New Honest Tea Mate Reviews

I recently got to try the new Honest Tea Yerba Mates. I'm glad to see more yerba mate RTDs on the market. Yerba mate is high in antioxidants and caffeine, but it seems it doesn't give as many people jitters as coffee. However, AOL recently published a popular health article about possible health risks associated with yerba mate. I guess it was a bad time to launch the line, but the "teas" themselves are pretty good. They're made with green (unroasted) mate, I'm guessing for more antioxidants. I'm pretty sure it's why they taste more bitter than other mates I've had, but I'm more of a tea person than a mate person, so I'm not positive. (Any thoughts, readers?) The first two I tried were pretty sweet (I wish Honest Tea's "slightly sweet" approach was a little more slight than sweet, but that's a whole other topic...), but the third was awesome. Reviews:

Agave Mate: Both bitter and sweet, but in a very different way from when I, say, home brew super-strong mate in a gourd and add a bit of agave nectar. My least favorite, perhaps because I like my version so much better. :)

Tropical Mate: Aside from a bitter aftertaste, I really like this one. It is definitely tropical and the tartness of the fruit balances out the sweetness of the cane sugar very well. The thing I don't like it this -- the label pictures fresh fruit, says "A Tad Sweet" and clearly indicates that it is yerba mate. Seeing that, I think, "Mmm... fruit juice and mate. It has vitamins from fruit and caffeine from mate. Win!" However, it contains less than 1% juice and has about 1/6th the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee. Now, I'm glad the label is also informative enough to tell me these things, but it seems somehow... (no, not dishonest)... misleading. Still, it's tasty enough that I'd drink it again.

Sublime Mate: It has the same labeling issues as Tropical Mate, but it's definitely my favorite of the three. Great lime aroma and taste, no bitter aftertaste and (I think) an ideal balance of mate boldness, lime tang and cane-sugary sweetness for a lightly sweet RTD. It seems like a perfect refreshment for a hot summer day. Seriously if you like lime and/or mate check it out ASAP.

Have any of you tried these? What did you think?

Earl Grey Variations

Earl Grey is, unarguably, a classic. It's a great way for tearooms to comfort inexperienced tea drinkers who just want a "normal" cup of tea. However, twists on Earl Grey can be a crack in the wall to opening more traditional and/or habitual customers up to new and different tea types. I've noticed quite a few variations on the market lately and received samples of two different Earl-Grey-inspired blends in the last few weeks. Here are my tasting notes:

Mighty Leaf's Earl Green: The leaves and the brew are both very dark for a green tea. At first I wondered if I might have received Earl Grey by mistake! Once it brewed, I know it was green from the aroma. The perfumey bergamot tops out the fragrance, but some subtle astringency from the green tea remains. It's a little over-flavored for my tastes, but not bad. I still prefer Rishi's Earl Green, even though it's technically a Pouchong.

David's Cream of Earl Grey: I'm still sifting through a group of samples from David's Tea, a new-ish company out of Canada. Cream of Earl Grey isn't unique to David's, but it's a very good blend. The flavors are balanced and sophisticated. I wish the black tea at the base were of slightly higher quality, but it's a wonderful choice for those who usually prefer flavored teas. I'll be reviewing more teas from David's (including a fantastic Japanese green and a few rooibos blends) soon. And I'll go ahead and say it now: I LOVE their marketing materials and web design!!!

I'm hoping to try a few samples from Serendipitea's Earl Grey variations and from the World Tea Expo soon. In the meantime, what are some of your favorite Earl Grey variations? I'd love to try them, too!

New Adagio Teabags

Adagio recently expanded their tea offerings to include pyramid bags of some of their top flavored teas. I tried six and, although I don't usually care for flavored teas much, a few showed some promise. Here they are:

Citrus
A bit strong on the flavor for, but not bad at all. I would be thrilled to see this, say, on an airplane or in a simple cafe.

Apricot
Not too heavy. There's a much stronger aroma than flavor.

Mandarin White
Lightly flavored. It's mellow, and tastes like it may be a Darjeeling white (somewhat earthy). The suggested brew time is 7 minutes, which I found to be a but long. Otherwise, pretty good.


Although none of them said how much water should be used for each bag, I found they were well-suited to a medium-sized pot (about 12 ounces). Have any of you tried these, or other pyramid bags from Adagio? What did you think?

