Yumchaa

Tried this with milk last night, and I was pretty impressed. It’s rather like drinking raspberry milkshake, but warm. Creamy and pleasing.

That’s all I really remember, as I didn’t finish the cup in the end. Some stomach bug I picked up at work expressed itself, and I spent the rest of the night feeling awful and being sick. Not a good evening.

Nice tea, though. Shame it was so rudely interrupted.

The second of today’s Yumchaa reds, and a relatively simple taste profile this time. Just raspberry, vanilla, and rose petals. Dry, the scent is much as you’d expect. A slight brassiness from the rooibos, a whole lot of raspberry, and a creamy sweetness from the vanilla. There are a fair few rose petals in the mix, but they’re not contributing much at this stage.

This actually brews pretty quickly to a deep red-brown liquor, so I immediately considered adding milk. I’m resisting that impulse for the minute, though, as I’d like to know what it tastes like au naturel before I start on any additions. The scent, as with the dry leaf, is creamy raspberry, with a tinge of rooibos round the edges. Flavour seems to be the central thing with these teas, and I’m glad about that.

The scent does nothing to prepare you for the taste, though. This is pure, strong raspberry from the very first sip. Initially, it’s just very fruity, but the creamy sweetness of the vanilla creeps in afterwards to give this a smooth, thick taste that belies its appearance. It’s definetly one I’ll try with milk at some point. Another winner from Yumchaa!

I’m going to call this a sipdown. I’ve got one cup’s worth left, but I’ll drink that this evening as my bedtime rooibos. Given that I’ve almost finished a full 2 litres of SBT neapolitain ice cream today, I doubt I’ll be in the mood for the honeybush version tonight. That would be overkill. Or maybe just really nice, depending on your perspective. Variety is supposed to be the spice of life, anyway.

This has been a pleasant berry rooibos. I’m over it now, as I usually am by the time I finish a 100g bag. It’s been great knowing it, though, and I might revisit in the (distant) future. It’s bound to be distant, given the number of teas in my cupboard at the moment, isn’t it? Anyway, a fond farewell to this one.

I couldn’t remember whether I’d logged this as a cold brew, but it looks like I haven’t. I’ve had a pitcher of this in the fridge ever since I had my first success cold brewing Yumchaa Lemon Sherbet. That made me keen to try some of my other rooibos teas cold, and this was the one I chose. I’ve been kind of addicted to it ever since, because the berry flavouring comes out so, so well when this is cold brewed. It’s far stronger and far more clear than when it’s hot, and the rooibos doesn’t become overpowering. I had feared it might, but if anything, it seems to fade into the background more in the face of the berry flavouring. It also develops a creamy, delicately floral flavour that really isn’t there when hot. A hugely enjoyable cold brew, and one I’m certain to turn to time and again this summer.

Haven’t had one of these in a while, so I made up a cup with milk last night. Really, really enjoyable — more so than I remembered, actually. I’m not sure whether I’ve tried it with milk before, but the berry flavours were clear and strong, complemented by the smooth creaminess added by the milk. The woodsyness of the rooibos was all but absent. This is one I’ll be adding to my evening rotation. I must remember to try it as a latte as well.

On to the reds now, of which I’ve three still untried. Berry Berry Nice is the first, and the scent certainly matches the name. This isn’t the same kind of rooibos as lemon sherbet, I don’t think. The dry leaves are shorter, wider, and more brown in colour. This is a mix that’s packed with additions, though. Pieces of berry abound — blueberry, blackberry and strawberry are all in evidence, as are pieces of kiwi, and they’re making the rooibos delightfully sticky. I can also see rose petals and pieces of vanilla pod. It’s interesting to look at, to say the least! The scent at the moment is a sort of generic “berry”, but I’m not smelling the typically woody rooibos, which is another point in its favour.

Brewed, this is another really fragrant tea. Yumchaa do that well, I think. I can smell a slight earthiness from the rooibos, but it’s more or less overpowered by the scent of strawberry, kiwi and rhubarb, which are the three ingredients I can pick out most clearly. To taste, the rooibos is fractionally more dominant in the initial sip, but the fruit certainly makes its prescence known. There’s a slightly floral note from the rose petals, and a sweetness from the vanilla, and then again a powerful berry flavour. The flavours of the fruit come out particularly well in the aftertaste, more so as it cools, but it’s mostly strawberry, rhubarb and kiwi I can taste. The blueberry and blackberry seem a bit lost, and I’m not really able to identify them at all.

