teakruthi

These teakruthi teas have been impressing me with their subtley. I saw that the main ingredient other than black tea was cardamom, and I worried because I’ve had too many chais that are too cardamom-heavy. The flavor here is totally balanced between the cardamom and the black tea. I didn’t use milk because I was afraid that would overwhelm the flavors. This is an enjoyable, light chai.

Not getting much peach, mostly ginger and a black tea that is a bit astringent. The ginger is nice, cozy, and warming on this cold night.

This is my last plain black tea from Teakruthi. (Thanks as always for the sample.) I loosely followed Eastkyteaguy’s parameters and steeped around 4.5 g in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 3, 5, and 7 minutes.

The dry aroma is of pine, prunes, malt, and something pleasantly sour. The first steep has notes of pine, prunes, roasted almond, malt, toast, honey, and (thanks to Eastkyteaguy’s review) orange zest. There’s a fuzzy, not unpleasant astringency. I also get a hint of green grapes as I’ve done in a lot of Ceylon black teas. The second steep has softer notes of roasted almonds, honey, toast, malt, wood, and tobacco, along with a coppery aftertaste. The third steep is much weaker, with notes of malt, tannin, wood, and minerals.

This is a pleasant, complex black tea that’s still a lot more mainstream than Teakruthi’s other black tea offerings. I think it would be a good starting point for exploring Ceylon black tea.

I’ve been super busy lately and haven’t had as much time as I’d like to do gongfu tea reviews, though I’ve had plenty of lazy gongfu sessions to sip down old teas. Western steeping seems to be a good compromise. Thanks to Teakruthi for the sample, and sorry for taking so long to get this review posted! I steeped around 4.5 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 190F for 4.5, 6, and 10 minutes.

Wow! These white tea leaves are huge! I’m a bit concerned that I didn’t get a proper balance between the white and black teas in the blend because the black tea collects at the bottom of the bag, but we’ll see. The first steep is a smooth combination of malt, honey, flowers, grass, and autumn leaf pile. There’s a lot of sweetness from the white tea and not much astringency from the black. The second steep is grassier, but still smooth and sweet; the flavour falls off in the third.

This tea lives up to its name and harmonizes the white and black teas nicely. I found it to be a pleasant evening cup and agree with Roswell Strange on the rating.

I was thinking about Harney’s cinnamon tea when I picked this one, so I was surprised by how mild this is. The black tea is very nice with no bitterness, and the cinnamon is rather muted. This is one you wouldn’t want milk with because it would overwhelm the flavors. It’s definitely not a spicy chai. It’s just a mild black tea with light cinnamon. Not bad.

Gongfu Sipdown (887)!

Is it weird to finish off a Ceylon black tea Gongfu style? Yeah, probably. Do I care though? Not really – it tasted good, and that’s really all I care about…

I sipped on this one after work, while enjoying some fresh raspberries, earlier in the week. I was having trouble finding fresh raspberries last week when I was craving them, so now that I had found them I simply could NOT resist having some with tea. There wasn’t a ton of longevity to this session; after three infusions the leaves were tapped out and I also was brewing for longer time increments than I do in a typical session. However, the flavour was excellent – malty and full bodied, with baked bread and raisin notes. As well as a thick mouthfeel with a playful amount of tannin.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BCg6NAcH7/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YzFeP6iCXk

Had a regular Western style mug of this one yesterday morning, just hot and straight. It’s really nice and makes for a very good mug of “classic” tasting black tea. Quite malty and coppery, with a nutty note that strongly reminds me of walnuts. Light, pleasant astringency on the back of the teeth. Would be good with honey, but I appreciate it a lot for what it is on its own!

Finally gave this tea a go – it was the last of my batch of free samples from teakruthi that I’d yet to try out. I made it up as a larger Western style of mug to drink while just lounging around and catching up on some comics so it wasn’t something I was giving my undivided attention to. More of just a casual cup.

