Liquid Planet

I ate dinner today and Busboys and Poets in Arlington, VA; our server brought a tea chest filled with Liquid Planet teas and I chose the Mumbai Chai.

Wonderful chai tea, with balanced, fragrant spices. Very smooth and yummy with milk and sugar.

I’ve been drinking Breakfast in Beijing as a loose tea and later as a “bagged” tea for a couple of years now and it’s easily my favorite tea at “The Planet.” It’s a simple breakfast tea, but I’m really not sure of the blend. Chinese, most definitely.

Got a sample bag of this from my cousin. Brewed it strong and added a bit of milk. It’s smooth and yummy and has a good kick to it like with most chai.

This teabag came as a sampler with my new teapot. It says it’s fully biodegradable and made of corn resin. Well, they weren’t 100% clear if it was the packaging or the teabag (or both) that was made out of corn resin and since I’m allergic to corn, I cut the teabag open and dumped the leaves into the pot just to be safe. It was a pyramid bag so the leaves are pretty good quality. Maybe a little small (especially the lemongrass) but not a big deal.

When I stick my nose in the cup, I get mostly mint but when I’m farther away I get little whiffs of what I think is the licorice. No hint of the lemongrass or tangerine. Taste-wise I feel the mint more than I taste it but it is still the first and dominate flavor. The next flavor is the lemongrass but it seems to blend well with the mint making a sweetish light taste. The licorice is pretty faint (which is good because I’m typically not a fan). I think it give the mint and lemongrass flavors a little support. The tangerine is pretty much not evident to me except maybe in a little tiny citrus taste that seems almost like part of the hint of licorice? And even that hint I don’t get consistently.

Of course, saying all this, if I didn’t know what was in it, I doubt I’d be able to pick anything else out beside the mint. It’s evident that SOMETHING else is there as it is not super-minty plus there is more depth of flavor than you get from a straight mint tea. But the different flavors really blend one into another so no single one stands out. Or at least not so much that I can identify them.

I’m not a big herbal fan but if they had sent a larger sampler I would drink it. Don’t think I’d go out and intentionally buy it though (maybe if the tangerine was more obvious). I would, however, choose this over a plain mint tea.