This is pretty nice for a rooibos, certainly one of the nicest I’ve tried so far this year. Given that its berry flavour develops more and more as it cools, I’m definetly going to try this as a cold brew at some point. I’ll also try it with milk, just to see what effect that has, but I’m pretty happy with this. Definetly a hit!

Sipdown! I haven’t tried any new teas in a couple of days, because I’ve got a really heavy cold. I’m mostly drinking lempsip, but it’s the perfect excuse to finish up a couple of teas that have been in my cupboard for a while. I’ve tasted this one so many times before, I can remember what it’s supposed to be like even if I can’t taste it all that well at the moment. A fond farewell to this one — it’s been nice.

This is the other one in my desk drawer at the moment. Until fairly recently, I wasn’t a huge fan of green tea. This was one of the ones that helped to change that. I’m trying to run down my stash of Yumchaa teas a little bit, which is why I’m drinking this and Raspberry Vanilla pretty intensively at work atm. I like the sweet, creamy, rhubarb flavour this one has. It’s actually making me want to sample Bluebird’s Rhubarb and Custard, just to compare, but it’s not like I need to buy any more tea just at the moment. If anything could make me think of unicorns wandering through a magic forest on a work day, it would be this tea. I don’t know why it makes me think like that. Possibly because I’m so tired I’m almost hallucinating? It’s a pleasant thought, anyway, and now I’m going to stop rambling. This is a great flavoured green tea, one of the best I’ve tried. That’s really all there is to it.

One of the things I like most about Yumchaa is that the bases vary from tea to tea. I sort of assumed all of their green teas would use the same base, but they obviously don’t. I think they used to say they were all sencha, but they’re just identified as ‘green tea’ now, so I guess they must have changed that at some point. Saying that, though, I think this one actually is sencha, so that was a pretty misplaced perception.

Anyway, the leaves in this one are quite broad and thick, and look like they’ve been rolled. They’re all fairly long, but they’re relatively flat too. The scent is mildly fruity. I’m getting blackberry and rhubarb mostly. There are a lot of peony petals among the leaves, so I was expecting it to be quite floral in fragrance, but it’s not at this point.

Brewed, this one smells gorgeously sweet and fruity. It’s actually reminding me of a rhubarb and custard sweet, which came as a complete surprise. When I saw the thick, dark green leaves I was expecting a strong and bitter green tea taste, and not much else. This has come off surprisingly delicate, though.

The taste is similarly surprising. The green tea isn’t strong or bitter, and, as with Wanderlust, it remains resolutely in the background. What I can taste is fruit. Rhubarb and blueberry, primarily, with a very creamy-tasting finish. I never really expect a lot from green tea. That’s my one inexplicable tea prejudice. This tea is going a long way towards changing that, though, as it’s actually left me pretty speechless. It’s absolutely, geuninely lovely. Sweet, fragrant, fruity, perfect. Anything that can get me to drink green tea with a smile on my face must be some kind of enchanted. Yumchaa are rising quickly in my estimation.

I somehow managed to ruin the cup of this I made earlier. It went all bitter and smoky on me. I think maybe the water was too hot when I added the leaves, or maybe they were in there for a bit too long. Fancy work getting in the way of tea! I’ll have to try again later when reception has calmed down a bit.

Back to this tea. I’ve neglected it a bit of late, but it seemed like just the thing this morning. As ever, it’s a lovely tea. It’s quite delicate in terms of flavour, but I definetly get apple and cinamon, and the green tea base is smooth and only very lightly grassy. Next to chai, I actually find this a very comforting tea. I suppose apple pie reminds me of home cooking and winter, and that’s what this tea smells and tastes like. Warm apple pie. Yum!

I feel like a green tea this morning, which is something that doesn’t happen all that often. There are a couple of Yumchaa greens untried in my stash, so now is probably as good a time as any to make a start on them.

First up in Wanderlust. I think it just might be the kind of apple pie flavoured green tea I’ve been searching for all my life. Or since I started drinking tea, anyway. The dry leaves are long and wiry, and vary in colour from a pretty dark green-black, all the way to a pale creamy green. Most of them are on the darker side, though. Among the leaves are pieces of apple, almond, and what looks to be cinnamon bark. It smells subtly of apple and cinnamon.