I liked the flavour a fair amount – lightly sweet and nutty but mostly just a little bit malty. However, as nice as the taste was I found it a bit boring overall and really simple/lacking nuance. It was also just a smidge flat/weak. The thing I was craving most of all from the profile by the time I’d finished the mug was just more body in general – that would have gone a long way. I could probably at least partially achieve that through longer steep time or maybe just more leaf in general. I’ll have enough left for some more experimentation if I remember though…

Additional notes: If you’re looking for a fruity Gunpowder, this is THE ONE. It is the ultimate fruity green tea. A great mix of fruits. I bought some more a couple months ago because I loved my sample so much. I’d say this batch looks like it has slightly less fruit pieces than my previous sample, but it’s still plenty fruit flavored. So so good for hot days. The second steep is also amazing. Probably a third would be too.

Edited to add: A third half cup steep was still plenty fruity+delicious. I probably could have done a full mug and it would have been fine and full. SUCH a good tea.

Thanks again for the samples, Teakruthi!   The fruit here almost looks fresh in the blend — and so many great fruits here – strawberry, pineapple, mango and peach!  Wow.  I can’t ask for a better combination than that.  There even seems to be more fruit than green tea, but the fruit is so very tasty.  Since Gunpowder Green is stronger, the lesser amount of green tea to the fruit balances it out anyway. The flavor is fantastic — creamy yet full of fruit, with that amazing hint of fresh green tea.  And it is quite the tightrope walk balance of tasty fruit to green tea flavors.  This is a must-try blend — I’ve tried plenty of fruit green teas in my time, but this one is unique.  You will know it when you you’re parceling out some leaves in the teaspoon.   I will definitely be ordering this one.  I could drink it by the gallon. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 35 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep  

Brewed at quite a low temperature to make sure I wouldn’t get bitterness, but then the fruity flavor didn’t infuse too intensely. The main flavor is the gentle green tea. There’s a little bit of what seems like pineapple in the background. It needed extra sugar because I’m not too huge a fan of green tea flavor. But I’m sure this would be great for someone who is who wants just a hint of fruitiness. The more I drank it, the more I ended up enjoying the freshness of the brew.

Thanks so much for the samples, Teakruthi!  This chai is intriguing, as it focuses mostly on cardamom.  I’ve never seen a chai blend with only cardamom and really, there aren’t many teas with cardamom at all.  There are plenty of cardamom pods here, cut in half, with the lovely Ceylon black tea base.   The Ceylon is medium bodied and lets the flavor of the cardamom be prominent while itself being sweet and smooth.  The fragrance and flavor of cardamom is definitely present and strong. The second steep, just as much cardamom to the flavor. It’s very calming, sweet, creamy, mellow.  It’s a nice change for the taste buds once in a while, instead of the “all the spices” sort of chai all the time.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled  // 3 minute steep

Not the boldest earl grey I’ve had, but it’s flavorful enough that you can enjoy it without milk. I liked the addition of the delicious vanilla because it adds some complexity that sets it apart from other EGs. I finished my sample in no time at all. It’s heavier on the creamy vanilla than on the bergamot, but I didn’t mind.

Gongfu Sipdown (806)!

I decided to finish off the last of this sample Gongfu since I had a pretty solid experience with it that first time I brewed it this way. I can’t recall how long my previous session was, but this one was pretty short. Short and sweet, though! Four pleasant steeps, more of a malty and creamy profile with sweet woody undertones and bits of red fruit and creamed honey. Smooth, round mouthfeel.

A coworker also surprised the tea lab with croissants, so I got to enjoy part of this session with a super buttery, flaky croissant which was just to die for (and very complimentary)!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7q7O-Ng1ej/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDXOzr0GoA4

Gongfu!

Thank you very much to teakruthi for providing this sample! I decided to try it Gongfu as that’s how I would normally prepare any silver needle/bud style white tea for myself. It was a solid session, but I do feel I’d have gotten a stronger impression of the overall flavours present were I just drinking it Western style, so I will keep that in mind for when I revisit this tea.

