Time for the attack of the monthly tea box reviews for March!
First up, Simple Loose Leaf, a monthly Co-op tea box that sends 4 to 6 loose leaf tea samples (1/4oz size) – you get a wide assortment of different teas such as straight teas, blends and herbals. With being in the Tea Co-op, you get a membership ID. If you enjoy and want more tea that you’ve sampled, you can purchase it from the Simple Loose Leaf Tea Shop for 50% off.
For your first box, you can enter OolongOwl for a 50% off your first Simple Loose Leaf’s Tea co-op box!
The teas this month for Simple Loose Leaf are Gunpowder Green, Thai Chai Tea, Spearmint Herbal, Sungma Estate Darjeeling and Senna & Anise Herbal Pu’er.
This month came with some organic sugar packets and more cloth infuser bags (not shown, the tea owls were using them as beach blankets.) I’m going to sample Sungma Estate Darjeeling and a do-it-yourself blend.
Tasting of March Simple Loose Leaf Teas
Sungma Estate Darjeeling
The dry leaf has a sweet, lightly smokey and woodsy scent. I steeped 3 grams of leaf for 3.5 minutes in boiling water.
Steeped up, Sungma Estate Darjeeling smells like freshly baked bread with that bronze shiny egg wash crush. The tea color is quite nice with a pretty clear amber gold.
Sungma Estate Darjeeling sips in sweet green grape, bread and a hint of floral end of sip. This is a light sweetness with the grape which matches will with the bready and floral notes, as well as the light flavor. The tea is very smooth in texture with no dry or bitterness. Interestingly, Sungma Estate Darjeeling is not heavy thick or strong in flavor, making for a light cup of black tea.
I found Sungma Estate Darjeeling really easy to drink and I love the sweetness. This black eould be a perfect afternoon tea for something light to drink, paired with some heavy creamy snacks.
Morocccan Spearmint tea
Enclosed with this month box was an extra card with a recipe for Moroccan Spearmint tea in which you use the Gunpowder Green, Spearmint herbal and the sugar packets. What a cool idea!
I followed the recipe card, but halved it (forever alone tea drinker here), so 2 grams gunpowder green and 1 gram of spearmint. I used 2 packets of sugar (which was less than the recipe, but I wished I used only one packet). I cringed as a steeped the green tea with boiling water, but I will follow the directions!
Morocccan Spearmint tea sips in really nice despite the 212 water. The green isn’t bitter (or is that all the sugar?) The tea is sugar sweet, super fresh with plenty of spearmint buzzing in my mouth. This tea blend is like drinking a grassy green combined with ultra fresh spearmint candy. My breath must smell fantastic! I need to go breathe on people to confirm… confirmed!
I made the rest of my sample into more Moroccan Spearmint tea (with a bit extra gunpowder green from my stash) but iced. Turns out Gunpowder Green + Spearmint = awesome mega refreshing iced tea and doesn’t need to be sweetened as the spearmint adds lots of love to the mix!
Comments
This was a really interesting Simple Loose Leaf box this month. I really liked the Moroccan green blender, that was fun! The Darjeeling was a nice luxury to drink. I wasn’t a fan of the herbal pu’er (I personally dislike licorice with a passion) nor was excited about the Thai Chai, but otherwise was a fun box of tea for the month!
(tea provided for review)
