The Capsoul

I sometimes wonder who comes up with the names for the tea blends, and this one made me wonder as well…what would I put in a blend I would call Mediterranean? I´m not sure whether it would be green tea based, but it might have some citrusy notes to it… and aromatic plants.
Well, The Capsoul decided to name their citrusy green tea Mediterranean. The citrusy notes are subtly present in the loose tea, and once steeped, they seem to blend in with the herbal nature of the green tea to make it very enjoyable drinking, however lacking real aromatic focus points. I like it, but I reckon I would have expected a bolder experience.

I´ve had this tea a few times the last couple of days, always taking it hot, and I´m not sure whether this is my favourite way of having it : I believe this could be far more enjoyable when iced over Summer. It might be because of its high content in hibiscus (40%), which tends to overwhelm the other ingredients. I noticed that this is particularly so in mouth, as the dry infusion smells of coco, even in a subtle way of piña…overall, I therefore think the naming of this blend as “piña colada” is a bit far fetched.
Looking now at the descriptive of this infusion on The Capsoul´s website, I also notice the recommended steeping time and temperature are WAY different from those indicated on the tin : online it says 5-6 minutes at 95ºC while I steeped this tea for 2 minutes at 70ºC…considering this isn´t a real “tea” as such, I guess it´s not that important, but it sure gives me a bad impression.
Waiting now for the Summer to arrive and to try this as iced tea…

The Capsoul teas put their teas in beautiful tins, and this is what motivated me to try 2 teas a few years ago. Then, in another online private sale, I bought some more tins of different types of tea. And although the teas themselves might not be among the best I´ve tried, the colourful design of the labels really makes a difference too, which is especially important in these times (I´m in Madrid in lockdown since more than a week).

This tea blend is one the blends in The Capsoul´s “functional” line, this specific blend apparently to cure your cough. In nose I get a lot of mint and eucalyptus, once brewed I notice a bit of thyme (which I´ld have loved to be more present) but it stays in the line of commercial soothers some people like sucking when they have a sore throat. Personally, it reminds me a lot of those herbal infusions my mother used to prepare me when I was a kid.
Easy enough to drink, a minty touch that won´t offend nobody, but it´s a shame the loose tea is really very broken down and even with the best filter around, you get a lot of small pieces in the liquid (it´s where you can tell the blend contains rooibos). Maybe, I´ll hand this tin to my mother for its further use…

The first time I bought teas from The Capsoul, I must admit the beautiful tins were part of its charm. So far, the teas inside haven´t really been overwhelming me, but this is a nice surprise! I´m more of a black tea fan, so green teas often seem grassy and weak to me. However, the addition of jasmine flowers and flavourings, and of mint, bring out the essence of the green tea! Jasmine and mint tend to overwhelm, but this isn´t the case here : jasmine is everywhere in nose – both for the dry loose leaf tea as for the brewed tea – and is very subtle in mouth, while the mint only shows itself in the aftertaste. I could drink this tea all day, so balanced it is. The only draw-back is the very fine cut of the tea leaves, which makes it necessary to filter the liquid before drinking.

I needed to drink this tea again, and so I did. I bought myself a kettle where I can heat the water to 60, 70, 80, 90 or 100ºC and I decided to test it with this tea, as it is recommended to brew it with water heated to 60ºC. I might still need a precise balance to get 2g (as also recommended), but I think being able to get 60ºC w/o trial and error is a major improvement : not only did the tea taste “fuller” (as tea more than hot water), it stayed at a more or less stable temperature for a longer time as well, I have the impression. What a difference that makes to the enjoyment of this tea!

I´m not too knowledgeable about white tea, and this tea looks wonderful (big leaves), but I´m not so sure about the way to brew it. The tin says to use 2g and steep in water of 60ºC, for 3- 5 minutes… but I think the result is quite thin after 5 minutes, so I left it a bit longer. To get a bit of colour and hopefully also some more taste…but there, I think I´ll need some more experience with other white teas, in order to compare. Very subtle taste, and nothing too defined. To be continued…

Sipdown!

