Otea

It has such wonderful aroma and taste. It has beautiful deep brown color. The smell is smooth and calming, you can smell the fermentation and woodsiness. The taste is smooth, not bitter, woodsy, musty, rice taste that transforms to sweetness. I do hold the pu-erh compacted more to my preference than loose leafed, but it is still very enjoyable and great to make multiple brews.

A bottom-of-the-barrel find at the Asian grocery store, but not nearly as bad as some of the shou horror stories I’ve heard. It’s actually not a bad pick for the price if one is looking for a cheap loose puerh, but there are probably better out there.

The fermentation flavor is pretty strong, but not in a fishy way. The flavor reminds me more of a tangy, fresh leather combined with musty books. Maybe throw in an old basement.

Comes out nice and black, and lasts for a couple of steeps Western style.

I’m not sure how authoritative my opinion is on judging this tea, as it’s my first pearl type tea, as well as my first jasmine. However, I would say that considering this tea is about half the price of other jasmine pearls I’ve seen in shops, this is a decent Asian market find.

The base starts out nice and light, and it deepens into something toastier on the second steep. It’s a little grassy, a little hay-like. There’s no bitterness until it starts to cool, and even then it’s pretty slight. The jasmine is strong and perfumey, which is not something I am used to. Actually, I’m not sure jasmine green is the flavor for me at all, but I can still cognitively appreciate the flavor of this tea.

Opens up by the third steep quite nicely. The jasmine is a bit more balanced, and the green turns vegetal.

Let me begin by saying that this is NOT a high quality tea. These are leaf chips mixed in with tips. But perhaps it’s my background of drinking Lipton for so many years that allows me to purchase these things now and again and not care.

This tea is black when it’s brewed. It almost looks like the first brew of a cooked puerh. I had a feeling that it would be strong and tend toward bitterness, so I only brewed it for 3:15.

The tea hits the front of the tongue with a quick bite of bitterness before quickly mellowing out to something a little tangy. There’s very little astringency in the back of the palette. Once I swallowed, that rose flavor started floating around the palatal area.

Overall, it’s quite a pleasant experience, as long as you’re a fan of rosy black cheap teas.

So after a really bad race time at a 5k this morning, I decided that I was up for a frivolous pretty tea. These flowering teas were given to my Mom in a gift basket recently and since I’ve been wanting to try aa flowering tea for a while, I decided to use one. I could tell they were not high quality the blossom was already falling apart and just looked old. I don’t have a glass teapot, but I have a large glass mug that I thought would work. I decided to use 150 degree water. The flower did indeed bloom, but it wasn’t very pretty. Lots of the leaves and petals were broken. I was a little disappointed, but seeing as how I got them for free, I can be grateful I got the opportunity to try it.

As for the taste: It kind of tasted like asparagus soup. There was some jasmin in the aftertaste, but it was faint and very bitter. I finished the cup, but I won’t be rushing to try the 9 other beads of this I have in the jar.

Otea is the name of the loose leaf tea brand at the local asian market. I have tried to find more info on the company but to no avail. I have to say though that they just really have some great quality tea and it’s very modestly priced. I needed get some more dynasty peanut satay sauce. It is amazing if you like spice and flavor…which is also what I’m finding with this tea. I have had other ginger peach combinations and they just aren’t up to snuff. They smell great but once brewed don’t equal the pre-steep excitement. The dry leaf smells like candy! It’s purely intoxicating. On personal note I’m not a huge fan of darjeelings. However the mix on this one is just right. Usually the ginger overpowers the other flavors in the tea. I like this one because you can pick up the subtle sweetness of the peach. I gave the hairbrush to the peach…cause he’s got hair(Veggietales anyone). For $2 dollars an ounce this one is definitely going into the permanent collection.