Tealux

From the queue

This is the first Try from the EU TTB, round 2. There are so many things in this box that I need to try, and I’ve still got things from the first round that I haven’t posted about yet. Heck, there are things from the first round I haven’t even tried yet!

But I’ve received the second round today and so it must take priority.

I was dithering about this one, so I thought it would be a good place to start. I don’t know what aronia berries taste like at all, I’m indifferent to mango-flavoured teas and I’m on the fence about rose. So I don’t actually know why I’m even tasting it to begin with. Rose is… well, it’s floral, but it’s not downright unpleasant like jasmine is. I can’t actually work out if I like it or if it’s one of those flowers that are just too… floral. In general I tend to avoid floral things as much as I can. The attraction here is erm… Why am I tasting this at all? peers at cup

I can easily smell the oolong. It’s a dark roasty one, which is the sort of oolong I prefer when I have oolong. Along with that there’s a note that is sort of mango but not mango and floral but not floral all at the same time. Very difficult to define. I don’t know if there is aronia in that one as well, because as mentioned, I don’t know what they’re like (I don’t even know what they look like. Remind me to look it up), but I’m going to pretend that it is the aronia that makes it so difficult to define as either of the other two things. This sounds plausible to me, so let’s play that I’m right.

Moving right along, then. So far the rose hasn’t been off-putting as too floral, but it’s quite forward and perfume-y in the flavour. This where it’s a bit too floral for me, and rose is the first and last thing I taste on the first sip. Actually, it’s pretty much all I can taste on the first sip.

Trying again, I get less floral and much more oolong. Again a fairly roasty tasting oolong with a fair hint of something cocoa-y. I also feel like I’m picking up a smidge of mango.

I’m still stumped on the aronia though. There seems to be a very vague note of tartness on the swallow and in the aftertaste. Is that aronia? Is aronia a tart berry?

I still don’t know what possessed me to try this one in the first place, but it’s a fairly pleasant cup, in spite of all the rose, so I think it must have been instinct that made me do it. I’ll keep it to this one cup, though.

This one I got out of the EU Travelling Teabox (round 1). At first I wasn’t even planning to try it at all, but then two things happened.

1. I found myself rather forced to take some more stuff out, because I couldn’t tetris everything into the box and close the lid.
2. Scheherazade shared a couple of bags of surprisingly pleasant (well, it surprised me) chai with me, so I thought why not?

The more I thought about this one, the more appealing I thought it was. Nuts, you know. :)

I’m trying it tonight while I’m home alone and rather need something warming. I haven’t quite reached the point where I can only stand peppermint herbals yet, but let me put it this way. In the last 48 hours I’ve watched 23 episodes of As Time Goes By. I think that speaks volumes about my current health, really. I’ll be taking season four with me to bed as soon as I’m finished writing this.

I don’t usually like milk in my tea, in fact I tend to generally be of the opinion that milk and/or sweetener is just ruining the cup (especially the sweetener, blech!), but I’ve come to understand that I really do need it there in a chai. Otherwise it seems unfinished, somehow. Even so, I’ve got a few mouthfuls of this in a second cup without milk, so that I can taste it unadulterated.

I’ll start with the non-milk version. As it was the dregs of the pot, it’s gone a bit bitter. It smells very cinnamon-y but it doesn’t have an overwhelming cinnamon taste. Mind you, I can’t taste any nuts either but that might be the dregs-y situation’s fault. If it hadn’t gone so bitter, it does taste like it would be really rather nice.

As for the milked cup, I fulled the mug about a quarter up with milk and nuked it. I am too damn lazy for saucepans when it’s such a relatively small amount of milk we’re talking about. Then I poured the finished tea into that, and this does smell quite nutty. And milky. It only lacks chocolate and it would smell like hot nutella. I can detect the cinnamon as well, but it’s even more discreet here than without the milk.

