Numi Organic Tea

Continuing on with the project of finishing up my earliest batch of tea splurge, I am saying goodbye to this one today.

It actually grew on me quite a bit from my initial tasting. After drinking my way through a box of it, I was used to the tartness and could get right to the berry flavor pretty quickly. It’s a cheerful flavor that doesn’t obliterate the tea, but it may be a little too strong and too weak at the same time — it reminds me a little of Kool Aid.

Hail and farewell! Thanks for the memories.

Another tea drunk at work under less than optimal brewing conditions.

The aroma is subtle, a sort of toasty/fruity melange. The color is beautiful — deep red, almost wine-like.

I agree that the hibiscus and rose hips are too heavy in this blend. They dominate and make the tea too tart. The raspberry/strawberry flavor is there, but you have to get past the hibiscus and rose hips to get to it. The darjeeling is a nice backdrop. I am really liking darjeeling and I haven’t even had a fine loose version yet.

Finished up my box of this, which was among my “starter teas.” It’s very mildly spiced when drunk with milk and sweetener, which has become my preferred method when I can’t engage in the stovetop method. Too mild for me, I discovered, when it comes to chai, though without milk it has more bite. But I thank it for helping me to hone my ever growing and evolving tastes.

A bit better with milk and sweetened up a bit, but doesn’t have the depth of flavor of the Tazo. Usually Numi’s subtlety is a plus when compared with the sometimes stark Tazo flavors that don’t blend so much as each scream independently to be noticed, but here it’s a detriment.

Trying this at work today, so no control over water temp or water quality. It comes of out a spigot that sticks out of the drip coffee maker with a little red plastic flipper doo-dah at the top that looks like it should flip back but actually flips forward. Many of you probably know of what I speak.

I don’t have a lot of chai experience to compare this to, but this is a pretty spicy, bite-the-tongue flavor that has a kick to it and stays with for a while. I’m getting a lot of cinnamon in the aroma and the flavor but not much else in the way of spices that I can distinguish. At approximately 3 minutes of steeping time I got very little tea flavor as well, but bumping it up to 5, I can detect a malty flavor competing with the cinnamon.

Had this tea this AM w/a little bit of milk and lots of sugar. This is the perfect way to start the day w/ a bold and assertive flavor and the brewing times aren’t too picky…. The tea tastes slightly spicy and slightly earthy…..It really is becoming my favorites and it is a bagged tea!

I can detect earthy notes, a very mild spicy flavor (this is no chai). The cocoa flavor was not strong at all. But like the other reviewers commented, the flavors blended together quite well.

Sipdown no. 52 of 2016 (no. 263 total).

The last of the Numi Puerhs is no more.

I have been swilling this at work like there was no tomorrow for the past week. It still reminds me more of gingerbread than chocolate. My favorite of the Numi puerhs and with the rest of them, a helpful starter puerh.

I may revisit it at some point in the future, but for now, too many other teas, too little time, so no immediate restock even though I quite like it.

Cofftea and Angrboda’s notes about this one made me really eager to break open my box and give it a try. And man, am I glad I did. This one is a delightful sensuous experience on so many levels.

The bags do have an amazing smell. It starts as gingerbready, and not the vaguely spicy smell of ginger snaps or even the bready smell of gingerbread men (or women :-)), but a really deep, rich smell, like a fresh gingerbread loaf right out of the oven. Then it moves to something more chocolatey, with a dab of vanilla dropped in; the best I can come up with to describe it is that it’s the smell of how chocolate mousse tastes.

The tea is about as dark brown as it gets and I can’t see the bottom of the cup. The aroma is not quite as striking as it was dry, but still very pleasing. The taste is unique and complex. I taste mainly the chocolate and the spices, but there’s also an almost coffee-like note that sits on the tongue.

One of the things I find most enjoyable about it is its texture. The package uses the adjective velvety. I’m not sure what part of the experience that is supposed to apply to but for me it is how it feels in my mouth — soft, a little slick, and with substance to it, almost like a broth, and quite comforting.

Overall, a very satisfying experience and one I expect I’ll go back to again and again.

I’m not a huge fan of chamomile, but I like Mighty Leaf’s citrus one and decided to give this one a try. It was okay, but didn’t finish the cup.

Blast! I have taken all my teas/tea supplies home from the office so I’ll have access to them over the summer. And then I realized I was out of paper filters. No great tea for me!

So I turned to my teabags. I really don’t have so many anymore, unless they’re for medicinal purposes, so I grabbed what I had and took them to work. This was the cup I started the day with.

It’s okay, but I’m glad to be purchasing some more paper filters tonight!

meh. It’ll do in a pinch, but it’s certainly not my favorite breakfast blend. It’s kindof bitter (and I even steeped it to avoid that), and watered down. But certainly better than nothing!!

Felt a little uneasy this morning, and this cup of tea set things straight.

It turns out, I thought I’d finished my stash of this but I totally forgot I had a couple of bags still at work. So this time I REALLY DID drink the last of this. Exciting, because it makes way for more Earl experiments to come. I have a whole Upton sampler to start on in the coming days, not to mention assorted other samples!

This morning I finished up my last bags of this. My assessment remains the same, but I can’t see myself going back to this as a standard. I have many more Earls to try in my cupboard, but if I don’t find one I love I already have in the Samovar Earl Lavender.

I prefer this to the Tazo version. As others have said, the bergamot scent is palpable but not overpowering; it doesn’t greet you with an almost eye-watering blast of perfume when you open the packet. The bergamot taste is present in the drinking, but in a much milder, even, more balanced way. On a side note, am I the only one who has trouble with Numi’s bags? Seems like they break, or the string comes off, or the tag falls off, far more often than those of other brands but perhaps that’s just bad luck on my part.

A mellow, sweet, and smooth spearmint flavor for times when you feel like mint but without the intensity of peppermint. Though I prefer peppermint in general, this is a gentle, before-bed flavor.

Very ginger – not very oolong. Needs better balance of flavor.

Backlogging
Quite a number of years ago, this was my favorite when I could find it. I agree with the earlier Steepers (What do we call each other?), the tartness is a bright note and it sparkles when the tea is fresh. I assumed that I received a bad batch because the tea oil tasted off and the lime flavor I had enjoyed had dulled appreciably.
You all have inspired me; I’ll have to try it again.

Not my favorite mint tea. Was re-steepable 2 twice, with extremely fast declining mint flavor leaving very little tea flavor behind. The scent was very agreeable, fresh and invigorating. This is not a tea I can drink all day long because after the re-steep, the taste is disappointing even in a new cup.

Saying goodbye to this out of my bagged starter teas today. It was a good one, but I have since had better gunpowder and I expect there are even better ones out there than I have had. That said I wouldn’t be disappointed (at least for now, early in my gunpowder drinking career) drinking this if I found myself needing a quick, convenient gunpowder.

It does better steeped for 2 minutes at 175 rather than the shorter steeping time I usually use for bagged greens (1:30). It doesn’t turn bitter, but it does gain a deeper and sweeter flavor.