Mighty Leaf Review

I recently received two new teas to sample from Mighty Leaf. They're coming to a Whole Foods year you soon, so look out!

The first is "Organic Detox Infusion," a blend described on the package as "basil and mint." The thing is, if that's all you know about it, you can only HOPE it's as detoxifying as it tastes, not only as detoxifying as it sounds. It actually contains other traditional detox herbs like burdock, but you wouldn't know that from a glance at the packaging. It tastes very good for detox tea, but if you're expecting a pleasing basil-mint tisane with no medicinal value, skip it. It seems like Might Leaf is trying to tap into the Traditional Medicinals market a bit. I say the more the merrier!

The second tea was " Organic Green Dragon," a basic everyday Dragonwell. It's the kind of thing I would definitely drink without complaint if I were out and wanted tea, but didn't have loose tea and an infuser on me. It's not my new favorite, but it's not bad at all. Drinkable, basic, enjoyable.

I'm very pleased to see that both of these new offerings are organic. It's wonderful to see so many tea companies responding to customers' desires for more sustainable products.

Have a great weekend!!! Who out there is doing something fun? I'm going to a cabin upstate with some friends, so I'll be away on Monday. What are you up to?

Lipton Event

I'm off doing an event with Lipton today. Sorry I've been so brief in my posts. Extremely busy with writing, classes and events these days. I'll be back soon, I promise! In the meantime, the first person to email me with two changes I made on Vee Tea in the last month (outside of new blog posts, of course) gets a one of the following (your pick):

Five boxes of assorted Lipton teas (including their newer pyramid bags with larger leaves and more refined flavors)
Assorted samples sent to me by various companies (I've tried them and reviewed them or taken notes for reviews and no longer need them.)
A tiny sample of Makaibari Reserve Silver Green (Incredible!!!)
A tiny sample of a fantastic First Flush Taiwanese Oolong
Two of my tea seeds

Pate de Fruit

Several of the people I interviewed for the tea and sweets article (I'm not linking it anymore... By now you've read it or you're not going to read it!) lauded pate de fruit as an overlooked/lost treasure of the tea pairing world. I'd never actually tried it before, so before I heard the recommendations, I thought of it as nothing more than glorified gummy bears. The conviction behind endorsements from people like James Norwood Pratt made me very curious about them, though, and I was lucky enough to have Charles Chocolates send me some samples!



Chuck Seigel of Charles Chocolates warned me that two of the flavors, Blood Orange and Passion Fruit, are too acidic to pair with tea. He was right -- they would have overpowered even a strong tea. (Perhaps they could pair with an intense fruit tea? But I can't see that being very interesting...) At any rate, they were good on their own, but the others were wonderful with tea. The White Peach was airy and floral, perfect for a first flush Darjeeling or a slightly astringent Japanese green tea. The Papaya was mellow but tropical, sweet, complex and lingering. I'd love to pair it with a chocolaty pu-erh, second flush Darjeeling, strong Keemun or mellow Ceylon. The Raspberry was refreshing and full of flavor, but not too tart -- ideal for Assam or Sri Lankan black teas or vegetal/astringent greens. Yum! I really hope the idea of pairing teas and pate de fruit catches on again in the near future! I'd love to be able to go into a tearoom and get these with my tea.

Teance/Charles Chocolates Tea Collection

I recently finished an article for World Tea News on tea and sweets. One of the great perks of being a writer is the awesome samples. I was thrilled to get to try some products from Teance and Charles Chocolates, "The Tea Collection" truffles, and Charles Chocolates' pate de fruit. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to say much about them in my article because of word limits, but I thought you'd want to hear more here. I'll talk about pairing pate de fruit and tea soon, but today I'm going to talk about one of the best ideas EVER, blending tea and chocolate.

(If I sound really excited about this, it's because, well, I am.)

Tea chocolates are a relatively new innovation. Keiko Tea claims to be the first company to make green tea chocolates (matcha-based) and Earl Grey chocolates are a chocolatier's standby, but lately some companies are getting more adventuresome with their tea chocolates. You may remember Chocolatea, which I've mentioned before, or The Tea Room, who does some award-winning pairing. I haven't tried The Tea Room's chocolates, but I can say that Chocolatea approaches teas/tisanes as a functional ingredient and (usually) a flavor source with some positive results.

