Voyant Chai Cream Liqueur

Hey readers,

This weeks review will be a little different from my usual reviews, in
that I am not reviewing an actual tea, or a tea gadget, or even a tea
company. Instead, this will be about a product that makes a brilliant
usage of tea in a unique and interesting way. The product is called
Voyant Chai.

Recently, I made contact with Voyant, because I found their product
interesting, and asked them if they would allow me to review their
product. Those of you that are followers of this blog will not that
it is a rare thing for me to approach a tea company - usually,
companies contact me, asking for a review. Sometimes, however, I find
a product so and interesting, that I just cannot help myself, and find
myself making the first move. This is the case with Voyant.

First, allow me to explain what Voyant actually is. Voyant Chai is a
blended alcoholic beverage, which is designed to exemplify the best
characteristics of a good Chai, while at the same time serving as a
refreshing, creamy and delicious treat for those of us that appreciate
fine spirits. And I believe it serves this purpose very well. In
this review, I will discuss just how well it exemplifies the best
properties of Chai, and will subject it to my full scrutiny as a
reviewer of teas.

But before I comment on the actual beverage experience, I want to say
a few things about the packaging, which is absolutely brilliant. The
bottle deserves a special mention. The design of the bottle consists
of a painted flame, with a stylized V, standing for Voyant, and the
name "Voyant" artistically spelled out below the design. The bottle
is painted in a sophisticated assortment of red, gold and orange
tones, blended with the soft white color of the V. The bottle itself
is a spectacular work of art. I would encourage you to visit their
website just to have a look. This is some of the most creative
packaging I have ever seen on a beverage bottle.

But, as attractive as the aesthetic design of the bottle is, we all
know that looks aren't everything. For this product to work, this
brilliant design must be met with an equally brilliant product. And
with that mention, I will go on to discuss the merits of the beverage
itself - and in doing so, determine whether or not this product
scores.

Voyant Chai is a mixture of many things. Voyant Chai is the perfect
beverage for someone who enjoys both fine tea and fine spirits.
Voyant steeps real spices and tea and use aged rum and premium dutch
vodka - only the best ingredients. It is obvious from my tasting of
this product that Voyant has put the greatest of efforts into
selecting the perfect ingredients for this blend. This blend of fresh
dutch cream, premium black and green teas, and the natural sweetness
of premium aged rum really hits the spot.

As a Chai beverage, this product suceeds on it's own merits. It does
a splendid job of achieving the perfect balance between the earthiness
of the teas, and the delightful spiciness of the herbs and spices that
make it a Chai. Also, notable within this blend is the mellowing
power of real vanilla - something which I really enjoy within a Chai,
and which I was delighted to find came through especially well in this
blend.

When I first received this bottle, and took my first sip of Voyant, my
response was a "Wow!" It really does taste like an authentic Chai,
with the tangy kick of spirits to help push it along your tastebuds
smoothly and cleanly. This beverage is also the perfect consistency -
Thin enough to be very easy to drink, but thick enough to really carry
forth a luxurious creaminess that creates the perfect complement to
the natural spiciness of the chai. This balance between creaminess
and spiciness is what makes this beverage so uniquely delicious.

I also really appreciate the amount of natural sweetness within this
beverage. The rum adds just enough sweetness to really bring out the
flavors of the spices, but is not so sweet as to be overpowering in
any way. Just the way I like it.

As I sampled this beverage, I drew alot of comparisons between this,
and Suntory's Zen Green Tea Liqueur, which I also love dearly, and
which sets a high standard for any alcohol and tea blend. I truly
enjoyed Zen Liqueur, but I also thoroughly enjoyed my experience with
Voyant. It meets the high standard set by Suntory, to say the very
least, and is an excellent addition to a world where tea and spirits
get along peacefully, and coexist together in perfect harmony.

I give Voyant Chai my full props, and my highest recommendation. If
you enjoy a fine Chai, and you also enjoy fine spirits, I would
wholeheartedly recommend Voyant Chai as the beverage for you. It not
only well exemplifies the essence of great Chai and great spirits -
but it does so with a style and a unique twist all its own.

I want to thank Robert at Voyant for pulling the strings necessary to
get a bottle of this to Utah - as I understand that was no easy task,
and I want to thank him for allowing me the opportunity to have the
Voyant Chai experience.

I would also encourage all of you to visit Voyant's website, to have a
look at the bottle, and to find much more information on Voyant.

You can visit them at:

http://www.voyantchai.com/

Thanks for reading, and I hope you take the opportunity to try this
impressive new take on Chai!

