Kally Tea

Backlog:

Generally, when I encounter a Monk’s Blend tea, I think of a blend of black teas that have been flavored with vanilla and grenadine. That’s not what this is at all!

This is a blend of four organic teas: Nilgiri, Darjeeling, Keemun and Assam. It’s a little bit earthy, sweet, fruity, floral, smoky, malty, and woodsy. It’s a nicely complex, well-rounded, palate pleasing cup of tea.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/10/17/organic-monks-blend-from-kally-tea/

Backlog:

This is a tea that I thought I’d prefer hot (I generally prefer caramel-y and/or chocolate-y teas hot) but it’s one of those rare tea moments where I like it better cool. It’s a really tasty iced tea.

The chill seems to bring out the chocolate notes more, and you know me when it comes to chocolate (more = better), so anything that I can do to bring out the chocolate notes of a tea … that’s gonna make it better for me.

I didn’t get a lot of green tea flavor here, though, and that’s one of my issues with it. I also taste the rooibos, and that’s my second issue with this tea. I certainly do taste the green tea, but I am wanting more, while wanting less rooibos flavor. I can taste the toasty rice though, and I like the way the warm, sweet yet savory notes of the roasted rice tastes with the chocolate notes.

Overall, though, this was enjoyable.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/10/07/caramel-cocoa-loco-tea-blend-kally-tea/

Got this one by mistake, as they send it instead of the French Kiss I ordered Oh well. I’ve been searching for a new caffeine free Lavender tea, and while I’m not sure this will be “the one” I like it. The lavender is fragrant, without being overbearing. I can definitely taste the lemon, and they mingle well in the after taste, I do wish there was a little less lemon flavor overall though

When I first opened the package of tea I remember taking a big sniff and thinking that it smelled like Christmas, and then I sneezed, ruining the moment I was having. I’m actually allergic to cinnamon, but sometimes I can’t help myself so I dope myself up on Claritin so I can have some. I couldn’t really smell the plum, but the spicy scent of cinnamon was there letting me know I was in for a treat. It was also very strong in the first steep of the brewed tea, almost taking over the entire cup, letting only the black base shine though. I only caught the occasional hint of fruit flavor from the plum. This was a bit of a disappointment considering that the name of the tea is Plum Spice, I really expected more of the plum flavor to show through.

You can read the rest of the review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2013/12/10/tuesday-tea-plum-spice-kally-tea.html

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox

I’m having one of those mornings where I’m overwhelmed by my own tea stash and unsure exactly what I’m wanting to drink. Solution? Finish samples from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box!

I was pretty unsure of this tea based on the smell. Maybe a bit too candy-like? But the flavor is actually a lot more subtle. White tea pairs nicely with raspberry! I’m not picking out any champagne specific flavors, but perhaps I’m mistaking them for white tea flavors. Anyway, glad I snagged the last serving of this so I could taste my first Kally Tea offering :)

This came as a free sample with my first order.

I’m not normally a fan of sencha, but I really enjoyed this. Strawberry seems to be a really hard flavor to reproduce well, most of the time it ends up tasting like candy. While this doesn’t taste exactly like a fresh strawberry it has a nice balance of the sweet and tart flavors I expect. The pineapple adds a little something extra and really rounded out my cup of tea.

I could see this making a wonderful summer tea for me, I enjoyed it a lot more than the strawberry sencha I ordered this past summer for ice tea. This will very likely be a reorder for me.

This came as a free sample with my order. I wasn’t expecting samples considering they have a promo right now for a free 2oz of mystery tea with every 2oz purchase. I ended up ordering 10oz of tea and received 10oz + 2 samples + tea mints for free. Such a great deal!

Anyway…

I’ve been trying to drink more rooibos lately so I’ve been ordering from companies that carry unique flavors just so I have something a little bit different to try. Honestly, I’m not sure I would have ordered this one on my own, I just don’t care for toffee all that much. The scent of the dry leaf smelled really yummy when I opened up the sample package.

There were 2 teaspoons in the sample and I used them both with 16oz of water. I wish I had used less water though, I thought the flavor was a little on the weak side. The brewing instructions do state 1-1.5 teaspoons per 8oz, so next time I would definately go with the upper end. I’ll have to keep this in mind for the other rooibos blends I ordered.

Flavor-wise I think this tasted more like vanilla than toffee and it actually reminds me of a few other vanilla rooibos blends I’ve had recently. Not likely to be a reorder for me, but still great for a little variety.