Hello!

Hi Tea Lovers!!




How have you been? It's been awhile since I've updated you all. I currently live in California, however I'm moving to my home state of Michigan at the end of the month. If only I could have moved in the Spring- moving in the wintertime is very unpleasant. Here in San Francisco it's been very rainy lately. Nobody likes moving heavy items in the rain. No offense to Californians, but they really are not good drivers - add rain and it's a disaster!!




I still drink tea. There's a place in Burlingame, California that my boyfriend and I go to a lot and it's a beautiful tea house that does afternoon tea with traditional tea sandwiches, scones, and lovely Madelines. I usually get Black vanilla bean tea with milk and sugar with cucumber sandwiches.


Oh, before I forget to tell you. I have a new promo code for Canton Tea Co. You can use my promo code as many times as you want for 10% off your entire order. Don't worry- if the products you want from Canton are on sale, the promo code for 10% off still works!!!

Leah2017 is the new 10% off promo code for my Tea blog readers!!!!!!  Get some amazing tea from Canton Tea Co today. PS- I love their Matcha- I had a matcha latte today.


What is your favorite go to winter tea? Do you ever have tea lattes? I love a good tea latte in the winter time.


Have you seen what I'm doing with my life recently? I made a business out of my artwork. I'm having a blast. If you like art, please visit my page. Here's the link. Below is a painting I did called "Viva"

Thanks for stopping by!

Leah

Tweet for a chance to win a haul of tea and products!

It's been quite the busy summer for me thus far. I've been buried in school work and working on other projects. I was recently contacted by my favorite green tea company and they're hosting a giveaway.

I thought, what's a better way to come back to the blog than to offer my readers a chance to win something? Well readers, Tg Green Teas is opening an online store and to kick it off they're offering one person to win a lovely prize:

The prize pack:
 -3 bottles of ice tea (1 of three different variants)
- 2 packs of hot tea (1 of two different variants)
- 1 glass tea tumbler
- 2 x sample pouches of organic Tg green tea (2 pyramid tea bags in each pouch) to share with a friend/family member - or keep for yourself!

To enter the giveaway all you have to do is Retweet this tweet by me:
https://twitter.com/Hummingbird2194/status/614070764589989888

It's worth noting that this is the green tea I drink whenever I have a craving and the company is run by two hard working women who love tea. Supporting local businesses is so very important to me and I hope it is to you. Please stop by their online store.

Good luck!

-Leah

  

Tea Review: Canton Tea's Green Dragon + Discount

Hello tea friends!

If you haven't already noticed, during the month of May I've been absent. My graduate degree is almost coming to an end and I had 3 papers to write, totaling at 12,000 words. You can bet that I devoted all my time to my studies. Although my blog had to suffer, it's for a good cause. In the next couple months I'll be writing my dissertation, but since I'll be managing my time well, my blog will still be updated like it used to be. How about we review this amazing green tea blend from Canton Tea now.

I was really excited when I opened the bag, because so many amazing scents overwhelmed my senses. What really stood out to me was the citrus and I love citrusy tea. Now, this tea is sencha from Hunan, China and once I opened it I was really excited to see the giant pieces of lemongrass and lemon peels. Lemon + Green tea = love.

As you can see, all the individual ingredients in the blend are really big, generous helpings. You can clearly see the tea leaves, the lemongrass, licorice root, lemon peel and little bits of ginger. I was hesitant because I despise ginger, but I honestly was willing to give it a try. If it was just ginger and green tea I would have had serious reservations about it.

As you can see, in the photos above you can see the tea steeping and then the tea steeped and ready to drink. It's important not to use just boiled water, because with green tea it's really delicate and if you use water that's too hot, it will compromise the taste. I usually boil my kettle and let the water sit for a few minutes so it can cool. It only needs 2-3 minutes of steeping time. This was a 2 minute steep.

Like I said, I was nervous about the ginger in the tea, but it was extremely complementary to the other ingredients in the tea. It worked in harmony with the licorice root, (another thing I don't care for, but it worked well) lemongrass, lemon peel and lemon oil. Basically, a lemony goodness drink that is perfect for summer. It's a very light tea, which I appreciate because I love a light green tea, typically. I do like Matcha, but I struggled with the Matcha challenge because it's quite strong. This Sencha is very light and the citrus ingredients make the taste really lovely. It's also noteworthy that this tea is not astringent at all. It kind of reminds me of an oolong, which is great because oolong is my favorite. I rate this tea 5/5 stars because there's not a thing I would change. It's just so refreshing and well-made. 

If you remember, I do have a partnership with Canton Tea. If you use the 10% off discount: Leah2016 at checkout, I get 10% commission of your order and you get 10% off your order, which is win win. It's not much, but it helps. I'm happy I partnered with them because their tea has an ethnical certification and they get their tea straight from the source, making it socially and environmentally friendly. 

