Wissotzky Tea

Talk about bitter Bergamot. This tea……….is ok. Maybe alright. I wish I could give it an astounding review because…..I love Wissotzky Tea, and I love Earl Grey. But, unfortunately, this has a very bitter flavor. And the scent was amazing, it had a nice, dark rich color, and it steeped well and EVERYTHING.

And then I taste it and it’s……eh. A little bit more sugar makes it a bit better, and maybe some cream might have helped. I’ll enjoy it enough to finish the box, but I don’t think I’ll be trying this brand of Earl Grey again. sigh It had so much promise!

I haven’t been logging or drinking steadily for days. Backlog from…Tuesday morning? (I GRADUATED!) Or was it yesterday? I forgot. Oh well.

I had forgotten how good this was! It’s very flavorful, with just the right amount of rose without being too much, AND there is a cinnamony/spicy chai background to it. It’s really yummy. I was debating trying it with milk, but didn’t know if the rose would curdle it or not? Either way, great tea.

As you can see by my rating, I really like this tea. The first time I tasted it, I think I either steeped it wrong or sweetened too much or maybe both, and I drank it down fast so the taste wasn’t there. Now, I’m by myself, without any distractions, and I think I prepped it right this time. The taste of this tea is very delicate. The first taste is a light rose flavor, and then the sweet spicyness of chai, though this has been lowered compared to regular chai, to allow for the rose flavoring.

Note: My water temperature slider isn’t working. :( I don’t know what the typical kettle temperature is as far as the kettle SUPER whistling, but if water boils at 212 then maybe something above that? Sorry, unsure on this one.

Before I get into the taste of this tea, I want to talk about the color. This tea…when they say “Blood” orange, they mean it. The color has an orange color, most definitely, but it is red orange, to say the least. Put it in a black cup, and it looks a bit like blood. To avoid that creepy feeling, I’d stick to any other color of china, glass, mug, etc. So all in all, I love the color, minus the vampire scare. XD

Now onto taste: This is an orange lover’s tea. I happen to be an orange lover. :-) It has a VERY strong citrus-y taste, obviously, orange being the major one. You take a sip and you are greeted with a strong sour, which then quickly transforms to a sweet orange flavor. Proper sweetening to taste will change the speed of that transformation, or if there is a sour taste at all. I have just started using Agave Nectar, and about a tablespoon and a half (that’s guessing though, need to go back and measure exactly) gets a nice sweet without overpowering the tangy of the orange. So it’s a sweet-and-sour deal, and if you like orange, you’ll LOVE this tea.

I believe I only have one of these teabags and it’s the perfect morning for some Jasmine Green. I need to relax and do some work.

Right so this looks like a nice enough green tea in colour and it smells lovely thanks to the Jasmine. Fresh smelling considering it’s bagged.

The green tea is subtle in taste and the jasmine is mild with a stronger after taste. It’s very pleasant and that’s a real surprise. I think the steeping time is perfect because any stronger it would taste too sour. It freshens the breath wonderfully as well.

I prefer something like Pu Erh blended with Jasmine but this is an easier substitute (since it’s pre bagged).

This is good! The main taste and scent here is passionfruit, despite the awesome list of ingredients. A lot of the flavors aren’t very noticeable. But the passionfruit is great. It would make a perfect iced tea.

Not bad for spearmint tea. The flavor is mild & not overwhelming. I added a little local farm grown honey & it made for a good cuppa tea.

I can definitely see icing this tea during a hot summer day for a cool refreshing drink.

I bought a box of this in Jerusalem several years ago, and it’s been at my workplace ever since (I’m trying to get my work tea collection into Steepster as I use them). As I was adding this tea to the database, I discovered not only that it isn’t made anymore, but that before it was discontinued, lemon verbena was added for awhile, or even replaced all the other ingredients (searches yield contradictory info). The ingredients on my box/teabag covers are:

Rosemary, spearmint leaves, sage leaves, peppermint leaves.

