Chicago Tea Garden

Deifnately Grade A. Has a nice earthy aroma, like a forest after a rain. The liquor is a deep amber color, and the slightly chopped leaves have a dark brown appearance.

I’m on the second steep, and it’s still a mellow but flavorful tea with hints of spice and honey and has plenty of heartiness.

This may be more of a morning/winter tea, but I’m still enjoying it in the heat of a Southern afternoon.

2 tsp/cup This note is only from January – I’m catching up!

Smells like chocolate, puffed wheat, honey.

Smooth, chocolate, molasses, tobacco. Great, reminds me of some higher-quality Yunnan bud teas.

2nd steep: 2 min
3: 3 min
4L 5 min

Apparently I’ve had this tea twice now, though I only remembered having it the first time. Both times I did short steeps, since that’s how everyone else had steeped this one. Last time I wanted to steep it longer but chickened out; this is the last of my sample, so I said heck with it and decided to steep it how I would steep most other green oolongs.

It smells incredibly sweet with floral and fruit tones, overlain by sweet-cream milky aroma. The flavor is nice and floral with a heavy helping of buttered cooked greens and the faintest hint of creaminess. Live and learn: 3 minutes is a little much for this tea, and the vegetal flavors are outweighing some of lighter notes. As I’ve experienced before, these notes, along with the natural sweetness, do grow as the tea cools. Even a little overcooked this is a tasty tea.

I was in the mood for a floral oolong, so I decided to try this one again. The brewed tea has a lovely floral/roasty/milky aroma. I was wondering what this one would taste like with a slightly longer steeping time, but since almost everyone seems to have steeped this one for a short time I chickened out because didn’t want to ruin the tea. Brewed like this, I only start really enjoying it once it has significantly cooled and the natural sweetness starts to make itself known. Once it hits that point, though, it’s quite a lovely cup.

I have three untried oolongs from QuiltGuppy left, so I set about to sniffing each one and chose based on the aroma of the dried leaves. This one won because along with the vegetal and slight floral aromas there was a darker milky or almost caramel aroma. I didn’t realize that this tea was actually from New Zealand until I went to CTG’s website to look up some more information on it. I watched the video on their site for “proper preparation of a zealong tea” (traditional tea ceremony much like the one I experienced years ago in China), and though I in no way have a set up for that, I did give the leaves a brief wash as directed. One thing the video did not give was a time for steeping, so that was taking from all the tasting notes here.

The leaves mostly unfurled, but some are still not open all the way. The liquor is a very pale yellow, but aromatic. It smells vegetal, but almost cooked with a slight roastiness. There’s a light, milky sweetness in the aroma as well.

Mm, quite lovely! There’s a definite natural sweetness to this one, and the taste is light and floral with deeper, darker notes as well. It almost reminds me of a dark, floral honey flavor. I’m really enjoying this one. As it cools a bit the green vegetal flavor creeps back in, pleasantly grounding the sweet notes. The second steep becomes much more vegetal and brighter, almost lemony, with less sweetness and a lack of creamy milkiness that I didn’t even realize was there in the first steep until I tried the second and noticed it was gone. It just kind of blended into everything and smoothed everything out.

Thanks so much, QuiltGuppy, for introducing me to all these oolongs!

Smooth with a deep flavour.

This is the third of the New Zealand oolongs that I’ve tried. Of the three, it is my least favorite… and I love it! All of the Zealongs are outstanding. Pure has a light scent in the packet, and, not surprisingly, it is a lighter oolong as well, both in aroma and flavor. I steeped this one longer than I normally do. 195/4 min. It produced a light colored, aromatic brew that has a roasted flavor. The oolong is beautiful and has no astringency or bitterness whatsoever.

Earthy, smooth, with a subtle citrus finish. Not bad, but not my favorite either. More of a novelty item than a quality pu-erh.

Q: Is this a wonderfully tasty Chinese “black” tea?
A: “Hao Ya”!

Q: How many decent infusions did I get from my leaves this morning?
A: About 8.

Q: How does this tea compare to similar Keemun black teas?
A: Very uniform leaves create a smooth infusion with focused flavor.

Q: How many minutes should I wait before ordering some of this for myself (and all of my friends and family…)?

A: Zero minutes.

Perhaps someone reading this may be hesitant to take a “kiwi tea” seriously… I know I was reluctant when I first heard about Zealong.

Don’t wait; get some sooner rather than later! This is a great example of all the good qualities of a Taiwanese high-mountain type oolong. In fact, I’d pick this tea over many “green oolongs” that I’ve tasted. In addition to the fabulous taste and aroma, the completely unfurled leaves are large and uniform, so this tea gets points for aesthetics as well. I look forward to trying the other versions of Zealong soon!

Thank you, Ben Shan. You have saved me from quite possibly the single worst tea tasting day I’ve ever had. This is one of the teas I bought as a sampler from Rachanac on teatra.de.

Dry, it smells vegetal and somewhat nutty. Nice, like a roasted oolong. 195/2 min. It’s a medium gold color. The aroma is still vegetal, worrying me a bit. The taste… wonderful roasted oolong. Thank goodness! I think I may have fallen over if yet another awful tea were to find its way to my teacup. This is a very nice, strong, full-flavored oolong.