It’s not at all bitter with the warm milk in. It’s very sweet, actually. Partly I think because of the nuts, and partly because of the milk. (Seriously, next time you have a glass of milk, pay attention to it. It really does have a sweet taste to it) The spices are very low here, as is the base tea, so I pretty much feel like I’m drinking warm nutty milk.

Which, actually, is really rather nice. For all the lack of base tea and spices, I strongly suspect that I would notice them NOT being there, so I don’t think they’re completely invisible. They’re just… background noise. Rounding everything out. As the cup cools the spices come in to play more, but still mainly as an aftertaste.

I’m glad my tetris-inabilities forced me to pilfer this one. It’s really very pleasant. Perhaps I can learn to enjoy chai. It’s just a question of finding the correct chai.

Great Canadian TTB

Thank you Jeweled Thumb for yet another tasty tea to try. This one has an amazingly subtle green base. I am getting no grassiness or vegetal flavor, just a slight hint of strawberry. This is one I would consider buying so I am glad I got to try it.

While examining the Japanese Spirit dried tea, I noticed that the chamomile buds were few and far between. I decided to rectify that deficiency in this pot by throwing in some of my loose chamomile from Harney & Sons, which I have in enormous supply and so am able to toss about like so much yellow confetti.

Extra chamomile definitely increased the quality of the resultant brew. The flavor was less gingko-dominant. Of course adding more chamomile did not address the other issue with this tea: that the kukicha is very difficult to discern. Well, that’s okay since I’m drinking this as a therapeutic beverage. Here’s the latest in my ongoing and nightmarish moving story:

My new landlady just called me and withdrew her offer of an extra closet and two trunks of space—which I had already filled with clothes! What’s worse, I accepted the lease only because she offered the extra storage space! When I told her that, she replied, “My lease has no provision for tenant storage.” Oh my God. So much for a long-term living arrangement. Looks as though I’ll be moving again next spring.

Why? Why? Why would someone do such a thing?

End of rant.

Moving stress is setting in, so I decided to break into my envelope of Tealux Japanese Spirit, which boasts St. John’s Wort, gingko, and chamomile in a kukicha base. This blend is supposed to calm frazzled nerves, so let’s hope that it does. What about the scent and the taste?

The dried tea smells very sweet and strongly redolent of substances other than kukicha—I presume the St. John’s Wort and gingko. It does not really smell like chamomile, despite the presence of some full buds. I believe that the sweetness is primarily from the gingko, but I’m not sure what St. John’s Wort smells like. I have had gingko-laced tea before, so that does smell familiar. The scent of kukicha (which I love) is completely shrouded by the additives.

I am ambivalent about adulterated Japanese green teas, since I tend to agree with the Japanese that they should generally be imbibed au naturel. In this case, the blend is clearly intended to be a functional tea, so I suppose that the only remaining question is why to use kukicha as the base rather than something else. Perhaps this was chosen because of the low-caffeine content.

The flavor of the tea base, like the scent, is somewhat drowned out. Hopefully the gingko and St. John’s wort will “help to relieve the stress and tension of daily life,” as promised on the package!

second infusion: this round was better than the first. It tasted more like tea and less like medicine.

For me this is more rooibos than blueberry. I didn’t get any tart hibiscus at all, just vague blueberry and rooibos.
So for the second cup, I did what I do – rummaged through my cupboard, found some blueberry tisane, tossed a little of that in, and all was right in my world.
I’ve decided that I really prefer desserty rooibos more than fruity rooibos.
This was pretty much a miss for me.

Incredible but I am the very first to review this tea. It is again a sample I picked out the huge swap box the kind Dexter3657 sent me.

The box is so huge I generally do a blind pick out…ramdom pick out…until a certain point ! I picked out first an assam this morning and I was like awwww no, not an assam this morning ! My second try was this Jin Xuan black and I am very pleased it was this one.

First I loved the leaves : long, rolled up, very dark. I tend to prefer plain teas with full leaves instead of cut ones.

The scent was not very expressive, almost absent.

