PIPER & LEAF Artisan Tea Co.

From this weekend during the Steepster freeze.

Another of my samplers from 2018. This blend has also changed to what it is now currently, and much more significantly; the version I have has black tea included, even though it is “advertised” as an “herbal blend,” while the updated blend is a proper herbal tea. However, the blend I have says it actually includes honeysuckle flowers, while the new blend does not (it lists chamomile instead). I certainly don’t want black tea in my “herbal” type blends, but the novelty of something like this, to me, is the honeysuckle (it’s even in the name!) so it’s a bit of a shame that they took two steps forward and then another step back when they updated the ingredients list on this…

Anyway, on account of the black tea I have in this older version of the blend, I brewed this pot of tea in the afternoon, before my “caffeine cut-off” on a dreary day where I’m feeling rather nasty. The brew is a muddy brown color and smells earthy and minty… it reminds me of the aroma of tulsi, actually (which is in the new blend, but not my version). It also smells sweet, like a sticky sweetness… (licorice root? Again, an ingredient in the new blend, but not my version).

It tastes minty, but with a sharp herbaceousness to it, and a slight earthiness as well… I think the flavor is coming more from the echinacea than the mint. I’m also getting a cinnamon sort of note, which I can only guess may be a flavor coming from the black tea in the blend. There is a hint of florality, but it is actually pretty subtle. I’m also getting a slight citrusy aftertaste.

It’s an easy drink that reminds me mostly of tulsi in flavor, but nothing I would feel I need in my cupboard.

From this weekend during the Steepster freeze.

Usually I make fruit teas cold brewed and drink them ice cold, but for some reason tonight I had a strong craving for a deeply fruity hibi tea, warm and deliciously puckery and tart, the sort of red cup that is the nightmares of the majority of Steepsterites. Found this sampler in my stash and brewed a small pot of tea.

I got this back in 2018 and notice the ingredients on their website are slightly different than what is on my packet, but not by much… the description does say it uses “seasonal berries” and the main difference I’m seeing is my packet lists raspberries which is replaced by elderberries on the current website ingredient listing. So I’m not sure if the blend itself has just been (slightly) updated, or if the difference is a seasonal one and has to do with whatever time of year it was that I happened to have ordered back in 2018. In any event, I don’t think there is going to be much difference to the flavor.

This is a deeply red pot of tea, that smells divinely fruity. Has that lovely thick mouthfeel and sweet-tart berry flavor I was craving so deeply. I think I’m mostly getting a blueberry flavor, but the tanginess of blackberry and currants, and a bit of that warm and thick fruit punch flavor from the hibi base. I can barely make out a hint of sage toward the end of the sip, but it is very subtle (I wish it was popping just a bit more).

Came for warm red berry tea, got warm red berry tea. Nothing particularly different or special about it, but it ticked the box exactly for what I was craving. Not recommended for the hibiscus-aversive or those that don’t like drinking tea that resembles a mug of blood.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
May 2022 → A tea with a creative blend of ingredients

The ingredients in this blend seem so odd together but it works. It’s smoky and minty and smells like rosemary (I think it’s actually pine). The last time I had this I commented that it tasted like a chai-spiced blend, but I don’t get that this time around. It’s so strange with all the individual flavors coming together in one cup, but it still manages to mesh together quite well.

Perks to working from home include making a legit breakfast and hot tea any time I want. Granted, most days I have cereal or forget breakfast and tea altogether, but today I made oat bran with a miso brown butter + a fried egg + red pepper flakes. It’s so delicious. And this tea, of course.

This is quite an interesting mix – lapsang, pumpkin, cedar/juniper/oak/fir, spearmint. The taste isn’t as complex as the ingredients would suggest though. It’s a light chai-spiced tea.

My friend dropped off three Piper and Leaf samples this morning. I steeped a sample, resteeped, added sugar, and put it in the fridge to chill. I waited a few hours to try it, but honestly all sweet tea tastes best after it has chilled for a whole day to me, minimum is probably eight hours.

