Mighty Leaf Tea

Rooibos with a hint of marigold—you can actually taste the marigold! Makes it a touch more interesting.

Chai Tea is my go to at coffee shops and breakfast joints, especially if they have a good one. Making chai at home is an adventure I am still pretty new at. It’s complicated, finicky, and messy. The outcome is god though, and with more practice, I think I could make a pretty good cup of chai, and even an acceptable chai latte.

This specific chai is not bad. A little on the spicy side, as it probably should be. The brew itself I need more practice with, but with time I think this could turn out to be a great mix.

Jet black needles with bits of gold. Pretty. I am guessing that it is a DianHong Gong Fu cha, or Yunnan Gold. The tea steeps up red brown. Punchy—good hit of malt, dark cocoa, and lingering muscatel sweetness. A bit bewildering for my tastebuds—like a mega Darjeeling crossed with an intense Yunnan black. I am currently on steep four and it appears to still be going strong.

Chrysanthemum tea was light in flavor and also not too sweet. It smelled floral, but the scent was not overpowering. If you look at the tea after you steep it you can see the petals bloom.

Green and passiony

I just found this bag in my tea cabinet, and made a small pot last week. It’s been a while since I’ve had a pot of tea, I’ve been having an afternoon coffee almost exclusively for the past couple of years. I had forgotten how wonderful this tea is with some raw sugar and a bit of cream or 1/2&1/2. I went to the Mighty Leaf website to order more, and was sad to find it’s no longer available. I’m on the hunt for a replacement chocolate tea.

Holy astringency. I usually add milk, and sometimes forgo it. This time? No way could it have done without.
Very coppery. The astringency is mouth puckering, edging on downright sour even with milk and a packet of sugar. Now, I need my caffeine so I will finish it. Eventually. (my colleague brought me a coffee, so I’m gratefully sipping that down for now!)
Ok… so now that its cooled a bit, the sourness is not so strong. I’m getting some nice malt mid sip.
I suppose my love for complex teas has swayed me a bit on this one. Hmph. Still not the best first impression. And that malt isn’t enough to make up for this next part!
Copper comes through in the swallow and aftertaste. It reminds me of eating a penny. Or the taste of blood… only I’ve never had that much in my mouth at one time. Creepy. For that reason alone, I will never buy this tea again.

Making myself a cup of this on my break from Spinzilla spinning. As always, drinking it with milk, since I think that enhances and supports the vanilla flavor, which is in line with what I’m looking for right now: a nice, comforting, reliable cup to relax with, since I still have a long way to go today before the to-do list feels like I’ve done it justice.

Still trying to get back into the swing of things after Irma. This Orchid Oolong arrived a few days after the hurricane passed, while I was still in the midst of cleanup, and I’ve been waiting to do a tasting note until I feel I can give it my full attention. Well, today still isn’t that day, but I’m drinking it anyway, because sometimes, mood trumps ability.

Steeped a slightly rounded teaspoon of leaves in 9ish ounces of water about 10 seconds off the boil, 4 minutes.

Dry scent: Cool, deep, fairly complex. Sort of sweet and bitter at the same time, with varying notes. At times a chocolatey scent comes through, or a zesty fruity scent, or the oolong base, or a faint cream underlaid by sharpness. Reminds me of a cool, damp, shady tropical forest, with mossy rocks and hanging plants.

Scent of steeped tea: Lighter than the dry scent, slightly creamy, with oolong sweetness and an underlying cool earthiness.

Taste: Would it sound odd to say this tastes like light amber? A light, refreshing oolong flavor overlaid by a touch of caramel and a veil of pale flowers, not much depth. Pleasant and drinkable, but not remarkable.

Five years ago I had a sample pouch of this that I remember being intriguingly delicious, and there are multiple reviews on the Mighty Leaf site that sound like they’re of the same tea I had then: unexpectedly floral, silky, full-bodied, addictive. I wish this tea were that tea.

Sipdown (327)

I weighed part of my cupboard the other day though I still have about 1/3 of my cupboard to go. Consequently I decided if I drink the teas I haven’t weighed yet, it would be less work and since I haven’t weighed the teas from Evol Ving Ness (or even finished adding them all to my cupboard) I decided to pull some teas from there.

The box is full of chais it seems which worked well today since I wanted to make a latte and chais make for good lattes. However, weirdly enough, I ended up making this tea instead of one of the many chais and I am blaming the power of persuasion since the bag said it was better as a latte.

