La Via del Tè

I’ve been looking for an alternative to DAVIDsTEA since I can’t actually order from them myself, and honestly, this is quite a solid replacement!

This version is a bit “greener,” though I think some heavier roasted notes would actually suit the blend better. Some infusions came across as slightly vegetal and buttery, but the cinnamon remains distinct and pleasantly warming. It’s also less sweet than the DAVIDsTEA one, which could be seen as either a pro or a con depending on your preference.

On the other hand, at €11.30 for 50 grams, the price is fairly steep. I’m not sure how that compares to the price of the DAVIDsTEA version, but it feels like a bit much for a daily drinker. I can see myself picking this up once in a while, but it likely won’t be my go-to for those cold winter days.

Okay; here is wrong picture too, but uploaded earlier, and not from me.
Anyway…

This is one of the best green mint teas I had. The mint is refreshing as it was in just “mint” tea, very strong in menthol, but not like a toothpaste. And green tea was fresh too, not too hay-like, not too much grasssy, just a perfect match. They say it is a gunpowder tea, but it doesn’t had that typical smoky, or mineral taste, which is especially win in this blend.

This tea in a wonderful outer wrapper was pretty tasty. And in the sachet there was a whole rose bud, which… considering it is a sachet only, is a big thing.

As of flavours, they’re were pretty much spot on… peach and strawberry with floral tea base. Maybe too floral. That peach was also somehow bright, and not with its ripe fruit sweetness. If I did a blind test, I would not recognize it was a black tea. It was that floral.
But it worked so well together. I am happy that I could try this one and maybe… maybe I would buy a pouch of 50 grams.

This is supposed to be “sweet and intense créme caramel” flavoured rooibos, but honestly? I notice rooibos only. Yes, there are some hints of some flavouring, but not caramel in my opinion.
But somehow, comforting and nice cup.

This is a good Earl Grey. Really. A robust base (they say Darjeeling but who knows), and a nice, citrusy and not overwhelming bergamot.

Huh… my notes are getting shorter and shorter.

Meh.

This tea was just meh. A classic combo of hibiscus and rosehips, covered in artificial fruitiness.
Nothing to write home (or you) about. Drinkable though.

A tasty classic black tea. Nothing distinctive and remarkable, but definitely tasty enough and more than Ceylon tea from Siam Tee Shop.

It had even a little towards sweet malt notes. A good thing. Very pleasant in chilly afternoon. I guess because of its simplicity. Something that’s just enough.

And with this tea I caught up all the La Via del Té teas.

This one is a green tea blend with scent of cherry and yuzu and while I never had a yuzu in my hand, only yuzu flavoured teas and beers; I think it is pretty much correct.
In flavour, sadly, only cherry is prominent with, not that good, green tea base. That base is drying, while a nice grassy base would be a great complement to the fruits. Maybe it is because older tea used?
Nevertheless, it is nice tea, but it needs fresher tea only. Maybe if there is a little of the citrus peels included, it would be great too.

Accidentally I added wrong photo.

This tea smells wonderful and very remarkable — all three there written: grapes, fig & lemon; with lilac aroma. Sadly, after 3 munutes steep with 80°C water brought green tea with notes of citruses, mostly the already mentioned lemons. It is tasty, but if there were the other notes, it would be great. Maybe in a loose leaf version instead of sachet?

A wonderful, fresh tasting mint tea; with strong menthol taste. If needed a bagged mint tea, this seems like a good choice. Sadly, nothing more to write about.

Steeping sachet of this for 5 minutes in 80°C water. While the aroma was quite generic floral with hints of hay; the flavour is completely different. It is a full-bodied floral, meadow bomb. Probably because of leaves were in the sachet a little crushed. And it had got a long mouthfeel, with a little hint of drying feel when gulped. Fine indeed!

The last La Via Del Té tea for today.

After opening the outer wrapping, I have been struck by a Tutti Frutti aroma; a very candy like. I had no idea what expected flavour profile is, but it was quite unpleasant. Sadly, as it is a green tea, it was some funky medley of candy fruit notes and marine saltiness.
Sadly, not a fan of this.