Though it is called Front Porch, I am actually drinking this on the back carport which never has cars in it, just rockers. A huge fan is blowing on me because it is 94F with a heat index of 103F.

I will see how this tastes tomorrow, but my assessment now is that it needs more flavor, so I probably should not have combined two steeps. My husband said he tastes the mint mostly, but I barely noticed it. I got more bergamot, but it wasn’t a lot of bergamot. Mostly high notes without a lot of middle and base.

I try not to add much sugar but I think this could have used more just to up the flavor. It isn’t bad, but at the prices they charge I expect it to be absolutely stellar.

Tried it again tonight now that it has had more time to “meld” as my Mother always said. It is better. I think the problem is I don’t like bergamot on Ceylon, and the Earl I enjoy much is with a Keemun base. I think most people would enjoy this and it isn’t bad, just not quite living up to my high hopes in this sticky summer weather.

There is hibiscus in this, but I thought maybe oat milk wouldn’t curdle since it’s not actually milk. It curdles. There are nice big plumes of oat milk in my tea now, so lesson learned. Lovely.

This was part of a Christmas gift from my boss and his wife last year. He knows I love tea, though he misunderstood and heard 50 teas when I said 500. He thought 50 was ridiculous, so I decided not to correct him.

I’m guessing the hibiscus is here to boost or accent the cherry, but I really do hate when companies add hibiscus to black teas. I like a cold hibiscus brew every now and then and in some cases I have enjoyed it hot, but mostly it just leaves this dusty/dry feeling in my mouth like it’s old and stale.

That’s a thought – maybe I could try this one cold.

It was really hard to finish the last couple sips. This is not a favorite for me. (Let’s be honest – I chugged the last half to get it over with.) I mentioned to my husband that I didn’t like it, and when I told him it was cherry hibiscus his eyes lit up. I might have found a way out of drinking the rest of this after all.

I’ll hold my rating for now until I can try it without the oat milk curdle clouds.

ashmanra’s monthly sipdown challenge
May 2023 → a limited edition or seasonal tea

Oh gosh, this is not good today. I don’t know what happened, but it’s going down the drain. I don’t even know how to describe it.

Such a good chai, and one I often forget! The ingredients are so interesting, specifically the dill and oregano, and I wish that I tasted them in the final brew. I did catch the oregano while it was steeping which was fun to pick up on. Even without those, I’m enjoying this cup. It’s bold and flavorful.

You know, I have to be honest. I wasn’t expecting much from this tea. I love Piper & Leaf but the smell of the dry blend threw me off. I’m not sure why because I love chai-spiced blends, but I kept putting this one aside in favor of others. It finally happened that this was the last black tea in my work bag so here we are.

I’ll admit that the addition of oregano and dill seed interests me. I don’t smell or taste those flavors though, unfortunately. Even so, this is a solid and delightful chai. No specific flavor stands out, but it’s nicely spiced. The tea itself isn’t too strong or too weak, nor is it bitter or astringent. I’m very pleasantly surprised and entirely happy with this cup.

Ah the joys of a TTB, you know nothing about a tea until you try it. This one smelled interesting, maybe a bit minty so I brewed it up strong and finished off the sample. I’m not a fan of bergamot or jasmine and the first few sips had more of a minty taste so maybe this tea is ok? As the tea cooled, it smelled more like jasmine and has a bit of a bergamot aftertaste. Sipping to the bottom of the cup all I get is jasmine and bergamot. Glad I got to try this, and it’s a reminder of the flavors I stay away from :)

TTB #22

I didn’t love this one, but I think it’s because I drank it hot. It’s basically an Earl Grey with jasmine and mint added and it wasn’t the greatest combination hot. But it looks like this was actually intended to be an iced tea and I could see how it would be quite refreshing iced!