Le liquor was amber, not so dark and its smell was typically Taiwanese, yes it was smelling exactly like a lot of Taiwanese teas. ohohohohoho I was quite interesting because I espacially appreciate when a taiwanese tea liquor smells so good.

Drinking it it was clearly a nice Taiwanese tea with dominant notes of honey and mature fruits. I liked the roastiness as well.

While cooling the notes were growing and becoming even extrovert.
Butiki’s TWMB and this one are kind of cousin teas.
My preference remains to Butiki Teas but it is really nice to have met this one as well.

Knowing that this was a sip-down, I was very careful in my preparation of the final small pot of Tealux Gyokuro Ureshinocha. Cooler water, short steep. It’s perfect: smooth and satisfying with no bitterness whatsoever!

Now out of my cupboard but on my wishlist.

I overleafed and oversteeped today’s pot of Tealux Gyokuro Ureshinocha. It’s still good, but not as exquisite as last time. Too many distractions today!

I’ll be sure to get this right for the sipdown, coming soon post-move…

second infusion: I am drinking this at about 1am, so I do hope the caffeine is mostly gone. Then again, 7am is just around the corner, so maybe I should just brew up a fresh pot! The liquor of this round was beautiful viridescent and the flavor was smooth. I used 73C water this time.

I usually append my second infusion observations at the bottom of the first infusion tasting note, but I feel compelled in this case to honor Tealux Gyokuro Ureshinocha with a separate second infusion tasting note. Why? Because it is totally delicious and better than most first infusions!

I got the brew right this time: short steep using 73C water. The resultant liquor is an exquisite green—the greener the better, in my view—with a bit of the hazy iridescence characteristic of excellent steamed Japanese teas. The taste is superb: smooth and slightly sweet but also steamed green vegetable. Not a trace of bitterness (as I encountered when I oversteeped the first infusion earlier today). Yum.

With a second infusion this excellent, I’ll have to try a third!

I have been looking forward to trying this tea, as it is produced in Kyushu, where I spent some time during my trip to Japan.

Another promising gyokuro from Tealux, Ureshinochea or “tea of joy” is more broken up than some varieties, so I reached for my smallest gauge sieve when it came time to strain. Unfortunately, I oversteeped. Yesterday’s pots were short one or two minutes steeps. Today I set the timer for two minutes but then ran downstairs. The first cup from the pot probably steeped for three minutes, but the second was difficult to strain, so it may have steeped up to four minutes. The result was a bit bitter.

Lessons learned:
1. make gyokuro only one cup at a time
2. steep for only one minute
3. use the metal coffee cone sieve, which captures more of the smaller particles.

There was quite a bit of dark powder in the bottom of the second cup, which probably also contributed to the bitterness. The dried leaves smell more like cut grass than spinach, so I’m looking forward to trying this tea again. No rating yet. Certainly these cups were potable, but I made too many mistakes to be able to make a fair judgment based on this brew.

I am glad I got this tea from Tealux. Having my tea, I checked out other reviews and was surprised it didn’t get a higher rating. I guess it really depends on what we like. Since greens , whites, and oolongs are my favs then it makes sense I would love this tea. I do have to agree there’s nothing so far that makes this stand out from other high quality green teas but it is still a great green tea and one I would restock! I didn’t pick up any bitter taste. It seemed to have a faint buttery flavour with the vegetal. Perhaps my taste buds are not quite as refined as some of the others here since I sometimes have trouble discerning very faint flavours and scents. However, I do know I like this tea and could sip it all morning.

GCTTB
Another green from the box. I figure since i don’t typically buy greens, travelling boxes are a good way to try more! This one is quite tasty, which is a nice surprise since i’ve found that i much prefer tealux’s straight teas to their flavoured teas. just enough strawberry to make this one a positive experience for me, without the green taking over and making it grassy. Also, not sour, which makes me happy.