Over and out,
Relz

33 Health Benefits of Drinking Tea

Hey all. I recently encountered an excellent article that sums up
many of the health benefits of drinking tea, and I thought some of you
might enjoy this.

You can find the article at:
http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/18/33-health-benefits-of-drinking-tea/

Over and out,
Relz

In Search of the Golden Ibis

Greetings readers,

It's been only a week since my last posting, and I am already feeling
ambitious once more. Today, I have another review for you, from a
company I'm fairly sure you haven't heard of until today.

Recently, a representative of Golden Ibis Tea contacted me, asking if
I would be willing to review some samples for him. I did, of course,
gladly accept. But before I proceed to make specific mention of a few
of the teas that were sent, i want to take a moment to say a few
things about this new tea company. Since they are new to the tea
world, very little information is available about them, so I decided I
would try to help them ot by spreading some info about their company
first.

Golden Ibis puts great attention into where they purchase their teas
from, and they buy teas made in a time-honored tea producing
tradition. This, to me, seems admirable. They also have an
interesting philosophy on tea, where they believe that tea should be
made in the most authentic way possible, but also believe that tea
should be attainable (although not too attainable.) This can provide
an interesting balance between the most expensive of teas, made
authentically, in a time honored tradition from a single estate, and a
more attainable tea that is still made with authentic, high quality
standards, but also is cheap enough to be affordable.

We will see if the samples they sent hold up to the high standards of
excellence that they seem to be proposing.

Also, since Golden Ibis is so new to the world of tea, they haven't
had enough time to figure out packaging, so I will not be discussing
that aspect. For this review, I will stray outside of my norm, and
eveluate them based only upon the tea samples themselves.

The first sample I will be reviewing is a Phoenix Oolong tea. I am
very particular about oolongs, but this one seems to be up to the
task. When I opened up the foil packet, the smell is the first thing
that hit me with this blend - it has that characteristic nutty sort of
scent that all good oolongs tend to have. The dry appearnace of this
tea was also perfect - mostly whole, complete leaves, with only a few
broken up parts.

This tea was also a pleasure brewed. It imparted a decent cup
clarity, and had that nice light amber color that a good oolong should
have. As far as flavor goes, I can tell that great effort was put
into all aspects of this tea's processing, as it retained the
characteristic nutty flavor of an oolong, while having very little of
the astringent properties common to improperly produced oolongs. This
was a very clean, smooth tasting brew that imparted the best
characteristics of an oolong.

While it is not the best oolong I have ever tasted, it was pretty
good, and maintains that delicate balance between availability and
quality which is so important to this particular tea company.

The second of the samples that they sent was a Long Jing green tea.
As far as straight green teas go, this is actually one of the better
ones I have been given the opportunity to sample. It was particularly
good at maintaining that mild vegetal flavor that quality greens
always hold on to. However, this blend did posess a bit more
astringent than I like, which leads me to believe that it might have
been rushed a bit in it's processing, or may have been harvested a bit
too late. Other than the slight bitterness problem, this is an
excellent brew, having a brilliant cup clarity, a perfect cup
coloration, and an excellent assortment of flavor notes, from that
stereotypical vegetal flavor to a very slight nuttiness, to a very
slight fruity flavor.

I would highly recommend this brew as one of the better straight
greens I have tried.

And the third sample I was sent by this company is an apricot white
tea, which I won's spend much time discussing, other than to say that
it is an exceptional white, and to say that the amount of apricot was
expert - just enough to add some character, while not distracting from
the delicate flavor of the white tea it is based on.

Overall, I would say that these samples are above average for such a
new tea company, but could still use a little bit of improvement. I
suspect that many of the improvements in suppliers, etc, are alredy
being made. Since this is such a new company, these slight
shortcomings are very forgivable.

I would recommend these teas to most people, although I would caution
the more developed drinkers out there that these blends won;t really
compare to their more expensive counterparts available from other tea
companies. These teas do represent an excellent compromise between
expense and quality, however, which seems to have been the goal.

Thanks for reading. I hope you will all give this new tea company a
try - they really deserve to be getting some attention, as they are
doing quite well for being so new to the world of retail tea.

Over and out,
Relz

Clever tea videos

Hey readers,

I ran into a couple of clever videos about tea, and thought to share
them with you. Hope you enjoy these!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mkXwd-Jq1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K2IAUF6Y7A

Over and out,
Relz

Tavalon, Part II

Greetings, Readers!

I have just returned from my 9-day vacation near Yellowstone, and as
promised, I now have my reviews for the final two blends that Tavalon
sent me for review. Having already discussed packaging, shipping, and
so forth, this review will focus only on the two remaining teas, and
my reactions to each.

