ETTE TEA

This is the tea that got me interested in Ette tea in the first place! The idea of mango and genmaicha is definitely very, very appealing. Really, any genmaicha with a twist gets me excited – it’s the first variety of green tea I ever really liked, and I’m still incredibly partial to it.

Dry, this is very roasty smelling with a distinct, and very fresh coconut aroma. I’m not getting much of the mango yet, but I can see several chunks of it in the dry leaf so I have faith that it’ll shop up in the flavor. For my preparation, I did a very quick 1 minute steep Western style in boiling hot water; I find that’s long enough to draw out the flavour, especially the roastier notes of a good Genmaicha, but not long enough for the brew to get bitter.

This method has worked well here; this has a very strong toasted rice flavor with absolutely no bitterness. It’s also accented by a lovely, clear toasted coconut flavour that pairs phenomenally with the rice and subtle vegetalness of the green tea. There’s also a slight creaminess to the coconut as well. There are some very light nutty notes as well, imparted both from the toasted rice and the green base. The black tea in the blend is a little less pronounced than the green; but I think that’s how it should be.

The mango is less obvious than anticipated, but still very much present and distinct; true to Ette Tea’s description of their blend it’s more show cased in the end of the sip and aftertaste and the sweet, tropical and fruity flavour it provides alongside the coconut does make me think of Thai food, though I don’t know if it specifically conjures up images of sticky rice. It’s delicious though!

This is an incredible tea, and while it’s not totally what I imagined it to be at this point I don’t think there’s a thing I’d change about it either. It’s very comforting, and because of the gentle wave of flavours both sweet and slightly savory I think it makes a really nice tea to curl up with at the end of the day. That said, unlike I would do with a conventional Genmaicha I think this would also work very well iced as something to take with you on a day out and about: the unconventional fruit flavors give this a little more life and lend themselves well to cold prep.

This is definitely my favourite Ette blend so far (something I feel like I’ve said with nearly all the Ette Teas as I’ve had them) and I would definitely buy more of this one!

Today I discovered that all that glitters is not gold. It’s silver sprinkles.

Thanks Nicole for putting together this group order! While I am not as keen on earl grey as the next person, this is a really nice earl grey. I love the combination of vanilla and bergamot in this particular blend. I thought I didn’t get any silver sparkles in my wee bit, but as soon as I poured a small cup for myself, yup, there they are! Just swimming in the depths of my teacup. I nice smooth earl grey A+ would recommend

This sounded good, but it’s a bit boring. The base is a nice thick, smooth black. There is a hint of tangerine and a hint of spice, maybe nutmeg, but it’s not knocking my socks off. Maybe I expect too much?

This is the tea that convinced me to go in on the group order. My husband and I always get mango sticky rice when we go out for Thai, which is usually at least once a week. We Love it! So, when I saw there was a tea that tasted like it, I couldn’t resist checking it out!

We just got back from Thai for lunch, and guess what we ate? ;) So let’s see how this compares! I love genmaicha, so this should be good. It smells amazing. Actually, the aroma of the steeped tea is exactly like mango sticky rice! Sweet, creamy coconut, mango, rice…it’s all there! Unfortunately, the flavor doesn’t pop in your mouth. It’s kinda blah. I noticed I was tasting it more after I drank it all, like it lingered in my mouth, but you really gotta inhale the aroma as you are sipping to really get the flavor.

Sipdown (117)!

This is the second Ette blend that I’ve finished off as a cold brew when I initially had it hot, and I think that I may have to try each blend this way – cold brewed and hot, because so far my observations have been that each tea can taste dramatically different depending on the two prep styles.

While Kris Grey was much improved as a cold brewed tea, I definitely think that had I tried this one cold brewed first (like I was sort of inclined to) I definitely wouldn’t have liked it as much.

The flavor of the jasmine is drastically more drawn out as a cold brew, and the green tea is now clearly more dominant than the black tea used. There is also quite a bit less cranberry flavour, which is perhaps the most disappointing thing. However the lychee is very, very intense. I’d summarize by saying this has now shaped up to be a Jasmine Green tea with lychee; no longer a lychee tea with jasmine.

I’m still liking it – but definitely not as much. Ultimately, I think I’d maybe consider ordering this one; it’s all dependent on falling in love with enough of these Ette blends to be able to justify the fairly steep shipping cost, and the dollar conversion. It’s not the best lychee tea I’ve had; but it’s certainly up there! However, without the cranberry an important dimension of the flavor is definitely lost…

This, along with the Mango Sticky Rice blend that I’ve yet to try, was the one I was most excited about getting a sample of in the Ette Tea group order.

