Reviews of Teas & Herbal Teas from Octavia Tea
Page 1 2 of 2 pages with 44 results
Blood Orange from Octavia Tea
Style: Fruit White Tea – Region: Blend57 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5
Feb. 6th, 2014
A relatively mellow, medium-bodied orange-flavored tea, medium in color, and fairly middle-of-the-road in flavor. To be fair, I tend not to like flavored teas; I tried this one more out of curiosity.
Aroma is of orange and autumn leaves, with a hint of hay or straw. Flavor has a light bitterness, and light sournes...
Phoenix Mountain Dancong from Octavia Tea
Style: Dancong Oolong – Region: Guangdong, China77 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Feb. 6th, 2014
A dark, spicy, evolving dancong that resembled a black tea more than any other oolong I've tried. It would be top-notch, except that the flavor gave out after 2 steepings.
This is the second Dancong I've sampled from Octavia recently. I was curious if it would be similar to the first--but it's completely different...
Ceylon Estate from Octavia Tea
Style: Ceylon Black Tea – Region: Uva, Sri Lanka93 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Jan. 30th, 2014
I loved this tea; it was one of the best Ceylons I've ever sampled. Robust, warming, and surprisingly multifaceted.
Dry leaf has a very pleasant smell, suggestive of dried fruit.
Brews a lighter reddish-brown color; rich and complex aroma, suggesting wood, spice, dried fruit, and malt. I find the commercial des...
Jin Xuan Milk Oolong from Octavia Tea
Style: Milky Oolong – Region: Taiwan / Formosa77 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Jan. 27th, 2014
A relatively mild, easy-to-brew oolong with a milky fragrance and lemony tang.
I recently tried a Jin Xuan oolong from the company Eco-Cha, and comparing it with this one was like night and day, as much as you can get with a green oolong. While that one was buttery, this tea was milky.
The dry leaf is very tight...
Eight Immortals Dancong from Octavia Tea
Style: Dancong Oolong – Region: China83 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 5/5
Jan. 23rd, 2014
An immensely complex tea that retains its nuances through many infusions. I love it!
The dry leaf doesn't quite betray the complexity...it has a mild aroma, slightly toasty but mostly hiding the explosion of fragrances that happens when steeping this tea in water.
Upon brewing, the aroma suggests apple, orange, ...
Passion Fruit (Paradise) from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Rooibos – Region: Blend50 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5
Jan. 2nd, 2014
This is not the sort of blend I enjoy.
I found the loose-leaf of this blend to have a cloying, artificial aroma, but thankfully, this dissipated upon brewing, giving way to a rich, full-bodied, and more subtle experience overall.
The aroma of the brewed cup suggested sourness, but upon drinking I was pleased to f...
Chocolate Mint Red Tea from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Rooibos – Region: Blend53 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 2/5
Oct. 3rd, 2013
A naturally sweet rooibos blend, with an aroma that blends seamlessly, but leaving an odd sourness in my mouth. Completely unlike any other flavored rooibos I've had.
Sweet and creamy, with tones of peppermint and vanilla, this is more reminiscent of a fruity, minty milk chocolate bar than the sort of dark chocolate...
Orange Spiced Chai (Harvest Orange Spice) from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Blend73 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Oct. 3rd, 2013
I thought this was a very balanced, complex rendition of an orange spice tea. The orange flavor is subdued, always noticeable but never overwhelming; there are a lot of spices and overall, the character of this blend is more like a masala chai or spiced tea than a typical "orange spice" tea.
None of the spices are ...
Blueberry Green from Octavia Tea
Style: Fruit Green Tea – Region: Blend47 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 2/5 Value: 2/5
Aug. 21st, 2013
Warning: this flavored tea is noticeably sweetened with Stevia.
Served in Velvet Sky Bakery in Jenkintown. This tea was completely unlike what I was expecting it to be like! In some ways I liked it better than I expected but in other ways I disliked it.
It brews up a deep purple color with a slight grayish ting...
