Capital Tea Ltd.

Backlog from yesterday morning.

I have only a few spoonfuls of this tea left after sipping and swapping with others, but I don’t mind. I genuinely like this tea, but now that I have more experience, gyokuros are a bit fussier to deal with, so they’ll probably remain only an occasional purchase.

This was good though – very green, slightly bitter taste.

The more I drink this, the more I wonder whether the steeping parameters on the package are correct, or whether my initial taste of it was an outlier. The first sip I had of this a few months ago seems a lot sweeter in restrospect than current sips of this tea.

Perhaps I should also stop making it in pots, and just do single servings.

Anyways, I think this might do a bit better at a higher temperature – 75 or 80 C, perhaps.

This is still good, though. Just pondering.

Oversteeped and overleafed it today. This tea seems really delicate, so I should have been watching it more closely – damn you, YouTube, with your funny videos!

Although this is bitter, I’m still getting grassy, vegetal notes. I really should try more japanese teas, since right now most of the teas I’ve been getting appear to have Chinese or Indian bases.

Update: I’ve now infused this tea three times in 1 day. Thoughts on the multiple infusions are below.

1st infusion: my first tasting note was based on the first infusion. Light, fresh-tasting green with lots of floral notes.

2nd infusion: I steeped the second infusion for the same length of time as the first. It was a bit weaker, and while the floral notes were there in the scent, they weren’t as strong in the liquor. There was also a good amount of dust in the tea from the first steep, which lent the liquor a darker green colour.

3rd infusion: I steeped the third infusion for 5-8 minutes. The floral notes are back now due to the longer steep, but they’re still not as strong as the first steep. The liquor is a darker yellow-green than the first steep. There’s also a scent of seaweed (which I don’t find unpleasant).

This is still a light-tasting, enjoyable tea, but perhaps it’s best to stick to only 2 steepings.

I purchased this at the Toronto Tea Festival on Feb 2, 2014. I was unable to taste a brewed sample, but the dry leaves smelled wonderful.

Packaging: Unlike most loose-leaf teas I’ve seen, this tea came in a vacuum-sealed foil pack, so the leaves were initially packed in quite tight. You cut open the top with some scissors, and after it’s open, it’s got one of those pliable metal bars so you can reseal it. The front of the package has some Japanese characters on it, so I believe this vendor just buys directly from a particular tea farm/importer and then applies their own label once it’s been received. I’m not saying this to be negative – the tea is of VERY high quality. I paid $12 for a 50g package, but it typically sells for $15.

Leaf: The leaves look thin and deep green, almost like grass clippings. Dry, the smell is highly vegetal – it smells strongly of fresh-cut hay. Sweet and almost floral, even. Wet, the smell stays exactly the same (floral and hay-like), although the leaves don’t expand/unfurl much.

Liquor: This tea needs only 1-2 minutes to steep. Once steeped, the liquor is a pale green-yellow, like tender plant shoots. The taste of the liquor stays very true to the scent of the leaves – fresh, green, and floral, with only a hint of the astringent taste I find in other green teas.

Overall, this is a lovely and light green tea.

I got this delicious sample from Dexter3657. This is quite good, and I may consider a purchase of this if they have it at the tea festival. It brews up to a gorgeous garnet colour on the first steep. Less deep on the second steep. Whatever astringency is in the tea, I didn’t notice it, but I slurped this one back pretty fast. Also, I’m not always very good at picking up on various notes in a tea if I don’t pay attention.

I liked this one, and see this easily fitting in my morning tea routine.

Thank you Dexter!

I’m on my second cup of this, and I like the second steep much better than the first. But then again, I slurped the first one back when it was still a little too hot. This second steep was silky smooth and sweet. This is really good.

I’m pretty impressed with Capital Tea’s and am looking forward to seeing them at the tea festival. I’ll have to try more of their tea’s before I go.

My thanks to Dexter3657 for introducing me to their teas :)

Yesterday was a special day, I received my swap box from the wonderful Dexter3657 . In fact, we received each other’s box on same day! Last night, as i felt physically and emotionally drained, I needed comfort in a cup to bring to bed with me…Chai being an old friend, I thought it was the obvious choice out of the MANY teas I got in my swap box.

I say old friend cause about 4 years ago, I started getting more into loose leaf tea beside the traditional earl grey and jasmine tea I had been drinking all my life.

