Capital Tea Ltd.

Sipdown!

This is a nice decent jasmine tea – it’s not too heavy or perfume-like. Not quite as sweet as other jasmines I’ve had, though.

I don’t have a lot of other jasmine teas in my cupboard right now. Thing is, though, I’ve recently had a cupboard explosion! So, much as I may want new jasmine tea, I don’t really need it.

Backlog from a few nights ago.

I think I overleafed it this time, but it was still good and jasmin-y. A nice winding-down-the-day tea.

First tasting note for this tea!

I had this last night after my Capital Tea order came in. This seemed like a good option – I find it’s not a good idea to drink black tea in the evenings.

When I opened the package, the smell was sweet, sweet jasmine. The leaves are wiry and dark grey-green. I ended up overleafing just a tad, but it was okay. The package says to steep for 2-3 minutes but knowing other jasmine greens, I erred on the side of caution and went for just over 2 minutes.

The liquor was a lovely clear gold colour. After I lifted the leaves out of the hot water, I could smell a nutty, vegetal spinach smell underneath all the jasmine. The taste was mostly jasmine, though.

I kinda wished I could have tasted more of the base. The jasmine taste was straight and uncomplicated.

This is a very nice jasmine tea, but I’m glad I only got a 20g sample. Knowing my tea drinking habits, this will last for quite a while.

Currently sipping on this tea – thank you Ost for sending me a sampling of it.

This is not my favorite Keemun that I’ve ever encountered, but, it’s a pleasant one. The leathery notes are stronger than I’m used to from a Keemun, I’m used to a rounder flavor. There are some notes of smoke that mingle in an interesting way with the leather notes. As I eluded to a couple of sentences ago, I look for a more well-rounded flavor in a Keemun and this one seems a little thin. It seems like it’s all leather up front to disguise the fact that it doesn’t really have that satisfying, nicely balanced flavor.

It’s OK, but not my favorite Keemun nor is it my favorite that I’ve tasted from this company thus far.

I feel like writing lazy tasting notes today! :D This sample came from the lovely Dexter.

This tea is a bit too earthy for me, as I tend to prefer the lighter Yunnan teas. It does have some nice flavors going on, though! I can taste a bit of dark, syrupy raisin and there are caramelized sugar undertones going on, though not a lot of sweetness. The main flavors are earth and wood, which are not my favorites. Perhaps a teeny touch of some sort of herb near the end?

Thanks, Dexter! I appreciate the chance to try these teas even if I don’t love all of them. :)

I just received my package from Ost today – Thanks, Ost! This is awesome. I know you said in your review of this tea that you aren’t all that wild about it but I LOVE this. I love the deep, rich, chocolate-y flavor that is like dark bittersweet chocolate, notes of honeyed caramel in the undertones, and the woodsy earthiness to this. I taste notes of molasses. This reminds me more of a Fujian tea than a Ceylon.

Really nice.

I brewed this along with Capital Tea’s Rohini Estate 2nd Flush and it’s amazing how different they are. The leaves in this one are very green, and the aroma is very floral – like lilacs, or lillies of the valley? The taste is light, floral, slightly astringent. Very interesting!

Okay….It said to steep it for 3-4 mins. I did for 4.
That was clearly a mistake.
This seriously tastes like ink. (Yes, I do know what ink tastes like, because I used to be one of those people that bite on pens when they are bored in class).
At first it was such a strong flavor that I thought for a moment it was another leather tea.
But no! It’s like…an ink tea. 0_0
And yet the smell of this one was more on the malty side. But no sign of malt in the actual tea. Oy. :S Not for me.
And that was the last of the samples that Capital Teas Ltd sent me! They kinda got weird near the end….least tonight. xD
But was such a privilege to try them! Can’t wait to put in an official order! Hoping they really do have a good sale sometime this year!!

