teakruthi

This is fine. It’s a black tea. Mild. It’s got nothing particularly notable. Like I am literally trying to take notes and for the life of me, nothing stands out. It’s a touch malty. Slightly brisk. Like I said, it’s fine.

The first sampler from Teakruthi that I’ve tried and reviewed. It’s simple – black tea with dried ginger and peaches.

Dry, it smells of juicy sweet concentrated (but not artificial) peaches and honeyed ginger. The brown sugar and baked bread aromas make the honeyed ginger smell just like sticky dark ginger cake loaf.

Wet, the aroma is much more fiery and spicy from the ginger with a touch of earthiness and cinnamon. The ginger cake has morphed into sticky toffee pudding. I’m drooling just writing this tasting note although it’s been days since I actually drank this.

The flavour isn’t quite as good as the aroma – the ginger is very strong. I can handle it because it tastes closer to fresh ginger than dried ginger. It sticks in your throat. Once acclimatised to the ginger, I found the tea to be quite mellow and light-bodied with sweet and fruity notes.

The texture is thick and syrupy.

If I finish this sample before the end of Autumn I will definitely restock. I’m pulling out some of the dried ginger pieces when I brew it again so there’s a little less fire.

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/teakruthi-two-seasons-tea-review/

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Sil came by to do a quick tea exchange (I.e. I put her teas outside my front door and she picked them up and left teas for me in their place…boo covid for no face to face contact). Before she arrived, I was trying to add things to her bag that she may not have had before. I also think I ate too heavy a lunch so I was a touch nauseous so taking one last cup of this mint tea and passing in the rest of the sample from teakruthi seemed like a two birds, one stone thing.

I didn’t quite get around to drinking this until later though. This has since cooled and the nausea already subsided so I’m drinking cool minty tea. It’s nice. It’s refreshing. It’s not overly special though so while I’ve enjoyed it, I’m also content saying goodbye.

My review from their website: As far as mint teas go, this is top notch. It smells so strongly of spearmint in the leaf that I was surprised when I drank the tea just how much the tea flavor comes through. Mint and tea are both distinct and yet balanced and harmonious. This can be a bit sharp for some which makes the tea come off a little metallic at first but if you get past the initial strength of both the mint and tea, it is really quite smooth and relaxing.

Thank you for sharing teakruthi

Thanks very much to teakruthi for sending such a generous number of samples! I was drawn to this one first, and it was pretty delicious! The tea tastes high quality. It’s flavorful, not at all bitter. The lemon doesn’t overpower it at all. It’s just a tasty hint. The resteep tastes only of the black tea, but it’s still good. I don’t drink teas with this much caffeine often, and I could really feel it when I finished my cup, so this could be a good morning brew for those who are looking for that kind of thing.

I like Teakruthi’s minimalist approach to their flavoured teas. Where many vendors would have a whole grocery list of ingredients, this company has only black tea and lemon. I steeped 2 teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 190F for 4, 6, and 10 minutes.

When I opened the bag, a strong lemon scent wafted out, which made me worry that the tea would taste like drain cleaner. Fortunately, the first steep is mild, with a nice balance of natural lemon and malty, slightly drying black tea. Unlike the few other lemon teas I’ve had, the flavours don’t seem to be competing with each other as to which will be the stronger. Subsequent steeps retain this good balance, but are weaker in taste with a greater amount of dryness. There are also huge lemon pieces among the spent leaves.

This is a pleasant, unfussy brew that I enjoyed. I found that the lemon distracted me from paying attention to the base tea, but this just shows how well integrated it is. I probably won’t purchase it because I don’t tend to go for lemon teas, but I recommend it highly for those who do.

Not my favorite from the teakruthi samples. The first timed I brewed this I used their instructions and it was a bit weak. The second time I added more leaf and it was still weak, though a bit better than the first time. I don’t taste copper or bitterness, it’s a rather blah cup of tea. Maybe some hints of copper in an aftertaste, but this is not a tea that I would reach for in the morning for a wake me up cup. Now I’m gonna go sip some Assam and get going for the day.

