Friday, January 6, 2012

Boston Tea Company

"Where old world blends with new"

I know that many of you enjoy a nice cup of tea from time to time. Some of you may even enjoy the tea while you are writing letters to your friends. I enjoy more than one cup of tea a day which is why I contacted the Boston Tea Company when I saw that they were looking for bloggers to write reviews.

My favorite thing about the Boston Tea Company is that they have been around since 1773 (think Boston Tea Party). Not only that, but their teas are still plucked by hand and blended using old world techniques. And as if that wasn't enough, all of their teas are Kosher Certified and gluten-free!

My contact at the BTC, Caitlyn, was nice enough to ask if there were any teas I would like to try. Now, let me tell you, they offer all types of tea. Black, Green, Herbal, Red, Chai, Fair Trade, Loose leaf..I could go on. So looking through their tea to find a few I would like to try was no easy task. I wanted to try them all! I settled on a Vanilla Almond Oolong tea (which is loose leaf) and a Bombay Chai (which is also loose leaf). To my surprise I got a box in the mail with not only the teas I requested but three others!

The first tea I tried was their Boston Tea Party tea. It is simply delicious! From the moment you open the canister you can tell it is going to be a great cup of tea. You can smell the spices and slight citrus-y aroma even before you put the teabag into the water. The taste is hard to describe, but it is a must try if you enjoy drinking black teas or teas that have a bit of spice to them. It is not overpowering and I enjoyed it both without anything added and with a tiny bit of sugar. I suspect that the orange pieces help to keep this tea from being too bitter like some black tea blends.

A fun fact about the Boston Tea Party blend, it was a favorite to Jaqueline Kennedy!

Next I tried the Gingerbread Spice Tea. After all, it was the holidays! This one was very good, and you can certainly taste the ginger in it. I again enjoyed this one without adding anything, but it was also good with a small amount of honey. If you enjoy spices like cinnamon or you like drinking chai, you would probably like this tea. I even drank a bit while eating a gingerbread cookie, which was a lovely pairing.

The Organic Earl Grey Citrus tea was another winner. Though I must say, it was probably my least favorite of the 5. Reason being, I am just not that big on Earl Grey tea to begin with. That said, I did enjoy this tea because it has such an original flavor. The citrus distracts your taste buds from the fact that you are drink Earl Grey. Again, this is nice both ways, as well as cold (you know sometimes you let your tea sit too long between sips...). My next step is to taste the others iced to see how they taste. I will keep you posted. In case you are curious what the teabag looks like when out of the individual wrapping:
Next I tried the loose leaf teas. Just a note that in the pictures I show a tea ball. That is something I already had. =)
The Vanilla Almond tea was delicious! Probably one of my favorites from this batch. The neatest thing is that you can actually brew with this full leaf tea twice. So that would be two cups! You can really taste the vanilla, which comes from Madagascar. It was interesting drinking a tea that had almond in it, but overall I cannot complain. The only thing negative I can say about this tea has nothing to do with the tea. My tea ball (again bought at a box store) allows for some small particles to get into the glass. Upon using my new tea canister with insertable strainer that I got for Christmas I can say that no tea leaves get into my mouth. So I recommend using a tighter knit strainer.
The Bombay Chai tastes very much like you would expect it to. Just like the Boston Tea Party blend you can smell the aroma the moment you open the pouch (which is resealable by the way). All of my favorite spices are in this tea, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and it also includes anise. I would highly recommend this to any tea drinker who likes chai. Though I prefer this blend with a bit of honey rather than by itself.

I had a lot of fun doing the "research" for this review and I want to thank the Boston Tea Company for sending me samples and allowing me to write this review. I highly recommend them to anyone in the market for new teas. So please take a minute and look through their offerings. And if you decide to order one, let me know if you like it. =)

6 comments:

  1. O-o-o I love tea!! I will give the Boston Tea Company a try. Actually I have had one of their tea tins since I was in high school. I keep old skeleton keys in it :) I didn't know the company was still in business. Thanks for doing the review!

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  2. That looks awesome! I've been starting to drink tea more and more lately, so I will have to check them out!

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  3. Elle-How neat that you have had one of their tea tins for a while! They most certainly are in business, and I am telling you the tea is delicious!

    Marian- I highly recommend them. Their teas aren't really that expensive and they package everything very well. =)

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  4. I am a TEA FREAK, have a bag of loose leaf from Teavana and one from Peets (local in Berkley), I prefer the loose leaf to the bags.

    I carry a Thermos stainless cup. It comes with a strainer. Bought a Keurig over Christmas and LOVE that thing. 9 ounces of boiling water in under 30 seconds. into the cup and off to work.

    I should give the BTC a try. Partial to herbal/blacks myself.

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  5. how fun! now i want to dump my cup of coffee and have a cup of tea. My grandma use to drink
    this tea, I remeber seeing the tin when I was a kid.
    jill

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  6. Tea brings good memories doesn't it? =)

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