Brewed, it smells even more like apple pie. Apple pie that’s just come out of the oven. There’s an immediate kick of cinnamon, and then the warm, slightly sour scent of apples. To taste, it’s much the same. Cinnamon first, and then a naturally sweet, rounded apple finish. The green tea remains resolutely in the background, and it’s smooth and perfect. Not bitter, not astringent, just supporting the flavours of the apple and cinnamon while being pretty unassuming itself. I think the almond and vanilla that are supposed to be in here are a bit lost. I can’t really detect either of them all that much. I’m not complaining, though. Any tea that tastes as much like apple pie as this one does is all right with me.

sipdown!

Decided to try this one and compare it to the lime chiffon. Overall, i think this one is better than lemon chiffon from della terra, but on the whole, the lime chiffon is just a little better in my opinion.

mmm thank you Scheherazade for a swap of this one! I really wanted to compare this to lemon chiffon from della terra and now i have. This is like a slightly different variation of lemon chiffon from della. While the della terra one is just a bit creamier than this version, this one has just an extra splash of LEMON! to really make it pop! I think i like this version just a little better than the lemon chiffon though, because of the extra lemon. I really like the way it kinda of zings a bit more :)

Thank you again Scheherazade for this one!

Had another go with this, as I couldn’t stop thinking about where I might have gone wrong. I let the water cool a little, left the bag in for 2.5 minutes, used a little bit less leaf, and made sure there were some fruit pieces in my infuser. I also left it black.

I’m still not keen, the problem being that this time it doesn’t taste of anything at all. I don’t understand this tea, at the moment.

Tried this for the first time today. I generally like black teas flavoured with red fruit, but finding one with a good flavour balance can be difficult. In the bag, this one smells just as I want it to. Blackberry and raspberry predominate, and I can actually see one or two whole fruits among the leaves. The base of this one is actually identified on my bag as a keemun, but it seems to have been cut fairly liberally with raspberry leaves. The effect is pretty, but I guess I’m kind of wondering why they’re so predominant. Surely they’re not going to add much in the way of flavour?

Anyway, on to the tasting. I brewed this for about 3.5 minutes in boiling water. Yumchaa don’t really give much in the way of brewing parameters, so I know it’s going to be trial and error until I find what works best. At first, this has no discernable smell, but after about three minutes it develops quite a strong smoky scent.

The smokiness doesn’t translate to the flavour too much, although I can taste it. On the other hand, I can’t taste much in the way of berries. Maybe very slightly in the aftertaste, but that’s all. Obviously I’m going to have to work on how I brew this a little, because what I’ve got at the moment can’t be this tea at its best. The smokiness confused me at first, although after a quick google, I established that keemun teas can taste smoky and bitter, depending how they are processed. I know the taste isn’t contamination, as I haven’t had any smoky tea in my cupboard since I bought this. Smoky tea really isn’t my thing. Where is the fruit, though? It’s so odd, because it smells just fine dry, and I want it to taste like that too!

Not sure about this one at the moment. I might try it black, and adjust my leaf and time/temp parameters to see if any of that helps. The name is pretty accurate, though. It tastes like a walk in the woods in early autumn, when there’s the scent of woodsmoke on the breeze…

Fiiiinally working through my collection! The more teas I drink, the closer I get to buying some on my shopping list and opening ones I’ve already bought! My mouth is watering just thinking about the Jardin Bleu I have in storage, but first, let’s get through all these teas I’ve amassed over the months!

Last year I placed an order with Yumchaa for their Wanderlust but there was a delay in posting the tea, so to apologise, they sent me a bag of this tea, as well. I’m not much of a fan of rooibos with spices but the fruit and almonds included really piqued my curiosity – and hey, it was free, so why not?

This is my last serving, and in the effort to empty out the bag entirely, I may have brewed it a little stronger than I would normally for rooibos. First off; the aroma is POWERFULLY fruity. Strong citrus, probably helped along by another of the spices, but the scent is so juicy I feel like I could be approaching a fruit tea! And certainly the apple and kiwi come out very strongly in this one; the spices and almonds kind of round off the flavour, but the fruit are definitely the star of this tea. Not much going on in terms of spicy mouthfeel, but I’m glad for that.

What an excellently fruity tea, in any case. Thank you for this adventurous experience, Yumchaa! :D

I just finished the small tin I brought to the office of this rooibos blend and had it for a few days in the late afternoon.
I’m downgrading its rating, as I realize each time I drink it, I feel that I like it less than the previous. There’s definitely a flavor in there(I’d assume rose hips) that I do not like and find both too strong and almost unpleasant.
I assume it will be difficult for me to finish the bag.

