Radiance Tea
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I made a date with my three year old and we went to the Radiance tea house. She sipped diluted egyptian chamomile while I slurped away on my White Peony.
Loved it! Am sure the experience added to the flavor. But the tea was fresh with a cucumber sweetness and felt very clean in the mouth.
Went down very smoothly. Will go and try their silver needle next :)
Steep Information: Prepared as part of the Steepster meetup and tea tasting
Tasting Notes:
From China, Guangzhou, Phoenix mountain
Told to expect roasty, passion fruit flavor and sweetness
A fussy tea
Smell: Sweet
Liquor: Golden yellow-brown
Taste: Fruity, citrus
After-taste: astringent, bitter
Second Steep: slightly roasty, sweet
Sorry my notes are so short and cryptic but it was a whirlwind tasting of so much information and flavor!
Rating: I am intentionally not rating these teas as I didn’t really have a chance to sit there and sip on them and think whether I would by them again, like to play with them more, although none were awful (1 leaf) or fabulous (4 leaves)
images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/radiance-tea-house-and-books-loose-leaf_07.html
I’m tempted to go and get a tin of this. This one made me go, hmmm, wow, hmmm lots of flavors.
it was good but for me unidentifiable fruity…too many fruits or ones i haven’t had – do it, get some! I bet you could not only get a ton of steeps per serving but i think they’d all be nice and sweet
Steep Information: Prepared as part of the Steepster meetup and tea tasting
This was a 2009 dragon well tea
The older the dragon well the more yellow the liquor
2010 would appear mostly clear as it would be so fresh and new
The tea appeared cloudy with particulate
It smelled nutty, it has a light body, The flavor was sweet
The tea should always have a bud and one to two leaves
To me the leaves appeared as if rolled into little toothpicks
The steeped leaves should always appear very green
Sorry my notes are so short and cryptic but it was a whirlwind tasting of so much information and flavor!
I am intentionally not rating these teas as I didn’t really have a chance to sit there and sip on them and think whether I would by them again, like to play with them more, although none were awful (1 leaf) or fabulous (4 leaves)
images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/radiance-tea-house-and-books-loose-leaf_05.html
I know you stated reasons why you didn’t rate these teas, but being such a flippin type A person when it comes to my steeping parameters, I’m always interested in the ratings of teas that you didn’t have control over a single parameter.
it was like 2-3 sips of each, and they were all enjoyable, but not OMG WANT – so i’d say between 50 and 75
so in order of like, least to best, lapsang souchong, dragonwell, keemun, sencha, silver needle, apricot rooibos, golden lilly, pheonix
Thanks, I think ratings on these teas are actually more important cuz you have to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into where as if you make it yourself you can always change something.
I would agree if I had been in Radiance getting a full little pot to myself or to share, and I usually do rate those – but multi-tasking (pictures, notes, conversation) with only a few sips leaves me barely remembering the tea before i’m sipping the next one…so it would be unfair to the teas to rely on my memory in that state IMO
Haha true. If I’m going to a place like that I take a small notebook w/ me. That way I can capture 1st impressions.
I haven’t had any green tea in a while and this is surely a strong one to return to. The vegetal nature of it is Intense. Makes me think of the skin of zucchini in it’s strength and bitterness.
As it cools I’m able to get more out of the flavor. It has a sweetness around the back of the tongue and throat.
Very pleasant cup.
Preparation
In my quest to gain some control over my tea stash, I had forgotten that I hadn’t yet tried this tea from my Perfect Pairs box from Steepster Select!
This is a surprising tea. Before even opening the pouch, the name suggests to me a white tea rather than a green. And after opening the pouch, I see beautiful leaves that look like a very high quality Bai Mu Dan, complete with silvery fuzz on the leaves. So, I expected this to be more white tea tasting but it definitely has a green tea quality to it. This is not as delicate as a typical Bai Mu Dan, but it is more delicate than say … a Pi Lo Chun.
It is sweet and has a lovely fruit-like quality to it: peachy tones. Like a Bai Mu Dan, it doesn’t have a strong grassy overtone, but it doesn’t have that hay-like character that I sometimes detect with a Bai Mu Dan.
A LOVELY green tea. Really glad I got to try this one.
Traveling Tea Box Tea!!!
I am feeling a little adventurous today so I thought I would try this one. There are no steeping directions on the package, so I did a little poking around and decided on a low temperature and short-ish steep.
The tea liquor smells exactly like asparagus! It tastes like asparagus too. Hmm. It’s not really doing it for me to tell you the truth. I’m more of a floral/fruit rather than a vegetal kinda gal. Sip sip sip….grimace grimace grimace! OK. I have determined that I think it’s nasty. I am throwing it down the sink!!!!
If anyone reading this loves vegetal greens and would like to take the remaining tea leaves off my hands (almost an ounce) I will be happy to mail it to you. PM me with your address :)
EDIT: I have a taker!!!!! Thank you!
Preparation
Wow… a 75 and a 9… wow…
Must have been an asparagus fan :) It’s a great quality tea, I just didn’t like it.
Wait… did you pick that up from the store? They sell tea there too!??! =]
Ricky – it was in the Traveling Tea Box! I think either Jack or Mike must have put it in. But they sell a million different teas at the tearoom!! They sell teaware too – I know you are looking for some and they have lots of eastern style teaware. I didn’t even think of it til now!
Hmmm! I might have to give it a visit soon, the weather’s been so nice lately.
Steep Information:
Prepared at Radiance Tea House and Books while I had lunch.
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Smell: green tea, earthy, garden
Flavor: green tea, smooth, thick texture
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: vegetal, grassy, sweet
Liquor: dark cloudy opaque emerald green
It was neat to see the froth on it, and to drink from a large bowl instead of a cup. It was a thicker green tea to me, nothing amazing or special. It had no bitterness and was a sweeter green tea drink. Although I enjoy matcha ice cream and other things I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to have matcha tea again.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Resteep: you can’t resteep matcha as it is made from ground leaves.
