Art of Tea

Thanks Amy oh for this purple oolong sample.

At first I wondered if the bag was labeled wrong. The leaves do not have the slightest purple in them, though the picture here definitely displays a purple hue. I read some of the other reviews describing it’s complete lack of purple (dry and brewed), so that must be the way they are supposed to be.

It tastes like like an aged oolong, very dark and roasted but with a distinct sweetness that I haven’t yet found in other (non-aged) roasted oolongs.

It’s quite tasty and a good choice for coffee drinkers trying to make the switch to tea. I love the flavor of roasted, dark, and aged oolongs, but it sometimes bothers me wondering how much of the tea’s natural nutrients are lost in the processes that create these sweet and roasted flavors. Oh well, at least there’s nothing bad in it and its tasty so I shouldn’t complain :p

I’ve been drinking far too much caffeine lately so although I am not a rooibos fan, I’m trying many to find pleasant alternatives to my normal blacks, greens, and oolongs. This tea is enjoyable and one that I intend to keep on hand.

The rooibos flavor is not too strong (which I like). It’s not creamy but definitely soft and mellow and the hint of blueberry definitely comes through. I’ve tried it hot and iced and I enjoyed both very much.

I bought a sample size of this tea due to lots of very positive reviews. This tea is unusual and, I am sorry to say, not for me. I’ve tried it hot and I’ve tried it cold. I’ll not be buying again. The smell of the dry blend is strange and not particularly appealing to me. That did not deter me because teas often change in water. This one did not – the brew still had a strange aroma. The taste seems strong with rooibos and another taste which I am unable to identify.

Another white tea sample here from GiggleGoddess :)

White tea became one of my first favorites after green. Most of the whites I had in the beginning were vegetal, citrusy, and even a touch floral while remaining mild no matter what the flavor notes. Only recently have I experienced the hay and barley side of the white tea world. The first one I had in this category was not to my liking. The second was alright, but not re-purchase worthy. This one is very similar to the second (that being Wild Honey Sprout also from Art of Tea) but lacking the honey aroma. It is my favorite of the “barley whites” as I will call them. The flavor is mild, just as I like from a white tea. I often think of whites as my palate-cleansing teas. The ones I go for when I’ve had way too many flavored blends in a row or when I’m simply not feeling in the mood for a loud tea.

Monkey Picked White from the Tea Spot remains my most favorite white, but this one could find a place in my cupboard at times too.

Thank you for the sample GiggleGoddess

I’m now discovering that white teas can have quite a range of flavor profiles. This one is quite nice, but not my favorite. It is similar to White Symphony from Adagio, having obvious hay and barley notes. I like this one better than White Symphony though as that one took the horse-food flavors a bit too far. This one also has a sweeter aroma (like honey), but it doesn’t come out in the flavor much.

Purple Oolong? I like the colour purple! Lol, just the excuse to want to get this tea!

I found this oolong very different. It steeps up very dark reddy purple. It smells like bitter coffee. The taste? Smokey ash, cedar, malt, amber, cinnamon, and caramel. Later infusions the tea got chocolately!

99% OP Oolong resteeps very well, I was following the package for 3 minute steeps, and I got up to 8 runs with not bitter or dryness. I’m scared to try this in a gaiwan, it would be CRAZY NEVER ENDING OOLONG CHAOS!

This is an oolong for you black and pu’er drinkers that love a solid earthy cup without grassy or floral oolong fluff. However, I am a grassy floral oolong lover, I did enjoy this tea for the unique flavor notes.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/99-oxidized-purple-oolong-from-art-of-tea-tea-review/

EDIT: it’s also Oolong Week at my blog. Yeah, it started late, busy with memorial day and all.

Not a fan of figs so I didn’t expect to like this one… And sadly I was right. Not a fan. Sorry:/

I really thought I had more of this, but this was a sipdown this morning.

With the green rooibos in there, it’s really easy to forget it’s rooibos based at all. It’s so much more mild and less medicinal than it’s red counterpart. This was a welcome cider-y today — warming and calming. It’s very cinnamon-y with a touch of apple and ginger.

I still think it’s named all wrong.