This was my most recent sipdown as I finished what I had of this tea earlier in the afternoon. You know it’s funny that the opportunity to try this tea and some other Ceylonese offerings came along when it did because I’d been getting steadily more curious about Ceylonese tea over the course of the year, and then Lasith at teakruthi came along and offered the opportunity to try some free samples in exchange for Steepster reviews. Naturally, I jumped at this opportunity. I was going to be setting aside some money to purchase some new Ceylonese teas in the fall months, but I figured if I could get some free Ceylonese tea instead, then I may as well do that and use the money I was going to be setting aside to make a few other tea purchases instead. More tea, especially more free tea, is never a bad thing, and quite frankly, I’d been getting a bit bored of Chinese black teas and needed something new and exciting to keep me going during the season’s long, grueling work days. This tea certainly fit the bill.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped approximately 3 grams of loose leaf material in 8 ounces of 194 F water for 3 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to steeping, but I did follow up the aforementioned 3 minute infusion with a 5 minute infusion and a 7 minute infusion.

Prior to the first infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of honey, malt, pine, straw, orange zest, and chocolate. I noted new aromas of cream, steamed milk, and toast afterwards. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of pine, straw, toast, cream, honey, malt, orange zest, chocolate, caramel, prune, steamed milk, and roasted almond that were accompanied by faint hints of apricot and slightly stronger hints of beeswax, minerals, earth, and leather. Each swallow yielded menthol, black pepper, and tobacco notes that imparted a combination of prickly and cooling sensations on the tongue and back of the throat. I could also pick up the expected coppery tang that seems to be so common to Kandy black teas.

The second infusion saw the tea’s bouquet greatly soften. Roasted almond scents emerged alongside stronger aromas of cream, malt, and steamed milk. A slightly amplified earthiness came out in the mouth alongside stronger notes of malt, steamed milk, roasted almond, and cream. New notes of sweet potato emerged, and I also was still able to discern some lingering honey and caramel notes as well as slightly muted black pepper, menthol, and tobacco impressions after each swallow. Interestingly, I picked up far less of a coppery note in the liquor, though I could still make it out to a limited extent.

The third and final infusion saw the liquor lose virtually all of its bouquet. On the palate, the liquor was soft and subtly malty and creamy. The previously subtle minerality was greatly amplified at this point, and much of the liquor’s other notes had either completely disappeared or were so muted as to be just barely perceptible at most times.

This tea was a pleasant surprise for me. It was deeper and more complex than I was expecting, and it also displayed more longevity than I’m used to getting out of many Ceylonese black teas. I could easily tell that this was a Kandy black tea due to it frequently emphasizing body and texture over individual flavor components and the fact that it displayed that unmistakable coppery note. This being a flowery fannings grade tea, I was not expecting much, but this tea delivered on all fronts. Though I would have liked to see greater separation between some of the flavor components at several points, this was still an incredibly likable offering that would probably be especially enjoyable for drinkers who look for a good deal of body and texture in their brews but who also appreciate strong aromas and flavors. Essentially what I’m getting at here is this struck me as a very well-rounded Ceylonese black tea that had a bit of everything to offer. It would be well worth a try for those who are looking for a great value black tea suitable for afternoon consumption.

I was really excited to try an oolong from a region that’s not known for producing them. My tastes run to greener oolongs from China and Taiwan, and it’s nice to get some variety. Thanks to Teakruthi for the sample. I steeped around 5 grams of this tea in a 355 ml mug at 185F for 3, 4, and 6 minutes.

The first steep has notes of decayed autumn leaves, grass, metal, and flowers. I’m not sure if it’s due to the processing, but this tea seems unfinished, kind of like I’d imagine raw tea leaves (or any steeped plant) would taste. If anything, this tastes like a grassy green tea. The next two steeps are much the same.

While this oolong is definitely green, it has none of the flavours or nuances I look for in these teas. Based on this sample, I don’t think Sri Lanka is ready for prime time as an oolong producer, though it’s great that they’re exploring different tea types. Maybe like Nepal a few years ago, Sri Lanka needs some time to refine their oolong-making technique, or maybe this tea just isn’t for me.

When I saw that this tea was from 135-year-old bushes, I couldn’t pass up the chance to try it. (I guess all you puerh drinkers are making me value old tea trees.) It’s from the Dimbula region of Sri Lanka, which makes it a high-grown tea. Thanks to Teakruthi for the sample.

I steeped slightly over 2 teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 190F for 4.5 and 6 minutes. In a previous session, I used the same parameters and started steeping at 3.5 minutes, but the tea turned out too light to detect much flavour.

The aroma of the large twisted leaves is of malt and muscatel. The first steep is a nice combination of muscatel, wood, and malt with a grassy aftertaste. I also get floral and sappy notes, as well as a hint of smoke, though fortunately for me, this is easy to miss. The tea is very light and has almost no astringency. The second steep still has lots of flavour, with the malt and wood predominating.

