Art of Tea
Edit CompanyPopular Teas from Art of Tea
See All 186 TeasRecent Tasting Notes
I turned to this for comfort after my tea fail. Oh caramelized pear, YOU would never betray me, right?
I knew I could trust you caramelized pear!
(Little do I know, caramelized pear’s delicious taste is a cover to lull me into a false sense of security so that one night when I least expect it, caramelized pear STEALS MY STEREO)
Had to cleanse my palate after the…interesting experiment with the spiced plum. In Polish there is a similar expression except it literally translates to “fix my taste” which, my terribleness at translation aside, I think may apply even better than the whole cleansing palate thing. I don’t want to just get back to neutral! I want to cross the boundary into tasty!
Anyway, went back to an old staple for my mission. Whereupon I realized that the teas from the art of tea dessert sampler and foxtrot are my only rooiboses – and I believe I already mentioned that I have…issues with foxtrot. (which will hopefully go away some day >.<) Thankfully, I think the majority of my teafrog samples are rooiboses so I will soon be saved from a lack of rooibos choice existence. (at least until the samples run out) Hurray!
Um yes. The tea. Continues to be tasty! mmm, pear.
Ho-Lee Buckets!
Remember how I said I was looking for a dessert tea that could trick my sweet tooth into thinking I had dessert? I think I have found it. And I think it may be TOO good.
I am FULL. Seriously, this tea has made me feel FULL. It is PACKED with flavor. Supersaturated I would say. It’s like, a smack upside the head of flavor and it is HEAVY. Woah. I don’t know how they did it. (Witchcraft is looking more and more likely!) It’s actually too much for me, I had to add milk to tone it down a bit. Clearly this will require some tweaking of steep time, amount, etc. Glad I have the whole rest of the packet to mess with.
The taste is fascinating. It reminds me of dried pear more than of fresh, but I suppose cooked pear would work too. I definitely get the pear and a caramel taste so strong it’s almost metallic. There’s a hint of honey there too, I think this might be what Honey Pear wishes it was.
Right now this is the forerunner for ordering more of, since it was EXTREMELY effective at silencing my sweet tooth. But I’m gonna have to see if I can get it to a not quite so overwhelming level, because DAYUM.
Preparation
So I was thinking about the nonexistence of the white chocolate in this tea and I thought that maybe if I added milk it would somehow bring that out. And if I was adding milk, I may as well go all the way and treat it like a chai. Because why not? (note: this is my reasoning for a LOT of stupid things I do)
The end result was, first of all, tasty. And I think the chocolate and vanilla taste really came out BUT now the berry taste has faffed off somewhere. Man, I can’t win! Well ok, there was a slight HINT of berry around the edges of each sip but that was it. In addition (and not particularly surprisingly) the rooibos taste came out a lot more. Hmm, I didn’t bother to save any to cool down and try it iced, but perhaps I should have, maybe the berry taste would come back? I’ll get you next time, Vanilla Berry Truffle!
Back-logging from last night, when I was extremely busy playing video games and therefore had no time for tea-logging :P
So I think this is starting to edge out Chocolate Monkey in terms of general tastiness, but I’m still not getting everything that they say is there. I’ve got the vanilla and the berry sure, it’s very nice and tart and the vanilla smooths it out, but there is aboslutely nothing in the way of chocolate – white or otherwise. And I made sure this time to get two shavings of the stuff in the pot. There was a cloudiness about the tea that reassured me that it was THERE, but I think that I am forced to come to the conclusion that white chocolate simply does not have the personality needed to penetrate through the layers of berry, vanilla, and, of course, rooibos already in the tea.
Preparation
My second Art of Tea dessert sampler tea. Backlogging from last night. (I got sleepy)
I feel I should say something about my experience ordering the sampler. I have to say I’m very impressed with the turn around time – I ordered it on Monday and received it on Friday. I also got a personalized e-mail telling me that it was processing – which was kind of neat. Painless, easy, and pretty fast. No complaints here!
