J-TEA

this tea comes to me via the BBB Box and specifically from tastybrew. let me tell you, since having this earlier, i’ve been kicking myself for not having it sooner. this tea is a smokey tea for sure. It’s not overly so, but i have been known on occasion to tolerate more smoke than your average person :) What i really like about this one is that there’s also a sweetness here that reminds me of honey, without being exactly like honey. I’m going to enjoy drinking this one while i’ve got it! thanks ladies! always a fun time trying new things :)

I tried this for my first tea of the day and as the name suggests, it’s a good fit for breakfast. It comes to me via Miss B :-). It is a full bodied tea and the first smoky tea I’ve actually liked. The smoke is extremely subtle, so it doesn’t make me feel like I’m drinking a camp fire. I would say more than anything that it just lends a rough, husky quality to the taste, if that makes any sense at all. As the tea cooled, the orange and the sweetness of the tea really came out more. All in all, it was a pleasant cup. Not too complicated and bold enough to wake me up, but it’s not something that I would need to keep around.

This is one of Tasty Brew’s offerings for the Spring round of the BBBB.
It’s certainly an interesting idea, & I approached it with a mixture of fascination & reluctancy, if that makes sense to anybody. For those who know my history (a grand tale of addiction, an intensive wild youth filled with various substances, & although I wouldn’t change it, it definitely included some very low points), I tend to not care for most alcohol-like things, not because I’m afraid that they’ll send me into a relapse after 30 years clean & serene, (there is no actual alcohol in the tea), but really just because I don’t care for the taste. Or the smell.
But I was still fascinated. I mean, this was aged in a Bourbon barrel! It’s got to be interesting, right?
I wasn’t sure how much tea to use, or for how long, so for the first cup I went with:
1.5 tsp + 8oz X 3min/5min
Too weak :p
I should have gone with a full Tb. We live, we learn.
Initial perceptions? meh…I really want to be amazed by this, but I wasn’t.
Call it ‘user error’. I’ve made a note on the package to up the dose next time, & I’ll let you know how it goes. :)

Uh, so… oversteeped, this is still drinkable. (For 20 minutes…) It’ll never be my all-time favorite due to the smoky notes, but it’s a decent pick-me-up and really robust, flavorful, almost coffee-like (zero coffee, I assure you) and thick.

Buh-bye Eugene, it was nice to have you around a wee bit.

Interestingly, this tastes almost ridiculously similar to the Bourbon barrel aged puer I grabbed from these guys in the same order. It’s thick and sweet, almost crunchy sweet if that makes any sense, with a smokey orange in there as well. I can tell this is a really great tea, and will rate it accordingly, however it’s just… something I think others will enjoy more.

I think it’s been about a year since Sil & I first started talking about the BBBB.
We wanted a TTB that was small – 4 people. Each person would add an oz of tea for the other 3 people. It could be one single tea, or half an oz of 2 teas, or whatever. We wanted it to be mostly black tea though, cuz that’s what we love the most. It would give us the freedom to sample teas that normally didn’t come in sample sizes.

The first round started in Oregon, came to St. Louis, went to Toronto & Thunder Bay, Ontario. It moved faster than any TTB I’ve ever been part of, because it was simple. Just take out your bag of teas, add in what you’re sharing, & drop it off at the PO. It was awesome! We were all giddy as school girls when the box came. We still are!

The first couple of rounds moved fast. We had SO MUCH TEA! LOL! We lost one member, but Tasty Brew added a grab-bag, & gradually we calmed down, so that the box is moving a little slower now, which is really good, because we all have plenty of tea to drink anyway, & the slower pace gives each of us more time to find interesting things to share! I never know what I’ll find when the box comes: random tea samples, puer, a card…this is our 7th round, & it always makes me smile.

BBBB sisters, you are awesome!! This has been so much fun. I’ve calculated our 1 year anniversary to be July 27th! Let’s party on!

Regarding this tea, from the BBBB, provided by Tasty Brew in our most recent round, it is delicious! Perhaps not as bold as some, but it’s not boring either. Not every black tea needs to slap me into awareness! A little fruity, & kind of spicy in a sweet way. It has a really nice chocolate layer to it as well, & the flavors build nicely together with each sip.

