Tag Archives: 5 cups

Valentine Teas – Wedding Tea

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Wedding Tea: Mutan White tea, lemon, vanilla, and pink rosebuds and petals.

This tea is by Harney & Son’s and can be found here.

I first discovered this tea about four years ago when my best friend, who also is a tea-alolic got married. I was her maid of honor and threw her a tea party themed bridal shower. While the planning details of that event  (and the wedding) were a bit hellish, I am so glad I did it. Mainly because of it I found this tea! lol, I mean mainly because of the joy it brought my best friend? Anyways, this tea has become one of my favorite white tea blends, and one that despite its name, I always keep on hand. Though I am not going to lie, I do get some weird looks when I pull this out for guests considering that I am currently single.

Wedding TeaFirst off, let me say that I love the aroma of this tea. There is a slight undertone of the aromal of the tea itself, but mainly it is the lovely sweet smell of vanilla with a hint of lemon. Not going to lie, I sometimes open the tea tin just to smell the tea. I brewed this cup of tea at 185º for three minutes. I did just check Harney & Son’s website to verify that before I posted this, and they recommend brewing it at 175º instead of 185º. My tea electric tea kettle (Cuisinart CPK-17 PerfecTemp Kettle) has a setting for white tea which brews it at 185º, and that is what I tend to brew my white teas on. Though honestly that is mainly because my brain goes, “White tea? Press the white tea button.” Personally I love this tea the way I brew it, but maybe next time I will try it at the temperature the site recommends to see if there is a difference. Now, onto flavor! It pretty much tastes how you would expect it too, given how it smells. It’s a beautiful blend of the subtle white tea flavors with that of vanilla and lemon. There are two things that I truly love about this blend. One, the aroma of this tea matches the flavor. I understand that the aroma of tea doesn’t have to match its flavor, and indeed sometimes that is done by design, but depending on what the aroma is (chocolate for example) I feel like I get cheated if the scent doesn’t match the flavor. Two, I love the subtle flavors of white tea, and generally speaking, I have found that white tea blends tend to overpower the flavor of the white tea and make it about the added ingredients. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes that is good, but I love how the flavors this tea, all blend together equally.

On a side note, this tea is called the Wedding Tea for a reason. You can get this as tea favors for you wedding or as a wedding gift for a friend. They have a variety of options, and from personal experience I did get a personalized 5 sachets tin for my friends wedding. It was a part of a care bag I gave them for their honeymoon.

Overall Rating: 5 cups

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Tea Advent Calendar — Day 14

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Breakfast Tea — Golden tips whole leaf black tea from Assam.

Assam is a region in India known for its production of tea. It is actually the largest tea producing region in the world. The majority of the tea produced there is black tea, and are ubiquitously called Assam black teas. What makes this tea special is its ‘golden tips’. Golden tip teas are harder to produce and there for more expensive. It is my understanding that golden tip teas are picked earlier than regular teas resulting in immature tips, which accounts for the smaller leaves that are lighter in color. Additionally they have a slightly longer oxidization process, which also adds to the golden tones of the leaves. As I Day-14have mentioned before, Assam teas are rather strong, and therefore normally cut with milk and sugar, however Assam teas with golden tips tend to be milder in flavor, so it might not be necessary.

I steeped this tea for 5 minutes in boiling water. This is a relatively mild tea that has this great caramel-butter flavor to it. There is also a hint of the maltiness that is often found in more mature Assam teas. For those of you that tend to stay away from Assam teas due to their bold, and sometimes slightly bitter flavors, I would recommend that you try this tea. It is a great, crisp, light bodied tea, without even the hint of bitterness. Personally speaking, I love this tea, and even though it is called a ‘breakfast tea’, it is a tea that I would love to have throughout the day.

Overall Rating: 5 cups

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