Al Wazah Tea

[Shai Guy]

Has anyone ever tried Al Wazah brand Tea??? I picked up a box few days ago from a Middle Eastern import shop.It was around $6 if I recall.This brand of Tea is popular in the Middle East and I have seen it in the grocery stores in Lebanon and Syria.Al Wazah means The Noble in Arabic.



The box I bought had FBOP1 on it,I'm still learning about the different Tea Grades so honestly I could'nt really tell you if it was up to par with other Teas of this grade.

Here's a pick I took of the leaves if anyone is interested in seeing them.





For my first brew,I brewed 4 teaspoons with 4 cups water and let it steep for 5 minutes.The result was a very deep and robust Tea that I would compare to the Twinnings Irish Breakfast Tea.It was good by itself,but with some Sugar it was better.I also tried a cup with milk and sugar and it was very good.Yesterday I brewed some Cardamom Tea using this stuff as well and it was very good.

Well,thats my short review/breakdown of Al Wazah.Here's the brands website if anyone is interested. http://www.alwazahtea.com/

[omegapd]

Thanks for the review. Things like that are always on my "to try" list.

[Grubby]

Well, i would rather call it Ceylon tea than Al Wazah, even though that is the official label

Anyways it seems good. As long as its relatively fresh i would definitely buy some. For 6$ it seems really cheap too.

[rodstnmn]

Hi, Shai Guy, what do you know I have this tea also. There is an Arabic market close to me that carries it. I was lucky to get it for $3.99 for 500g. That was about 6mo ago. I think its $4.99 now.
I like this tea. I bought it for the double boiler but its ok on it's own.
If you should ever get some omegapd I would like to know your opinion.

I liked this tea enough to buy the tea bags. But that was a mistake. The tea bags
were not any thing like the loose leaf.

If I could ask you Shai, at the Arabic market I noticed that they carried a lot of Yerba Mate and they seemed to sell a lot so I asked how they prepared it and they said it was used in weddings and funerals. Not knowing anything about it, It just seemed a curious combination.

[Shai Guy]

You are very welcome omegapd.

Yes Grubby we could just call it Ceylon Tea but Al Wazah sounds cooler .

How did it turn out using the double tea kettle rodstnmn?? Was it up to par with the Turkish brand Caykur Tea??Yerba Mate is popular in Mediterranean Arab states,I've seen it drunk a lot in Syria.I've never seen or heard anything about it's use in funerals or weddings myself.My guess is it may be used ritually among some of the smaller religious groups like the Druze or Alawites who keep their practices secret from non-members of their religious sect(but he told you, hehe).Or could be the guy caters to people from certain villages who have unique traditions.I've never really like Mate myself,just does not taste pleasant.Rather brew up some Black Tea with Mint .

[rodstnmn]

How did it turn out using the double tea kettle rodstnmn??

This tea really surprized me as to how good it is, especially for the price. But I did not care for the taste in the double pot. This tea tastes good using twice the leaf and brewing about half the time.

The Arabic store sells a lot of Earl Grey and cardamom flavoured teas, so when you said black tea with mint I was wondering how you introduce the mint to the tea? I'ts the first time I ever heard of it.

[Thirsty Daruma]

I'll second the praise for the review. Middle Eastern tea culture is mostly lost on me, so any kind of peek into what's available at the import markets is welcome. Maybe you should continue your study to include the store's other teas?

[Shai Guy]

How did it turn out using the double tea kettle rodstnmn??

This tea really surprized me as to how good it is, especially for the price. But I did not care for the taste in the double pot. This tea tastes good using twice the leaf and brewing about half the time.

The Arabic store sells a lot of Earl Grey and cardamom flavoured teas, so when you said black tea with mint I was wondering how you introduce the mint to the tea? I'ts the first time I ever heard of it.

I will try the half time/double amount method and get back to you .

