JusTea

Ah, I remember now why I didn’t order this in my jusTea buy a few months back. While I love the company and want to support it in any way that I can, most of their offerings are just outside my interest… and so I share it with friends and colleagues around the world.

This came in the last (May 2014) Amoda box. Lots of flowers in the blend, which in a chai I’m actually cool with; I find it adds a hint of smooth sweetness to the blend (usually). In this case, that’s exactly what it does, and I quite like it. I’ve obviously had it before from the rating, and I’ll keep it at that, however I doubt I’d go out of my way to order this. I do like it, it’s a very, very good chai.. just outside my tastes at this time.

I bought a few gift packages of this a while back, and while going through my tea, realized I wanted to try it instead of giving it all away. It’s a clove-based chai with lots of floral notes (and a ton of flowers in the brew). I’m much happier when it’s less floral and more chai/clove tasting, which is most of the time as it cools. Very creamy too, even without cream added – quite a tasty chai.

Since my last cup of tea was not for me (but rhyming appears to be) I think I will try this Earl Grey, it will hopefully take away the sour taste in my mouth. (Yes chicory is now on my never, Never, NEVER! list). I want to apologise for I can’t remember who was kind enough to gift me this sample, please know that I appreciate it as I am truly an EG fan.

Sampled with a drop of milk.
This is of medium strength in terms of bergamot which is perfumed yet subtly sweet. The black tea base is a little smoky but the perfume of the bergamot dominates. It’s a nice blend but as the bergamot is not as strong as I like I’m going to add some sweetener.

Sampled with milk and sweetener.
The bergamot is smoother now than before and most of it’s perfume (and dryness) has gone. It has also balanced the bergamot and black tea base more that it was without the sweetener.

Overall – It’s a nice Earl Grey and it offers a pleasant level of bergamot for my personal taste but if I’m honest I don’t think it’s a memorable EG. If I was asked to sample this from a line up I don’t think it would be unique enough for me to pick it out, that could be a good or bad thing.

Tea & Cards TTB

As far as Earl Grey goes this one is actually rather solid, albeit a little boring. The bergamot plays a second fiddle to the quality black base in a way that’s comfortingly normal, but wouldn’t win any awards with my tastebuds.

Sipdown!! (117)

Thank you Cavocorax for the sample of this tea. It is nice as far as EGs go but I am not sad to see one more bergamot-centric tea leaving my cupboard.

Compared to the Mount Gray I had earlier this is an incredibly smooth take on EG. It is quite nice but I am finding myself surrounded by EG teas and I just am not a huge fan of bergamot. Consequently, this won’t be a restock but I am happy Cavocorax provided me with a sample as I enjoy trying new things. Thank you Cavo!!

Thank you Starfevre for this sample sachet! I really appreciate it :D

WOW this is a really good black tea! Super malty and rich. I totally dig the farmer direct/ fair trade model, too. Looking at the prices on their website, this is a very affordable tea, as well! So basically it is a win/win/win!!

Sipdown no. 97, & yes, I’m going for it, tonight!
Sil sent this one to me, mainly for my man, Tony, who loves earl Grey. I am not a huge EG fan, although occasionally I manage to enjoy a cup. I figured before I gave this to Tony I should drink one cup, so I did. As far as EGs go, this is actually very drinkable, with a real bergamot flavor, nothing phony about it. As it cooled, it did take on a vegetal taste, but I still managed to polish it off. The rest is in Tony’s tea cupboard now. I’ll let you know if he makes any comments about it when he drinks it.

TTB #1

This is an amazing earl grey! Sometimes, with earls, I get this artificial bite of what is supposed to be bergamot flavor. I don’t find that here at all. Just smooth, creamy essence of all the complex notes that make an earl grey exactly what it is. At the same time, the base is pretty bold, slightly astringent, and plain delicious.

I was so excited to find a JusTea tea in the Traveling Teabox as I’ve been wanting to try their teas for so long. Now I will definitely place an order with them at some point, and I will, in fact, add their company name to the
(neverending :P) list of tea companies I would like to order from this year.

I had this is in the morning, and it was perfect. Strong and malty – just what I needed for the chilly morning.

The first steep was a deep red colour, nothing like the photo. I was a little worried that I brewed it too long, but I preferred the stronger taste of the first steep. The second steep was ok and the colour was more like the photo.

Thank you Dexter3657 for sending this my way. I liked this quite a lot.

So I had this tea last night in the JusTea headquarters made by the JusTea media guy. I put milk and a bit of sugar in them because that’s how I can get around my hatred of the bitterness of black tea and it was quite good. They’re a little low-tech in their office, kettles and thermometers and pouring through a steeping filter into various mugs. Was cool.

