Cinoi

This tea is extremely delicate. The already light green tea is given a slight accent of coconut flavor. There is a faint coconut aroma to the leaves which comes out in the brewed tea, and then a subdued, barely coconut flavor to brewed tea. This is followed with the faint sweet aftertaste that coconut pouchong is known for.

Overall, a good tea, however maybe a little too faint for anyone looking for coconut flavor.

I like the flavor of this tea a lot. It does not need sugar. It is fantastic hot and also delicious cold. This is a win-win tea. Today since the ground is covered with a foot and a half of snow, it is a hot tea.

The aroma of the tea is coconut, hands down. The flavor of the tea is coconut, carried by a green tea with a sweet almost minty after taste. It is absolutely wonderful. The first time I tried the tea, I knew I had to buy one of my own, and I did.

As a note: I tend to use a lot more leaves than I should, this is just a force of habit, but I think it makes multiple steeps of the tea better when you have more leaves.

First, this has been in my cupboard for a while, I never tried it, but found the smell of the leaves to be very intoxicating and thought it would be good. I did not read the description until I went to brew it. So yesterday I was critical because I said I would not put chocolate and strawberries in tea (Valentine’s). But I think that this by itself smelled all together different.

It is a light herbal tea, and if steeping in a mug (I used a clear glass so I could see what was going on) you notice that the tea is light in color but as it cools, there is red sediment that floats to the top and a dark syrupy chocolate that sinks to the bottom. Therefore this tea should be drank hot and right away, do not let it sit because you will have to mix it. The flavor was good, there is definitely the taste of strawberry and the taste of chocolate, but they do not seem forced together which is what I believe the chili brings to the party.

Overall not bad, just needs to be drank quickly. Also, it appears that all of my chocolate chips/chunks in the brewing basket are now gone, so you can probably only steep it once.

I had heard about this tea and knew that since I would not get to try it (from anyone else) I would have to buy it myself.

The scent of the leaves is strong, very strong bacon upfront with a lingering maple smell. Based on the scent of the leaves, I was skeptical that I would like it.

The tea brews nicely, combining the flavor of black tea, with a smoky quality that has to be from the bacon and a sweetness that is coming from the maple. The aroma of the brewed tea is predominantly bacon/smoky and I must say unappealing, but the flavor is not bad.

I think the flavor would be improved by sugar (to bring more of the sweetness out) and by some milk, to maybe help meld the flavors together a little better. I will have to try it and get back to you.

UPDATE:

So I tried it again with milk (1%) and rock sugar, it was better, the flavors did marry more and it was easier to drink. The maple-syrupy flavor is enhanced at the front of the tea, then the bacon/smoky flavor is more pronounced and at the end of the tea, the aroma is also toned down a little so it is no longer like inhaling bacon.

Also, I steeped it a second time (adding milk and sugar) and drank it with breakfast: ham, egg and cheese on a croissant. It was probably a little easier to drink with the food, but the tea still had the descriptive qualities mentioned above.

This improves my rating a little (previously 56). However, as I have said, I do not like to give teas that rely on having additions too high of a score.

So this is a unique black tea blend, in that:
1. I would never have thought to blend chocolate covered strawberries with coconut and cinnamon and this tea has not made me think otherwise.
2. It can definitely only be steeped once – the second time the flavor has flattened out and you only taste cinnamon really.
3. It does not make a difference if it is sweetened or not, it tastes the same: I drank this hot, with no sugar, then hot with sugar. It did not seem to be any better with or without the sugar which is concerning and means I probably need a lot more sugar to taste a difference which I do not want to do.

Overall, there is a blending of flavors here, you can smell the cinnamon, and you can taste the Valentine’s, but there is something else there, a coconut to dull the two (cinnamon and Valentine’s) and blend them smoothly together. This is decent if drank hot without anything added to it.

Once it starts to cool, different flavors take over, you can taste more of the coconut as it cools and less of the Valentine’s. This becomes a sort of Valentine’s aftertaste, which I am not enjoying so much.

Then by the second steep you lose most of the coconut and are left with cinnamon and a Valentine’s aftertaste.

For these reasons, I have to “meh” this tea, it’s not bad, but it was not strong enough to hold up to my other flavored black teas.

I will continue to play with infusion times and blends with ingredients to see if I can improve the rating.

This is a very fragrant and delicious tea. The blend of spices is fantastic, I taste mostly the cardamom and ginger but then at the end of it is the cinnamon. I am not enjoying it cooler, I think hotter was better, but maybe a cold brew or sugar?

I’ll give it a try and update.

Sorry about the picture. It’s not loading properly.

Anyway. I drank this a while back. I remember it being delicate and that the peaches and cucumbers blended well together to make a nice tea. Nothing was overpowering, as I said, delicate.

I will try again for a better review.