So, this one definitely smells malty, which is usually a good sign for me.
As for the taste, it’s a lot of malt and leather. Yes, another tea with that combo. Neither are too overpowering. So it’s not too bad for me.. Definitely drinkable.
But definitely not going to buy more.
Glad I tried it. Just not for me!

Okay, so I was expecting the other tea to be smokey. Wasn’t expecting it from this one at all!
But this one is super smokey. I’ve never had a smokey tea before. But that’s the main flavor of it. Other Golden Money teas that I’ve had have been bready and malty. This wasn’t at all what I expected!
The steeping aroma of this one actually smelled kinda like leather, which also threw me off. But not as much as the taste.
I don’t think this one is for me. I don’t think smokey teas are my thing….
This just reminds me of BBQ, which I’m not a fan of at all either!
So yeah, just not for me. And pretty disappointing!
Glad I didn’t waste my money on this one though!

So, this is my first Keemun tea. For some reason, I thought that they were supposed to be smokey? But, this isn’t like that at all.
Again, It’s just like a leather tea. Not nearly as bad and overpowering as the teas from H&S I tried earlier, but just enough for me not to want to finish this cup.
Keemun has never really appealed to me in any way, but they sent me a sample of it, so I thought I should at least give it a try.
Anddd now I know haha!

First tea of the day! This sample is from Dexter. It looks like a pure bud tea, and the fuzzy buds are mostly golden with some darker grey/brown parts. Dry scent is very sweet with some nice, mellow hay notes. I set my kettle to 200 degrees before I had chosen my tea, and I probably should have lowered it to 190 for this tea, but we’ll see how it goes!

The steeped aroma is quite powerful, with the expected sweet potato and bread notes along with sweet honey, stonefruit, and a touch of earth. Woo, this is a very concentrated Yunnan brew! Strong and thick sweet potato and dark wheat bread here. This is the sweeter side of Yunnan, it has yummy honey notes instead of the smoked meats flavor I often find. I can also taste apricot, especially at the end and in the aftertaste. There’s a little bit of a drying sensation at the end, probably from brewing at slightly too high a temperature. Overall though, yums!

Another morning assam. I’m not getting all the flavours that other people have listed in their notes. :) But it’s, a nice, full-bodied, malty assam. I again found a little bit of bitterness, but just a splash of milk smoothed that right out.

Trying some Assams this morning – tasting this one along with “Black Beauty” from Tealux. The dry leaves are small, with lots of golden tips. The scent has a lot of floral and fruity notes, and some buscuit maybe? The scent as it brews is actually quite mild, and the taste is smooth and balanced – no one flavour is really jumping out at me. There’s a slight hint of bitterness, but I think I probably just haven’t figured out the ideal way to steep this yet.

I had this earlier today and was underwhelmed – it was a bit astringent and bitter. I steeped western style – 3g in a 10oz mug, boiling water, 3min steep. I think next time I’ll try cooler water and maybe a shorter steep to start out. Alternately, this might just be one of those teas that needs milk +/- sugar to be enjoyable. Lowering my rating a bit.

I was in the mood for something a bit sweet after dinner, so I brewed up a cup of this. I added sweetener (xylitol – does anybody else use that in place of sugar?) and milk, and it’s hitting the spot quite nicely. :) I get caramel and vanilla from this – not really any fruitiness, but maybe that’s because I added milk right away. It’s nicely flavoured, not too strong or overwhelming.
Addendum: I stuck my nose in the bag while waiting for the water to reboil, and yeah, the scent of the dry tea is definitely fruity! Smells like chocolate-covered cherries. The 2nd steeping is pretty light and I’m drinking it straight. It still has a subtle sweetness to it.

Holy Shanghai.
I don’t even know where to start.
Like. It’s just amazing.
It’s smooth and strong. Malty and sweet. Just. Ugh. This tea.
I’m a little in love with this one, to be honest.
Definitely going to order some of this when I officially order from Capital Teas Ltd. So happy they were awesome enough to send me a sample of this one!!

