Capital Tea Ltd.

2 tsp for 500mL water @90C, steeped three minutes.

I received a sample of this tea as part of the Toronto Tea Festival 2017 Tasting Box — Oolong Tea.

Dry leaf: tightly rolled, light ot medium green. An unfortunate whiff of condensed tomato soup in the scent.

Wet leaf: gorgeous long and twisty medium green leaves with some stems. Vegetal aroma, edging to briny.

I need to say this upfront: I generally don’t enjoy vegetal and brothy teas. Sometimes I think of soup; sometimes I think of scallops. So I’m not sure I can fairly review a tea with such qualities.

Liquor, first infusion: palest green, almost a pale yellow. Vegetal and slightly briny aroma: buttered greens, faint whiff of scallops. Delicate taste of buttered greens with a sweet and floral finish. After swallowing, however, I get a dominant vegetal taste left in the mouth. Not getting much of a floral aroma.

As the tea cools, some mineral notes come out. Vegetal dominates.

If you like a vegetal green or oolong, this will probably suit you.

GCTTB DAY 6

Wow, I am staying waaaaay past my bedtime literally planning out my cups of tea – how many, at what time of day, which teas, what order – and going through and eliminating all the teas I won’t have time to try. I just realized I hadn’t written tasting notes for two teas I drank yesterday when I stayed home from work…. I mean Monday. It’s Wednesday now. -_-Ugh, someone please hit the pause button. I need more days in the week.

I remember this was a rather strange oolong. It kind of did smell and taste vaguely like milk, which I just found too weird to be tasting in herbally infused water. It wasn’t bad per se, but the oolong didn’t have the traditional deep earthy woodsiness to it that I was expecting. The favours seemed to be on one level of depth, with the scent of milk. Interesting, but not for me.

When I first started drinking loose leaf tea, I began with black tea with milk and sugar. Someone suggested a golden monkey as being super sweet, so I bought some and added sugar. YUCK! I tried honey. YUCK! I felt betrayed by the tea-recommending stranger.

Then I tasted it plain and went….“Oooooh, this is delicious! It really is sweet on its own.” And I haven’t looked back. Now it is rarer than rare for me to add sugar to tea.

My favorite GM teas are Harney and Sons and Teavivre’s. This is a nice one, too. Much better than Teavana’s! We had it with Inside Out Pumpkin Muffins at tea time today and it was a great pairing. I hadn’t realized how wonderfully Golden Monkey would pair with pumpkin! I simply chose a good plain black tea for starters as usual, but I think I will keep this pairing in mind because a lot of our desserts will be pumpkin theme for the next couple of months.

Sugarcane sweet. Juicy peach. Floral.

so many things that need doing and yet difficult to get in motion.

Today I celebrate that the killer humidity has abated, with gentle cool breezes even. I could have worn sleeves today, it was so nice out.

Sugar cane with the vaguest hint of apricot in the first steep, or so my deliriously contented tastebuds told me. Super fab.

I am on my third steep now and have just eaten a maple sugar walnut tart. Heaven all round.

I had some hidden and was in the mood for it. I had to try it lighter again after all.

I used a really small tea spoon and did not let it steep over 2 minutes. It tastes like a vanilla black tea, but it was more custardy with a cherry aftertaste in the light astringency. I am going to be happy with what I have left. :)

Thanks Evol!

This one was way too astringent for me. The vanilla bean and strong cherry undertone of the black tea were pretty nice, but the astringency coupled with the vanilla turned it into something like molasses. It is naturally sweet and the chocolate notes really aren’t too off, it’s just too strong. A splash of milk did tone it down nicely though.

I was going to be patient, but this little package begged to drink. One smell, and I recognized the high mountain peach scent of the dry leaf.

This was a high quality tea that you could Gong Fu or steep Western. The 15 sec rinse yielded a creamy mouthfeel that some might call floral. It was a little bit fruity, maybe something like coconut or peach, but was silky smooth and lubricating. Four more cups later, which will soon be five (that turned to six), and I got a lovely array of flavors. I went from 30 seconds to “over steeping” it quick. The over steep yielded something like the Misty Mountain, and I can only guess that this was a Qin Xin varietal since it has the creamy peach note.

In summary: a lovely high mountain oolong with a great mouth feel, and all the usually awesome dimensions of its varietal. The fruitiness and florals were more subsided than I’ve had in others, but the lilac was incredibly present in the aroma. Mouthfeel dominates with a very light fruity sweetness. I’ve had sweeter ones before, but again, it really doesn’t matter because of the mouthfeel. I would probably use this as an introduction to high mountain oolongs for a newb since it’s so flexible to brew. Not too sure about the price. I am sure of the joy of sampling this, and how awesome Evol Ving Ness is!

Interesting. I decided to Gong Fu this whole sample too since the scent was faint in the bag. I could maybe tell it was a Jin Xuan with ginseng even without the “milk scent” indicating that possibility. Or it could be a Tie Guan Yin with the creamy florals. It’s on the greener side anyway, but still earthy.

The first steep had an interesting taste and smell. Some floral lilacs with a powerful sweet and earthy ginseing, and some creamy hints. The liqour itself was definitely a green milky oolong with the ginseng slowly opening up into a fruity character. The combined profile was like a hot liquid version of a Pina Colada Jamba Juice-but with stronger hints of other tropical fruit. I could be over describing the sweet ginseng-but something like papaya, mango-or barely pineapple.

