Shanti Tea

I have been waiting for someone to try a MAPLE White Tea and Shanti is the first I have tried…and it’s pretty good. The aroma is a gentle yet vibrant maple and the white tea prettiness really comes thru nicely. The color is darker than most white’s I have seen but it’s a neat shade! The taste is like a candied maple and slight floral flavor…very soothing! Fairly mouth-watering, too!

The dry leaf looks so cool!

The flavor is rather unique – I don’t think I’ve ever had an Oolong quite like this one. It is delicate but in a very good way. It is a very soothing tea. Very relaxing. I almost want to compare it to a brandy, but I don’t drink alcohol, so I wouldn’t know where to begin with such a comparison. The flavor is so complex and it gently warms and soothes me as I drink it, much like when (on the rare occasion) I imbibe alcohol.

I like this very much. This is one that I could easily drink on a regular basis.

I’ve been on a LEMON kick lately and I don’t just mean in TEA…lemon EVERYTHING!!!! This is super!!! This is a wonderfully flavored Tulsi! One I could drink often! I’m thinking it’s probably one of my fave Tulsi’s to date! YUM! It lives up to it’s name…it’s sweet, it’s lemon, and it’s Tulsi…life is good!

This smells unlike any white tea or ANY tea I have ever sniffed for that matter…it’s VERY different and I like different! This smells savory and food-like…gourmet, but also raisin, of course, and gentle floral and white tea. There is a beautiful wine-like aroma to it too! Nice!
The taste is soothing and a calming hint of juicy-goodness! It does linger a subtle raisin flavor. This is pretty creative! I’m glad Shanti took a chance with it! It’s a goody!

Ah, this tea smells tasty. The aroma of the dried leaf is very fruity, if also a bit floral. There are some spicy tones as well. It would appear the mixture is composed of rooibos, rose petals, and perhaps some dried citrus, among other things.

For my first infusions, I steeped a teaspoon and a half of this for five minutes in a cup of just-boiled water. The Shanti Tea website does not give many details regarding this tea, but judging by the fact that it has rooibos, I decided on the tea measurement and steep times. The steeped cup smells of sweet fruit, with big hints of apricot and citrus of some sort. The impression of the first sip is…subdued. Quite a bit of lemon and orange flavours, but not a lot else that stands out. More sips bring out the rooibos and mixed fruit flavours. They blend quite well, and the tea makes for a pleasant evening cuppa.

On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this tea a 68/100.

Another new Maple offering from Shanti. This one is pretty good. It pairs a nice sweet Rooibos with some even spices and the Maple flavors are mixed in underneath. It has just enough of all of the flavors without going overboard! I like that!

Gentle yet noticeable aroma of pears. The taste is juicy-smooth. The pear tastes linger into the aftertaste…it’s quite nice! Yummy both hot and cold :)

If you like the aroma of maple/maple syrup you’ll have to check out this brand new offering from Shanti! The Maple is AMAZING prior and during infusion. At the end of the infusion the little bit of smoke comes out to play, too, but the primary scent IS Maple.

The color of the liquor is that of a lighter oolong.

The taste is really good…I’ll just say that plain and simple…GOOD. It morphs. At first you can taste the maple…then the hint of smoke, then the Oolong, then back to maple. It has a juicier finish. I’m impressed.

Just a heads-up Shanti has other Maple selections, too, and I will be reviewing some of them here and over at Sororitea Sisters very soon!

LOVE me some Shanti!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss For sending me some of this tea. It’s so good!

This is sweet, a little malty, smooth but also a little rustic. A strong, bold flavor with a bitter note at the start of the sip that disappears just as quickly as it arrives. The astringency is clean and dry, and there is very little aftertaste to this one.

A very pleasing tea, this is one that I’d happily drink every day.