I absolutely adore lychee in just about anything, but especially in tea and cranberry is also one of my favourite fruit flavours in tea so the pairing of the two got me really, really excited. It’s also a pairing that I haven’t seen done before which was really cool too.

Dry; this has some really robust smelling lychee. It’s also fairly floral which should be expected given that there’s jasmine from the green tea and also the addition of lily, but lychee is a very floral tasting fruit too so it comes from that as well. I don’t see as many cranberries in the leaf as I want their to be, though I did make sure that what I measured out for my mug had at least one included.

Wow this smelled heavenly when it was also steeped up! It’s a very strong lychee aroma; definitely the most powerful aspect of the tea, but there’s also a really soft, soothing jasmine smell backed up by other floral elements like lily and maybe also orchid. It’s actually hard to pick out specific notes from either the black or the green tea used though. I can also smell the cranberry, but only slightly.

Thankfully the cranberry is a bit more noticeable in the taste; it cuts through pretty clearly in the start of the sip with some sweetness but also some tartness that reminds me of cranberry jelly like you’d have around Thanksgiving. However, the very lush taste of the lychee and jasmine over takes it early on leaving me feeling just slightly cheated. I want more cranberry because while it’s so different to me to see it paired with lychee the two flavours go together really well!

The lychee is juicy and rich and reminds me a lot of actual lychee or ‘cocktail’ lychee that’s been canned in its own sweetened juices. It’s mouthwatering and strong as a flavour. I can see where, paired with the sweetness of the cranberry, this could get a little too sweet but thankfully there’s the soothing presence of jasmine that brings this back down to a reasonable level and keeps it distinctly flavoured but smooth and relaxing too.

Also, now that it’s steeped I think the base teas come through just slightly more; the first half of the mug seemed to have a really light vegetal taste to it that was brought more into focus when you concentrated on the jasmine but the slightly malty black base was more present in the aftertaste along with the lingering flavour of lychee, and especially present with the last few tiny sips from the mug when everything had cooled down.

There’s definitely room for improvement, but overall this was a really impressive and well executed tea and like beelicious I’m absolutely kicking myself for just getting 10g! I’ve now tried 3/5 samples and this is definitely my favourite so far.

There’s a storm a’brewing here tonight.. the winds are swirling the dirt around and whipping the palm trees and the sky is quickly darkening… its actually a really nice change from the blue skies, no-weather-weather we tend to get here every single day! I really miss living in Texas and watching the storms start like clockwork from the balcony each day in summer!!

Storms, tea and books – is there a better combination? Since this was the tea I was most looking forward to trying in the Ette group order it seemed like a good choice to sip and watch the storm with. Thai Sticky rice is one of my absolute favorite Asian deserts and Ette does it amazing justice with the mix of genmaicha, roasted barley, mango pieces and coconut… the only thing missing is that sticky glutinous feeling you get with sticky rice. Looking forward to drinking a whole lot more of this tea!!

One more day til the weekend peoples!!!

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I started cold brewing this one last night, before I really knew that my cheek was infected and that that would affect my tea drinking tonight – though to be perfectly honest I wasn’t expecting great things from this cold brew anyway. The more I’ve thought about that initial first hot cup I had of this one the more I’ve realized it was pretty dissatisfying overall. And in general I just find cold brewed EG less tasty as well.

Turns out this one is breaking that trend though; even with ‘mouth impairments’ I thought that this was the smoothest tasting cold brewed EG I’ve had to date: the bergamot seemed to be at a more appropriate strength than it was brewed hot and I actually picked up on the vanilla notes I felt were lacking the first time around. It was silky, and had a rich, full flavour without sacrificing the flavour of the base in favor of a stronger bergamot flavour.

So, I’ve definitely changed my mind about this blend a few times now! Take that as you will – maybe it’s just not a super consistent brew? One thing is for sure – I still don’t think this is as sparkly as advertised; with the cold brew in particular the liquor ended up such a dark amber/brown that you really couldn’t pick up on the subtle sparklies at all.

C’est la vie.

My second blend from Ette Tea!

So, I’m not the biggest Earl Grey fan; not that I dislike it, but I just don’t crave it often either. Under normal circumstances I probably wouldn’t have gone for this one – but who can resist sample sizes and the idea of sparkly silver tea? And really, the dry leaf is stunning! It’s covered in this really fine, gorgeous silver dust. So pretty!

Steeped up I’m not going to lie; I’m a little disappointed. The tea is still gorgeous and sparkly, but it’s not as dramatic as I’d have thought given the amount of noticeable glimmer in the dry leaf. Maybe about the same amount of sparkle as DT’s Gitter & Gold blend that people like to ooh and aah over.

