Australian Tea Masters

So far I’ve found all of the teas from Australian Tea Masters that I picked up from World Tea Expo memorable in some way or another, but this one was kind of… mid?

I made a cup of it earlier today, but aside from an initial observation that the body of the black tea base was nice a brisk I don’t particularly recall much in terms of the flavour. There’s a lot of interesting ingredients in the blend and in particular I was really excited about the combination of cocoa and lime – but, dare I say it, this mug was very forgettable tasting.

I’m not writing it off though. I was in a kind of weird head space this morning and I found a few of my cups of tea kind of missed the mark, so I think this might be more of a me thing today. Future cups will tell.

Such an interesting tea…

This time around I had this blend hot and I think I liked it marginally better this way. It’s very, very tart and hibiscus forward with an almost syrupy red fruit note. This part of the tea I enjoy a lot. It’s punchy in a way that kind of makes me think of Kool-Aid or the aggressively red Hawaiian Fruit Punch from my childhood. But more tangy. However, the aftertaste really is kinda funky and marijuana-like. Also a bit tropical and like passionfruit?? Though, less of the funk as a hot tea than it was as a cold tea. I guess that’s the quangdong in it. Just overall not totally sure how I feel about this one.

Iced!

The Australian grown ingredient in this blend in quandong which is a fruit native to Southern Australia that I’m not super familiar with. They look fascinating, though! Like crabapple sized pomegranate from the outside, but then on the inside they have a giant pit like a peach that takes up most of the fruit. They’re supposed to taste light more sour, citrusy peaches – though also I’ve heard they can be earthy and salty too.

In this particular blend the strongest note was DEFINITELY the hibiscus – and by a landslide. That makes sense though since it was clearly used as the foundation from the blend. Aside from that, I got the same intense but enjoyable sweet strawberry note that I also experienced in Austalian Sunrise – and that makes sense since they both have “strawberry gum” as an ingredient. I feel like the citrusy/sour element of the quandong did come through in the top notes because this was especially pucker inducing, but I’m not sure peach would have been a flavour that would have sprung to mind for me without having done the ingredient research.

A negative to the blend was also the aftertaste which was kind of skunk-y and like marijuana smoke. I’m not actually sure where they came from unless it’s the “earthy” element of quandong I read about. It didn’t both me at first when it was quit light, but it was one of those flavours that almost seemed to pool in the back of the mouth over drinking a full mug and it just got to be a little much for me.

A simple and straight forward cup of tea, but by no stretch a bad one. It’s very light bodied and delicate with notes of honeycomb, freshly whipped cream, and oat straw that come together to create a profile just a smidge sweeter and more honey-forward in taste than a plain white tea would be. I’d obviously love a little more honey, but it’s still such a calm and relaxing profile that I think works well for quiet little moments.

One of the teas I nabbed at WTE that incorporates different Australian ingredients.

Though I love the idea of a white tea with honey (this one has manuka honey), I unfortunately thought this blend was a bit forgettable tasting. Not bad tasting by any means, but the white tea used was very middling to my palate. Just a bit sweet and a bit floral with a somewhat stronger body than I’d describe as typical of most white teas. Not particularly strong in the honey flavour department – but I see the intent. I think it was just missing a little bit of that special “spark” to me.

Another booth that I spent a fair amount of time at during WTE was the Australian Tea Master booth which was just packed with different things including tea based wine proxies, various books, and – of course – tea. What caught my attention was a sample pack of teas made using tea leaf grown in Australia as well as other Austalia native ingredients. So, obviously I picked that up…

This is the first I tried and I actually really, really enjoyed it. The green tea was smooth with a gentle grassiness that made for a good blending foundation for a very sweet, juicy fresh strawberry note and a hint of fresh zesty lime. Quite lively and summery with a lot of flavour without being very sweet. As someone who’s had a lot of strawberry green teas, this one really stands out to me.