Thanks for reading. 

Leah

Spring Giveaway Results!

Tg Tea- a review of green tea

Hello fellow tea lovers! I recently met Hua and Sophia of Tg on Twitter and they offered to send some of their new products from their startup business. I was excited, because a lot of tea that I'm typically sent is black tea and a green tea company is a nice change of pace. That's exactly  why Hua and Sophia created their business, one day they went to a grocery store because they were thirsty, but didn't see anything that was refreshing as well as low calorie in the way of soft drinks. In the hot tea aisle of the food store, they were not impressed with the selection of green tea, either. None of it comes from the source. So Sophia and Hua teamed up with a great idea; to make low calorie iced tea as well as hot tea to the streets of Great Britain. If you look at the photo below, the packaging is quite artsy. The packaging of the tea is influenced by London street art.

Since Tg (pronounced Tea-G) is a start up business, I told Sophia and Hua that in my post about their tea, I'd try and get the word out in addition to the tea review. They're simply two tea lovers that took their passion for tea and put it into a bottle. Quite literally! When they got their packaging art and bottle art printed, they took to the streets to take some photographs. Here's one of my favorites:

Okay, let's get to the review. So the Tg I will be reviewing first is the Green Tea with Jujube and Osmanthus. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd never heard of Osmanthus the flower until I was sent some of this tea. I looked it up and it's a flower that's native to Asia and has a ton of health benefits. Most notably is: it relieves stomach pain, promotes lung health, moisturizes your skin, helps keep you hydrated as well as removes toxins from your body. In China, many people will put a handful of these beautiful leaves into a pot of boiling water to infuse with their tea. Here's what they look like in the wild:

I've heard of Jujube before, but I couldn't really figure out where from. It's a red date that adds sweetness to the green tea and it has many antioxidants. You can see the tea leaves, Osmanthus and Jujube in the actual teabags:

There's a healthy amount of tea in the pyramid tea bag. I'd say about 4 grams of tea. It's really important not to pour just boiled water over green tea, you need to wait a few minutes for the water to cool down. I'd suggest 2-3 minutes, or it can ruin the taste of the tea. Then, pour the hot water over the teabag and steep for about 3 minutes. Look how beautiful this is-mid steep:

Fully steeped it's even better/ The colors of the Osmanthus, green tea leaves and Jujube make a pretty sight:

I tried this tea with and without sugar. It tastes refreshing, earthy and crisp, but if you add sugar it really brings the flavor of the Jujube out as well as the tea. If I'm in a refreshing hot tea kind of mood, something that just truly goes down smooth and simple, I won't add any sugar. However if I'm in a mood where I want something sweet, I'll add sugar and it tastes really good.

Let's move onto the Iced Tea! So they sent me three of them, one with Ginseng, one with Ginseng and Jujube and finally one with Ginseng and Mandarin. Of the three, the iced tea with Mandarin was my favorite. There's something so refreshing about iced tea with a citrus fruit added to it. They only have 30 calories a bottle, so it's sweet, but not overly sweet like how Lipton Iced Tea is. The benefit of green iced tea is that it not only hydrates you, but is proven to be better for you than black iced tea, because of all the antioxidants in green tea. Here's a photo of the tea I drank today on my dining room table:

If you like green tea, you'll love their hot tea and their iced tea. If you've never had green tea, I'd suggest giving Tg a try. It's good to support local businesses. Great job, Sophia and Hua, I'd give your tea 5/5, it's the best green tea I've ever had. Get yours here!

Dobashien Kuradashi Aged Japanese Aracha Green Tea by Tea Leaf Plus

Recently I crossed paths with Tea Leaf Plus on Twitter. They asked me if I'd ever had traditional Japanese tea. I hadn't, so delightfully I was given some to try. I've been on a green tea kick lately, so I was thrilled to see my package from California in the post. Now, they are based in California but their tea is imported from Japan.

To start off, let me show this video of me in my kitchen talking about the tea!


Okay, so it is very important you don't make green tea with boiling hot water right out of the kettle. If the water is too hot, the tea will be too bitter and I know this from a first hand experience. What I did was boil the water and then pour it into a glass pyrex jug and let it set for about 3 minutes until it cools down. So after letting the water cool, I poured it over the tea leaves in my infuser mug. The result was beautiful:

Right after pouring the water over the tea I could smell the aroma. So sweet and delicate. I know little to nothing about Japanese tea, but what I call those mini looking bamboo pieces in the tea looked so awesome floating around in the tea. It's like a tropical vacation in a mug. It's important to note you don't want the tea to steep for too long. 2-3 minutes is all you need. Here's a photo of the tea while it was steeping.