I discovered Davidstea and chai became a revelation to me, something exotic I had no clue even existed. I went on a chai spree and bought all the chais DT had to offer. That’s all I drank for 6 months!

Then I discovered Steepster, and realized there was other tea retailers in the world, started experimenting with straight tea, and finding my perfect black and oolong tea became my quest. I have pretty much succeeded at that, but haven’t had a decent cup of chai in the last 3 years!

When Dexter and I initiated our swap, I lurked at her chai stash and thought it would be a great opportunity to renew my vows with it!

She very generously sent many to choose from, I picked this one cause the note said it was her favourite out of that bunch. I was so excited to try something of better quality than what I had in the past.

I was very happy with my choice, cause I need to take things slow and this is not an overwhelming chai blend. It’s surprisingly smooth, yet that little kick is there. I could not find the list of ingredients on their website and i’m a little rusted, but I think I could detect mainly clove, cinnamon, cardamom, and I get a little tingle on the tongue so that’s probably ginger. This is an excellent chai to begin with, nothing scary about it.

But what i enjoyed the most, was the comfort it provided that I needed so badly!

I welcome you back into my life Chai, it’s been a long time :-)

Thank you so much Dexter3657 for this special blend, can’t wait to try the others you have sent!

Still MOAR from Dexter3657! Whee.

Confession: despite their popularity, if I’m remembering right I’ve never had my socks knocked off by typical Yunnan Black. Over a year ago when I got back into tea and started off with David’s loose leaf blacks I got some of their Yunnan and really didn’t like it (like just about all of those David’s straight teas I tried, it tasted like watery nothing). And when I fell in love with Verdant’s blacks I remember the one that stood out as NOT winning me over immediately was the Yunnan Black. I never think they taste “bad” really; usually I simply don’t taste much, period. They’re SO smooth and (again, to me usually) sweet but in a boring, straightforward way (I get the feeling I tend toward craving a little “rasp” to my tea as a throwback to my early tea drinking days when it was all legacy-style stuff, mostly Indian; Chinese expertise at making ever smoother and sweeter teas is sometimes lost on me as a result).

So that makes me all the more pleased to find I like this one a lot! It still has that characteristic off-the-charts smoothness and is quite sweet, but this time the sweetness comes across as soothing, satisfying, with a depth to it I really enjoy. It’s not actually caramel-like in that there isn’t a toasted or burnt sugar element, but it’s rich and a little creamy in a vaguely related way. It’s best while still pretty hot; as it cools, that watered down quality to the sweetness begins to creep in somehow. While hot, it has a rounded, rich and satisfying quality that reminds me a bit of what makes Dragon Pearls so appealing (though I should note, it never approaches the actual thickness of Dragon Pearls).

My first official Yunnan Black I like a lot (well, unless I’m forgetting one that isn’t labeled/marketed outright as such)! Woo hoo. Capital Tea, you’re winning me over big time.

I tried this one a while back but never was able to log it, think Steepster might’ve been wonky. Yet another treat from Dexter3657 (seriously, that swap box was ginormous), thanks!

I think I messed it up, just went with my default black tea parameters, the ones I use if I don’t know what to do. Boil/208F, 3 or 4 minutes. It was fine, but I didn’t get the strong flavors people are talking about, alas, and there was, as Dex and others mention, a light-bodied astringency that grew with each sip. I agree with Dex that this teeters between one kind of Chinese-style black and lighter astringent stuff a little more like darjeeling…I do usually find teas that do that fascinating (it’s one of the things that sold my heart to Verdant’s Zhu Rong) but here it was like the flipside of that coin, where I get the aspects of each I don’t love without the components I do—the body read as wimpy, disappointing, and the flavor wasn’t Chinese-sweet enough to make up for the astringency, if that makes any sense. I am going to try a lower temp though, combined possibly with a longer steep time. Intriguing.

Love this tea so much. Along with those A&D Yunnan Gold Tips, maybe the best find of this winter for me (endless thanks to Dexter3657!). This time around I’m getting cinnamon and sandalwood along with that deep sweet chocolate-y element. YUM!

Oh my dog, this tea is special. Thank you Dexter3657 for sharing some with me—this is riiiiight up my alley!

