco.

There were no steeping instructions on the packet so I brewed the tea for three minutes at 205 degrees. I thought maybe I should go a little easier on the mint than full steam boiling. The color of the steeped tea was a golden reddish mix.

Although there wasn’t a strong mint aroma spewing from the cup, the taste of this tea was just loaded with mint. The spearmint/peppermint infusion was perfect. It was fresh and potent without becoming obnoxious. I couldn’t identify a tea taste per se, but it didn’t matter. The flavor was just a wonderful waltz of mint. The aftertaste was a pleasing mint symphony that I wished had lingered longer.

I thoroughly enjoyed four cups of this tea in the morning. The next time the leaves hit my tea maker will be in the afternoon. I’m going to pour it over ice after brewing. I’m sure this will be an excellent iced tea to which Southerners I know will happily say, “Y’all come back, hear?”