I’m sat here in my Helsinki apartment, on a rapidly darkening November afternoon, wondering how to start writing my tea blog again. I didn’t stop drinking tea over these past 2 and half years, I just stopped writing about it. Life stuff, entrepreneurial ventures, pie baking… I could list many many excuses!! But now I am back to telling my tea tales, so brew up a cuppa and cozy in.
Actually, I need to start by going back a couple of years when a friend of mine put me in touch with 2 fellow tea nerds, Nina and Mirka from NORD-T. These amazing ladies were on a mission to create organic tea experiences charged with arctic superpowers! I loved their tea concept, blending organic teas with berries and herbs gathered from the Finnish forest. With no nonsense, no artificial stuff, just pure goodness from Mother Nature.
Though flavoured teas are increasingly popular, I have to admit that I’m not their biggest fan. However. I was really pleasantly suprised when I sipped my cup of Cabin Fever that day, sitting in the sun, perched up on an urban rocky outcrop with the NORD-T girls. The flavours are so much cleaner and more subtle than other flavoured teas, which of course comes from the quality of the tea and the absence of artificial flavourings.
I’ve followed their journey ever since, and was super excited to be accepted as a NORD-T Pioneer a few months ago. The NORD-T Pioneers get to test out their new ideas, share our opinions, and get together every now and then to talk and drink tea!
NORD-T’s range of organic loose leaf teas and infusions come with really fun names reflecting their Finnish roots - Sunset At Noon, Bear Hug, Moose On The Loose. Of course, the tea is the most important thing but their packaging is so beautiful too!
credit: NORD-T
Our first tea assignment arrived - the tea girls are planning to perhaps one day offer loose leaf tea in teabags. A small package arrived in the post with a vintage Come To Finland postcard, Activity Book and 2 sample tea bags with brewing instructions. Our mission was to taste test the 2 samples and share our opinions on which one we preferred.
I had samples ‘e’ and ‘f’. So I popped the kettle on and brewed them both up. The bags were the mesh triangle style which allows room for the loose leaf tea to unfurl and brew up nicely. Visually they were both very appealing, a bright and clear ochre colour. ‘f’ sample was slightly darker with a beautiful pink tinge.
The grassy aroma hinted at this being a green tea, but also with a slight berry sweetness which was more pronounced in ‘f’ sample. Finally the tasting. ‘e’ sample gave a light and pleasant vegetal flavour with mild berry notes which came through more as the tea cooled. Maybe lingonberries. There was also a flowery hint, perhaps heather. Again with ‘f’ sample the flavours were more robust. The tea and berry flavours balanced really nicely. Both samples were silky smooth to drink, no hint of bitterness.
I believe that both samples consisted of the same ingredients, just in different proportions. On balance I voted for ‘f’ sample as for me the tea and berry flavours were balanced beautifully and the slight pink hue in the ochre colour was, well I’m just going to say it, pretty! My taste buds were telling me that it was green tea with lingonberries and heather. So I think I was tasting Bear Hug. NORD-T girls, am I right??