Arbor Teas’ Chun Mee Green Tea!

We are very excited to celebrate fair trade month! Not sure what fair trade means? Let us break it down for you…What does fair trade mean? When something is Fair Trade Certified, it protects the environments,through helping farmers and workers to practice sustainable farming,remove dangerous chemical and preserve their land. This is very important when it comes to tea, as you don’t want to be ingesting those harsh chemicals without knowing. Fair Trade gives you the confidence to trust the tea company and the tea farmers, and also reminds you that your tea is socially sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable.  The social sustainability goes towards empowering families to keep their children in school,and enables these people with access to health care, and representation. If you want to learn more about Fair Trade Practices and tea, check out Jim at Shui Tea‘s blog post “Soulja Boy Teaches Fair Trade” to go more in-depth! What can you do as a consumer? If you are unsure whether the tea you are buying is fair trade, or sustainably farmed, contact the company and ask, most companies are more than happy to have a customer relationship with you and will answer promptly!

Why Arbor Teas? Their tea catalog of nearly 100 teas are all completely certified organic by the USDA. Roughly two-thirds of those 100 teas are also Fair Trade Certified! “Sustainability is a major focus of our business. We recently became the first (and only) tea company to offer our whole selection of teas in 100% backyard compostable packaging.  We’ve also carbon-offset the entire supply chain of our products, from origin to the customer, making Arbor Teas the greenest option for Earth-conscious tea drinkers.”(Arborteas.com)

Brand: Arbor Teas Chun Mee Green Tea
Tea Rating: 93/100
Steep Time: 2-3 minutes
Steep Temperature: 175 Degrees
Price: 5 oz. for $9.95

First things first: This tea is hand rolled with a slight arch to make it look like eyebrows! How Bizzare and intriguing! The dry leaves do look like very tiny eyebrows…maybe for a mouse, or a chipmunk.The dry leaves smell very sweet and grassy. After steeping,the first thing I noticed was that all the leaves almost completely expanded and unfurled! The unfurled leaves  are the tea liquor was a medium amber color and smelled almost cinnamon-like, with hints of fruitiness and a darker scent, that reminded me of fresh-baked cinnamon chocolate chip cookies. With a smell like that, I could not wait to taste the tea!

The flavor was very full-bodied in my mouth, and smooth upon swallowing. The taste was a bit astringent and tart,which reminded me of the tart flavor in plums and peaches. I get a very faint sweetness in the tea, but the tart flavor overpowers the sweetness. I also taste a slight hint of smokiness,which reminds me of roasted chestnuts. Finally, the mouth feel is heavy, and full, like you just sipped on melted butter. The slight astringency in the tea left my mouth feeling clean, slightly dry,but overall very refreshed after sipping on the liquor. All these flavors meshed together to create a very pleasant cuppa. I really enjoyed this tea, it was different from other green teas, and I would recommend it to someone who isn’t very fond of the greener, more vegetal teas.

Check out Arbor Teas on the web:
Website: HERE
Facebook: HERE
Twitter: HERE
Want this tea right now? Here!

All photographs included in this post are property of Melissa Wrzesniewsky and are not to be taken,shared, or used without the artists consent. The logo is from the google images and is property of Arbor Teas.

Review of Mellow Monk Top Leaf Green Tea

Brand: Mellow Monk
Tea Rating: 95/100
Steep Time: 2-3minutes
Steep Temperature: 175 Degrees
Price: $14.75 per 100-gram packet( about 3.5 oz.)

Tea description from Mellow Monk: “This is our top-of-the-line honcha, or traditional green tea. Top Leaf™ Green Tea is specially pampered in its own separate corner of the tea orchard. Not only does this tea receive extra fertilizer (organic, of course) during the growing season, but at harvest time, the growers pick only the top layer of young tea leaves. This tea is always first flush.“

In the package, this tea smells pretty light, but I can smell some light vegetal notes. The steeped liquor is a light green,yellow color, which reminds me of the Ford Fiesta Green Color. The steeped leaves turn from what almost looks like a black tea, to unfurling beautiful small green leaves. The flavor in the first steep is buttery and has a vegetable flavor. The flavor was also pretty citrus heavy, but the slight grassiness in the tea counteracted the citrus notes nicely!
the second steep was pretty acidic, but this time around the grassiness was much more prominent. The second steep has much more of a tannic astringency. It makes my mouth pucker, BUT also makes my mouth very moist, leaving me craving another sip!

The third steep has a flavor of fresh mint, and is refreshing, like a freshly cut cucumber that just came out of the refrigerator! While the butter aspect left me in the second steep, it is back in the third steep. The buttery mouth feel is amazing in this steep, and coats my mouth very well. It leaves my mouth moist and ready for more.

