Canton Tea Co

Just got this in the mail, a beautiful mini Bing, pretty tight compression and lots of silver hairs evident mixed in with the leaves.

6g/200ml

15/s: The liquor is a beautiful amber color, darker than I expected. Scents of sweetgrass, sour melon, under-ripe plums, vanilla, a hint of smokeyness, pipe tobacco. Hits the whole palate which is nice, flavors coating the whole tongue. It has a sourness on the sides in the back of the palate. which, as your mouth drys slightly, spreads. I would call it astringency but it is more of a pungent sour sensation that builds. In this period I taste apricots, underripe plums, citric acid even. The sweeter aspects of the tea fade and the sourness of a young sheng takes over. You don’t get a strong ‘returning sweetness’ but it isn’t as astringent as some Sheng can be. Pleasant for those who like a sour bite with their young Sheng.
20/s Aroma is still young Sheng with a pleasant tartness.
30/s This is the money steep. Sweet, just a delicate licorice-root sweet sensation on the back of the tongue matched with an underripe fruit sourness on the nose. Aromatic wood, vanilla, caramel even coming out slightly.
45/s Unripe plum, apricots, melon, licorice root, Maca, Indian Sassafass with a light sourness at the end. It does that ‘makes you salivate’ thing which is always odd.

In many ways, I prefer Yunnan black teas to Darjeelings and Ceylons. Powdery in a good way, they often have that slight bitterness that tames the fruity side of things. I will have to rebrew this more to get a good feel for the tea but off the bat, I am using 3 pearls to 200ml with a 3m steep. Seems low according to the reviews I’m reading here, but it gives me an idea of what a reasonable amount of these will make.

Unfurled the leaves are larger than I expected, with a fair amount of tipps in there, although they took a good 1.5" of stem with that tip too.

The tea has the aroma of dry cocoa powder with hints of vanilla, stone fruit, cherries, caramel 40 (where all my brewers at?!) It has a bit of a bite at the back of the palate, I would call it astringency but it is almost a sour sensation without a sour taste. The body, as I predicted, is relatively light for the amount of tea, but I suppose that may just be the score here. Has that powdery sensation that I love in Yunnans but less than some other more tippy Dian Hong I’ve had.

All in all, this is a pleasant tea, not the best Yunnan I’ve had, but I will have to keep learning these leaves and improve my brew of it. Next time, 5 pearls to 200ml and hopefully I don’t end up jumping off the walls from the caffeine.

CORRECTION:

2nd occasion to brew these, I went for 6 including a small one or two, in my tea french press, 250ml, 4 minutes, and this was wonderful. MORE is the key to getting your flavor our of this. It has everything I love about Tippy Yunnan/Dian Hong: Creamy, cacao bean, caramel, all without any tanniny bitterness. I got 3 steeps before it started to get watery and gave up. This is a great tea. I didn’t weigh the pearls the 2nd time around, but that would be my only qualm: you would go through them fast.

Mellow grassiness and vegetal flavors, and pleasantly sweet. For those that like a vegetal taste that is not too overpowering, this can be a good tea. This green tea is surprisingly patient, with the vegetal taste being a steady companion for many infusions. Really a bargain for this price point, its worth at least getting a sample. Maybe this tea will surprise someone and become an everyday tea?

Longer review, with info on how I brewed it:
http://journeyintoteaculture.com/jade-tips-green-tea-mao-jian-from-canton-tea-company/

Outstanding tea with a grape-like but vegetal taste and a smell of flowers.

Used a few seconds pre-rinse on the dry leaf.

This was great with a 3-minute infusion. It really brought out more of the chocolately flavour.

The dry leaf of this tea smells incredible with a sweet deep chocolatey aroma. The flavour doesn’t transfer perfectly from the aroma and the mouthfeel is rather thin. Still, it is much appreciated that a good quality black tea is used for the base and the chocolate flavour is there as a good complement.

A great Keemun and a great Breakfast Tea. Initially I tried it with just 1 tsp of leaf and the tea was appetising with a slight smokey edge. When I upped the leaf to 1 tbsp, this was an intense, full throated cuppa with woodsy, almost ripe Pu’erh notes. It brews up quick in 2min on the first steep. I sipped my way through 250g of this excellent tea.

Canton say these are the best Jasmine Pearls in the UK… I’d be inclined to agree! The aroma is intense and heady, and keeps on going for multiple steeps. Luxurious and captivating, I felt serene and indulgent drinking these fine pearls.

Drinking this Darjeeling today. It is absolutely right to go with the hot weather outside. Hot in this case is a relative term. You need to understand that I am most comfortable in the zone between -10 and +10 degrees C and it is 21 C outside at the moment.

So, the tea is clear, silky and very refreshing with a delicate floral note. Spot on for today.