Except about the tea of course. Due to my whole kisiel experiences, i was kind of worried about a repeat with this tea, especially since it was berry flavored and the specific kisiel taste I was getting was raspberry. At first, I thought that that is exactly what had happened, but I quickly realized that it was a more consistent and straightforward berry flavor. For a while, that is all I was getting out of this tea. Then, as I got deeper into the cup, I started to get vanilla. And my second cup was also much more vanilla-y. Is it possible for vanilla taste to sink to the bottom? I didn’t get any chocolate at all out of it, but then I think white chocolate, since it contains no cocoa solids, has a much milder taste than normal chocolate (I still love it though!) and I could see it easily getting lost within all of the other stuff in here.
In terms of the blend, I am once again impressed by the way the flavors seem to meld with the underlying rooibos. As with the chocolate monkey, the rooibos is present, but only to provide a foundation for the flavors to rest on. Still, the tea doesn’t quite live up to it’s own hype.
Preparation
I still am not a big fan of this tea. I don’t think I like what ever green tea art of tea uses because I didn’t like the mint green I got in this sampler pack either. The tea isn’t un-drinkable but I don’t find it particularly pleasant. It reminds me of seaweed and tastes almost salty. I like when green teas are more grassy/earthy.
This tea smells pretty strongly before it is steep. I associate the smell with green tea/grass. Unfourtanely my boyfriend associates it with fish food so now I haqve it in my head that this tea smells like a pet store.
Beyond the smell it was a pretty boring green tea. Given the description I thought the flavor would be a bit stronger but it was a very light tea.
What type is it? Regular grade sencha?
I am not sure. It doesn’t really say.
It really annoys me when a company just says “green tea”… but at least you know it’s Japanese. I’d shoot them an email. As every Japanese green has unique parameters, a change in water amount, temp, or steeping time may improve it. All the Japanese greens I’ve had (aside from matcha) were and were supposed to be fairly light.. But then again I haven’t tasted this one and don’t know what your personal definition of "very light is:)
Yeah it just says organic green tea in the ingredients. And yes perhaps it needed a longer steep time or hotter water for the flavor to really come through. Maybe I will have better luck next time I make it. I also just figured it would have a strong flavor because they described it as “lively and grassy”. Perhaps it is just not my cup of tea so to speak.
Thanks to Doulton for this sample! I have read many positive reviews for this tea.
Perfect for the afternon, this is a light tasting rooibos pear flavored tea…The pear is natural tasting even though the blend had apples and no pear?
Art of Tea sells a Green Tea- Pear blend. Personally, this would have been my preference. I could get the delightful pear flavor, no rooibos, AND green tea….
Lori: It really is quite common for pear teas to have apple bits in the blend rather than pear bits, because dried pear bits are more difficult to come by, and they tend to be a bit “stickier” than dried apple bits. Since the fruit bits have very little to do with the actual taste of the tea and are there simply for visual enjoyment, many tea manufacturers will use dried apple bits rather than pear bits in their pear tea blends.
Ah-ha- so the flavor is in the oils!
No pear? I hate false advertising. If there are is a pear oil in it, then fine (but still don’t put in the apple)… but if not, call it apple.
“Art of Tea sells a Green Tea- Pear blend. Personally, this would have been my preference. I could get the delightful pear flavor, no rooibos, AND green tea….” YES! I do not like rooibs (at least red, I haven’t tried green yet) and I do not like that most dessert “teas” are rooibos (or honeybush) based. There are wonderful true tea dessert teas out there.
How is that false advertising? It doesn’t claim to have pear bits in it.
A pear tea can be a pear tea without pear bits in it. The apple bits does not make it an apple flavored tea. The flavoring of a tea comes from flavoring oils that the tea leaves are treated with … not from the little bits and pieces in a tea.
Exactly. I have an Earl Grey le Creme tea which is just black tea, flavoring oils, and cornflowers….would that be “false advertising” because it doesn’t have pieces of, um, bergamot and cream in it, and has pieces of cornflowers? No.
That’s why I said if there’s pear oil in it then it’s fine (idk where does that “are” comes from lol)… but I still think it’s dumb to put apple in a pear tea w/o calling it an apple pear tea. (And yes my tongue picks up on the flavors of bits- but if it didn’t I think it’s unneccesary to put something in that does not contribute to the flavor.)
