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Tea Tasting Impressions 2010 - Rooibos

Two flavours of rooibos teas rejoin our product line, back by popular demand. Rooibos isn’t truly a tea, but a herbal tisane. Belonging to the aspalanthus family, it comes from South Africa and is high in unique antioxidants, minerals and has a naturally sweet flavour. Like other “teas”, place 1 tsp per cup into the pot and add boiling water. Cover and let steep for 3-10 minutes. Some websites even suggest you can steep up to 20 minutes! The longer the steeping time the more antioxidants you will receive. Unlike some true teas, the longer steep time will not bring on bitterness, only more nutrients! Rooibos is very versatile. You may drink it hot or cold with milk or honey. In fact, some say that rooibos is the one tea that is enhanced by cream. It is a great way to start or end the day. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mint

Brewing Temperature: 214^oF

Brewing Time: 5 minutes

Dry Leaves: Short reddish-orange leaves intermixed with yellow calendula and chunks of cocoa bean

Liquor: orange-red

Aromas: As soon as you open the bag, you will smell the fragrant rooibos aroma. The wet leaves smell like toasted grain.

Body: Medium

Flavours: Sweet nutty rooibos layered subtly with mint and creaminess.

· Note – if you want bold chocolate mint flavour, may I suggest the After Eight black tea. This rooibos tea is more subtle in its suggestion of chocolate mint but lovely.

Bourbon Street Vanilla

Brewing Temperature: 214^oF

Brewing Time: 5 minutes

Dry Leaves: short medium reddish-orange leaves intermixed with almond slices and yellow calendula petals.

Liquor: orange-red

Aromas: As soon as you open the bag, you will smell the fragrant rooibos aroma. There is a rich, almost rummy aroma. The wet leaves smell sweet and fruity.

Body: Medium

Flavours: Soothing and sweet vanilla flavour tops the rooibos flavour. Very nice without being cloying.

Remember with rooibos, the steeping times can go longer, drawing out even more flavour.

Mmm Cookies

Do you like a little something to nibble when you are sipping tea?

Steeped Tea offers wonderful, sophisticated cookies to savour with your coffee or tea. Save these for your “me-time”. These are not for sending in the kids’ lunches!

Specially prepared for Steeped, these cookies feature wholesome ingredients like fresh creamery butter, whole eggs, fresh ginger root and are hand-baked.

Maple Pecan Cookies

Firstly, I am always a little tentative about trying cookies with nuts in them because there have been instances where I’ve ended up with a mouthful of rancid nut, particularly walnut, that I’ve then had to either swallow or delicately discard… Awkward either way.

When I smelled these cookies, I could detect immediately the aromas of sweet maple and nutty toasted pecan with absolutely no hint of rancidity.

The crisp cookie was delightfully sweet and oozing maple flavour. Topped with a maple glaze as well, I enjoy this sweet cookie the most with black coffee. A friend of mine, whose palate is accustomed to more sweets than mine adored these cookies the most.

Chocolate Pecan Cookies

I smelled these cookies before tasting and immediately noticed the butter aroma, followed by the toasted pecans.

The first bite of this cookie will fill your mouth with buttery smoothness. Some shortbread cookies can be a bit granular, but this one is not – just sweet smoothness. The pecans and milk chocolate chips complement each other in creating a very delicious grown up chocolate chip cookie! Great with coffee or tea.

Pepper Ginger Cookie

The ingredients of these cookies are reminiscent of an old-fashioned European cookie: molasses, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon and pepper. But sprinkled with crystallized sugar, these look very sophisticated, rather than rustic.

The aroma is of butter and ginger.

The crystallized sugar adds some additional crunch to these cookies. The smooth butteriness mingles with the sharp ginger to create a taste that accompanies both coffee and tea nicely. This one is my personal favourite, but I wouldn’t turn down any of them if offered!

Tea Tasting Impressions - Black Teas

Some tea purists look at flavoured teas the way wine connoisseurs consider wine coolers…

At Steeped Tea, however, we believe that the average tea drinker is open to a little adventure and a lot of fun. After all, flavoured teas have been around for hundreds of years, with the Chinese adding flowers to their tea, and the English adding Italian orange rind. We believe great flavoured teas start with high quality loose teas and natural (not artificial) flavours. This year, we are excited to offer 3 new black teas to the product line.

Canadian Breakfast, eh!

Canadian Breakfast is blend of Assam and green tea. If you do not want a flavoured tea, this one’s for you!

Brewing Temperature: 214^oF

Brewing Time: 4 minutes

Dry Leaves: Combination of dark tight leaves and pellets.

Liquor: Lovely warm medium brown.

Aromas: The dry leaves have a slightly sharp and mildly leathery aroma. The wet leaves remind me of tobacco in a pleasant way (I toured a cigar factory once and the aroma was wonderful and definitely different from the smell of a burning tobacco).

Body: Medium - Full

Flavours: With little to no astringency, this breakfast tea may please tea drinkers raised on Red Rose or Salada and seek that flavour without the bitterness. Lightly malty.

This tea held up nicely to a hearty bacon & egg, hashbrowns and toast breakfast, and would easily carry over into lunch as well.