The Tea Collection is something rare in the world of tea chocolates, though. High-quality Chinese teas are elegantly paired with single-origin and chocolatier-blended chocolates for fantastic results. They range from Osmanthus, which is delicate, milky and sweet, to Charcoal-Fired Oolong, which is deep, smoky, complex and lingering. Like most jasmine chocolates, Special Jasmine captures the intoxicating aroma of jasmine, but it also has a true green tea taste that really sets it apart. Other flavors include sweetly tart Lichee and floral, delicate Formosa Oolong, which unites the creaminess of ganache with the fresh cream notes of a cooled Baochong. My favorite? The ethereal Charcoal-Fired Oolong. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. Yum!

What are your favorite tea chocolates out there? Do you also make your own? Do you ever pair tea and chocolate?

Wabi-Sabi Cupcakes

One of the cool samples I got to try for my latest World Tea News article was an assortment of the brand-new Wabi-Sabi cupcakes from TafuNY. Yum!




















My favorites were the milky, nutty Chocolate Genmai and the roasty, complex Sweet Chestnut Houji (a fan favorite, I'm told). TheMatcha was pretty classic, basically exactly what you'd expect it to be, and the Chocolate Matcha was a pleasant balance of rich sweetness and mild astringency. The Kokutou Genmai was very unique (in a good way), but I wasn't such a big fan of the Raspberry Houji. All of them were very snackable (2-3 bites each). Have you tried the Wabi-Sabi cupcakes or been to TAFU? What about other tea-based sweets? What do you think?

Back in NYC

Just arrived back in NYC. My roommate welcomed me home with some summery strawberry-rhubarb sorbet, made with goodies from our local CSA. I also received some exciting new tea samples in the mail. Yum! Its good to be back. :)

Expo Sample Reviews

Today, I'm going to review samples from Linde Lane. They gave out standardized goodie bags to everyone who came to their booth, which is a good way to get your products out there. Included in the doggie bag were two of their "Kids Tea," their TEAthbrush, and decks of tea playing cards. I'll be reviewing the first three items and giving the last one out to a lucky reader.

Many people want to give their kids tea, but are concerned about which herbs are safe and whether or not they should give their kids caffeine. Once the safety and caffeine concerns are out of the way, they have to deal with kids' finicky flavor preferences--sweet and simple is usually best, but that's not what most adults look for in a good tea. Linde Lane takes the guesswork out off the equation by providing "Kids Tea," which are just what they sound like (and what they would look like with an appropriately placed apostrophe)--"teas" for kids. They have simple flavor profiles and no caffeine. I tried both flavors: Rock A Bye Baby (chamomile mint)* and Strawberry Shortcake (flavored rooibos). Rock A Bye Baby was comparable to a VERY simple version of a tisane I used to serve at Urbana Cityspa & Teabar called Serene. (Serene also has jasmine blossoms, lavender, and lemon myrtle to round out the taste.) Strawberry Shortcake smelled and tasted, well, just like strawberry shortcake without the cream. From Linde Lane's site:

"Now you can have your own Strawberry Shortcake, in a teacup. Our tea taste (sic) like strawberry shortcake without the whip cream; but you can easily fix that. After you have served your warm tea, spray beautiful floral buds of whip cream into each cup to delight children."

Super!

The TEAthbrush was astoundingly popular amongst Expo attendees. It's a nice toothbrush with some text about how tea is good for teeth and regular brushing removes tea stains. The only thing that made the actual toothbrush different from most was its "mouth cleaner"--a ribbed back on the opposite side of the bristles. So, why is it a TEAthbrush instead of a toothbrush? It comes in three varieties: rooibos, black, and green! However, unlike the TEAth Floss, these types are colors, not flavors. Regardless, it will nicely complement your coffee-flavored sleeping pills.

So, who wants some tea playing cards? First to claim them via email or blog comment gets them. (Don't worry--they aren't flavored either.)

*A chamomile-soaked washcloth can help with teething, but if your baby has allergies, it may be unsafe to give him/her chamomile. Of course, kids hate being called babies, so there's an air of mystery surrounding Rock A Bye Baby's name.

Tea Samples, Plus Tea Art Tonight!