Well, how do you know the flavor was from the bits and not the added flavoring? :)
Liberteas, In some of my flavored teas I notice bits of stuff that look like apple in it quite often. I always thought maybe those bits hold the oils that help to flavor the tea??
Shanti, cuz in this tea I’d almost bet I’d be able to detect both flavors.
SoccerMom: it would really depend upon how the tea is flavored… tea leaves are extraordinarily absorbent… much more so than a bit of dried apple (or any other fruit or other bit you might find in tea that is not tea leaf). This is why you can often achieve multiple infusions from teas but not so much from fruit or herbal tisanes… because typically the fruit and herbs cannot hold on to flavors quite as well as tea leaves can.
I always assumed the apples were for added sweet?
AmazonV – this can be the case as well. That is why I add them to my Chocolate Rose Romance. Apple flavoring from apple bits is extraordinarily soft if at all existent in the cup. But they do add a gentle sweetness that is achieved naturally, and it enhances the other flavors of the flavored tea.
I always find it even more interesting when a flavor comes from something that isn’t contained as an ingredient.
Backlogging from last night.
The more I drink this tea the more it slides down the scale in favor of the Vanilla Berry Truffle. I am sorry Chocolate Monkey, but as I drink you more the weird schizophrenia you have with what you actually taste like seems to get worse rather than better, and when it does stabilize it is NOT toward the chocolate banana flavor that you, in fact, purport to have. You are tasty! But you are not tasty in the way you say you are, and I just can’t ignore that.
Preparation
The world needs more honest tea. :-)
I’m so gonna name my band “Schizophrenic Monkey!”
I would so buy your band’s t-shirts.
@ Rabs – That’s awesome…I always like the name Neon Armadillo – I think there is actually a Bar called that but I think a Band Name would ROCK too! :P
Oh man, if I had lots of teh monies I would so pay the people who do A&D’s tin art to make the shirts.
Second steeping of this – I decided to add milk and a teensy bit of sugar, because that is what I do when eating kisiel (well, I add cream or yogort mixed with sugar, but same difference) and it works really well!
The weird now kisiel, now chocolate banana flavor switch-off is still there, but this time the kisiel is winning – or at least it’s winning in my head, I freely admit that it may be my own associations coloring the way I receive this tea.
Still tasty though! I’m really glad the sample sizes are generous :D
Preparation
Well, I have to say, nothing gets through my “need beer nao” haze, quite like the sudden arrival (at 9pm, wtf UPS?) of my Art of Tea dessert tea sampler. So now I am totally like “need tea, go away beer.” Ah, how fickle is woman, etc, etc.
Naturally, for my first pick from the sampler, I randomly drew one of the packets and this is what I got. Now, I have to say. Banana and I have a relationship that is even rockier than mine and Vanilla’s. You see, outside of tea, I am generally fine with vanilla. Whereas A. I have never HAD tea that involved banana and B. I am just not a huge fan of bananas. Unless I am in a banana mood. Which happens like, once every two months. Still, I was willing to give this tea a chance. Also, I am pretty sure someone else mentioned this, but monkey in the title! How can you go wrong?
Even before brewing, I am pretty impressed. This tea smells like a banana split! It has been ages since I had a banana split! I shouldn’t even remember how one smells! Which probably means that this smells like banana split should, not how it necessarily does.
The taste however…hm. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s tasty! So tasty, that I suspect Art of Tea of witchcraft, but it’s also kind of…confusing. Sometimes, I totally get chocolate and banana. But sometimes I also got this tang that puts me more in mind of a Polish dessert called kisiel. Which I am never in a million years going to be able to explain, so Wikipedia to the rescue: “It consists of sweetened juice, thickened with arrowroot, cornstarch or potato starch, and sometimes red wine or dried fruits are added. It is similar to the Danish Rødgrød or German Rote Grütze.” So, there you have it. It is usually tangy, has the consistency of custard (basically) and is super tasty with cream.
