Brewed Awakening

SIPDOWN!

Also another from the travelling tea box if i recall correctly. While I can appreciate a great cup of coffee, this tea is just kinda blech. This brews up into a tea that’s pretty much the colour of a good thick black coffee. It’s not a pleasant cup of tea either. I tried to add a bit of milk to this to see if it improved the taste but it’s really just kind of burnt and icky. Maybe i can’t drink coffee anymore, but this…just sucks lol I supposed someone looking for a gradual switch from coffee to tea might enjoy this, but i’d rather jump to beautiful blacks that have wonderful flavours.

So, I was planning to try a new mate, but I slept in this morning and just felt too tired. I was sniffing my “to review new teas” pile and found this tea, a sample by Will Work For Tea (yay thanks again!). By smell, this had to be the tea this morning.

DRY: Coffee, kinda pungent. Whoa, lumps of whole coffee beans in this tea! Oh hells yes thats what I need this morning. Tiny pieces of white chocolate? I was guessing that black tea is in this. I looked up the tea online and it’s oolong and green! Crazy!

STEEPED: I was smelling a bitter black tea until I knew what teas are in “Brewed Awakening”. Now I can totally ID the green tea smell. Also smells like coffee. Brews up to a dark, slightly cloudy tea.. looks like black tea.

TASTE: Hit of slight bitterness and a punch of coffee. Tiny bit of creamyness and nuttyness at the end. Totally tastes like black tea and easy to end the judging there! But now that I know it’s green tea – I taste it, with it’s roasted and almost over-cooked green teaness. I can detect the oolong at the end of the sip, which adds body and nuttyness. Or it’s all in my head and I’m trying to detect green and oolong. ARG.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Coffee Drinkers (you are running out of excuses to not switch to tea), black tea drinkers who don’t want to drink black tea. Tea drinkers who want to be schooled on creative use of green tea.

COMMENTS: This tea is crazy – it was fun that I didn’t know the ingredients until I was half-way into the cup. I totally thought it was blacktea/coffee beans/white chocolate/something roasted tasting like mate or barley or nuts.
I’m impressed green and oolong was used here to create a coffee effect. Very smart Art of Tea, very smart.

Compared to all the recent coffee-tea blends I’ve drank recently, “Brewed Awakening” is the more simple blend and one that would appeal most to tea drinkers who like a creative blend. This would be the tea to serve if you have tea drinkers and coffee drinkers at the same table. You’d might satisfy both parties.
This tea is more milder than my recent coffee-teas. TeaVanas Javavana mate is stronger and more chocolately. Fusion’s “Good Morning Mate” is more roasty, spice and robust.

Overall, pretty funky tea. I was schooled! Now I need to check out Art of Teas line up to see if they can school me again. I don’t think I’d order this one, but happy to of tried this tea.

This blend was okay. I was excited to give it a try because once I opened the package it smelted divine. However, I felt it had an odd scent to it while and after it being steeped – almost like it was burnt. (Note: I only steeped in for 3mins and at the given water temp.)

It’s not my favourite cuppa but don’t let that steer you away from it. I don’t like the flavour of any coffee at all, so I think that might be my reasoning for it. For a bold tea, I didn’t exactly think it was “bold” enough. I think it would definitely be a great starting blend for a coffee lover who wants to get into tea.

I’m glad I had a chance to at least give this blend a try. I think I know what I’ll give my coffee lover friends for Christmas now! ;)