One of the great things about the World Tea Expo is the samples. They can really help you find unique, quality products for your tea business. At this point, I've tried many of the products that are being exhibited, but here are a few samples I'm looking forward to trying for the first time:









I often find that flowering teas in the US are sub-par in flavor, so I'm always on the lookout for hand-shaped teas that taste as good as they look. Perhaps some of these will fit the bill!

I'm also thrilled about the new Silver Green from Makaibari and I'm looking forward to trying the Le Palais du Thes samples.

PS--Michele Brody will be performing a tea art piece tonight. I've met her several times and seen some of her work before. If you enjoy my blog, I think you will also enjoy her work. The piece she will be performing is related to issues of immigration, work, ritual, communion, and (of course) tea. It will be tonight from 6-8 and Saturday from 1-4 at Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Art Center at the corner of Pitt and Grand Streets. For more information, visit Michele Brody's portfolio site or call Michele at 646.522.9924. Here's an image from a piece of hers I recently saw that deals with technology and nature.

Samples: Mint Verbena

Today's Expo sample is Harney & Son's Mint Verbena. It's a caffeine-free tisane made of mint (it doesn't say which kind) and lemon verbena. "Lemon verbena" is the same thing as Verveine Odorante, or French Verveine, which they also carry. I think the reason they don't label it the same way is that their verveine is a beautiful, delicious, whole-leaf tisane that tastes amazing and their bags of Mint Verbena just don't stand up to that. Sure, the packaging is lovely. The bag is large and pyramid-shaped and made of polyester mesh. The infusion smells good and has a rich color. However, the leaves are small and broken, and the brewed tisane is more harsh than soothing.

Somehow, this kind of inconsistency is what I have come to expect from Harney. The owner is quite a character and he's good with people. (Cool.) Some of the teas are delicious. The packaging is good. (Great.) The company has the potential to be an excellent tea merchant. (Wonderful.) But it's not. (Ohh . . . not so good.)

I think that the problem is that they carry a range of quality levels, but they don't delineate them very clearly. Some of their loose teas are excellent. Others, I regret drinking even once. Here's another major inconsistency that gets me. They sell a line of "premium" teabags, which would be great, except that it seems that these teabags are lower quality than their line of tea in sachets. Sachet is supposed to mean bag, right? I'm sure it's not just me who thinks this. So how is it that their premium tea is a lower grade than their tea of unspecified quality in bag-type-infusers? If they want to appeal to people at a variety of interest levels and price points, then that sounds like a good business move to me. But I'd just as soon skip the Orwellian double-speak and hear and honest appraisal of what they are offering. Wouldn't you?

In the meantime, I'm sticking to my Verveine! (If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it!)

Samples: Keiko Green Tea

Today's Expo sample is from Keiko Tea. It's a bagged, shade-grown Kagoshima green tea packaged like the tea in the link's lower right corner. As you can probably see, the packaging for this bagged tea is very cool. What surprised me when I opened it was that the teabag itself looked EXACTLY like My Green Tea, which I discussed in a previous post, right down to the pH neutral tag and ultrasonically-welded thread. The My Green Tea sample was so bag, that I began to worry that the tea would leave me disappointed in Keiko.

You see, I hung out at their booth a bit at the Expo and was quite impressed with their range of Japanese green teas. Also, they had a supremely cool matcha machine, some tasty green tea candies, and good (in some cases even great) loose teas. How could their bagged tea be as bad as the horror that was My Green Tea?!

As it turns out, it wasn't. It was pretty good for a bagged tea. Not the best I've ever had, but pretty good, nonetheless. It was mellow and mildly sweet, pleasant. It lasted through several infusions. Nice. Still, I really prefer their loose green and specialty teas. Try them out if you get the chance!

Samples: My Green Tea

No, it's not MY green tea. It's a sample from the Expo called "My Green Tea." (It's like "Leggo my Eggo!" and "Nut 'n Honey" commercials wrapped into one magic little name. To bad it's not a breakfast food aimed at obese suburban children.) Let me tell you up front: My Green Tea is fancy for a bagged tea. It comes in a hemishperically-sealed (I don't even know what that means) laminated foil pouch that has been filled with a shot of nitrogen to remove any active gases. That way it's extra fresh when you open it. The bag is decent-sized and made of polyester mesh and the tag is pH neutral and ulrasonically welded to a polyester thread. All that for one little bag of genmai-matcha. Wait, did I just say "genmai-matcha?" That's what the package says, but . . . that's not what I just drank. Genmai-matcha would be toasted rice with matcha (fine, powdered, shade-grown green tea). What I drank was toasted rice with broken-, dust-, and fanning-grade green tea (perhaps shade-grown, perhaps not). So . . . basically it's a cheap tea pretending to be a good tea and overcompensating for the fact that it ISN'T by having absurdly teched-out packaging.

