Yumchaa

Sorting through my stash last night, I came across a few bits and pieces that I thought were long finished, so today I’m going to have a remnants day, re-visit some old friends, and finally say goodbye to them. This is one of them. I was drinking it about this time last year, I think, so I’ve had a good long break from it.

I gave this four minutes in boiling water, added a small piece of crystal sugar and a splash of milk, and remembered to STIR WELL! If you don’t, the chocolate and fudge pieces don’t melt, and the full flavour just won’t be there.

This is better than I remember, actually. That kind of surprise is always nice! I think maybe I’d just got a bit fed up of it, so it’s nice to revisit with a fresh palate. The fudge pieces add a lovely, buttery richness, and the white chocolate a smooth, delicate sweetness. I can taste both over the black tea, which is malty with absolutely no astringency. Possibly the sugar I added helped to amplify the chocolate and fudge flavours a little, but I am getting “caramel” as an overarching flavour.

Trying this again has actually made me want to place another Yumchaa order. I’m going to see if I can hold out until the weekend, though. I’m sad there’s no more of this in my cupboard. It’s a definite winner!

Sipdown! Drinking my last cup of this as we start with today’s onslaught of coursework. This’ll be nothing compared tomorrow, so I’m trying to enjoy things while I can. I probably won’t buy this one again — I’d really have liked the caramel to be a more dominant flavou. Sometimes I can taste it, but it does like to hide in the background more often than not. A plesant tea, though, that I’m glad to have tried!

I always enjoy this one, as long as I’m patient and leave it long enough for the caramel and white chocolate pieces to melt. And then give it a decent stir. It wasn’t my favourite at first, but it’s growing on me as I learn better how to brew it. A surprise contender for a permenant place in my stash.

Tried this again. More leaf (nearly two teaspoons), longer brew time (closer to 5 minutes), and I made sure to stir it well both while brewing and after. I also added a piece of crystal sugar. I was rewarded with a much clearer caramel taste, rich and creamy. Definetly worth the effort!

I’ve just sent some of this out in a swap, so I figured now was as good a time as any to get my act together and write a tasting note. Scent wise, this is fairly subtle in the bag. I can smell the black tea base and a sweet, caramel note, but that’s all. It’s a pretty tea, with relatively large, wiry black-brown leaves, scattered throughout with white chocolate hearts and caramel cubes.

Brewed, the caramel scent comes out much more clearly. It smells almost like fudge. The black base is pretty light — I don’t recognise it explicitly as a keemun, but it isn’t identified outright as such on my bag. I added a little milk, because that’s how I roll.

This is nice, but I think the nicest thing about it is the scent. It doesn’t quite carry through to the taste. It’s hardly unpleasant, I just wish it was a bit stronger. There’s a sweet, creamy taste, which I think is at least partly the melted white chocolate, but it’s just not quite caramel. Almost, but not quite. Maybe a beefier base would have helped? I’m not sure. I might try this black next time, use a bit more leaf, or leave it to steep for a little longer to see if any of those help.

I don’t dislike this, but it doesn’t quite live up to its scent or my expectations at the moment. There’s a little more experimentation to be done before I cast my final decision, though, so I’m not going to rate it for now. I’ll happily drink the rest of the bag, but I so wish it tasted more like it smells. I guess I’ll have to see what can be done about that!

Sipdown! Drank the last five cups worth of this today at work, with a little honey added. It’s pretty good stuff, but I could do with a break from it now! I guess it might make a reappearance in my stash in the summer, but I’m content for it to be a memory for now :)

Okay, so it’s actually been appreciably warm today, so after a walk to the supermarket to get my lunch ingredients for next week, I came home and made a big pitcher of this. I think it’s the first time I’ve been able to use my iced tea jug this year, just when I was beginning to think winter wasn’t going to end!