Here’s my write up from instagram:

Gongfu at work this morning; complete with kiwi berries to snack on! Sipped away at one of the samples provided by teakruthi – Ceylon Gold. Full bodied and dark for a bud composed white tea – notes of malt, buckwheat honey, watered down molasses, and cocobolo. The fruit didn’t really work with the tea, so I just brewed out the leaf and then ate my morning snack instead of having them together…

I actually brewed out this tea during the session – ok like for this style; around eight or nine ok steeps, and one pretty crappy one right at the end, which is when I decided to call the session.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3pyEmHg70-/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znnm744Tiwc

Sipdown (226)

I made this as both plain and a latte because it is pouring rain in London (or it was) and chai just seemed like the right fit.

The plain cup has a nice cinnamon flavor. Smooth and a bit woody. I like this type of cinnamon because to me it is more natural/high quality vs. the cinnamon used by other tea companies that tends to be overly sweet or tastes like red hots.

The latte was a bit thin but in fairness I steeped the tea and then forgot to set a timer so it could have been understeeped. However it was creamy and had a hint of cinnamon that served its purpose and made for a warming cuppa on a rainy day.

This is fine. It’s a black tea. Mild. It’s got nothing particularly notable. Like I am literally trying to take notes and for the life of me, nothing stands out. It’s a touch malty. Slightly brisk. Like I said, it’s fine.

The first sampler from Teakruthi that I’ve tried and reviewed. It’s simple – black tea with dried ginger and peaches.

Dry, it smells of juicy sweet concentrated (but not artificial) peaches and honeyed ginger. The brown sugar and baked bread aromas make the honeyed ginger smell just like sticky dark ginger cake loaf.

Wet, the aroma is much more fiery and spicy from the ginger with a touch of earthiness and cinnamon. The ginger cake has morphed into sticky toffee pudding. I’m drooling just writing this tasting note although it’s been days since I actually drank this.

The flavour isn’t quite as good as the aroma – the ginger is very strong. I can handle it because it tastes closer to fresh ginger than dried ginger. It sticks in your throat. Once acclimatised to the ginger, I found the tea to be quite mellow and light-bodied with sweet and fruity notes.

The texture is thick and syrupy.

If I finish this sample before the end of Autumn I will definitely restock. I’m pulling out some of the dried ginger pieces when I brew it again so there’s a little less fire.

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/teakruthi-two-seasons-tea-review/

Sipdown (280)

Sil came by to do a quick tea exchange (I.e. I put her teas outside my front door and she picked them up and left teas for me in their place…boo covid for no face to face contact). Before she arrived, I was trying to add things to her bag that she may not have had before. I also think I ate too heavy a lunch so I was a touch nauseous so taking one last cup of this mint tea and passing in the rest of the sample from teakruthi seemed like a two birds, one stone thing.

I didn’t quite get around to drinking this until later though. This has since cooled and the nausea already subsided so I’m drinking cool minty tea. It’s nice. It’s refreshing. It’s not overly special though so while I’ve enjoyed it, I’m also content saying goodbye.

My review from their website: As far as mint teas go, this is top notch. It smells so strongly of spearmint in the leaf that I was surprised when I drank the tea just how much the tea flavor comes through. Mint and tea are both distinct and yet balanced and harmonious. This can be a bit sharp for some which makes the tea come off a little metallic at first but if you get past the initial strength of both the mint and tea, it is really quite smooth and relaxing.

Thank you for sharing teakruthi

Thanks very much to teakruthi for sending such a generous number of samples! I was drawn to this one first, and it was pretty delicious! The tea tastes high quality. It’s flavorful, not at all bitter. The lemon doesn’t overpower it at all. It’s just a tasty hint. The resteep tastes only of the black tea, but it’s still good. I don’t drink teas with this much caffeine often, and I could really feel it when I finished my cup, so this could be a good morning brew for those who are looking for that kind of thing.