It’s always fun testing seasonal teas so when Kittea released their Year of the Rat tea (consisting of the Year of the Rat blend and a Fortune Kittea blend), I immediately got it. After all, I had fun trying last year’s Year of the Pig tea and I haven’t really had blends in a while.

Fortune Kittea Review

Description:

Have a sip of prosperity and luck this Lunar New Year with this vibrant blend of Pu-Erh tea infused with silky chocolate & bright citrus notes of mandarin oranges. Huat ah!
Ingredients: Pu-Erh Tea, Rooibos, Orange Pieces, Mandarin Orange Peel, Cocoa Husks

I’ll admit, I was fairly hesitant about this tea. Puer is not a tea I know well and the idea of puer with chocolate and orange sounded a little intimidating.

Out of the tin, the dry leaves had a strong citrus smell, which was encouraging. Chenpi puer is a fairly traditional blend so the mandarin orange part made more sense to me.

Brewed, the tea was a murky dark brown colour (I’m guessing from the tea) and tasted pretty good. There were notes of puer, chocolate, and orange and the tea went well with pineapple tarts.

Upon thinking, the combination makes sense. Apart from the puer and citrus combination, I have heard of a puer merchant in Singapore claim that puer and milk brings out chocolate notes in the tea. I’m still not entirely convinced that mixing all three ingredients is the right way to go, but it’s starting to make sense.

Year of the Rat Tea Review

Description:

A symbol of intelligence, high ambitions, and a stubborn streak, celebrate the Year of the Rat with a rich cup of Earl Grey tea with soothing notes of lavender, vanilla and bergamot. Perfect for the evenings. 
Ingredients: Ceylon Black Tea, Bergamot Oil, Natural Vanilla Extract, Blue Cornflowers, Lavender Blossoms

I had much higher hopes for this tea, but was probably equally wary because it’s hard for me to find an Earl Grey I like. But, I like lavender in small doses so I thought that it could balance out the bergamot.

The minute I opened the tin, I realised just how much lavender there was. It’s a lot more than I expected and the lavender notes were strong. Brewed, the lavender notes remained strong, but they were joined with equally strong bergamot notes. Personally, I would have preferred this to be much lighter, but I had friends who really enjoyed the lavender in this.

Overall thoughts

This tea review was interesting not just for the new tea factor, but also what it revealed about me (and my family). I’ve been doing a lot more pure teas this last year so these flavoured teas came across as very strong. If I was still drinking mostly flavoured teas, I suspect that I wouldn’t have noticed as much.

Because my family has been drinking my teas with me, they all thought that the flavours here were too strong as well. Conversely, my friends who haven’t been drinking pure teas really enjoyed this (especially those who are big fans of Earl Grey in general). It really shows that your thoughts towards a tea isn’t determined just by the taste of the tea, but the teas that you’ve been drinking. Tea is enjoyed and/or evaluated in isolation; it’s always compared to something that you’ve drunk before.

If you’re a fan of flavoured blends, definitely try these teas – you can find them at Kittea’s website. If you’re a fan of pure teas, you might want to give this one a miss (although my gut feeling is that it’d be great for friends who are just getting into tea!)