PIPER & LEAF Artisan Tea Co.

The smell/aroma is juicy strawberries, the tastes is a touch bitter. I’m having this plain, no honey today.

This is an enjoyable tea, but I don’t think it’s really what I wanted today. It smells very fruity, which all of the Piper & Leaf teas do, and for a green tea I enjoy it quite a bit.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 175 degrees + 4 minutes

I’ll stop here with this second steep. The liquid is dark, but the flavor is light. Plus, to be honest, I’m ready to move on to something different.

This blend is made up of green tea leaves, large pieces of dried strawberry, some kind of green twig and brown bark (which I’m assuming must be the sassafras), and small jewel-colored purple beets. I can smell the strawberry in both the dry mix and the steeped liquid. As was expected, the liquid took on a light shade of pink, almost a rosy peach, likely from the chopped beets. I can taste both the strawberry and the green tea and it’s very good.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 175 degrees + 4 minutes

The color is still good on this second steep though the flavor is not as pronounced. The steeped leaves are also missing some of the fruity fragrance they carried in the first cup. There’s something different about this one, but I can’t place it. Maybe it’s the sassafras? I’ve never had it before so I’m not sure what it tastes like, but there’s almost a spiciness there.

Third Steep
8 ounces water + 175 degrees + 10 minutes, 30 seconds

Even on the third steep, this still has retained both its color and flavor. Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Green teas haven’t always been a go-to for me, but I could see myself drinking this often. I’ll be keeping it around I think.

Bought at a local coffee shop, O’Henry’s, so I’m not sure how they made it but it was lightly sweetened, floral, and also a bit bitter. I would have preferred it sweeter like Piper & Leaf makes it at their stand at the downtown market. Aside from the bitterness, not a bad cup. Piper & Leaf does it better though, of course.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 195 degrees + 8 minutes

I picked this up, along with a couple of other Piper & Leaf teas, at the market last month with my mom. Piper and Leaf typically offers several loose leaf teas for purchase, but the main “attraction” is always the iced tea. They serve it up in big quart jars for guzzling while browsing the local wares. We always fill our jars with this sweet iced tea when we go, and this time my mom chose the Front Porch Special. One sip of hers and I knew I had to grab some of this to take home for myself.

As usual with the Piper & Leaf teas, this blend is very fragrant and smells very sweet. There are at least two types of black teas in here from what I can tell, though I’m not sure what they are. Both are small, but one is long and twisty and the other resembles tiny pellets. The mix is flecked with blue and yellow flower petals and green mint leaves. It’s quite colorful.

I used roughly 8 ounces of water here, but by the end of the steep I was left with only 6 ounces of liquid or so. Those leaves were thirsty! Once the hot water hits the tea leaves, the aroma of the mint completely takes over. The flavor of the mint is there, but it’s been overwhelmed by a certain bitterness. After the addition of honey, I can taste the mint more clearly.

Second Steep
8 ounces + 195 degrees + 4 minutes

The color on this second cup is lighter than the first but still dark enough to make me believe that this will be a good cup. I dropped the temperature this time around and it has certainly helped with the bitterness. The mint flavor has dissipated and left me with a still-satisfying cup of black tea.

I do love a fun tea, and when I saw that Piper & Leaf had a tea called Old Fashioned Birthday Cake, I was sold. The description on the site was, "A premium Ceylon black tea, infused with bergamot and vanilla, blended with locallygrown and dried lavender flowers, and garnished with cornflowers.” Sounds pretty good, right?

Full review and photos: https://tealover.net/2015/06/piper-leaf-old-fashioned-birthday-cake/

This doesn’t really take cream very well, which is funny to me since it’s supposed to be peaches and cream (I know, it’s not really that funny and a bit of a stretch but it’s early so bear with me). I tried looking for this on their website a few weeks ago, but it’s no longer there. They have a couple of other peach teas so I’m guessing this one was phased out in favor of one of those. I’m not at all disappointed though, as I know I wouldn’t have restocked this even if it were available. There are others I like more and too many from Piper & Leaf that I want to try.

I can tell that the aroma (and possibly the flavors too) have become muted. I bought this tea almost a year ago so I’m sure it’s past its prime. There is a tanginess there that may or may not be intentional, but I’m not sure I’m enjoying it too much. I can really feel the effects of the caffeine on this one which is also unpleasant. I’ve only just recently begun adding caffeine back into my diet after cutting it out completely for a few years and now only in the form of tea (we’re not counting chocolate here – that keeps a permanent residence in my pantry). I don’t love the caffeine, but I love black teas best of all and there are just so many good ones out there that aren’t decaf. If anyone does know of any good decaf black teas, I would love to hear about them!