From my It’s All About the Leaf review, found at: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2074/tea-review-chicago-tea-garden-rose-scented-pu-erh-toucha/

When the average American first learns of tea, then tend to learn about black tea (often Lipton-eqsue types of black tea) or herbals. If they’re lucky enough to start to explore the genre of tea, then the worlds of greens, whites and oolongs come into focus, but the pu-erhs often remain uncharted territory. Of all types of tea, pu-erhs seem the most mis-understood and mysterious teas out there. I often see people new to tea mention that they are scared of them. And, that can be understandable; some of the adjectives often associated with pu-erhs are big, strong, bold words like “leathery,” “earthy,” and in worst case scenarios “fish-tank-y.” I don’t want to drink a fish tank. Ew!

Personally, I’ve only started to stratch the surface of pu-erhs. And even in this small sampling I’ve had some that I’ve spit out, and some that I’ve absolutely adored. So I went into this tea with a very open mind – this one could be anything. It came in cute little mini-cakes smelling vaguely of rose. But it wasn’t as scented as the name suggested – I was expecting more floral On brewing, it steeped at a rich carmely brown – a little lighter than I’d expected. And the flavor was very smooth with a hint of a sweet finish. Not as much of the earthy strong characteristics I’ve come to associate with pu-erhs, but rather a medium-bodied brew. And again, not much floral, either in the scent or the flavor.

This is a rich and soft brew. Don’t come to this tea expecting lots of rose. You won’t find it. But you will find a nice mellow pu-erh. This would be a good springboard pu-erh for those afraid or hesitant to try them.

Ah, I finally get some time with this tea. I wanted to give it a proper treatment and to have time to experience it. I find this tea’s taste to be quite full and complex. It’s floral and it’s sweet, but it’s a little bit earthy and so incredibly fresh and clean tasting in keeping with the name. Very green-tasting. The scent while it was brewing was amazingly floral. Even when I say “floral” to myself, I’m kind of put off but this floral is a beautiful, rich, complex one.

Smooth and tasty, unlike any yellow tea that I’ve tried. Full-bodied, some chocolate, plenty of chrysanthemum. Yum.

When dry, the large leaves not only take up a huge amount of room, but they also smell like they just fell off of a tree in October. It’s interesting, and I’m in the mood for adventure.

165/5.5 minutes… I got caught up making Nutella covered crackers for my children and forgot about my tea steeping on the counter. Turns out to be a good mistake, I think.

I was thinking this would be a very light and delicate cup, but the color is pretty intense for a white. It’s a deep golden color. The scent is slightly vegetal and toasted now. Just a touch of autumn leaf aroma. The taste is slightly spicy with a peppery/cinnamon taste and toasty, but not a hearty toasted flavor. The tea lingers for a bit, changing to an ever so sweet flavor, but not fruity as the website’s description indicates. I’m guessing that’s because I left it steeping for three minutes longer than recommended. I really like this as it’s quite unusual and I love the idea of these teas being dried by moonlight. It adds to the mystique.

I tried this at a recent tea tasting at Chicago Tea Garden. Everyone there seemed to like it, and I was no exception. If you like your oolongs roast-y, with almost a charcoal flavor, this tea is for you. This tea holds up well for several steepings — I’m on my fourth, and it still tastes good. The charcoal flavor dissipates a bit with each steeping, but it still tastes like a roasted green oolong. Not sweet, but doesn’t need sweetener. A little bit grassy and lightly floral, not buttery. Just a great, full-flavored green oolong.

I finally tried a tea from MIDDLE-EARTH thanks to QuiltGuppy! Wow, what a unique product. I also finally got to try out my new (well, old) gaiwan in the process. This yielded four successive steeps of varying degrees of excellence. Only the second steep was unfavorable. My favorite was the last because it took on a grape note like a Bai Mu Dan. Overall, a very nuanced oolong that had shades of vanilla cream, caramel, various fruits, and only a slight graphite finish. I would gladly walk into Mordor for this.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/04/10/review-chicago-tea-garden-zealong-aromatic/

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 tsp
Water: boiling
Tool: Bee House teapot
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vegetal, nutty
Steeped Tea Smell: buttery, sweet
Flavor: vegetal, nutty
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: astringent
Liquor: translucent honey yellow

Re-Steep Information:
Water: boiling
Tool: Bee House teapot
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, roasty, nutty
Flavor: roasty, nutty
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: nutty, astringent
Liquor: translucent honey yellow

Came as a gift with an order from Chicago tea garden.

I could have steeped this more, but after 4 cups of tea it was time for bed.

I really love this oolong, not as much as the new zealand oolong but it’s this nice nutty roasty, but not too dark, tea.

If you enjoy a little roast to your tea I highly recommend you try this!

Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/03/chicago-tea-garden-loose-leaf-oolong.html

Drinking this is a pleasure. Nice spring floral melody with mildly roasty undertones. Just astringent enough to make you want to drink more, but the astringency is tempered by the natural sweetness. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to add sweetener to this — it’s that sweet. The first feature that hits you is the great soft yet bright honeysuckle flavor, followed immediately by the surprising butteriness. Together, this rated a spontaneous ‘wow’ and a smile. Not a bad tea day! Only one caveat: if, like me, you steer away from perfumey teas, even if naturally perfumey, this might be too much for you since it was almost at my limit. It would be great to serve to guests you’re hoping to expose to great teas.