Anyway, which of the two things it’s gonna taste like varies basically from sip to sip, although the chocolate banana seems to be gaining the upper hand as it cools. My aim with ordering this sampler is that I want to find a dessert tea that I can use to full my sweet tooth into thinking that I have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred. I am unsure if this will serve the purpose. Further steepings are required! With milk! and possibly some sort of artificial sweetner! The more calories I can free up by avoiding dessert, the more beer I can consume! Yes, I have a one track mind, leave me alone.
Preparation
Dude, when you find a dessert tea that fools your sweet tooth “into thinking that [you] have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred” please PM me immediately with the details!
man, don’t shatter my illusions. it COULD happen!
I hope so, I hope to benefit from the discovery!
haha weird… well at least it was 9pm instead of 9am the next morning.
This sounds like a fun deal- the dessert tea sampler……I will need to try it!
Lori, I agree this sampler does sound appealing.
Yeah, I’d had my eye on it for a while, and then one of the steepster selects involved $5 off Art of Tea stuff, which essentially gave me free shipping, so…YOINK!
Just adding my two cents worth – we drink Kusmi Caramel or Harney & Son’s Florence as our post-dinner tea when we didn’t have dessert at dinner (that happens more than it should, sigh). Sweet. Decadent. Yum.
Hmmm, Florence looks quite intriguing. Looks like my next batch of samples is come from Harney & Sons! Not to sure about the Kusmi, mostly because I’m not too keen to buy a whole tin of it without trying it.
Florence IS yummy!
Florence…. yummmm ….. Caramel…. Kusmi…. drools
Anyone who signs up for comment notifications, SORRY for the spam you just received from my edits!
OK… my package of this tea is nearly gone (I’ve shared it with a few others) I think I have enough for one (possibly two) more pots of it, and I have finally cracked the code on brewing it! I bring the water to a boil, and then I pour the boiling water into a cold, empty ceramic teapot, and wait a minute, and then I pour this cooled water into the the smart brewing device containing 3 heaping teaspoons of this tea, and allow it to steep for 3 minutes.
Yay!
The rose and bergamot in this blend are very compatible. The tulsi is quite soft (as is its nature to be) and seems to enhance the fresh, vegetal flavor of the green tea, which is also quite soft. A very pleasant floral essence that has a citrus accent, and a fresh-tasting background.
Increasing the rating by a couple of points after having experienced it with these steeping adjustments.
Preparation
The last time I wrote a tasting note on this tea, I was unsure about this tea. I liked it, but something felt a little off so I wanted to add a little extra leaf and adjust the brewing parameters a bit. I didn’t adjust the brewing parameters, but I did add a little extra leaf, and I do think I like it better now than I did.
I can taste the bergamot, but it is a gentler bergamot than a typical Earl Grey tea… the green tea is also a bit mild, but the tulsi is vibrant. These three flavors together with the rose create a very exciting and unique cup of tea that I’m enjoying quite a bit. The rose is really delicious in this blend… and really works well with the bergamot. (I also quite like tulsi and rose together).
After relishing every drop of four very flavorful infusions of my Oolong tea, it was time to move on to something new…
My Art of Tea order also arrived this afternoon. This is one of two teas that I ordered. I recently tasted Tulsi in another blend and really liked it, so I just couldn’t resist trying this one too.
I like it – it has a very strong floral presence. The bergamot really seems to highlight some of the characteristics of the rose.
I think that next time I brew this tea, I am going to increase the amount of tea, and perhaps adjust the brewing time and temperature a bit. The flavors just feel a bit “off” to me – like it needs a bit more… of something. I don’t know what. I’m enjoying it, but, not as much as I think I could… so I think that I need to experiment a bit with it.
Preparation
I’m having another smoothie with this – but this time I’m using organic Kefir instead of organic yogurt – Whole Foods didn’t have a decent price on my favorite yogurt the last time I was there, darn it! – but to be honest with you, I think I like the Kefir better than the yogurt in the smoothie! It has a gentle, sour-cream-ish tangy quality to it that yogurt lacks.