This tea is now four years old and needed to be finished, so I imitated more or less a video I saw online where a woman in Korea recommended making green tea with cool water in the summer.

( I have also tried ice steeping once and probably will again, but it was a tea I didn’t like and hoped ice steeping it would make it palatable. It didn’t. That tea still had vicious fangs. It was a Vietnamese green that tasted like an unruly young sheng.)

This is a tea I really liked, but it needed to go and we are way too hot to drink it hot. It is miserable and we both worked outside today. I steeped all the leaves I had left for three minutes at about 160 in about half the water I thought it needed and then poured it over ice in a carafe. That was then poured into glasses with ice.

I think we actually diluted it too much. The color is nice and golden but the tangerine is super light. That could be age, though? I definitely get lots of nice, sun-warmed hay white tea flavor, so overall it was good. It was super cold and refreshing and went well with supper, so I will call it a win, plus I get shelf space and a sipdown!

My first time trying tea from this company, but not my first tangerine white tea. How does it stack up?

The dry leaf smells almost candy-ish, and I was worried it was going to be very sweet and artificial tasting. Once steeped, however, the sweetness died down a little and the tangerine is just the right level for me. The leaves are large and flat and there are a few stems mixed in. From tea or fruit? That would require fetching my reading glasses.

I think this one might be a tad more forgiving of less than optimal conditions, though. I forgot to set a timer and estimated the time and this turned out really, really well. A winner for me. I think it would be fabulous iced, too.

2nd tea by The Capsoul I tried. A lovely tin, a fresh and coulourful label, which already makes you feel good…and then you open the tin (it must be said that it´s a good thing to have not only the lid to close the tin, also a plastic lid to squeeze on top of the container) : the tea smells very nice, the fruity fragrances seem natural (honestly a lot more than the bergamot in the case of the Earl Grey of The Capsoul), a bit underwhelmingly if you like the big aromatised fruit teas, but fortunately, this is not the case for me.
After 3 minutes of steeping (as recommended on the label), the tea is light, but subtly fruity and easy to drink. While the aroma´s are definitely more mango-like, the flavour is dominated (still w/o topping the base pu erh) by the passion fruit. A summer-y tea according to me, and I´m curious what this can give when iced.

My latest arrival in my tea cupboard : 3 teas from The Capsoul. I must say the fresh colourful look of the tins are half of the pleasure, and the major reason for buying the brand w/o having tried anything from them before. I started with their Earl Grey which smells really very nice, maybe not the typical bergamot scent you find with most of the Earl Grey on the market, but strong and powerful none the less. It also looks wonderful.
But so far I´m not that overwhelmed after steeping it, this time about 5 minutes. I guess this is too long for this blend, as most of the fragrance is gone. The taste I love so much with Earl Grey blends is not present either, so I definitely need to drink it again, and steep it less time.

Oops, it appears that I have sprung back up to 40 but that isn’t so bad. I found this gem at Winners. The gorgeous tins caught my eye but I spent quite a while studying them carefully, being a loser skeptic in regards to this mysterious brand. Who are they? Is this stuff good?

The beautiful tins talked me into it. Actually, to be fair, the Pennyroyal tea initially did because it made me think of Kurt Cobain. But! I went and grabbed these others too.

So glad I did! I’ve only opened this one so far and so far, so good. As soon as I cracked open the lid, I was hit with a burst of citrus. It smells almost exactly like LUSH’s Avobath bomb. Freaking glorious.

And the flavour does not disappoint either. It basically tastes like Froot Loops drenched in a bold black tea base. I’m sure this would make a stellar cold brew too. I’ve since gone to other Winners locations in search of other flavours but haven’t found the ones I’m looking for (primarily their Pakistan blend).

I also enjoyed this with milk the other day but it wasn’t in sync with the notes in here for some reason. I was hoping for a pseudo London Fog or citrusy chai due to the ginger but it was a little muddled. It’s best left untouched.