30 November 2015
STEENBERGS TEA TASTER PANEL
Steenbergs organic Happy Hippy Herbal Tea
Steenbergs Rose & Bergamot Black Tea (Persian Style)
This time around our tea tasters had the joy of sampling two very different teas: one of our newly packaged herbal teas, Happy Hippy, to uplift and destress and one of our flavoured black teas Rose & Bergamot, a light brewing floral tea.
STEENBERGS ORGANIC HAPPY HIPPY HERBAL TEA
Steenbergs organic Happy Hippy Herbal Tea is an uplifting and stress busting blend of rose, chamomile and mint designed to lift flagging spirits and fight those wintry blues or mid-afternoon blues. The rose petals smell and taste like a cupful of roses, uplifting for your nerves and spirit, the chamomile is light, mildly bitter and herbal (with hints of apples) and is calming, while the mints are soothing and refreshing.
One of Steenbergs’ organic teas, it contains organic chamomile flowers, organic rose petals, organic peppermint and organic spearmint.
Sophie comments: “This is one of my favourite teas. It looks beautiful with the chamomile and rose flowers but is also a delicious relaxing caffeine free herbal tea which we all drink in the evening.”
This tea was also a favourite with our taster panel, with 80% saying that they really liked at and 67% saying that they would drink it again. One taster described it as ‘all of my favourite teas in one – awesomeness!’ Many commented that they loved the beautiful smell and colourful appearance of the tea, and with the new see-through panel on the packaging, we hope customers will be equally impressed.
The name of the tea was cause for comment with the majority of our panel (70%) really enjoying the uplifting and fun element to it.
Chamomile was one of the strong flavours picked out, along with rose and mint although strong hints of meadows, flowers and hay came though. This was then reflected in where people imagined themselves to be with eyes closed, as 57% imagined themselves outside in a garden or meadow.
Overall 90% of our tea tasters really enjoyed the tea, with 90% describing it as ‘delicious’ (47%) or ‘pleasant’. Drinking the tea also made 89% of our panellists feel relaxed and contented – so it seems to be doing its job!
STEENBERGS ROSE & BERGAMOT BLACK TEA (PERSIAN STYLE)
Steenbergs Rose & Bergamot Black Tea is a light brewing beautiful floral tea made with Ceylon and Chinese teas, which is ideal for the afternoon or evening. Axel's idea behind this tea was to make something evocative of classical Persia - tea and damask rose with hints of orange blossom. "I imagine fun walking in gardens with tinkling fountains and peacocks strutting their fancy stuff. So I have devised this recipe that uses light black teas, plenty of rose petals, cornflower petals and orange blossom, then added some cardamom and bergamot for that orange and sweet cardamom taste. Relax and enjoy life with pleasant dreams."
This was a very popular tea with our panel with over 90% really enjoying it, describing it as ‘a lovely afternoon brew’; ‘really very good and pretty’; ‘perfume is amazing’. Interestingly only 58% of our panel were regular drinkers of flavoured black tea so maybe we have some converts!
It was definitely seen as an afternoon (53%) or evening drink (18%), with only 8% drinking it in the mornings.
When asked to highlight words that they felt best described this Persian style black tea, the favourite description was ‘floral’ (24%), with ‘delicious’ (21%) close behind. ‘Mellow’, ‘exotic’, ‘refreshing’ and ‘light’ all featured highly as well.
Regarding the flavours and aroma, rose and bergamot were predominant tastes and smells but cardamom also ranked high up on everyone’s taste buds. Some of you did find that a bit strong but the majority could be summed up by this comment: ‘The balance of flavours is spot on. I don’t like Earl Grey but I love this’.
