Tea - Loose Leaf Tea - Ramblings

Archive for September, 2008

SerendipiTea lists the ingredients of this tea as mint and lemon myrtle. It struck me as a surprisingly simple list since most herbal teas seem to be a crazy mix of a many different flavors. The dry leaves smelled more of mint than of lemon myrtle. I brewed this tea using my Zarafina tea maker set on strong herbal. It had a bright yellow color and the scent of the lemon myrtle was much more apparent after brewing.

This tea was as refreshing as I would expect from a mint tea but the lemon myrtle provides a nice energetic kick. The mint and lemon complimented each other extremely well. It?s hard to explain but this tea tastes the way that lemon Pledge smells, but in a good way. It also made a summery iced tea that didn?t need any sweetening. I would definitely recommend this tea.

I’ve only recently starting enjoying Rooibos tisanes and am enough of a traditionalist to question my readiness of a carrot cake flavored hot beverage. I guess I don’t like my senses touching in the same way that some people don’t like their peas to invade the mashed potato area, but I realize that if people smear honey and bananas on their faces and call it a facial, I should be able to sip carrot cake and call it a tea. I adore carrot cake and as it’s steeping, I start to get hungry for cream cheese frosting. After the first cup I notice that this isn’t so much carrot cake to me as it is spice cake. Even better! This is all the best parts of a carrot cake. The ingredients also list honeybush, carrots, walnuts, raisins, ginger, coconut, and maple brittle, but other than a slight sweetness added to the more predominant clove and cinnamon tastes, I’m unable to identify the individual flavors. This a very comforting light tea with a light to non-existant body. The aroma fades slightly once poured while the flavor remains which is preferable to the reverse to me. This is a great choice for lovers of cinnamon and light spice tea and great substitute for a spice cake.

Afternoon Apricot, by TeaGuys is not what I expected. One would expect that a tea named “afternoon apricot” would contain, well, apricots. Not the case here. In fact this tea seems to contain a little bit of everything but apricot. The ingredient list includes Ceylon and Darjeeling black teas, oolong tea, mango, peach, osmanthus, and jasmine petals. Needless to say I was confused by the lack of overlap between the tea’s name and its ingredients. Anyway, once I got over this and decided to taste the tea, I was pleasantly surprised. The tea has a strong peach flavor and aroma, but there is definitely a mix of floral scents in the tea as well. This tea is very fragrant.  The TeaGuys website claims that the aroma is of apricot (and hence, I assume, the name), but the smell is much more peach than apricot to me, especially since peach is actually an ingredient in the blend. The tea is quite light and thus, as its name suggests, is most appropriate as an afternoon tea. I think that what works well in this tea is the blend of different black and oolong teas, which is not very common. Additionally, I found the floral notes to be just subtle enough to be detected but not overpowering. I would consider buying this tea, as I think it is a smooth and enjoyable tea.

After having read a bit about TeaGschwendner, I was really anxious to sample some of their teas. This white tea’s quality is apparent from the first glance. The dry leaves are a combination of large pieces of leaves and delicate buds, some still attached to their stems. The aroma is very light and sweet, not exactly what I would consider floral, but quite pleasant. I was very careful to follow the brewing instructions from the TeaGschwendner website. The brew ended up a light, clear golden yellow, very much in line with what I was expecting.

My first sip was enough to make me realize that the reason I had previously thought I preferred flavored white teas was because until now I had never tasted a really amazing white tea. This is a delicious, smooth, arromatic tea that I found lends itself to quiet contemplation. It was a tea that I wanted to enjoy in small relaxing sips, letting the world slow down around me for just a little while. While sipping this one, I found my mind wandering a bit and could see how the ritual of brewing and enjoying a delightful cup of tea can be somewhat therapeutic! I am now enjoying a cup from my second infusion of these leaves and it is every bit as tasty as the first. I highly recommend this one and am now more anxious than ever to sample additional offerings from TeaGschwendner.

At first whiff, the scent of the sea and wood has me intrigued. I’m hoping for a brothy flavorful tea but as soon as it’s done steeping, the brothiness has dissipated and this becomes a more streamlined woody tea. In the teapot, there’s a slight aroma of seaweed and something woody—bamboo maybe?—that reminds me of relaxing by the ocean or at least eating some sushi. Once brewed the seaweed scent has completely disappeared but the woody scent has gotten a bit stronger. I’m generally not a fan of woody teas and after the first cup…I’m still not a fan. I can appreciate it’s smoothness, the light to medium body, and soft woody scent. There is also a yeasty element that is reminiscent of good beer. I bet this would be great with meat or whole grain dishes.

Everyone knows that feeling you get when you take a swallow of water when you’re really thirsty - that satisfying quench you get when you’re gulping water - this tea gave me that feeling and I wasn’t even thirsty. I certaintly don’t have to be thirsty to drink tea - especially when I‘m writing a review. Speaking of, where’s my tea? I can’t write a review without drinking some - it’s like not having a beer while watching football or not having a hotdog at a baseball game. Oh yeah, I left it downstairs. Okay, back to tea.

I couldn’t get over the chai tea latte aroma from the leaves. When I breathed in a little deeper there was a little smokiness to it - almost as if there was a little Lapsang mixed in. The color of the tea had a little orange hue to it. There was more flavor than I thought there would be for a white tea, but still that light, unadulterated feel to it. I found a little nuttiness with a deeper after taste and floral under tones.