Which is what this tastes like to me. The brewing time given below yields a dark brownish-green brew that tastes of peppermint + cooking herbs, which is pretty much what it is. If you like peppermint and peppermint blends, this is something you’d like, but since it isn’t made anymore, good luck with that.

I do want to point out that although Wissotzky teas (watch out for the misspelling Wissotsky—there is one tea listed on Steepster under that brand) are from Israel, the package I got in Jerusalem—and all the other packages I saw at the grocery store where I got this—does have ingredients/nutritional/volume information in English. You just have to kind of look around the box until you find the English characters. The rest of the package has Hebrew writing, which (unless you were really, really good in Hebrew school as a kid) is not possible for an English/Romance speaker to read and interpret on-the-fly. I count on figuring out foreign food packages if there is French/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese somewhere on the label, since I was a French major, and I am enough of a foodie to know many Romance language cognate words for food types and ingredients. I even know (by ear) some Hebrew food words I’ve picked up over the years, being Jewish. But I didn’t go to Hebrew school, and my trip to Israel taught me that on-the-fly interpretation is not so easy if you can’t read the script the words are written in!

On a related topic, I’m going to Turkey on vacation in two weeks, and I thank G-d and Ataturk that Turkey started using Western script during the 20th century. Turkish may not have a lot of cognates with Romance languages or English, but at least I can memorize a word so when I see it on signs or boxes, it rings a bell. There’s no way I could have done this if they still used Arabic script!

I usually try to end my daily tea consumption before 7:00 PM. At that time I’m ready to unwind for the evening and come down from the energizing doses of caffeine supplied by my morning cups. However, tonight I had a craving for tea to accompany my pasta supper. Remembering that my Wissotzky gift chest contained some fruity caffeine-free varieties, I reached in and pulled out a bag of Blood Orange & Mandarin Scent. After steeping, the tea had a clean translucent orange/cherry color. I also enjoyed the tantalizing fruity aroma that emerged from my cup. This tea has an exquisite yet mellow citrus flavor. I don’t seek out flowery tasting teas, but the hint of rosehips in this blend greatly enhances the flavor. I thoroughly enjoyed it with my meal. If you dim the lights in your dining room and use crystal goblets, this tea can be an integral component of any gourmet occasion.

In my opinion, this tea is not quite as advertised. I did not find this tea to have a very strong or full bodied flavor. The taste is pleasant but subdued. It reminded me of a watered down English Breakfast tea. This blend is also said to have a high caffeine content. Maybe I am being greedy, but I would like the high-octane caffeine to be accompanied by super-charged flavor. Several years ago, some companies produced and tested a silent vacuum cleaner. The machine did not do well in consumer testing because people associated great suction and cleaning power with a loud noise. This is how I feel about the Wissotzky Classic Tea. I want my high caffeine morning cup to be accompanied by a loud noise.

I’m a big fan of Earl Grey tea. The fruity bergamot flavor is a terrific complement to both black and green teas. This particular Earl Grey black tea by Wissotzky seems to be hiding both the tea and bergamot flavors under a bushel. I am doubtful that I would have pinpointed the presence of bergamot if I hadn’t first read the list of ingredients on the package. It isn’t just the low level of bergamot that is disappointing here. I also struggled to cull any identifiable tea flavor at all. The flavor that is present is not bad, there just isn’t enough of it.

The flavor of most of the English Breakfast varieties I have tried and reviewed are nice and pleasant but normally nothing to get over-excited about. English Breakfast tea figures prominently in my morning lineup as the first cup of the day. This is my “business cup” because it provides a high caffeine shock to my metabolism that gets me charged up and motivated to start my daily task list. My “pleasure cup” of tea is always reserved for the second cup of the morning. That is the more delightful, fruity, and bold cup that I anxiously anticipate to chase down the usually standard tea taste of English Breakfast. However, all of that changed this morning when I sampled Wissotzky English Breakfast Tea for the first time. I knew something different was afoot when I saw the bright amber color that this tea possessed. With my first curious sip, I immediately noticed a purity to the flavor that I hadn’t experienced with other English Breakfast formulas. Its bright robust quality sends the essence of great tea taste straight to your tastebuds. It is definitely English Breakfast tea flavor, but amplified to astounding heights. The best illustration I could make would be to compare this tea to the appearance of the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz after he was buffed, polished, and shined to meet the Wizard. He was still the Tin Man but he was now one cool and buff dude. After I finish all of the other English Breakfast teas in my stash, this Wissotzky tea will be my Numero Uno of this variety.