The dry leaf smell is wonderful, an intense chocolate aroma. The tea brews up fairly dark and thick, and the taste is deep and unusual; I get loamy soil notes and almost mushroom. Something rich and wet earthy like that. There’s a slight bitterness but also a spicy sweetness to balance it. This kind of reminds me a bit of the complexity of an intense shu pu erh, but less complicated to worry about steeping correctly (easy as pie, Western style 3 min even and hot works very well, much like Laoshan Black) and no possibility of funky aroma, quite the contrary. I love it! Definite winner; I’m thinking it might be the best Assam I’ve ever had. It would make an awesome morning tea on special days you want to spoil your taste buds first thing out of bed. Its complexity and strength remind me a bit of Butiki’s The Black Lotus, crossed with yeah, a sweet, intense pu erh. Great googly moogly it’s good! I would place an order with Capital now just to get more of this for sure.

ETA: yyz who as always is way ahead of me here is spot on about resteeps being lighter and less chocolate-spicy but amping up a honey note. Yum!

Another great gift from Dexter3657! Thank you.

This is good on a bitterly cold night like this, when I feel snug as a bug in a rug, relaxed, cozy and gratefully warm. It’s smooth and gentle in that Chinese black tea way, but full of warming flavors—the common clean sweet starchy, sweet potato quality (but tamped down some which I appreciate), but peppercorn too! I’m really digging the peppercorn. Golden Monkeys are generally a little too subtle and light-bodied for me—I find myself reaching for and buying Golden Needle instead—but this one’s a nice offering.

Another tea from yyz thank you so much for sending this my way.

I was quite happy to see this in my package. I ordered teas from Capital Tea Ltd. awhile ago but mainly ordered straight black (that I was quiet happy with). It’s nice to be able to try one of their flavored teas.
This is a really nice Marco Polo blend. It’s fruity, hint of vanilla, hint of caramel. Really nice. I will be looking to order from them again, and will take a look at a few flavors at that time. :))

This brews up to a nice copper colour after 3.5 min (1 tsp/225 ml). The scent has a red fruit top note with a
Sweet potato and malt base tempered by sweet honey notes.

This is a nice example of a classic Ceylon, with hints of browned brown sugar,deeper notes of malt, and cocoa, fruity cherry like note exactly like described! Really nice and well balanced and very smooth. The second steep is fruity snd spicy smelling. It tastes sweeter with hints of nutmeg, cherry, cocoa underneath. I could definitely see myself purchasing this in the future.

Thanks for the sample Capital Tea Ltd!

http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=76&cat=3&page=1

Capital Tea Ltd sent me a new batch of this and I though I’d try it today.

The tea is a beautiful bright toned copper red. The scent is of malt and spice with tones of yam, cocoa, butter, warm toned stone fruit and honey underneath.

The top notes are spice and citrusy malt. The spice is slightly floral and is savoury with cinnamon and hints of thyme, mixed with lemon tones in the malt. This is followed by smooth plum and yam mixed with honey and a bit of cherry and a stronger cinnamon note with butter, finally the tea portrays a mild bitterness from malt and cocoa. This is a rich, mildly bitter toned and spicy sweet, malty tea with nice fruit and spicy floral notes.

I steeped this tea for 3 minutes versus 3.5 minutes for last seasons tea, but the differences I noticed between these two batches is that this one may be more floral and seems to be less thick tasting with less of a molasses note.

http://instagram.com/p/tf3J2UmKxk/

The dried tea smells like malt, or a little bit like feed mix you get for horses, which brings back old memories. The tea has short slightly flattened leaves liberally scattered with saffron yellow golden tips.

The tea brews to a deep orange red after 3.5min.
With malt, citrus, hint of molasses, red fruits, and currant scents.

The first sip brings out bitter cocoa and malt notes mixed with molasses, overlain by a sweet top note that references both fresh and dried stone fruit (plum and cherry) and honey. There is a light floral note. This is a malty, fruity assam. The tea has a thick syrupy body with nice level of caffeine. It is very smooth, and a little tannic, but with no noticeable astringency. Aftertaste reminds me of molasses cookies eaten with a slightly sharp berry juice. A very nice start to the day.

Thanks Capital Tea Ltd for the generous sample!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve logged a tasting note. I thought that staying away would curb my tea buying, but that approach didn’t really work for me.

I got this tea from Dexter3657. I really enjoyed this cuppa. Yesterday when I drank I found the sweet potato in the early sipping, and plum and honey after.

Today I got sweet potato and honey. No plum. Don’t know what I did differently…Either way a tasty tea.