Mrs. Earl Grey

Brewing Temperature: 214^oF

Brewing Time: 4 minutes

Dry Leaves: A very pretty blend of long dark leaves intermixed with blue petals and lavender buds.

Liquor: Amber brown

Aromas: As soon as you open the bag, you will smell the fragrant lavender. The wet leaves remind me of a meadow, not surprisingly, but the lavender is not as dominant.

Body: Full

Flavours: The first taste is that of black tea, and as you swallow the tea, you detect the flavour that makes it Earl Grey, the bergamot flavour. The lingering taste is the floral character of the lavender.

If you do not enjoy floral teas, it is likely you won’t enjoy this tea either. For those of us who do like floral teas, this one’s a lovely soothing cup of comfort to be enjoyed in the afternoon or evening. When you can’t have a bath to soothe your troubles, have a cup of this!

Raspberry Cream

Brewing Temperature: 214^oF

Brewing Time: 3 minutes

Dry Leaves: A very pretty blend of long dark leaves intermixed with pink petals and green leaf bits (blackberry leaves).

Liquor: Amber brown

Aromas: As soon as you open the bag, you will smell the fragrant sweet and tangy berry aroma. The wet leaves smell fruity and vegetal.

Body: Full

Flavours: Since this is a black tea not a herbal tisane, the initial flavour is still that of tea. As you swallow, you’ll notice a creamy raspberry flavour in your mouth, and that fruity flavour lingers.

What a great anytime tea! I’ll bet it’s nice iced, too.

Oolong! Intense!

Here's another tea video, thanks to another Calm-a-Sutra contestant - and since we were just talking about oolong...

Tea Tasting Impressions 2010 - Oolong

Our Iron Goddess Oolong appeared in a seasonal flyer earlier last year and has now become a  part of the full product line.

Iron Goddess Oolong

The production of oolong requires that the leaves be processed directly after picking. First the leaves are wilted in the sun for a short period of time. They are placed into baskets and shaken, which bruises the leaves. The juices in the leaves are now exposed to the air, which begins the process of oxidation. The leaves are then spread out to dry. After a period of time--less than 2 hours for Chinese oolongs, longer for Taiwanese oolongs, the tea is fired, which stops the fermentation process.

Many teas can hold multiple infusions, and oolong teas are particularly good for this--many people say that oolongs don't mature into their full flavor until the second or even third infusion, so experiment! In fact, Michael Harney suggests that since their flavours are so complex, “you should drink oolongs late in the day, when you are awake enough to observe them. Then keep drinking them….oolongs can actually improve with multiple brewings.”

Our Iron Goddess Oolong is made from ancient trees in the Phoenix Mountains of China's Guandong province that infuse their magic into a mellow, yet complex oolong tea. Uplifting with its fruity aroma and unique woodsy, fruit flavor, Iron Goddess is a unique treat.

Brewing Temperature: 205^oF

Brewing Time: 3 minutes

Dry Leaves: Rolled into loose balls that are dark green to medium olive green with a bit of red stems

Liquor: Golden medium yellow

Aromas: The dry leaves make me think of being in a spring forest just after the rain. When brewed the wet leaves, which have quickly and completely unfurled, make me think of peach pits.

Body: Medium

Flavours: Slightly honeyed and fruity and very smooth.

Tea Tasting Impressions 2010 - Green Teas

The new 2010 catalogue has just started and we’re pleased to share some tasting impressions of the new teas with you. Our tasting journey continues with the 2 new green teas.

While milder than most black tea, green teas are considerably more assertive than white, with a fuller, rounder body, a darker liquor, and delicious vegetal flavours. China has been producing green tea for about the last 5000 years and the Japanese have made for about the last 500 years.

We are excited to add 2 new green teas to our line of green teas in this catalogue. For those who do not enjoy flavoured teas, there is the Chinese green, Gunpowder, and for those who don’t mind a flavoured tea, Snow Cap, which was featured in a previous seasonal flyer garnered a permanent place in our product offerings.

Gunpowder

Brewing Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: 3 minutes

Dry Leaves: Tightly rolled dark green leaves with an almost blue-grey tinge.

Liquor: Lovely amber very light brown colour.

Aromas: The aroma of the dry leaf reminds me of a hay barn and yet woodsy like a forest floor. The wet leaves are woodsy and charcoal-ish yet green smelling.

Body: Medium

Flavours: Do you remember the way food tasted when it was cooked over briquettes, before gas barbecues became the norm? There’s a quality of that to this tea, without being full-out smokey like Lapsang Souchong.

Snow Cap

Brewing Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: 2 minutes

Dry Leaves: Dark green smooth leaves, with pretty miniature roses, white Italian meringue, dried orange wedges, green currants and whole cloves and cardamom pods

Liquor: Pale green-ish yellow

Aromas: The dry leaves have a lovely spicy aroma, not surprisingly. When brewed the vegetal quality of the green leaves blends with the spicy aromas. Very pleasing.

Body: Light- Medium

Flavours: Orange-y top note layered over cardamom are the first flavours. As the tea cools a little, the cloves fill in and the tea moves from a light to a medium bodied and flavoured tea.