So when I was looking at Piper & Leaf’s advent calendar, I noticed they had an offer for 3 free weeks of their weekly subscription, so I figured I would give it a go. They send 3 individually-wrapped sachets by snail mail each week, attached to a card with some sort of theme. This one was introducing the subscription, so I guess they must have a special theme for your first week. Which honestly I don’t love, as I was specifically looking forward to seasonal teas, but that’s neither here nor there…

Anyway, this one sounded like it had a bit too much going on to me. Bergamot, spearmint, and jasmine? But in practice, it’s mostly the bergamot that I taste, with a subtle sweet minty note. It’s fine, but plain Earl Grey is not really my thing, especially since this bergamot leans more toward the floral side of things, while I prefer a more citrusy flavor. But hey, it was free!

I have two more to try from this week, one is some sort of berry hibiscus tisane and the other is a citrusy green tea I think. We shall see!

Work – 11:00 AM

Sorry I haven’t been posting as much lately! I’ve been drinking a lot of advent calendar teas, which don’t get written about here yet… Plus there was Thanksgiving, of course. But hopefully now there will be more tea-drinking! At least until December 9th, when I’m heading to France for a week…

This one is from my Piper & Leaf subscription. It sounds interesting – Earl Grey with jasmine and spearmint basically. All of those things appeal to me, so I was happy to see this blend in my monthly package. Although I think this is intended to be an iced tea, that’s not something that I drink in the cooler months.

The base here is definitely brisk, and somewhat astringent as well. The spearmint likely exacerbates this a bit as well. Otherwise, it’s a nice amount of spearmint with jasmine and bergamot as supporting flavors.

My issue with this is, the base tea just doesn’t have enough flavor to make up for the astringency present. It’s very light on flavor – I don’t really get much other than briskness. And because of that, this one isn’t really for me.

P.S. – Piper & Leaf has some discounts going for Cyber Monday today, including 40% off their 35g packs of loose leaf!

Autumn Harvest! So I decided to try something different tonight, and make a sweet potato tea! I actually ordered from this company specifically when I found out they had a sweet potato chai because I wanted to try it so badly, and I’ve been saving it specifically for this theme month. I’m Idahoan, so I mean… I have to try the potato tea, right?

The dry leaf had a very earthy, somewhat musty scent, which comes out in the brewed cup, but the spices pull forward in the aroma more strongly as well; it’s a very sweet spice aroma on top of the musty earthy scent (it reminds me a bit of the aroma of ginseng, just without that medicinal quality, actually). And surprisingly… that’s actually what the flavor is reminding me of, too. I’m getting strong notes of an earthy ginseng sort of base, with a mildly warming spicy finish on the back of the throat. There is a slight licorice sweetness, but not a loud pop of it or lingering flavor note of it. The spice that leaves the most impression with me in the cup is the clove, but I’m fairly certain it’s the cinnamon and ginger leaving the pleasant lingering warmth. I’m a big tulsi lover, but I’m not picking up on it strongly here; I’m suspecting I’m used to the three-variety tulsi blend and this tea may just be using one of the three types, producing a more mellow flavor, but since it is a very clove-like plant, that’s likely why the clove spice is really coming forward in the cup.

Well, this was surprising. It isn’t what I was expecting steeped sweet potato to taste like, and ginseng tea is definitely not one of my favorite things. I have been okay with it paired with licorice root in the past, but it is very hit and miss for me. The spice blend in this is superb, I absolutely love the heavy clove flavor, the gentle yet warm hit of spice at the end of the sip, and that mellow sweet licorice touch, but that ginseng tasting base is just too much for me. There is just something about that flavor that tastes dirty instead of earthy to me… I’ll be able to finish the sampler, but I wouldn’t care to procure more of it. But I definitely have faith that these small family-farm tea blenders are good at their craft, because the blend of ingredients itself is good, it’s just my personal taste that doesn’t care for this. If you like ginseng tea and chai spice, you’d probably love this. (Really, did anyone else know that dried sweet potato tastes like ginseng? I feel like my palate has leveled up tonight!)

Home – 3:30 PM

This is from my Piper & Leaf subscription for this month. The dry leaf smells lovely and caramely.

