Fava Tea Company

Oh my gosh… what’s in this stuff? As soon as finished my half bowl 5 hrs ago I was craving it again- intensely. I have a lot of matcha on a daily basis, but I very rarely crave it like this. I lasted as long as I could (and intentionally til my craving died down) to have a second half bowl because I was afraid I’d be craving a 3rd. Sooo good.

Grumble…Grumble…Sigh…Grumble…Grumble…Grrr…Grumble…Grumble… OK, let me explain. The theme for this week’s Vegan Dinner Night with my friends was smoothies. I instantly thought to bring matcha (I often do and it goes over very well!), but that required a trip to my local tea store since I was almost out. I arrived fully prepared to buy Rishi’s single serve matcha, but I was pleasantly surprised to see bulk matcha (it’s been almost 2 years since I’ve been there)! I grabbed my matcha (and some Tea on Tap for me and my mom). I arrived at my friends’ Nathan and Ben and smoothies were soon in the works, but… CRAP! The matcha is sitting in my mom’s car. Not a big deal in reality, but I was craving a matcha fruit smoothie so I thru a silent internal temper tantrum and went on with the evening. I’m sure this matcha is good, but it’s SO expensive compared to what I drink on a daily basis ($1.05/g compared to 16 cents/g which is even ceremonial grade), so I called the store and asked about their refund policy because I really can’t afford this when there are better and cheaper alternatives out there. Unfortunately, because I used a gift card, my refund would just be reloaded onto the card vs. a cash refund so I just decided to suck it up and keep it. Oh well.

When I open the tin I notice that, while it’s not nearly as dull in color as some of the flavored matchas I’ve had or even Lupicia’s 100g matcha, it’s not as vibrant (like the smiley on the far right) as I’d like it to be. It’s also quite clumpy. This will definitely need to be sifted. After a sift and a whisk, a substantial froth formed. While the whisked color was again paler than I’d hoped, it actually had a pretty substantial flavor. The flavor was sweet and smooth, just like the mouth feel. It reminded me of my first match experience which was Rishi’s individually packed matcha which makes me think this may be Rishi. Not bad, but way too expensive. For as much of a tea addict (matcha specifically) I am, I really have learned to find great bargains so I don’t have to sacrifice flavor, volume, or frequency. If you’re not on as tight of a budget as I am (which doesn’t take much lol!) definitely give this a try. It’s a good one.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea!

This is pretty good. At first I had my doubts because I tasted a lot of rooibos taste. It has a strong nutty/woody taste to it… but thankfully not a lot of that rooibos aftertaste. The aftertaste is strawberry. And I like that very much.

This isn’t my favorite tisane but it certainly isn’t terrible and it is one that I’d be happy to drink if I were offered it, although I don’t know that I’d bother to order it for myself.

Backlogging…sugary, sweet, maple! Nom.

Thanks Kristin for this one! I haven’t had the opportunity to try very many Fava Teas yet so this is great! :) Thanks again!

This has little candy sprinkles in it – the shape of leaves. It smells a little like toffee almost.

Tastes a little like toffee but also sweet and a hint of sugar but the sweetness of the rooibos too! This is much different than I thought it would be. The tastes are medium strength and not overdone.

Nice iced, too, and to share with a friend…so that’s what I am going to do :) Who’ll get it? Time will tell!

With Pumpkin Risotto – Very nice ICED

Special thanks to Kristin for send me this one! Dry – it smells more cream than Strawberry and once infused it smells more strawberry than cream! It’s a nice smooth, velvety-sweet and yummy strawberry tasting number! I like this!

I had this iced last night and liked it much better this time than last time. Last time I brewed it cold overnight. This time I brewed 3 tsp of tea in a little teabag in about 1/4 cup of boiling water for 5 min and then poured it over ice and added a little water. Much better.

I think I might like the quick brew method better than the overnight method. But, I did use 2 pyrex measuring cups, a spoon, and a glass to achieve this. That’s a lot of dishes for a glass of iced tea. I used the pyrex cups because I was worried about breaking a glass by pouring boiling water over ice in the glass.

Anyone have a better quick brew method that uses less dishes?

I normally like this tea well enough. But today, it tastes medicinal to me. Weird how it can taste great one day and then meh another day. I’ve only been drinking that Choco*Late from American Tea room since I got that one (already almost out)… maybe that has ruined me.

I tried this one iced today too. I didn’t like it iced. I don’t particularly like iced rooibos. This one is much better hot.

This tea was pretty good. Definitely tastes like blueberry. I had to add a fair amount of agave nectar to it to get it to taste like sweet ripe blueberries. Without sweetener it tasted like unripe berries.

This tea is more typical of a rooibos than the Butternut Toffee Rooibos or Carrot Cake Rooibos (with those two, I wouldn’t have known there was any rooibos in them). This tea is definitely a rooibos, but yet it is still tasty. And, it’s probably one of the only strawberry/fruit rooibos teas I’ve had that actually tastes like the fruit. Most seem to taste like cough syrup. This one luckily does not have that cough syrup flavor. I definitely taste the strawberry.

It’s not my favorite and I’ll defininely finish the sample, but I’m not sure I’d order it again.