UPDATE:
I remembered pretty accurately, the blend is very delicate white tea, I am not sure why this describes the character Jacob, but I am not reviewing the name.

The peony is apparently so delicate, that it is something in the background of the tea you cannot really identify without looking it up. The cucumber and peach are also very light on flavor, but there is blend of two things that are familiar but you would not normally have them together in your mouth, they make up a unique blend of flavor you would once again have to look up to identify.

Here we go.

As stated: I was trying to make Matcha Shots ala Jamba Juice.

So, I also bought from Mighty Leaf the Matcha Green Tea Latte/Frappe Mix. It is Matcha with filler and sugar and directions on how to make Lattes and Frappes. Using a blender, milk and 1 scoop (1 tsp) of Matcha.

I made it in a variety of ways:

1. Using a shaker (to make mixed drinks with the strainer). 8 ounces of soy milk, two ice cubes and a scoop of Matcha. Shake vigorously, strain into glass leaving ice and foam behind.

This was good, though time consuming. Takes too long to do in the morning right before work, but it yielded good results.

2. Using the Magic Bullet, blend two ice cubes along with milk (I have used soy and organic 1%).

This was good, took up less time (so good for the morning before work), but it was very frothy. I was not upset about this, because the froth/foam was cold from the ice and was enjoyable.

3. I tried this the traditional Matcha route. Blasphemous, I know. But I used hot water and blended (because as said, I do not have the bowl and whisk and I did not want clumps). It was still good, probably more so because it had sugar in it, but it was not traditional.

4. Finally, I have gotten this Matcha mix into protein shakes. I am not suggesting you do this, but I am adding it to strawberry protein shakes, which may sound awful, but I like Matcha and anything will help protein shakes.

Overall, a decent product, good because you get a large amount and it is not that expensive. This is because it is not pure Matcha. I may get some attitude about this, but I feel that if you are trying to make Matcha lattes and frappes among other things, and not pure Matcha the traditional way, you do not have spend so much money on expensive pure Matcha and can get this filler one instead.

I have bought this Matcha from Mighty Leaf. It is typical Matcha, no better or worse than any others I have tried. I made it with hot water. I admit, I do not have a Matcha bowl with the fancy whisk, I am not at that level of sophistication with the Matcha. Yet. What I was trying to do was make Matcha Shots ala Jamba Juice.

So, I also bought from Mighty Leaf the Matcha Green Tea Latte/Frappe Mix. It is Matcha with filler and sugar and directions on how to make Lattes and Frappes. Using a blender, milk and 1 scoop (1 tsp) of Matcha. I have a review for that, but it is not on the site yet and I feel bad posting it on another product.

So until then, this was good Matcha powder.

I was concerned about this tea because it is described with “especially tempting” when sugar and milk are added, as if the tea itself needs additions in order to be good. This was not necessarily true. Personally, I do not like adding milk or cream or any form of dairy to flavored teas because I think it interferes with the flavor. I will add some sugar to help sweeten and brighten flavors, but usually not dairy.

That being said: the tea brewed by itself (no milk or sugar and hot) is good, it is a strong black tea flavored with almond and cinnamon. The combination (black tea, almond and cinnamon) can be a little bitter and I see why sugar is suggested, however it was overall decent.

So I tried it with just sugar. This combatted some of the bitter, but it was still there. Unfortunately, I found the sugar addition to also remove some of the almond flavor and then found a strong tea, with slight almond flavor, but predominantly cinnamon.

Finally, I gave-in and tried it with sugar and milk and I have to say it was still decent, however by this point I was getting almond/cinnamon aroma and less taste of the two.

Overall, I do not think that the adding milk and sugar is necessary for drinking this tea. I can see the marketing idea of making it more like a cookie, but I think this is a decent tea by itself, you do not need to fix what is not broken.

Enjoy.

This was my other free sample from Mighty Leaf. On first taste and smell, it reminds me of the Tetley tea. I am drinking it hot with no milk or sugar and enjoying it.

This seems to just be a plain black from the Darjeeling region that they made an organic version of. Plain, yes, but good.

This was my everyday tea for a really long time. Still kind of is. Decent, quick, convenient. Unfortunately, I rarely, if ever, drank this for the tea taste, I always added milk and sweetener because it was to wake me up and get the morning going.

I always oversteeped this, I was definitely looking for a darker tea here.

I chose this tea as one of my free samples with my Mighty Leaf order. I was hoping to find a new mate. I did NOT however read too deeply into the description (bought the tea by its tea bag, if you will) because if I read “rose petals” and especially “licorice” I can assure I would have avoided this tea all together. However, even with my distaste for two of the main ingredients, I tried it and was pleasantly surprised.

The tea itself smells like it is heavily spiced before and after brewing. This smell continues when drinking it, the aroma is almost overpowering, not off-putting, but strong. However, when actually drinking it, the spices along with the licorice, pineapple, rose petals and mate all blend together so that nothing is overpowering, but smooth and delicious.

