Tealux

Nighty-nite

Still no strawberry from this one. It has the slightest bit of mint. Overall, just another chamomile. However, that’s what I need tonight :)

Chamomile the night before a big exam is a must other wise I keep myself up trying to go through everything I needed to know in my head!

I had to add this one to Steepster. It seems as if I did it correctly. I don’t get a lot of strawberry flavor out of this. At least this cup tastes like most other chamomile teas. Next time I will look when I scoop and aim for the strawberry pieces!

We all know that I don’t normally drink straight green tea. If asked I would say that I like Chinese green better than Japanese green – but that’s more of an impression than actual comparisons. In truth I don’t think I’ve tried enough of either to REALLY know.
TheTeaFairy sent me a sample of this one. She sent me quite a few outside my comfort zone, and as always will at least give it a try.
This is not like any other Japanese green that I’ve tried. This is really neutral – nothing jumping out as offensive or over powering, on the other hand it’s not weak or watery. I have no idea what this is other than a pleasant light cup of tea. I went through 3 three cups pretty much before I knew what had happened. I don’t think I would keep this in my cupboard, but wouldn’t turn down a cup or two of it in the future.
Thanks TheTeaFairy for expanding my experiences, and perhaps chip away at my preconceived notions….

“Don’t let the Ginseng part keep you away from this if you’re not a fan, (coughDexter) this has nothing to do with regular ginseng oolong. If it wasn’t for its name, I wouldn’t even know it’s supposed to be there.”
That’s part of what TheTeaFairy wrote in her note about this tea yesterday. Hmmm I’m not sure we are drinking the same tea. In fairness, I’m not really sure what “ginseng” smells or tastes like – but there is something in here that is just screaming “spicy floral” – I’m assuming that’s the ginseng. I’ve had quite a few aged oolongs now and none of them had ‘that" smell/taste to them.
Sorry TheTeaFairy this just does not work for me. I screwed up my nose when the water first hit the leaves, screwed it up again when I removed the leaves, left it sitting on my desk for about 15 minutes and at that point thought “ok this is getting better as it cools” drank about half the cup and now a few minutes later it’s back with a vengeance. There is a brief moment at some temperature that this mellows but it’s short lived.
As always, thanks for the opportunity….

WOOHOO 1300 Tasting notes! – I feel like you guys should get achievements for still being here after all that rambling… :P

And another sipdown this weekend (232)- I’m definitely slowing down as a lot of my 1-cup samples have already been tasted. There’s 8 days left in the month so if I did 4 sipdowns a day I coudl easily make 200 teas for April, but I won’t. I just won’t. It’d reqcuire a carefully regimented schedule of what to drink and that’ll take all the fun out of everything! But I have ZERO orders incoming, and I even managed to go to DAVIDs today for tea filters without buying any tea.

I know, right? :O

This was a lovely sample sent over from MissB who got it from KittyLovesTea. That’s quite a journey for this sample! Over the Atlantic and back again and now it’s fairly close to where it was originally mailed from. I’m enjoying it, which is surprising, because rose tea makes me think gross perfume… It tastes like a nice sencha, with tart cranberries and a bit of floral rose to mix it up. It makes me think of spring!

Spring!

I might not have gone out of my way to buy this, but I’m happy to have had it. I could see drinking this in the spring when I have the odd craving for it, but I wouldn’t want more than .5 oz!

Another great oolong. Light Buttery with floral notes. I might need to have this a few more times to determine what makes it different from some of the other good oolongs but still a great cup of tea. 2nd infusion was as good as the first.

You know when you place an order, there’s a point when and you realize your cart is really getting full and you need to slow down…but there are so many good ones that you just can’t leave behind, right? Then you think sample size. Yes! Yes! That’s the answer, give yourself the illusion you’ve got your act together, you’re NOT out of control, not at all. You suddenly feel much better about adding 10 more teas, seems like the reasonable thing to do. (Not!!)

That’s how I came to order this tea. I should have been less reasonable and order a larger quantity…That’s the other thing about large orders. Somehow, the full size pouches are the ones I wish I had ordered in sample sizes, and the sample pouches end up being the ones I should have ordered in full sizes. Ugh???

Not a secret, I love pretty much all types of oolong, and the aged ones fascinate me.

Don’t let the Ginseng part keep you away from this if you’re not a fan, (coughDexter) this has nothing to do with regular ginseng oolong. If it wasn’t for its name, I wouldn’t even know it’s supposed to be there.