I wish it had crossed my mind to put a bit of vanilla bean in here to get an apple cider a la mode thing going on.

The dry leaf smells like fall and apple pie, so I probably oopsed on having this one on a warm spring day. I guess with a name like AppleTEA’ni my brain just assumed it would be more like the alcoholic beverage (bright and apple-y) and less like Thanksgiving dessert (apple-y with spice).

That being said, while it isn’t a bright apple cuppa like I thought (and it is mostly my fault for failing to read the ingredients carefully enough this morning) it’s tasty. It’s like drinking a spiced tea with natural apple flavor. The cinnamon and ginger really carry this cup in a way that I enjoy. And the green rooibos just binds everything together without making itself actually known. The whole thing together is actually strongly reminiscent of a mulled apple cider without being quite as sweet, and I could very much see myself using it that way.

Verdict? It’s a good tea, just not as a replacement for Pucker and Vodka.

Backlogging (which I don’t normally do). I had this today at World Peace Cafe in Atlanta, GA which is a vegan restaurant run entirely by volunteers. I decided to try the Citron Mate for it’s advertised restorative properties because I had just finished spending four hours in the woods hanging out with beavers, opossums, owls, eagles, and turtles and stuff (Chattahoochee Nature Center), and I was pretty exhausted. It worked, it tasted like lemonade and kept me awake through a late rehearsal.

ARG, my tea package had incorrect steeping instructions! Kind of suck when I only have a 2-3 cup sample size, so there wasn’t much room to experiment to help out fellow tea peeps who are interested in this tea.

The tea was so bitter and undrinkable at 185F for 5 minutes, I dumped the steeping instructions completely. I steeped another round at 175F for 2 minutes and I found this tea too bitter for my tastes. The green tea was quite savory and bitter like dandelion greens. The jasmine? Pretty good. The blueberry aftertaste? Very tasty! Oh poo, what a dilemma!

Full Review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/jasmine-blueberry-from-art-of-tea-tea-review/
geeze, my first pour out on my blog.

This one smells subtly grape-like but it’s really hard to see/locate the black tea – most of it’s white tea. I understand that they probably did it this way so they don’t overpower the white tea with the black tea but again I’m having a hard time locating/see the actual black tea!

The flavor is very much a white tea tasting base with lovely grape-like notes and rose hints, as well. It makes a great gulping-cold-brewed tea and delicious sipping-white/blended tea as well!

Purely delightful!

I can’t believe I haven’t written a tasting note for this tea yet! I’ve had it many times, but I guess I haven’t been in the mood to write anything about it. Today I’m TRYING to be productive and make some progress on a paper and another assignment.. but I’d much rather read or nap instead!

It seems like every single time I drink this tea, I keep expecting there to be a stronger flavor. It could be that the scent is so strong that I’m expecting a cup that’s insanely creamy and tangy.. but each time it’s a little bit watered down. It’s not a bad cup at all, it’s just not what I expect every time I brew. It’s quite soft and smooth, but not terribly silky. The oolong remains in the background and the vanilla and the citrus are what I really taste. The citrus is quite interesting because it’s not tart, but a bit bitter… the kind of bitter that I don’t like all that much. It reminds me a little bit of unripe oranges. I think the vanilla is the redeeming flavor in this blend.

This makes a very pleasing cup. I still have a whole bunch of this tea so I need to drink this one more often! In the future, I think I’ll buy a smaller amount of tea as there are other oolongs that I like a bit more… but this one is still delicious.

Sipdown 2!

This is such a pretty tea! When I opened the bag, I caught a whiff of mint, but I didn’t smell much else. I appreciated that the mint was subtle enough for me to be able to taste non-mint ingredients in the blend. The first steep had lovely floral notes from the roses, but sadly I couldn’t detect them in the second steep. The white base was very mild, but present, in both steeps.

Thanks to GiggleGoddess for sharing!

Odd. Not many tealogs for this tea? This one won an award!

A summary of this tea could be “An Earl Grey white/green tea blend” however there’s much more going on, as there’s a bit of floral and sweetness from the white. Grassy, vegetal, and crisp flavors from the green, with a slight hit of bergamont. A very nice tea for peeps who love a light, citrus green!