African Rose (Rooibos and Roses) from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Rooibos – Region: Blend80 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 3/5
Aug. 14th, 2013
A really delightful, balanced, and complex blend that is only subtly lemony and floral. Served in Velvet Sky Bakery in Jenkintown, my usual place for sampling Octavia's teas.
The dominant aroma in this is rooibos, and I like that; the other herbs used in flavorings are subtle. The rose and linden are only barely e...
Calming Chamomile from Octavia Tea
Style: Pure Chamomile Tea – Region: ?????73 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 3/5
Aug. 7th, 2013
This chamomile is beautifully aromatic, with a rich, warm fragrance. It's moderately fruity and there are less of the straw or hay tones that I notice in some chamomile.
The cup brews a light color and the flavor is a little less bitter than normal for how aromatic it is. There's a little sourness in the flavor to...
Berry Cabernet (Formerly Berry Cocktail) from Octavia Tea
Style: Fruit (Herbal) Tea – Region: Blend50 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5
Jul. 31st, 2013
This struck me as a rather typical fruity / berry blend. The flavor was natural: slightly tart but not too much so. The color is a rich brownish red, not so purplish as a lot of hibiscus-dominated blends.
I've tasted pure schizandra berries before, but I can only slightly detect their distinctive peppery aroma.
...
Chocolate Chai from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Blend63 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Jul. 24th, 2013
Served in Velvet Sky, Jenkintown.
This blend smells very chocolatey, but upon sipping it the dominant aroma is cinnamon. I wasn't crazy about the Spiced Chai Mate from Octavia for the same reason: too much cinnamon, and I feel the same way about this blend: it would otherwise be very good, but has too much cinnamon...
Spiced Chai Mate from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Yerba Maté – Region: Blend60 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 2/5
Jul. 17th, 2013
Served at Velvet Sky bakery in Jenkintown.
I haven't had many Yerba Mate-based "chai" blends, so I don't have much to compare this to.
Cinnamon is the dominant tone in the aroma, which I don't like. I actually prefer masala chai without any cinnamon, but whether or not there is cinnamon, I prefer other spices, e...
French Breakfast from Octavia Tea
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Blend57 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Jul. 3rd, 2013
Served at Velvet Sky Bakery in Jenkintown.
This is called French Breakfast but it conjures up more of a Russian image to me, especially the combination of rose with other flavorings, against the background of a strong black tea.
I was expecting this to be stronger than some of Octavia's other teas, which tend to ...
Emperor's Genmaicha from Octavia Tea
Style: Genmaicha – Region: Japan80 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 2/5
Jun. 26th, 2013
Most genmaicha is more or less similar and I often find it hard to judge them. This was not true of this tea--it was completely different, and quickly became my favorite example of this style of tea.
Without a doubt the most aromatic genmaicha that I've ever tried. The base tea has a stronger presence, and more di...
Afternoon Darjeeling from Octavia Tea
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India80 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Jun. 19th, 2013
Served at Velvet Sky Bakery in Jenkintown. This tea has become a regular of mine--I have found I enjoy it much more when I'm very careful about brewing. I recommend a brief initial steeping, about 1 minute, followed by a longer steeping, 3 minutes or more, for a second cup.
The cup is pleasantly aromatic, with a c...
Grand Earl Grey from Octavia Tea
Style: Earl Grey Tea – Region: Blend73 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Jun. 12th, 2013
Served in Velvet Sky Bakery in Jenkintown.
This was a very strong, robust Earl Grey that had an intense, classic Earl Grey aroma, combining a powerful, malty base tea with a bold bergamot presence.
Octavia Tea informs me that the base tea used is a Yunnan tea...it definitely seems to have the strength and charact...
Himalayan Green from Octavia Tea
Style: Darjeeling Green Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India87 / 100 Aroma: 10/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Jun. 5th, 2013
This is a very strong, bold-tasting green tea that is among my favorite green teas ever sampled. I sampled this tea, my first from Octavia Tea, for the first time, in a new and very cute cafe, Velvet Sky Bakery, in Jenkintown. It was brewed in the Adagio Ingenuitea infuser, incidentally, my first time having tea brew...
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