Tao Tea Leaf

This was the other free sample in my Tao Tea Leaf order.
And lemme say…I’m really glad this was JUST a sample. xD
So far every other tea has been good that I tried. Just not this one.
Haha
There the woodiness is! XD
Yeah no…Not a fan. Thank God this was a sample haha!

Another one from my Tao Tea Leaf order! ^^
Didn’t have this one before but since it got such good reviews everywhere I decided to add it to my order.
The dry leaf smelled pretty roasty and nutty, which always seems to remind me of shelled peanuts. Seems kinda odd, but that’s where my mind always goes to xD
The actual taste was pretty chocolate-y. Lots of cocoa notes.
Was pretty roasty though, with an tiny hint of nuttiness that I got in the dry leaf aroma.
This tea reminded me of Verdant’s Laoshan Black, but with more chocolate and cocoa notes. I like this one a lot more than the LB, but it’s still not my absolute favorite. xD Nothing to write home about in my book.
But it’s still good. Nice to have a choclatey tea in my collection for now. (:

Backlog

Had this one yesterday… Decided to treat myself to some amazing tea, on a miserable day. I am supposed to save it only for special occasions, but…I mean, I figured I’ve had to deal with an insane amount of pain all day long, with only like 40% relief from pain killers, right? That deserves an award, right?
Well…whether I’m right or not, I drank it. And it was delicious, and incredible. Even on the miserable day which was yesterday.

Backlog:

Soo this was actually the first tea I tried from my Tao Tea Leaf order. It was also one of the free samples that they gave me. They gave me a 50g sample of this one-was not expecting this at all! This free sample alone made all the frustration and disappointment that I dealt with for a month worth it! Not that I want my order to get lost ever again so I can get free tea, but it made me at least feel better about ordering again!
Anywho.
This tea is gorgeous. It’s those emerald green oolong leaves that are absolutely stunning! Reminds me of WP’s Autumn Jade Oolong.
The flavor is even better!
It has such intense floral notes. Probably the most floral tea I’ve ever tried!
It re-steeps well too! Have had it on two different days since I got my order a few days ago and every time it just rocks my world.
It’s just that good. Ugh I love it.
Definitely going to get this one next time I order!
Such a beautiful tea on every level!

FINALLY got my Tao Tea order yesterday. After over a month of complications that is.
But they let me pick out a couple free samples…and not only that but the samples were HUGE.
They gave me an oolong sample that was 52g and a black tea sample that was 26g. Crazy big.
Might have actually been worth all the disappointment and stress this order caused me over the last month and a bit. xD
This was not a free sample, but a tea I had wanted to try from them for a while. This was the second tea i tried in my order.
Steeped it for about three minutes. A little bit too bold, but it was still good. Very malty. Not too much sweetness, mainly just malt.
Next time I am going to steep it for like two minutes and maybe it will be less in-your-face. XD But i still really liked it! I do love a malty tea! ^^

Incredibly sweet, with very light vegetal notes. Easy to drink, refreshing type of tea.

Purchased a small sample of this at the Toronto Tea Festival but could not resist sampling at the booth itself multiple times…:D

Very roasty and toasty. I read in the description on the package that this tea is synonymous for ‘cinnamon oolong.’ Thinking back to my favorite Asian Beauty from Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co, which tasted so much like cinnamon toast crunch, I was instantly sold.

Perhaps my hopes were too high, maybe I chose the wrong vessel to brew it in, maybe I oversteeped it, or the water temp was too high. I so wanted to love this tea, but I can’t. I get scorched rice, burnt popcorn and sour plums. It was pretty astringent and a I have been slowly warming up to roasted oolong, seeing as they are one of my least favorites. This tea all but dashed my hopes of liking a roasted oolong in a hot minute. Le sigh. I want to try it again with shorter steeps and a cooler water temp. I am not about super finicky teas, but I have a good 25g still to get through. I will give this another shot, and if it does not work, to someone else it goes!