This was such a good cup! Interesting to choose black tea for a tea that is called White Christmas, but oh my… this was definitely the tea that resmebles buttery, vanilla biscuits so well. While it is quite sweet in flavour, as there are sugar crystals (well, that’s the white from name, I guess!); it was indeed full of baked goodies in a cup.

It has been wonderful!

I took out the teas I couldn’t enjoy in correct day and… whoops I don’t know which day was what tea. And the bags doesn’t say it, nor the website.

So, I took this one as I wanted a plain tea and boy this one is good! Strong, robust falvour, with a nice malty flavour profile. Enjoyed plain, however a milk could be nice addition. As I have steeped it for maybe too long, there were hints of astringency and it was a little drying. But I guess that was just an user error.

Today I learned a lot about Jardin Majorelle that this tea relates to! How interestign and inspriring. Also the outer wrapping of this tea is wonderful cobalt blue with… why to describe it when you can see it on the bag pictured! Just it is smaller for a single sachet.

Anyway, the tea was a lovely green tea base and there was also a mint… pretty much Moroccan style in my opinion, though I never had a proper Moroccan tea and I never been to Morocco. But I hope for the latter one day, but as I don’t speak French I am a little afraid.

I am digressing greatly today, sorry guys!

The tea as I said, was a decent green tea with strong peppermint notes. However, to my adness I haven’t noticed much of citruses, or tangerine to be exact, which should be in. Maybe, it was just covered by the mint, maybe my sachet had more mint and a little of peels, I don’t know. Also, the peppermint was very fresh and enjoyable, refreshing and cooling. Not musty as some! I just would like to feel the citruses a little more, but I am considering ordering a pouch of this.

A pretty much standard Gunpowder and I find nothing Special in this particular one. This was day 4 tea; but I have made a mistake. Happens! I am glad nobody else have this tea advent calendar.

Mineral, slightly smoky… and none of the vendor’s lemon flavour.

Easy to drink, considering it was in the sachet. But nothing I need to have in my cupboard.

Whoops, this was for day 5 and today is just day 4! So, tomorrow will be day 4 tea.

I hoped to like this. It contains eucalyptus, not so common ingredient, but also pine buds which have relaxing properties and that is something I would love today.

But alas, I don’t like it too much. It was very floral and heavy in herbal notes; and from the ginger I barely noticed anything. Nothing warming, nothing spicy from that.
I think that the eukalyputs here was the strongest and sadly overwhelmed all the other ingredients. Well, not all teas can be winners, right?

This tea is a blend of Japanese bancha and Chinese Jasmine green tea. Interesting blend and it is also said it is low in caffeine, which I hope for, as I was drinking it at 7 pm — soon time to bed. Yep, alarm set to 5 am; then a swimming session (another 500 meters, at least) and off to work. I can’t believe I do this twice a week for almost a year!

Anyway, back to the tea. I have to say, it is pretty tasty! Jasmine is having just correct level; and green tea is fresh tasting with a little of sweet grass notes and little minerality? Also I noticed a little of fruits, but it was that little I couldn’t recognize in a single steep what those were.

A 50 gr bag costs 6.50 EUR, a tin 100 gr is for 19.90 EUR; twenty sachets, but with outer wrapping (that would be great for exchanges!), is for 10.90 EUR. That bag seems like a good price and good amount of tea for my yearly consumption.

I know no Italian to recognize what the name means; but outer wrapper design is very nice, showing white calla lily on the left side and orange lilium on the right side, both on dark purple (Bordeaux) coloured background. It is not looking festive, but very nice nevertheless.

The sachet in was a little bigger than yesterday I suppose? There was nice amount of black tea, two, pretty big, pieces of orange peel and rose petals. Smmells quite floral with citrusy notes.

After a session I found out they used Chinese and Indian black tea and the base was very tasty indeed; with orange notes of peel as well as the notes of the floral elements, especially when cooled. While I generally enjoy more robust teas, I think it would clash with the rose? And I just keep wondering, if there is other floral aromas that I just could not detect?

Rejoice! An advent season has started!
To be honest, I am not at all in Christmas feeling at all. We do have a little of snow here; but mood just isn’t there this year. Like last year.

