Shanti Tea

Here’s another one from ozli. It was pretty essential to try today due to the eggnog smell.

This is pretty great. It’s slightly creamy, with lots of vanilla notes, and eggnog spices rolling around in each sip. It makes me think of what I imagine warmed eggnog would taste like. I think it might even be better than my DTT Winter Nog, but that’s rooibos so not really comparable.

Another tea that I’m tasting too late … Shanti appears to have discontinued this tea as well.

This is really quite a unique tea. I like the way the flavor of the raisin works with the flavor of the white tea. Delicate, sweet … like that sugary sweet raisin-y sweet, but, it isn’t too much … it’s a very delicate sweetness that is similar to the overall delicate flavor of the tea itself. Notes of flower sort of dance at the tip of my tongue.

A really lovely tea – I really like it for its uniqueness. It’s quite unlike any tea that I’ve tried.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this chai. I visited the Shanti Tea website and I can’t find it … it must be discontinued already.

This blend has a lot of lemon grass in the blend … something I mention only because I don’t think that my SororiTea Sister, Azzrian, would be happy about that. :)

The aroma of the brewed tea is ANISE-y! Yay! I love anise. I also smell hints of clove and citrus, but the primary scent is anise.

The taste … it’s surprisingly smooth. I guess I expected more tartness or something from this tea called Lemon Chai, but, it is a smoother, sweeter lemony note, with only a slight twinge of tartness arriving on the palate in the finish.

And the anise is strong here! Yippee! I love this blend. Boo hoo! It’s not on the website any longer.

I am glad that I got to try it though. The black tea is smooth yet strong, pleasing notes of anise, clove, and citrus. I don’t get a lot of the elderberry here, perhaps though, it is the elderberry that provides that twinge of tartness, because as I explore that a little more, it does seem to be more of a berry tartness than a lemony one.

Very nice.

Last bit of Winter Wonderland! .___.

I think this is my favourite winter/xmas tea blend. I just love the soft noggy smell (way more than actual egg nog)..

Haven’t logged much tea lately because I haven’t HAD much tea lately! Has been all Timmy’s coffee and colas and gingerbread spice lattes from Starbux :P but I’m enjoying a well-earned break right now. New beds tomorrow means moving all the beds and cleaning everything TODAY. Sigh.

Oh hey, this tea has a really nice egg noggy aftertaste, too. :D

When dry, it smells exactly like egg nog! Then mostly cloves/black tea after steeping. Sadness. Yummy though; I like it with a bit of sugar.

I got to try this tea as a prize sample at one of Shanti’s tea tasting seminars (otherwise I’m not sure I could justify spending $40-something on a sample!)

It is delightful! I love this tea, it is soft and delicate with a slight grassy note and a sweet and smooth finish. I tried multiple infusions at only 30 seconds steeping time each. The taste did not vary much, other than become lighter, but I did notice by the third infusion the grassy-ness was gone, all I wast tasting was a sweet and delicate white tea.

I think I could have experimented more with the time, 1 minute for the first infusion is pretty short. I was able to get a very nice taste from that 1 minute infusion. Perhaps I will try again and repost.

I would recommend this tea if you are looking for something truly exquisite and are willing to pay ;)

Yum! The maple smells amazing. I’m not getting a lot of smoked anything, although I do tend to not pick up on a lot of the more subtle aspects of tea. So it’s probably there, I suppose it’s just getting a kick out of playing hide and seek with my tongue. Which is just fine with me, I can play with maple instead. It’s all good. This is very very nice, smooth and a bit sweet. Makes the toes curl and the mouth smile.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea. I don’t see this tea on the Shanti Tea website any more, I guess it’s been discontinued?

This is pretty good … not my favorite grapefruit tea, but, I like what I’m tasting. It has a pleasantly tart taste with the bitter grapefruit notes to make it taste quite true to the fruit. I like it.

Bold flavors characterize this as a unique green tea which isn’t afraid to be flavorful. Prone to grassy overtones, but with complexity apparent at warmer temperatures. Can stand up well to a second steeping. Darker flavors are reminiscent of the Darjeeling region, but behaves like a green in terms of tannin and delicate flavors. Care should be taken not to oversteep past 3 minutes, and too avoid too much heat.

Thank you LiberTEAS for sending me this tea!

Nothing too elaborate to report on the smell of this dry. Smells exactly how it looks, which could be a good thing.

First steep I did one minute : A nice light color that I enjoyed. It smells and tastes light also, but not light in a bad way. Light in a it’s getting late and I’m enjoying a nice light cup of tea to round out the day. Strange because others described this as “musky” or “strong”. It’s probably because I only steeped it for one minute, but sometimes I actually appreciate a nice light cup. You can taste some of the more subtle aspects of the tea this way. I love the vegetal quality of this tea. It’s very refreshing.

Second steep I did two minutes : Wow. This tastes like an entirely different tea! It’s much stronger this time. No lightness to this cup. It’s slightly “sharp” if that makes any sense, but not to the point that this cup isn’t enjoyable. I’m getting more of the smoky aftertaste with this cup than the last one, but I think I enjoyed the first steep better. This cup certainly isn’t bad, and I won’t have any trouble finishing it, but the first cup was so much more delicate and I appreciated that tonight.

Decided to finish up this sample by making a pitcher of iced tea. Still meh. Again, it’s not bad; it’s just not remarkable in any way. It’s probably marginally better as a hot tea. I’m glad I got this out of my cupboard before the new teas from 52teas and Red Leaf get here. (I really have to stop buying more and start drinking more.)

Meh. I love Rooibos teas, and I generally love vanilla flavoured teas. This just didn’t stand out for me. Don’t get me wrong, this tea is good. The sweetness of the rooibos and the vanilla both come out in the brewed tea. I just feel I’ve had better.

