Monthly Archives

February 2017

Herbal Tea Tea Reviews

Tea in the City Cranberry Leaf & Rosebay Willowherb Review

21st February 2017

Today I’m really excited to share two new teas with you that have been sent to me by Tea in the City. They’re both herbal blends that are super unusual and completely different to anything I’ve tried before.

Both are unflavoured, not blended and completely natural. The first is Cranberry Leaf, made using the bud and leaves of the cranberry bush rather than Camelia Sinensis. The other is Rosebay Willowherb another caffeine free blend that is mildly sedative, making it perfect for bedtime drinking.

As always both teas were beautifully packed, every element of Tea in the City’s tea is high quality and a joy to open!

This review is also the perfect opportunity to show you latest teacup, I bought it with a gift card my boyfriend gave me for my birthday and have been saving it for a special tea review 🙂

On to the review!

 

Cranberry Leaf

As soon as I open this tea a sweet, floral fragrance drifted from the bag. The smell has a rose-like vibe but also really fruity.

Upon steeping the tea I found that the leaf opened up beautifully in my teapot and a malty aroma began to emanate. A little of this tea goes a really long way so it’s definitely a very economical blend, especially as the price is extremely reasonable for a product of this quality.

I love this teas delicate malty flavour, with a floral sweetness that dances around your mouth. It has a velvet smoothness to it which is really comforting and thoroughly refreshing.

It’s also remarkable just how much flavour this tea has while being completely unblended and unflavoured, it really is a wonderful tea!


Rosebay Willowherb

This tea is equally as exciting but with a completely different flavour and aroma. It has more of a herby fragrance to it which creates a drier more savoury flavour.

I particularly love watching the vibrant purple flowers turn white as they steep, perfect to steep in glass teaware!

This tea has quite a dry feel but there’s also a nice sweetness alongside the slightly tart fruity flavour. Tea in the City’s website mentions that this tea is similar to fruity red wine, which I’d have to agree with but thankfully the flavour isn’t as strong as red wine, I’m not much of an alcohol drinker 😉

Overall this tea is fantastically unique and genuinely exciting to try, it’s different to almost any other tree I’ve tried and an awesome find by Tea in the City!

Final Thoughts

I found both of these teas extremely exciting, I always love to try new tea and these are two wonderfully unique teas. You can buy samples of these for as little as £1.50 on Tea in the City’s website, perfect to try before you buy a larger pack, which you definitely will once you’ve tried them!

A huge thank you to Tea in the City for sending me these wonderful teas to review. A while back I reviewed their Yunnan Gold & Wuyi Black which were phenomenal, you can find that review here.

If you’d like to take a look at Tea in the City’s tea you’ll find it all on their website, their tea really is something special! 🙂

Thanks for taking the time to read this review. come say hi on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!

Bye for now xXx

 

Join my newsletter if you enjoyed this review!

Reviews Teaphernalia

Adagio ToasTEA Stainless Steel Travel Infuser Review

11th February 2017

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with tea bottles and flasks, out of all my teaware I love collecting tea bottles the most. The majority of my tea bottles are glass so I was thrilled to find the Adagio ToasTEA, which is a completely different product.

Adagio were awesome enough to send me a ToasTEA to try out and share my experience with you guys! You can also take a closer look at the Adagio ToasTEA on Amazon or Adagio’s website.

The Adagio ToasTEA is a stainless steel travel bottle with built in tea infuser that keeps your tea hot (or cool) for hours, literally hours! 😀

First Impressions

The first thing I noticed about the ToasTEA is the quality is incredible, as you would expect from Adagio. If you’ve tried the Adagio IngenuiTEA you’ll have an idea of the quality of Adagio teaware (check out my IngenuiTEA review).

It feels solid with a comfortable matte finish that won’t slip out of your hand like glass tea bottles can and would probably survive even if it did! It comes in blush, lemongrass or charcoal, I went for charcoal 🙂

The size is perfect, bigger than most of my tea bottles but you don’t lose as much volume as you would with a similar double walled glass tea bottle.

Using the Adagio ToasTEA

The infuser unscrews to allow you to easily add your tea leaves and the spring loaded flip top lid allows for one handed drinking, perfect for driving or drinking on the move. There’s even an easy click locking lid that enables the ToasTEA to be closed with one hand and stay closed. Inside the lid you’ll find an expertly designed lip to drink from, which slowly fills with tea from a small hole so you can feel confident of zero spillage.

The infuser inside the bottle is a good size, allowing your leaves to open up for perfect steeping. The holes in the infuser are really fine so you don’t get any bits sinking to the bottom, as can happen with bottles that have a less fine infuser.

One thing I particularly dislike about tea bottles is if they don’t offer an easy way to remove the tea leaves after steeping, leading to over steeped bitter tea. The ToasTEA completely avoids this issue, you simply fill the infuser, screw it back in to the lid, add the water, then flip the ToasTEA upside down and then flip it back when it’s steeped to your desired strength.

I’m particularly impressed with how long the ToasTEA keeps tea warm for, it easily outlasts my other tea bottles, another plus for drinking while you’re out and about. The only downside of this is I like to drink a lot of tea and I found that it takes a while for the tea to reach a drinkable temperature but this is easily remedied by adding a little cold water after the tea is prepared. The ToasTEA also remains completely cool on the outside at all times, making it easy to carry and hold.

Overall

The Adagio ToasTEA really is a wonderful product! It makes an exciting change from a tea bottle market that is dominated by glass bottles, making it stronger and nicer to hold.

It has a list of design choices that I haven’t seen on any other tea bottles. The flip top locking lid, lip to drink from and the ability to steep your tea without it being over steeped are all features I haven’t seen on other tea bottles.

Final Words

Thanks for taking the time to read my review of the Adagio ToasTEA, I hope it’s helped you with your buying decision. Also a massive thanks to Adagio for sending me the ToasTEA to review, I LOVE it!

If you’d like to try out the Adagio ToasTEA you can find it on Amazon or buy it directly from Adagio.

The Adagio ToasTEA is featured in my Top 10 Tea Bottles for 2017 post.

Check out my Instagram, Twitter or Facebook for more tea related fun and join my newsletter below.

Bye for now xXx

Green Tea Tea Reviews

Yunomi Nanadan Organic Asamushi Okumidori Sencha Review

6th February 2017

The last couple of weeks I’ve been drinking a ton of Nanadan Organic Asamushi Okumidori Sencha from Yunomi, after they were awesome enough to send me some to review 🙂

The first thing I noticed with this tea is the vivid green colour and fine leaf. The smell is equally as green, a really crisp fresh scent that I knew would equal a good cup of tea!

The tea steeps at a lower temperature of 50° which is important to note in order to avoid a bitter taste and enjoy this tea at its best.

As the water hits the tea the fine leaf quickly opens up, becoming even more inviting. The liquid turns a milky pale yellow as the smell floats in to the room.

The flavour is incredibly delicate with a buttery quality and quite subtle but addictive, once I start with this tea I can drink it happily all day! It also lends itself to being reinfused which is great to make the tea last a little longer, I prefer to reinfuse my tea in a tea bottle of some kind, currently loving this Bamboo tea bottle I got for Christmas!

I hope you enjoyed this mini review, I’d definitely recommend checking out this sencha and all of Yunomi’s teas. They have some of the finest teas I’ve ever tasted, I also highly recommend their matcha!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now xXx

Join my newsletter for more tea related fun!