I will give it this. It said, "enjoy our tea with your soul," and that made me laugh. A lot. Not only is it a mediocre tea at best, packaged in a way that is (dare I say) soulless, but you just said that it's MY mediocre, soulless tea and mow you're trying to say it's YOURS. Unh-unh, I don't think so! (OK, OK, you can have it back. I don't REALLY care that much.)

Yeah. That laugh was the best part about it. It came from My Soul. Er, I mean, my soul.

Samples: Tzu The T-Bag

Tzu The sells a type of bagged tea that is labeled as "100% Natural Full Leaf Green Tea." I got a sample of it at the World Tea Expo. The packaging looks good, until you actually read it. It touts the EGCG content of the "green tea" (What kind??? I don't know!!!) and includes brewing instructions that call for boiling water (learn about appropriate water temperatures for brewing tea) and suggest steeping for 10-15 minutes (Why would you want to do that? Too bad they didn't read How to Brew Tea.). The tea itself isn't bad. It comes in a pyramid-shaped silk mesh bag and it is (as the packaging says) full leaf. It wasn't gross, but I wouldn't serve it to anyone.

I hope that this kind of marketing and misinformation isn't as common as I fear it may be.

PS--OMG. As I went to post this, I decided to check out their website. I realized that NOT ONLY is it printed incorrectly on their packaging (they left out a dash between "Tzu" and "The"), but they sell energy bars with green tea and "beer" (actually just brewer's yeast, but they say "beer"). They also provide information like this, "The secret of green tea lies in the fact it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a powerful natural anti-oxidant only found in Green Tea. Green tea contains more catechins and vitamins than other fermented tea, such as oolong tea and black tea." The secret? I thought it was the thing that was discussed the most about green tea on AM talk shows. When will people realize that EGCG is not the only good thing about tea? I wish people would stop with this fad diet junk. Besides, white tea probably has more of it than green tea*, "fermented" is not the correct word (it should say "oxidized"), and, anyway, Oolong is only semi-oxidized. I am so afraid.

*There are more health claims about green tea than white tea because it has been popular for a longer period of time. For this reason, scientists do more research on green tea than white tea. We'll have to wait and see for sure if white tea has more EGCG than green, but white tea is higher in most other catechins, so I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Samples: Nuwati Herbals' Cloud Walking "Tea"

Last night, I tried my first sample from the Expo. It was Nuwati Herbals' Cloud Walking Tea (which is actually a tisane). It's for sleep and tension. (As I said before, I guess it's for aiding in sleep and easing tension.)

When I went to prepare Cloud Walking "Tea" shortly before my bedtime, I have to say that I was a little worried. The smell of the unbrewed blend of Catnip, Chamomile Flowers, Hops, Kava Kava, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Passion Flower, Rosemary, Skullcap, St. John's Wort, and Valerian Root was not the most pleasant aroma I've ever encountered. Also, the catnip smell reminded me of a former roommate's cat. (As a yarnoholic, this is not something I find to be a relaxing scent-association.) However, once it was done brewing, it smelled great. The lemon balm and rosemary really came out. It also smelled vaguely minty to me for some reason, though I'm not sure why. The taste was OK, but the taste isn't really the point. What you really want to know is whether it worked or not. Yes, it worked. I don't know if it's because I thought it probably would, or if it just really works. The FDA isn't so sure either. Still, I felt mellow after drinking it and I went to sleep easily (a rarity unless I'm exhausted--perhaps THAT's why I'm such a workaholic).

I still have two more samples from Nuwati Herbals to try. First, I'm going to give some of the other companies a shot. Check back soon for more of my adventures with tea in small packages!



PS--I am feeling the music from Nuwati's website. "Awakening" in the morning was a good call. I should start my day by tapping into my Cherokee heritage more often.