Surprised not to see this one on here already. Yay, I get to be first, even if it is only a cursory tasting note because I did not sit down and do a full tasting. So, I started the day with Canton’s 2010 Xing Hai, but felt like a change of pace for the evening. I’ll save the rest of the Xing Hai for tomorrow. I’ve now changed to this tea for the evening. It’s a new one on me and I only received it in the post last week. I tried it the day I got it, but was not overly happy with how it brewed. FF Darjeelings are notoriously finicky, and that first trial was a victim of over-enthusiasm and lack of control of the brewing conditions. This second time around is much better.

The first cup came out golden in colour. It was clear, crisp and silky in texture. Light muscatel flavour is there, some sweetness and some dryness. It has many of the characteristics of some light, dry white wines I have had in the past. The second cup I steeped for 3 minutes and that was perhaps a touch too long. The previous flavours were all enhanced but an edge of astringency has introduced itself. I shall steep a third cup for 3 minutes again later and see how it does, but I can definitely state that this tea passes muster for this Darjeeling fan. I’m not completely blown away by it, but I am definitely satisfied.

A bit too bitter for my tastes. I may try to play around with the infusion temperatures and times.

Copper-y black tea base with an amazing deep vanilla flavour.

The dry tea is an appealing mix of green, white and brown leaves. The tea soup is clear and golden with a fruity and vegetal aroma. The astringency is very faint, perhaps because I was careful to steep at the recommended temp of 195F and time of 2 min. I’ve learned it’s worthwhile to coddle a Darjeeling first flush a bit. Easy drinking was the result and a second steep at 208F for 5 min was a nice bonus.

I need a few pots of this, made extra-strong, this morning to balance all the wine, turkey, roast spuds, gravy, and christmas-pudding-with-brandy-sauce from yesterday.

Brewed very strong, this pours a deep, burnished-copper colour that goes to midnight-red in the mug, with a dark, sweetly metal-edged taste to match.

2014 (?)

A sweet, slightly vegetal smell from the steeped leaves. A nice honey liquor, with a honey aroma coming from the cup. That works really well for me! The liquor is thin, clean tasting, sweet and woody, slightly vegetal, slightly honey, a little bitter, a little astringent. It holds up well I think. The sweetness leaves a nice slightly numb tongue. The aroma is always 50/50 honey/plants, with the astringency always tugging your tongue back. Its a nice balance. As the cup cools it dips into deeper territory, with a slight hint of nuts. not sure which, but it was there.

All in all, a very nice first flush Darjeeling.

There aren’t many days in the year when I wake up and crave shu, but today is definitely one. My choice of tea this morning was completely obvious, but I decided to go for a new-to-me Pu-erh rather than an old familiar favourite.

Read my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/10/29/canton-mini-tuo-cha-cooked-pu-erh-canton-tea-co/

Dragon Well has become, to my surprise, one of my favourite green tea varieties. I used to think I didn’t like green tea, but I’ve been persuaded over time by some those I’ve been fortunate enough to have tried.

Read my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/10/17/organic-dragon-well-green-tea-canton-tea-co/

hmmmm yumyumm…sweet aftertaste with every sip sip sip and with the warm feeling. It’s not really the best But Recommended.

Tea number two from the EU TTB Round 4!

Now this is Autumnal! Although a little more mellow than I had hoped (the tasting notes on the packaging does say that it’s mellow) it’s a beautiful TGY with cocoa and oatmeal biscuity notes. So relaxing for this kind of day. The aroma of the tea brewing is woodsy and a little smoky, so I was surprised that that didn’t come through in the tea. I love roasted oolongs, but haven’t yet tried as many as I would have liked to. I don’t think I’ve had a single one I didn’t like! The oolong balls are still furled up pretty tight after a 3 minute steep, so I think I’ll be trying a second steep of this one. The experiment continues!

Business usually slows down for an hour or 2 at the shop after the office working crowd got their morning coffee. Which means I have time to make coffee and tea for myself.

Today I made a pot of this tea again. It tasted as beautiful as the first time I had it.
Sweet and malty, with a good rich body, and with this slight tang from a good Ceylon to wake up my palate.

I may re-purchase after I finish this tin :)

I love this tea. Let me say again. I LOVE THIS TEA.
It is gorgeous.
It is sweet, quiet, mature, refined, beautifully blended, harmonious.
To me, this should not be called breakfast tea. It would be ruined and wasted if I had this tea with breakfast food.
I prefer my breakfast tea a punch in the face / kick in the teeth kind of CTC blend.
To fully appreciate Canton English Breakfast Tea, I would wait until I had finished my cuppa builder’s brew and breakfast, and then make a pot of this beautiful tea.
I managed 3 flavorful steeps from 3grams of tea leaves. Each steep 3 minutes with boiling water.