Tea At Sea

Very smooth, medium-bodied cuppa with straightforward, easy-drinking appeal. Clean tasting though it has a subtle malty fragrance and flavor coupled with a bit of sweetness, not quite raisin.

Summer warmth glowing
Into my center it pours
Cleansing green sencha

The dry leaves are broken and flat with a few stems and variegated colors. There is a strong sweet alfalfa smell. I went for a 3 min steep (as opposed to the 7 max suggested) because I tend to really dislike the bitterness that comes out in greens. The liquor is a bright honey-gold and doesn’t really have a strong scent or flavor attached to it. A bit of warm grassiness, but more of a light palette cleaner. A second steep for 4 minutes yielded similar results, with perhaps a bit more grassiness but no dry astringency or bitterness. As a nice side note, I can feel the warmth of the tea sitting in my stomach and it makes me smile. This tea is summer. The third steep, for 4 minutes, left the liquor ringing with a metallic sweetness and a dry astringency, yet no bitterness. Maybe something closer to 7 minutes wouldn’t have been that bad.

I think this is the tea that I drank today?
It says “Thé Noir/Black Tea” on the package.

Ahh well. I got this from the Marco Polo TTB and it’s pretty good! I love Tea at Sea tons. I’ve had some of their samples before and they seem like a really nice tea company! This was a pretty smooth black. No bitterness whatsoever when I steeped it, even when I accidentally oversteeped it ahahhah

This is both refreshing, with its bright orchid scent and flavor, and creamy. I love orchidy oolongs and this one holds a very pleasant, though single, flavor note with the faintest hint of something more complex and warming, almost but not quite spice. This would be a good tea to have as a standard. Thanks to Tea at Sea for the sample!

Sipdown! And what a fascinating one it is. This one is rolled like an oolong but definitely tastes like a green. Buttery, very lightly vegetal to the point of being almost hay-like, and a soft sweetness at the end of the sip. If a dragonwell, a silver needle white, and a green oolong had a baby, it might just be this tea. Calming and delicious.

This tea makes me happy. Despite a full Western steep of 5 minutes, the tea came out somewhat light-bodied and very fresh tasting with a soft mouth feel and nice malt tones. As it cooled a bit, an almost cocoa thing came to the fore. The second steep was certainly palatable, but fainter all around. A very nice introduction to Tea at Sea.

I kept skeptically thinking this was just a really lightly oxidized oolong. Perhaps it is from an oolong cultivar. The rolling style is very similar to beaded oolong, and indeed the scent gives some really fresh mountain greenery notes that I’m used to in high quality high mountain oolongs. The flavor is really sweet and delightful. It definitely has a plum or cherry taste to it and hints of floral, the type you get from high mountain oolong. It’s light too, the flavor isn’t really all that strong. I might be prone to use more tea leaf if I were to make this again, but I only had one sample. This is a good oolong-lover’s green tea or for someone who doesn’t really like vegetal tasting greens.

I really wish that I could have enjoyed this tea more, but I got super nauseous in the middle of it:( Stupid body..
From what I gathered, it’s pretty malty, but also pretty woody. I didn’t have enough time with it to decide whether or not I would like to try this again :/
But guess now I need to so I can write a better tasting note-haha!

This is a nice, light, smooth green tea. Pleasant enough to drink, but not particularly memorable.

Working my way through the Tea at Sea samples. :)
I steeped this western style because I didn’t want to use up the whole sample in one go! So 2.5g, washed once for about 10 seconds, then steeped in 8oz of just-off-boiling water for 3min. I love the rich red-brown colour of this tea! It smells and tastes earthy, like walking through a shaded forest after a rain.

Finishing off this sample, finally. :) This is a really nice tea. I’ve been drinking a lot of Chinese black teas recently, so it’s interesting to go back to an Indian/Nepalese black and be reminded how different they are. This is quite floral for me today, smooth and medium-bodied, with a bit of grapey fruitiness on the finish. Just a tiny bit of acidity and astringency emerging as I get to the bottom of the mug.

