Yumchaa

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87

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87

I unfortunately didn’t make it to a Yumchaa shop during my stay in London but I did find one of their stalls in a market. They didn’t have their entire selection available, but it was just enough to make it fun to choose. And I scooped up 300 grams of tea for £12, probably half of what I would pay for anything at home.

This one didn’t jump out at me. I find ginseng not unpleasant but very distinctive and straight-up herbally tasting. It’s kind of like chamomile for me. Anyway, the man at the stall said this was his favourite which prompted me to take a sniff and a closer look. I noticed the vanilla and yoghurt and was intrigued. I try (and usually forget) to take ginseng in capsules, so why not get it in some tea for that price?

This is nice. The ginseng is very much there but it’s smoothed out by the vanilla and creaminess. An interesting blend. I was getting a citrus note and confused by it until I re-read the ingredients and noticed the lemon and lemongrass. Nicely balanced and subtle. I’m quite pleased with the quality of sencha in this and the other green I bought, as well.

cteresa

Sounds interesting, I am tempted to order this one ( they do some email ordering). What other two did you get?

nomadinjeopardy

It is interesting, and a nice change. I also got the Mango Sunrise which I’ve only had cold (but it was very nice) and Notting Hill, which I haven’t tried yet. I picked up some Lemon Sherbert for my mother who can’t have caffeine so I will hopefully get to try that, too.

Their prices are so reasonable I’m going to be tempted to order by email, too!

nomadinjeopardy

And, of course, thank you for the suggestion of Yumchaa! I probably wouldn’t have found them there otherwise.

cteresa

You are welcome , I found them by accident myself. But I really like their teas, the quality is very nice and the balance of the tastes is just right for me, even when it sounds unlikely, it all tastes balanced and just right. And for some of their blends ended being total essentials for me – I think I am now on my 4th pack of Berry Berry Nice!
I will try this one soon as well, it sounds lovely.

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80
drank Lemon Sherbet by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

I like it well enough – rooibos with citrus. As usual with yumchaa everything is good quality and the flavour natural and not overwhelming. But sadly this exact mix is not a favourite of mine – I keep comparing it with Nil Rouge (which I like even more) and a long lost rooibos caipirinha mix i once bought and could never buy again (which probably could not possibly be as good as my memories of it are).

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 30 sec

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80
drank Lemon Sherbet by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

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75
drank Wanderlust by Yumchaa
39 tasting notes

One of my current favorite green tea blends. I like the crispness of the sencha with the spice and sweetness of the apple and cinnamon. The almond adds a bit of creaminess as well.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 15 sec
cteresa

This is my to buy list, next time I get a chance to buy their teas.

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75
drank Caramel Sweetheart by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

I have been most unfair with this tea. Most most unfair. I thought it was good but sort of meh. Except now I decided to try it a bit differently and I think I have cracked it – it needs sugar and milk. It needs a very generous tea serving and it needs to be stirred often, while brewing and before pouring and even in the cup, because it was so much texture from the melted caramel and chocolate. But done like that it just might be the most decadent tea I ever had ( apologies to Wedding Imperial, but this has just more texture), though I got hopes for yet untried Fauchon Chocolate Tea.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec

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77
drank Earl Grey Blue Star by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

I am not an Earl Grey person (Twinings excepted, particularly their Lady Grey. I do not know why them, just is). So my opinion is probably valueless for any Earl Grey lovers. But in case it is useful here go my two cents.

This is almost an Earl Grey Tea I could like, if only I liked Earl Grey. The beautiful blue star like flowers are not actually the ubiquitous cornflowers but mallow flowers. Not sure if they add taste to the mix exactly, if they do it´s delicate. The bergamot is quite delicate IMO and the underlying tea is classy, not too brute, not too wimpy, Keemun tea. If you like very strong, ceylon or assam based EG teas, or EG with lots of bergamot this might not be for you. But I enjoyed it a lot ( but then again, I am doing my best to drink my way through the Yumchaa catalogue and have pretty much liked everything, despite being monstrously picky )

Preparation
Boiling

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80
drank Regent's Park by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

Look at what I found in the back of the cupboard – I still got some of it. Sadly aged a bit, I love Yumchaa but I really wish they had more air-tight packaging – tins ideally, or foil packets (which are indeed great and pratical).

While this is a bit less scented than it originally was it is still very smooth and a very lovely combination of flavours (not as weak as you might think. Yumchaa is really good at intense natural flavours). I love papaya, but not sure I get its flavour here, for me this is green tea with pineapple and strawberries and it is a lovely summer drink indeed.

Hallieod

Totally agree about the packaging – I was going to call for your backing when sil said that Mango Sunrise was very mildly mangoey. I had transferred it into a tin, but didn’t have one for quite a while, and I’m sorry I didn’t send her a sample of it at its best. My last bit of Regent’s Park was in even worse shape than yours.

Yumchaa tins — that is the dream!

cteresa

The ageing is definetely worse for the green teas – the black fare better, the rooibos in between. Such a pity, because they are so awesome when fresh.

I got a set of cheap identical tins which I use for a few yumchaa teas, but teas are always scarce round my parts! And you know those foil like plastic bags with ziploc? Those really really work, as well.

Theoretically I should just use the tea up fast, but I am a hoarder, and try to order several teas at once to save on shipping – I drink faster the favorites but then I get hoarding urges to save a bit for an emergency (favorite tea emergencies, they happen), and then do not drink my non-favorites often and get tons of those using up tins.

Hallieod

Boo – trying to reply while watching Eurovision and lost the comment again. (We certainly won’t be hosting next year!) Was just going to say that it’s odd Yumchaa does have the foil packages, but only for the white teas. And have the exact same problem of hoarding favourite teas. I’m slowly building up a tin collection, so hope to be better!