The taste is solid though; it’s a good EG with a medium level of citrusy bergamot and silky smooth black base. I feel like a little bit more of vanilla would have really sent this one sky rocketing though. As it stands I can hardly taste the vanilla at all, but as is it’s just fine too. People who really love EG should definitely take a closer look at this because while it isn’t mind blowing, it’s got a really taditional taste with that fun sparkly element that makes it different from the average EG you can get at any store.

So for me, it’s a step down from Pandan Chiffon (which set the bar very high) but still not a flop! Definitely excited to try my next tea from this company!

Sipdown (113)!

Figured I best get in a few sipdowns yesterday because, and surely enough it’s started to happen, my cupboard is going to swell a bit with the addition of my Camellia Sinensis order and a future Red Leaf Tea order on its way as well.

This cold brew wasn’t anything different from the other ones I’ve done other than the additional presence of many, many floaties from the crushed up little bits of tea in the bottom of the baggy. I’m sad that I’m finally done my Ette Tea blends though; it was so much fun exploring this company and I seriously hope I get to revisit their blends if not order them again myself.

In order of preference:

1. Mango Sticky Rice Genmaicha
2. Pandan Chiffon
3. Lychee Konnyaku
4. Kris Grey
5. Fortune Cookie Chai

Mmm!

Drinking a hot mug of this while watching the Sense8 premiere on Netflix; anyone else watch it today? I’m only about ten minutes in but so far it seems so incredibly cool! I’m convinced I’m gonna fall in love with it – and such a diverse cast too! LOVE IT.

This is pretty good hot; it’s still got a very sweet side to it, with caramel and honey-like notes but this a savory, starchy sweet potato component paired with warming spices like cinnamon. The roasty hojicha is maybe a little more bitter this way, but that could be user error too. I definitely still really like it hot. Honestly, I don’t know which is better – hot or cold brewed!

This is a queued tasting note.

Another cold brew – next time I’ll have to try this one hot so I’m getting to taste it in a variety of ways. I still have a decent amount of leaf left; this one is so light!

New observations: with a longer cold brew time this tastes pretty well exactly like I described with my first tasting note but with a more distinct flavour from the Hojicha. I don’t know if I prefer this with more of the added flavours or more of the base flavours. Both are quite good!

Since I’m going to be putting in another Red Leaf Tea order soon, I’ve been looking at chawans online all morning. Not that I plan on buying another; I have a hella nice one. It’s fun to look though.

http://www.rikyucha.com/item/list2/157961/

I just about pissed myself when I saw the price tag on that one though. Definitely not worth it, in my opinion – although it is really beautiful. But damn!

Recently I had the opportunity to take part in a group order from Ette Tea, a relatively new company based in Singapore. They only have six blends currently, but they all appear to be very well thought out and the range of diverse flavours is impressive. Being able to take advantage of buying smaller sample sizes was the nail in the coffin on what probably would’ve been an inevitable order anyway.

This isn’t one of the blends I was initially more excited about; but it smells very good! Quite sweet with cake like elements and a playful touch of spice. I’m definitely getting notes from the dry smell that remind me of caramel or lightly burnt sugar. Mmm! And, because this is one of the lighter blends I ended up with a lot more of it than any of the other samples so I’m taking advantage of trying this one in a different way than a lot of the people from our group order appear to have done; cold brewing! That is my go to, after all.

I’m surprised by how sweet this is; though I don’t necessarily know why. Every other run in I’ve had with ‘chiffon’, be it tea or in real life, is sweet so I should have expected as much from this even though it doesn’t have ingredients that necessarily go hand in hand with more dessert-like teas.

There’s a lot going on but it’s harmonious; I’m picking up sweeter top notes like caramel and vanilla and a pastry-like cinnamon (like cinnamon sugar, sort of) which together are reminding me of Stroopwafel! That’s definitely not what I was expecting to get from this blend but it’s wonderful. I’m also getting some light roasty notes from the hojicha, though not as dominant as I anticipated. They’re great support though and keep this tea from tasting too sweet. There’s also a sweet, starchy taste present: in part I think that’s what making me think of the “waffle” part of the stroopwafel flavour going on, but it also reminds me loosely of sweet potato.

The osmanthus is somewhere in the middle; not as strong as the sweeter notes but not as light as the roasty/potato notes either. It doesn’t tie in with the Stroopwafel thing I’ve got going on, but what it DOES do is really, really round this tea out and give it a lot of depth. My only complaint is that this left quite a bit of sediment/fannings in the bottom of my brewing vessel. But even then it’s not a huge deal with cold brews anyway.