For Mint Tea,I just add some fresh Spearmint to the pot.When I use a Tea bag,I would add it to the cup and pour the hot water over the tea bag and Mint leaves.In the Middle East ,Spearmint grows all over so people add it to Tea and also to dishes like salad and stuff.Dried Mint works as well.Personally I really like the Bigelow's Mint Tea bags.I could'nt figure out how they got such a great Mint flavor until I opened one of the bags up,turns out they add Spearmint oil in them .I can never recreate that perfect Mint taste they have using fresh or dried Mint.

If you use fresh Mint,be sure to roll the leaves to sorta crack the leaves and release the flavor of the Mint.

[Shai Guy]

I'll second the praise for the review. Middle Eastern tea culture is mostly lost on me, so any kind of peek into what's available at the import markets is welcome. Maybe you should continue your study to include the store's other teas?

Middle Eastern Tea culture is pretty simple.Tea is usually served with breakfast and is drunk after a family mean along with some Baqlava.Also social get-togethers will have either Tea or Coffee(or both) along with a table of simple foods like Cheeses and Salads(called Meze).Tea is also usually offered to all guests along with things like Dates or Fig cookies.The Tea is usually Black but some parts like North Africa use Green Tea.The Tea will sometimes be flavored with things like Cardamom(Hale in Arabic),Sage(Meramya in Arabic) or Mint(Nana in Arabic) among other herbs & spices.

All in all ,pretty simple stuff.The basics of Middle Eastern tea culture are good tasting Tea along with some tasty treats served with it to everyone around.

[Deleted User #18181]

It's not alwazah but I bought tea from a Swedish store that sells a lot of foreign imports.. It's a private label called "Kurda" , 450g for around €3-4, very cheap. I don't know what grade tea it is but it consists of very big tea leaves, some twigs and no tips.. However it does taste really good and has a very full flavor. Sometimes one wonders why some tea is so cheap and some others so expensive like $10-15/100g...Here's a link to the tea.

[Sarai]

I also recently picked up a box of Swan Brand Alwazah Pure Ceylon Tea at Abdallah's Lebanese Restuarant and Bakery here in Houston. It was a box of 110 tea bags for $5.99. The box also said '10% extra free' so it must have usually been a box of 100 tea bags. According to the box the 110 tea bags is 220 grams or 7.77 ounces, which is a great deal considering all the overpriced teas out there. Lucky you guys upthread were able to find a box of loose tea by Alwazah as I wasn't. We all know loose tea is far superior to bagged tea. So far I have brewed 1 tea bag in 8 ounces boiling water along with several mint leaves and sugar for 5 minutes. The taste was definitely the wonderful black tea flavor I've come to know and love, and the mint and sugar surely enhanced it. In generic terms, this tea is most similar to Persian tea. As far as I know from friends and family, and even my own personal experiences, Ceylon is the most popular black tea throughout the Middle East. I personally would highly recommend this tea, and would be great if many more of you could enjoy it too.

Brewing directions from the box itself:

Brewing time for
Light Tea - 2 minutes
Medium Tea - 3 minutes
Strong Tea - 5 minutes

This brand is exclusively distributed in the USA by Canary Trading Company.

According to my box, my particular package of tea was produced in November 2013 and should expire in October 2016.

[Poseidon]

If I could ask you Shai, at the Arabic market I noticed that they carried a lot of Yerba Mate and they seemed to sell a lot so I asked how they prepared it and they said it was used in weddings and funerals. Not knowing anything about it, It just seemed a curious combination.

In arabic culture Yerba Mate may be used in weddings and funerals but in South America, mainly Argentina and Brazil, Mate is a daily drink that is comperable to coffee in some cases. Mate is traditionaly drank in a gourd type of "cup" with LOTS of mate compared to the water ratio. Then you place a filtered straw called a bombillia stratigicly into the cup and slurp away. It's basically like Gong Fu style brewing but with a filtered straw.

You can also brew it western style or with a french press!