Mmm, this is a very nice end-of-day tea for me (here’s hoping it doesn’t have enough caffeine to keep me awake!). The scent is a little sweet, a little woody, a little floral… I was amused that “hot hay” is an option in the list of flavours/scents, because that’s what I was thinking about – fresh hay that’s been warming in the sun all day. Honey, bread, grassy, floral… smooth and gentle, with bit of astringency at the end of the cup. Nice.

I’m doing a head to head tasting of this with the “Ceylon Pekoe” from the same company. It is also a smooth, woodsy tea but not quite as rich as the Pekoe and there is a really distinctly different flavour that I’m having trouble identifying. It’s kind of floral, and kind of grassy or grainy? Anyway, it’s very nice but again, I don’t think I love it enough to want to buy more of it. Luckily the sample packages have enough that I can give it a couple more tries before making a final decision. :)

I’m doing a head to head tasting with this and the “Ceylon FFEXSP” from the same company. It’s a smooth, enjoyable Pekoe with a woodsy/earthy flavour. Compared to the other, this had a richer aroma while steeping and a bit of a darker flavour. I like it, but probably not enough to buy more of it? I think I’m going to try brewing it darker next time and adding some milk +/- sugar to see what that’s like.

Finishing up this sample. Now I wish I had thought to taste this one alongside the Indonesian oolong so I could taste the difference, because this is a very oolong-y green tea. :) It comes all rolled up like an oolong, and the flavour is light and sweet the way some green oolongs are. Lightly vegetal, maybe slightly floral, like a breeze across a meadow. :) There’s a little bit of astringency as it cools, and it doesn’t have that lingering creaminess that I associate with oolongs, so maybe that’s what makes this more of a green tea. It’s nice, but I don’t feel particularly compelled to order more. :)

Tried the black, now for the green. I love how this tea comes so tightly clumped up (as others have said, it looks like an oolong!) and then it expands into these lovely large leaves. The scent is mild and green, and the taste is also mild and green with a smooth, slightly buttery mouthfeel. I’m not sure what to say about this tea – it’s completely pleasant to drink, but I’m not getting much from it besides “green tea”. If the black is like being in a forest, the green is like sitting on top of a mountain, breathing the clean air.

Finishing off my sample, finally. :) I actually really like this one, it’s quite aromatic and has a really lovely depth of flavour to it. Today I’m getting notes of malt, floral, cedar, and honey that all linger into the aftertaste. Bumping up my rating a bit.

Man, I need to train my palate if I’m going to start reviewing unflavoured teas. I keep wanting to say things like: “It tastes like tea. Yummy tea!”. So, um. Trying for something a bit better than that. I brewed this with 1.5tsp (actually, started with 1tsp and then went back and added 0.5tsp when I read the brewing instructions on this page) in 8oz, and for 5min (the package actually suggested 5-8min, which seemed long to me). Anyway, it brews up into a lovely reddish-brown colour. I find it to be medium-bodied, very smooth and easy to drink – I have absolutely no desire to add milk or sugar, you know? It reminds me a bit of a Darjeeling I have in my cupboard. Ok, I’ve been sipping this while staring at a tea wheel and here’s what I think I can taste: malt, wood/forest, and maybe a slightly grassy fresh hay note? As I finish the cup I’m starting to get a bit of astringency, but I didn’t really notice it that much earlier. I also feel calm, and a little bit sleepy, so I don’t think I’d drink this as a morning pick-me-up. I like it. Off to re-steep now. :)

Macro Polo TTB

Yours truly is currently sitting in a hotel room in North Carolina, near Lake Norman. Apparently there is an exceptionally large lake nearby, but I cannot see if from my hotel. What I can see is a my travel gaiwan making tea for my mom and myself as we watch TV and relax before finish the road trip to South Carolina. It is pretty exciting to be writing from a hotel, I am not sure why but I feel super fancy with my travel gaiwan far away from home.