This time around, I also tossed in a banana, mostly because we had one on the counter and I wanted it consumed. To compensate for the extra fruit (I added more peaches too), I used a tablespoon of ginger matcha instead of a couple of heaping scoops.
The result is a yummier smoothie! BETTER than anything I could get from jamba juice. Now, if only I could convince my kids of this. My daughters look at these matcha smoothies and say “eww… it’s green!” LOL
My mother has the same reaction to just plain matcha haha:)
The other day, I was walking into the family room with my chawan, and my hubby looked into it, shook his head and said “that LOOKS so weird.”
Aren’t moms supposed to promote the consumption of greens? LOL
Too funny! When I got my mom to finally try the strawberry, I told her “here. this is for making me eat broccoli- only you’re lucking out, this is SO much better.”
I’m gonna make a dreamsicle matcha smoothie tonite- equal parts milk and OJ, ice, and matcha. If I had planned in advance I would have frozen the OJ and used that instead of water ice, but I didn’t. Oh well. I think you should make the same thing tonite:)
I think I may make ginger matcha shortbread cookies. I even set butter out to get to room temperature last night with that in mind. We shall see how I feel after dinner!
Having a Ginger Peach Matcha Smoothie today: organic vanilla yogurt, frozen peaches and Ginger Matcha. YUM!
The smoothie looks a bit like split pea soup (or maybe baby food peas) but, gratefully it doesn’t taste like it (I hate peas). The matcha flavor is softened quite a bit with the other ingredients, but I can still taste it, along with the ginger. The peaches and ginger taste amazing together. The vanilla flavoring of the yogurt adds a nice creamy flavor to the whole thing… Very YUM.
I am contemplating even increasing the numeric rating on this based just on this delicious smoothie, but, I won’t. But… I will just say that this Matcha was MADE to be an ingredient for yummy-yums like this!
Decided to enjoy a bowl of this on this very cold, rainy evening… it’s very comforting to cup my hands around the warm bowl and sip the warm, ginger-y matcha. The ginger is not strongly spicy, but it has enough warmth to it to make it pleasant, especially on an evening like this.
The matcha is smooth and rich, although, I must admit after my very frothy matcha latte last night, and the beautifully frothy Den’s Tea Matcha a couple of days ago… I do miss the froth in this cup. It does froth – but not quite as nicely as the latte mixes or Den’s Miyabi Matcha.
Sweet, vegetative, just a little bit of bitter, and warm ginger-y spice = a lovely bowl of Matcha!
Preparation
Have you mixed it w/ the strawberry yet?
No, but I have made smoothies with it. My favorite is with vanilla yogurt and frozen peaches… ginger peach smoothie… YUM!
Ugh… that reminds me of the BEST smoothie I ever had… raspberry peach in Atlanta (no yogurt). I use ginger green tea as the liquid in that.
I think what I am going to try next is to add some of this to a basic chocolate cupcake recipe… and maybe make a pretty matcha frosting to top them off… that sounds yummy!
It would probably look pretty gross- but a chocolate matcha frosting would be so yummy. Do you think the ginger would stand up to the chocolate or even frosting? That’s why I never add 52teas’ matchas to anything… I think it’d be a waste of flavored matcha.
Actually, having used the 52Teas matchas in smoothies as well, I can tell you that the flavors and the matcha stands up to the other flavors… not a waste at all.
I don’t know how if the ginger would be able to hold its own with the chocolate… but, I don’t think I would use this particular matcha for the frosting, just because it isn’t as pretty a green as unflavored matchas. I would use an unflavored matcha for the frosting to make one of those pretty bright green frostings. :)
Wow… 2 bowls of matcha in 3 days! Not at all like me… Steepster is having an influence on me… good influence? bad influence? Haven’t decided yet.
I love this ginger matcha. Smooth and sweet – yummy! I love the ginger in it, and how you can actually bite into the little bits and release some of their peppery power! This particular bowl of matcha has quite a bit more ginger bits than the previous bowls.
This is still not my favorite matcha, though… but, it IS delightful and if I don’t start staying away from Steepster I might end up having matcha on a daily basis or something like I do my Oolong.
