Tea Review

Kia Ora!

Hi everyone. I have been taking a bit of a mental health break from blogging recently (nothing to do with you lovely readers, just some things happening behind the scenes that were a bit stressful). Now I'm back, with plenty of plans for posts to catch up on and awesome things to talk about.

Today I'm here with a review of a brand new tea company. Staten Tea have just opened their doors in New Zealand, and were generous enough to provide me with a packet of their Black tea to review. Any excuse to drink copious amounts of tea is wonderful for me, and I took full advantage of this offer.

Staten Tea is a strong, unblended black tea. It originates from the Nilgiri Mountains in Southern India. It has the grading 'Broken Orange Pekoe' and if you don't know what that means then this Wikipedia page will blow your mind (seriously it was really interesting). Basically this tea is a medium-grade black tea.

I have had this tea at work with me this week, and I've been drinking 4-5 cups a day. Which is a lot. I'm seriously enjoying this tea. It's a bit more fiddly than a tea bag, and you have to measure out the tea and use a tea ball, but it's worth it. This is a great basic blend of black tea. It's perfect for early mornings, and you can drink it throughout the day. I love a really strong cup of tea first thing in the morning, and this fits the bill. I have it a bit weaker throughout the day, and it still tastes great. The tea also tastes a lot fresher than generic tea bags (Bell, Dilmah, and the like). 

The packaging - I quite like it. The foil packet should keep the tea fresher than a jar or plastic packet, and the resealable top is wonderful! It's also a great size and should last 3-4 weeks (I hope).

The information on the back gives an awesome insight into the people who work at Staten Tea. They clearly have a sense of humour, and a great friendship. The only slightly funny thing is the measurements given on the packet. It took me awhile to register that there is 100g of tea in the packet (it's phrased as '0.1kg'), and in the instructions on how to brew the tea it is listed as .25L of water rather than 250mls or a cup. This, to me, is an odd way of phrasing it, but honestly doesn't affect the quality of the tea or the brew that I can make with it.

Overall, I am quite liking this tea. It's not the best tea I've ever ever tried, but it's a decent, high-quality black tea that is very enjoyable. My only advice would be not to over brew it, as I did to start with and it was very strong. Although if that's the kind of brew you love then this tea is flexible enough to be able to handle that.

Thank you to Staten Tea for letting me try out and review their tea before release date, and I can't wait to see what else they have up their sleeves.

Until next time ...