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This evening I am sipping on a soothing Moroccan Mint green tea from Upton Tea Imports. The vegetal flavors normally associated with a green tea are absent, but instead are replaced with peppermint.
For a background on Moroccan tea culture, please read Wikipedia’s entry here. According to this entry, “tea occupies a very important place in Moroccan culture and is considered an art form.” We, at BookofTea, can get behind that.
The mint flavor, while not subtle, can be brought out even more by adding sweetener. My selection this evening was pure cane sugar. It was absolutely wonderful.
As previously mentioned, this tea was made with peppermint, but it can often be found with spearmint. The peppermint is blended with a gunpowder green tea. Make sure you pay attention especially if you dislike either type of mint. I would have enjoyed this tea even more had I some fresh mint sprigs.
Moroccan Mint green tea is good both served hot and on ice.
I have been on hiatus for awhile. Very little tea has been drunk by me over the last two months, outside of the morning iced chai for the walk to work. I have been known to mix it up a bit in the morning, and on occasion have had iced green or black tea. I have been meaning to try Starbucks passionfruit tea, which I will make it a point to do tomorrow. It is really hard for me to be inspired while not being close to any tea dens. I have, however, made it a point to use a gift certificate at Adagio to purchase tea, including the one I will be reviewing today: cocomint green.
I bought a small sampler of cocomint green and was intrigued by one tea reviewer claiming it tasted of peppermint patties in a cup. I do so enjoy the combination of chocolate and mint, and am also fond of mint in tea, so I thought I would give this a try. The green tea flavor is hardly noticeable, because it is dominated by the mint and chocolate. This is a very enjoyable cup of tea: one that I return to when I feel in need of restoration from a long day or a head cold, which I am currently recovering from. I would like to point out that this tea does smell much better than it tastes, so don’t let your sniffer predispose you to forming an opinion of the tea before you have even tried it, for you will be disappointed.
I apologize for my long absence. Please note that posts will not be updated on the previous schedule, but I hope that you will check in periodically to see what new things I have been brewing. Look for a post tomorrow on Starbucks passionfruit tea. Until then…namaste.
I purchased 2 oz. of Moroccan Mint at Teavana today against my better judgment. It’s not that the tea is bad; it is quite the opposite, but the salespeople are so pushy. I know that they work on commission, but when I say I want 2 oz., do you really think I might be interested in purchasing 1 lb. of tea despite the 10 percent discount? (Edit: Maybe I should have bought one pound. I am really going through it.)
Had I gone to yoga today, I would have picked up a Moroccan Mint from Kookoo Cafe, but alas, sleep was more important to me this morning.
While at Teavana I also bought a new mug (w/lid) for my new job. I am really excited about all the tea and teaware I can store at my new desk. My prior job was pretty much open to the public, so it was hard to have any personal effects. I think I might be on the market for either a perfect teamaker from Teavana or a ingenuitea from Adagio. If you own one of these, please let me know what you think.
I did have a cup of the Moroccan Mint tea after coming home from a day of shopping, and it was so refreshing. I think Moroccan Mint is a tea that works well both iced and hot. I was pretty sure that I preferred green tea with peppermint, but I do so enjoy the spearmint with gunpowder green tea in a Moroccan Mint.
Do you ever put sugar in your Moroccan Mint? I have seen it various places that sugar in this type of tea is a good combination. Your thoughts, please.
As you might have gathered from recent posts, I am hitting the iced tea lately. I have always been partial to iced drinks, and really had to adapt to hot beverages in Massachusetts’ capricious weather that was unthinkable in my former home, Florida. I think it is important to drink what your own personal whims dictate, and mine have been enjoying the four offerings of iced tea each day at Tealuxe. Over the past four days I have enjoyed four teas, which all are available hot, so I will be able to enjoy them even when they cannot be found cold.
kir royale iced tea from Tealuxe (0 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
Tealuxe description:
A warm and sweet mixture of various red berries and fruits. Set apart by the tangy flavor of black currant. Give yourself the royal treatment, Kir Royale treatment.
Tastes a little of blackberry juices. This is an herbal tea, and I am really not one to compliment an herbal tea.
vanilla jasmine iced tea from Tealuxe (108 Newbury Street, Boston)
Tealuxe description:
A “must have”. Start with the tastiness of good Ceylon vanilla tea and add sweet jasmine. The result: two flavors that were meant for each other.
