Karkade or Hibiscus Tea

Recently I bought a pack of Hibiscus Tea. Well, in teabags, unfortunately. But it's good enough. For some reason this drink is not popular in US, but it is many other countries. It's a very common in Russia, so I missed in here. We call it Karkade in Russia, and not many Russians know that it actually comes from the beautiful Hibiscus flower. This tea has a distinct sour taste and bright reddish-pink color. It's very invigorating, especially, if you drink it hot and without sugar. I love it hot in the morning and cold in the evening. When you cool it down, it looses the sourness and has a just pleasant flower taste. Hibiscus tea is actually a mixture of herbal tea and hibiscus flower petals.

When I was in Mexico, I wanted to try something really local. My Mexican friend ordered Nopales or Nopal - grilled fleshy leaves of Opuntia cactus. My mom used to grow it as a pot plant in Siberia. But who would have thought that you can eat those prickly thick leaves! As for a drink, my friend recommended agua de Jamaica. And even though it is called "Jamaican Water" it's a traditional Mexican drink. Well, what do you think I said when I had the first sip? Karkade! Yes, that actually was ice cold hibiscus tea. And it was perfect on a hot day in the old colonial town of Puebla.

I think every drink is especially good in the right place and at the right time. I like my hibiscus tea on a Monday morning, to get energized for the long week! And I just wanna say "thank you" to the hibiscus plant, for giving us beautiful flowers and a tasty drink!

Soursop

One of the things I enjoy most about tea is the aroma. But not all teas have distinct smells, and sometimes I want a 'tasteless' tea. For example, when I brew green tea to cool it down and take with me on a bike ride. So, I was tasting the smell of every tea jar in my house to find the finest aroma. And I found it - Pi Lo Chun from Adagio Teas. My friend recommended to add some Soursop tea to add a flavor. I really liked the smell of soursop and I decided to do some research on that.

So, soursop or Annona muricata is a tropical fruit native to the Caribbean and South Africa. It's also called guanabana - I heard this name before! The fruit is used to make ice-cream, smoothies and drinks. But to make the soursop tea, you actually need the essence, which possesses diuretic quality. Well, it's good for your health, especially, on a hot day.

If you want to buy soursop tea, you can find it on Amazon, as almost anything else. The soursop tea has too much of a flavor to me, so I prefer to add just a touch to some tasteless green or white tea. The best thing is that it keeps the fragrance even when the drink is ice-cold. Perfect for the summer time!

Dragonwell

Every time I have guests in my house I offer them tea. But since we have such a big collection, people get lost in the variety of aromas and tastes. Thus, I decided to first ask my guests what kind of tea they would like (green, black or oolong) and then offer just two types of the desired tea. This time we’ve chosen Dragonwell green tea.

Dragonwell tea has a very interesting shape. The leaves are dried flat and they have shapes of sticks. So, you basically put greenish-yellowish flat sticks into your teapot. Very amusing! The color of the tea is also yellow, very sunny I would call it. I liked the smooth taste, but the aroma reminded me of something so familiar, something from the childhood I couldn’t remember. I smelled, and smelled, and smelled it, while we were talking, and finally I got it! Pumpkin seeds! Yes, roasted pumpkin seeds! Have you ever tired those? They even look somewhat similar to the tea. The kernels are flat, long and greenish-yellowish. The taste is very particular. Actually, pumpkin seeds are very good for you. They have loads of vitamins, fiber, iron, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, amino acids and calcium. Pumpkin seeds are used in many diets as they help digestion. You can eat them just like a healthy snack or add to salads and breads.

Now I wonder, how would this Dragonwell tea go with roasted pumpkin seeds? Perhaps, that would be a very healthy combination. Besides it’s nice to try something you have only eaten in your childhood. It brings back memories.

Pu Erh Dante & Milk

My husband surprised me today. When I came home from work, he made a nice dinner and brewed a new sort of tea. Pu Erh Dante from the Black Savant Sampler was our treat. I decided to call it "Pink Tea". No, it does not have hibiscus, berries or rosy flavor. As Adagio puts it, it has very "earthy taste". But the thing is, we drank it with milk, and when mixed with milk the tea gave a light shade of rosy pink.

Yes, yes, I know, you might say that milk spoils the taste of tea and that one should only drink tea straight. Well, let me try to argue that.

