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Tangiers Lemon White Tea
Name: Tangiers Lemon Flavored White Tea
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: White Tea, flavored
Form: Loose leaf
Review: I’ve long said that white peony tea and lemon are a natural pairing: While I love the fruitiness of unflavored white peony, a little kick of lemon is sometimes a welcome addition, adding a bit of tang that does a great job of perking up the taste buds.
The English Tea Store caters to my longings by offering this blend of white peony and lemon flavoring. The tea itself brews up to a pretty, pale gold liquor with a medium-light body. While some lemon-flavored teas can sometimes have a stale quality to them, Tangiers Lemon isn’t one of them. Instead, the lemon flavor is quite snappy, making it a pleasure to drink.
Tangiers Lemon is a decidedly affordable option for those who like flavored whites or who are simply serious lemon-heads. Recommended.
Preparation Tips: The flavor in this tea is strong, so watch both your leaf amount and steep times. I’d recommend about 5 grams of leaf to eight ounces of water that has been cooled to 180F/82.2C. Let it steep for about a minute. Warning: White peony tea is quite light and fluffy and sometimes the leaf will float on top of the water as it infuses, staying bone dry. To avoid this waste of tea leaf, and to get rich flavor that you want, carefully pour your water into the pot or infusion basket, making sure that it saturates all of the leaves and buds.
Serving Tips: This lemony, crisp tea is quite neutral, making it easy to pair with many types of foods. I wouldn’t serve it with a super-heavy or rich menu, but I think it would be awesome with sandwiches, chicken, or fish. Tangiers Lemon is also quite delicious on its own. Do try it iced: There are few things more refreshing than this tea on ice.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Organic Wild Blueberry Black Tea
Name: Organic Wild Blueberry Black Tea
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: Black tea, flavored
Form: Loose leaf
Review: Now this is the sort of flavored tea that I like: It doesn’t club me over the head with flavor, and I can still taste the tea. At the same time, it is unmistakably a “blueberry” tea: I like the flavor of blueberries, and this tea has that flavor, which is a very tasty thing indeed.
In fact, this tea reminds me a lot of a blueberry wine that I tried many years ago. The wine wasn’t sweet (and neither is this tea) but it possessed the rich flavor of blueberries nonetheless. I particularly like this tea as something to sip first thing in the morning
One bit of warning: Many people are disappointed with fruit-flavored teas because they expect the tea to taste similar to the fresh fruit or fruit juice. Keep in mind that fruits and their juices contain sugar. If you want your Organic Wild Blueberry Black Tea to taste like sweet blueberries, be sure to add a bit of sweetener to your cup.
Preparation Tips: This is a pretty straightforward tea as far as preparation goes: Add a teaspoon of leaf to eight ounces of freshly boiled water and let steep for three minutes. I do not advise the addition of milk to this tea, but a bit of sweetener would probably work well (see my warning about fruit teas above).
Serving Tips: While this tea could make a great “snack” during the day, you may also want to try pairing it with a breakfast of pancakes, waffles or sweet rolls, as the black tea and fruity blueberry flavors could compliment these foods nicely. Another option would be to brew it up as an iced tea and serve it with meals that include beef or game meats, such as venison.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Jasmine with Flowers Green Tea
Name: Jasmine With Flowers Green Tea
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: Green tea, scented
Form: Loose leaf
Review: This is a ridiculously inexpensive tea ($3.89 for four ounces as of November, 2011) and, for the price, brews up a respectable cup of jasmine green tea that should suit jasmine lovers well. The dry leaf itself is made up of dark, twisted leaves scattered with dried jasmine blossoms. The jasmine scent dominates, although it isn’t overpowering, even after steeping to a medium-bodied liquor.
In the cup, the tea is dominated by the sweet, floral jasmine, and I don’t taste that much green tea. The tea has some mild astringency which is not unpleasant: Brew this tea right and you’ll have a nice cup that makes for nice sipping as your afternoon winds down.
As its price suggests, this is not a “gourmet” tea, but rather a good workaday alternative to more expensive jasmine teas, such as the English Tea Store’s Jasmine Dragon Tears. Still, it remains an economical alternative to expensive teas, without tasting cheap or artificial.