The next few cups were a swish back and forth from spinach, minerals, to the florals, and the tropicals. A part of me wonders if I was less impulsive and brewed this western with less leaves: that is, if I would have gotten a more subtle tea. I probably would have gotten the same thing, or so I think as I sip.

Glad that this was a sample because I’m not a huge fan of ginseng oolongs. This, however, made me rethink the dimensions that ginseng can yield with a greener oolong. I’m pretty impressed with the topical fruit character that this tea was able to yield, and am glad to have had it. Thank you Evol Ving Ness!

I’ve been ridden with a cough for a few days now. It won’t let me sleep, despite nyquil or drops.
Anyhow. This was my breakfast tea. A good solid cuppa. I can’t recall much as it was pretty much a vehicle to soothe my throat. Steeped it for five min or so, normally I go closer to three min.

Doncha just love it when you can consider tea as “mediciine”???
I developed a headache earlier and was almost(but not really!) glad for the opportunity to have tea with a purpose. Seriously! Caffeine + tylenol = remedy nods

Anyhow. I decided I wanted to have this iced, with milk and a bit of honey. At first I was kinda regretting it. The flavours weren’t really working for me somehow. But after awhile things seemed to gel and I really enjoyed it! I was definitely sad when the giant mug was empty. So yeah, if you wanna try this baby cold, let it sit for awhile first :)
I guess I’ll have to write a proper review with tasting notes another time. But if I recall correctly, this is pretty mild, malty, and just a hint bready when hot.

This actually came to me from the last GCTTB. Nilgiri isn’t a tea I often see sold as a single estate tea, it’s a type of tea that, like Ceylon, is usually fairly unremarkable and used more often as a base for flavoured teas than as something to be enjoyed plain. But this tea is quite interesting, its flavour reminds me distinctly of a Darjeeling with the drying astringency. It has those grape-y, wine likes notes that I usually get from an offering from Margaret’s Hope estates thousands if a miles to the north.

Thanks for the sample Evol!

No tasting notes on this one yet?

Unfortunately, the day that I drank this was one of those “hurry up and gulp your teas before it gets cold” kind of days and I forgot to jot down my tasting notes. Next time, I will pay more attention.

Thanks for the sample Evol Ving Ness!

I enjoyed this tea as I have been trying to fend off a cold that my kids have. I don’t often reach for ginger when I am healthy. I find that it is enjoyed best with some honey and a couple of slices of lemon!

This is a Tea, that at least to my personal taste, benefits from a light touch with the leafing. Use to much and the malt overpowers any of the delicate nuances found underneath it. It can be quite a potent Tea and easily yields 4 steeps even with lighter leafing. I used @1.5 TSP per 275 ml of boiling water.

Complex spice notes overlay a mix of stone fruit, honey and malt notes mixed with lighter notes of cocoa and biscuit in the first steep. By the second steep, the malt has intensified and the spice is almost floral. The cocoa notes are also stronger in the second steep.

Overall a nice complex Assam with the spiciness I tend to appreciate in my favourites.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEqrsmgGK8B/

I know I just reviewed this tea yesterday , but I saved the leaves from yesterday and brewed them up this morning. I wanted to resteep yesterday but I ended up out of the house most of the day.

I was surprised to taste this today and find that it was just as good as yesterday. That deserves an increase in rating!

I got this in a fantastic package from Evol Ving Ness! Thank you so much!

Normally, Ceylon isn’t generally my favourite base but pair it with vanilla and it’s delicious! I detect slight cocoa and cherry notes in here too or maybe I am just crazy. The vanilla is smooth and tastes natural.

Capital Teas is now on my list to order from! Thanks Evol…;)

Sipdown (129)

Thank you Dexter for the share! I ended up dumping the whole sample in a large mug and it is making for a very nice tea. A bit brisk at the end of the sip but mostly smooth. There is also a touch of astringency at the top of the tea layered onto a more honey/malt base. It’s interesting and has a touch of muscatel but not something I need to keep stocked by any means. Still, I am grateful for the chance to try something new!

Good.

I am still sick with a bad cold or flu or something nasty. I might be getting better, but it may be too soon to tell. I was in two different hospitals and two doctor’s offices last week, so likely I picked up all the germs that were on offer.

This is good: the tea, not the germs and the experience.. My tastebuds are still far from a hundred percent, but I am enjoying this one with a teaspoon or less of honey. I imagine it would be good with a generous squeeze of lemon or orange.

I’d like the ginger to be far more intense though. Maybe that will happen when my tastebuds begin to come back.

I keep waiting for the day that this tea will lose its magic for me. And nope. Still absolutely magnificent.

My neighbours are sports fans. Last night was a hockey playoff and their team won. Yay for that as it is my home team too. That said, I don’t go out in the street in the middle of the night to scream, scream, and scream repeatedly over several hours when my team wins.
I guess that’s what happens when sports watching is supported by power drinking and merrymaking throughout the night.

Needless to say, I was woken throughout the night despite wearing earplugs—because after all, these people have been waking me up for over three years now and I have been making an effort to fortify myself with whatever it takes to be able to get a good night’s sleep. To no avail.

When there is no time to mull over tea decisions, I often reach for this. And so I did in this morning’s rush. No regrets.

I was in a bit of a rush to get the day started and grabbed this to take with me. This tea lifts me up even when my feet are cold and wet from the snow and slush. The nice piece of vanilla bean in the leaf made it extra awesome today.

This is one of the teas that I pull out when I want something delicious and I don’t have time to dilly dally making decisions. And an excellent choice it was. Into the carry mug and out the door.