I used 4 tablespoons worth, and was rewarded with a lovely, strong, fruity result. I can’t decide whether I prefer this cold, or hot with honey. Both are equally nice, but cold is a better fit for today’s weather. I don’t actually have all that much of this left, maybe enough for another pitcher. It’s one I probably won’t be buying again, as there’s something in the flavour that doesn’t appeal to me. I still can’t put my finger on exactly what it is, but I find it puts me off what is otherwise a very pleasant fruit tea. In spite of the hibiscus, as well!

Still, this is going down well this afternoon, and that’s all I’m asking for the minute :)

I finally remembered to buy a new jar of honey this morning, so I’ve been drinking it with this for most of the day. I wasn’t over-keen on this when I tried it alone, but the honey works really well with it. The strawberry and raspberry come through in the flavour a bit more, whereas I felt they were kind of lost before. The honey also adds a really nice smoothness, which is very welcome considering how much my throat hurts at the moment. If I’m going to drink this tea hot, this is how I want it to be!

We’ve had a nice, verging on spring-like, couple of days this week, so I decided yesterday morning was as good a time as any for my first iced tea of the year. I say iced, but since I was at work, I didn’t have access to any actual ice. Instead, I did the best I could with our chilled water tap (which really is very cold), and pleanty of patience.

I tried this hot a few days ago, and wasn’t really struck on the flavours. It was a lot sweeter than I was expecting, and not as fruity as the scent led me to imagine. Cold, we get along much better. The darker fruit flavours come through more clearly — hello blackcurrant and elderberry! — and the sweetness, while still there, is complementary rather than overpowering. Yumchaa say this is for icing, and they’re right. I can only imagine this’ll be even better when I have some actual ice, but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.

Okay, so I have a lot of backlogging to do today. May as well start with this one!

The first thing I want to say about this tea is that it smells amazing. Like, really amazing. It’s exceptionally fruity. I think I’d say the blackcurrant, strawberry and raspberry are the dominant notes, but it also contains hibiscus, elderberry, papaya and raisin. The fruit pieces are generously sized, probably on a par with Adagio or maybe a touch larger. The colours are amazing and almost jewel like — blood red, burgandy, aubergine, and orange, with the rippled creamy-red hibiscus flowers standing out among them.

In practice, though, it doesn’t actually taste quite as I expected. It’s a lot sweeter than the ingerdients made me think it would be, and the initial sip is almost too sweet — a bit like artificial sweetner. This develops into the taste I’m usually expecting when I drink fruit tea. A slight tartness, a tangy edge of almost-bitterness, and a drying sensation on the palate. The aftertaste offers a hint of pepperiness, I’m assuming from the papaya.

The more I drink this, the more I like it. I wasn’t at all sure at first, with it being so sweet, but it’s actually quite pleasant. More so as it cools. It’s more complex in flavour than any fruit tea I’ve had before, that’s for sure. It doesn’t beat my favourite — Teapigs Superfruit — for now, but it’s a pretty good contender. Definetly one for icing in the summer!

The bag is very loosely filled, with 50 g of tea taking more place than any black blend I’ve had. However this probably prevents the leaves from being crushed, as they are rather big.
Mixed with the white tea, are some chamomile flowers (the whole full and still yellow flower bud), as well as lavender flowers petals (if this is indeed considered a petal, no stem included anyway).
The brew is very light, almost colorless.
Its smell is flowery, without being sweltering, and mixes different flower flavors.
The tea tastes very delicate, though not bland.
The first two teapots I did were too strong on chamomile, as I felt it covered all the other flavors. I’ve been careful to put back a few flowers in the bag for my last brew and the balance was perfect, the flowers bringing flavors to the tea without turning it into “just another” herbal tea.
A very pleasant drinking experience, rather relaxing indeed as a result from the soft flowery flavors.