I drank it hot with no sugar. I will try and resteep the bag, as Mighty Leaf teas can usually be resteeped. I feel that sugar can only make this better, but I am curious to see how much better.

I should start by saying that I truly got into green tea when my college roommate came home from study abroad in China. She brought home a few bricks of green tea and we spent the rest of college (1.5 years) drinking green tea sunk to the bottom of a cup of hot water. This was crude, but it was college and we were obsessed. When the bricks ran out, we ran to Teavana and chose Dragonwell as our replacement. I have been drinking that as my green tea since.

Recently, I was introduced to this tea and I have been won over. It is a delicate tea with gentle flavors, similar to a white tea. It is fantastic. I highly suggest getting a sample to try for yourself. I have been sharing the joy of this tea since I got it with all of my tea drinking friends and family and everyone has thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Drank hot, no sugar necessary)

When I opened this tea (I bought a loose bag from Mighty Leaf which I was surprised had a tea scoop included for the perfect amount) and smelled it, I was super excited, it smells FANTASTIC!

The taste however, is not as intriguing, it is a strong tea with a powerful combo of black and green tea, then a hint of jasmine and spice. I enjoyed it hot with nothing added. I will try it with variations and update. Definitely worth trying. Enjoy!

From the aroma of the leaves I did not think I would like this much, but I decided to try it anyway. (Hot, no milk, no sugar). The smell of the tea is strange, it smells very strongly of coconuts, but the flavor is mild. It tastes like coconuts, but it is not overpowering flavor like you think it would be based on the smell.

There is an aftertaste, it is sweet. I cannot identify what it is, but I like it. I’ll update more after I finish the pot.

Update:

So this tea, like all teas, got cold after a little while, and the taste of coconut became stronger and the aftertaste was more prevalent. I did not like this, but I did enjoy it hot. Worth a try.

At first taste, I thought it was pretty decent (this was with nothing added and it was hot). I will try it again with sugar and report.

Update: I tried it again with a little rock sugar, it’s still pretty good. It’s not like the tea you get in a Thai restaurant, it is tea with common flavors from Thailand. The only complaint is that there is a fair amount of the tea that gets through the strainer/basket/ball, this is annoying in my opinion, but does not take away from the tea. Worth a taste.

Update II: So I have been drinking a lot of different teas to try and expand my horizons, but I keep coming back to this one. At the end of just about every day, I wind up having this one again, and I have to say, that I really have grown very fond of it. I’m not sure if the first batch I got was stale or if Teavana revamped the formula, but the sample I got last week is so fragrant and delicious that I find myself brewing it daily. I have changed my formula a little: hot water, few crystals of rock sugar, and brew for five minutes and fantastic! I am upping the rating.

I smelled the leaves at Teavana and decided to give it a try. First, WARNING: DO NOT OVERSTEEP, 4 MINUTES MAX! This is a strong tea by itself, there is a black tea taste with the hint of chocolate and a spiced aftertaste. Second, the tea is good hot and decent cold, but I have to suggest sweetening it (sugar, artificial, whatever you want) because it can be bitter if oversteeped.

I did brew a pitcher of this iced and kept it in the fridge for the warmer mornings when I didn’t want hot tea before work, as long as it is mixed well (as in fully incorporate the tea on the bottom and the sugar) it is decent cold. However, I think since it gets stronger the longer it steeps, it is probably better to try the tea hot before you commit to it.

Overall worth a try.

The aroma was strongly vanilla, so I decided to slightly under-brew it so that it was not overpowering. This was unnecessary because the flavor was mild at best. The vanilla was almost non-existant, but it made for a very slight hint of vanilla flavor. Overall, a decent black tea.

No notes yet.

This tea comes in bags, so I cannot describe the aroma of the laves because I feel that I am mostly smelling packaging, however, when brewed it smells a little like medicine (I think Dimeatap, but I can’t be sure).

This doesn’t bother me, so I drink it willingly. I must say that a little sugar goes a long way in this tea. Overall, worth a shot.

I enjoy black teas, I especially enjoy flavored black teas, and I LOVE pumpkin (as in everything else I have ever tried) but this tea was disappointing.

The smell is intriguing and I had high hopes for the tea, but when brewed, it was just so bitter, and I really couldn’t get past that. I am sorry about this, I wish I could, I do not require things to be sweet, but this was uncomfortably bitter.

This is a fantastic Oolong Jasmine tea. The flavor of the jasmine is very light, and you really smell it more than you taste it. Very highly recommended.

I blended this tea with Youthberry (Teavana) and found it to be very good cold and decent hot, however, when trying this tea by itself, it was very tart without sugar. Decent with Pomegranate Sugar Sticks (Teavana) or Youthberry, but different by itself.