Tea and Zen

I was at the store the other day and laid my eyes on a few different teas. I had seen them before and never bought them. They were vastly over priced. Today, they were on sale 3/$10. So I thought, why not? I bought this, Earl Grey De La Creme, and Lavender Chamomile.

Dry leaves

Since these cost me $3.33 each, I did not expect much out of them. The leaf quality I could see through the clear viewing pocket was a clear indication of that on it's own. Not to mention all the twigs. Even without separating them you can tell that there is a lot. The leaves are very coarse and appear to be an inexpensive Chinese Sencha. There is a lot of lemongrass, a little lemon peel, and about the same amount of orange peel. From the loose sample above, I found all the following twigs.

Twigs

That is a lot of twigs. Pictured above there is around 7g.

When you are purchasing tea I think it is important for you to look out for something. This will be your first clear indicator if a tea company is legit and knows what they're doing. Can you take a guess?

Health claims. If the company claims that their tea will help you lose weight, give you a mental or energy boost, or relax your body or mind, among many others, don't spend a lot of money on them. That's one reason I left these on the shelf for a very long time and didn't pick them up till today. Normally it is $7 per package.

For the Lean Green Machine, Tiesta tea says the following:

Our Slenderizer Blends contain green and oolong teas that suppress your appetite and boost your metabolism, helping you maintain a healthy weight.

Company's claim just about everything for green tea. I've seen some claim it can ever cure cancer. This company isn't going that far, but still. If you see heath claims, don't expect anything too great. Look elsewhere for properly sourced, legit, high quality tea.

Hot Western Brewing

Packaging

I used the brewing directions pictured above except I used more leaf. For 8oz I used 2tsp of tea. I brewed the leaves for three minutes at 80C (175F).

Well, I don't have a whole lot to say about the tea. It doesn't taste anything like green tea. It tastes like lemongrass. Unless you're looking for it, the taste of the lemon peel and orange peel is barely there. It lingers around the edges of your tongue but that is it. I gave some to my family, and as average drinkers, they could not taste the lemon or orange peel when drinking the tea. Not a hint of the Chinese sencha.

The liquor is mildly astringent. Don't bother making a second brew because it doesn't taste like much.

The aroma is that of lemongrass. That is it. This is both true for the dry leaf, liquor, and brewing leaves.

When I was making this a second time, one of my family members shut off my timer. It had been sitting in the water for at least 10 minutes. It didn't go bitter, so that was nice at least. 

Brewing leaves

Wet leaves

The leaves once brewed were fully open. This was one sign to me that it was not going to make for a good second brew.

That was exactly the case.

Liquor

The liquor had lots of little specs of tea floating around in it. As the leaf was very coarse and broken I wasn't too surprised. The strainer is very fine and almost next to nothing gets through it, so the fact that these small leaf particles did is impressive, and not in a good way.

Iced Western Brewing

You know what is annoying?

When you make ice cubes with plans of making iced tea in the near future. Everyone else uses the ice, and instead of taking the two seconds it takes to refill the tray, they leave empty trays on the counter.

There was no ice. This happens all the damn time and it's annoying. Don't do that kids, take the time to refill the damn ice trays.

I used 4tsp of tea for 8oz as the package says to use double of what you use for the hot, when brewing iced tea. I used 80C (175F) water, brewed for three minutes, then poured over ice.

First try

This sucked. It was a bitter gross mess with a hint of lemongrass. I drank the whole thing anyway and damn was that painful.

So I tried again. It wasn't bad hot, so there is no reason it should've been that disgusting iced other than the fact I used a lot of leaf.

I used 3tsp as the bag suggests and then the above parameters. If it was still a bitter disgusting mess I was going to be extremely sad.

It was a tad bitter, and still pretty gross, didn't taste like much. I could barely taste the lemongrass and there was still no sign of the orange or lemon peel. It was astringent, and the mouth feel was kinda prickly and flat.

Rating

I give this tea a solid four, my sisters boyfriend gives this tea an eight, he loves it. I wasn't expecting much out of this tea when I bought it. It tastes exactly how the package says it will so can't complain about that.

For $3.33 however, it isn't bad. It's not something I would buy again, but I don't regret buying it for the price. I definitely recommend this hot opposed to iced. You can just get rid of the tea faster ice. Just ick... one of the worst iced teas I've ever had. Iced I give this a two. 

I managed to get through the 53.9g in about four days. The bag says that you can make 15-25 cups. I ended up being able to make 13 total (mix of iced and hot brewings). I also used more leaf than the bag suggests, so 15-25 seems about right.

If you are interested, you can purchase this tea here. As stated at the beginning of the article I bought it at a local supermarket. You may be able to purchase it there as well.