Today’s tea brings a bit of closure to a series, quite a while ago I looked at Tea At Sea’s other teas from Indonesia, and today I am reviewing Mountain Organic Indonesian Black. I find it really interesting to experience the green, oolong, and now the black, it was like a journey! The aroma of this tea is sweet and malty, there are notes of berries and raisins with a hint of roasted peanuts at the finish. I shan’t deny it, the dry leaves smell quite yummy, but I do love my sweet black teas.

Brewing the tightly balled leaves brings a malty, rich, aroma from my gaiwan. Investigating the now wet leaves even further with my nose reveals sweet berry notes and a touch of metallic, there is also a tiny note of yam at the finish. The liquid from the first steep is malty and sweet with tasty notes of molasses and yam, with a tiny finish of raisins.

After that especially enjoyable sniffing, it is time for tasting! The first sip is very sweet and quite smooth, it starts out malty and builds to fruity notes of plum and berries. This transitions into a richer, heavier finish of yams and oak wood, the finish is malty and it has a lingering sweetness.

I decided to go for another steep (because it is me, of course I go for another steep) and the aroma has managed to become sweeter, notes of honey and berries with a touch of plum and yam. The second steep is quite similar to the first but brings out more sweetness and berry notes, it is honey sweet with a rich malty finish. This is a great tea for when you are in the mood for a super sweet black tea that is both rich and mellow.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/10/tea-at-sea-mountain-organic-indonesian.html

Marco Polo TTB

I’m soo excited about this box, I can’t even believe it. Like WOW.

I think this might be the tea labeled ‘the vert/green tea’, it’s the closest name for it on Steepster anyhoo.

This is a tightly rolled green tea! Surprising because lately I’ve seen alot of the flash fried, flat varieties. This is a refreshing change.

I put the water in and took the trash out. I came back and realized that I had forgotten to time it. Ooops. But it’s a recommended 5 min steep, so it certainly wasn’t oversteeped for the first infusion. Probably understeeped. Regardless- the taste is of a fresh spring green. Buttery and mellow and absolutely no astringency or drying. Usually for me water is a type of refreshing, and tea is a completely different type. This wanders into ‘ice cold water’ refreshing, even though it’s warm. I suppose more of a hydrating taste/feel that I get out of this.

Let’s talk about the leaves. I mentioned the dry leaf is rolled. Rolled/twisted and dark stripy green is how it starts. Then in the water it blooms. It slowly unfurls and it’s soo big! It’s like stewed greens in my Ingenuitea pot. Soo awesome. Tea for some reason seems better to be when it’s accompanied by a show. =)

Backlog from Christmas Day.

When I made my BF orders last month, I ordered a few varieties of tea in 100g bags, rather than 50g bags. What I ended up doing was splitting those bags in half and saving one half for my aunt’s Christmas present.

She has no idea what a privilege this is – I willingly gave her 50g of Teavivre’s Bi Luo Chun, fer Chrissakes!

Anyways, during Christmas dinner, she and my uncle wanted some tea, so I poured this out for them, under the assumption that:

1. This is a tea I want to get rid of, so making an extra big pot of it for guests would be a smart idea, and
2. They’ll probably like it anyway, even if I don’t.

Long story short, they only had 1 small mug a piece. I had at least 1L of this left that no one wanted to touch. Got poured down the sink. Ah well.

Backlog from whenever.

I know I’ve had this a few times since my first note about this a few months ago. What I said then still stands – this is an okay green tea, but I recognize that I’m not a huge fan of smoky/yunnan greens. I’ve found that I like black yunnans a lot more.

And yes, the canister is still kind of a bitch to get open – and now there’s the even better news that I have to grasp the canister so tightly when I try to twist the cap off that the whole package gets deformed by my grip. Tea at Sea, please, I’m begging you, change your packaging for the love of god, because it is so fucking hard to open.