I reached out to The Tea Spot awhile back because I saw pictures of their teas online. I wanted to find out much tea was in the samples and the company kindly sent me a handful of them. Since there are so many, I will be splitting the teas up into a few blog posts. This week will be a white, green, and a herbal.
The Tea Spot describes themselves as; “At The Tea Spot, we handcraft teas as timeless as the Colorado mountains that surround us. … With one foot steeped in tradition, and the other outstretched toward a healthier future, we infuse the goodness of whole leaf tea into your everyday.” With an ‘Our Story’ page starting like that, I’m excited to try the teas! Let’s go!
Monkey-Picked White
Description: “These pure white tea leaves from China steep into a light-yellow, smooth liquor and impart only the lightest buttery sweetness with a slight apricot fragrance.”
Review: For white teas, I am most familiar with silver needles, which are made only from the unopened buds. Therefore, based on looking at the leaves, this was made out of both leaves and buds. It had a strong (for a white tea) sweet hay-like aroma. I did find that the leaves were a bit crushed, but that could have happened during shipping or when I was moving. The wet leaves had a much grassier aroma than I was expecting and became a nice olive colour.
I had to actually brew this tea twice because the first time I steeped only for 3 minutes and I didn’t get much of a flavour. Since the recommendations did suggest up to 6 minutes, I wanted to try brewing again with a new set of leaves.
The first time I tried brewing, the liquor was a dark tan colour, which became yellower the second time. The taste started off sweet and hayish, with a nice hay lingering aftertaste. I found letting the liquor cool slightly helped with tasting the flavour. I feel this was fairly true to some of the white teas I’ve had in the past (3/5 rating).
- Type: White tea
- Origin: China
- Caffeine: Unknown
- Ingredients: White tea
- Other: Organic
- Company: The Tea Spot
Boulder Blues
Description: “This blend of fine Japanese Sencha and high-grade Chinese Dragonwell combine to create a rich yet refreshing base, while wild strawberries and rhubarb flavors add a subtle twist.”
Review: I was very excited to try a Sencha and Dragonwell together. I don’t think I’ve ever tried that before. The dry blend didn’t smell very grassy and was instead actually very sweet and fruity. I did find the blend pretty to look at, with its dark flat leaves and the pop of colour from the flower petals. The wet blend had a similar fruitiness, but I was able to detect a bit of grassiness. The leaves also unfurled quite a bit.
I found that the medium dark yellow liquor also had the same aroma as the wet blend. The liquor tasted sweet with some mild grassiness and ended off fruity. It did leave the mouth feeling dry, but it wasn’t very noticeable.
The blend does feature strawberry and rhubarb flavouring, which I felt overpowered the other flavours. This may come down to personal preference when deciding if you like this blend depending on how much you enjoy added flavouring in your tea (3/5 rating).
- Type: Green tea
- Origin: Unknown
- Caffeine: Unknown
- Ingredients: Green tea, mallow flowers, cornflowers, strawberry & rhubarb flavoring
- Company: The Tea Spot
Ginger Tea
Description: “Plump bits of dried ginger root steep into a strikingly spicy and aromatic caffeine-free brew.”
Review: I’ll give a quick spoiler when it comes to this tea: it smelled and tasted like ginger. Which isn’t an issue for me, because I love ginger! While I’m not a huge spice fan, when it comes to ginger, I always want a huge spicy kick!
As expected from a tisane that features one ingredient, it had an overwhelming ginger aroma which was infused into the liquor, and smelled very warm and comforting. The liquor was dark yellow and had a thick mouthfeel. There was a strong spicy taste which quickly faded and ended off with a clean ginger taste. If you enjoy ginger, you’ll enjoy this (4/5 rating)!
- Type: Herbal tea
- Origin: Unknown
- Caffeine: Caffeine-free
- Ingredients: Ginger root tea
- Other: Organic
- Company: The Tea Spot
Final Thoughts
So far, I have to admit that I am pretty happy with the blends/tisanes I tried. There is a strong bias toward the ginger one, however!
The one issue I have is with the packaging not being zip lock bags. I always appreciate it when the bags are sealed to keep the teas fresh. However, since the bags are not zip locked and each has 5 servings of tea, it means you have to drink the teas right away after opening. I’m not sure if this has changed since I received these samples.
That being said, I can’t wait for the next few teas!
