Numi Organic Tea

So I got two boxes of this and have been rapidly converting people to join in its wonder. I can see where people that want the strong, earthy mouthfeel of a pu-erh are disappointed, however, I think that regardless of it’s name, this is just a wonderfully flavored black tea.

Still converting followers to join me in drinking this tea, six down, many more to go…

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the cinoi is sn…wait, no I’m up and I still have plenty of tea to drink before it gets too warm to enjoy a nice hot cuppa. There is no need for a full new review, as I enjoyed one cup of this same as always, hot with no additives (see previous reviews) before work.

However, after I had this cup this morning, I was not fully satisfied with it, and insisted on getting some half-and-half to have another cup with dinner. I have never had this tea this way, and I do not know why I really wanted it this way, but it was very good.

The tea is accentuated in every way possible. The half-and-half (being half cream and half milk) was smooth, sweet and light, yet slightly savory and rich at the same time. I believe this helped to bring out all of the different flavors in this tea: I can actually pick up the orange, I still have my spiced cookie with the nutmeg and cinnamon spices, even a bit more of the chocolate, and of course the earthy richness of the black pu-erh tea itself. Adding the half and half might not be the best way to get the true experience out of this tea, but it made each and every sip slightly different than the last. Overall, still a great tea. Infused 4 minutes.

Down to my second to last bag. Was not feeling so great though, hoped this would help, I felt energized and soothed after drinking the rich, velvety goodness that is this tea.

Infused hot, 4 minutes, no additives.

For some 15 (or more) years of my life, my wonderful neighbor went to Germany to visit her children for the spring months. While she was gone, we watched her home, brought in the mail and other things for her. She would always return with a box of Lebkuchen as a note of gratitude. What is Lebkuchen you ask? A wonderful German gingerbread cookie, rich and moist in texture with notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and orange.

This tea mirrors those cookies. Brewed hot with no additives. It is rich, full-bodied, earthy and sweet. It blends the same ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus flavors of the cookie, though they may not be present in the tea, it is wonderful. The spices blend in perfect harmony with a note of chocolate to deliver a naturally sweet and truly delicious treat.

Absolutely delicious. Will brew another cup later to write a proper review!

I have been absent for about a week traveling down the east coast with my wife. We are taking our time about it. Right now I am in a Wyndham hotel in Jacksonville. They have Numi Organic Earl Grey in the room along with the usual coffee. The package says that this is Kericho Highlands Estate tea with bergamot. I decided to list it here as the package states that this is presented by Wolfgang Puck. I probably won’t see it again. This is not a bad tea, but the Numi aged is a much better tea. The bergamot is weak and this is more like a slightly flavored black tea. Its not something I would buy, but its ok for a free in-room tea. I would rate this about a 60 but i’m not going to change the rating of the Numi aged EG.

I like this tea as the leaves are actually aged in bergamot oranges, they don’t add the oil to the leaves. I think this makes a more subtle cup of earl grey as the bergamot doesn’t seem as strong as other earl greys I have drank. This is not one of my favorite Earl Greys, but it will do in a pinch.

I wasn’t overly keen on this tea, it had a very mild taste which you would expect from Lavender but the tea is not one of my particular favorites. I am a huge fan of anything Lavender so my quest to find the best Lavender white tea is on.

Holy dust! I cut a bag of this open and combined it w/ Mayan Chocolate Chai (already steeped once). I’ve NEVER seen such fine baggage contents… there was something in there that looked like very tiny purple-ish grey gravel. The cocoa nibs? Anyway steeped it for 7 min in 3oz water then added 5oz Smart Balance Fat free milk. Of course, the cayenne clogged the filter on my tea pot cover so I ended up w/ a lot in my cuppa. The result was a VERY (almost too) hot but also VERY chocolatey cuppa. Yum!

I don’t normally put 2TB of creamer in my tea or coffee, but I just couldn’t resist in indulging by putting 1TB each chocolate caramel and white caramel creamers in this. Steeped it in 4oz water then added 2oz coffee concentrate before adding the creamer. OH… MY… GOSH… This is sooo good!

Drank this w/ 1TB chocoalte caramel coffee creamer. I think the best way I’ve had it yet!=D

Steeped in hot milk. Like reliving my childhood… only better.

How’s this for a drink? 1 tea bag, 6oz milk, 2oz cold coffee concentrate, 1TB white chocolate coffee creamer.

I not only needed to compensate for the milk and creamer, but also the 2oz of extra liquid so I bumped the steeping time up to 7 min praying it wouldn’t get bitter.

No bitterness- YAY! The coffee flavor is strongest which kinda surprises me since my normal coffee/milk ratio is 2:4 (oz), not 2:6. The chocolate comes next just as it would in a regular cafe mocha flavored by syrup. The milk provides a texture and a mouth feel instead of an actual flavor (yay!). The pu erh, spices, and white chocolate are there, but play supporting roles to give the drink complexity and depth preventing the chocolate from being flat.

Forgot to log this last nite cuz I went to bed right after drinking it. Didn’t have Bailey’s or Irish Creme creamer so I used 3TB Irish Creme instant cappuccino mix to make a variation on one of my favorite coffee drinks, an Irish Creme Mocha. The chocolate really seems to pop tonite and blends wonderfully w/ the Irish Creme giving it richness and also cutting out some of the artificialness and weird after taste that this mix seems to have. This is my favorite way to prepare this mix so far.

Steeped in milk tonite. This is so good… I just wish I could get rid of the milk’s aroma.