I would recommend this to white tea lovers and especially to those who appreciate the variety of aromas that tea can give.

There is a good bit of interesting information provided by Rishi on this tea on their website. It reads “Dong Ding is one of the most famous Oolongs from Taiwan. It originated in Nantou’s Lugu area (Deer Valley) in 1885 and is named after a nearby mountain called “Dong Ding Shan” which can be translated as “Frozen Summit Mountain”. The popularity for Dong Ding has become vast and the demand is larger than the possible output from Lugu. Today, “Dong Ding Oolong” refers less to a place and more to a method of oxidation and baking that is in accordance with the original artisan crafted Dong Ding developed in Lugu. In the modern world of tea, some of the best Dong Ding type Oolongs can be found outside of Lugu at somewhat higher elevations using the same traditional tea bush varietal and classic artisan tea processing method.”
The tea looks exactly like it does on the website, little tiny nuggets of green goodness. I’ll kind of work backwards explaining this tea, on account of how magnificent the leaves look after your done with them. First I want to point out that this oolong expands a lot and what comes out are much darker leaves. Some of them are a good 2-3 inches in length. All full leaves, no pieces at all, and practically entirely two and three leaves connected. This is what tea should look like! I got three very good infusions out of the leaves, each one looking very light. The flavor that sticks out in this one is the wonderful nuttiness, like chestnuts or walnuts. There is also a bit of floral hints mixed in and really come out in the aftertaste.

If you are not accustomed to nutty flavors I don’t think you would like this one, it is very nutty, and probably more so than any other tea I have tried. If you love that quality in oolongs than I would say go and order some right away. The only drawback, which seems pretty standard with Rishi, is that buying smaller amounts of tea can get expensive. This specific one is only sold in 30 gram sealed packets and you can buy a single one for $6, all the way up to 15 of them (which comes to about a pound) for $72 which is priced quite reasonably when you look at the per pound price. Pick this one up if you get the chance, you will not be disappointed.

Choice Organic’s Estate Blend Darjeeling is a 100% organic tea offered in a biodegradable silken pyramid teabag. I took a closer look at the contents of the teabag and observed mostly smaller-sized broken leaves; thankfully there were no miniscule tea specks here. I brewed the tea for four minutes in boiling water, as directed on the package. The first thing I noticed about this tea was that it produced a very strong smoky aroma, which was also evident in the flavor. The smokiness didn’t turn me off, but neither did I find it entirely appealing. Beyond the smokiness, I could definitely detect a bitterness to the flavor, and this bitterness I found entirely unpalatable. I took a few more sips and realized that if I was going to be able to enjoy this tea, I was going to need some sugar to mask the bitterness. After adding a packet of sugar, I found the tea to actually be quite enjoyable. The addition of sugar made the tea smoother and more balanced. However, even with the sugar, this tea was just an average Darjeeling; I didn’t notice any standout qualities of this particular tea. If you are a tea drinker that prefers not to add sugar, you will likely find Choice Organic’s Estate Blend Darjeeling too bitter to be enjoyable. However, this tea is a decent enough brew if the bitterness can be masked (or, more ideally, avoided) by either adding sugar or steeping for a reduced time (I would recommend two minutes or less).

This tea smells like german chocolate cake. Normally I’m not a fan of whatever makes chocolate cake german, but this tea makes me hungry immediately. The steeping suggestions say that adding a touch of sweetened condensed milk or a bit of milk and sugar to this would make this richer and I’m reminded of Thai iced coffee. My god, if this is like Thai iced coffee with chocolate, I’m going to have to buy a Camelbak just to have this with me at all times. The ingredients are a mix of black and green teas, cocoa beans, barley, apple, and yogurt. The barley doesn’t make an appearance until the tea has been steeped, and the apple and yogurt add a smooth sweetness without imparting their flavors. The tea’s aroma is mostly of plain black tea, albeit a good, smooth one. The more exciting part is the flavors, which are of light chocolate with a bit of spark. I’m not sure what gives the spark, but the effect is warming. The body is quite light. I never usually put milk and sugar in my teas, but at their suggestion I have to try it. The result is a richer, delicious, chocolate milk substitute. For some reason I can detect the german chocolate cake scent again, though lightly. I added skim milk and refined sugar to my taste and they all melded well. This isn’t quite Camelbak worthy, but it’s excellent for chocolate cravings. I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time. This is only my second encounter with Tea Guy’s offerings and so far I’m impressed with their emphasis on flavors that move beyond just aroma.

To me Rooibos teas have such a wonderful smell and taste. It is so earthy and distinct. It is absolutely wonderful. This tea obviously has orange in it and clearly contains a citrus quality. The Teajo website notes that the tea has orange zest which has a different flavor than the fruit. The zest has a different quality indeed.

Brewing:
I let the boil water stand before brewing the tea for about 5 minutes.

Taste/Impressions:
My initial impression is more delicate than many rooibos teas. Other rooibos teas have a much stronger and distinct earthy flavor. This example is much more subtle which I find interesting and quite surprising. The amount of orange zest relative to the rooibos does not explain this subtle flavor.
The tea has that distinct rooibos earthy taste but it does not stand out like other ones. If you think that other rooibos teas are too strong then this might be a one to try. Don’t get me wrong I like the tea. It just does not stand out in any particular fashion. No noticeable spark.

Conclusion:
A nice light rooibos tea. Good citrus, orange aroma. The tea is very delicate for a rooibos. If you prefer a lighter tea this one might just be the ticket.