I picked this one up after reading reviews from TastyBrew and Geoffrey Norman.

While I probably wouldn’t buy any more of this batch, it was very fun to try. I would probably buy a sample of this year’s production (if there is one) just because of the novelty and to see how things develop. This tea smelled and tasted like watery honey and freshly chopped dandelions to me (the latter being not a good thing). Still appreciate that there is someone is growing tea in the US!

Weird, I thought I’d had this already, as the package was open. Yet… this is my first tasting note. Well, enjoy it, whomever I sent some to! :) This is a basic chai, nothing really stands out other than some sweetness from the cardamom. Tasty!

1.5 tsp in 12 oz.

Grabbed a small pouch of this to try, along with some others in J-Tea’s lineup. This tea was the main reason I made an order, and so it made sense it’s also the first I’m trying.

And.. wow. It’s like pu-erh candy. It’s still a pu-erh, however it’s faint and definitely in the background. I get more wine candy, red berry richness, something tannin, woodsy (in a rich, chocolatey way, not a rooibos way). I have some red wine here, and this tea is considerably sweeter and more full bodied, which surprised me. I do get the pu-erh coming through the more it cools, and it adds an earthy, sharp, mineral taste. It’s almost too sweet with added sweetener.

And.. wow. It’s like pu-erh candy. It’s still a pu-erh, however it’s faint and definitely in the background. I get more wine candy, red berry richness, something tannin, woodsy (in a rich, chocolatey way, not a rooibos way). I have some red wine here, and this tea is considerably sweeter and more full bodied, which surprised me. I do get the pu-erh coming through the more it cools, and it adds an earthy, sharp, mineral taste. It’s almost too sweet with added sweetener.1.5 tsp in 12 oz.

This sipdown is courtesy of TastyBrew, who included in the BBBBox.
This really reminds me alot of the Luku Hong Cha Taiwanese Black that I drank a few days ago. Not really something that appeals to me, but it is cool to know that it was grown in the US.
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Thanks to TastyBrew for including this one in the BBBBox!
The leaves aren’t pretty, they are fragile looking & a little clumpy & irregular.
The tea itself is very gentle, it kind of reminds me of a very light Ceylon with that kind of ‘even’ taste, combined with a little of the fruitiness of a Taiwanese black.
It is, of course, neither tea, but it’s own product of the terroire from whence it came. I’ll use more leaf next time, to see if I can get more flavor, as it was a little bland, at least for my palate. Still, nice to sample it! Thanks TB!

I… wow… I really like this.

I haven’t so much been in a tea funk, but a steepster funk. I’ve still been trolling around in the background, but since we got back from vacation, and I got out of the steepster habit, I haven’t been motivated enough to actually write anything.

Until I had this tea. YUM!!! This tastes like a super rich version a TTC black 4 seasons tea, or maybe a cross between the 4 seasons and the golden dragon. Regardless, it’s amazing. Sweet, cinnamony, jammy, delicious. Super stoked by J-Tea. One of these days I’ll have to drive the 1.5 hours down to Eugene and check out his shop. I just joined his tea club too. Very excited!

BBB ladies, I bought enough of this to share with you and I’m pretty sure you’ll love it. It’s not a bold chinese tea, but still….

I’m starting the day off with a sipdown of one of the BBBB teas, compliments of Tasty Brew. A nice smooth cup, rich & mouth filling, with a pleasantly deep sweetness, & a bright fruity finish. So often tea companies have descriptions for their teas that are way over the top, but this company seems pretty down to earth, using words like molasses & mango, & I taste where they are coming from.

This is one of TastyBrew’s offerings for the most recent BBBBox.
It’s a very forgiving tea, as I oversteeped it & it was still very drinkable. It’s a yunnan type, nice & smooth, but there is also a tart quality to it. Nice before & with breakfast!

This was a fun tea to try. It was very sweet, fruity, with some vanilla and oak flavors. The tea was very smooth, and left my mouth with a cool spearmint-like sensation. I wasn’t that fond of this tea at first, but by the second cup, I was really enjoying it. This is the one puerh that I am tempted to add sweetener to.

