Indigo Tea Company

Wow. I am grateful that I get to sip on this tea while getting over a cold (yes, I have a cold at the end of August! I haven’t been sick for 2 years!) I am not just an apple fanatic, but a Fanatic (with a capital F). I have finally found a tea worthy to satiate my palate with the taste of apples.

This honestly tastes like an apple-pure and simple. It is such a pleasant tea and I 100% agree with the description – it is sooooo smooth. The apple and green tea flavor meshes together flawlessly; the apple is sweet yet slightly sour. I hate sour things, but this is a light sourness you catch a glimpse of in the finish. I am going to try this tea double-strength iced for the summer. I think it’s going to be unbeatable. It’s also not bitter at all. This one is in my top 10 teas for sure, due to its pleasant balance of apples and green tea.

If you love apples, I implore you to try this one – 4oz is only $9.50. Not bad in my opinion. I’ll have to see how many times I can steep the leaves though. I used 2tsp tea with 8oz of water, and 3/4tsp of organic white honey. Bravo Indigo Tea Company!

I just picked up this tea while spending another day at the office. By office, I mean at Indigo Tea company. If you live in Minnesota, this is a great tea shop for the south metro. It is a wonderful place to study because they don’t have wifi (which means you won’t waste time surfing the internet and obsessively checking your e-mail!)

Anyway, as far as this tea goes, I was excited to try a green tea that also purports chai flavor. What an interesting combination…this tea is. I’m not well versed in different types of green tea, but I know the difference between Gyrokuro and Dragonwell because they’re the only two types I normally drink. I would say this tea’s leaves are more similar to Dragonwell green tea. However, I’m having more difficulty identifying the predominant spice in this tea. It could be clove, and it is definitely is not cinnamon, or nutmeg. I’ll have to ask some of my friends that cook much more often to me to identify the spice in this. Despite my lack of knowledge, I like the spice in this tea with the green tea flavor. I would prefer it in the fall, but I’m enjoying it tonight anyway :)

I have been searching for that special strawberry tea. I wanted something that tasted so purely like strawberries I could have sworn I was eating them. I even tried the strawberry pie honeybush which had glowing reviews, but it didn’t quite hit the spot (and I love all things strawberry and vanilla). This tea did it for me, finally! I needed no sweeteners for this tea, and it was so smooth, so pure, and so fresh tasting. Didn’t taste artificial whatsoever. They must have put strawberries from the garden of eden in this tea!

My holy grail of strawberry tea, found at last. Can I get a what-what?!

My favorite “treat myself” tea type, I bought this from Indigo when I learned that the brand I was looking for wasn’t available even to purchase here in the U.S. Earl Greys can be spectacularly fabulous and memorable, or they can be ho-hum.
Indigo’s offering is great – a clean bergamot finish, just enough creaminess to satisfy without clouding over the qualities of the black tea. My personal preference is toward a bit more cream flavor to balance the bergamot, so I’m still in search of that elusive batch of Mariage Freres when I can find it, but I’m happy with my batch from Indigo.
You know you’re going to enjoy the cup when you open the storage container and can smell the three components – it’s not just simple black tea mixed with citrus.
The company’s picture doesn’t show it, but there are lavender/thistle(?) petals included in this blend, which makes it a nice tea for display teapots.
A treat for the eyes, nose, and palate!

This was on the shelf amongst the greens and I had to try it, as peach is one of my favorite fruit flavors. It is definitely a japanese sencha at it’s base, fragrant with peach blossom petals upon opening the container, but it’s a fresh aroma. It doesn’t overwhelm the green tea, you can still discern the buttery, vegetal goodness. How a flavored tea should be done.
Steeped for two minutes in an unfiltered ceramic pot, perfect. Greenish amber liqueur, pleasant peach finish. Would be heavenly with a dash of cream or a buttery scone. Happy with my purchase.

I’m not typically a cocnut tea fan but I recieved this tea during a tea swap and I must say I was pleasantly surprised!

The flavour profile is a bit more balanced this time – I think the extra minute I steeped it helped. The rootbeer flavour is stronger and there’s some slight minty notes as well. Chamomile is still the dominant flavour however, which is fine I suppose – I have nothing against chamomile.

I dug out a small sample packet of this tisane today – I think it got it from Doulton awhile back and it got lost in the unfathomable depths of my tea cabinet. :D

I went with the lower end of her recommended steeping time and the result was predominantly of chamomile with herbal-minty undertones. There’s also an intriguing hint of rootbeer flavour at the end of each sip. I’m not sure which of the ingredients is creating that effect – or maybe it’s a combination of several different things?

The Final Sipdown: Day 19.1

Can we first discuss how the name Sunshine Green sounds like it’s some kind of strain of marijuana?

Great. Now that that’d done with, on to the tea. I’m not sure what I think of this one. I feel like I need a few more cups to decipher it, which I don’t have. And what’s more, it doesn’t seem to be available any longer from the vendor, so this one’s truly long gone.

The green tea is definitely in there, along with a strange, tangy astringency that only hits at the finish. Steeped, the leaves smell like they’ve been soaked in some kind of butter sauce, but the liquid does not reveal any of that decadence within its flavors. What it does reveal are tropical florals and a distinctly fruity sensibility. The fruit part reminds me of…orange pineapple juice. But without the acidity and the citrusy edge. I’m not sure whether this tea seems complex because it truly is, or because everything is coming through ALLATTHESAMETIME. You know?

