Mighty Leaf Tea sent me two new sample packets the other day, and both of the blends are black tea, which is great because it's deadline time at the magazine and I need the caffeine right now!
Since these tea samples come in plastic, I get a good view of the tea leaves before I ever try them, and here you can see the leaf size of the Organic Breakfast at left and the Yunnan at right. Although I prefer "pretty" whole leaf teas from an aesthetic point of view, I've learned that I actually like the taste of the finely processed black teas early in the day when I'm trying to wake up.
The first tea I tried was the Organic Breakfast. I steeped my teaspoon of tea just about three minutes since that's about as strong as I like it. I tried it black assuming I would need to add milk, but to my surprise this was a great tasting tea with no astringency! So instead of automatically adding milk to these breakfast blends, I may continue to try the shorter steeping times.
The Yunnan blend has those beautiful golden-tipped leaves for which this tea is known. Mighty Leaf described it as "a melange of light maltiness, delicate smoke and a touch of fruit in a red-orange liquor." Now I didn't get all *that* but I will say that I found this tea quite delicious. Usually, anything with "maltiness" is a bit much for me, but this was a very rich, smooth tasting tea, again with no astringency and requiring nothing else to make it enjoyable. (And did I mention I am grateful for the extra caffeine?)
Just letting you know that there is an award for you at my blog. Also, when I go to your blog the Dec 31/2009 post comes up first with your old header- and then the newest one on top after that - blogs do weird things!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reviewing the new teas. They sound very nice. I'll have to look for them at the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI've not seen this plastic packaging by ML before, I'm used to their lurvly silk pouches! Great review though, wish I had a cup right now of the breakfast tea.
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