If it's true you taste with your nose as much as with your tongue, the delicate floral fragrance that lingers atop this smooth cup of green tea will be an otherworldly experience. These tea leaves are dried with jasmine flower petals to absorb the flavor. Inhale, then enjoy.
The Jasmine Petal whole leaf green tea sachet from two leaves™ is a first place winner in the North American Tea Championship's 2012 Packaged Single-Service Class competition.
Price: $7.95 for 15 sachets. Steep twice for $0.26 per cup.
Part of the Complete Sampler Pack provided by Two Leaves Tea Company
My Review:
I haven’t been avoiding this sachet. I just hadn’t gotten to it yet. Yesterday I received an email from Two Leaves stating this one had won 1st place in the 2012 packaged single-service class. It looks like it is time I tried this one out.
I am seldom neutral about jasmine tea. The bagged ones are usually horribly flavored, as are some of the loose leaf teas. I have learned it matters how the tea is flavored. The only way to get that wonderful jasmine flavor in the cup is to use real jasmine petals and let the tea absorb the flavor naturally. Adding oils and perfumed flavoring to the leaf does not give a result that I care to sip. This one appears to have been done correctly and some of the petals have actually been left in with the leaf.
Opening the sachet releases enticing grapey notes of jasmine into the air. The instructions say to use a 3 minute steep. I did not see a temperature on the wrapper so I used heavily steaming water, well below boiling.
I wish that I had tried this before I found out it is a prize winning tea. I don’t want to review it based on someone else’s standards. I also need to admit I read several reviews of this tea prior to sipping it myself. Ack, I am trying to remain neutral. Pressing on.
The jasmine is very natural tasting. It is in no way perfumey flavored. There is a light grapey-ness to it. The level of jasmine is lighter than the dry scent would suggest. Though the flavor is light, the aftertaste lingers long after the sip. There is just a bit of bitterness in the aftertaste from the green tea. The second steep is lighter with no bitterness in the aftertaste.
This is better than any jasmine I have tried in a bag. I have not tried any other sachets to compare it with. While this is better than some loose leaf jasmine teas I have tasted, it falls short of the great ones. What’s the difference? The great ones have a more fully developed complexity of the jasmine flavor profile. Translation – they leave you swooning. This one puts a smile on my face but I don’t lose track of time.
Final analysis: The convenience and anywhere portability of the sachet make it an easy choice over any of the bagged jasmines I have tried. I believe my friends, that is the point, in awarding this the winner of the 2012 single service class award.
Visit Two Leaves at http://www.twoleavestea.com/
Glad to hear it was worthy of the award!
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