Choice Organic Teas

Steep Information:
Water: ~500ml at 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes http://steep.it/2%20minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet floral, hint of vegetation
Steeped Tea Smell: paper, floral
Flavor: paper, vegetal
Body: Light
Aftertaste: sweet, floral
Liquor: translucent green

Perhaps because I let the teabag set a year it tastes like paper?

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-green-tea-jade-green/

Steep Information:
Water: 12 ounces hot water from coffee machine
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes http://steep.it/3%20minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet fall leaves
Steeped Tea Smell: toasty
Flavor: earthy
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: slight astringency
Liquor: translucent orange-brown

Rating: 3/4 leaves

blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-black-tea-english-breakfast/

Steep Information:
Water: ~500ml at 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes http://steep.it/2%20minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: slight jasmine, vegetal
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet jasmine
Flavor: jasmine (floral), sweet, end of sip is vegetal
Body: Light
Aftertaste: slightly perfume/chemical
Liquor: translucent light green

Not bad, not the best jasmine green I’ve had, but a good teabag choice.

Rating: 3/4 leaves

blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-green-tea-jasmine-green/

Steep Information:
Water: ~500ml at 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: a little over 6 minutes http://steep.it/
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: peppermint
Steeped Tea Smell: peppermint
Flavor: licorice (root), peppermint, sweet
Body: Light
Aftertaste: licorice root
Liquor: translucent murkey yellow-green

Let it sit at 6 for another minute or so, as it was mostly peppermint then

Usually not a huge fan of licorice in tea, although I love chewing the roots directly, but this was a nice blend!

Post-Steep Additives:

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-herbal-tisane-sweet-liquorice-mint/

Steep Information:
Water: ~500ml at 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: a little over 4 minutes (was aiming 3 and got distracted)
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: floral, paper
Steeped Tea Smell: paper
Flavor: paper, chemical
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: vegetal, floral
Liquor: translucent yellow-green

bleh

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-green-tea-oothu-garden-green/

Steep Information:
Water: ~500ml at 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: a little over 7 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: chemical, hint of chamomile
Steeped Tea Smell: chamomile, honey
Flavor: slightly tangy (citrus), chamomile, with a finish of berry (hibiscus)
Body: Light
Aftertaste: sweet
Liquor: translucent yellow

Not a flat chamomile, interesting depth but perhaps a little heavy on the citrus?

Rating: 2/4 leaves

blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-herbal-tisane-chamomile-citrus/

Steep Information:
Water: 212°F
Steep Time: a little over 4 minutes at Steep.It
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: strong citrus
Steeped Tea Smell: bakey, citrus, sweet
Flavor: bakey, ending with citrus
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: citrus, astringent
Liquor: barely translucent dark brown-red

An earl grey, not a particularly unique example or anything but not a bad cuppa

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/12/19/choice-organic-teas-teabag-black-tea-earl-grey/

Bagged

Aroma when Dry: woody, warm, faintly sweet
After water is first poured: warm, earthy, woody.
At end of steep: woody, sweet (eastern) chewy.
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: light earthy brown

Staple? Has great possibility, I do love it but prefer loose leaf, so looking into other brands.
Time of day preferred: Any.
Taste:
first notes: twiggy, buttery, smooth.
As it cools? notes warm, bitters slightly, gets twiggier.
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No.
Lingers? Yes, with warm, sweet (eastern) earthy smoothness
Also great cold.

Originally published at The Nice Drinks In Life: http://thenicedrinksinlife.blogspot.com/2012/08/choice-organic-teas-oothu-garden-green.html

Origins: India
Type: Green Tea
Purveyor: Choice Organic Teas
Preparation: One teabag steeped in about eight ounces of boiling water for 2:30 (as recommended on the box), sipped plain

Now here is a pleasant cup of tea. More and more often lately, tea purveyors try to make a cup of tea into more than just a cup of tea. And that collective endeavor certainly has its merits. New places are planted with tea, new styles of tea arrive, new blends and flavors are offered, and so on. Imagine if instead of the fast-paced world of tea we have now, we had a world in which the menu had not been augmented in a couple of centuries: a handful of black teas, a couple of greens, an oolong, and maybe a couple of herbals; and nothing else. Instead the tea drinking world is vibrant, growing, experimenting – in a word, thriving. I am glad that I live in this world and not an alternate.

However, nothing is perfect. There are some drawbacks to the fast pace, and notable among them is the fact that it becomes difficult sometimes to just get a nice, simple tea. Very often nowadays, a tea list will include a few standard varieties hidden among dozens and dozens of zany flavors and odd roastings, strange combinations and weird herbs. Those are all very nice, and many of them have people who think they taste good, but can’t tea purveyors pay at least as much attention to tea-flavored tea?

Choice Organic Teas’s Oothu Garden Green opens with a somewhat sweet nose, fruity and tannic. The palate is also tannic. It is smooth and buttery (that is to say, both rich and light), with a somewhat mild finish. This is not an intense tea. It is not malty, it is not brisk, it is not packed with a million different elements, and it is not trying for anything in particular. It is just a good brew, sort of like that one great friend who is always relaxed, level-headed, a good listener – the one who has plenty of fun but does not always feel the need to be wacky about it. When sipping the Oothu, I thought to myself how nice it is that I can have a cup of tea that I do not have to “deal with;” I can just sit back and enjoy it, letting the mind unwind and thoughts pass by without interference from all sorts of elements in my beverage.

A rare treat in a crazy world.