For my first tea from Ette Tea I’m very impressed! If all the others are half as good and interesting as this one it’ll be one of the most successful tea orders I’ve ever made. Yeah, this definitely set the bar high for the others. I don’t know if that’s for better or worse. I really want to try actual Pandan Chiffon now! I don’t know if there’s anywhere in town to get it…

I need a hookup ASAP!

This is less of a tasting note and more of a story.

Last Friday, I flew out to Kansas City for the Midwest Tea Fest. Having made the mistake of having airplane tea two weeks ago, I came prepared this time. I brought along some filters and loose tea in my carry on. When the flight attendant came around with the drink cart, I asked for some hot water for tea, which they provided along with the same crappy tea bag from last time. I kindly handed it back to the attendant so that someone else could suffer through it at a later time.

To the amusement of my seat-mate, I then pulled out a bag of tea from my pocket and a filter and filled it. This tea has such a wonderful aroma and I’m sure that others could smell the loose leaves. After a quick steep, I was able to enjoy some delicious loose leaf tea on the plane! I did have some folks looking at me though, probably wondering what I was doing. Either way, this was a delicious tea to have first thing in the morning!

Earl Grey for vampires? It sparkles.

Anyway, this is really delicious. The scent is much stronger than the brew. Normally, earl grey has a.. uh.. note at the end that’s kinda bitter-y, but not really.. I don’t know how to describe it!
Anyway, this doesn’t. This is as smooth as Ray J in some shades. This is a nice, creamy earl grey-inspired blend that just.. mm.. I could have it every morning.

I’m not sure if I have experienced pandan before, but I have had chiffon teas that were amazing, so I really wanted to try some of this when I saw the group buy being organized. To me this looks and tastes like a light caramel hojicha. It is a little earthy, with low notes dominating the taste and caramel coming in on the aftertaste. I tried adding a little sugar towards the end of my cup and it really just knocked out the balance of this tea. It is now sweet, but I’m not getting the same depth of flavors that I was before. I added a little soy creamer to it and it took a few sips before I could taste anything past the creamer. Now I’m getting a creamy hojicha taste on the sip and something a little different on the aftersip. Maybe that is the pandan? Either way, it is nice and I think I prefer it plain, but unless this tea really grows on me while going through the sample I got, then it likely isn’t a rebuy or must have for me.

Phew what a week… thank goodness this week is a short one and I have a three day weekend starting… 30 minutes ago!!!!

I came home to the arrival of my Ette Tea Group Order package and was all prepared to open up a bottle of wine and drown my sorrows in a glass or two until I opened up the envelope protecting my teas all the way from Singapore and Nicole … I can’t resist this…On the kettle went!!

Although they all smelt amazing, I decided to start with the Lychee Konnyaku since I’m a big fan of Lychee and I feel like its not something I see a lot of here in the US unless I’m in an asian grocery store… The bag contained some very juicy looking dried cranberries and smelled like light summer fruits with a hint of lychee. Upon brewing and sipping, this tea has such a strong and delicious lychee flavor to it that I’m kicking myself for only getting 10g .. oh this isn’t going to last past the weekend…. I’m already off to brew another cup!!!

It’s National Popcorn Day! I feel like I should have a bowl of popcorn for lunch as well as a genmaicha to celebrate!

The winds of change arrived late last night here in the California bay area, just in time for the presidential inauguration. What that means is that all the pollen that has settled was whipped up in 26mph winds making misery for allergy suffers. The house I live in is 130 years old with the original windows, so we feel the breeze inside which means the pollen is getting in too and boy can I feel it! It’s distracting me from my tea as well! I’m having a hard time figuring out if my sense of taste has been effected.

I love this tea. I love that it takes the natural rice flavor in the gen and builds off it to taste like the dessert. The mango is faint in some sips and that surprised me this morning. It’s usually pretty present, but today I’m getting intermittent mango…. which would make an awesome band name! Still a really nice cup and one of my two favorites from ETTE.

Now to make popcorn! The ladyfinger popcorn is my favorite!

Ugh, sad sipdown. Such mixed feelings of wanting this as a staple in my cupboard and feeling good about sipping down a tea. I love this tea. It’s such a good flavored genmaicha and I hope to restock it when my buying ban is over. Goodbye for now lovely tea!

