Nature's Tea Leaf

I went to Nature’s Tea Leaf just now and saw a few reviews that look like they were taken from Steepster people – I hope they put the reviews there themselves and they weren’t taken from the site (it’s happened before with other companies).

Anyway this is a really nice yunnan! I bought a lot of flavored pu-erhs from Nature’s tea Leaf which I was not totally crazy about but this is really good. It does have a rich, honey type of taste mixed with some woodiness and a bit of pepper. That does sound strange but it’s so good. Smooth and mellow too. This is one of the only few yunnans I have in my tea collection and I have no idea why. I will definitely enjoy finishing off the rest of the tin.

I would order from Nature’s Tea Leaf again, they have a range of interesting looking teas in their line including some herbals.

I got a sample of this a while ago from Lazey, but just found it in one of my tea boxes recently. Thanks!

Also I went through my cupboard and discovered two teas in there that shouldn’t have been there, thus I am down to 164. Woohoo!

So this fits into my recent trend of disliking most flavored green teas, particularly sencha bases. Especially when I sipped it hot, it was too peppery and savory, with a strong grassiness as well. As it has cooled down it’s mellowed, and the bergamot is coming out more as well. Definitely better cool than hot, and probably better still cold, which is probably what I will do with the rest of my sample.

Finally, a tea that has just about enough chocolate flavour! ;-)

I could smell the chocolate and vanilla a little more than I could taste it, and I, too, found a kind of bitter aftertaste, and also something a little odd about the chocolate, maybe. But still, it was a nice flavoured tea.

I’m still finding my way with black teas, and I’m not familiar wtih Yunnan, so maybe it had to do with the flavour of Yunnan. I liked the chocolate curls, and I didn’t mind the murkiness they made in the tea.

I steeped this at 195F for 2.75 minutes, and added sugar and skim milk.

TTB-A sample, another with only one cup left.

I was briefly confused when I looked up the listing for this tea and seeing “berry” in the title, thinking it meant it was berry flavored, but no. I guess it is supposed to be a reference to the look of a whole globe amaranth flower, but at this point they are all broken into many tiny flower buds. I’ve had globe amaranth in flowering teas before but never by itself.

I think this tea may have been the unfortunate victim of sitting next to too many smelly flavored teas for too long. It kind of has that aroma that a box of flavored teas in ziplocs has when you open it, kind of a mishmash of all flavors at once. Many flavored teas are strong enough on their own to stand up to that, but this tea did not really. I mean, it’s still a pretty tasty white tea because its lightly sweet, but other than that I couldn’t pick out a flavor. I mean, there is maybe some chocolate in there? Haha. Oh well, I put it out of its misery. :)

I’m so sorry I have taken so long with the Traveling Tea Box…I’m almost thru it and ready to send it along! Last week I was ‘missing’ because I was super busy and in and out of the Chiro’s office! Eeeek! But…I am back and trying to catch up!

Nature’s Tea Leaf has some herbals that are coated with tangy hibiscus/rosehips/fruit ingredients and some straight-up herbals or fruity flavors that are all across the board. I’m glad they have so many offerings but some are hit and miss for me.

This one is alright…not on my faves list but ok. It has that tangy Rosehip/Roselle Flavor going on along side the Orange-Citrus. Those ingredients alone pack-a-punch but there are some green tea flavors as well as some herbally notes that popping thru too!

It’s a bit tart for me but is ok iced…so I am rating with the tarty factor in mind as well as the cold brewed idea, too!

Wow, I’m impressed with this cup and how it brews…perfect cup every time! The lemon is a bit pronounced, but I was very satisfied with this tea. Perfect before bed in my opinion…but I’m not sure if I’m the biggest fan of chamomile or not yet!

Ever have one of those weeks where you feel like you’ve been tied with a bungee to the back of an emotional roller coaster car and drug up and down the tracks?

Yeah.