Originally published at The Nice Drinks In Life: http://thenicedrinksinlife.blogspot.com/2012/08/choice-organic-teas-celtic-breakfast.html

Origins: Assam; Ceylon
Type: Black Tea
Purveyor: Choice Organic Teas
Preparation: One teabag steeped in about eight ounces of boiling water for 4:30 (as recommended on the box), sipped plain

Choice Organic Teas promises that, with a “rich touch of malt from Assam,” and “smooth yet striking” notes from Ceylon, the Celtic Breakfast blend will be “delightful whenever a strong cup of tea is the favored refreshment.” Yes, that is certainly true.

The tea opens with a tannic and very brisk aroma. It is not fruity, and yet one gets the sense that a lemon has already been squeezed into it. The color of the tea is a very rich caramel. The first thing noticed when sipping it is a thin body, but that should by no means be misconstrued for weakness. It has a very deep, rich flavor of malt with hints of citrus, much briskness remaining from the aroma, and the tannins just keep coming. The flavor is balanced by a light and buttery texture, which is good because if it were any thicker I might have choked on all that flavor. But, the harmony works out just right.

On a whim I brewed the same teabag a second time. The tannins are mostly gone now, having used themselves up with reckless abandon the first time around, but the flavor remains strong with a brisk aroma and malty taste. Let there be no doubt: this tea is rough and tough. It has earned its tag of “a malty tea of strength.”

The Celtic Breakfast blend does indeed make for a good breakfast tea. It stimulates, encourages, holds up, gets the back. It is thoroughly reliable. And thoroughly tasty. Go try some in the morning.

It has hibiscus and rosehips, lemongrass, and a surprisingly nice bit of peppermint, all of which I love. A nice medium-strength herbal tea. Sour, in a good way.

I’ve been drinking this on occasion, but, I just realized that I’ve not logged it even once!

This is a really good rooibos chai. As I’ve said on many occasions, I’m not big on rooibos, but, I do enjoy organic rooibos, and I did at one time have a very tasty rooibos chai blend that I crafted using a similar recipe of spices that I used for my Masterpiece Chai. It’s been so long since I’ve had that rooibos chai though, that I would have a hard time saying how this one stands up to that. This one IS good though.

It’s warm and nicely spiced without tasting too spicy. The ginger and pepper sit off in the background, providing a warmth to the cup but it isn’t an aggressive, peppery chai. Nice and warm when it is COLD outside!

Not one of my favorites. It smelled sweeter than it tasted, and I prefer a sweeter rooibos. Luckily it was part of a sample pack I picked up and I don’t have a whole box left over in my pantry.

I haven’t had other decaf earl greys. This is what I use to make the water at my job drinkable (otherwise it reeks of chlorine). A mild earl grey. For some reason, I think I like this better than the caffeinated version, perhaps because the tea overwhelms the bergamot less in this version.

It’s drinkable. Maybe an Earl Grey for people who don’t really like Earl Grey. Very mild flavor, the tea is stronger than the Earl Grey itself.

I got this for my boyfriend, who really doesn’t love the taste of regular tea. He likes the roasted, sweet taste of this, and it’s good with a little honey. A gentle pick-me up, easy to make, good for a fall morning.

Steep Information:
Water: 185°F
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell:sweet, floral
Steeped Tea Smell: floral, vegetal
Flavor: vegetal, sweet
Body: Light
Aftertaste: grassy
Liquor: translucent yellow brown

Blog: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4732204343630518234#allposts

Rich bagged tea, almost breakfast all on its own with some milk and honey. I’ve been keeping a box of this at the office for those mornings when I’m too bleary to think about making a nice loose-leaf cup

I’m almost finished with a cup of this. It sort of smelled like lima beans before I started to sip it. The first taste was a tad bitter and grassy but as it cooled it did get a bit better. It was a little vegetal but still a slight bitter grassy taste with a bit of sweetness trying to come thru. The color of this one shocked me as it was a orange-yellow-brown color…different from most green teas I have had. It’s pretty decent for a bagged green and a decaf bagged green at that but I wish the bitter grassy taste was a bit more muted. Not bad tho.

It smells like tea.
It’s from Japan.
I watched some youtube videos on Japanese Tea Ceremonies and decided to try this.
I like it.
No milk, honey, lemon needed.

12/6/2012 – I have a couple of bags left, I don’t think I would buy this one again, but the name oothu oothu oothu name sounded strange and exotic, just the way I love my women.

BB (Bagged Bonanza) #3 Tea for today:

I’ve had this one for a while and I thought today was the perfect day to try it. Not only because of my BB but because I could use the spices as I heard many of them are good for soothing tummy issues.

This smells like a sweet yet slight spicy chai post-steep.

The color is a nice rich dark red-brown.

The taste is sweet from the rooibos and slightly spicy from the spices. This is really nice! REALLY NICE – for a bagged chai! Probably one of my fave bagged chai’s as well as one of my fave rooibos chai in a bag, too!

I could see myself drinking this often! This one surprised me! If you see this on a shelf at a good price – give it a whirl!

BB (Bagged Bonanza) #2 for today!

I needed a stronger Black Tea (in a bag because of my BB and broken Hot water source) and thought I would have a cup of this!

See previous notes…

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for a sample of this tea!
This bagged green is pleasant. Nothing about it really stands out; it’s mildly vegetal and a bit sweet. This is my first tea from India as far as I can remember, so that’s kinda cool!

I am revisiting this tea this evening, mostly because last time when I drank it the tea had cooled to the point of being cold, and I wanted to try it hot. It is much better hot, I think, although it’s nice cold too (I think it would have been even better with maybe a thin slice of lemon or lime!)

Served hot, I notice more buttery tones to the tea, and I like that. It is also less astringent when hot.

I’ve enjoyed this one both ways – hot and cold – but I like it best hot.