I ordered two samples with my Tealux order, this being one. This one is pretty similar to any other white coconut tea. I’m not sure if the creaminess is added, or just an effect of the coconut. I’ll have no problem finishing my sample, but I don’t think I need to reorder.

This tea must be about a year old in my cupboard. I’ve moved away from so many flavoured teas but I do have a few exceptions. This tea is still good. Earl grey flavouring is light with a hint of cream allowing the white tea to come through. Although I’m enjoying it , I wouldn’t give this a 95 like I did a long time ago! An 80 is good.

Another tea which had no tasting note from me yet I’ve purchased MORE from Tealux. I’m having a cup this morning. Earl Grey to me is like a comfortable old robe. This tea is a nice white (not too mild) with a balanced Earl Grey cream flavour. One of my old favourites.

a farewell to tea
once a stranger now a friend
please come by again

Lu Shan Yun Wu is another China green tea which I would be hard pressed to identify in a blind line-up. I have a couple more servings in this 1 ounce envelope from Tealux, so I decide to brew up a two-glass tetsubin as my mid-day green.

The liquor is very pale greenish gold veering peach with tiny white filaments floating about in an almost plankton-like fashion. Not that this tastes like fish—no, not at all! The flavor is very subtle. Slightly sweet, but not exactly fruity and also not really sugary. Let’s just say that it’s not vegetal in the least.

I imagine that this is considered an imperial tea because of its extreme subtlety, along the lines of Silver Needle. In fact, this is probably the green tea for people who don’t really like green tea!

I brewed up a big pot of Tealux Lu Shan Yun Wu today and drank a glass right after eating soft-boiled eggs, and then again after a bowl of warm green lentils seasoned with sea salt, pepper, herbs and olive oil. Basically I find once again that this is a great meal-ready tea. Very subtle, smooth and thirst quenching. It would go well with sweets, too since there is no real vegetal taste whatsoever.

The liquor is pale yellow veering green, but a bit darker than last time because I used more leaves.

I like it, I do!

For today’s pot of Tealux Lu Shan Yun Wu, I increased the leafage as I felt that last time the flavor was quite faint.

The liquor is still pale yellow, but a bit darker, and the flavor is smooth and ever-so-slightly sweet. This is a fairly neutral-tasting green tea, which might appeal to people who don’t like the more vegetal greens. A good mealtime choice.

second infusion: the liquor this time is bright yellow! As in: do you take a vitamin B complex? That kind of hue. The flavor is good, too.

Another tea from Tealux, this Lu Shan Yun Wu brews up pale yellow and tastes smooth and ever-so-slightly sweet. This green tea seems closer to Long Jing than to Mao Feng or the one I just tried (Cloud’s Green). I like this variety, although I cannot claim to have much authority about this particular tea. Apparently Lu Shan Yun Wu is famous among Chinese tea aficionados, and based on this pot, I understand why!

second infusion: same pale yellow color; same silken texture and slightly sweet taste.

I polished off my 25 gram envelope of Tealux Cloud’s Green today, which turned out to be a perfect post-lunch brew to follow a frittata of baby kale, swiss chard, and spinach made with parmesan and romano, some sautéed red onion and mushrooms, and served with the final hunk of a loaf of rye-whole wheat white bread slathered with butter. Yeah, that’s right: slathered.

I wanted a more robust tea, given the dark vegetables in the egg dish, and this was entirely compatible! The dried leaves look a lot like the Mao Jian from Nourishtea: wiry and crisp. I wonder whether these teas are related? Well, I’ll probably be restocking, so I should be able to do a steep off at some point in the future…

I brewed up a large tetsubin of Cloud’s Green today, using a liberal amount of dried leaves, as a result of which I now have a much clearer concept of this tea than I had the last time I tried. It’s really very good, with a completely distinct personality from other greens, whether Chinese or otherwise. I find the strong vegetable quality very appealing, and I can certainly see reaching for this particular tea to imbibe alongside savory lunch fare. The flavor is not at all like roasted spinach or green beans. This seems more like artichokes to me. Yum!