Thank you, TeaEqualsBliss for including this in our trade! This is one of the few green teas I have in my cupboard. I guess I just don’t find them as interesting as other types of teas. But this green tea is GOOD. First of all, I wonder why it is called darjeeling? I thought that was associated with black tea. The flavor of this one is almost like a buttery, nutty oolong. The description calls it simple, but I’d call it complex. Definitely much less simple than a typical green tea! It actually reminds me of my favorite tea that I’ve tried: SpecialTeas Vienna Winter Green. The Vienna blend has a ton of awesome ingredients I thought was enhancing the plain green tea, like roman chamomile and pistachio. BUT it seems like this could be the base for that one. Some of the flavors that I associated with the Vienna ingredients could have just been the green tea by itself! (Meaning the base for the Vienna is much less plainer than I thought.) This is one of the best green teas I’ve tried (though that ain’t many!) Also, I was just looking at some of Shanti’s other teas on Steepster and some of them are interesting… I’m going to have to search for their site right now!

Oooooh, I really hate saying this. I made some Tulsi India Chai yesterday, and I so did not like it. It was more minty than spicy; the mintiness overpowered the earthiness that I found the last time I drank a tulsi tea. This is just a bad mix for me :(

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

I was a bit freaked out when I measured this out into the basket of my breville. THERE IS A LOT OF HIBISCUS! Ugh! But I tried to keep an open mind, and it’s not really too bad. The lemongrass does soften it up a bit, gives it a slight buttery creaminess, and a nice citrus-y hint of flavor that compliments the berry-ish tones of the hibiscus.

However, I do disagree with TeaEqualsBliss – I think this is better hot than cold. When it cooled, I noticed that the hibiscus seemed to pop and the lemongrass sort of retreated. When it was hot, it was actually quite soothing … sort of like a mulled wine or something, but without the spice. This would be nice with a cinnamon stick in there, though!

Smelling the dry leaf made me think I accidently grabbed the Black Merlot I had last night (I checked and it was not). Theres floral notes, as well as something else, but I don’t wanna pour the contents out again to see what it is and the outside of the bag is heavily scented by another tea so….
I thought I oversteeped this since I forgot to set the timer. Liquor is a very deep red/brown, also making me think I oversteeped. Wet leaf still floral. The flavor is much more mellow than the aroma lead me to believe which made me think I didn’t oversteep afterall. It’s not dull or drab, just mellow with the tiniest bit of astringency. I first thought malty but then backed that off to a wood flavor with a touch of smoke. Though floral it’s not too sweet, but a little. I liked this tea well enough and would visit it again, though not enough to put on my right away purchase list; which I guess I should start since all of the samples that several fine Steepster folk have so graciously shared will eventually run out. There’s so much work to do to make oneself a fanatical obsessed tea drinking addict.
I tried a second steep and it was a hair lighter but also sweeter. Astringency went up a notch too so after this cup I’m done.
tunes-Dave Mathews Band=Christmas Song/Long Black Veil/Gret Street/Big Eyed Fish…all live versions

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea to try.

It does have a lovely honey-esque and fruit-y aroma. I can also smell the hops, a fragrance I became familiar with in my tea blending days.

The flavor is very honey-like, but I taste the hops in there too, which gives it a nice malty note and a pleasant richness that I don’t generally experience with rooibos blends. The green rooibos tastes fruity and light. A very nice blend, I like this one a lot!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. It’s lovely!

I really like this. It has a bold strength to it, and it is great for a breakfast tea (I had some this morning with cream and sugar – it was a smooth, sweet, creamy treat to go along with my pancakes!), but it also has a certain lightness to it, crisp and soft, that would make it a suitable afternoon tea as well. I’m drinking it right now as an iced tea (I decanted what was left in my teapot, and stashed it in the fridge so I could try it iced). It’s sweet but not too sweet, and it would be marvelous with a sprig of mint or a lemon wedge.

Really really nice!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this Matcha.

YUM!

I like the way the blueberry and Matcha work together here, they seem to emphasize the sweetness of each other, and cancel out any bitterness that might otherwise be noted with the Matcha … as well as cancelling out any of the tartness that I might have noticed from the blueberry! It’s like all of the good here, and none of the bad! I like!

Sweet, very fragrant, and very enjoyable. Not chalky or gritty, and it stays well incorporated until I’ve reached the bottom of the bowl.

A very delicious Matcha treat, indeed.

I thought I already reviewed this one but it doesn’t look like it logged. So…here goes!

This certainly smells and tastes like coffee or a coffee latte.It has a hazelnut hint to it too both in taste and aroma.

At times when I think it’s like sucking on a coffee bean…I start picking up other flavors to really make me think…black tea…nuttiness…floral…it’s different but good.

Backlog:

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this Matcha. This is the last of the berry flavored teas I’ll be drinking today!

This is really yummy. The berry flavor is subtle at first, but develops as I sip… by the time I reached my last sip, I found the berry flavor … especially in the aftertaste … to be well-pronounced. Sweet, a little tart, and juicy tasting, reminding me of something between a blueberry and blackberry flavor. Delicious!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

This is really good. An interesting take on the traditional jasmine. The smoke is very subtle, very-barely-there when I first started sipping, now that I’m nearly done with the cup the smoke has developed a bit, but it never becomes a strong smoky presence. It is apparent, but not overwhelmingly so. It is an interesting contrast to the sweet, exotic jasmine. The smoke seems to bring out some of the sweeter notes of the jasmine, emphasizing them. This is so pleasantly sweet that it almost tastes “dessert-y” to me.

I don’t know that this is my favorite take on jasmine, but, I am really enjoying it. It’s different, but it’s quite good.