Chicago Tea Garden

The Final Sipdown: Day 9
Decupboarding Total: 17

Today has been a whole lot of suck since I woke up in the middle of the night with a full-blown migraine. Finally at 11pm, I’m over the migraine and the worst of the hangover from it, so it’s time for my first tea of the day. Uhm, night.

I wanted something gentle and soft. Whites typically call to me post-migraine, but I did want to attempt to keep up with The Final Sipdown. This one is nicely mild and, if I shared it with my husband, I’d be able to finish off the tin. Not quite a sample but since it is a decupboard, I’m counting it.

What a wonderful final cup. I used two flowers (which amounted to about 16g) for 22oz. I gave it a quick rinse to see if I could ‘wake up’ the flowers a bit before steeping, then I gave it a 3minute steep with the teapot lid off.

It worked perfectly. I think this one really benefits from heavy leaf and I wouldn’t be surprised if the rinse helped, too. The flavor is still mild but it’s so sweet and pretty. I still don’t get the smoky of the tasting notes but it’s such a pretty Chinese green (with zero of the salty end note they normally give me) that I really don’t care. I’m actually giving this tea a gentle bump up since I feel like I’ve cracked the code a bit on this and would totally get it again.

Anyone remember Koosh balls? This tea makes it look like I’ve put a mini-Koosh ball in my teapot. Which sounds like a negative but I really liked Koosh balls a lot so I’m in favor of the similarity.

One minute isn’t a whole lot of steep time for a tied up tea (is it just me or do flowers and balls seem to take a bit to ‘wake up’?) but that’s what I went with. It turned out fairly light which was unsurprising, but I like it. It reminds me quite a bit of Rishi’s Jade Cloud, my go-to grocery store tea whenever I am out of green teas (which, considering how much tea I bought in Hawaii, won’t be for years now). It’s got the same sweet and vegetal thing going on but this LMD lacks the mineral edge that Jade Cloud can have (though that could be because of understeeping?).

Interestingly enough, when I poured the tea into my cup I got a whiff of something white wine-like. Sticking my nose in the cup, I didn’t get anything wine-like so I figured it was just some weird house-al smell but then at the end of each sip of tea, I got a little aftertaste – sweet with a little pucker – that made me think of eating a white grape. So yeah, the tasting notes say sweet/smoky endnote and apparently sweet/smoky in my world equals white grapes. Who knew?

Anyway, the second steep (1:00) was a little stronger but had all the same notes as the first – even the grape bit – just a little intensity. Light but nice. I’ll see how it goes next time with a longer steep.

The dry leaf has an amazingly flora aroma to it but with a slight bite to it. It’s an enjoyable tea to watch, and after only one infusion the leaves begin to expand nicely and it photographs well. It’s especially nice to see the red-edged leaves around the where they have been bruised in the processing.

The brew itself is floral and sweet as a light oolong should be. I like to bring this tea to work or school, put a small pinch of leaves in a cup, and infuse with hot water from a thermos. This tea doesn’t go bitter easily and is a good one to brew on the go.

I would recommend this tea to anyone who loves light oolongs and wants to try something unique. Being from New Zealand, this tea is quite the black sheep… but a tasty one at that.

@chanteashop

This one is actually a really great tea, but it has turned out to not be one that I can’t drink very often.

It’s very nice and has a very believable flavour that inexplicably suits the tea, but it IS a rather… special flavour. I have found that it requires a specific mind set. Possibly even a specific weather.

Like today where it seems it never really got properly light outside. The entire day seems to have been shrouded in twilight.

I have a bit of a headache, haven’t done a single thing of house work all day (which I really ought to!) and am in bad need by now of a cup of tea.

(On the upside Crownprincess Mary gave birth to twins today.)

Another one from Auggy. It’s actually too late in the evening to be drinking tea. I ought to be considering going to bed so I can get out of it in the morning, but I was standing in the shower feeling the craving for pu-erh.

At first I considered some of the orange pu-erh that Wombatgirl sent me and which I’ve been partial to lately (I seriously need to get some more of the one NBT has the next time order, which won’t be long), but then I thought I’d rather give this one a try.

I’ve only had sticky rice once in my life. It was in the spring when the boyfriend and I were visiting friends in Paris. It was an asian restaurant (can’t remember exactly which country. Vietnam possibly?) and it was served inside an actual bamboo stick. Very tasty flavour added to the rice, although, it was a little difficult to get out of the stick.

