Pukka

Pukka Days of Christmas #14

Today, I had a wonderful surprise : the postwoman rang to say there was a parcel sticking out of our letterbox, so better to get it inmediately…which I did, and it was a present from my friend Dianne…not only with a lovely Xmas card (that would already have made my day…I´m terribly late this year and tomorrow, I´ll be sending out my “crismas”), but also including Pukka´s advent calender.
So, I hung the calendar, and decided to start with today´s teabag. And that was a very wise choice LOL…the peppermint dominates in nose, but when drinking the tea, the licorice balances the cold crispness of the mint to lengthen and warm the taste. I like it, and it reminds me of a tea another friend of mine, Melanie, recommended (sleepytime, from Celestial Seasonings)… as I remember that tea, as I haven´t drunk it in ages.
A very well balanced blend, and I might buy myself a box next time in UK.

I used to have Ginseng Tea(or I might actually still have a bit left, but not much), that was just tea and ginseng. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find that anymore. So I thought I’d buy this, because it’s tea with ginseng, and it’s also organic, so I thought, hey, upside is I get an upgrade … except that upgrade isn’t available in stores. Organic supermarkets have mostly thrown out Pukka, probably because it was bought up by Unilever. In theory it’s supposed to be available at Rossmann, but in practice they don’t have this one. Apparently the only place to buy this is on Amazon Marketplace. I tried to find an organic Ginseng Tea, but no luck. Non-organic ones are available, but not from anywhere that I would have felt confident buying from. So I bought this, even though it seemed ridiculous to buy a bagged tea on Amazon Marketplace.

And now that I’ve had it? Meh. It doesn’t taste bad, but the Ginseng Tea was way better. Suppose it’s my own fault for being an idiot and forgetting to check the ingredient list.
But I think I’ll end up buying ginseng so I can blend my own Ginseng Tea.

The ingredients list on this one is so smart! Oat flower, licorice root, chamomile, lavender, lime (linden) flower, Valerian root, green Rama tulsi. One of the nicest-tasting and most effective bedtime blends I’ve ever tried (and I have tried many!). It’s slightly sweet without being cloying and has a nice, bready mouthfeel. Doesn’t taste like candied soggy hay, which many chamomile- and- licorice- based herbal blends run the risk of, IMHO. I didn’t get much of the lavender or Valerian, which is OK with me, as those can be overpowering too if not balanced correctly.
I was already pretty tired when I drank this, but I was out like a light within 15 minutes of finishing this cup. Pretty good for a bagged grocery store tea!

Apparently another oldie (BB 2016.01.10.)

And what is the tea-like in this tea? Almost nothing! Yep, brews dark copper colour. It’s even clear. But rest? It is like black tea with fruit syrup added (my grandma used to do it). Yep, it is black tea – they claim Nam Lanh wild tea; then 14 % of 1.8 gram BAG (not sachet) is licorice root. Yep sweet!

And then there is (should be) ginseng (not in taste), and black maca root (what is it?).

But yeah, it is sweet black tea. Sweet, almost syrupy. Only thing is is is not so viscous. I can finish it, because – yep, it is just sweet without any other bad notes.

Another oldie Pukka tea. BB 2016.01.14

Earl grey with lavender sounds nice, but I am bit afraid flavours will be gone already.

Tea itself should be from Dunsandle, India. Never heard about it but still I have to learn a lot.

I rather went short on steeping time again. Well, some bergamot and lavender is there for sure.

This short time was just right. Tea itself is not noticable too much, maybe because it is still too hot – but berrgamot and lavender is there, and at least it is not overwhelming. I think, if I steeped for longer – it would bring more tea flavours which are bit lacking now. Oily feeling – not what I would enjoy. I would rather enjoy real stuff in.

Watery lemon and ginger and little licorice and turmeric. It wasn’t bad, just super watery for steeping 1 bag in a mug for 15 minutes. Why so weak? The bag smelled so promising.

They claim they used Nam Lanh tea which was hand-picked by local tribal people. Who knows if it is true or false? Anyway, it is organic and fairtrade tea. And best before: 2016.01.11

Oh, oldie.

It wasn’t much aromatic while dry and in tea bag. I shook the tea bag and still nothing present. Added boiling water to my favourite glass cup, added the tea bag, waited 4 minutes… took bag out.

Brews clear, bit darker copper colour with not much of aroma. It was like classic black tea from tea bag. But on sip it was different and, although old, full of taste. It was bold black tea, very rich in taste, I noticed tobbaco, woody taste, malt and drying (no particular order). It was indeed very drying tea, maybe too much it wasn’t super enjoyable.

But that it was so full in taste kinda surprised me, since it have to be around 5 years since it was picked. Foil wrapping made the great job probably. Too bad it seems it was discontinued.

I had this last night. I hate to have a nearly full box of tea that I don’t want to drink. But I don’t really like this one, so I think it will languish. It was actually a little better than I first time I made it, but I still only managed half the cup. Sad, huh?

I over ate yesterday. I tend to do that, especially around the holidays, so I picked up a box of this on Thursday. I had first put the 3 gingers in my cart, but decided on this one instead. Too bad I didn’t check the tea notes first. The 3 ginger one has better ratings. However, I didn’t hate this one. It won’t be one I reach for just for the pleasure of its taste, but it’s drinkable. I kinda got the sweet burn of the ginger, and at the end of the sip was a sour note from (I presume) the lemon. The Pukka teas were almost twice the price of the Bigelow teas, but it did seem to help my tummy, so it was worth it.

Got another bag from postcrossing, back in May.

Oh well, I don’T know if I have steeped it for long or what was wrong, but I noticed only sweet licorice and hints of apples. No ginger nor cinnamon. Apple/Licorice. Uhh, what a dismal!
Dropping from 70 → 60

Somewhere I get this tea. Where? Who knows, but BB date is only month away. And in foil bag.

Brewed, after some time in water, it smells mostly after chamomile, licorice and herbs. In taste it is weak, something like cinnamon tea. Apple is not much there, maybe I just expected way more fresher taste of apple. Overall, tea is quite mouthfilling, not much of watery, good for evenings, maybe too herbal for me.

You know the rule with valerian. Don’t do it. Do not smell the dry bag.

Pukka managed to gloss over the foul-footed valerian with a thick, sweet varnish of licorice. It’s tolerable for me, that licorice. Medium intensity. Some oatstraw creaminess floats around. Chamomile is there I guess, demure as it usually is. Lavender wafts in mid-mouth and lingers lightly with licorice into the finish. It’s certainly not a lavender-forward blend. Can’t speak for the tulsi and limeflower.

It puts me to sleep but it’s not soothing for me. It’s something I have to gulp down.

shrug

I love cinnamon but I found the cinnamon flavor of this tea too strong for me.

I liked it but to a tea that is called “Vanilla Chai”, I felt it did not had much vanilla flavor.