138 Tasting Notes
Pukka! stop putting marshmallow root in your teas! it tastes like Stevia! No, i will not relax!
Loljk…it’s not that big a deal, but this tea is just meh… after trying Detox, nothing else in their line is exciting.
This is just an average chamomile tisane….so this is what the real deal tastes like, huh?
i can handle it.
Much more herbal than i’ve been led to believe since i’m a big drinker of Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile (which is packed! with flavor, by comparison)…but that’s not what i find disconcerting.
The marshmallow root in this (and i recognize it!) gives an unpleasant & artificial sweetness right at the back of the throat & towards the sides of the back of the tongue (where I believe the ‘bitter’ taste receptors are). I recognize this note because it was used in their Harmonise tea, which also made for an unpleasant bitter-sweetness that was only heightened by the presence of tart hibiscus (but that’s another story).
So in this tea, Relax, you essentially get chamomile, a hint of licorice/fennel & stevia in the aftertaste. Though i appreciate that this is an Ayurvedic blend & hope to get some kind of health benefit out of it, i don’t think i’d purchase this again.
yum yum yum, this is comfort in a cup! this is a honey sweet chamomile with a heady vanilla cloud floating overhead. almost reminds me of the kind of vanilla used in Shalimar! my Aunt loves big Oriental perfumes & Shalimar was her signature scent for the better part of my childhood. Then she switched to some special signature blend of Vanilla & Coconut. and yet again, i smell that vanilla in this tea.
this is a very luxurious & sensual honey-vanilla tisane. and i can really taste the apple note from the chamomile at the center of it all. there is a strong, sweet honey note in both the aroma & the flavor, and the liquor is a rich golden brown. meanwhile, the vanilla insists on parading around in her marabou feather wrap, like the diva she is.
this may seem like much ado about a bagged herbal tea, but i really feel it’s quite unique.
Flavors: Honey, Vanilla
upon closer inspection, i get sourdough pretzel with a salty note- yes, there is a salinity to the nose! and then the impression of celery follows. all the while this is on a backdrop of aniseed/fennel. i think there’s a bit of a progression in the aroma!
still wondering where the cardamom is, but now that i think about it, it’s probably binding all these flavors together seamlessly. i can sense its presence, if that makes sense.
this is such a smooth, well-blended tisane. whoever came up with the idea for this knew what they were doing!
NB: this tasting note is for Pukka Detox mixed with a sachet of Stash’s Organic Green tea. i can’t tear these two apart!
what a unique green tea….the aroma on this is so smooth & lovely! perhaps what makes it so memorable is the very ‘fruity’ floral lotus flower, because i have never smelled anything quite like it. it reminds me of the smell of açaí berry or pomegranate when added to whites or greens. my only question is: is this scented/flavored with real or artificial lotus? if it’s real, i am blown away by how fruity the flower is! and i’m a fruity floral lover when it comes to perfumes, not as much with teas, but that’s another story ;)
whatever is added to the green base is very bright smelling. perhaps not the most ‘natural’ floral smell (like say a heady rose or lavender), but a very happy and lively one. really reminds me of pomegranate! i can also almost swear there is a slight, unsweetened honey note! i picked it up in both the aroma and the flavor. it is very clean.
i get a green tea ‘mouthfeel’ on the tongue and a bit in the aftertaste, which is not at all bitter. i wonder what green tea is used here?? it is subtle though, in my opinion (not a bad thing, just an observation).
i’d definitely recommend this for those who don’t like greens or think they’re too vegetal or grassy…this one is dreamy! and again, very unique with the lotus flavoring. my favorite green from Tazo.
last but not least is the liquor: a rich, golden yellow. slightly cloudy, but beautiful. i might think this is a honey-flavored tisane, but never a green tea!
also, quite impressive for a bagged tea. this actually makes me think of the term ‘Zen’ more so than the actual Zen tea! (which has mint & lemongrass).. if i had a choice i’d rename Zen something like ‘Alert’ or ‘Focus’…seems about right!
Lovely! just had this again with breakfast…a piece of whole wheat toast with butter. The combination of Hojicha and toast is just savory!! to me, the flavor profile has become increasingly clear…definitely a light, slightly burnt popcorn note (not burnt perhaps, but maybe roasted.. can u roast popcorn??)
this tea is truly delicious.
truth be told, i was so hungry (and excited about the resultant flavor combination), i scarfed down the toast before the tea was ready & thus, defeated the purpose of this pairing. i think i managed to get 1 or 2 bites of toast in along with the tea (tho it was too hot..) next time i’ll simply have to exercise restraint, and resist the urge to put the toaster on before the kettle.