Neither jasmine nor vanilla was very strong in this black tea blend. I have recently grown tired of jasmine tea, but decided to try this one insofar as none of the other offerings interested me and I had a hankering for tea. This was a nice surprise, and my first experience with jasmine in a black tea.
pear & green tea (iced) from Tealuxe (108 Newbury Street, Boston)
Wonderful combination of green tea and pear flavor. I just love the pleasing yellow/green color of a green tea especially when it is iced and in a transparent cup.
white blueberry iced tea from Tealuxe (0 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
Tealuxe description:
Rare White Tea from the Fujian region flavored with sweet blueberries. A wonderfully smooth and subtle treat. Try it hot or iced.
This is my third chance to try white tea, and each time I have come away with the feeling that white tea does not have a very strong flavor. This was also true of this tasting, but this time it was suited to the subtle blueberry flavor.
Bus ride home tea:
Moroccan mint iced tea from Tealuxe (0 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
Tealuxe description:
Gunpowder green tea blended with a generous amount of Moroccan spearmint.
I am in pursuit of the perfect Moroccan mint tea. This one was pretty good, and I liked the fact that it came iced, but I think I prefer Kookoo Cafe’s offering from MEM Tea. The green tea was overpowered by the spearmint flavor in Tealuxe’s.
Please let me know if you have any recipes for iced tea. I would love to hear from you.
Tea for the bus ride home:
raspberry green iced tea from Tealuxe (0 Brattle Street, Cambridge)
On a 76 degree day it is nice to have a glass of iced tea. I stopped at Tealuxe on my way to the bus hoping to find something different from my daily tea offerings. The tea chain were serving three kinds of iced tea: spicy chai, a medicinal herbal tea, and the one I selected, raspberry green. It was exactly what I was looking for: strong fruit flavor with a hint of tea. When I say strong, I should not mislead you because as green teas go, the fruit flavor was not overpowering but a perfect balance. The tea came unsweetened, but I added sugar. I think I could have easily done without the sugar, but thought the sweetener enhanced the raspberry flavor. I don’t know how often Tealuxe carries this tea, but I will definitely be on the lookout for it the next time I am in need of a refreshing glass of iced tea.
Today I had a very bad tea day. I tried three iced teas and they were all less than desirable. For lunch I drank a Diet Lemon Snapple. I know, I know, what was I expecting from a diet tea? Well, Jason makes excellent iced tea with splenda and the taste does not suffer. This tea tasted of sweetener and artificial flavoring.
With my dinner I had an iced thai tea with half and half and sugar. I don’t skimp when I buy teas that were made for milk/half and half and sweetener. While I really wanted to like this tea (the visual appeal of this tea is so inviting), it just wasn’t what I wanted. I guess I was expecting something creamy, and I could only taste the ineffable chalky orange liquid.
After dinner I was set on recovering from my miserable tea-tasting day, so I went to Starbucks and decided to try an iced green tea latte. Mistake #1: Never order something you have never ordered before, and expect it to compensate for a miserable experience. I saw the barista poured in a copious amount of milk and some green powder. I would like to say the powder was matcha, but I doubt it was. Just a major letdown.
Breakfast tea on 4.19.08:
moroccan mint from Kookoo Cafe (7 Station Street, Brookline)
Description:
“Organic China Gunpowder (rolled) green tea with balanced addition of specially selected mint; aromatic, rich and refreshing. Takes sugar well. Low caffeine.”
An excellent mint green tea. I can see where this would also be good iced. I will have to visit Cardullo’s to pick up a bag of this tea for the summer. The mint was very mild, just how I like it, so that it did not overpower the tea. This is my first experience with mint tea, and I am positive it will not be my last.
Breakfast tea:
genmaicha extra green with matcha from Den’s Tea
You could really taste the quality of this tea bag. (Yes, this was a tea bag, but I don’t wake up in time to prepare myself a cup of tea, so I settle for a tea bag at work.) This was a pyramid tea bag, which supposedly gives more room to the tea leaves and perhaps it does; it’s hard for me to say. This was my first time trying matcha outside of eating it on baked goods, and I could have really used a bamboo whisk insofar as the powder settled to the bottom of my cup.
I received a green tea kit from Den’s Tea yesterday for only three dollars, and it included this tea bag, a sencha tea bag, a 10 gram sample of genmaicha extra green with matcha, and a 10 gram sample of sencha fukamidori. Three dollars well spent. I will definitely be ordering Den’s other products when it comes time to place a new tea order.
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