I so wanted to love this tea. When reading the description, I thought it would be perfect and get to be one of my favorites. Let’s just say that I had very very high expectations for this blend.
Unfortunately I’m a bit disappointed, as I feel that this tea does not deliver all expected (though maybe unrealistic) promises. It’s nice, but no out of the world experience when drinking it.
The tea base is very nice, neither too weak not too strong and with no bitterness, even when the tea is forgotten steeping. The flavors are very pleasant and very natural tasting but not as strong as I expected. I honestly do not manage to recognize any of them and I’ve had this tea more than 20 times already.
This tea does not allow much resteeping, as it soon provide only a weak brew.
I will probably not go out of my way to rebuy this, though I’ll enjoy drinking it and might consider buying again much later if there are no better options for fruity-peachy tea or as an add-on to a rooibos order.
IMO this tea is good but not as deliciously flavored as Yumchaa’s rooibos.

Another great tea and one of the five samples cteresa sent me in a swap. She included this tea for comparison to the Place Saint Marc of Theodore. Great choice, thanks!

Whereas the Place Saint Marc smells heavenly, I was disappointed by the taste when brewed. While not bad, the taste just was significantly less good than what you would expect based on the smell. This tea is the exact opposite. The smell – although not bad – was not exactly loose-your-socks-heavenly. The taste however exceeded my expectations.

In short: it is a very well balanced tea.

I just reviewed the 4 fruits rouges from damman freres. This tea is remakably different from that tea. The 4 fruits rouges is very fruity. The red fruits dominate the tea. This tea is more complex. The black tea base is much more noticable. In addition the flavouring doesn’t consist of just fruits, but also of flowers. It makes for a more complex and full bodied taste than the 4 fruits rouges.

Don’t get me wrong however: both teas are lovely. They just have amazingly different characters.

This a sample I received from my dear cteresa.She wrote on the bag “stir it well !” so did I (sometimes I am very docile :) )

At the very first sip I was like …ohhh the tea taste is like a David’s tea…a special taste I always had in any David’s tea I tried.And I found it weak, very weak.

Disregarding this " tea signature", continuing sipping it, I definitively recognized a keemun and was more satisfied.
The caramel is really well balanced,and cocoa is present but really much on the background.

cteresa mentioned to add some milk, I’ll try this way next time.

A decent tea, but for a chocolaty & caramel tea I do really prefer Wedding Imperial, it has much more personality to my opinion.

Fridge storage will not be required, as I’ve already gulped about half of the bag in less than 1 month – bringing it to the office and drinking it every late afternoon certainly helps.
However it’s not only convenience that makes me pick it up (and refill the box without even thinking of bringing another one); it’s also the fact that I feel like smiling each time I smell the dry leaves and the tea brewing, and really enjoy drinking it too.
I’m increasing my rating on this one;)
I’ll also rebuy it for sure.

This Yumchaa blend is once again far from subtle. If you don’t like Lemon, lemon, lemon, this will not be for you.
The smell of the dry leaves is amazing. The brew is delightfully refreshing. And the taste is exactly what I remember from the sherbet “Citron givré” (frosted lemon in English, but I have no clue if this correspnds to the way it’s called in anglo-saxon countries) – a lemon sherbet served within a complete lemon bark. I loved this dessert when I was a kid and haven’t had any in years. So I really enjoy being reminded of this each time I drink this.
I’ll have to finish it quick though, because there are some pieces of lemon inside the bag and I’m not sure the climate here will be friendly to those. Might even have to store it in the fridge.

After the Kusmi genmaicha disaster, I needed to drink something safe and strong flavored to cover all lingering unpleasantless both in my mouth, as well as in my apartment’s smell.
I decided then to open a new bag from my Yumchaa order.
FYI I ordered a few bags that I had delivered at my in-laws and collected there at Christmas. It was nicely wrapped in a thick enveloppe and the whole room was already sweetly fragrant even if the enveloppe had only been there for 2 days and had not been opened yet. My whole suitcase seemed to have the delighful smell when I opened it after arriving home. A much nicer experience than when I bring back cheese…
Putting this aside, I decided to try Cteresa’s favorite rooibos, the one that had motivated my initial order.
When opening the bag, I realized it was way less fragrant than the raspberry vanilla, that there were actual pieces of dried strawberries and other unidentified, as of now, fruits.
I was looking forward the tasting;) And this time I was not disappointed: the flavors blend harmoniously together. Strawberry and vanilla were the two most easy to identify flavors. But not the only ones definitely. I’ll keep looking but tonight, I just feel like enjoying my brew.
I love the remaining taste of fruits which last on my lips, much better than a gloss artificially flavored.
I can definitely see how this one could become an all-time favorite of mine.

