Peach Momotaro Artisan Tea

A very light flavor. The peach is absolutely the spotlight in this tea, the marigold being a backend bite of tanginess. Very refreshing when served at cooler temperatures and a calm drink when warm/hot.

I really like this one. It is a bit pricey, but you can get multiple brews out of it. Even though it is a white tea, the flavour is pretty strong. I like it better than the Peach Tranquility that I found to be too weak in flavour. It is very nice to brew in a glass teapot. Just brewing up this tea makes me feel relaxed. I would recommend it.

Of course, the bloomed ball is spectacular to look at. Light jasmine and some artificial peach flavour round out the taste of the tea. I don’t get any bitterness, and it’s a cool tea to have here and there, but a bit gimmicky as well. I wouldn’t say no to a pot, but I don’t think I’d buy more for myself.

1 ball + 360 ml at 175F+ 1tsp sugar
1st steep: 3 min // 2nd steep: 4 min

I’m not the biggest fan of blooming teas since so often they’re made for looking at instead of tasting good…but this one was a pleasant surprise. The white base is simple and quiet, the peach overlay is mild – it’s a tea that’s made for quaffing more than sipping, but the flavours are comfortable enough.

Not sure I’d buy more of it, but it’s not going to be painful to finish out the ones I have left in my stash.

It appears that the recipe for Teavana Peach Momotaro Artisan Tea has changed. At the website as of today, the ingredients are: white tea, marigold blossoms, artificial flavoring.

So no jasmine or chrysanthemum, unless of course they are artificial. Hmmm…..

Well, I was sure that this was a scented green tea with a similar flavor and scent profile to Teavivre Peach Jasmine Pearls! I was convinced that this was green tea. Well, it certainly looks like green tea!!!!! It certainly tastes like green tea!!!!!! It certainly smells like jasmine and peach-scented green tea!!!!!

The pot was pretty pleasant. The bloom was not as gorgeous as the ones depicted in marketing materials, but I’m sure that they infuse about a hundred of the balls and select the winner among those for photo ops. All of the dried balls, I must say, are very attractive. They are also rather large. The smallest in my bunch (which I used today) weighed 6.5 grams; the largest a whopping 8.7 grams!

The liquor was pale peachy green—just like scented green tea—and the flavor was smooth and likable. The scent of the dried tea is somewhat overwhelmingly peachy, but I find that the jasmine comes through much more in the brew. The marigold in the middle is quite pretty. Overall, Peach Momotaro is a fun and enjoyable experience, though I will not restock because peach is not really my thing.

second infusion: better than the first—more jasmine, less peach

third infusion: better still—more tea flavor, by now less jasmine and much less peach…

I’m not sure whether to add this to my cupboard or not since I only “bought” 4 – hooray Starbucks Rewards! Anyway, I put 1 in a pyrex measuring cup since I’m super fancy like that and let it steep for just over 3 minutes. It’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t as exciting as I was expecting (although, I watched a few blooms on youtube so I don’t know why I was expecting some magical event).

The taste unsweetened is pleasant enough, very faintly peach, and a nice smooth white base. With sweetener, the peach pops a bit more.

I don’t know who on earth has the funds to buy this regularly. It’s yummy, but there are quite a number of peach teas on the market which are just as good. As the sales associate at my local Teavana was preparing this for me and trying to figure out how to get to 1oz (the manager on duty said she would accept up to 1.4 depending on the size of the blooms – that was quite nice – of course I wound up with 1.1), another customer walked in and said, “that smells nice” and promptly bought $48 worth. Who does that?!

I may “rebuy” with another Starbucks Reward or if this went on super mega sale, but otherwise, it’s not really special enough for me to pay full price.

(Note: I have not yet resteeped this one, we’ll see how that fares)

EDIT
I got 4 steeps total, pretty decent.

Sipdown (180/182)!

For the longest time, I felt really bad about taking the easy sipdown on this one just because it was the last of the bloom teas provided by VariaTEA, but recently I picked up some new ones from a local store, so I can bring on the Sipdown!

VariaTEA warned to not use boiling water with this one, so I patiently waited for the water in my mason jar to cool down because cannon balling the bloom into the water. It’s opened up fully now, and I must say I think I was expecting a little more. There’s not really much colour to this one, and I’m a bit disappointed. I think the DT blooms from VariaTEA spoiled me; they were breathtakingly beautiful and nothing had compared since.

But at least this one delivers on taste; it’s gentle, and light and peachy in the best sort of way. I mean, I’m a little fickle about peach in anything – but this feels spot on for me right now. I only filled the mason jar halfway because I wasn’t sure if I’d be feeling this one, but now I wish I’d done the full 25 oz. – I could definitely, happily drink more of this tonight.

So yeah, I’d maybe want a few more blooms of this (no more than three), but for taste not show.

This was my first blooming tea and I was truly delighted!. This smooth, delicate white tea released a flavorful, yet subtle peach finish; and the marigold flower unfolded beautifully. I steeped the tea ball three times without losing flavor or strength. Looking forward to having this again … I think I may even dream about this tea tonight!

This is the tea that kept bringing me back to Teavana and eventually inspired me to apply there. I already knew I liked white tea but this was my first experience with blooming.

Unexpectedly had a whole heap of people over Friday night. Remembered I had 3 of these gifted from a friend, so pulled out the as-yet-unused glass teapot and made tea for everyone.

Luckily we also had wine and beer and other tea. It’s a lot of fun to watch bloom (of course), but the taste is pretty subtle and nothing particularly interesting at that.

I’m excited people got to try
Paris – Harney & Sons
Lover’s Leap – Harney & Sons
Ombrelle de Papier – Camellia sinensis
Amazing Vanilla – Teaopia

…and who knows what else, to be honest.

Still, awesome! Hurray tea!!!