Hmm… This is quite odd. It reminds me of curry… I’m not sure if it’s because of the star anise or something else.

It does taste caramel-ish, but it’s more of a dark burnt sugar flavor. I don’t get any apple. Mostly it tastes like spices.

What a strange tea. It’s not awful, but curry isn’t really a flavor that I look for in tea. :P

Home – 9:30 PM

So I recently signed up for the Piper & Leaf subscription box. They have some interesting blends and I haven’t tried anything from them that I’ve disliked.

This tea brews up a charming medium pink color (from the beets). The sencha is very mild and a little bit grassy. I really like the strawberry flavor here, it reminds me of strawberry jam. I’m not sure I know what sassafras tastes like (I assume like root beer?) so I can’t really say if I can taste it here. I think I can taste the beets just a little bit, but that may be just because I know they’re there. ;)

I bet this would be delicious cold brewed!

Home – 11:00 PM

Now this is a much better herbal tisane! This one also contains hibiscus, but in a supporting role.

There’s a fruity flavor from the hibiscus, apple, and lemon, and it makes me think of cranberry juice. It’s tart but not sour, and not too strong. The peppermint is herbaceous and even has a little bit of a honey note. There’s a touch of ginger flavor, and a nice light tingly sensation on the tongue at the end of the sip.

Definitely tasty, though I’m not sure I understand the name. I would expect something called “Mistletoe Grove” to be piney as well as minty, and less fruity.

Home – 11:00 AM

So I signed up for a Piper & Leaf subscription because they have some unusual seasonal teas and I’ve liked many of them. My first package came today and it included this tisane and Caramel Apple Pie black tea.

So this is supposed to be a sweet potato chai tisane. Sounds nice enough, especially for autumn.

But, um… It tastes like beets somehow. Even though it doesn’t contain any beets.

It tastes like beets with licorice root, cinnamon, and clove. It’s not a bad thing, just a bit strange? I have no idea what tulsi tastes like, so I couldn’t say whether I can detect it here.

So basically it’s a mild, sweet, warmly-spiced beet tisane. Unusual for sure! I find myself enjoying it though, and I’ll have no issue finishing the 35g.

P.S. – Drinking this made me really want to order a box of Numi’s savory teas. They don’t make them anymore! (sob)

Work – 3:30 PM

This is one of the blends from the Piper & Leaf subscription for this month. I’ve actually had it previously and recalled enjoying it, so when I noticed it on the counter this morning I picked it up to bring to work with me. I mailed out my Christmas gifts to my family today, so I was feeling in the holiday spirit!

This is an interesting one. If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a fruit tisane based on the taste. There’s no indication of black tea at all. The strongest flavor is the cherry, and there’s just enough hibiscus to give it a bit of tartness. I can also taste some amaretto or marzipan at the base, with a bit of a sweet alcoholic flavor. And then on top is the coconut, which sort of acts like a whipped cream element here.

So overall, it’s a bit like a tart and somewhat boozy cherry compote with whipped cream on top. I like it, though I think I would prefer vanilla to the coconut. The hibiscus is well-balanced (for once) and makes the cherry more convincing.

Home – 7:00 PM

I’ve been sipping on this while packaging up tea swaps.

It’s not bad, especially considering it’s from last Christmas and it has coconut in it. Coconut is usually the kiss of death for a tea’s shelf life – it goes rancid and then there’s nothing to be done but toss the tea. Surprisingly, the coconut here seems to be fine. Hooray!

It’s quite light in flavor, I would guess this was a fruit tisane over a black tea base. The main flavor is tart cherry, and then it’s sweetened a bit by the coconut and vanilla with just a hint of almond.

Not bad at all, I’ll have to try this one again with a fresh batch if they release it every holiday season.

Haveteawilltravel kindly included this one as a bonus in my recent tea purchase. It’s not something I would have chosen on my own, but I’m actually quite enjoying it! The strawberry flavor is most prominent with the sassafras showing up mainly in the aftertaste. A nice light, fruity tea for summer!