The first blend I want to make note of is Kama Chai Sutra - Tavalon's
take on a modern Chai. One thing I found to be especially delightful
about this chai blend is the addition of vanilla bean - a flavor I
could detect with relative ease in the blend. The vanilla is expertly
blended with the traditional chai ingredients, adding it's
characteristic smoothness and imparting it's mellow flavor
characteristics to the cup.

This is a relatively standard Chai blend, with little to distinguish
it from other Chai blends, besides the notable addition of vanilla.
However, that does not mean that it is a very good chai, because it
is. It is easy to tell that careful attention was placed in blending
the various herbs and teas together in just the right combination.
It's also easy to see that some serious effort was put in here to
ensure that only the highest quality whole herbs were included in the
blend.

The result is one of the finer Chai blends on the market - Not quite
as good as Yogic Chai, but far superior to your standard tea shoppe
blend. Although, in Tavalon's favor, Yogic does specialize
specifically in Chai where Tavalon does not make such a
specialization.

The final Tavalon blend that I will make note of is called Serenity,
and is one of Tavalon's very fine herbal blends. It is made from
Chamomile, Peppermint, Lemongrass, Rooibos and Vanilla. Any of you
who are frequenters of my blog will already know that I have alot of
concerns with Chamomile blends, due to the mild and subtle nature of
Chamomile, however, the other herbs are of little contest over the
flavor characteristics that might have been drowned out in the
Chamomile.

This may be one of the most interesting minted blends that I have
tried. Additionally, the amount of mind included was perfect - it was
neither weak nor overpowering, but added a refreshing and vibrant tone
to this otherwise quite mellow tea. The earthy profile of the Rooibos
did not come through as well as I would have hoped, but Rooibos is a
difficult herb to blend, so I am somewhat forgiving of this minor
shortcoming. The lemongrass was just right as well, adding just the
right amount of tartness, and it's delicate citrus-like notes came
through in this blend very well.

I was also quite impressed, once again, with the superior blending of
the vanilla in this particular mixture. The vanilla gets alot of
milage in this blend, smoothing out the edges of the lemongrass and
peppermint, and adding a brilliant mellow feel to complement the
mellowness of the chamomile. The sweetness of this blend was also
right on target, making this a blend that can be enjoyed fully without
the addition of any sweeters, re-emphasizing the role of this tea as a
late afternoon beverage (too many sugars in an evening tea can defeat
it's mellow nature.)

Overall, I'd consider this one of the nicer evening teas I have
sampled in a while, and give it my highest recommendation.

Well, readers, I hope you have enjoyed reading this week's tea review,
and I hope that you will stay tuned in the coming weeks for more
content to be added soon.

Over and out,
Relz

Tea Begins at Tavalon, and Tavalon Starts with T!

Hey readers! As promised, I have another tea review for you this week.

Recently, I was contacted by none other than Tavalon, who requested
that I review some samples for them. For those of you that don't
know, Tavalon is one of the largest, if not the very largest, tea
establishment in New York City. So when they asked me to review some
samples for them, you might say I leaped at the opportunity - I just
could not turn it down.

And, I am pleased to say, I was not at all disappointed.

Statisticaly, in New York, there are more tea drinkers per capita than
almost any other state in the US. Also in New York, Tavalon has come
to be a household name in Tea. I often worry about large tea
companies, as it seems that the larger a tea company gets, the more
mechanized they become, and the more shortcuts they begin to take.
The larger a tea company becomes, the worse their tea becomes overall,
with few notable exceptions. However, with Tavalon, their success has
spelled out their failure. Quite the opposite, in fact. It seems
that Tavalon is now more focused on quality overall than ever before!
From the packaging to the product, I have seen few greater displays of
pure tea-related ingenuity than those present in Tavalon's excellent
products.

The first thing I would like to discuss is the packaging. Tavalon has
some of the best packaging of any tea company I have worked with.
Each tea is shipped in a clear, reusable, sturdy plastic canister,
which comes very much in handy for storing teas later on. In fact, I
very much wish that I could order these containers in bulk to store my
loose teas in.

Printed on the bottom of each canister is the name of the blend
contained therein, as well as complete directions for brewing the tea,
including the amount to be used, the temperature, and how much time is
necessary for the brewing. Fortunately, it also tells you how many
servings it contains, so you know exactly when to send for more when
your container runs dry. On the top and side of each canister is a
second label, which also serves as a seal for the canister, which
displays the Tavalon name, as well as giving you the name of the
mixture.