It’s an alright blend and definitely has some spices which make for a nice latte. I’m getting cinnamon and ginger but also a fair amount of anise, which I don’t love. There is also a fruity element so I can certainly see how this is a holiday blend. It is not my favorite but I can see the appeal as a holiday blend and Evol’s latte recommendation was appreciated. As was the share. Thank you Evol for sending a sample my way!

Leaves of Provence by Mighty Leaf is a powerful blend, having the ability to energise with caffeine and mint, yet calm and relax through the properties of lavender, which is known to be a dominating flavour. Fortunately, its inclusion in Leaves of Provence is just right, providing a soothing scent and subtle flavours. Whenever I drank this, I would daydream of laying in European sun, closing my eyes and letting the aromas dilute my actual surroundings. However, the taste doesn’t quite narrate the south of France for me, the crisp, herby notes navigating my senses a little further afield, to the likes of Italy. Then again, I have yet to visit Provence, so perhaps I just need to be more travelled to make the connection! Who knows!? Have you been to Provence? What would your Provencal mix contain?

www.TastetheTea.co.uk

After two months of being put off, we got the call that our new refrigerator is due to arrive tomorrow! In preparation, we’ve been eating bizarre combinations of fridge food (anybody want the last of the baby gherkins with some edible cookie dough?) and have dismantled my corner-counter tea station to avoid a delivery guy calamity.

So quick and easy bagged tea is the order of the day, and in keeping with the eat-up-the-leftovers theme, I brought out one of my last couple bags of this Mighty Leaf variety, which looks like it’s being eased out of the Mighty Leaf lineup.

It’s a pleasant green tea base; it’s sending me sencha vibes even though I can’t confirm that from ingredient lists. Lemon is accounted for; cherry, not as much—more of an acceptable but artificial unspecified fruity background. Not bad, but probably not one to hunt down again.

I have a precious new picture for my new fridge, too—one of my Sunday girls, a sixth grade emerging artist, did a sketch of Uncle Iroh from Avatar surrounded by some his wisest words, including this pearl: “I know you’re not supposed to cry over spilled tea, but it’s just so sad!”

Soggy, soggy Fourth in Missouri. Fingers crossed that the monsoon will continue through the evening. As posted elsewhere, my apologies to the fireworks lovers, but I have to work tomorrow.

Actually got a little chilled…spent a bit of time at the farm with my dad and sister; he’s 87 with mild dementia, can’t hear a lick; you have to condense your communication to five word sentences and YELL EVERYTHING. Twice. And then drove home in a toad-strangler, threw a windshield wiper blade, got soaked running into a Walmart to buy a replacement so we could see our way home.

So a little warm gentleness was in order to soothe body and soul. Watching a parent fade away isn’t easy. This did the trick. Nice cherry-to-green ratio if you watch your water temperature. The cherry isn’t fake-syrupy. I think I could use another cup.

As Rosehips so gracefully put it, I whoopsed yesterday and overdosed on tea and pastry shopping. (There is currently Krispy Kreme and cherry strudel and tiramisu under my roof simultaneously. Don’t judge. )

..but we don’t have a Fresh Market nearby, so when we’re in NW Arkansas, we go a little nuts.

So this box just sorta jumped into my cart. (My husband made it jump.) It’s a nice, gentle little flavored tea; treated with care, you can coax a goodly amount of cherry out of it. A second steep treated with much less care made a decent cuppa chilled, but it had a bite. Nice and springy.

GCTTB6

Slightly bitter black base, a bit of earthiness, slight sweetness, a tiny bit of fruit. I steeped 3 min in 80 deg C water and tasted a lot more bitterness and astringency than expected. Maybe hotter water and a shorter steep time? It was pretty meh.

I was planning to work on some of my sipdowns today, but I decided at the last minute to have a favorite instead. It didn’t quite meet my expectations today, but I enjoyed it.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
May 2022 → A cupboard staple

This is pure vanilla bean flavor. Not extract or flavoring, but straight vanilla bean. I can see the flecks of tiny vanilla seeds floating around inside my cup. It’s delicious. I hoard this one because it’s one of my all-time favorites, though I’m not sure why. I do believe it’s still available through Peet’s Coffee.

I brought a variety of loose leaf teas with me to work today but this one ended up being my tea of choice this morning. Oversteeped it a bit, but it’s generally pretty forgiving.