#firstworldproblems #hyacinthbucket #bloviating
golden, tippy….English Breakfast?? is that you?
i had this tea the other day & for some reason i thought i was drinking English Breakfast! which as far as i know contains Assam, in the very least…
i’m inclined to say my taste buds aren’t up to snuff, but this isn’t as dreamy a Darjeeling as i remember other darjeelings being..
it was quite a bit astringent, a bit more than is warranted for standard blacks, and darjeeling is supposed to be the champagne of tea! a lemon note kept popping out at me that i wanted to go away, and that’s saying something since i love lemon. i drink lemon water (to the point of it being cloudy) fairly regularly although i will admit, it is sometimes an exercise in endurance. lol
anyway…i guess i was hoping to have a black tea that could hold up against milk & sugar. it didn’t seem to work this time.
oh this glorious tea, i cannot go a day without it!!
i call this my butter tea…. warm creme caramel vanilla with buttery notes
sometimes i get cinnamon raisin bread, other times i get vanilla pudding
strangely enough i really don’t get a lot of cinnamon!
i first came across this tea under the guise of Trader Joe’s Vanilla & Cinnamon black tea. 14 boxes of that, a seasonal meltdown (due to its discontinuation post-holidays), the rediscovery of that tea hiding at Celestial Seasonings, and roughly 10+ boxes of its new avatar 1 month later, and i still need to drink this at least twice a day! Oh the infamous lemur…
aroma: yummy nutty, toasted brown rice….genmaicha has nothing on this!!
liquor: lovely clear golden brown, decadent
a roasted green tea that is redolent of puffed brown rice or even burnt rice krispies, so yummy!! what a fun green flavor profile, this is perfect. i’ve been meaning to try this for the longest time on account of its description, plus i always wondered what Hojicha tasted like anyway. well now i know!
i’m starting to think i’m a fan of Japanese greens, more so than Chinese ones, but we shall see. i still have a million teas to try before reaching any sort of substantial conclusion.
if you want to get the sensation of brown rice kernels popping by a fireplace, this is your tea. this also has a dried-grass, slightly bitter green tea taste lingering in the back, which is perfect for the toasted quality. i picture something like cracked wheat, popcorn or as mentioned before, puffed rice.
hellz to the yeah!! i also love Genmaicha & really wanted to acquire more of it since it has the green tea/brown rice flavor combination, but Hojicha does just fine! a very nice price given that it’s organic, too..
this will be another one of my go-to greens, if not the go-to green.
this one’s rather simple but delicious: Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile mixed with their Sweet Apple Chamomile.
the Honey Vanilla has been a favorite of mine for years & i wholeheartedly love it’s wheatish-apple honey sweetness. it has a heady vanilla note: the kind that billows over your head in a cloud.
the Sweet Apple Chamomile is similar, although with no vanilla. it has a nice fresh apple-y taste, as advertised.
when u mix the two, you get a warm honey apple chamomile flavor with a rich golden liquor. simple yet dreamy.
whenever i visit the tea alcove at Fairway Market i become overwhelmingly indecisive and want all the teas! i go around to each different brand inspecting the boxes for ingredients, checking steepster on my iPhone to get a better sense of how it will taste, and i’ll even sniff some of the boxes to see if any of the aroma has escaped, but i probably look like i’m secretly plotting a heist. plus i think the stock boy there thinks i’m a little nuts. oops!
but back to Pukka.. i found this tea in the aforesaid alcove & i must say it took me quite a while to make a decision, but luckily, the good thing about Pukka is that you can smell their tea bags from inside! you actually get a preview aroma coming from the box! I think their signature ingredient is fennel, as it’s listed in nearly all their tisanes…so not complaining! i love fennel, aniseed, rye/caroway, cumin/jeera & the like. they’re comforting savory herbs that remind me very much of the Indian food i love so dearly. and don’t get me started on the little black mustard (rai) seeds!!
anyway, the smell coming from the box was lovely plus, it had the ‘great taste gold 2011’ seal of approval. my nose was in accordance with professional tasters.. definitely worth a purchase! from the box alone i got the smell of licorice (but not an overbearing, sweet kind..an herbal, subtle kind) that is expertly balanced with the aniseed & fennel (both prominent). cardamom is another spice listed among the ingredients, and since i love cardamom in my chai & some desserts, Pukka Detox could seem to do no wrong.
first impressions when i brewed up a cup: the aroma of the infusion is primarily fennel/aniseed…using 2 bags, i feel like i am drinking a delicate savory broth reminiscent of Indian spices (the kind used in their curries as opposed to chai) although this tisane contains no turmeric, so don’t panic! i don’t really get cardamom from this tho…hmm. that’s okay, still delicious. other ingredients listed (in what must be very trace amounts) are coriander seed & celery seed. i suppose i do get a somewhat ‘vague’ impression of celery, given that the liquor is a lovely celery yellow-green & the overall aroma including the fennel do remind me somewhat of celery. celery lends itself perfectly to the fennel/licorice family of flavor & all are ‘bulb vegetables’ right? as you can tell, i majored in botany/horticulture ;p
a flavor note that also comes to mind is of fennel sourdough pretzel! something pretzel-y about this one…slightly bready. interesting! and i like it!
this pairs perfectly with my favorite straight green tea, Stash’s Organic Green, which is not currently in the database (and i must fix that!).. what’s outrageous about the pairing is that the flavor of the green tea is so clean…so crystalline…and it has some kind of light nutty-vegetal flavor which never gets bitter, and something just told me to mix it with Detox. they just work…according to my palate, at least!
if you feel like something herbal (besides chamomile), don’t want any caffeine, like aniseed & are perhaps looking for something to drink following a meal, i’d certainly recommend this!
