Numi Organic Tea

Very pleasant tea with a lovely floral scent. The taste was lighter than I thought it would be, but still enjoyable.

It’s a delightful taste, which I saved until today to drink while I was working on the pictures and write-up of this amazing swap. While I’m not a big fan of blacks, Numi (and Swan!) wins me over again to this mellow, beautiful flavor.

For the first pot, it has a very strong, but not aggressive, scent when you pull the lid off after steeping. It’s green tea leaves with almost a light spice to the scent that I can’t name. The first few sip was very blank making me wonder if twenty five minutes wasn’t a long enough steep, but the flavor builds with the next few sips being robust and full against your tongue. It is a very earthy flavor and indeed a really good green tea mix.

The second pot is a little lighter, but left to steep a very long time (notice the length of the catch-up writing) it is rather good as well. I’m actually pleasantly pleased with this soft and common flavor on the green tea, even if it the display is a little more common than I’d like (sekrit decoder= is starting to think maybe she’s a touch obsessed with the flowers). It is nicely broaden and beautiful green leaves though. I’m continually trying to figure out how it is I’m handling my decisions on display.

I’ll update with how it is cold in a little while as well.

Taste: 4
Display: 2

Today’s tea was picked with lazy luxurious mornings in mind. I started with a hot, refreshing shower after picking out just the right outfit for the wedding this afternoon. Got wonderfully soft and squeaky clean. Wandered my house in first my towel and then my mid-thigh length crème silk robe while boiling water and finding something to nibble one. Roommates woke up finally so there was passing of BPal since I’m letting Christine sell the very few I own that I didn’t like.

The house is being shown again today and the roommates have left as well, so I’m laying on my bed enjoying the wonders of the tea and silence.

The above picture is actually from during the second pot of this tea. The first pot steeped to about twenty-five minutes was almost so dark you couldn’t see the leaves in detail and the flower in the center at all. Which tells you a bit about the first pot off the bat. This tea shouldn’t be steeped as long I think. The smell that reaches your nose the first time you pour it is strong and heady with a very soft sweet vibe. It’s incredibly a lavender smell. Given the normal long steeping this one is actually much too strong and bitter in all truth, leaving a dry taste in your mouth.

Second pot left to steep while I was neatening up my room a little for the walk through, writing up this post, and of course taking the picture about is actually much prettier, smells softly of only the hibiscus but has almost no taste. I may end up giving this flavor another try with a much shorter first pot steeping time, but with the touchy first pot and almost nonexistent second (when each is supposed to steep three pots) I’m not a really big fan of it.

Three more until my Numi sampling is done….and I just noticed doing this the scrapbook layout changed. Plus, scrapbook no longer has it’s own connected webpage from live journal but has been integrated into the mainframe of the live journal site. Interesting.

Display: 3
Taste: 2

Today’s tea was picked because I was truly just in the mood for tea and art. Plus, I’ve made a promise to myself to finish off the entire sampler box from Numi before I started on the new box of flavors in the mail to be now from the new company. I’ve realized, also, in my sampler box I got a double of Dragon Lily and no sample of Lavender Dream, which is saddening.

I let this one steep for around thirty minutes while i was doing errands around my bedroom this afternoon. It went from a clear to the honey looking color you can see now, but it hasn’t gotten any darker. The rosette in the center looked really cute all dried and pressed together with it’s petals so I was hoping for amazing when it unfolded in water. This isn’t really an amazing picture of it, but even so it turned out highly disappointing in flower display really.

The smell of this one is very subtle, and I hadn’t noticed the vague rose scent until reading the lines above from the website. If and when it’s there it’s a very, very faint and plain scent. The taste is pretty generic for a white tea, with nothing amazing or startling about the flavor. It’s a little sharp during some sips as well. The more I drink it the more obvious it becomes, almost suddenly dry after the sharp as well.

The second pot and cold aren’t much different either. I’m over all actually not very impressed with tonight’s sample and I don’t think I’ll be buying more of this one that don’t come in possible future samplers.

Display: 2
Taste: 2

Today’s tea was picked because I’ve been longing for a new taste test for a while. I’ve been putting it off the last few days, something always coming up, whether it’s plans that were priorly made, plans that dropped into my lap suddenly, or plans that showed up at my front door. So it was nice to curl up with Billy and some anime tonight, while trying a new tea. This one I picked because I wanted more of a flower display today than something else generic and ball shaped.