Another black tea sample from Dexter! The leaves are very thin and wiry, similar to jin jun mei. They’re about half black and half golden. Dry scent is malty and a little bit savory, which makes me a bit excited since I haven’t had a yummy savory Chinese black for a while.

Oh my… The aroma of this tea makes my skirt fly up a bit. It’s very heavy on the savory smoked meats with a touch of a bread accent. I hate waiting for tea to cool! :P Mm, definitely very smoky, but not in a harsh charcoal way. This tea reminds me of smoked beef jerky, and it’s making me extremely happy. There’s a bit of bready taste and thickness supporting the smoky flavor. So good…

First tea of the day! This one came from Dexter’s amazingly generous care package. The leaves are quite pretty. They’re long and twisty and somewhat thick – similar to Taiwanese black teas but a nice warm chocolate brown in color. Dry scent is mildly sweet and raisiny with a bit of malt. The amount of leaves I had left looked like more than enough for one cup but not quite enough for two, so I used it all and made a 10 ounce cup instead of 8. :)

Steeped, this tea smells very fruity with some bread and floral notes. I think I may have overdone it slightly on the leaf, it’s just on the edge of being slightly bitter. However, the flavor itself is quite tasty. There’s definitely a heavy raisin influence here along with an overall strong malt flavor. I’m getting a tiny bit of floral as a top note, and while I could do without it it’s not ruining the tea for me. Touch of astringency as well.

Got a sample of this from Boychik!
Happy to try another tea from Capital Teas Ltd!
This one I was pretty hyped up about, which was bad, because I feel a little disappointed.
Perhaps it’s the fact that I accidentally steeped this one a minute longer than I was supposed to. Because it tasted a lot like leather. :/
There was a decent amount of malt, and a bit of sweetness from a honey flavor, but the overall taste was leather. So…Can’t say I was a fan of this one.
Maybe in the future I’ll give it another shot and not let it oversteep at all.
:S
Thanks for the sample still, Boychik!

This is the Assam I’ve been searching for!!!!
It’s strong, malty, and delicious!
It has a slight woody taste, but the malty flavors cover it up almost entirely! If you’re looking to try a good malty assam, this is definitely the tea to try!
I’m surprised there are not more tasting notes of this tea! I might have to pick some of this up. It’s just that good. :O

Soooo apparently not that many people have had this tea here, since there is only one other tasting note. xD But I will review anyway! :P
Wasn’t too sure of this one either, since I haven’t tried many Ceylon teas. The only other one I tried was from Tea At Sea, and it just tasted like I was drinking honey. But that was a few months ago, and I’m sure my tastes have changed. Actually, I know they have!
This one doesn’t taste only like honey. There are definitely honey notes in this tea, but it’s in danger of being dominated by the woodiness. D:
The sweetness in this tea is nice, it’s just the wood taste that I’m not too fond of. It’s not terrible though. I think I’d still like to try other Ceylon Teas. The honey notes were still present, and made the woodiness bearable.
So not bad, but I think I’ll hand the rest of this sample off to someone else!

Got a sample of this from Capital Teas Ltd! Still surprised at how big their samples are. xD 20g seems like so much-haha!
Anyway! This one is actually better than I expected.
When I opened the bag, I was hit by a strong, fruity aroma. Almost tart even, which made me not so sure. But while it steeped, a more chocolatey, dark aroma replaced the fruitiness.
Which is actually odd because this tea doesn’t really taste like chocolate at all. xD
As for the flavor; the caramel and fruity flavors are light, but not overwhelming. The black tea base is definitely present in this tea, which makes it taste much stronger.
Caramel is probably the biggest flavor in this tea. And the frutiness is more in the aftertaste.
So overall it’s not bad! Better than I expected. A nice, light flavored tea that’s not too overwhelming in any way. Definitely worth the try if you ever order from there! (: