Numi Toasted Rice Green

I have tried the Japanese toasted rice and green tea blend, Gen Mai Cha, many times before, I liked the taste of the toasted rice combined with green tea, but was always disappointed by the quality of green tea that came with the more readily available offerings, usually they contained broken leaves and sticks; with the loose tea brands, I would end up eating the slightly nutty delicious brown rice, but I would have to pick out the sticks before I could enjoy the brown rice. I know that I could go to any Japanese store and purchase the more expensive selections, I've never got around to it, so I was intrigued by this offering from Numi Tea, a company I've bought lots of tea from. Organic Sencha green tea (a traditional Japanese green tea with needle-like leaves that are rolled, flattened and steamed and makes a very pale yellow-green tea) and organic toasted rice are the only ingredients in this tea, and, while I miss being able to eat the rice, the flavour is quite good and refreshing.

Numi Ginger Sun

What a name. Ginger Sun.

Makes me oh so want to drink this tea! And I oh so want this tea to taste really good.

This offering from Numi Tea features Fair Trade Certified organic Selim Hill Estate decaffeinated green tea, organic ginger and organic lemongrass. Normally I like full strength teas, and coffees, this should be interesting to taste, given the kick ginger normally gives. The decaffeination process is done through "Effervescence", using CO2, which does not extract the flavour or antioxidants of the green tea, which means it takes out the "bad" caffeine, and leaves the good stuff.

How does it taste? Well, not as gingery as I'd like, the colour of the tea however was quite amazing, a golden brown. The taste of the green tea was very subtle. Overall, not my favourite.

Numi Rainforest Green Mate Lemon Green Tea

This variety of Numi Tea's line of organic teas contains Yerba Maté, a South American herb known for stimulating your mental state, think caffeine without its inherent problems. Too, the other Yerba Maté tea I drink, from Traditional Medicinals, is quite good, and is flavoured with Lemon; Numi flavours this one with Lemon, but uses Lemon Myrtle, a herb from Australia with high citral content, citral is the source of lemon odour. Too, there is green tea thrown into the bunch; green tea too has many health properties. Overall, the flavour was good, very lemony, though the Traditional Medicinals tea has more of the Yerba Mate flavour.

Numi Dry Desert Lime Tea

Having tasted and enjoyed some of Numi's other teas, especially the mint, I came across this variety. I like lime, and enjoy it in various Thai dishes and as a refreshing drink, so I thought that this tea, made from dried lime, would be interesting. The limes that are dried come from the Arabian desert, where they are traditionally harvested and dried in the hot desert sun. The smell of it steeping does not remind me, nor others, of lime, so it is a little disconcerting, but the taste definitely does, and is well worth it, despite the incongruity.

Numi Teas

It was a day for new teas, both familiar and unfamiliar. The night before, I had bought some teas, from a company called Numi, they make high quality, organic, few-ingredient teas. Indeed, their teas are full leaf, with, in their words, no bitter tasting tea dust or fannings, and no added oils or natural "flavourings" common to the market. Being a manufacturer of organic teas, they also pack them in natural paper bags, not the more common nylon ones. They are also a Fair Trade company, so that the producers of the tea receive a fairer and higher price for their wares. Too, the ingredients are very small, usually only one or two, really just the whole leaf, perhaps scented with a natural flower.

The first of the teas that I got is Moroccan Mint, made from mint leaves gathered in Morocco. I did try this yesterday and found it clean-tasting, quite strong, I often put two bags in my very large cup, but needed only one of these. Mint tea is not unusual, but the single source is. The Moroccans, apparently, find it so good, they drink 10 cups of it a day!

The second of the teas is Jasmine tea from the banks of the Gan River in Jiangxi Province in China. The tea leaves are Special Grade, and are also scented with summer picked Jasmine flowers, to give it an extra flavour that marries well with the leaf.

The last of the three teas is the most unusual of them, it contains leaves from the Honeybush, hand-picked in the mountain regions of South Africa, for hundreds of years. Honeybush is a honey-scented flowering bush, and creates a tea with a rich brew with sweet honey overtones. The honeybush is also rich in antioxidants, phytoestrogens and essential minerals. Should be interesting to try.