This is actually my first time having their earl grey and it’s pretty nice. The flavour of the bergamot is pretty strong and I finally finally tasted the actual citrusiness of the bergamot in the aftertaste. It was quite nice. This is one of their machine processed teas since last year they were still teaching the tea farmers how to process their own and in order to have money to do this they contracted with one of the companies to do this and their other 2 current teas (Kenyan Black and African Chai). This year, later than now obviously, they will start offering their hand-crafted teas by the tea farmers and I had some of those at the tea cupping event last night and there were a couple of oolongs and they were REALLY good. And I don’t even love oolongs all that much normally. Search starfevre on Instagram for some pictures of the whole thing.

Good morning, bergamot! This may be the first earl I’ve had where the bergamot smell (<3), is matched in its instensity by the taste. I think I like it.

Unfortunately, I underleafed this cup. It was still a good cup, but I can tell I’m missing the tea’s full potential. I’m looking forward to trying again with a better leaf to water ratio.

I was digging around in my tea stash trying to decide what tea I wanted after having a matcha smoothie and this won out. Thanks again Nicole for the sample. This has such a unique flavor profile I would definitely consider getting more for the permanent collection, as IF I need more tea! See previous notes if interested.

Thanks to Nicole for sending a sample of this my way.

My experience with Kenyan teas generally is they can be kind of astringent and brisk, but this really surprised me. It’s fairly mellow and has a nice maltiness with some brown sugar notes. Very fragrant in the cup as well. I managed to sip on it plain a bit but it was also heavenly with bit of soymilk and coconut sugar. I sense an underlying orange note in the finish. Definitely will consider picking this up for the permanent collection as I’ve been looking for a good tea from Africa and this is the best I’ve found yet, at least to my taste. thanks Nicole!

Backlog:

A really different chai. I really liked it!

This has a different set of spices than the usual chai. I taste the fennel and licorice notes right up front. The clove and coriander lend a nice warmth to the cup, but this isn’t a really hot or spicy chai. The rose adds a nice floral tone.

As I mention in my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/10/22/african-chai-blend-from-justea/ This tea is more warm and spiced than it is spicy. But it is a deliciously cozy kind of tea, very nice for these cold days.

I really liked it because it is so different.

never had a black like this one! indeed it is very clear and clean…. personally i don’t get malt. i’m getting an undeveloped brown sugar hint that is mixed with a vegetal tone: as though someone cut a swath of a demerara plant and stashed it in my tea as a stir stick.

no astringency, no bitterness…. really a clear green curl. scent wise i do get malt, but not on the palate.

i took advantage of the christmas discounts, i am interested to try the other samples now! (the rest i have saved for my upcoming not for profit course starting in january =0)

Felt like this again. First cup was rushed. Tasted great though, but I had to drink it quickly because a sip in, I got a note asking for help to drive a local friend to the ER. So I gulped the rest down while waiting for her address instructions. My Breville used the keep-warm function so the second cup was still acceptably warm but I fear that I’m going to have to reheat my 3rd cup. Ah well, it was for a good cause.

And it looks like I’m going to be up very late drinking tea because I’m waiting for a phone call to bring her back to her house and who knows how long that will take. Depending, I might just stay up all night, though that will make my therapy appointment tomorrow interesting.

After receiving this in the mail from the crowd funding campaign (I don’t remember which one, kickstarter? indiegogo?), I finally opened this and made myself a cup (at…2am, yay!).

Added milk and sugar as is my wont with black tea. A bit more of each because I’ve heard that good Kenyan tea can be a bit strong on the astringency and needs a bit extra and I’m glad that I did because this is simply a very very good cup of tea. Probably not the best it could be because I reheated it in the microwave once because I forgot I was drinking tea but otherwise it’s very very malty and a bit chocolatey and it tastes a bit fruity to me too, though I couldn’t tell you which fruit, other than not the more acidic citrus fruits. Very subtle to me though. The malt flavour comes through the most. I have another cup of this to go tonight and probably resteep the leaves tomorrow. I’ll add anything if something is different between now and then.

ETA: And apparently this is tasting note #400. Woo!

Additional notes: I needed some Earl on this dreary day, so why not go for the best stuff? Burst of bergamot aftertaste right here. I’m not noticing the tomato soup flavor that I did last time, though that was from MissB’s sample and not this sample. Maybe a different harvest? This is the loveliest of Earls. I’d love to buy some of JusTea’s teas but the shipping is a little rough. I’m envisioning a massive Steepsterer combined order for the Christmas sale….

Additional notes: I’m sipping another cup, this time from MissB! thank you so much! I still have little from my sample from JusTea. I’m not sure if it’s because this is a different batch or I oversteeped, but this cup tastes like tomato soup! Not really any bergamot. Sad because this is one of my favorite EGs. I think I oversteeped. I really needed my bergamot today… so sick of winter! It’s supposed to be really cold for another week. :/ sigh.