Tetley Black & Green is the US counterpart to the UK’s Tetley Blend of Both. It comes with 72 round tea bags per package.
Black & Green is an easy tea to enjoy hot, and it makes an exceptional iced tea. Disappointingly, it doesn’t play as well with milk (for those who like their tea English style) as does the fuller bodied Blend of Both, which you can now find on Amazon.com. Continue reading “Reviewed: Tetley Black & Green”
This is my first attempt at Genmaicha, also know as the “people’s tea’ or “poor man’s” tea, which is a blend of roasted rice kernels and (in this case) sencha green tea. The tea was provided by The Persimmon Tree, an online tea purveyor based in Irvine, California.
I let boiling water cool for a minute and brewed the loose leaves for about two minutes. You can be a little looser with brewing time and temperature with Genmaicha because of the high rice content.
Much heavier in rice kernels than green tea, this enjoyable blend smells and tastes like Japanese toasted rice crackers with a hint of grassy sencha tea. Who new tea could be this savory? I found myself nibbling on the wet rice kernels after brewing, and I even grazed on a few dry ones too.
| Aroma: | Toasted rice, seaweed, grass, earthy |
|---|---|
| Body: | Light |
| Flavor: | Smooth, buttery, savory |
| Color: | Light yellow |
Disclaimer: The Persimmon Tree asked if I would be interested in reviewing a couple of their teas, to which I responded affirmatively. The opinions expressed in this blog post, however, are my own.
This organic green tea, also marketed by Tazo as Pan-Fired Green, is a very easy green tea to enjoy for the uninitiated. I’ve gotten good results by bringing water to a boil, letting it cool for one minute, poring it over the tea bag, and allowing it to steep for three minutes.
The tea gives off a sweet seaweed and roasted aroma. Its body is heavier than most green teas I’ve had, but it goes down easy — never bitter when I follow the above method.
The tasted is smooth and slightly buttery with mild acidity. This is going to be my go-to green tea for work and travel.
| Aroma: | Vegetal, seaweed, roasted |
|---|---|
| Body: | Medium |
| Flavor: | Smoother, buttery, mildly acidic |
| Color: | Yellowish green |
Tea is loaded with healthy antioxidants. Green tea has more, but black tea has plenty. And antioxidants are believed to improve vascular function in humans and other animals. So all this time, I thought I was doing well for my arteries when I enjoyed a cup of black tea with milk.
If you like your tea with milk too, you may be disappointed to learn that a certain type of protein in cow’s milk may negate the benefits of the antioxidants. At least, this is the conclusion of a 2007 study conducted in Germany.
In the study, 16 healthy females were given tea, some of which contained 10% skim milk. A high-resolution vascular ultrasound was administered to the subjects right before and two hours after consuming the tea. Those who had tea without milk showed improved flow-mediated dilation (FMD) while those who had tea with milk showed no FMD improvement.
Despite this study’s results and all the negative things I read about cow’s milk lately, my staunch love for milk — by itself or in combination with tea — goes on. But I do limit myself to one cup of black tea per day (ok, sometimes two), opting instead for a green or oolong tea in the afternoon, which can only be enjoyed sans milk.
If this information regarding the relationship between tea and milk is a hard pill for you to swallow, just do a little internet research on fluoride levels in tea. You may find yourself giving up the Camellia sinensis plant (and the red bush) altogether.
Green tea is believed to offer more health benefits than black tea. Tetley Blend of Both attempts to capitalize on this assumption by offering black tea drinkers the benefits of green tea.
I found this blend, composed of 72% black tea and 28% green tea, at bit odd at first but gradually came to like it. It’s supposed to be prepared and enjoyed like regular black tea. Tetley suggests drinking three cups per day to realize the benefits of one cup of green tea.
It looks and almost smells and tastes like standard British black tea; however, the small amount of green tea adds a pleasant twist. The green tea’s grassy aroma is more dominant than I expected, and the flavor is slightly bitter (from using boiling water, I think). Milk is necessary in my opinion.
As a side note for black tea drinkers, I wouldn’t be too concerned about missing the widely reported advantages of green tea. Black tea offers many of the same benefits, including antioxidants, with extra caffeine to keep you going. Recent studies have shown that black tea drinkers show reduced risk of stroke and heart disease.
If you still want to hedge your bets or simply want find out what happens when black meets green tea, Tetley Blend of Both is not a bad way to go. I’d continue drinking the stuff regularly if the cost of having it shipped to the States wasn’t so high.
| Aroma: | Mossy, chalky, and grassy |
|---|---|
| Body: | Full |
| Flavor: | Malty, creamy, and a little bitter |
| Color: | Dark |