Preparation
Absolutely the BEST tea related influence=D What is your favorite matcha? Ok, let’s be fair- what’s your favorite plain and flavored since you can’t compare a flavored to a plain and vice versa.
My favorite plain matcha is DoMatcha ceremonial grade. No other matcha that I’ve tried even comes close. My favorite flavored is without a doubt the pirate’s chai… OMG… just typing out pirate’s chai makes me want some… it is so good.
I have 100g of Lupicia’s matcha coming tomorrow AM (I love that the FedEx guy is so early- almost 8:45am on the dot every time)… it was only $15 so I’m extremely leary about the quality, but I’m so miserably broke and I absolutely need to have unflavored matcha on hand as well as flavored so it’s gotta be better than no matcha. Have you tried unflavored matcha from AOT to be able to focus on the base matcha? I need to see if I can get some of 52teas’ base matcha from Frank.
I haven’t yet tried AOT’s unflavored matcha. I just placed an order with them (yep, I had to have that tasting set, I have no idea why I had to have it, because I don’t actually see myself using it LOL) and I also ordered a couple of their teas, but not the unflavored matcha. Perhaps I will have to order some from them in the future… right now, I have so many teas… that I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of them! HA! I am thinking about putting together a “tasters set” with little samplings of several teas, and selling it from my blog, if for no other reason than to help move some of the tea – so I can get… MORE tea.
HAHA you sound like me! I have a crap load of tea, but I have certain staples that I absolutely need to have on hand at all times and an unflavored and flavored matcha are 2 of them. I’m gonna take a day off my strawberry tomorrow to try the Lupicia matcha… which I’m praying is better than the price/g would lead me to believe.
Here are my staples: I must have my Masterpiece Chai and my Chocolate Rose Romance tea on hand at all times. I have sold out of my Chocolate Rose Romance, but I have my own little hidden stash. LOL
I must have some kind of Oolong on hand at all times. If I could choose only one Oolong, it would be a Norbu Oolong and preferably Ali Shan (either fall or spring harvest Ali Shan. Their summer harvest is good, but not quite as good). I used to hoard Oolongs, but now I actually enjoy them every day which is better. But I find that I do still show signs of the hoarding, as I came across a full order of the Ali Shan the other day, tucked in my tea cabinet. LOL!
I must have jasmine pearls on hand at all times. Green jasmine pearls. If I could only have one green tea for the rest of my life, it would be jasmine pearls. Pure perfection.
I have a lot of “favorites” but these go beyond favorites and fall into the category of I MUST HAVE THESE!
I guess I would also like to have an Earl Grey on hand at all times… I guess if I had to choose one, it would either be my Earl Grey creme or Lupicia’s Earl Grey.
Mine are unflavored and flavored matcha, Mayan Chocolate Chai, and raw pu erh. I haven’t tried Muzi’s stone ground white yet, but that may be a contender as well.
I’m not fond of pu-erh… so far, the one that I’ve tried that I like the best is the chocolate pu-erh from Numi.
Oh yes, but that’s comparing apples to oranges again… even more-so than flavored and unflavored matcha because aside from numi’s chocolate I love raw pu erh when I can on “tolerably drink” unflavored cooked pu erhs.
Honestly I have to be in a particular mood for ginger, but I felt this was a pretty nice matcha.mI tried a sample of this from my local tea shop mixed with plain water. Next sip taste, I will have to try this as a ‘matcha palmer’. FYI Matcha Palmer is a matcha lemonade blend. I love ginger and lemon together.
Matcha – oh how I love thee!
This ginger Matcha from Art of Tea is delightful. The ginger flavor is quite subtle until you get to about mid-bowl, and then the flavor develops. Every once in a while, you’ll get one of the itty bitty ginger pieces and I love biting into them to release their peppery goodness! YUMMY!
Smooth, sweet, a little spicy. Pleasantly vegetative. I really like how the ginger contrasts with the matcha’s grassy flavor.
And then caramelized pear would be on the lam. A tea and a stereo livin’ on the streets. These two unlikely best friends will embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.
I want some of whatever you guys are smokin’. ;-)