This morning I was in the mood for something different. I’m tired after last nights World of Warcraft session involving my female Panda Warrior (named Alishan)’s tour of shield slamming baddies in heroic dungeons. Shield Charge! SLAM! Panda Panda! I’m tired enough to want to drink a crazy weird tea.
Enter Wize Monkey Armando’s Original Blend Coffee Leaf Tea. Wut? Probably one of the few times you’ll hear a coffee like product here at Oolong Owl. These are the leaves off a 100% organic Arabica coffee plant grown in Nicaragua. I don’t know much about coffee, but coffee has a harvest season of 3 months, whereas one could harvest the leaves all year round. The coffee leaf tea has 12mg of caffeine, not enough for this tired tea owl, but enough to keep me awake to check my email.
Dry Leaf
Tea bag? Psssshhh, show us Tea Owls the goods! Inside the tea bag is a crushed brown and dusty leaf. Looks similar to guayusa, mate or yaupon leaf. The scent is very strong herby and leafy, very similar to guayusa.
Steeping Instructions
The steeping instructions of Armando’s Original Blend Coffee Leaf Tea is listed on the sample – 95C (203F) water for a 3 to 4 minute steep. I did 200F for 3.5 minutes with the leaf in a brew basket.
Tasting of Wize Monkey’s Armando’s Original Blend Coffee Leaf Tea
Armando’s Original Blend Coffee Leaf Tea brews up a pretty amber with some floating debris. It has a pungently brisk herbal leafy scent. I don’t have any crochet monkeys, but I have a triceratops!
With a scent that leafy pungent, the flavor is sure a 180! The flavor is very smooth, almost creamy, malty and earthy start, reminding me of a late resteep of a black tea. Mid sip there is a little bit of a licorice sweet vibe going. End of sip the coffee leaf tea hits you with a strong creamy herbal punch at the end, like orchard grass hay (kind my bunny eats which is sweeter and softer than timothy hay) and honey. The finish really tastes like guayusa to me, but more grassy, but not as grassy as yaupon. There is no bitter or dryness in this tea, making for an easy sip.
There is some debris in my cup but they did not add any chunky texture and eventually sunk to the bottom.
Comments
Admittedly, I was worried coffee leaf tea would be overly herby or a bitter coffee hell, but Armando’s Original Blend Coffee Leaf Tea is really smooth and easy to drink with a pleasing amount of sweetness.
Hmmm, who would like this tea? This is a hard one. There’s a few elements going on in Armando’s Original Blend Coffee Leaf Tea, lighter malty black, grassy green, herbal bushy, and licorice sweet, I’d lean a herbal and green tea drinker would like this tea. Both coffee and tea adventurists would enjoy coffee leaf tea as well.
What is super cool is Wize Monkey sells a $10 sample with free shipping if you’d like to try their cool coffee leaf tea out!
Bonus: The amber glow of Coffee Leaf Tea
(tea provided for review)