Mellow Monk Tea is a certified green business, located in San Francisco, CA. Their business is certified as sustainable and is a certified Bay Area Green BusinessTo become a green business,  Mellow Monk has to go through an evaluation to display how they have ‘green’ed their company. Some of the things Mellow Monk has implemented as day to day business practices are:

• They minimize paper usage by doing all-electronic promotion (no mailings or print catalogs, for instance) and record-keeping, as well as using recycled papers whenever possible for labels, order slips, etc.
• All Mellow Monk growers in Japan are family-owned and -operated, as well as being certified under the Japanese government’s Eco Farmer Program.
• Aso is the perfect natural environment for growing tea — a high elevation, plenty of rain, sunny spring, not-too-hot summer, and cold winter, which allows the plants to hibernate
• The growers also rely on strictly organic fertilizer to supplement the natural richness of Aso’s volcanic soil

Learn more about their sustainability practice here! This is all very exciting, and I love to find companies that include things I love like living ‘greener’ and tea!

find Mellow Monk on:
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
BUY THIS TEA!

All photographs included in this post are property of Melissa Wrzesniewsky and are not to be taken,shard, or used without the artists consent.

Ito En Iced Tea Showdown!

Today I am review Ito En’s Oi Ocha Teas, in light green and dark green packaging! You can find these teas at many local grocery stores and can also purchase them online on Amazon!

Ito En is also very immersed in social media, you can find them on…
Twitter
Facebook
Their Website!

Minisode #1- How to Cold Brew Tea!

How to cold brew tea:

#1) get a very large pitcher, that is either a gallon or half gallon.

#2) add about 1/4 cup of tea to half gallon or 1/2 cup of tea to gallon pitcher.

#3) fill with cold water

#4) Put in refrigerator,covered for 6-8 hours for first steep, and 12-15 for second steep.

#5) Pour a cup and enjoy!

For curiosity sake, I steeped the tea once,even though Chris & Amy didn’t say anything about that. It tastes just as good at the first steep! So after you are done with your first steep, add more cold water, stick in the fridge for another 12 hours and enjoy a second time the next day!

Review of LeafSpa Tea’s Eagle Nest Ever Drop Green Tea:

The leafspa eagle nest ever drop tea is a very full bodied green tea. The tea has vegetal notes as well as creamy,thick notes that remind me of a black tea. The green tea really coats my mouth and is creamy before I swallow. After swallowing, there is a hint of dryness on my mouth, reminiscent of cotton, but for me,this doesn’t take away from the tea at all.

For more information on Leafspa Teas and products:
Find them on twitter : here
Find out more information about their company: here

or Find out more information about their Eagle Nest Green Tea: here

If you want to make an order, all of my readers can use coupon code “GREENPASS” during checkout on Leafspa’s site for 10% off your entire basket, and, if you order over $50, it’s free ground shipping anywhere in the USA! Thanks again for being such faithful and fantastic readers to engage with! Much love to you all!

Bourgea Tea’s Lucari Chai

Brand: Bourgea Tea

Tea Rating: 80/100

Steep Time: 3-4 minutes

Steep Temperature: 180 Degrees

Upon first look at this tea, I noticed that there were amber cane sugar crystals in the blend, which made me weary, as I am usually not fond of sweetened tea. This tea includes a blend of Sri Lankan Green Tea, Viet Nam Mekong Cinnamon, bits of pineapple and a chai  blend from India. The smell of the dry tea is very spicy, so spicy that it felt like it had cleaned my sinuses. The smell of the steeped liquor was reminiscent of hot spiced cider, with lots of cinnamon. The specialty cinnamon used in the blend really packs some serious heat! The flavor of the tea is light and enjoyable, with a nice cinnamon twang. I would really love to make this tea on the stove, with boiling milk,water and  the chai! The tea would really shine being prepared this way! I was pleasantly surprised with this tea. Looking at the dry leaves, I didn’t spot much green tea, but it must have been masked by the other ingredients. After steeping, there were large leaves everywhere! What a surprise!

I really admire what Chris has done with Bourgea Tea, on my college campus, in the cafe’s there is very little tea selection.The story of the company is Chris was unsatisfied with the tea selection of the cafe on his college campus and started a project to supply great loose leaf tea to the students around him. He started to make the tea bags by hand and sold them in the cafe. ” BourgeaTEA has never lost the vision of challenging the way people think about tea and its emphasis towards college students and living well.”(BourgeaTea.com) This statement and vision is the reason I started this tea blog. When I started getting into tea, I thought there was a stigma about tea, about that only stuffy people drank tea, but through learning more about tea, and working through the stigma, I found out there is more to tea than that!  Check out BourgeaTea, they are doing great things right now in the tea world!

Check out BourgeaTea on the web:

Website: HERE

Facebook: HERE

Twitter: HERE

Want this tea right now? Here!

All photographs included in this post are property of Melissa Wrzesniewsky and are not to be taken,shard, or used without the artists consent.