This is an elegant, non-abrasive tea with some nice but understated flavours. Even though I used slightly more leaf than the instructions recommended, it was very light and I had trouble picking it apart. This seems to be the more laid-back cousin of Divine Highlands and would make for a nice afternoon tea.

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This is an older sample but it still made for a nice cuppa this morning! Had a noticeable but pleasant astringency that worked with the more nutty leaning profile. Notes of walnut and amber maple accompanied grains, malt, and a little raisin. Even with the maple notes, not a sweet black tea though – more just in tune with the woodier and red fruit elements of that style of maple.

A delicious mug enjoyed with a great comic book reread!

It’s a lovely breakfast tea because of the full bodied profile and rich notes of malt, fresh baked bread, raisin and very slight astringency. It would be excellent with a hearty splash of milk, but this morning I just had it straight up!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CApx8yPAVam/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thTp5cW7czI

Thanks again to teakruthi for sending me these tea samples to try out!

I brewed this one up during the week, just hot and straight, to get a sense of it. I find myself inclined to agree with Michelle that it’s basically just ‘fine’. Nothing really unpleasant about it, and I think it’s a nice and drinkable tea – but it’s also really not incredibly nuanced or flavourful and it doesn’t stand out to me in any way.

I thought it had a nice amount of tannin, and the bitterness/astringency levels were ok. Both noticeably there, maybe a little bit more than what I’d say is really pleasant but neither of them off putting. The taste is a bit of a coppery/metallic kind of malted barley profile – a little one dimensional, and reminds me a touch of licking a penny?? There’s also a pithy citrus rind note, which is maybe feeding into the bitterness I observed.

And overall fine tea – but I’d definitely reach for the other straight blacks I’ve tried from teakruthi over this one.

S is for… Southern Malt!

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Such a rich, classic and smooth feeling malt bomb! I was having a stressful morning one of the days last week and I just really wanted a cup of something straight and black that would feel grounding as I sipped it and I was delighted to see this as an option. It’s not really a “fancy” feeling or tasting tea to me – there’s not much complexity or layering of flavour. It’s just… solid. Very solid.

Another of my samples from teakruthi and, in my opinion, another winner as well!

The leaf style of this black tea is really beautiful; and I was excited to see a tea from Rahuna in my selected samples – in general Sri Lankan teas from Rahuna/Kandy do often tend to be my favourites. This steeps up very lovely; it’s got a sweet and malty liquor aroma that’s immediately nostalgic and inviting for me. I like a great range of tea – and even within black tea specifically the different types I enjoy are super diverse. However, whenever I picture the “perfect” cup of black tea in my head it’s almost always full bodied and so, so malty!

This tastes incredible rich and malty, but has a lovely baked bread note to it too – like a loaf of whole wheat bread right out of the oven! Add to that subtle notes of raisin and buckwheat honey and this is pretty close to my perfect black tea profile; it’s just missing a little chocolate and stonefruit in the cup. But even still – damn smooth, enticing and easily drinkable!

Teakruthi sent me an awesome box of samples. I hadn’t heard of them before! They are sustainable with a ‘Just-In-Time’ sourcing model, single origin tea leaves and 100% Ceylon with no artificial additives or preservatives. Plus, free shipping at the low level of $18! They seem to be offering some uniqueness that other tea shops just don’t have. I’m excited to try some teas that I certainly can’t find anywhere else.
The leaves here look half rolled up like an oolong. The scent of the leaves is creamed corn with a hint of spice. That spice translates to a flavor that reminds me of the spices that might be in a BBQ sauce. I notice this flavor occasionally in a green tea. It’s rare though, so when it is in the mug, I can’t help but notice it taking over the mug.
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 29 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 32 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep

I wanted to try it again with the suggested one teaspoon to see if I could get the bite out of the flavor. I think that was accomplished, but it also lost much of that BBQ sauce flavor. It’s surprising it’s like a different tea with just 1/3 less of a teaspoon. Now there was hints of smoke. It tastes like savory vegetables. There is a slight lingering creamy quality while also being thirst quenching. I don’t see this flavor combination in green teas very often! At the same time, it isn’t the flavor combination that I reach for or crave in a green tea.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep

This tea is just ok, not a bad cup, but not very complex either. The wet leaf smells a bit like cinnamon, and it brews up to a nice coppery color. The first steeping was smooth with a bit of a metal tang, but overall, I’m not getting spice or other tastes. It’s like the tea has been smoothed of all it’s rough edges, including copper or astringency. Although it’s quite drinkable, I’m not sure I’d reach for it in the morning, maybe for an afternoon pick me up? I did use a bit more leaf than suggested, and I got some sweeter notes on the second steep, maybe a bit of that cinnamon taste is coming through. The third steep has faint echoes of both metallic tang and slight sweetness.