Another tea from dexter I’m on a mission today to get through at least 10 sipdowns so there will be good times ahead! She sent this one along because it’s one of a small few black teas from tao that i haven’t tried. I figured this would be nice to try shortly after nannuoshan’s similar tea.

Verdict? boooooooring! There is nothing inspiring about this tea or anything that makes me want to order it. It’s just sort of an every day boring black tea. And who has tie for boring!? not me! lol there’s a bit of maltiness to this one, and it IS a smooth tea. it’s just not anything special. I vastly prefer the other teas from tao that i’ve tried.

Once again, I am looking through today’s tasting notes and I see that all my “likes” are gone, though comments I made are still there. Sorry, everyone, I AM reading your notes.

This is a tricksy little shu. Yesterday it was good but a little weak and didn’t last as many steeps as my usual shu do. Today I simply added the Ernest of the sample packet to yesterday’s leaves which I thought were pretty spent, and I thought I had divided the sample pretty well in half.

Today this is a shu that just keeps going. I made three steps before leaving town and told youngest to have all she wanted. There was no bitterness or untoward strength in what I drank this morning, yet youngest said her next two steeps were as dark as coffee, but still tasty. I think she made one more after that and then left the leaves to me. My opinion of this shu has gone up due to its gentle flavor with the oily high note and it ability to resteep.

This is a sample that my daughters picked up for me at the Toronto Tea Festival.

I may have under leafed a little but it was still good. It had that oily shu feel that I like, the one that makes me think of cedar oil or Murphy’s Oil Soap. It was milder than a lot of the puerhs that I drink and did not go for as many steeps. I think with more leaf it might have.

All in all, very good. Not really horsey, not at all fishy, nicely earthy. A nice, non-frightening pu for the beginner, I would think.

Oh lord this tea…. Wuyi rock oolong, you do rock!

Beautiful leaves, they render a warm golden amber brew.

So fragrant!

It tastes like grilled honey peaches and almonds.

So sweet, juicy, nutty and toasty!!

A real treat tonight. I won’t be able to save this for special occasions, no I won’t.

I will have it again tomorrow.

Oolongs are just amazing!!

Pics of tonight’s session:

http://instagram.com/p/yyKWXCQh3m/

http://instagram.com/p/yyL3MyQh5t/

http://instagram.com/p/yyNoNoQh8V/

(Backlog from 2 days ago)

If you are Canadian like me, you know it’s no fun to shop for tea from our dear American neighbors at the moment. Our dollar is sinking and the exchange is terrible.

I have turned to Tao Tea Leaf recently, they are based in Ontario. My love has grown so much for this company. They offer exceptional quality and you can find many different superior oolongs.

This one is no exception. It’s exquisite and sophisticated.

Baozhong is very lightly oxidized. It tastes like a breathe of fresh air.

Very floral, think lilac.

It’s also as buttery and creamy as can be, with a sweet aftertaste.

I could drink this every day that’s how much I like it. And I might just do that :-)

Pics of the session:

http://instagram.com/p/ytFJDKQhzD/

http://instagram.com/p/ytGPmZwh0c/

I can tell my tastebuds are still not back to normal after this recent bout with sinus/bronchitis junk. This one was not as tasty as my previous note indicated. Still really good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m off still. Things are hugely busy these days so I’m not logging many notes as I’m sticking with old favorites that require little concentration.

My goodness, this is good. Sweet, malt, bread, honey… This is one of those teas that leaves what looks like oily film on the cup. I believe those are the oils in the tannins, right? My empty cup is all polka dotty when empty. :)

Man this is good.

Very light peach flavor, deeper peach & apricot scent. The flavor reminds me of peaches that aren’t really ripe. Not fully peach flavored but the idea of peach is there. :)
Overall it’s not a bad cup but nothing I have to keep around after it’s gone. Might try overleafing next time.