And this one didn’t disappoint. It floated as a thin green disc at the top for a very long time at the top. Then slowly it sprouted outward and downward in long green leaves. I wasn’t sure it would have much of a flower at this point. It hovered at the top doing this for about ten or fifteen minutes, before sinking at the angle this picture was taken at. It’s a beautiful little white flower in the center isn’t it?

When I pulled off the lid after steeping I was hit immediately with a very rich, earthy, nutty scent as the description says. This one though on it’s first pot should not be steeped as long as all the other teas have needed. After a good twenty minutes the first cup was startling in it’s intensity. It’s a very clean and clear taste though, which makes it soothing and good for a calm night at home. The second pot on this one was utterly amazing though even given time to steep. It was a soft, clean, clear green tea flavor that rolled earthy around your mouth and let very little of an after taste.

I let the last pot steep a long time while I drove Billy home and came back myself. I’m pleased to say this tea is also amazingly good had cold. It’s even softer steeping in the third pot. Taking a sip cold, it rolls neutrally almost blankly around your mouth when taking a sip. But as you swallow a delightful, almost sweet, green tea flavor slips in strongly. It only gets more intense with the next sip. But as the third steep it never becomes over powering or aggressive.

I’m very definitely a fan of this one.

Display: 3
Taste: 4

I knew from the website and the cheat card in the tester box that this display wouldn’t end up having a flower in it. It’s a bundle of beautifully sewn leaves that expand. At first it opened floating on the top, continually getting wider and wider. It got longer, reaching down to the pot, and then eventually it settled into the bottom of the pot (as shown in the above picture). The entire time the water in the pot continued to become more and more beautiful amber or almost maroon shade, darkening as time passed.

This time we let the tea steep probably ten or fifteen minutes in the glass pot before drinking, and maybe another five minutes in the cups as it was still very warm. The smell is dark and robust with almost a hint of spice. This one starts out a very, very strong black tea. Perfect for early mornings. It’s dark, deep and robust on first taste, with a slightly dry after taste left in your mouth after you swallow. Left to sit steeping (in the second pot of water) it for another maybe thirty or forty minutes, the Midnight Peony becomes smoother and even more elegant.

Seeing as I can’t steep a third pot tonight (it’s grown too late), I’m going to test the notion of leaving the bud alone for the next six to eight hours and trying to brew it’s third pot of it in the morning. I’ll write more about that tomorrow morning for if it worked or didn’t work. Thoughts on this one; This is a perfect morning tea in it’s first brew. It’ll wake you up without being abrasive or annoying. Left to steep a long time it’s the perfect night time tea; smooth, relaxing and maybe even a little sleepy.

Display: 4
Taste: 5

It was good and very mellow on the flavor, good for a once in awhile. I’ll give it a thumbs up.

one of my favorites.

This tasted really smooth but weak… almost like water-weak. I didn’t add sugar or milk to it. But all in all I liked it.

This one is a pretty decent blend. It is very light in taste but the scent is fantastic! I love the smell and taste of ginger and lemongrass. To me, the ginger wasn’t strong enough, and the lemongrass stood out a tad bit more. Would be great with fresh ginger :)

Definitely a good breakfast tea.

This has a very nice, sweet smell. Tastes mild and sweet. It goes down smoothly, but for some reason I am getting a hint of cardboard or that taste of an an envelope if you lick the sticky part. It might be the bag. Regardless, the honeybush’s sweetness overpowered the cardboard taste. I would not repurchase this.

Blended this iced with Rishi Blueberry Rooibos, Adagio Pi Lo Chun, Mighty Leaf Organic Spring Jasmine, Numi Rooibos. I definitely added this to use up the last bag I had since it doesn’t taste good alone IMO.

I think I’ll stick to loose rooibos… this one tastes too much like cardboard to me.

This is probably the best bagged chai I’ve ever had. It is very well blended and isn’t too spicy. Goes well with or without milk and/or sugar.

This tea tastes like a normal chamomile at first, but has a lemony aftertaste that I like. Perfect for winding down at the end of the day with a fake fire-place DVD. :)

I steeped this one for a good 5 min. and it was really refreshing and light. My mother-in-law said that it tasted just like the tea she had in Moracco…so I guess they’re right on!

Ahhh….smells wonderful! I can do this. I don’t normally like floral teas, but the taste is less flowery than the smell. Perfect!