There are other things going on in that cup, but the tea is gone and I’ve dumped the leaves. Interesting, yes. Is it something intriguing enough that I’ll want to search it out again? No. But it was unique enough that it shook me out of this funky stupor I’ve been in all day.

Teas Downed: 30

I thought I’d do this one while drinking it, as long as I was online. It’s another sample I got from John. Woohoo!

The first taste was…interesting. It wasn’t what I expected, though I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. It was strong and in-your-face. I slowed down, taking little sips at a time (like wine). I can definitely taste the tea, a bit of grape flavor, and the wine flavor. Kind of green (leafy/vegetal) and sweet, but definitely not too sweet. The aftertaste is definitely sweet and grape-y/wine-y. Very interesting. Complex. I’ll have to try another cup or 2 before I decide whether or not to add this to my shopping list. licks lips

Huh, there is a other tea with this name and picture – only the other one is done by Montana something.

I picked a random, and this came up! Fitting with a herbal at this time of the day.
After sniffing the bag I went to my better half and ask him: “What gum is this?!” and shoved the bag under his nose. His reply was Jenka. Oh yum! It’s been too long since I had that bubblegum!

Color of the liquid – yellow. First impression: Mint and chamomille. There is a lot of other flavors in the cup, but these are the main flavors.

I love it! Maybe I can convince my better half to try something other than his jasmine pearls. ( smiles I love the fact that he loves jasmine pearls!)

My favorite tea! I drink this all day now. Not just at night. :)

This one has a stronger black tea base than I’m normally drink given my bias toward Chinese blacks over Indian. But that black tea base is made up for my the enjoyable Icewine flavor which comes off as a mix between grape and wine flavored, which I’m guessing is what Icewine tastes like. I normally have a bias against most flavored teas but I have to admit this one is really good and I might have to also pick up a bottle of Icewine sometime to experience how realistic this tea tastes. Regardless it is a good one. I personally only like Icewine tea hot but my grandmother also loves this one as an iced tea so it is worth trying at different temperatures.

Brewed gongfu style in my oolong yixing pot which yielded lots of yummy infusions of tea. Finally a nice traditional style darker oolong that is more brown than green. Has a nice smooth richness that is sweet with a medium roasted taste that is not at all overpowering with lingering fruity notes. This is the best “Ti Kwan Yin style” oolong that I’ve come across in some time and one that I highly recommend if you like darker oolongs.

Gongfu brewed in my oolong yixing pot. This tea has has a strong sweet floral taste that seems a bit overwhelming to me but personally I do not lean toward strong floral teas myself. It is also a fairly forgiving tea as when I lost track of time brewing one of the infusions it did not get bitter on me, and does multiple infusions fairly well.

This was the darker of the two Ti Kwan Yin teas offered by Indigo, which I would have to call more medium as the color of the tea is still more yellow than brown. The brew is sweet with a faint mix of both a floral taste and the smoother richness of roasting, which comes off as a more unusual combination. Not a bad tea overall but not a good enough tea for me to be reordering either.

Brewed from a sample, I found Fukamushi Sencha to be more to my liking than the traditional style Sencha. Fukamushi has a smoother and sweeter taste to it which I would not describe as being grassy like most Sencha.

Brewed from a sample in a mug infuser. I found this tea to be sweet and more grassy than the Chinese greens that I normally drink. Overall a good green tea that is clearly high quality but personally not in the style that I go for when I want green tea.

I brewed this one gongfu style in a yixing pot. While I tend to lean toward darker oolongs in general this is a very nice light roasted oolong. It has a nice light and rich taste with a rolling smooth sweetness in my mouth.

A light roasted green tea with a smooth rich aftertaste like roasted oolongs. Not a bad tea but not one that I would likely buy myself.

I like peaches. I love the idea of a Peach Bavarian or Peaches Melba (named after a great opera singer, Dame Nellie). A more rustic peach cobbler sounds nifty and a good peach ice-cream is close to divinity. Add peaches to an Olde English Trifle? Brilliant!

But I just cannot get the peach tea thing. Ginger Peach is a combination that makes me sag a bit. Usually you cannot find the ginger nor the peach. In this blend, it’s the ginger that is missing in action. I can taste some of the peach and the aroma is peachy.

If I loved the concept, my expectations might be higher and my note might be more effusive. But I don’t like the concept.

A friend gave me a canister of Republic of Tea Ginger Peach Tea several years ago because she loved it dearly. But I had a feeling….so I donated it (probably not very helpfully) at one of those food drives at school where you bring in unopened items and there are baskets overflowing with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and generic cans of peas and corn. I hope that the tea found its way to an affectionate owner.

What Indigo Tea managed to do with this was to highlight the peach aroma and peach taste so if you really like peaches, I’d recommend that you give this a try. I like the way that they did not allow the ginger to overtake the peach.

Indigo Tea Company sent me a free sample of this when I placed an order with them recently. I think it’s a good choice for a lighter black tea with a tropical vibe. As they say, it would be good iced (I’m drinking it hot).

It’s one of many teas that are “nice” but don’t have anything of extravagance in them. If you like a passion fruit overtone, you might want to try this. It just did not “pop” for me, but it’s certainly pleasant.

This is a serviceable Masala Chai. It’s not at all bad, but there’s nothing particularly memorable or outstanding about this one. Chai lovers might want to sample this.

For what it’s worth, I’m not a big devotée of chai, so my ability to judge fairly or to detect differences may be limited.