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82
drank Notting Hill by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

Just adding a new taste note, this is another leftover from the back of the closet – two years old at least. And despite Yumchaa´s paper bag packaging not being a favorite of mine (well, I think it is lovely in a spare cool look way, just not air tight enough), this black tea survived so much better than the green teas. Still as fragrant as it was when I bought it – a simple fruity black tea, one I can hardly think what to say about (good smooth black tea base with a strong natural apricot and strawberry flavour) but a really lovely one.

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82
drank Notting Hill by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

It is shallow of me to start by how a tea looks, but I need to remark: this tea is incredibly pretty, both the dry leaves but particularly the soaked remaindered, pretty open leaves, the marigold petals and whole cornflowers and little pieces of fruit in the middle. All Yumchaa teas are pretty with big fresh leaves, but whenever I brew this I am struck again by how pretty this is.

The taste is also very pretty – while the presence of marigold and cornflowers is visually obvious, I am not sure I can detect their taste, but the apricot-strawberry flavour is delightful and tastes natural. The tea underneath does not feel too strong, though perhaps one can up the dose a bit. It´s not one of my Yumchaa favorites, but competition is fierce for that and it is a lovely flavoured tea indeed.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 45 sec

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82
drank Enchanted Forest by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

I have been working on finishing teas, and this has been pretty much neglected. And weirdly, despite being in a mood where flavoured green teas are sort of not working for me, this one is much more to my liking than I remembered. Very nice.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 45 sec

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82
drank Enchanted Forest by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

Meh. Sort of. It´s not bad tea at all, I think Yumchaa has not yet sold anybody any tea which did not qualify as good by any objective standard. But somehow, the concept, the particular blend is just not my thing.

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84
drank Walk in the Woods by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

I find red fruits black tea hard to find. Or if not hard to find exactly, hard to find one which is just right. They are either too strongly scented or not enough, too artificial or too diffident, the tea itself too strong or too weak. But this is as close as I have found yet to a good red fruit black tea, it´s perfectly balanced to my taste and not too strong, not too weak.

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73
drank Adventure by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

This is my foremost example of tea with hibiscus does not NEED to actually stink of it. Hibiscus can be done subtly. Seriously. Though this besides being my foremost example of that, it is also my only example but that is not the point of this review.

If I remember correctly, this tea has rooibos, hibiscus, rosehips, some cinnamon, I think some almond and some other things. All those tastes merge together without clashing and making something new (where even paranoid hibiscus haters can ignore it!). It is a lovely blend, keyword being blend, making something new and just right and totally different out of individual things.

My original tasting note said this was a definite rebuy. It is, though maybe it is not a definite immediate rebuy, this is very good, but a couple or more of other Yumchaa rooibos blends are even better (IMO. YMMV and all that,)

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 45 sec

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73
drank Adventure by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

Like all yumchaa teas, it is very fragrant, all natural ingredients and not aromas, and very pretty to look at. This combination is lovely on itself, the hibiscus does not overpower the rooibos and the seemingly random flavours meld in a lovely way. I would rebuy.

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95
drank Berry Berry Nice by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

Lost count of how many packages of this I have gone through. My last one finished a while ago and managed to restock this – a nice rooibos is a very important winter essential for me!

And a just couple notes:

- they changed the packaging! “curators of immodest tea”, cute and yes this is a damn immodest tea blend.

- this is tea to be drunk fresh, not to be saved. The fresh natural flavourings are a total joy, always, but this is so much better when fresh. It is perfuming my whole kitchen, just from sitting in the paper bag overnight and then having transferred it to a tin.

- this particular package is slightly richer in strawberry and kiwi than previous ones (that I remember). Rose and vanilla and the other berries just rounding it off.

As good as I remembered, a total treat.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 30 sec
Ysaurella

my daughter managed the exploit to be allergic to kiwi

cteresa

Oh, poor thing, allergies suck – kiwi is kinda of easy to avoid, except there are some surprises.

Theoretically it is on this blend, but I had not noticed before. It is funny that I have gone through so many packages of this and it´s always a little bit, slightly different – natural flavourings are more impredictable I guess! But so much more gorgeous…

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95
drank Berry Berry Nice by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

This is pretty much a staple for me, fruity red fruits rooibos – very very fruity, very very exhuberant, good rooibos done properly (bad rooibos is a terrible thing, good rooibos a wonderful thing). I take this for granted and hardly pay attention to it anylonger.

Except I was making this for a child and made it strong so I could add a lot of sugar and a lot of milk (half tea, half milk I think). I tried it to test temperature before handing it over and OMG it is like it is a new tea, it is wonderful like that as well. Totally surprising and unlike I usualluy have it, like a new reminder of why I love this so much. Child approved (though admittedly the child in question has unbelievably unlikely gourmet tastes and a very expensive-liking nose).

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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95
drank Berry Berry Nice by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

I am upgrading the rating to topmost. This is definetely my favorite rooibos based tea ever, so whatever, just as perfect as anything I ever had. Brewed very hot, with just a smidgeon too much tea, this tea makes me very happy indeed, and for hours.

Preparation
Boiling

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95
drank Berry Berry Nice by Yumchaa
362 tasting notes

My favorite of all non-caffeine teas and tisanes. It is very very nice indeed. Incredibly strong scented, all natural ingredients ( not “aromas”), and incredibly beautiful to just look at. The flavour is a lovely meld. I am on my 3rd 100 gr package of this.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 min, 0 sec

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75
drank Soho Spice by Yumchaa
6 tasting notes

Had this at Yumchaa in London, was nice and spicy with a fruity aftertaste.

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