This is an EXCEPTIONAL blueberry white tea. The blueberry tastes authentic, the white tea is light and crisp. I recommend at least five minutes steep time – I steeped for six at 160 degrees F. The flavor comes through perfectly at six minutes and there is no bitterness. So very good.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

This is yummy. There is a bit more hibiscus in this than I would like there to be, but, it still works, because the tartness from the hibiscus really compliments the strawberry tones well. It also gives it a pretty red color!

Ah… I’ve really missed tea. I drank plenty of it while I was feeling under the weather, but, it just didn’t taste the same when my taste buds weren’t working right, so I drank tea that I was already familiar with, and I really enjoying trying new teas. This one came to me thanks to my SororiTea Sister, TeaEqualsBliss and it is so good.

This is one of (if not THE) best green Darjeeling I’ve tasted (at least, the best that I recall tasting). It has so many unique flavors to it. The flowery notes are almost like jasmine, with a toasty flavor in there that is somewhat nutty and even lightly buttery. Sweet. Rich. Delicious!

This has such a fantastic jasmine flavor. It is very smooth, slightly grassy, and with a beautiful, delicate floral nature. A gentle sweetness to it and there is a slight sharp tone just at the finish that sort of lingers into the aftertaste, but it is not off-putting. It isn’t what I would classify as bitter; merely a sharp, grassy note. The jasmine develops and gets a little stronger by mid-cup, almost to the point of being soapy… but not quite. Some of those who are sensitive to that perfume-y tendency of jasmine might not find this to be their cup of tea, but it is a great jasmine for jasmine lovers!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this tea.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

This is a really remarkable black tea. Strong and robust, with a very pleasing earthy quality to it. The earthiness is almost pu-erh like but … different too. In my review of this tea (which will publish soon on the SororiTea Sisters blog), I described the earthiness this way: “Consider an old growth forest just after it rains. The smell of the trees, the earth, the leaves and the air … that is what I taste in the background… that essence.” – that is what I’m tasting in this cup. It is very good, very rich, and a very nice way to start the day.

This is indeed a mellow chai. Perfect for those who tend to find most chai to be a little heavy on the cinnamon or ginger – this blend is just black tea, cloves and cardamom. It isn’t at all spicy – the spices offer just a hint of a warm background flavor which allows the bold black tea to come into focus.

A really nice change of pace. Not a chai I’d want to drink all the time because I do like spicy chai, but, certainly would like to keep it on hand for when I want something a little milder.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea!

This is my first matcha ever. I must say it is super good and super messy. (Almost lost most of it as I opened the jar). I mixed this up with some frothy Silk Soy Milk and wow was it tasty. I agree that it tastes more like the baking cinnamon but still yummy.

This one is a little strange but good.

It smells of a gentle black tea, cocoa, mint, floral. The taste is a nice cross between cocoa and mint but it’s a tad vegetal and floral, too. It’s like Mint Chocolate Chip Cake sitting next to a floral arrangement.

Tasty tho!

GREAT Tulsi Blend!

The Tulsi is wonderful but I LOVE that it’s paired with the black tea! It’s almost the pioneers of both worlds coming together to collaborate – almost like Run DMC & Aerosmith to come up with an awesome blend of flavors for a hit than will stand the test of time!

The tulsi is like sweet basil herb and mint tied into one with the black tea for a nice TEA base! REALLY like this!

Brilliant! I have been waiting for someone to do this and Shanti did! THANK YOU!

Basically if you were to take gentle Indian Spices and pair them with sweet basil – this is IT.

This is herbally and spicy and comforting…one of the better herbal-tasting tisanes and chai tisane’s I have had. Doesn’t leave a funky aftertaste either

I’m trying to get Jason to add not only a Tulsi Category but a Matcha category to steepster as we are adding more and more of those :)

SIPDOWN!!!
Well, that didn’t last long in my stash! A nice black!

Backlogging from last week…really LOVE this…only enough for one more go-around tho…eeeeek

See other tasting notes :)

2nd cup/infusion was a little bit less sweet and more bread-like…more like toast, really…still yummy!