Rosali Tea April 2016 Subscription Box Review & Coupon

The Rosali Tea box is really an incredible tea value and one of the best tea boxes I’ve received. The box is a little different than most sample boxes, because it’s really customized to your likes and dislikes. To sign up, you visit the Rosalitea.com site and take a survey in order to get started. The result is a lovely box of teas, picked specifically for you!

All of the packaging and literature within the box is very nice and well-done. It’s bright and colorful, very inviting. It might not be “macho” tea, but even if bright, somewhat feminine packaging isn’t your thing, fear not–the tea is outstanding. As is the box itself. My wife absconded with it almost immediately.

In addition to the teas, there is a nice set of tea bags (which, if you are like me you have on-hand anyway) which do come in handy in brewing the teas they have selected for you. It’s a generous number of bags, still not enough to brew all the tea you’ll receive, but nice nonetheless.

The box also included a nice wood teaspoon, which was great for portioning out the tea to get brewing.

I did think the teabags and spoon were thoughtful additions to the box.

Okay, last thing I’ll say about the packaging, etc. is that it’s one of the better boxes I’ve seen. Rosali Tea clearly cares about putting their best foot forward and delivering the tea to you in a package befitting the quality of their tea. That does not go unnoticed. But now, on to the tea!

First up is the Pu-erh. The Rosali Tea packaging is outstanding: each tea has a little card that gives you the caffeine level of the tea, a snapshot of the flavors, and a description of the tea itself and the health benefits of the tea.

What Rosali Says: Medium Caffeine. Pu-erh tea is from Yunnan, China. This Shu Pu-erh is the perfect tea for coffee lovers. “Shu” means “cooked” in Chinese, a centuries-old method of fermenting and aging pu-erh tea. This tea has a sweet and earthy liquor and can be re-steeped for a dozen infusions, with each infusion bringing out a different flavor profile. An excellent drink for health according to traditional Chinese medicine.

What I Say: I don’t drink coffee, but I loved this tea. It has a very dark, almost golden brown, liquor that is very appealing. I didn’t get too much of a mineral taste, but it was very earthy, in a very pleasing way with just a hint of smokiness. It’s incredibly smooth and not overly tannic. It does not need sweetening at all–in fact, I think sugar or honey would mask some of the subtlety and make it a less fulfilling cup. A great first-impression out of the Rosali box!

Up next was a milk oolong–which is one of my absolute favorite teas. This is a great tea to put to the test, for me.

What Rosali Says: Medium Caffeine. Milk oolong is a green oolong from the Jin Xuan cultivar, which means “golden lilly” in Chinese. Jin Xuan has a naturally fresh, sweet, and creamy flavor with a smooth, buttery texture and floral aroma. This particular Jin Xuan Oolong is from Nantou County, Taiwan. This is a great tea for dessert lovers and helps to eliminate the need for milk and sugar in tea. This tea pairs well with fruit salad, dessert, sushi or white fish.

What I Say: WOAH. This is perhaps the most delicious tea I have ever tasted. It’s incredible. It has a very light, almost transparent green liquor. It starts with a slightly grassy note, but is very subtle. Then it hits sweet and creamy, so pleasant and relaxing. It has a lingering, smooth finish with pronounced floral notes and a hint of butter that comes in and just makes you want more, and more, and more. And please, from the bottom of my heart, do not mess this tea up with milk, or sugar or honey.

It would be impossible to follow up that milk oolong with anything even close. But I was intrigued with the Sencha Matcha Bliss. Now, I should qualify this by stating that I own a chasen (a bamboo whisk) and a chawan (bowl) which I purchased in Japan specifically to be able to make traditional matcha at home. So, when I opened this one I was slightly disappointed. It is not a traditional matcha–which is a powder made from stone ground leaves which are grown in the shade. Traditional match is bright green, because the shade and processing (covering the leaves) increases chlorophyll and results in this very intense green that is incredibly visually appealing. Sencha is more traditional green tea, sun grown, dried and infused. I was unsure about the blending of these two.

What Rosali Says: High Caffeine. Matcha is Japan’s legendary powdered tea. This steamed blend of sencha and matcha is from Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. This blend has the fresh and grassy flavor of a premium-tier sencha with notes of rustic vegetation and raisin. This tea pairs well with seafood, vegetables, and dessert.

What I Say: Two out of three ain’t bad. I have to say, if you’re a sencha fan, you’ll be disappointed in the blend. And if your a matcha fan, you’ll be really disappointed in the blend. You definitely get the grassy notes right up front, from the sencha. But you get a slight bitterness that isn’t the full-on “blissful” bitterness of a matcha, it’s a slightly off and not appealing bitterness that just seems aggressive. It laks the full-bodied, in your face vegetal feel of a traditional matcha–although you do get some nice vegetal notes in the long finish. And it does have a very nice long finish, with a high astringency. Overall, I think it’s a compromise, and I’d rather enjoy my sencha, and my matcha separately. But you might feel differently–matcha is often an “acquired” taste, so maybe this could be your gateway?

Now, don’t get me wrong–even though I didn’t care much for the Sencha Matcha Bliss, it’s still very high-quality and you can tell that thought and care went into it. Besides, this box would have been worth every penny for the Milk Oolong alone. The Milk Oolong has got me thinking maybe I just need a milk oolong box every month, with different estate milk oolongs! But I digress.

The bottom line is that the folks at Rosali Tea *know tea* and clearly put thought and care into the teas they are selecting, as well as the manner in which the teas are presented. This is an outstanding tea box which I would not hesitate to recommend to any tea lover–you may not like every tea, but you will not be disappointed!

Visit Rosali Tea to take the survey to get your customized teas on the way! Save 20% off the first month. Use coupon code  HS20.