Preparation Suggestions: For the best results, use a light hand when preparing this tea. A teaspoon of leaf to eight ounces of 190F/87.7C water should do nicely. Check the tea after letting it steep for a minute: If it isn’t strong enough, let it continue steeping for another minute. A too-long steep, or too much leaf, can produce a tea with bitter notes that don’t work well with the jasmine flavor.
Serving Suggestions: Many Chinese restaurants serve jasmine green tea with meals, and it can be quite refreshing when served with Chinese food. The English Tea Store also recommends serving it with cucumber sandwiches, and I can see this tea going well with a traditional afternoon tea service of sandwiches, scones and sweets. Jasmine green teas are also great on ice, so don’t be afraid to experiment with this tea.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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Genmaicha Japanese Green Tea
Name: Genmaicha Japanese Green Tea
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: Green tea
Form: Loose leaf
Review: Genmaicha has long been my “go-to” tea for initiating green-tea newbies. It combines sencha with roasted rice, producing a unique flavor: The rice mellows out the sencha, while the tea itself produces a pretty, light green liquor and a slightly spinach-y flavor. I’ve heard some people call genmaicha “popcorn tea” because some of its roasted rice has “popped” to look like tiny popcorn kernels. This makes the tea fun to look at, and the flavor of roasted rice mellows out the grassy notes that often characterize Japanese greens, making this tea palatable to folks who would otherwise shy away from green tea.
The English Tea Store’s version of genmaicha is clean tasting, not too vegetal, but also a good balance between rice and tea: Some genmaichas are not so well-proportioned, and contain too much rice, producing a soupy cup of tea. This tea is a bit more refined, and I very much enjoy drinking it first thing in the morning before I have my breakfast. It also works well as a mid-day snack, as it also has a decidedly savory, “brothy” quality: If you are at the office and think that you are getting hungry around 3pm, have a cup of this before you head for the vending machine. You might save yourself some money and a couple hundred calories!
Preparation Suggestions: I prefer to brew this tea for about two minutes in water heated to 180F (82.2 C). Japanese greens can get very astringent if brewed in too-hot water or for too long, so experiment with the temperature and infusion length to get this tea to the strength that you prefer.
Serving Suggestions: Genmaicha is great on its own, but it also goes well with food. I like it paired with sushi/sashimi and other Japanese foods. Works well with Korean dishes too!
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The following is my personal opinion on the real issues with flavored teas. Some of you may relate to this, having experienced these issues first hand. Others of you will pooh-pooh them, saying you love flavored teas. Either way, here goes…
Apple Spice Naturally Flavored Black Tea
Every once in awhile, I get a real hankering for a flavored tea and have quite a few on hand from which to choose (mainly, samples received from various vendors). I get out the 2-cup teapot, heat the water, and steep the tea. The aroma of the steeping tea gives a quick preview of the taste pleasure to come (usually). I pour the tea into the cup and take the first sip. Ah! The wonderful flavoring delivers up its stimulation as the aroma had foretold.
Then, I have the second cup, which by now has cooled a bit. The flavoring often changes, too, sometimes improving and other times degrading. But this isn’t the issue I spoke of. Even unflavored teas can change in flavor as they cool a bit in the cup or pot. Sometimes, they are even more flavorful when the heat starts to slip away, and other times the bad qualities come forth ― bitterness, dullness, overly-spinachy or planty or haylike qualities, etc.
So, what are the real issues?
The first real issue is — drum roll, please! — you get stuck with the flavor for hours. I enjoy that cup or two of Pumpkin Spice, Monk’s Blend, Vanilla Comoro, or Jasmine, but the taste lingers on and on in my mouth, eventually becoming stale and overbearing. Even a cup of straight, unflavored tea cannot always take that taste away.
Another issue is that the flavor is not always what you might expect from the aroma of the dry mix of tea leaves, fruit pieces, flower petals, etc. A recent example was one with various berries added to Chinese black tea. The aroma when dry was very cranberry-ish but the cup had more of a floral (safflower) aroma and taste.
Of course, the big issue for me is when a tea vendor takes a perfectly good portion of tea leaves and gunks them up with a bunch of “stuff” ― and, yes, I know that some tea devotees think that adding milk, lemon, honey, sugar, etc., is equally atrocious. On top of all that flavoring, they call these concoctions “blended teas” instead of “flavored teas.”
As I said at the beginning of this article, you may pooh-pooh all of this and go have another cuppa your fave flavored tea. But then, that’s the beauty of tea. Lots of options. Enjoy!
