Heavenly Tea Leaves was founded based on the idea that America needs a better tea option. The founder, Noushin, found momentum to start Heavenly Tea Leaves after beating cancer. She often took to drinking freshly brewed Organic tea and was astounded by the healing and uplifting nature of tea. She hopes to share her quality loose leaf tea with as many people as she can, and she is doing that through Heavenly Tea Leaves. They reached out to me to try some of their blends from their newest collection, the Essentials Collection. This collection includes tea staples in your tea stash, all organic. I was sent English Breakfast, Turmeric Ginger, Jasmine Green, Lemon Ginger, and Sleep. Here are my thoughts:
Organic English Breakfast: I really enjoyed this tea, especially right before I started my day at work. Having a bold cup of black tea is my absolute favorite way to start my morning, and it is my favorite way to wake myself up to prepare for the day. This aroma is malty and delicious smelling, there was a little sour maltiness going on. The tea brewed a lovely reddish-brown, the light really captured it in the morning. The taste was also quite malty and slightly sweet. I was also surprised that it was such a forgiving tea. I accidentally left this tea steeping for more than 5 minutes (3 is my preferable time), and I could not taste any additional astringencies from it oversteeping. All in all, it was a really nice medium cup of black tea that did help my senses get more in alignment right when I woke up.
Ingredients: Organic Black Tea
Organic Turmeric Ginger: When opening the tea pouch, my nose was hit with lemon citrus notes. It took a lot for me to not stick my entire nose into there. The aroma of the brewed tea is a bit more turmeric-focused and slightly sweet. The first sip prompted me to think “Oh shoot, that is spicy” and then “oh my, there is something very sweet about this”. This tea is a little interesting with a more spice forward front, and every abrupt sweet end. to be honest, many teas with Liquorice Root ends up not being my favorite. My sensitive palette can often not taste beyond the abrupt sweetness. The initial taste is peppery, which confused me since it was not one of the listed ingredients. Even my mom who normally doesn’t mind liquorice root, was not super into the spicey/sweet aspect of the tea. This tea had a nice tingle when I drank it, with a sharp sweetness on the back of my tongue.
Ingredients: Organic Ginger, Organic Liquorice Root, Organic Lemongrass, Organic Turmeric, Organic Orange Peel. Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Lemon Oil, Natural Mandarin Flavoring
Organic Jasmine Green: I have mentioned this before, but there is very little that differentiates jasmine greens from one another. The aroma of the tea is quite floral and jasmine like. Thankfully this tea is scented instead of using actual jasmine flowers, so the tea was well balanced. The aroma also held a little bit of sweetness, most likely from the green tea. There is something about jasmine green tea that just is relaxation in a cup. It is one of the majorly floral teas that I can just sip on and lay back, while slightly energizing myself to get on with my day. This tea has a nice balance between floral and vegetal, but almost confused my senses a bit. There were times that the Jasmine seemed more prominent, but other times there were vegetal notes that peaked through a bit more. Slightly seaweed like, with some natural sweetness.
Ingredients: Organic Scented Green Tea
Organic Sleep: The aroma of this tea is very peppermint forward in its dry-leaf form. The aroma of the brewed tea is much sweeter and blended extremely well with the peppermint aspects. I think this blend might be one of my favorites from the bunch that I was sent. The tea itself was quite complex but it tasted absolutely lovely. The first note I noticed was that of the refreshing feeling of peppermint, but it quickly was met with natural sweetness from the Lemongrass, Rosehip, and Hibiscus. I really enjoy fruity, naturally sweet teas before bed, they really relax me as long as they are not overwhelming. One of my pet peeves about drinking tea before bed is the occasional weird aftertaste you can experience, but this tea just left my mouth feeling super fresh and cooling.
Ingredients: Organic Peppermint, Organic Lemongrass, Organic Rosehip, Organic Hibiscus, Organic Chamomile, Organic Valerian Root, Natural Flavoring
Organic Lemon Ginger: I was a little nervous about this blend with the liquorice root. The aroma of the tea was a nice combination of lemongrass and liquorice root, which was overall quite the sweeter sensation. For the overall impression of the aroma, I was expecting quite a different taste altogether! The lemon and the ginger were the two most pronounced tastes and there were just manageable hints of sweetness from the liquorice root. As the tea cools, the sweetness does get a bit more noticeable, so I mostly tried to drink this tea before it cooled too much (which is totally something I do often). It always surprises me what you cannot taste in blends based on the ingredient list. For this tea, I was very surprised that I could not taste the spearmint since it is normally such a prominent taste.
Ingredients: Organic Ginger, Organic Lemongrass, Organic Liquorice Root, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Spearmint
Pricing: All of the teas in their essential collection is $6 for almost an ounce of tea leaves (10-15 servings).
Packaging: The packaging are the standard tea pouches. I had a little issue with two of them with the zip close coming off of one of the sides, so I ended folding them and using a clip to seal them.
Sourcing: I did not see where there was any sourcing information on the tea blends, only that the teas are USDA Organic & OU Kosher.
What are your tea essentials? Do you have staple teas that you always keep in your tea cabinet or will try new variations of? Let me know! Happy Brewing!
-Danielle