By now, you are beginning to surmise one thing about me based on my tea tasting notes: I am willing to try just about anything. I neither fear nor discriminate against any tea. This selection was another one of the flavors that came in my Wissotzky Tea gift box that was a surprise gift from me to me (I did try to act surprised but I saw through me immediately). The Nana Tea was another title that I greeted with skepticism. I wondered if this flavor was designed for sweet little grandmothers to sip from their rockers while knitting scarves and sweaters for the grandchildren. However, once again my first thoughts were far from the truth. This tea has a very light and refreshing spearmint flavor. For Southern teetotalers, it would be the perfect replacement for the mint julep. The Nana Tea is a tad too light and easy for my morning rotation. My first cups of the day need to jump-start me like a defibrillator. I will gladly call on this tea again in the afternoon or early evening, though, when I’m just looking for a nice refreshing break from my day.

This morning I was introduced to Wissotzky tea. I received eight flavors in a gift box that was a gift from me to me. For my first voyage, I chose the Cherry Tea. It is exactly as advertised, a bright rich flavor with the taste of fresh red cherries. This tea would also be great iced. There is no hint of bitterness whatsover. This selection would be enjoyable morning, noon, and night, hot or cold.

This tea has a pleasant smell and taste. No doubt, this would probably make an excellent iced tea. The green tea in this is almost indistinguishable from the flavors of the berries and passion fruit. The passion fruit gives this a lovely taste and smell. There is also, despite not being present in the tea’s ingredients, a slight guava taste.

I always carry hot water in my tea thermos and my pandora’s tea bag pouch when I am on the go…unfortunately for me, I left my tea bags at home today :(

In tea desperation, I picked this one up at a discount store and I must agree, Its pretty good for what its worth. Of course, you have to be prepared that you are not going to get the best green tea but the ginger flavor comes out clean.

Its refreshing :)

Wow, It’s been a while since I’ve been blown away by a tea, and a bagged tea, at that.
On opening the package I immediately got a strong smell of chocolate liqueur (although there is no actual liqueur in it). I do believe i could get happily intoxicated just by smelling this tea.
I made it with a little touch of milk, and it does really taste just like a truffle, a caramel liqueur filled chocolate truffle, intensely chocolaty sweet and very creamy. The smell mellows a bit after brewing, but is still very strong and enticing.

The blending of Assam with Rooibos seemed a little odd to me at the beginning, but the overall taste is outstanding.

There are a lot of really good teas, but every so often I drink a tea, and think “WOW, that is GOOD tea”. That hasn’t happened to me since I first drank 52teas Sheri’s Blend.

Thursday Nov 11-11-2010
1st Steep of the Day A Great Earl Grey.
With Good Overtones of Lemon and Lime Aftertaste.
This is My 2nd Best Earl Grey Bested only by
Mount of Olives Earl Grey with Pomegranate leaves.
Heres a Link to My Favorite
http://www.olivetreasures.com/earl-grey.html

It’s funny, I can only find this tea at discount stores, and pay next to nothing for it, but I really enjoy it. I find it quite clean and refreshing.

I don’t exactly have this tea, I have it in the loose tea variety. I am not a big green tea lover, have to be in the mood, but I do go to this one when the mood hits

Smooth, spicy chai. Even the ginger works.

A very straightforward, robust cup of tea, no frills. Sweet and with milk, a very good first cuppa in the morning.

The peach flavour comes through nicely, the caramel isn’t too strong against the other ingredients. A very soothing blend.

Second tasting note, this time in the morning. Wonder if that matters.

The smell: cinnamon. Comments about the cinnamon smell from others in the kitchenette at work. The taste: heavy on the cinnamon, then the orange, apple and rosehips come through.