Full Review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/liquid-jade-from-art-of-tea-tea-review/

backlog sipdown!

sooo this cup of this tea? no thanks..but the last cup was delicious. So either i had a cup with more star anise than the first one or i did something wrong this second time. I don’t think i’d stock this permanently in my cupboard as a result of having two vastly different experiences. Thank you tastybrew though for sending this my way!

Surprise sample from tastybrew that i thought i’d have today. I have to say i really love the star shaped tea that is in this. They are super cute! I have to say this tea isn’t half bad. It reminds me of something that I just can’t place though. I’ve got a bit more that i’ll have to use to try and figure out what this reminds me of. Either way, happy to have tried this since i haven’t had a lot of teas from art of tea.

Sipdown, 181.

Man, I have never suffered from seasonal allergies until I moved here. Which is so weird because I grew up not too far away, so I should be immune to these plants. I’m going to blame the non-native sakura cherry trees planted around here; I discovered an allergy to cherry blossoms last year around this time in Beijing, and I certainly didn’t grow up with those. Guess I should never live in DC.

I steeped this at a slightly cooler temp than last time because I had a touch of astringency then. I think that took care of it. This tea really has a pretty unique flavor, and while squash seems to be part of it I’m not sure it really captures the whole thing. But it’s also hard to put my finger on what is going on here. I guess it is kind of like a squash with butter and honey. Ooh, maybe delicata squash? With the skin on of course, so you get more of those vegetal notes. Pretty interesting tea!

This tea comes to me thanks to GiggleGoddess! I have to say, I’ve never seen tea leaves quite like these. They are so so fuzzy, they look downy soft. They actually look way fuzzier than the picture on Art of Tea’s website. I was unsure of how much tea to use for this cup but I ended up using about half of the pouch that GiggleGoddess sent.

I feel like 195°F is kind of hot for a white tea, but that’s what they call for. Unsurprisingly there is a lot of tea fuzz floating around in my cup, and the liquor is surprisingly dark amber colored. It smells sweet and earthy, like fresh alfalfa hay and honey. This is pretty tasty. It’s definitely sweet, slightly hayish, but “darker” in flavor profile than most white teas I have tried. There’s also a slight vegetal quality to it, and I could be convinced of zucchini or some other summer squash. It’s nice and light, although there is a touch of astringency at the back of it that is kind of odd; I don’t know that I would want to steep it less, though, since the flavors are already fairly light. Perhaps at a cooler temp next time.

Picked this up along with my Original Vanilla Custard Beard Papa’s. Great for walking around on chilly nights in LA! Not too strong in either lemon or ginger, just the right balance. And the sweetness from the honeybush rounds it all out. Good one!

This is one of my favorite teas. It was the first taste I ever had of Art of Tea, and caused me to buy multiple samples, most of which I liked quite a bit. The aroma of this one alone is enough to make you want to buy it.

Go get it. It’s smooth and tasty. One of the best oolongs I’ve ever had.

This was another tea taken from the Traveling Teabox during its stop at my place. It might be that this sample is rather old and lost it’s flavouring, but I’m not really getting much beyond rooibos and bit of fruity blueberry flavour out of this tea. I can’t taste anything even remotely resembling cheesecake, which is disappointing, especially since this tea has gotten a lot of good reviews.

Sip down! Thank you to kittenna for this one. So I’m really enjoying the pear flavour in this one. I also really like the way that it smells. What I don’t seem to get out of this is anything remotely caramel. And, if i concentrate too hard on the taste, that weirdly rooibos taste comes to the forefront of things and ruins the good thing that I almost had going with this tea. Hmmm… Too bad. Just to have the chance to have this, but still not my perfect pear tea.

This came from the traveling teabox – there was only a teaspoon’s worth so there’s no going back now. ;)

Nothing about this blend really stands out much for me, it’s mostly green rooibos with a bit of extra citrus flavouring. There’s a bit of coconut in there too but it could stand to be stronger. This isn’t an objectionable tea, but it could also be so much better.