Wow. Both when taking the pack off the cupboard and right after brewing, the raspberry smell is incredible.
When drinking it, I first noticed the delightful raspberry taste, nothing subtle about it; it was like I had been thrown in a raspberry bucket – if you’re not a big fan of this fruit, this blend might come as too strong for you.
What I really liked is that when the brew was getting more luke-warm than real hot, the vanilla flavor started to come alive, despite its being muted to my taste buds in the hot brew.
While drinking my second tea-pot (another evening), I realized the vanilla and rose flavors were there, right from the start, though almost muted by the overwhelming raspberry.
I then decided to try it iced, to see how it was coming. Amazingly the vanilla taste is now prominent, up to par with the raspberry, making the brew seems smooth and creamy.
I am not sure yet how I’ll feel about this flavored rooibos in a few weeks, as it’s possible I might have enough of it and prefer some more subtle blend. Or maybe not. Let’s see ;)

I am a Yumchaa fan since I accidentally found one of their market stalls a few years ago. In the meanwhile I have made my way through a lot of their teas – I might be on my 4th or 5th 100 gr pack of Berry Berry Nice for example! Some have been samples from friends or tried in their tea shops, and a few of the new ones I never had a chance yet but I have been trying as many of their teas as I could. This is one of their old tea blends which I left for last. A friend (obrigada!) brought this for me with my nth package of Berry Berry Nice all the way from London and oh it was a great seasonal choice. And a tip : those two packages together smell wonderfully. Unbelievably good. one of these days I will even try brewing them together. Might be a mess, but the scent is just too alluring to not try.

so Christmas and this chai, I picked this by accident because I am so into chai right now and I had never tried this one, but this is IMO a sort of perfect Christmas tea – the spices making it festive, the spearmint candy making it uncloying, and the Yumchaa nice sencha base underneath it all. A really really nice take on green tea with mint or green chai or christmas tea, however you would like to class it, it´s a good one!

this is a sample tea I just received from cteresa – thanks so much for this.

I love keemun teas, I love their mellowness. I never had a tea before with blueberry I think and was very excited about trying one.
Blueberry Hill is a good tea to begin with a blueberry tea.
I really had a high dose of blueberry and this is what I was looking for. In addition, I received as well a very floral note but in a second role.
I think this tea would fit perfectly with an English blueberry muffin on a greedy afternoon.
Now there is something missing for me especially for a keemun : no real mellowness, creaminess yes but no mellowness.

A beautiful tea.

Gave this a whirl when my girlfriend and I popped into Yumchaa Soho for tea the other day – neither of us had tried it before. Yumchaa have a tendency to put little tea in the one-person teapots so that it doesn’t oversteep, which usually works rather well, but on this occasion I think I might have preferred it a little stronger! The blueberry and gentle vanilla tastes are definitely there, and for once I was surprised that the fruit flavour overcame the floral notes— a little stronger would have been perfect, but as it is, it made for a sweet, well-rounded cup.

This is a great tea works iced and hot. not my fav but a close 4th. flavor was not strong or overwhelming.

This tea makes you soo long for cold weather. I love it I had to share it with my neighbor and she agrees. This tea is got the cinnamon kick and the great flavor. It is ok as an ice but best at 6 am for the wake up and get going tea. Almost makes you wish you could visit England weekly to get these teas.

I love this tea. My brother in law brought it home to me when he was sent to England for his Reserve duty. I had to reorder. It is the greatest iced tea. Dont need sugar and it does not have the pucker effect when made into ice cold tea.