I brewed this stronger than suggested on the bag, and was happy with a stronger taste than the other teakruthi teas I have tried. The wet leaf smells like orange peels, I didn’t expect that. The first brew is tangy and metallic, but not in a harsh way. It reminds me of an Assam but a bit more complex. I’m not getting the orange I smell in the wet leaf, the first brew is all sharpness and tang. The second brew is softer on the metal tang and I am getting floral honeysuckle notes. The third brew is just weak tea with a copper aftertaste.

Last of the samples provided by teakruthi that I tried this week.

So, when I saw this in my provided samples I sort of had this inner “groan” type of reaction, because mixed tea base blends are sort of fun conceptually and have this neat novelty factor to them but rarely taste all that good. You’re usually having a slightly lesser version of whatever the tea bases would have tasted like on their own…

However, I was absolutely delighted to be proven wrong when I tried this one out! I noticed that the leaf is still majority black tea (though the white tea in this blend is DAMN pretty) so I steeped it Western style exactly like how I would any other black tea. Boil or bust mentality in a way, I suppose. As soon as the water hit the leaves I was hit with a hint of sweetness that I wasn’t expecting, and it just got better from there.

This was an easy tea to just slurp back because of how smooth it was. I personally enjoy sweet teas a lot, and this tea had a really nice and overall sweet profile. I felt like I was getting this mix of creamed honey notes from the black tea and fresher honeysuckle from the white tea, along with a more sweet and nutty body flavour that still had a rich undertone of creaminess to it. I see now, reading the company description more thoroughly, that they compare it to cashews? I’d say that feels sort of correct; though in the moment I was almost more thinking macadamia nuts and this sort of macadamia nut sugar cookie type thing dipped in milk and honey.

I am so delighted that this tea shocked me so much – and it’s a great example of why I love when other people pick samples out for me. Were I ordering for myself, I would have skipped over this tea and I think I’d have been missing out. We’ll see how I feel about it when I finish off the sample, but right now this tea and Lemon Kandy are both two that I would want to order again.

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Finished this one off yesterday morning as my first cuppa of the day – sipped on during a meeting; feels like I’ve had a lot of sipdowns lately that took place in meetings. This was nice though; smooth and clean/distinct cinnamon with a bit of woodyness to it and overall warming/cozy feeling. Simple blend, as I’ve stated before, but solid execution.

Just something that I drank during the week – found myself craving cinnamon (probably because of the change of season) and I know this is a nice smooth and clean/clear tasting cinnamon blend where it’s really showcased and highlighted. It hit all the right notes, and was very satisfying as an afternoon cuppa.

Another blended offering from teakruthi!

I’ve had a few teas before that use Ceylon Cinnamon – in general it’s quite a pleasant taste and I usually like it as an addition to tea blend, so I was excited to see it really shine in this really straightforward and simple blend. In my head there are sort of two main “types” of cinnamon flavour – the kind of red hot and sweet type that you see in Big Red gum or the little cinnamon hearts that come out around Valentine’s Day & then the more ‘refined’ cinnamon that’s a little dried and has a woody/bark kind of taste to it.

Ceylon Cinnamon is definitely the latter of those two – and you get that subtle drying aspect in this cup along with a lot of those woodier notes, which are further exaggerated by the Rahuna black tea base in this blend. It’s not over the top in any way; too drying/bitter/spicy – whatever you want to call it. You get the warmth of the cinnamon but it’s pleasant, as is the texture in your mouth from that hint of astringency and the woodier elements really make the tea feel natural still slightly nuanced enough to not just be a flat cinnamon note. I personally wish I was getting a little more sweetness from either the cinnamon or the base, but I really appreciate the simplicity and elegance of this tea blend. I enjoyed the cup a lot, and I think it’s a great way to lightly explore the Chai tea category without losing the taste of the tea to all of the spices.

I don’t reach for cinnamon teas/spiced teas often so I wont be buying this one when I finish off my sample but I liked it a lot and if you’re a fan of this type of cinnamon note or want something spiced that is well crafted and not overwhelming then I definitely do recommend giving this one a go!