This is definitely tasty. Sweet, moderate to strong malt, smooth even after a looooong steep time. No mineral notes showing up at the longer times. I am glad to have gotten in on Marzipan’s group order with Tao. Also glad to find that while I like this one, I don’t have to replace it as I have other GMs I like that don’t involve Canadian shipping. :)

I would best describe this tea as slightly malty, slightly bitter, and slightly sweet. There seems to be no one dominant note to this tea but a nice blend. Bought a sample of this with our group order from last month and am just now getting around to trying it. I think I am glad I don’t have 100g. I don’t like it that much. That being said its not bad, just not my favorite style of tea.

I brewed this one time in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 2 min.

This tea is quite tasty. It has strong notes of lychee. I can also taste the black tea underneath, but it is a secondary flavor to the lychee. I like this tea. This is of course a first impression but I think it is good, better than the other lychee teas I have tried anyway. There is also a very slight sour note. I think I should brew it at 190 degrees next time.

I brewed this one time in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min.

Thank You Boychik for this sample. I surprised my self by a: liking this and b: not adding milk to it. It has a distinct smoked flavor but it is not overpowering. There is a nice, more sweet flavor behind the smoked flavor. It is not strong and I am not sure how to describe it but its there. It is good that I liked this tea because I forgot I had this sample and bought a 25g sample with our joint order to Tao Tea Leaf. Thanks to Marzipan for that joint order. It must have been a huge amount of work. I steeped this tea once this morning at 6 am before work and am drinking it again now. I liked it enough to resteep it.

I brewed this tea twice in an approximately 20oz teapot with 6g leaf and 200 degree water for 2 min and 2 min 45 sec. I won’t give this tea a numerical rating because I have so little to compare it too as this is only the second Lapsong Souchong I have tried.

Second infusion report: The sweetness is definitely more muted, but still no denying that intense maltiness in the flavour. Astringency is more pronounced this round, thats the downside of it. I couldn’t stop smelling the tea and the leaves though…reminds me of malt chocolate drinks like Horlicks.

Had a sample of this tea today. The dry leaf didn’t smell remarkable to me, but once steeped, the leaves smell intensely malty, similar to how a craft brewery smells.
The tea liquid was a heady mix of sweet, malty, almost milky flavour. The fullness of the flavour just hits you in the face like…a cashmere scarf – in a good way, not like the way other hard objects do :P
The only thing I didn’t like about this tea was the finish, it felt somewhat dry and astringent. Still, that didn’t stop me from making 2 infusions.

Right now I am getting a fair amount of raspberry overload. To say that there are strong raspberry notes in this is an understatement. I can’t wait to try this iced in my Lupica Handy Cooler. It is still good though, just too raspberry in flavor. I didn’t think you could have too much raspberry flavor in tea but was wrong.

I brewed this one time in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 175 degree water for 2 min.

This was a sample from last year’s tea festival. I had too much of this for one steep, and too little for two, so I kind of did my own thing here. Thankfully, it seems to have turned out decently.
It has a musty scent and flavour, but not at all in a bad way. There’s an aftertaste that I suppose is a bit like milk, though I’m still not entirely convinced at the naming. Still, it’s a convention, and milk oolong is very much a thing, so I shall not judge outside of my own experiences. (Though at the same time, I will mention that there may be a creaminess to it, though whether that is me thinking about the “milk” connection or not I do not know.)
The second cup, I will note, seems very fragrant. Somewhere between floral and musty again. (And again, not a bad sort of must, it actually goes more with the floral than anything. ah, I need to work on my vocabulary and palate both I fear.)
I think I will be able to get another steep or two out of this still, but we shall see!

Experiment time! I’m home today so i figured it would be the perfect opportunity to compare both of tao’s rice tuo’s side by side.

1st steep – this one remains largely intact versus the sheng…the brew is a light golden liquor and the aroma is slightly rice like and also slightly…sweet? This one tastes like rice at the get go…the brew is a little, almost bitter but not quite, and then mellows almost immediately in my mouth to a smooth brew…