Then you know what a blessing a full, deep night’s sleep can be. So for a change, a full-strength, industrial grade morning cuppa wasn’t necessary. Instead, opted for something with a little “refresh” in its personality. This is; a little astringent (makes me keep licking my lips) and the apple-peel bitterness that makes this tea distinct.

Anybody try this sweetened? I keep forgetting.

I’m having some gaiwan runs with this tea while I can tomatoes.
Seems a little early to can them, but my grocery store had some really nice romas for 4 lbs for $1 so I bought a lot of them to make 3 quart jars worth – I should of got more, but I only have 3 jars! Everything went really smoothly and easier than I remember canning to be. Though, I enjoy using my gaiwan when I’m doing work in the kitchen, maybe the tea made it more relaxing?

This tea is much better running through a gaiwan! It came out sweeter! However, 4th steeping suddenly got too astringent!

Backlog:

I really liked this tea. I loved the curls of chocolate in the dry leaf. Oh, sure, I realize that cacao nibs are better at flavoring the tea, and that chocolate chips (or chocolate curls like in this tea) tend to cloud up the tea a bit, but, I don’t care because it’s chocolate and chocolate makes me happy.

The chocolate and mint seemed to bring out different notes in the white peony leaves that I found very intriguing. Less vegetative, more earthy. I thought the earthy notes worked well with the chocolate as well as the herbaceous notes of the mint.

Very good! Here is my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/02/14/chocolate-mint-whisper-white-tea-from-natures-tea-leaf/

First attempt at making iced tea in a long long while. Somewhat haphazard even though I have an iced tea pitcher now.

Made with the hot brew method, hot water to steep and then cooled off in the fridge for a while (well, days really because my fridge inexplicably stopped making ice) and then drunk with ice. I added about a tsp of sugar and I expect I should have added more. If nothing else, this experience has taught me that I prefer my cold beverages to be sweet.

This tea that I’m drinking is not so sweet. The flavour doesn’t really hit me until I’ve stopped drinking and then it’s a very lemon tea. I should probably get up and put more sugar into it, but I am surrounded by and covered in cats at the moment so I don’t want to get up, so I guess I’ll suffer through this. I have a couple of more glasses of tea in the pitcher so I’ll experiment with more sugar later, and probably an un-lemon black tea.

A front passed through over night. By the looks of it on radar it probably hit most of you in the US from the plains to the east coast. The temperatures dropped back to early March levels along with a lot of rain. My head is about to explode today. Aaaack!

I needed something comforting with enough heft behind it to overcome the pounding. Excellent choice. Grain and malt, honey and cocoa, throw in some molasses for good measure, and you have this tea. This is an amazing black tea that is staple worthy.

No notes yet.

I decided to cold steep this Iron Buddha Oolong.

A few hours in, I sampled the cold steep and it taste kinda seaweedy. I got distracted with weight lifting and crocheting stuff. Could hours later, I’m finally having this cold steep. IBO has this strong veg bite to it while going towards a slight bitter taste. I’m getting a lemongrass taste which is really refreshing. Actually, this kind of tastes like the skin of a roasted green pepper!

hmmm, I think I like this cold steeped more, but maybe I’ll go lighter on the leaves next time.

Last of my packet. Sad to see it go. For Steepies who need a boot-in-the-backside morning tea, this one should go in your permanent library. Cocoa-y, stout, can’t ruin it, even when you’re down to the last of the sample and don’t have quite a whole teaspoon to make a full cup and you close your eyes and grab the first unflavored black tea you can find to round it out (Ahmad Hampton Breakfast) and it’s still wonderful…yeah, I’m awake. Maybe.

Additional notes: I’m having a couple steeps of this one, as Dinosara was nice enough to send me a couple teaspoons! This isn’t quite as magical as the first cup I tried, sadly. I wish I remembered how to steep it exactly the same. It is still very delicious and I think my favorite chocolate tea. I’ll definitely stock up at naturestealeaf.com when I run out!

I had high hopes for this one. I have been off dairy for a while and perhaps that is why I was baffled when I tried this and wasn’t as impressed.