Utopian Teas’ White Monkey Paw

Brand: Utopian Teas’ White Monkey Paw

Tea Rating: 85/100

Steep Time: 1-3 minutes

Steep Temperature: 180 Degrees

Utopian Teas is a newly opened online tea retailer. They currently offer 2 oolongs and 2 greens for buying, but will be adding some varietals soon. All of their tea s come straight from individual plantations within the Fujian province & Wuyi Mountains in China. Which ensures good,high quality leaves!

This tea is sourced by Utopian Teas from the Wuyi Mountains in China. The Wuyi Mountains are located on the border between the Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, in South Eastern China. The many peaks of the Wuyi range reach about 6,000 feet above sea level. The mountains are located in an area with deep gorges, winding rivers, and many caves. The mountain offers up some of the best areas for biologists to study due to the many varieties of plants and animals. It is widely regarded as the richest depository of tea varieties in the world. The soil on the mountain has large rocks from an ancient volcano that was once there, which gives the teas from the Wuyi Mountain a very unique character.

This is a green tea made top two leaves and the bud of new season growth and is picked in early spring.The dried leaf is said to look like that of a monkey’s paw, which is where the name originates from. The dry leaf smells sweet and sensual. This tea is so delicate it reminds me of a white tea, more than a green tea, as the flavor is light and delicate.The liquor smells fresh,which follows through in taste too. There is some fruit flavor and nuttiness in the tea, which play together perfectly. The best part is the natural sweetness on the finish, which makes me crave another sip. This tea would be good for tea folks who was to get into Green Teas, but fear the vegetal quality in some green teas. I also identify some slight floral notes in the tea, but that is very very slight, and may go unnoticed by most.

Finally, for Tea Tuesday on Twitter, Utopian Teas is running a very awesome deal, where if you buy 2 teas, you get 2 teas completely free. That results in 8 oz. of free tea! What a great deal! Be sure to check it out, as it ends tonight,June 29,at Midnight EST! You  have the chance to get all of their teas for the price of just 2! http://t.co/dbJB4iG

Check out Utopian Teas on the web…

Online Store: here

On twitter: here

On Facebook: here

all images included in this post are property of Melissa Wrzesniewsky and are not to be taken or used without permission from the photographer.

Review of LeafSpa Teas’ Organic Blink Bonnie

Brand: LeafSpa Organic Blink Bonnie

Tea Rating: 88/100

Steep Time: 2-3 Minutes

Steep Temperature: 175 Degrees

LeafSpa Teas’ Blink Bonnie tea is a very aesthetically pleasing tea. The tea is from Sri LankaThe dry leaves consist of green,white and nutmeg colored sprials, that are about 2 inches in size spirals. These spirals are hand spun and they give the impression of a large spiral, which when the leaves unfurl, you see that you have more leaves than you started with, which I understand that more than 1 leaf was in the spiral, and shows 2 leaves and a bud in the middle, which is really fun to see unfurl after a few infusions! The liquor is a pale honey/copper color and has some similar smells that were in the dry leaf, which was a savory smell. The wet leaf really had more of a black tea smell to it, which was reminicent of a ceylon tea to me, smelling tanin like and a tiny bit malty. The tea is silky and light.It really does not stay around in your mouth very long, but the flavors taste great within my mouth. I automatically pick up are some astringency, which again echos a black or oolong tea. I also taste some earthiness, and sweetness in the flavor. The sweetness reminds me of a plum or a peach, but is quite light. I don’t really pick up any traditional green tea flavors,I don’t taste any grassiness, or nuttiness, or ‘green’ flavors. Regardless of the tea not fitting into the common green tea category, my favorite aspect was when I sipped the tea and swallowed, my mouth watered afterwards, making me want more. Breathing in after i’ve sipped, I get a refreshingly cool, almost menthol-like feel in my mouth, which is great.

I really enjoyed this tea, and I have started to drink it more often. I bought 2 tins during my last order from Leafspa because I liked it so much!  have had nothing but a good experience with Steven and Jennifer from LeafSpa. Not only do I recommend them because they are from New Jersey, where I am from and I love to represent my home state, but because LeafSpa is a wonderful company and are working towards great goals to maintain organic and fair trade teas and contribute to their  community and the environment through improving global trade conditions. Check them out!

If you want to make an order, all of my readers can use coupon code “GREENPASS” during checkout on Leafspa’s site for 10% off your entire basket, and, if you order over $50, it’s free ground shipping anywhere in the USA! Thanks again, and, let us know if there’s anything you or your readers need!

For more information on Leafspa Teas and products:

find them on twitter : here

Find out more information about their company: here

or find out more information about their Blink Bonnie : here

Update on Indonique Long Ching Leaves

Here is a picture of the dry and wet leaves.

-Melissa

Episode 1-Indonique’s Dragonwell

Here is my first video review ever. I hope you all enjoy it.

Also, I am still working on my layout,which will be changing soon. Have a great day!

-Melissa