See also:
Tea Blends vs Tea Flavourings
These Are a Few of My Favorite Flavored Teas
All Flavored Teas Are Not Created Equal
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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Chocolate Orange Flavored Tea
Name: Chocolate Orange
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: Black Tea, Flavored
Form: Loose leaf
Review: The holiday trifecta of diet doom is fast approaching: Halloween with its mini-candy bars, Thanksgiving with cornbread and candied sweet potatoes and Christmas, which supplies me with enough calories to hold me for a full year. I need some flavored teas to quell the cravings and keep my appetite in check!
The English Tea Store’s Chocolate Orange black tea is inspired by the “Chocolate Orange” candy that is popular in the United Kingdom. Black tea (Ceylon, perhaps?) is flavored with chocolate and orange flavors and strewn with bits of dried orange rind red-orange flower petals (not sure what type of flower, though). The tea infuses to a relatively light bodied, medium amber liquor with a rich nose of chocolate with a hint of orange.
Once I started to sip the tea, however, I noted that the orange dominated, although the chocolate does make its presence known. Neither flavor is particularly aggressive, however, nor is this tea particularly sweet: If you need a bit of sweetness, I’d advise adding a bit of honey or sugar to the brew.
Overall, I was surprised at how subtle this tea is. Many flavored teas are a whole lot of overkill, but the English Tea Store has managed to commission a smooth blend that doesn’t overwhelm the palate. The down side to this is that if you are looking for a candy bar alternative, you may need to doctor the tea a bit to get it to where you like it. The upside is that you can customize the tea to create the flavor intensity you desire.
Preparation Tips: Use a teaspoon of leaf to eight ounces of boiling water. Brew for three minutes for a more subtle cup, four to five minutes if you plan to add milk and/or sugar.
Serving Tips: This tea is light enough that you could probably pair it with buttered toast for breakfast or plain butter or sugar cookies as a snack.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Scottish Caramel Toffee Pu-erh
Name: Scottish Caramel Toffee Pu-erh
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: Pu-erh, flavored
Form: Loose leaf
Review: I do confess that I don’t normally think of Scotland and pu-erh as having any sort of natural connection to each other, though perhaps that is due to a lack of imagination on my part. I’m glad, though, that someone was creative enough to create this blend of toffee pieces and shou (ripe) pu-erh tea, which I find very tasty indeed. The tea is priced right and can be infused more than once, making it a very good value indeed.
This isn’t a particularly sophisticated flavored tea and it doesn’t have a lot of depth or complexity. It is, however, an inspired flavor combination (kind of like peanut butter and chocolate). As the English Tea Store notes in its product description, the earthiness of pu-erh is actually a good match to the sweetness of toffee. The liquor is very dark brown, as is typical for a shou pu-erh, and medium bodied. For many people, this might be an acceptable coffee alternative, particularly if they are partial to flavored coffees.
Preparation Tips: I recommend 1.5 teaspoons of leaf to eight ounces of boiling water. A three minute steep worked well for me, but if you like a more aggressive flavor, up the steep time to five minutes. It tastes plenty sweet to me, but you may want to add some additional sweetening, as well as a bit of milk, for a more decadent cup. Scottish Caramel Toffee Pu-Erh is also good for more than one steep: I’d recommend upping the steep time 1-2 minutes for each successive infusion.
Serving Tips: There is no reason to serve this with food: It is flavorful enough on its own and would probably conflict with the flavor of most foodstuffs anyway. Save this tea for dessert or as a substitute for a sweet breakfast pastry.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Pumpkin Spice Flavored Black
Name: Pumpkin Spice Black Tea
Brand: English Tea Store
Type: Black, flavored
Form: Loose leaf
Review: It’s that time of year again: Coffee houses and ice cream retailers are trotting out calorie laden “pumpkin spice” lattes, milkshakes and ice creams, and who can blame them? The flavor of pumpkin meshed with allspice, cinnamon and other warm spices is irresistible. Fortunately, the good folks at the English Tea store have put together an excellent blend that should satisfy cravings for pumpkin-y delights while keeping your calorie count low. Its Pumpkin Spice Black Tea is downright delicious!
I got a hint of how good this tea is when I sniffed the dry leaf and noted its sweet, spicy notes. After brewing, I noted that it produced a light-bodied, honey-colored liquor with a spicy, sweet smell. The proof of its quality, however, was all in the sipping. This tea is sweet, rich and somewhat addictive, distinctly reminiscent of pumpkin pie. I think that the tea’s light body works well with its flavors, creating a flavor profile that is warm and rich, but not overdone.