This is not smoky at all, but roasty and caramel like. If you’d smell the infusion without knowing it’s tea, you would think it’s a dessert, very creme brûlée, custard like. There’s that faint mineral taste in the background I have come to appreciate. The ending has a cooling effect in the mouth, fresh, but not in a minty kind of way, just like when you inhale and it’s cold outside. That might be the ginseng part. But it has non of the eucalyptus notes traditional Ginseng oolongs have.

I had to basket brew cause there wasn’t enough for me to use the gaiwan. It will be interresting to try short infusions when I get more of it.

And yes, I will definitely buy a larger quantity next time.

Sip down on this tea today. It is a sad farewell. I’ve really enjoyed this tea but not looking to restock yet until my tea cabinet gets down a bit. I know it’s always an easy click away to get it from Tealux so I’m not worried.

I ordered this tea from Tealux in February and just getting around to having a cup of it now. In the bag it smelled so sweet. Brewed up it was very light like a white tea on the first few sips. After that it seemed to get more body. It has a light nutty (like chestnuts) buttery taste and a bit of sweetness. Well, I just slurped down the last drop of it. I really enjoyed this one. It was just like spring in a cup.

I think I have too many teas right now. How could I have had this one and not appreciated for what it was? I must have chugged it down tasting the Earl Grey in it and didn’t give it much thought. It’s not an Earl Grey green tea but an Earl Grey Oolong. If you love bergamot and the buttery notes of oolong, you will love this one. I do. I only have a sample size but I’m putting this on my next Tealux order.

This was in the amazing swap box that I received from TheTeaFairy awhile ago. She wrote on the package “My second favorite oolong ever”. It’s no secret that we have different tastes in oolong. She enjoys the lighter more floral ones, I’m into the darker roasted ones.
I’ve been doing better with lighter oolongs lately, so was trying another one and hoping that trend would continue. Ummmm no not really. This one is too floral – the other two I’ve had recently were more green, less floral. I’m sure this is a nice quality green oolong, but it’s just not to my tastes.
Thanks for the sample TheTeaFairy.

Me, who had never ever been a breakfast blend lover, am now finding myself really interested in breakfast and morning teas. Which is a fun development, so many tea varieties to discover. I think the fault is Mariage Freres´s American Breakfast though sadly that is a tea I can not rebuy locally, or not without massive internet charges. American Breakfast, I love you and you became my staple.

Ah, but this tea instead, it was from a swap with Courtney. She was interested in swapping a lot of breakfast type things, a very tempting proposition in my current mood. I had mentioned to her this recent infatuation of mine for breakfast blends and she kindly added plenty of other teas for me to try. Including 2 irish breakfasts, really seasonal as well! Thanks, Courtney.

Now I had this at breakfast and I am not at my best before breakfast, I just did my usual, not even being sure what tea this was. I used lots of leaf, sweetened it a bit and a lot of milk. I taste it and OMG it´s Bailey´s tea. The cream flavouring, particularly when I had sweetened it and added milk made my mind authoritatively categorize it as Bailey´s tea. And that is not a bad thing at all. Though it was a bit surprising as a breakfast tea, I am sure I could get used to it instantly.

Teabase, I can not say much because of the milk, sugar, and also strong flavouring, but it was strong enough to stand up to the rest. In all a lovely tea.

This vanilla-scented, cornflower-decorated Earl Grey from Tealux, Earl Grey Cream “Moonlight”, tastes very good. The black tea base is better than I’ve come to expect from Earl Grey blends, which often attempt to compensate for lower grade tea with a hefty dose of bergamot. I know that the black tea base is better than usual, because the liquor is a dark reddish brown, and most importantly of all: it tastes excellent without any cream!

I imbibed two glasses of this fine Earl Grey this afternoon—why two? Because the first one was so good, that I felt compelled to brew up another! I did end up drinking most of it with light cream, and I noticed that the first batch was a bit better—I had steeped it a couple of minutes longer. Good to know that this tea tastes even better when officially oversteeped!

One of these days I’m going to have to do a steep-off between this delicious blend and my all-time-favorite vanilla-scented Earl Grey, Tazo Earl Grey Blanc. I might wait a while, however, because I already polished of a 2 ounce envelope of the Tazo, and I feel that I should wait before diving into the second one, which is still hermetically sealed. At least I should give some more attention to the other open Earl Greys in my cupboard first!

I do recommend this blend to anyone who likes both Earl Grey and vanilla and is looking for a quality black tea base so that the tea experience is not only about the flavors.