Thank you Dexter!

I find that most of my Yunnan’s fall between the spectrum of leathery spicy and honey fruity all with cocoa underneath, but each are unique in some ways. The crudest, roughest one has almost licorice tones, one has orange notes, one has a lot of spice over chocolate notes, another is jelly and violets and then there is this one. This one is quite fruity and almost boozy in the first steeps, overlying the honey, cocoa, and leather and has a bit of snap pea to it.

It looks just like the picture with medium thickness blades and furry gold buds. About 75-80 % appears to be buds. The dry sent is almost hay like.

I steeped one heaping TSP in a 150 ml gaiwan. Using boiling water.

After 45 s the scent is of honey, hay, cocoa, smoke, and a faint leather spice. The tea is a medium ambre brown with a yellow green ring I get in many tippy teas around it.

The flavours of cocoa, hay, smoke and honey combined to create something slightly fruity. It brings back a memory of something I had at school when a classmate prepared a Vietnamese meal for us. There was a hint of grapes, cooked apple and a slight musty tone all soaked in a touch of rum.

Other notes I tasted were of snap pea, honey sweetened cocoa in grape juice, and very faint leather notes. As it cools the cocoa, honey, slightly boozy fruit dominate. Very smooth tingling in front and top of mouth.The first steep was kind of syrupy. Further steeps were as follows:

60s less honey, more cocoa, and hints of tarter red fruit, touch of bean still quite sweet and honeyed. Not as syrupy as first cup.

75s honey cocoa,leathery earthy notes.

120s. Cocoa, honey, red fruit , leather spice

240s. Cocoa, leather,honey.

This tea still has some life in it. I especially liked the first steep and the hint of red fruit in some of the later ones. All together a nice tea that I wouldn’t mind enjoying from time to time.

Thanks, Capital Tea Ltd for this generous sample!

This is quite a nice Ceylon. It seems to lie between those Ceylon’s that are sugary sweet, those that hold lots of citrus notes, and those with deep malt notes. It’s a pretty well balanced cup, with just the right touch of briskness.

The tea smells of malt, a touch of brown sugar, spice (cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg), citrus, and berries with some deeper slightly bitter notes. The flavour is deep and robust with all of the above notes. This Ceylon would take milk well. It is not an overly sweet tea, and has a lovely citrusy and spicy aftertaste. I’m quite enjoying this cup. 96°C 4 min.

Edit: The resteep is lovely and sweeter. I think that this tea would benefit from a shorter steep than I first gave it. Cocoa notes are present in this steep.

Another one from Dexter3657 – thanks so much again! Another chai to try, I say in glee. :D I looked up more info on the site for this one, and there is a wonderful list of ingredients but to me this mostly looks like black tea leaves mixed with CTC black tea leaves. Even after a few minutes, this tea is surprisingly smooth for a CTC. There are hints of ginger and not much else. The picture looks exactly like the blend I have, actually, so I guess this is an accurate batch of this blend. But I love how smooth this is and it has a bready flavor.. not astringent at all! I really wish there were a billion more spices here, but as a black tea it’s good stuff anyway.

I’m not avoiding Steepster notes any more… apparently my Amoda box went missing in the mail. :/ I guess I will just ruin the surprise if it just happens to happen.

Thank you Dexter3657 for sending me a sample of this tea. This has a strong fruity profile. This is the second darjeeling I’ve tried – the first one from Davids Tea. I think darjeeling is not for me. Although it’s not my preference I won’t have any trouble finishing off my sample.

Thanks Dexter! So strangely enough…even though the muscatel in this one is like HEY LOOK AT ME! I am enjoying this one. I don’t typically really enjoy darjeelings, but the next thing i knew, i was at the bottom of this mug going ..oopsy….i drank it all? There’s something in the smoothness of this one that just makes it easy to drink and rather enjoyable. Not something i’d pick myself, but i’m glad that they sent this along to dexter as a free sample so i got to try it!

Edit: 140! go me! woot woot!

mmm thanks for sharing this one with me dexter! This brings me officially to 149 – so i’m under my black friday goal and consider myself to be officially working towards tea purchases. 1 sipdown = 1 tea i can purchase lol.

This is a pretty decent assam. It’s got a bit of astringency to it, but not so much that it’s less enjoyable. There’s a teeeeny bit of sweetness hiding in the sip as well, it’s not a malty assam. :) i like this one!