POKKA Oolong

No shit, the single best canned or bottled RTD tea I've ever had. Dr. Weil can go back to his day job. I found it at Whole Foods yesterday, and bought one with low expectations, expecting something greenish, astringent, and unremarkable.

Nuh-uh.

Yancha. Perfectly balanced yancha. Not too mild or watery and without the astringent bite that many unsweetened RTD's possess. I'd place it on par with Rishi's Wuyi Oolong. Not a lot of depth or nuance, but a very good, classic example. Great Flavor. It's Wuyi cha better than I could brew it.

No sugar, preservatives, calories, or coloring. Thanks Pokka!

Cha Dao Revisited

Click here for the original post.

They were demoing the Cha Dao RTD teas this weekend, and I sampled the two flavors that I had not previously tried, the Jasmine Green Tea with Lemon and the Chrysanthemum. I was intrigued, so I picked up a bottle of each.

Initially the Jasmine and lemon seemed a pleasant combination, but soon the lemon became cloying, overpowering instead of blending with what would have been an unassuming jasmine green.

The Chrysanthemum was more successful and enjoyable, crisp and clear. RTD teas rarely taste like they "should," often only an imitation of whatever tea it claims to be, but this tastes and smells exactly like ju hua. My first thought was that they did a better job of making it then I did. It was refreshing and an agreeable change of pace.

Hansen's Imported From Nature Tea

I have tried not to use my blog as a place to rant. If I pick a tea to review and it turns out that the tea is poor, so be it. But more and more I try to avoid reviewing a tea that I know will be unpleasant or simply unpalatable. What would be the point? "Bigelow Green Tea, not so good." No shit, right? But I simply can not hold my peace on this any longer.

Americans have a rather dichotomous relationship with our bodies. We are collectively caught up in the health food craze, tea good, carbs bad, and yet we are a nation of fat people. 127 million Americans are overweight; 60 million are considered obese.1

Of course there are a variety of reasons for this, but I think part of the problem is this propaganda war that food and beverage companies have launched against we the consumers. Junk food proclaimed as healthy; Oreos with no trans fat, low-carb beer, and now Hansen's new line of Imported From Nature Tea, "lightly sweetened," with 75 mg of EGCG (its on the label four times, so you wont miss it) and 46 grams of sugar.

I was curious just how much 46 grams of sugar is, so I took a picture, an approximation of the ingredients: 16 oz water, 4 grams of tea (BOP), and 46 grams of sugar.

Maybe its just me, but I think the picture speaks for itself.

Weil for Tea

Ito En teamed up with Dr. Andrew Weil and released a line of tea bags, loose tea, and RTD cans.

Lest you think...I don't know what you might think, but I wish to make it unequivocally clear that I am here to explore the palatable, historical, cultural and aesthetic side of tea, not to perpetuate the current tea related health craze. If you drink tea for health, I think that is wonderful; we could all benefit from healthier lifestyles, but it is not my thing. I work with tea in a retail setting, and one can only sell so much wulong weight-loss tea before becoming a mite tetchy with the subject.

It turns out this stuff is quite good, standard disclaimers concerning ready to drink teas not withstanding. I brought home three flavors, Jasmine White, Gyokuro, and Darjeeling, all unsweetened and calorie free.

I think that these are the tree best RTD teas I've had. They are well balanced. Some unsweetened teas are too weak, watery, while others become overly astringent and unpleasant. These are flavorful, clean and fresh.

I have yet to try real Gyokuro, so I can not properly compare this one to anything. It is smooth, less astringent then Ito En's Just Green, kind of nutty. The Darjeeling was amazing for what it is. Possibly a blend, definitely a late season flush if not, but unmistakeably Darjeeling.

I am impressed. Never before have I had a bottled tea that had as much natural flavor without tasting over-steeped or relying on sweetener to mask the bitterness.

Cha Dao Bottled Teas

A new line of teas from Cha Dao came in today.

Now this may all be a gimmick, who's to say, but Cha Dao describes their teas as "Fresh," meaning instead of a bottled tea that is shelf stable that could have been brewed over a year ago, these teas are kept refrigerated and have a relatively short shelf life. The one I'm drinking right now expires next Saturday.

Both the Sencha and the High Mountain Oolong taste over-brewed. They have a high level of astringency I find typical in many unsweetened bottled teas. The oolong does have a distinct jade oolong taste, setting it apart from the Ito en or Adagio oolong.