The labels work well with the design and appearance of the canister as
well, making the packaging as aesthetically pleasing as it is useful.

I would also make note that the shipping and customer service
experience behind Tavalon is also excellent. They always respond to
emails quickly and professionally, and leave no question unanswered,
which is something that is rare and extremely appreciated for a tea
company of their prestige.

Now, I'd like to review two of the four blends that Tavalon decided to
send my way. I will review the other two blends in some future post.

The first blend that I'd like to mention is the NYC Breakfast blend.
Tavalon's NYC breakfast blend is made from a variety of premium black
teas, rather than just one variety as most breakfast blends consist
of. This breakfast tea is actually one of the best breakfast teas I
have ever had the pleasure of sampling! The varieties that were
chosen complement each other very well - It's as if they are taking
the good qualities from the various black teas that were available,
and combined them into one. This blend is the perfect mixture of
fragrance, subtle nutty flavour, and natural sweetness. In addition,
it has the least astringent of any black tea that I have ever tasted.

The leaves are whole, unbroken leaves, as I expect from a premium
view, and there is no tea dust to settle to the bottom of the
container, which is delightful. The blend also has an excellent cup
colour, a pleasant light amber, with none of the cloudiness that is
often typical of "every day" teas such as breakfast blends. The tea
also exhibits the perfect blend between the strong flavor expected
from breakfast teas, and the subtle mixture of flavors and aromas that
accompany any premium blend.

Overall, I would rate this breakfast tea very highly, and not only do
I recommend this tea, but it is likely that I will begin using this
blend as my exclusive breakfast tea in my own home. Yes, it is that
good.

The second blend I would like to mention, is called After Dark. As
it's name implies it is an evening tea, composed of chamomile and
dried fruits.

The dominant fruit flavors in this blend are cherry and some sort of
citrus (Orange, I think), which both come through very strongly. Now,
as many of you will know, if you've been keeping up on my postings, I
am a big fan of Chamomile tea, and as such, I am very particular about
it. In chamomile blends, what usually occurs that the the subtle,
mellow flavour of the chamomile is drowned out by the strong fruity
tones. With this blend, however, it is not the case, for while there
are very strong fruit tones in this blend, the strongest of them being
the cherry (if I am not mistaken), they do not completely overpower
the chamomile. Instead, they complement it's subtle flavor. The
cherry, in particular, does very well in contrasting with the subtle
nuttiness of the chamomile.

This blend, also, is made of large chunks of material, rather than
small, broken pieces. This tea is a dark crimson color, presumable
from the cherry, but has excellent clarity and tint. This is one of
the most delightful chamomile blends I have tasted in a long time. It
was a pleasure for me to have the ability to sample it.

These two blends are some of the best blends I have ever tasted.
Tavalon definately puts the appropriate effort into both quality of
their ingredients, and expertness of their blends.

Well, that wraps it up for this review. I give Tavalon high marks,
and my highest reccomendation. Stay tuned for my review of the other
two blends that they sent, which also should prove to be delightful.

Over and out,
Relznuk

Twinings Weekly Blog Review

Hi Readers,

I just received a copy of this review from Twinings, and thought I would post it to see what you all think. Let me know what you think of it! Thanks.

By William I. Lengeman III



This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from the Twinings Tea Blog, where you will find the best tea blogs by tea lovers from around the world.



Rooibos: Some Health Information

Elliot, at the Miro Tea blog, continues his examination of rooibos, the increasingly popular herbal beverage from South Africa. Last time out, he took a look at how rooibos is processed. This time around, some thoughts on the potential health benefits of rooibos. For more on rooibos and health, look here.



Teaware: Chataku

What's a chataku? As Katrina pointed out, in a recent post at The Tea Pages, it's "a saucer (coaster) that sits under the small handleless Japanese teacups known as yunomi." Chataku are also known in China as chatuo.

"Stringing Tea": Intro & Part 1

If the phrase "stringing tea" doesn't ring any bells, it's because it was apparently coined in an interesting post by Mellow Monk. The introduction and part one of the multi-part post relate how a three-person film crew from Europe's Arte TV network followed him on a tea-buying expedition as part of their research for a documentary on Japanese green tea.



About Twinings

The Twinings Tea Blog discusses everything to do with Tea; from the fascinating history, the many different varieties, and special brewing techniques to the latest health news, unique teapots and famous tearooms. Nobody knows tea like Twinings. The finest ingredients coupled with 300 years of experience makes Twinings the tea experts. With nearly 200 Twinings blends to choose from, there is something special for everybody - every one has its own special aroma, flavour and character.