Tea Leaf Boutique

Thanks to Lynne-tea for sending me a sample of this one!

The dry tea smells strongly of a chocolatey sort of ginger; brewed up I’m smelling chocolate and ginger and something else I can’t place my finger on. Which makes me uncertain as to whether I actually like the aroma or not.

The flavour of this one is quite interesting. Initially, I taste the ginger, which is at a perfect level for me (apparent and burns the throat a bit on the way down, but not overpowering), and then the chocolatey-cocoa flavours take over. I think the “odd” flavour might be the spicing, and again, I’m not sure if I like it. To me, this is coming off as a bit of a different take on a spicy hot chocolate. I can’t say that it’s entirely successful, as something in the blend is coming off a little strangely to me, but it’s an interesting idea! Chocolate ginger tea! My mom would be all over this sort of thing as she loves dark chocolate-covered ginger :)

The tea is somewhat improved with a bit of agave nectar added to sweetned it but it’s still not as fruity-tasting and flavouraful and I’d like. So this is another ‘meh’ tea.

Increasing the steeping time and temperature helped to improve the flavour somewhat, but I’m still left feeling like the green tea base is rather on the bland, flavourless side. It’s not bitter like some low-quality green teas can be, it’s just not really there at all, I guess. The berry flavours mixed with a faint touch of rose are nice and pleasent, and I think they could be even better with a bolder tea base. It’s almost a shame really.

Meh, it tastes like black tea with very little strawberry or currant flavouring. I love the smell of this tea, it’s deliciously sweet and fruity, but it doesn’t seem to transfere over to its taste.

So my first impressions aren’t all that good, but I’ll meddle around with the steeping a bit before I actually rate this tea.

I picked up this tea at a little shop in Jasper during a break in the epic 10-hour road trip to go see the Edmonton Indy. I seem to have this thing that no matter where I go I always end up bringing back tea; sort of like a souvenir. (I’m not doing it on purpose – I swear!)

Aaaaanyways, the steeping tea smells quite nice and interesting – a cross between strawberries and something tropicalish, accented with a bit of floral rose.

Unfortunately the tea tastes pretty weak with only a vague green-and-fruity flavour. I think that’s partially due to my steeping parameters – the ones of the packages were pretty vague and I guesstimated – which is why I haven’t rated the tea yet. I need to try steeping this tea longer/hotter before making up my mind.