But the Yin Yang, a lightly sweetened blend of black tea and coffee is surprisingly good. Much better than my attempt to make a coffee tea. It is wonderfully balanced, both the coffee and the tea are distinct without overpowering the other. It has a very clean taste, nothing artificial. The 9 grams of sugar per 8 oz is almost perfect, in my opinion--I usually use 5-7 grams (one tsp.) for black tea.* As trite as it may be, Yin Yang is a fitting name for this tea.

*This is my public confession; yes, I use sugar in my tea. Only in my black tea, though. Never in anything else. The coffee drinker in my wants it to be strong, dark and sweet.

Anteadote

One of the nice things, an unexpected bonus, to running a tea blog has been the free stuff. Even bad tea is kind of fun when someone took the time to give it to you. Though this time the free tea has nothing to do with the blog and everything to with the fact I have no life and spend an inordinate amount of my free time on TeaChat. Adagio recently introduced a new flavor of their Anteadote bottled tea, Oolong, which I understand uses TGY, and asked their more chatty users if they would like a free case.

To which I said, "Yes, please."

I received the case a few days ago, and I thought it would be just the Oolong, but it turns out to be an even mix of all five flavors.

Adagio's Anteadote is a line of five organic ready-to-drink (RTD) teas, Green, Jasmine Green, White, Black, and now Oolong. They're all sugar and sweetener free and only three ingredients, water, tea, and vitamin C.

The Green and White are my least favorite. There's a funky taste that I can't place, and to be honest, they're kind of hard to tell a part. That being said, they're still better than most of the bottled alternatives. The Oolong isn't much different, but I like it a bit more.

The Jasmine Green is pleasant enough. Nice and jasmine-y, moderately astringent. I have a small appetite for jasmine tea; its nice every now and then, and it went well with my dinner.

The one that really excites me is the Black Tea, made with dian hong. I think dian hong cha is vastly superior to most other types of black tea, and while I am sure that Adagio is using a very low grade, I still prefer it to the standard Indian, Ceylon, or African tea that you usually find in RTD teas.

Thanks again, Adagio.

Fair Trade Month

October is Fair Trade Month!

This is my second year to be involved and to coordinate a Fair Trade Weekend for the store, where we do various demos on coffee, chocolate, sugar, and tea, while trying to raise general awareness in the area about the existence and benefits of Fair Trade Certified goods. This year I am also planning an event for one of our other stores to coincide with ours, and while so far it seems to be mostly a learning experience on how to do it better next year, all in all I am pleased with our progress. This year there is more vendor involvement and lots of new items we didn't have last year. Let's take a look.

Honest Tea

They are my favorite bottled tea company, dedicated to offering bottled tea without all the sugar and calories, and they have the distinction of offering the first Fair Trade Certified bottled tea, Peach Oolong using tea from Makaibari.

Pomegranate Red Tea with Goji Berries: I liked this one. A lot. Though I'm not often a fan of flavored teas, this one was enjoyable. Moderately sweetened, it could have had less or no sugar and been fine, but it was not overpowering, and I could actually taste the Goji berries.

Just Black Tea/Just Green Tea: The just black tea was kind of average. Props to Honest Tea for offering unsweetened, bottled tea, but this ones is not very exciting. However, I am completely fascinated with the Just Green Tea. I want to know how they made it taste like that. Did they simply boil some tea leaves for a fort night and bottle what was left, or what. This stuff was inexcusably vile. It went beyond bad green tea, which I've come to expect from RTD teas, and into a whole new level of suckiness.

Sorry, Seth and Barry.

Third Street Chai

Chai mixes don't compare to the real thing, but as chai mixes go, these are rather nice. Not quite the best mix I've tried, but a solid second best. Of the four we carry, I think I like the Honey Vanilla the best. I have not tried it hot yet, only cold.

Zhenna's Gypsy Tea

A line of iced tea mixes, each tin contains five silk tea pillows. Sounds cozy.

Goji Berry Pomegranate: Goji berries have been big this year; I've seen them in a variety of products, including a barbecue sauce. Unfortunately you can't taste the goji berry in this, which may be because there is only one berry per tea pillow, or because the only thing you can taste is the large amount of lemongrass they added to it. I have a small appetite for lemongrass, so I wouldn't say this tea was a waste, but it was a disappointment.

Blueberry Acai: This one was much better. A rooibos blend not quite as good but similar to Rishi's blueberry rooibos. Pleasantly fruity and tart and a more balanced blend.