It’s sweet, yes, but its kind of reminiscent of stevia and sort of turning my stomach. eeeeek!

not rating.

No notes yet.

thanks so much Dinosara for this one! I think I should have realized that I have a couple Nature’s oolongs already, so this one might have been similar. I think this one is the Cinnamon oolong… just without cinnamon. I could be wrong! After a three minute steep, I get a buttery yellow cup and a buttery flavor too. There are also notes of cinnamon (oddly enough), peach, pineapple and a little bit of a vegetal flavor. Pretty good! The second cup might have been steeping for four minutes which seems too long. This cup ended up having mostly a vegetal flavor… so the first cup was better. The leaves in my infuser are huge though! It’s sad that I never knew they would unravel that much in my other infusers. Overall, I think I like Nature’s Tea Leaf’s other oolongs more than this one.

Second steep. Cherry dissipates pretty quickly, but it still leaves the nice pu-erh base. Not too muddy tasting.

And of course, it tastes better because…
a) it’s warm enough to taste it outside while watching laundry on the line fluttering gently in the sunshine
b) it’s sipped in the company of Tazo, our free-range, no-strings-attached, no-obligation yard cat. (Solid black. Citrus green eyes. Tazo just fit. No special emotional attachments to the brand.)
c) it’s accompanied by fresh brownies and a fistful of malted milk eggs.

Amazing what happens when you read the directions. Two teaspoons. I had been way underleafing. Done properly (well, I never know if I’m doing pu-erh properly…) it tastes like a good slab of cherry pie.

Based on the NTL varieties I have tried, the one thing I’ve observed they consistently do well is create real-tasting fruit flavors. Not a bit of artificiality about this one.

Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box, Tea #2!

I’ve been enjoying oolongs greatly recently, so I chose this one from TSTTB (that Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box) for my tea at work today. I’m also a chocoholic, no explanation needed ;)

I am finding this to be a really interesting experience! The chocolate is lightly present and then the oolong sneaks up behind the sip and spreaaaaaaads through your mouth. It has a stronger flavor than the chocolate I feel, and it is a darker one. Quite yummy.

I find I’m enjoying the second steep with less chocolate and more oolong even better. They have reversed positions, and I taste roasty oolong, then a hint of chocolate on the end of the sip. Nice! I also had a croissant with it which was just about perfect pairing-wise.

There is one more serving in the bag, and I am going to put it back into TSTTB so that another person can enjoy this. Make sure you stick around for the second steep — it’s swoonworthy! It is also making me excited to try the dark and handsome wuyi ensemble from Adagio that I grabbed from the box. Soon, soon.

I haven’t sampled that many, but so far I haven’t met a Fujian tea I didn’t love (Adagio’s Fujian Baroque is tasty, too). Pleasant fruit and cocoa notes; isn’t picky on the steep time; just plain good no matter how you make it.

Alright…it’s oonlong afternoon for a little bit so that I can get through a few of the teas that i really need to at least try. Thanks again to Nature’s Tea leaf for this sample! I picked this one, not because I love oolongs (as most of you know by now, i dislike strongly) but because i figure someday i’ll find some amazing oolongs that rock my socks.

This tea? It’s not half bad for an oolong. It doesn’t have that overly vegetal taste that i can’t handle in oolongs, nor does the smell permeate my nose. Instead this is a bit darker, while not quite being a truly dark oolong. There is a sweetness, but it’s not overly strong. Overall a pretty decent oolong (high praise from me!)

Special thanks to Azzrian for this one!

It’s a nice Sechong! It’s been a while since my last cup and this was a nice welcome-back to the Sechong world!

It’s thick – like brothy or like a soup. It’s woodsy and slightly sweet and a bit vegetal – not like leafy greens but more like sweet peas, almost.

It has a pinch of creaminess to it too! A delight!

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http://myblissfuljourney.com

I will choose 3 winners on Monday! I hope you will enter!!!