This is one of my favorite flavored genmaichas! The mango flavor is done really well and pairs nicely with the toasty rice. I get more of the tea flavor on the sip, a little bite in the finish, but that is where the mango really comes out and lingers. I usually have this with cream because it amps up and rounds out the flavors making it more dessert like, but this time I’m enjoying it plain. Almost done with the last of the two bags I ordered a while back. I’ll definitely have to reorder some day when my cupboard is in check.

I’m down to the last cup of this bag and it’s filled with dust and bits. It is a little flat, which is expected with the last of the bag. The mango flavor is a little lighter than in previous cups, but the toasty rice flavor is still there. I have another unopened bag of this that I’ll have to break out soon. I enjoy this tea enough to make it a staple in my tea collection.

First off, a HUGE thanks to Nicole for arranging a group buy and doing the work of dividing the tea, packaging and mailing it all out!!!

The description of this tea says that it has black tea in it, but I mostly saw green, so I steeped it at a lower temp for a shorter time than the company recommends since I’m a little gunshy about burning my teas into a bitter oblivion. First thing I notice is a toasted rice flavor. It is a little heavier of a taste than most genmaichas, almost roasty. The mango rolls in on the aftertaste, combining with the rice, giving it that mango sticky rice flavor combo. It makes me long for good Thai food, something which we lack in Texas. We have okay Thai food in Austin, but not fantastic. Back to the tea! The flavor is subtle, but it’s in there.

Adding sugar…
Adding a little sugar to this tea makes the mango jump out sooner and explode on the aftersip with a little bit of a creamy mellowness. I really haven’t been adding sugar to my teas lately, so it’s is taking a little adjustment for my brain to register. I feel it is more true to the dessert with sugar added and I can almost imagine the sweetened condensed milk.

Adding creamer…
I’m on a soy creamer kick lately, so I had to add a little at the end of my cup. The first few sips with creamer were a little tasteless on the sip, but represented the dessert very well on the aftertaste. A few more sips in, my taste has adjusted and it is tasting really good with the cream! The flavor is still more subtle than the flavored black teas that I’m used to, but it is really nice.

I’m quite enjoying this tea and would definitely order more in the future! The mango is mellow, but true to the flavor of this fruit and doesn’t taste artificial at all. Genmaichas do well cold brewed and I’m looking forward to trying this cold steeped in my fridge, especially now that the summer is creeping in.

Ah, Ette Tea. Had to get in on the group buy, because the flavors sounded so amazing, even though I’m not drinking flavored teas much anymore!

I started with this one because it was lighter in caffeine and I had it later in the day. Steeped it at 180F for 2 minutes. It smells amazing! Tastes sweet, light, cake-like. I can get a hint of osmanthus and cinnamon if I think about it while sipping, although I probably wouldn’t know they were there if I hadn’t read about it. It does leave some sediment in the cup. The liquor is brown in color. Overall, it’s not as complex as I was hoping, but enjoyable. The sweet cake flavors lingers in my mouth. :) I think I might try this one steeped for 3 minutes next time.

You guys know me and tins. I am such a sucker for a pretty tin! So it’s always a big bonus when the tea that comes in it is good too!

I can’t remember how I came across Ette Tea – probably linked from somewhere else. They are a boutique tea company that currently has five blends. The service from them is very personal and friendly, and my order came with a handwritten note!

All of the packaging and presentation was lovely. The double -lidded tin itself is so elegant, and the graphics on everything are so understated and classy. In addition to the tin I ordered, a small box of hand made tea bags (I had never seen anything like them before) was included, with samples of the Fortune Cookie Chai tea that they also sell. That was the other one I really wanted to try, so good call Ette!

“Kris Grey” is obviously a take on Earl Grey, and the name suggested to me that it would be a bit naughty. I think the naughtiness comes in with the addition of edible silver dust. You know me and my sparkle pony teas, so I was really excited about that. I poured the leaf out on a plate and found that the add ins were really pretty. There are blue flowers, and in some cases the whole flower bud is there. So nice!

The dry leaf smelled so very strongly of bergamot that I was a tiny bit apprehensive about the tea (even though I like bergamot), but it’s spot on beautifully balanced. Real vanilla beans turn it into a hint of Earl Grey Cream, but it’s just a whisper. I also get a little aftertaste of lemon, which is intriguing and refreshing.

I have to say that I am really happy I ordered this one and look forward to more flavor combinations from Ette Tea.

Oh, as a side note – there were no steeping parameters on the tin, so I went with 1 t / 8 oz and 195 temp. Why 195 you ask? Well because I made the tea in my Davids Tea Carry Mug, and it is so effective that I had to start lowering the 212 temp to 195, otherwise I will grow old and wrinkly before the tea is cool enough to drink (even with the lid off!)