Slimming Tea

This was the first tea I tried from my generous samples from Nature’s Tea Leaf, thank you so much!
I love brewing this one in a glass pot, to see the flowers unfurl and swirl around when I pour a cup. It has definitely been the prettiest tea that I have ever brewed but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the taste.
A friend I was brewing it with said it tastes like stale funky mint, or soapy potpourri and I’d have to agree. The taste is mild, thankfully, but just isn’t good I’m sorry to say. I would love to have this brewing in my glass pot as a center piece during a tea party while using my other tea pots for brewing other tea. Maybe someone else will like it as I tend to be rather picky with floral, herbal, or puerh types.

I’ve had this one a couple of times now, because I wasn’t quite sure how to describe it after the first. Very floral, very mild – I can barely taste the pu’erh – but the flavor depends quite a bit on which particular flowers make it into your teaspoon! The first time I tried it, it smelled like chamomile but tasted mostly of lemon and mint. This time it still smells like chamomile (or rather, Chrysanthemum I suppose), but tastes more like hibiscus with a hint of rosemary. The color of the liquor is a lovely pale orange, and the dry leaf is goreous, between the lemon, rose, jasmine, Chrysanthemum, and everything else – all different colors and textures.

I found the steeping instructions on the website (2tsp, 185 degree water, 2 minutes) worked better than the ones on the bag (1tsp, 202 degree water, 1 minute); the flowers are way too fluffy for 1tsp to do much, and the flavor came out better with a longer steep time.

I couldn’t help comparing this one to the Nature’s Bloom Pu-erh, since the composition is quite similar. I liked that one much better for having a stronger flavor, and more of the flowers I like (rose, jasmine) than those I don’t (hibiscus, Chrysanthemum).

I’ll probably be putting up a swap soon for this and a few other things that haven’t suited me, so if this sounds up your alley comment here or watch the swaps thread :)

I was lucky enough to get some review samples from Nature’s Tea Leaf and they came in TWO DAYS! Talk about fast shipping! Not only that, but they’re all one ounce which is pretty awesome. I wanted to dive in right away, and this one called to me just because it’s so darn pretty. Tons of whole, intact flowers and leaves, it’s really gorgeous. And it smells good, too!

I wasn’t exactly sure how to steep this: it’s a pu-erh blend but there are more herbal elements, so I did boiling water for 6 minutes. Thankfully that seemed like the right choice, since no one flavor is too overpowering or under-represented. There’s a lot going on here: I don’t think you could pick out any one flavor and say “it’s dominantly x!” There’s chrysanthemum, which I find to be kind of like a tastier version of chamomile. Then there’s mint, but it’s not so pervasive that it reads as a mint blend. There’s a hint of earthiness running through the cup, from the pu-erh and I suppose the lotus as well? Floral elements peek in from the rose, and there’s a bit of tartness (though not overpoweringly so) from the hibiscus. Oh, and a bit of citrus too from the lemon!

There is a LOT going on, but it all balances out into a very tasty blend. It’s a good “I don’t know what mood I am in” tea since it’s got a bit of everything: floral, earthy, tart, mint, citrus-y. It also seems like it’d be a good, calming night time tea. I think I’m going to be running through my ounce of this pretty quickly!

As I said in my last review, I thought each cup of this would be a different adventure and boy was I right! This second cup I brewed (despite INTENTIONALLY putting lots of flower pieces in my infuser) tastes VERY vegetal and grassy. Actually, it tastes almost exactly how I would imagine drinking artichoke water after they’ve cooked! It’s not UNPLEASANT by any means, but I’m actually more intrigued by the flavor than I am IN LOVE with it. I’m guessing this tea will have many tasting notes from me if each cup is so drastically different!

This is certainly a rainbow of a blend! Wow, ten ingredients. I think it matters what ingredients you get in your infuser as to what this tastes like, since there are so many big flowers here. I tried to pack my infuser as much as possible. My steep color is a light green, though apparently it is supposed to be amber? The first taste I get is mint. I think there is a hint of the rosemary and lemon but it’s really a fresh and clean flavor. I’m not getting any of the flavor of any of the flowers or the pu-erh but maybe with so many flavors they are combining into one unique flavor! It seems to me like most teas would be “slimming” since you are drinking tea and not something with calories, but I like that this has a ton of other health benefits too. I’ll be trying this again since it seems every cup of this would be different (three of these flowers, four of these flowers… that sort of thing.) Thanks so much for the samples, Nature’s Tea Leaf!

Naturestealeaf.com sent me a coupon code for anyone to use for 10% off before 10/31: STEEPTY10OFF

I actually wasn’t expecting to like this one but it’s just so interesting! Mostly floral with a slight hint of citrus and a much bigger hint of mint. This is quite tasty compared to my experience with other ‘slimming’ blends, say from Teavana. I can’t really taste the pu’erh that is supposed to be in here but it just might not have been in the 3 scoops I used to brew this up.