But I am happy to see this tea being first; and I have also a loose leaf pouch of this and I have to say that it is a nice start of the season. The ingredients are surprising to me, as I probably never had a coriander in the tea? And I am not really familiar with it as a spice either.

But this tea is so good and so warming. A great Assam base, which is fairly strong, followed with spices — and I think the coriander is the strongest. Closely followed by cinnamon and cloves. I can’t forget the fruit notes, this sachet was filled more with apples than strawberries I had once in the loose leaf.
It is also very smooth and definitely not bitter if steeped for recommended 3-4 minutes with 90°C (194°F) water.

A lovely start!

This was a freebie from La Via del Te in my order. A proper, 50 grams pouch.

To be honest, I added a few teas to reach this gift (it was said a pouch of tea, not which one); and I had to compesate 15 EUR for shipping too. So, Advent Calendar and a few pouches.

First of all, it smells amazing. Very fresh, spicy, citrusy (probably lemongrass?) and fruity.
I steeped 7 grams in boiling water for 5 minutes and it has got a pine-y notes? Then again, ginger, and apples. A little bit like a mulled apple cider with pine-y ginger-y notes.

When drank, it was actually damn similar to aroma, mostly noticeable were apples with ginger which wasn’t fiery, just a mildly spicy. A hardly noticeable were pomegranates, which surprises me, as there was more of citrusy notes than this red round fruit.

In conclusion, this blend isn’t bad… but my expectations were very different. I have been expecting a spicy (fiery) pomegranate tea, but nada. Now when I know what to expect, it will be a little better next time. Rating on hold.
And note for some: It doesn’t contain any hibiscus!

This is another Via del Tè tea I had put aside when I received the (huge ;-) ) order I made now almost 2 years ago. 2011 is the green blend of the Golden Jubilee blends the company put together in 2011 (the black blend being named 1961, the year Via del Tè was founded). Today I opened the pouch and immediately the smell of fresh strawberries came to me. According to the list of ingredients, this aroma is due to flavourings. It completely overwhelms the jasmine (from one of the 3 green teas in this blend, King of jasmine) or the pineapple supposedly present in this blend. Once steeped (at 80ºC, not longer than 2,5 minutes…all from info online as this is not indicated on the pouch, a shame really), the liquor is light yellow, and the aroma´s have turned more floral (because of the jasmine?). In mouth it sort of disappointed me a bit, as I hoped for a stronger green tea character, and I thought the fruity and floral notes in nose would translate better to the taste as well. It makes a nice afternoon tea, easy to drink even for people who aren´t into tea.

There was a time (when I studied in Yorkshire, UK where I would buy my teas at Betty´s, an “institution” over there for tea and coffee and all events concerning tea and coffee ;-) ) that I drank Lapsang Souchong quite regularly. I remember that even my father liked it although he ´s not at all a tea drinker.
So, I bought this LS from Via del Tè – for old times´sake??? – a few years ago, and hadn´t opened the pouch yet. In nose (for the dry tea leaves) the smoked character is clearly present, and it also steals the show once steeped, both in nose and mouth where it lingers on and on and on, giving a nice smooth finish. The slightly sweet sidenotes present in mouth when actually drinking the tea don´t mess up the experience, and might even make it easier to drink this tea. These also differ from the LS of my memories (Taylors of Harrogate tea), where the black tea backbone was stronger. Nevertheless, this is a solid LS I´ll enjoy a lot over the winter months.
Note : I drink my teas “black”, while a LS in UK is typically enjoyed with milk.

Finally then my personal favourite of the Tea Travels series.
The dry leaves smell of jelly bears, but during the brewing process the fragrances turn more elegant and less sweet, and they linger on and on : I happen to prepare my brew in the kitchen, then take it elsewhere in the house, and when I return to the kitchen, it´s still very present. Furthermore, the oolong tea opens up, which is nice to look at. I tried steeping the blend a second time, and although there´s a small loss in properties, the resulting brew is still very enjoyable (and fragrant!)
From the leaflet : "The charm of ancient China lives on in this blend that brings together the semi-fermented oolong tea and the precious buds of Yin Zhen “silver needles” white tea, once intended for the Emperor solely. Tea of serenity, with an enveloping aroma of red fruit."