Another tea from my J-Tea order. Very impressed with his teas. I’m super sick right now, but wanted pu’er and since I have plenty of this, I’m not too worried if I can’t taste it in all it’s glory.

This tea is delicious. That’s all I can say for now. Super glad I added it to my order. This will be the first tea I have when my taste buds are functional again cause if it tastes this good when I can barely taste it, I anticipate some mind blowing when I can actually taste it!

I’ve been looking for something interesting to include in the BBB and landed on J-Tea based in Eugene, OR. The owner, Josh, has an interesting selection of teas and I’m excited to try them all! I ordered 4 for now and this was one of them. As I’m a born and raised oregonian, I had to give this a try! Oh, and I placed the order late wednesday day night and got it first thing this morning. Granted, I’m only 1.5 hours away, but he packed it up right away and the USPS was at it’s finest!

On to the tea…The leaves are not pretty. More like leaves you that you’d sweep up. Some are large, some are small, broken and whole, all different shades. I was intrigued. I brewed up a cup in my test tube steeper so I could see the leaves. They floated. All of them. Right up at the top the whole time. I waited for some to drop and it never happened. When I poured it into a cup all I could smell was honey. Super sweet and fruity honey. Very nice. Not bitter at all and full of flavor. Overall a really nice afternoon cup when you need a sweet treat.

Terri and Sil this is coming your way! And a couple more from J-Tea in the next round.

pretty good…it reminds me of a tung ting hong or a jin xuan hong… those teas always make me think of my moms rhubarb pie…110ml gaiwan 8g tea…

I’ve kinda been living on this all week. But I hadn’t had it prior to a work shift. Luckily, I was up early enough to gongfu the heck out of this as a pre-funk for the work day ahead. I was on a bourbon barrel-aged tea drunk high all morning. Even broke out into song. At least five times.

Don’t judge me.

If you want to know the origin story of this tea, well, I was a witness!: http://steepstories.com/2014/01/07/bourbon-barrel-pu-erh-origin-story/

It’s two days after Christmas, and this arrived with all the fanfare of an opening mailbox door. I noticed the label on the package, and immediately ducked inside. I’d been waiting to try this tea the moment I first heard about it. Heck, I was there during the initial brainstorming session. Over beer!

I’ve notched off a few barrel-scented teas, and this one is the strongest yet. The earthiness of the pu-erh is there, but it’s a runner-up to the rich, strong, smoked fruit notes of the bourbon barrel scenting. Wood, peat, gasoline, earth, and fireball sweetness all took turns pummeling my tongue. And that was just with gongfu-style.

Backlog:

My daughter and I visited Melody Tea House in Portland, and this was the tea that I chose. It was so good that I asked to buy an additional ounce of it so that I could enjoy more at home.

This is one of the best Earl Grey teas that I’ve tasted. I love that the base is an Assam base. It’s a strong, hefty base – robust! – and there are nice malty notes that add a nice dimension to the flavor of the bergamot, which is also good and strong in this tea.

This tea is one of my top five Earl Grey teas. I don’t know what the others are at this moment, though. Ha! This one is excellent though.

Down to my last vestiges of this. I’ve had this tea for almost a year now; I’m surprised I held onto it this long. It was the first aged oolong I ever tried. Can’t say I recognize any remnants of its Oriental Beauty heritage…but it’s still quite fantastic in its own right. The Taiwanese measure tea by the overall sensation, not just taste. And with this one, I can see why.

At first, on initial taste, the aged nature of it is a little oft-putting. But done with short steeps over a period of minutes, it lends something unique and wonderfully medicinal. Oh, and I happen to like the taste of “ancient Buddhist calm”. I can dig it.

I’m at the start of the busiest day at work I’ve had in awhile, and I needed a li’l happy juice calm. Already on my second mug.

Black tea to get me through a Black Friday at work. Fitting. What else could impart some feeling of Zen while corralling Canadian children playing hockey in the hallways. Answer: An aged Taiwanese black tea. This stuff tastes like Buddhist chocolate. Or at least how I imagine chocolate Buddhists would taste.

I’ll stop now…this is getting weird.