Then I saw this one show up on my dashboard. I just couldn’t imagine that flavour in tea. Tea and rice were just completely non-combinable in my head, so I was moderately curious about it. I can’t remember ever actually having said this, but lucky for me Auggy can hear my thoughts. Or something.

I have three touchas and they certainly smell like rice. Take a bag of rice, throw in a spoonful of pu-erh leaves, shake well and inhale. That’s exactly what this smells like, both dry and steeped. I’m partial to the steeped aroma over the dry one though, as the steam makes it a rounder aroma which fills up the nose better.

The flavour is very rice-y and only moderately pu-erh. Rice is evidently a very dominant flavour and it kind of feels more like drinking a soup rather than drinking tea. If I had this around dinner time I suspect I’d have to remind myself that it isn’t actually food.

The pu-erh comes out a little more as it cools down to a comfortable drinking temperature, but it’s still not something that screams, “I’M A PU-ERH! HEAR ME ROAR!” It’s actually a very mild-mannered pu-erh. Maybe a little too mild. I don’t really feel like I’m drinking pu-erh and therefore it’s not really what I was looking for when I decided to try it. I could however find it one I’d like to come back to again and again for other reasons. Even if the flavour isn’t particularly complex, it’s still very nice and very interesting.

A smaller thing, is touchas in general. Can’t work out what I think about them. I like how practical it is, just unwrap one and add water. On the other hand with a toucha I don’t actually know how much leaf I’m using. I used one toucha to my small pot containing about half a liter of water, but had it been loose leaf, I think maybe I would have used a little more leaf.

And now to work out how many points I want to give it while trying not to be influenced by the fact that I can see how many points Auggy gave it behind the update window… Yes, I think I’ll score it like this.

These last couple of days have been pretty awful for me and I’ve been in a somewhat asocial and depressive mood. Not as bad as it has sometimes been before, but still noticable. Luckily my parcel from Auggy arrived yesterday, containing my Keemun education (I think I must be at level 2 now, or…?), so I’m making a start on that now and starting with this one, which Auggy said was her favourite out of the three.

It smells very sweet, with a little spicyness to it. Weirdly it’s reminding me a little of freshly baked rye bread. As in proper rye bread. The danish sort. Like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugbr%C3%B8d. (And if you follow the Oprah link and if you watch the video of a danish home, do NOT believe the headline. That is NOT a typical danish home, but it is a fairly standard size fridge, even if Oprah seems to expect us to be able to store enough food to feed an army. We don’t need room for more food than we can eat, do we?) Anyway, that’s what the aroma reminds me of. Even though it’s not actually the same smell. Just sort of in the same semi-category nearly almost kind of.

After the cup has been sitting for a little, the spicyness is still there, but the sweetness has transformed a little. It’s kind of semi-green now. Not green-green and not very grassy, but with a definite vegetative quality to it.

I can’t immediately pick up notes of smoke in the aroma though.

On the flavour there is definite smoke, however. It’s the first thing I notice when I taste it, especially if I slurp a little. Underneath that again the straw-like spicyness and the very sweet note from before.

Weirdly the flavour is reminding me of rye bread again. A good rye bread (for me) has tons of grain in it, making it a heavy bread. This is kind of the same. It tastes like it’s a heavy tea, sort of. If it was a rye bread it would be one of my preferred ones. Grainy. I’ve managed to get myself lost in this odd comparison, and it’s surprisingly difficult to really explain it, and even more difficult to untangle myself from it again.

Let’s just say it’s making me want to eat rye bread now.

I’m liking this a lot, and I can totally see why Auggy counts it among her favorites. It certainly deserves a metric ton of points.

Well, I just finished off my sample of this at work today. Got out pretty early which makes the night great!
Anywho, this tea smelt very light, I could pick up just sweet veggies. Well the tea itself reminds me of the same! Almost like snow peas with a little honey on them, the taste is really cool and refreshing.

I enjoyed this tea, but I think I would have savored it more from a gaiwan. Most of those nuances are lost when you don’t have time to relax and focus on them sadly :/

So I was off a couple days and didn’t update this one, but boy am I glad I waited!

Initially I made a pot of this for a friend and I, thinking it was going to be sweet perhaps. The flavors in this tea are amazing, but expect savory, not sweet. It’s very malt-y, which I didn’t care too much for on the first infusion. We only infused it once until we moved on to the next tea.