I love this tea. But, I do feel that it has a sweet spot of brewing temp/amt of tea/amt of water. I don’t know what I did to make it bitter that one time, and I don’t know what I did to make it great today (and the first time I tried it). When you get it right, it’s amazing.

almost 2 tsp/11 oz

I’m seriously cranky today. It’s snowing. And I mean SNOWING. There is at least 6" on the back porch and the snow plows are out. I’ve been out scooping heavy wet snow off the baby vegetable sprouts in the garden that I covered last night.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowboardbunny/4635099565/
(this pic was taken a few inches ago)

So, I need something decadent and homey. Yep, this calls for maple syrup and since I don’t have time to make pancakes, this will have to do. I steeped it for only 3 minutes this time and used less tea. This did get rid of the bitterness, but it’s definitely weaker. Sweetened it with maple syrup this time.

I did something to this today and I’m not sure what.. but i made it bitter. I think I used the same amt and the same time. weird. It definitely looks darker today. Not docking it’s rating yet because I know how good it can be. I will just need to try again.

I rarely buy flavored black teas because I feel like the black tea overwhelms the flavoring (and often a cheap black tea is used as the base and it’s too bitter). This tea is really really good, though. I love all things maple so I couldn’t resist trying this one.

The smell in the bag is maple-pecan and no scent of the black tea at all. Once brewed, I can taste the black tea but it doesn’t overwhelm and is not bitter. And, oh boy, is the maple flavor present!

3 for 3 with Fava teas!

Brewed 2 tsp to 8 oz for 4 min.

Today is my husband’s birthday, so I’ve been baking his favorite cake today (and working at the same time). He likes a white cake with white frosting and asks for it every year (not only do I make this cake vegan, I also bake it at 6500 ft in altitude!). Here is a pic of last years cake and a link to the recipe:
http://parkcityvegan.blogspot.com/2009/05/another-year-another-cake.html

All this cake making and frosting tasting made me want some tea. So, what did I grab? Carrot Cake. Today I made it with more tea (3 tsp tp 11oz) and steeped it a smidge longer. It’s very very tasty. Now, I think I’ll be able to make it untill cake cutting time later tonight.

This tea is delicious. Fava Tea is 2 for 2!

The tea in the bag is gorgeous: giant chunks of carrot, shredded coconut, whole raisins, cloves, and cardamom pods. The tea in the bag smells like carrot cake. It brews up to a light orange color.

Once brewed, guess what it tastes like? Carrot cake! or maybe it’s a giant carrot muffin. I love it.

I really didn’t think this was going to taste like carrot cake when I ordered it. I expected to be disappointed, but it’s really tasty. It’s actually a nice mid-morning tea since it has that carrot muffin quality to it.

This tea is a little different every time I taste it. That is probably due to the large chunks of nuts and spices. This time I think it’s perfect. Spicy and full of that butterscotch candy flavor.

2 heaping tsp/8 oz.

More comfort tea. This cup had a bunch of cardamom pods in the leaves so it is spicier. I went back to 2 tsp/11 oz and got the weak butterscotchy flavor back. :)

Ok, so this is kinda weird. Up’d the amount of tea to 3 tsp per 11 oz. It’s no longer watery but I like it less. With more tea leaves, the spiciness is more present and the butterscotch flavor is more of a background flavor. It’s still good though. It reminds me of Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie.

Nom! This tea is pretty awesome. I had no idea what I was going to get with this one. I didn’t know what the butternut referred to. I love butternut squash and I love buttery tasting nuts so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Apparently, there is actually a nut called ‘butternut’ and it is similar to a walnut. That’s what this tea has in it.

This tea has giant chunks of nuts that look like chestnuts (but are actually the butternuts), whole cardamom pods, and lots of other things I couldn’t identify. There isn’t an ingredients list, so I guess I’ll just have to quit analyzing it and enjoy it. It smells amazing in the package. Sweet and heavenly and butterscotchy.

The one thing that must be in this tea is green rooibos instead of red. There are some green leaves in the mix and when it is brewed it is an orangy-yellow color (which I’ve never seen with red rooibos). And the taste!! The taste is like those Brach’s butterscotch candies. ❤ It smells like that too. I can just catch a taste of spice in the background.

I do think I needed more tea leaves and will try that next time. I used 2 tsp to 11 oz. Could probably use 3 tsp.

2.25g/6oz purified water. I’m always looking for NA versions of my favorite drinks so I was really excited when my local tea shop created this blend. Looking at the raw leaves it does look like a homemade blend because the lemon pieces are so big. The liquor is your average green tea liquor and the aroma is light on the peppermint so it mainly smells like a citron green tea. I don’t even need to taste this to know the taste will be lacking. There’s no rum flavoring in it. Yes you could add rum or rum flavoring, but in my opinion there should not be a vital ingredient missing based on the name of the tea. You wouldn’t buy a vanilla chai tea and be ok w/ having to add the vanilla extract.

Ok, so now on to what flavors are there. A LOT of citrus… the mint isn’t really there in flavor because it’s over powered by the citrus, but I can feel it on my tongue when I breathe. I can also taste the green tea behind the citrus. It doesn’t just taste like hot lemon juice w/ a hint of peppermint.

Conclusions: Great potential, big disappointment.