It’s the second or third time I brew this and I’m not that impressed.
The dry tea looks lovely with the dried apple pieces, the almond pieces (I thought those were hazelnuts), some bark of rose hips. The spices include cinnamon and others, as of now unidentified.
The taste is rather pleasant, though I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon or spices in drinks. The almond flavor makes for a strong basis, but there’s a sour tanginess which strikes me at first, with the spices, that I’m not so fond of.
A very good quality rooibos that I most probably will never rebuy as it does not really correspond to my tastes. It’s definitely not an auto-pick from the cupboard, as there are so many others that I almost hear screaming my name and see jumping in their bags waiting for the teapot.

I’ve been experimenting a bit trying to find the exact right way to prepare this flora tea.
Hot, it’s good and fruity but nothing really stands out. While iced, wow this makes for an incredible drink. The great thing is that it can be brewed with cold water and quite quickly; after about 10-15 mn, it was already really fragrant enough.
Thing is the dosage also has to be right. I first used a bit too much of the dried fruits and the brew was really sweet, almost like if I had put some berry sirup into iced water. And the taste was even a bit too strong on the berry, as if "I had put too much sirup for the amount of water, dixit Hubby who usually likes his drink much more heavy on the flavors and sugar than I do.
It’s really perfect for the summertime, very cooling, very natural tasting. It could easily replace grenadine sirup, according to my hubby who wondered why more people were not replacing heavily ladden with sugar drinks with this one.
Last thing, the hot and humid climate is not really great for this tea, which I have to store in my fridge. Lots of moisture went into the berries and I’ll have to finish it soon, which should be very easy.

Sipdown! Drinking my last cup of this at work right now. It’s a lovely, almost sharply citrus rooibos, but I think I’ve had my fill of it for the time being. I have a couple of other lemon rooibos blends in my stash, so it’ll be interesting to see how they compare. I somehow doubt they’ll be able to beat this one for lemoniness, though. It’s been great both hot and cold.

Added a pitcher of this to the fridge last night to cold brew. I took the tea out this morning, but I’ve yet to try it. I will when I get home from work, if my parents haven’t raided it first. I’m hoping that the lemon flavour will come trhough still, as it does when hot. If I’ve just got a jug of rooibos, I’ll be disappointed! I have high hopes, though — I could smell lemon when I gave it a tentative sniff this morning! We’ll see!

Managed to snag a glass of this in the end. I’m glad, because it’s actually really nice. I actually think the lemon comes out more clearly cold than it does hot, although the rooibos is a farily prominent taste also. There’s maybe something very slightly medicinal in the background too, but it’s tolerable.

The main flavour is unmistakably lemon, at any rate, and it tastes much more like it smells dry this way. I’m still awed at how clearly the lemon comes through. It’s tangy, very slightly sour — amazing! This is one I’ll definetly cold brew again in the weeks ahead, and it’s inspired me to try a few of my other Yumchaa rooibos blends cold also. A worthwhile experiment!

There’s rooibos and rooibos, as I’m starting to find out. This is completely different in appearance from other rooibos blends I’ve tried. The leaves, if I can call them that, are very thin, long, and pointy looking. They’re also more of an orange-red than a red-brown. And I rather like them. I’ve finally put my finger on what it is I don’t usually like about rooibos. To me, it tastes like blood. Almost metallic, or iron-like. I say usually, though, because there isn’t so much of that here. I can detect a faint trace of it in the background, but, actually, I wouldn’t know I was drinking rooibos straightaway. It’s there in the background, but it somehow seems more mellow and less dominant than it has in most of the other rooibos-based teas I’ve tried recently. Good news.

So. Another thing I like about this tea is that it actually does smell like a sherbet lemom. There’s a nice lemon-citrus kick to the dry leaves, sizeable chunks of lemon peel, and a slight stickiness that reminds me immediately of a boiled sweet. Thankfully, this carries through pretty well to the brewed tea. It’s not quite as strong as the scent, but it’s pretty good. More so when it’s hot. It’s very lemony then, both in smell and taste. The thing I feared most was that this would taste like lemsip, but it doesn’t. It’s more of a lemon sweet (a lemon sherbet!) kind of taste, and neither creamy nor medicinal. As it cools, I can taste the rooibos a bit more, but the earthiness is kind of pleasant with the openly zesty flavouring. Imagine how cool this would be with some popping candy added! Anyway, I enjoyed this hot, but I think it will really come alive as a cold-brew in the summer. Maybe with some added soda water or lemonade, because all this needs is to be a bit fizzy, and I’d have the whole lemon sherbet effect. Great stuff.