Well…

Today I had work, and had my new Aladdin Infuser Mug too (love it!). I wanted to bring a tea with me that could survive multiple infusions, so I decided to give this another whirl. It was phenomenal! The first infusion is OK, very strong, but the second infusions onward were very much enjoyed. I got 5 infusions out of my leaves before I tossed them!

Oh and that reminds me, I’ve seen the word “mouthfeel” used a lot, and that’s what I will be using here. This tea is one of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced. It has to be experienced!

I sourced this tea directly from The Phoenix Collection (http://thephoenixcollection.com) and find it to be the strongest of the pu-erh stock I currently have…Earthy and fragrant, only a few leaves are required to brew a dark and dirty flavor.

This is a very enjoyable pu-erh. I am fairly new to pu-erh but finding the journey adventurous. I got this sample from a friend and opened it up today. Has a nice citrus note with some earthy components. The leaves are very tight and need to be broken up then softened with a rinse then broken up more. 30 sec first steep. Aroma of brew is subtle earthy but no smokiness that I enjoy. Flavor has a bit of citrus followed by dryness then a bit of earth. No pungent flavor or aroma. Great tea but I would like to have a bit of smokieness like other pu’s I have tried.

I was expecting this to be fruitier, but I don’t get much fruit from either the taste or the smell. It is sweet, but more like the sweetness of barley. There’s definitely the taste of some kind of grain in there, though I can’t say for sure that it’s barley. It’s also pretty earthy, slightly vegetal. I steeped it 5 times and then stopped because it was already over 80 degrees outside, but the taste stays strong with every infusion.

Like others have noted, this is a clean tasting oolong. Not bitter/not astringent and just as important not vegetative. This a is relaxing, very mild, slightly floral brew. But although this oolong is described as “dark”, there is almost no toasty/toasty flavor..but maybe this oolong was “roasted” just enough to kill any grassy flavor….

The dry tea of this tea smells like a charcoal grill, with some floral tones mixed in. Honestly, the smell of the leaves can be a little intimidating, but I recommend to go ahead and steep! I started with a 45 second steep and tacked on about 15 extra seconds with each steep. Lets steep the first three cups of Zealong Dark together!

For a more thorough review and a video of a time lapse steep check my blog: http://bit.ly/99Wk4k

this tea smells like roasted peanut butter, very nutty. it has a very clean taste, with some really interesting charcoal notes. The charcoal flavor tastes as if I took some tea in aluminum, and let it sit in my charcoal grill over night, or over a few nights and absorbed the charcoal taste. Very interesting flavor accent. This tea is very refreshing, and just makes me want more. out of the 3 zealongs, I can’t decide which I like best, I feel like they are all good for different moods and times of the day. :) Thanks for sourcing this, Tony!

Very delicate. Sweet and vegetal. Really good quality stuff :)

Seriously freakin’ lovin’ this one. Upping it for Awesomeness! Check previous note for more.

I was craving this one today and I know why…it is DELICIOUS! I am almost out and need to reorder soon.

Wow, my first thought was this is so smooth and full of flavor. Slightly sweet, a bit chewy, and kind of meaty. Not that it tastes like meat but it has a quality I imagine meaty it to be. I know weird. Bottom-line a huge unexpected surprise. I am drooling just thinking about it. Delicious!

OMG! If ever a tea could evoke childhood memories of my grandmother who passed this January, this is it. I immediately remembered home cooked rice from India. My mom made this too and still does but it is was something my grandma made all the time when I was growing up. It brought back such happy memories and a few tears of all the family dinners together back in the day before we grew up and and the grandparents that helped raised us passed. I am so thankful I found you “Chicago Tea Garden” and that I found this tea. The memory was as fresh as it just happened.

On that note: It is delicious, sweet, and just like rice.

I enjoyed this one. However, it didn’t have the rose scent and taste I was hoping for. The pu-erh itself was just as described. It is earthy and clean. It also has the slight sweet finish I enjoyed so much. If the rose was stronger I would have been over the moon. Today I stay on planet Earth but happy nevertheless.

One of the best teas I’ve sampled in a while, so light but with so much flavour infused, a real pleasure.

This is a lovely change from weeks of drinking shin-cha green tea. Clear and flavorful. A bit light, but I also missed the in-package instructions to steep at boiling instead of 195. Multiple resteeps, consistent flavor every time. I love how the tea expands into WHOLE leaves! Overall, very good presentation, lovely flavor.