Incidentally, this tea incorporates rooibos along with black tea leaves. I’ve seen this approach in other spiced teas before, and I think it is often a good one. The rooibos adds its own sweet, earthy flavors to the blend, which creates a richer, more complex tea blend.
Preparation Tips: Infuse a teaspoon of dry leaf in eight ounces of boiling water. Allow to steep for four minutes. I don’t think the tea needs any sugar or milk, although you may want to experiment with both. One option is to make a double-strength tea as a base for a tea latte: Use twice the recommended amount of leaf, but don’t overboil. Blend thoroughly with hot milk and enjoy!
Serving Tips: Enjoy this tea on its own or with holiday baked goods.
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Pumpkin Spice Flavored Black
One of the favorite flavors of Fall is pumpkin. This is true for pies, tarts, breads, soups, and — yes! — teas. They make for a tasty tea time, especially as weather turns cooler.
If you opt for pumpkin pie, tarts, or bread, try some Darjeeling, Dragonwell, Ceylon Green or Ceylon Black. There flavors blend well with not only the pumpkin but the cinnamon and other spices used in these baked items.
A pumpkin spice flavored black tea (with some South African rooibos added in for a bit of an extra “kick”) is a great Autumn tea. Chunks of pumpkin spiced with cinnamon make the black tea dance on your tastebuds. It’s great to sip on with some milk and your sweetener of choice whether the sun is shining or grey clouds are releasing their raindrop children all around. Steep 2 minutes for a light pumpkin taste or go for as long as 5 minutes to get a real pumpkin “punch.” (My review)
Many tea vendors rush to produce their own version of this seasonal delight. Twinings Pumpkin Spice Chai is one example. Again, it’s based on black tea and includes pumpkin along with an array of appropriate spices (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg). Enjoy it straight or smoothed with milk. In fact, Twinings recommends that you steep the tea in half milk, half water for about 5 minutes. You may find a touch of sweetener is good, too. Personally, I find a glob of fresh whipped cream is good as a topper.
Twinings Pumpkin Spice Chai
You could give in to temptation and have one of those pricey pumpkin latte thingies from the local coffee establishment. You could, but why bother when more economical options like these exist? Plus you have the pleasure of enjoying them amidst the comforts of (as the saying goes) “hearth and home,” either curled up with a good book, watching a movie on TV, or engaging in a bit of online social networking via Twitter and Facebook.
You could also bake some lovely pies. Of course, you’ll want to save some pumpkins for carving your frightful Jack-O-Lanterns!
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Here in Chicago, there is definitely a chill in the air, and while I love the colors of fall, I often find myself putting on an extra sweater as the temperature drops. Still, even though I know that the chill will eventually give way to the freezing cold of a Midwestern winter, I’ve got one comfort: It’s chai season!
Chai Tea Gift Basket
As far as I’m concerned, nothing compares to a hot mug of spicy chai when the weather gets cold. And I don’t mean chai latte, either, though I don’t criticize those who like their chai blended with milk. I’m happy to drink my chai straight, without milk or sugar, as I simply love the flavors of warm spices in a base of robust tea.
Here are some ideas for chai drinking this fall:
- I think that chai always tastes best when drunk out of large, thick mugs. If your supply of mugs has dwindled over the years, check out the English Tea Store’s collection.
- Stock up on different chai blends so that you will have a variety to sip this fall and winter. The English Tea Store brand is an affordable option, but Stash also makes inexpensive, bagged chais that are both delicious and a great value.
- If you are a DIY type, try making your own chai blend with a good quality Assam tea and a mix of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and other spices. Feeling adventurous? Try making chai with green tea instead.
- Send your college student a chai care package: The English Tea Store offers a gift basket that contains five different types of chai, chocolate truffles and cinnamon honey sticks for sweetening.
- If you like chai lattes, try making them with almond milk instead of regular milk. You’ll not only reduce the drink’s calorie count, but the almond milk typically meshes very well with chai spices.
See also a couple of Lainie’s chai reviews:
Review — Stash Holiday Chai
Review — Stash Double-Spice Chai
© Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this article’s author and/or the blog’s owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Online Stores, Inc., and The English Tea Store Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