If you've noticed that I always put my tea near the window while it steeps it's because the lighting in my home isn't very natural looking. By putting it near the window I get the best results when taking a photo due to the natural light. I'll show you how the leaves looked after steeping and we will get down to business.

I had heard from people in the past that Japanese green tea, unlike Chinese tea, had a more grassy taste. Well, I would say that definitely rings true. It was very grassy tasting and I would say it was earthy. The reason for this is that it's a raw tea, so it has the leaf blade, the leaf and the stem and it is only steamed, rolled and dried, making it a less bitter tea. Note: if you don't like green tea, this is not for you, however if you do like green tea, you'll love this. I really did enjoy it and it helps that it's gorgeous in color and its leaves are so aromatic. If you're looking to try Japanese tea, I'd go to Tea Leaf Plus. Another thing I liked about it was that I felt it was easier on my stomach than, let's say, black tea. Sometimes black tea can irritate my stomach. Drinking this was simply put: lovely.


Leah

10 % off tea, worldwide shipping

Hi readers! I've teamed up with Canton Tea Company, which is a lovely tea company that uses sustainable tea only and they ship worldwide! All of their tea is ethical and purchased directly from family run farms.

I'm really excited to announce that on my behalf if you buy tea with them, just because you're a reader of Tea Reviews by Leah, you'll get a 10% discount if you enter the code TRBL10 into the discount code box upon checking out. If you want to take advantage of this discount, it will be active for you, your friends and family for the next year.


My favorite part about Canton is their owner's love for tea and of course, their products. Their teaware and looseleaf tea is amazing, or if you prefer their teabags those are great too-they're silky tea bags!


Just go to http://www.cantonteaco.com/  and upon check out enter my discount code:

TRBL10 

(it stands for Tea Reviews by Leah!!)

Matcha Kit Kat Review

Today I decided I would have a Japanese theme on my blog. First off, I'm reviewing a matcha green tea flavored Kit Kat and I also try a strawberry Kit Kit flown all the way in from Japan. Due to the Matcha craze, I thought my readers would be interested in whether or not it's worth it to indulge in a chocolate that is Matcha infused. Later on I'll be reviewing a Japanese tea that was sent to me from Tea Leaf Plus that is also all the way from Japan; traditional tea enjoyed for centuries!  I'll show you the lovely packaging of the Kit Kat to begin.

Despite the fact this little guy (it's a mini sized Kit Kat) is from Japan, there's still English on the wrapper. Nice touch, Kit Kat. Okay, enough of me enjoying the wrapper-it is a nice wrapper though, isn't it?

I took it out of the wrapper and I was really excited. I haven't had my cup of Matcha yet for the #Matcha14daychallenge so I was craving that heavenly matcha taste. Please ignore the slightest piece of nail polish that's on my thumb. It was a lovely pink color and now I need to repaint them. So I took a bite and...

Sorry to dissapoint you, but these Matcha Kit Kats were not the cat's meow. In fact, they didn't really taste of anything, they just had that normal crunchy texture. I guess if you're into texture and not into flavor with texture, they might be your thing. Or, if you're throwing a St. Patrick's Day party and you're looking for green items to spice up your party. However, if you're looking for candy that tastes like Matcha-well, don't go for these. I'd rate these a sad 1.5/5 stars. They get 1.5 stars because texturally they were sound and the packaging was nice, but the flavor just wasn't there.
For fun I also ordered some Strawberry Kit Kats from Japan. They kind of tasted of strawberry banana though, so unless you're into that sort of thing, I'd advise against it. This is coming from someone who loves strawberries, too!

Tune in later for my tea review!

Leah

Matcha Green Tea Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Hi tea lovers!

I recently decided that I wanted to incorporate tea with cooking more. I was going to do black tea pancakes, but I was kind of intimidated by it. I wanted to start with some easier, something that if it turned out horribly wrong, I wouldn't feel defeated. But worry not, readers, it worked!

The important thing about this recipe is Matcha! You need your favorite kind, mine personally is this kind here by Oxalis:

The other key ingredient is cookie mix. If you're anything like me, you're looking for convenience. Since this particular cookie mix is just add water, I thought it would be perfect. Go to any grocery store and head to the baking aisle. There you'll find Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie mix, which is what I used. Before you do the steps below, preheat your oven to 350 F or 190 C.

Step 1: Add the cookie mix to a mixing bowl

Step 2: Add the required amount of water

Step 3: Add 3 pinches of Matcha

After mixing it all up, it should look something like this:

Roll the batter into little balls, placing them on a cookie sheet, spaced apart so the cookies can grow in size. After all the dough is on the cookie sheet, ready to bake, place it on the middle rack and wait 8-10 minutes. Let the cookies cool, and then try not to eat them all in one sitting. They are delicious!

Here's how mine turned out:

Thanks for reading!

Leah