That sums up most of the new teas. If you were wondering, the Ben and Jerry's Fair Trade Certified Coffee Heath Bar Crunch was also delicious. I'm sure I'll talk about Fair Trade some more this month, but in the mean time, if I didn't leave enough links the last time I talked about Fair Trade, check out this video, Fair Trade: The Story.

Inko's White Tea Energy

A brand new product that came into the store today, an energy drink from Inko's that is a 'Jitter-Free Adult Energy Drink." It is a 'lightly' sweetened blend of black and white teas with lemon juice, ginger, ginseng and a few other things. Curious, I opened a can and gave it a whirl.

The lemon juice seems to be the dominant flavor. If I had to describe this tea in a word, it would be 'bleh.' I did not get an energy boost, but I did get an upset stomach for my troubles. I was not fond of this beverage, and I think the Steaz energy drink is better. I think just about any other source of caffeine is better.

If you see it and your are curious, you might like it, so give it a try, but it wasn't for me.

Pure Green Tea: Adagio vs Ito En

Today at work I did a taste test between two different bottled green teas, Adagio's Anteadote Pure Green Tea and Ito En's Teas' Tea Pure Green, using the resources of my job to pool together a diverse group of tasters: white folk from a wide range of tax brackets, all higher than my own, and Arop, a refugee from Sudan, who is our sales rep. from Dr. Pepper.

First let me say, if you ever get a chance to offer a group of Texans unsweetened green tea, do it; it is an experience. I've never heard green tea, or any tea for that matter, compared to Worcestershire sauce until today, nor have I seen a 50-year-old woman stick her tongue out that far as she shook her head in disgust.

Our Contestants:

Adagio Anteadote Pure Green tea. A 500 ml bottle retails for $1.79 in my neck of the words or $2 on their website. The ingredients are simple enough, filtered water, green tea, vitamin c. It does not specify what type of green tea is used, though that is no surprise since it is bottled tea after all. It is labeled Product of China, so I assume it is at least Chinese tea.

My impressions: Its kind of pleasant, does not taste over brewed. As bottle teas go, you could do much, much worse. The problem is that the dominant flavor doesn't taste like tea; I don't know it its too much ascorbic acid or what, but it becomes unpleasant after a while.

Ito En Teas' Tea Pure Green. Retails at 2.29 for 500 ml. The ingredients listed are the same. Ito En is a Japanese company, so likewise I assume that they use Japanese tea.

My impressions: It clearly tastes like Japanese tea. I am not as familiar with tea from Japan yet, but I'd guess they're using bancha. There is a subtle roasted flavor. Over all it is too astringent for me to say that its good, but for a bottled tea, it is probably one of the best ones out there. I do like the boldness of the flavor. Other unsweetened teas that I have tried taste watered down, weak, I suspect to compensate for the lack of sugar. Ito En makes no compromises with this one.

Customer's Vote: Ito En: 16 votes. Adagio: 25 votes.

Unfortunately many of the customers who sampled the product did not seem to grasp the idea of a taste test. They'd grab a cup and walk off, so only about 50-60% voted. What was the most interesting about the experience is seeing how different people's pallets are. Most voted for the tea that was strongest, but they couldn't agree on which one that was.

Adagio won the popular vote, but I say go with Ito En. Theirs taste more like tea should, and provide the uninitiated consumer with a better idea of the true flavor of green tea. For more experienced tea drinkers, you probably already know you get better results when you make your own.

Steaz Energy Drink

"Organic fuel for the mind, body and soul." Yep...this is going to be a fluff review.

We got this in not that long ago. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, just another new item, but tonight as I was leaving I noticed a shiny Fair Trade Certified logo. My interest was piqued, a FTC energy drink? So I dropped a can in the wine-chiller and gave it a go.

The ingredient list is a cornucopia of buzz words, acai, yerba mate, green tea, enough to make any fan of Oprah all giddy in the britches. The price isn't that bad, $1.99 for a 12 oz can, and it tastes much better than a Red Bull. Can't say I'll be craving in any time soon, but the flavor was pleasant enough. None of the ingredients stood out; they just sort of meshed together without complimenting one another, but have you tasted a Red Bull?

Its a decent enough beverage, but energy drinks have never been my thing. The thing that excites me are the ingredients, FTC Ceylon green, Guayaki yerba mate, part of Fair Trade Federation . It please me to see Fair Trade products expand to every day items. I'm waiting for a Fair Trade Snickers bar. Waiting, but not holding my breath.

Oh yeah, here's a link: Steaz