I love twist lattes so I decided to make a variation of one out of this tonite by adding 1TB vanilla creamer. Served w/ a pock stick of course:) The chocolate and vanilla compliment each other perfect and I’m even noticing the nutmeg more. I’m finding my pocky stick bitter though…

Satisfying my chocolate craving w/ this served w/ 1tsp white chocolate creamer and a Pocky Stick. Yummm…

I’ve been feeling stomach, head, and body achey the past 2 days… just blech… This tea sounded good to my tastebuds, I just hope my stomach agrees tonite…

You know how a lot of adult beverages have really nasty names? Well here’s one w/ no alcohol in it. I normally can’t stand those names, but this beverage walks right into it. It is, by definition, a Dirty Pu (ok- since Pu is only short for Pu Erh, it’s not exactly by definition, but it’s pretty close). 1 bag steeped in 4oz almost boiling water for 5 min then add 2oz cold coffee concentrate and reheat if needed. I drank this w/ one of Den’s Tea’s Pocky Sticks (on a side note, why are there only 2 servings per box??? That’s like 20 sticks!).

The liquor is blacker than black and the consistancy is thick. The flavor isn’t as pure chocolately as if it were served neat, but it’s definitely rich and indulgent.

YAY!!! So I took ROT’s Get Clean! off Jillian’s hands and when I opened the package I was ECSTATIC to find this as well!!! I’ve been giving this some thought and this is a chocolate pu erh w/ spices so I wondered how this would taste w/ milk. Then I wondered if I’d be committing some form of Chinese tea crime… which gave me the absolutely hilarious mental image of an old Chinese woman chasing me around w/ a cast iron frying pan for my assult on a wonderful pu erh. LOL! Ok, anyway…

I notice the spices are stronger in this bag than my 1st. Last time I could only smell the nutmeg, but now I can smell the cinnamon as well.

1 bag steeped in 3oz water. I could have added the milk right away, but I find it easier to get water extremely hot (but not boiling) than water. I also plan on resteeping this so I wanted to keep the bag clean). After removing the bag, I added 3oz milk and heated for 40 sec and stirred.

This is definitely worth risking getting hit by a cast iron pan. The chocolate is strong and the spices come thru just enough to add smoothness, depth, and complexity to the chocolate. The spice level is not that of a chai, but it makes a very comforting adult version of hot chocolate. I’ll definitely prepare it this way again.

Well this is my 2nd attempt at Pu Erh. My 1st was adagio’s pu erh dante which was absolutely vile. But ya know… something just dawned on me. It’s almost exactly a year since that experience. I made my 1st online tea purchase, which was w/ Adagio, on Dec. 28th of 2008 and that (along w/ white cucumber which is now one of my faves) was one of them. Although I have to be careful to not analyze this analogy too much cuz then I start thinking about howe my life has changed since then and I get depressed.

Anyway, this is the 1st Numi tea I’ve had so I can’t tell you too much about them beyond what my observations for this particular bag will be. Yes, bag. Now I’m not a fan of bagged tea so bagged pu erh worries me even more. I’m also surpised the front of the bag uses “velvety and vanilla” to describe a chocolate pu erh.

Ingredients: organic Pu Erh, organic cocoa powder, organic vanilla, organic Theo chocolate cocoa nibs, organic rooibos, organic orange peel, organic nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Wow… the ingredients surprise me. This isn’t just a chocolate pu erh, this is more of a chocoalte chai/spice pu erh. Not what I was expecting, but it sounds good! I also love that all of the ingredients except for the cinnamon are organic. I’ve never heard of Theo chocolate before though. As if I couldn’t be more worried, they throw rooibos in here! I’m desperate to learn to love rooibos because it’s so healthy, but I just can’t seem to.

I open the bag and smell it. While I can smell the complexity and depth of the chocolate and pu erh, the only ingredient I can specifiically smell is the nutmeg. Not a bad thing, just interesting.

The odd thing about the steeping directions is they don’t tell you how much water to use. They don’t even use the vague term of a “cup”. So I weigh it. I would have anyway because I’m learning a lot of bagged teas are incredibly light. Wow! 2.5g! I’m impressed! It’s between the weight I prefer for a 6oz cup (2.25oz) and an 8oz cup (3g) so I decide to steep it as an 8oz cup for the higher suggested time of 5 min. (It suggests 3-5). I also steeped it just under boiling (205-210) instead of at boiling because I don’t want to kill the health benefits. I don’t think it’ll make that much of a difference.

The liquor is one of the darkest I’ve seen. Easily mistakable for black coffee. And that’s what it smells like. It smells like a chocolate chai steeped in black coffee. Sweet, spicy, rich, creamy, decedant, and very complex. After a quick stir, I take a sip. I have never been so glad for a tea to taste exactly the way it smells! I LOVE THIS! And pu erh is supposed to help you metabolize fat? this seems like it should add it!

For you to fully grasp what’s going on in my head, you need to understand that not only was I terrified of pu erhs, but aside from chais I don’t care for black teas in general. Normally I say who I think would like a certain tea, but this time I think I’m going to say who I think won’t like this because the list is much shorter. I think the only person that would not like this would be a person who doesn’t like coffee or chocolate.

Serving Suggestion: While this is wonderful on it’s own, this tea would make a wonderful latte steeped in a ratio of 2 parts milk to 1 part water or steeped completely in milk as an adult version of hot chocolate. 1TB of white chocolate creamer instead of milk would also be divine.

Light and slightly earthy.

Some of the other reviewers loved this tea. I thought it was rather drab. I don’t know if that is because I don’t appreciate subtlety as much as some or if my tea-bag (sent to me as part of a holiday letter) was old. I got the earthy taste, but could not pick up on the promised overtones.

I know that Numi has some enchanting bagged teas so I might try to revisit this was a bag I know is new. I’ve had other teas that do earthy and chocolate-y in a much more intensely pleasing way.

I drink this all the time at work. Its mellow, nutty flavor reminds me of the green tea served at my favorite sushi restaurant.