This is an interesting fruit tisane. Called Hawaiian Paradise but doesn’t really taste tropical. No coconut in sight. Most of the Tealux tisanes I’ve tried had a little bit of spice in them, this one didn’t.
This is a nice, tart, fruity blend. I can’t really pick out any of the individual fruits, but it is on the pineapple, mango tropical side of the fruit flavors.
I’ve drank this just as is, I’ve added it to white base, and to green base. It’s nice either way.

“Giddy with joy” might be a slight exaggeration of the effect of Tealux White Nights on me, but I admit that I am pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this highly original blend of white tea, chamomile, rooibos, and peppermint. Who knew? Seriously who dreamt this combination up?

The flavors all seem to come together but at the same time remain distinct, if that makes any sense. I taste the rooibos and the peppermint and the white tea and the chamomile, and they mingle together harmoniously!

The liquor is peachy amber, and the flavor is probably pepperminty enough to warrant a caveat: this blend is suited only for mint lovers!

second infusion: this is much less minty—I gather that peppermint is water soluble?—and the rooibos is less pronounced as well. Now the blend seems more like a gently scented delicate white tea. So glad that I tried another round! The liquor is now more golden than peach. I like how the rooibos does not dominate the composition, as it so often does…

third infusion: now the liquor is more yellow—closer to the color of brewed chamomile than rooibos. Tastes good. This is a blend which really changes a lot as the more volatile elements are removed with each successive infusion. Still good though—just very lightly flavored at this point. Closer to a simple white tea with just a smattering of rooibos.

I’ve had this in my cupboard for awhile and have had lots of cups from it. I even ordered more in February so this is definitely one of my favourite teas. An unusual tea to have this early in the morning but I already got a punch from my genmatcha tea. I love the chestnut flavour mixed with the delicate white. There is Jasmine in this but I don’t taste it. Doesn’t matter. It’s still a great brew.

Another tea in my cupboard I’ve had a few times already but failed to leave a tasting note. This tea is a light green with a light vegetal taste. The apricot is balanced nicely with it and comes through as a strong note. It’s a great tea to have late afternoon or even in the evening because it’s decaf.

Tealux Gyokuro Kokyo is a solid Japanese green, no doubt, but I found it to be a bit flat when compared directly side-by-side with Gyokuro Premier. The dark, roasted-spinach-like dried leaves were very similar in appearance, as was the brewed liquor—both were very pale green with tiny white particles floating about.

The texture of the Gyokuro Kokyu was not as smooth as that of Gyokuro Premier, and I felt that the blend was closer to sencha than to Gyokuro. It is a blend of two teas, basically Gyokoru has been cut with a less-expensive tea to produce a cost-effective Gyokuro. I am not convinced that the savings (only a $2 difference between 1 ounce of pure Gyokuro and 1 ounce of this blend) are worth this change…

Interestingly, I have encountered of late a couple of Gyokuro-esque senchas, so I’ll have to compare this blend side-by-side to see which I prefer!

Another pot of gyokuro following lunch, this one Tealux Gyokuro Premier. This is not exactly a steep-off with the Teavana Gyokuro Imperial, but I am consuming this pot within the hour. Of course, I drank the Teavana on an empty stomach, and now I’ve eaten, so that may be a relevant factor. Is it affecting my evaluation?

The liquor is viridescent and slightly cloudy, and the brew is just a tad astringent. It’s not quite as smooth and buttery as the Teavana, so I stick with my original evaluation a notch or two below Gyokuro Imperial.

This is a good gyokuro, no question there!

second infusion: I tried this round with cooler water (70C) and it was still a tad astringent, but very enjoyable. Astringency is obviously part of this tea’s personality!

In this afternoon’s steep-off chez sherapop, Tealux Gyokuro Premier is going sniff to sniff, sip to sip against Tealux Gyokuro Kokyu. So it looks as though Tealux will win either way!

The first infusion results were not definitive, because I appear to have underleafed both pots, so they were very pale greenish yellow, with a very similar appearance. The Kokyu did seem to be ever-so-slightly more green, which led me to predict that I would like it better.

In reality, I found Gyokuro Premier to be the superior brew. The flavor was slightly salty and the texture silken. I did this test in a state of complete ignorance, having resisted the temptation to read anything about the two teas before imbibing. Naturally, I was relieved to find that the winner of my taste test was the more expensive single-origin Gyokuro (Premier), not the blend!

second infusion: for this round, I used less water to get a better idea of what these teas are really supposed to taste like. I confirmed that Premier is better to my palate. Now I’ll have to compare it side-by-side to Tealux Gyokuro Ureshinocha…