Not that I want to assign genders to tea, but the Gunpowder presents as somewhat manly and masculine, whereas the Snow Cap seems to have a more delicate and feminine character. Both would make lovely afternoon and evening teas. Gunpowder could accompany some entrees as well.

New Tea Cocktail Made with New Spirit

Cachaca is the third most consumed spirit in the world, dubbed the “Next Tequila.”  Cachaca is the fastest growing spirit within the United States. Its popularity can be attributed to extraordinary flavor, great marketing and excellent use in cocktails. Cachaca may be created from sugar cane, but has a unique flavor that falls somewhere between sweet rum and the earthy bite of tequila. 

Cachaca’s signature cocktail, Caipirinha, closely mimics a classic Margarita recipe with base spirit, sweetener, and muddled lime.  The Caipirinha flavor is significantly different, yet is a classic in its own right. Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and lime.

Now here's the Steeped Tea twist on this cocktail:

Mango Matcha Caipirinha

1 lime quarter or 2 key limes

1 teaspoon of super fine sugar

1/4-1/2 tsp Steeped Matcha

3 shots Mango juice

1 shot Cachaca , rum or tequila

crushed ice

 

Mix superfine sugar and Matcha in an old fashioned glass. Squeeze/ crush lime juice into sugar and matcha and mix. Add 3 shots of mango juice and 1 shot of Cachaca, rum or tequila. Add ice and mix well. Garnish with a lime wedge. Enjoy!

Need a Job? We Need You

Do You:

• love tea
• love talking about tea/sharing a cup with others
• want to get paid $ (not product) for talking about and sharing tea with others
• live in Canada
• want the opportunity to earn recognition, product, bonuses, trips, cash for building your own Steeped Tea team of consultants

It's always a good time to start your own Steeped Tea business, but now it's even sweeter. We've just announced that October is Double Dollar Month.

All next month, we will be matching every dollar you sell to go towards the trip to Punta Cana 2010! So, if you sell $4000, it will count as $8000 towards the trip!!

 You need $44,000 in sales starting May 1st 2009- August 31st 2010 PLUS 15 qualified recruits. DOUBLE DOLLAR month will help you earn that trip faster!  

If you want in on this opportunity to start your own Steeped Tea business and start working toward a free vacation to Punta Cana, contact your Steeped Tea consultant and START BOOKING UP YOUR OCTOBER NOW!

Don't have a consultant - just contact us at info@steepedtea.com

Tea Tasting Impressions 2010 - White Teas

Tea Tasting Impressions – 2010

The new 2010 catalogue has just started and we’re pleased to share some tasting impressions of the new teas with you. Our tasting journey begins with the 2 new white teas. Barely processed, light and refined, white teas present one of the purest expressions of the tea plant. If you prefer your teas unflavoured, try the Pai Mu Tan, naturally sweet, subtle and straw coloured. If you don’t mind a flavour in your tea, we have a few for you to experiment with and experience!  Blueberry Buckle and Toffee Dream join our family of white teas consisting of Pai Mu Tan, Earl Grey de la Crème and Pomegranate.

 

Blueberry Buckle

Brewing Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: 2 minutes

Dry Leaves: a mix of long dark stems and shiny green and greenish-brown leaves.

Liquor: Dark golden yellow.

Aromas: The blueberry flavour exudes from the dry leaf more strongly than from the wet leaf or tea. A fruity tang subtly accents this light white tea, with the lovely blueberry aroma becoming more apparent as the tea cools.

Body: Light

Flavours: Unlike some flavoured teas which seem to completely mask the actual flavour of the tea, this tea still tastes of white tea, with the blueberry flavour complementing the gentle sweet grassy notes of the white tea.  

Toffee Dream

Brewing Temperature: 175^oF

Brewing Time: 2 minutes

Dry Leaves: Some green and some silvery gently folded or twisted leaves, with small blue petals and sweet cubes of toffee.

Liquor: Slightly more pale than the Blueberry Buckle, with a tinge of green to this yellow tea.

Aromas: As soon as you open the bag, the aroma of this tea fills your nose with scents that make you think creamy and sweet – you’ll think you’re in a candy shop. The wet leaves smell like glazed vegetables in a good way.

Body: Medium Light

Flavours: Do you remember the MacIntosh bar of toffee from when you were a kid (I may be dating myself, but we haven’t seen it around here in a long time…) That toffee flavour fills the mouth after swallowing the tea. The very first taste is the light, hay-like flavour of white tea. The lingering flavour makes me think of toasted coconut.

Both of these teas will delight you as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon beverage. They would also be lovely in the evening, or with dessert, perhaps instead of dessert…

White teas will take more than 1 steeping so brew a 2^nd pot with same leaves and note the changes in flavours and taste profiles and have fun discovering some new favourite teas!

Hey Waterloo Region - Mark this on your calendars

Mefest is coming up st the Waterloo Rec Complex. Mark Saturday, October 3rd on your calendar and plan to attend. Wendy will be setting up her Steeped Tea booth and will be looking forward to meeting you!