China is not the only country that has tea traditions. Many European countries have their own ways of drinking this delicious beverage. For example, English tea is tea with milk, Russian tea is tea with lemon and Mongolian tea is tea with butter. Who would have thought?

Milk has a lot of protein and animal fats that are good for you. However, people tend to use fermented milk, like in yogurt and cheese, because unprocessed milk is sometimes hard to digest. Tea provides a great mitigation for the bad effects of milk, making it easier to digest. Moreover, the combination of animal fats from milk, vegetable fats from tea, proteins and vitamins provides a wholesome complex, that is especially effective in the morning.

So, if you like tea with milk, drink it, be energetic and healthy!

Golden Spring

It's a beautiful morning and I was in a mood to try something "springy". I decided to go for "Golden Spring" from the Black Savant Sampler. The smell of the tea was strong black tea smell with a tone of orange. And I liked the color of the tea leaves. They were black and orange-yellow. As Adagio says, it's a mixture of dried and infused leaves (whatever that might mean).

One thing I like about Adagio teas is that each box has a sign with a temperature and the time of preparing the tea. Most of the teas need 180F or 82C water, but the "Golden Spring" required 212F or 100C. Such hot water made the taste stronger. It turned out to be very awakening and invigorating. Just what you need on a Spring morning.

Also, I'd like to share with you one secret. I found another nice place, where you can buy high quality loose tea in a big variety. That is a nice tea stand in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market. The Market, generally, is great! There is such a selection of fresh cheeses, meats, fish, flowers, coffee and tea. And of course, you can't resist the famous Philly Cheese Steak. Not very healthy, but yum!

Well, I'll get back to enjoying my Golden Spring tea and morning.

Oolong #8

Last night we decided to start tasting the tea collection from oolong. Actually, this is one of my favorite types of tea and my husband knew I'd start with oolong. What is oolong tea? Let me ask first about, do you know the difference between green and black tea? Well, of course, one is green and the other is black. But why are they different? Do they come from different plants? Or are they harvested at a different time? Well, no and no. I just personally think this is fascinating.

The black and the green tea come from the same type of plant and are harvested at the same time. The difference is in the way they are processed. The black tea is fermented and the green tea leaves out the fermentation stage. The oolong tea is somewhere in between, as Wikipedia says "it ranges from 10% to 70% oxidation."

Anyway, we started with Oolong #8 from Oolong Sampler. The smell was very typical oolong tea smell. It smells more like green tea, but has a dash of tartness. The color was yellow-orange, honey-like. It turned a browner shade of orange in my cup after a few minutes. Very beautiful color. My pictures are not professional in any way, but I'm showing what I got in my cup. As for the taste, well, I'll call it "classic oolong taste". I fully enjoyed the softness and the light tartness it has.

And since it was my first experience with Adagio, I'll say that I'm very satisfied with the quality of the tea, the package and the whole experience. And I'm very excited to try the next one!

Oolong Sampler

Tea on the loose

After coming to US from Russia, I found it difficult to find loose tea in the States. First, they don't drink tea here, unless it's ice tea, and second, even if you buy tea, it's mostly in tea-bags. But the fastness that you have preparing "bagged tea" can not substitute the fine pleasure that you experience, when you see little peaces of tea leaves unwrap and dance in a pot of hot water. I always loved French press teapots (or coffee pots, as they call them). My Mom recently presented me with a
Bodum French press teapot. Beautiful! And then my husband's friend sent us a set of loose tea samplers from http://www.adagio.com. Thanks a lot, Mike!

There were 18 small green jars of teas: 4 black teas, 4 green teas, 4 oolong teas and another set of 6 green teas. These are the samplers we've got.


Oolong Sampler
Green Savant Sampler
Black Savant Sampler
Green Sampler

Although this sampler didn't match with the one shown on the website. Instead of Anji Duet and Kukicha we got Sencha Overture and Gunpowder. I didn't mind at all, as I love Sencha tea and Gunpowder is a type that you have to try to make your own opinion. You'll either love it or hate it, just like sushi. I love sushi, as you can guess.

I decided to write my impressions about these teas and, perhaps, some others in a blog, to keep track of what I've already tried and to share my experience with you. So, let's drink!