I’ve just realized where the tanginess is coming from – there is hibiscus in here! That’s also probably why my cream isn’t syncing up. I also saw on the Steepster photo that this is advertised as a Valentine’s special, but I know I bought mine in September. Maybe I got some leftover stock and that’s why it’s no longer available?

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 195 degrees + 20 minutes

Completely forgot about this one. It still didn’t turn out quite as dark as the first cup. No cream this time, just honey.

Piper & Leaf has the most amazing smelling blends. All of the loose leaf teas I’ve bought from them are so fragrant. This particular blend has cubes of bright orange fruit (I’m guessing peach, but the ingredients also list apricot and papaya so it could be one of those), pale yellow flower petals, and hibiscus pieces. There are also a few pops of royal blue from the lavender.

This smells sweet and fruity. I can taste the flavor of the hibiscus in the resulting brew, though not necessarily the tartness. There are so many ingredients here but I’m not really tasting the complexity. It’s good and I’m enjoying it, but I’m not picking up on some of the flavors. I can taste ripe fruit but cannot seem to distinguish between the fruits . It’s a bit astringent as well.

I thought I had logged this one here before but I guess I haven’t. I’m sure I’ve tried this though so maybe it was just a sip from my husband’s cup.

Thank you again Shae! This is one of the best teas I have ever had cold brewed. Sweet, slightly floral, citrus twist, smooth black tea base. Very well balanced.

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/05/25/tea-of-the-day-front-porch-special-from-piper-leaf/

My dad & I had a lot of fun with this blend. We used some of the leftover herbs from Litehouse Foods. It was tasty. Just not to the "WOW’ point. I want to try it again. This company is so adorable and they have some tasty sounding blends on their site. Just need to try this one again.

For my full review:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/05/18/smashberry-tisane-piper-leaf/

Thanks Shae again for turning me on this company!

Thank you Shae for introducing me to this adorable shop! I am jealous of people that have these awesome little shops around them. There isn’t anything like that or even a tea shop around me. There are tea rooms but they serve flavored Lipton or ROT, which is fine. Just nothing to creative there.

Shae gave me a huge sample of this in our last swap. It smelled so good. But when I brewed it up and tried it, I really picked up a lot of hibiscus. I do like Hibiscus, but this was an overwhelming amount making my first cup really tart. I did play around with the steeping parameters a bit and finally, VIOLA- I had an amazing cup of peaches’n cream delight. I already ordered more for Marzipan and I to try from this adorable company.

Here are the rest of my ramblings thoughts on this one:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/05/06/peaches-cream-piper-leaf/

Happy Thursday all!

I love having a local tea blender at my farmer’s market!
I made this fruity tisane as iced tea using the hot brewing method then let it cool.
It’s really tasty and the color is a nice red that looks good over ice, nice and summery.
I can taste sweet and tart berries, cranberry, cherry mostly. The mint was very subtle. I am wondering if this tastes anything similar to Mary Poppin’s spoon full of sugar!
I still would reach for their Smashberry Tisane over this one because I enjoyed the stronger strawberry and mint flavor.

This is a local company here in Alabama that sells at the area farmer’s markets. They dry all their own herbs and fruits that they put in the teas, except for the real tea leaves of course.
What’s really nice is that they have several kinds of cold infusions available and you can bring back your logo giant mason jar for discounted refills.

So, now for Smashberry tisane…
This blend is amazing!!!!! It really is. I first bought a mason jar full of the cold infusion and sipped while wandering the farmer’s market. Fresh strawberry taste with a nice refreshing mint and lemon balm herbal-ness with a nice kick of rose hip. I had to go back for a refill it was soooooooo good. I also bought some of the loose leaf to take home with a couple other blends they were selling.
A couple days later I had some people over for dinner and I made a pitcher of this iced by making the whole thing hot brewed and letting it cool in the fridge after I strained out the leaves. The dry blend is full of dried strawberries, pieces of dried apple, rose hips and bright green dried herbs, the description on the bag didn’t say specifically the herbs. It said an herbal blend with lemon balm but I definitely smell and taste mint. So did all my friends.
My friends loved it too. They continued to refill their glasses and I had to make another pitcher full this time I did a concentrate and added ice and cold water so it could be ready faster.
All three brewing methods tasted fantastic and I ran out of my scrumptious Smashberry tisane :(
I am hoping they have the Smashberry available again on thursday when the closest market is open again.