The Tao of Tea

Thanks Liberteas!

This sort of smells like pasta noodles that are boiling with a hint of caramel.

The taste is extremely yummy! Rich with sweeter cocoa powdery type taste! I’m also picking up some dried apricots hints, too…which I LOVE…When I was a toddler – dried apricots was one of my favorite foods! I know…I was a strange kid! LOL

Regardless – I’m LOVING this tea. Wish I had a whole bag of it!

Another wonderful sample from Rachel from iHeartTeas !! Thank you so much! :) This one was a delightful treat. When it is dry, there is a faint floral scent to it. Once brewed, it was a nice, dark brown color. The scent was faint, but the taste was wonderful. I love rose petals, and this one was a well blended tea. The keemum’s smokiness balanced the rose petals. The end result is a very floral, perfume-y, slightly roasty and warm blend. There is very slight astringency and it wasn’t bitter. There is a nice sweet taste lingering in the background as well. Good tea!

Earl Grey? Love it. Lapsang souchong? First time trying it. Smoked? Not my cup’a tea.

Can’t say I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This tea is… “special”. If you want campfire in your mouth, this is the tea for you.

Gentle roasted character. Some bitterness. Soft lingering dryness on the finish.

This is really nice. I love the way the slightly peppery, slightly minty tones of the tulsi marry with the lemony notes of the lemon myrtle. And I don’t usually notice much flavor from marigold petals but, I can taste a slight floral tone here. It is herbaceous without tasting too medicinal (maybe a tad medicinal, but not in an off-putting way) Everything is very pleasant and gentle. It’s very soothing. The more I sip it, the more I like it.

Backlog: This afternoon, my daughter and I went to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens in Portland. They have a Tao of Tea teahouse there, and we of course had to stop for a tea and some snacks. My daughter had the peppermint tisane while I had the Dragonwell. Quite nice – and a lovely way to spend the afternoon. The food was yummy too!

Backlog:

A fine Dragonwell, possessing the qualities I’d expect from a Dragonwell: sweet, vegetal and nutty. Pleasant to sip, makes a nice afternoon tea.

LOVE!

This is so good. So rich and flavorful. Rich with chocolate-y tones, caramel-y notes, a tone of earthiness that melds deliciously with the chocolate notes to create a very rich, inviting cup of tea.

So very good.

This is a good herbal tea, but it’s not my favorite. The tartness is there from the cranberry and (sigh) hibiscus. The orange is not as pronounced as I wish it were, and it is more of a flowery orange than the citrus note I was looking for. Still, it wasn’t bad. It steeps into a beautiful pink liquid, and I think it would be fairly tasty iced with a few orange slices thrown in for good measure.

I was feeling a little offish the other day and decided that a new tea would be just the thing to lighten my mood. There is only one shop nearby that sells loose tea and the choices were limited, so while I generally avoid fruit flavored teas I decided to give this one a shot.

The tea in the can is quite pretty. The calendula petals are a striking contrast to the dark tea and its a real shame that the tea does not retain the same appearance once steeped. But flavor is the game isnt it?

The aroma of the tea was a little off putting at first. The mango scent is quite heavy and overpowers any tea fragrance but it was not an artificially fruity scent so I took that as a good sign.

I brewed per package instructions with about two teaspoons for my cup and the water slightly less than boiling. The package says to steep for 4 minutes. I think my first cup was more like 5 minutes.

The tea had a very fruity aroma brewing and I was afraid that the flavor would be too fruity. But I was pleasantly surprised by the lightly malty tea peaking out from the very natural flavor of ripe mango. The mango flavor was fresh and sweet and not at all cloying or overwhelming.

The big surprise for,me though was the body of the tea. The tea had a slight viscosity that was fun to roll on my tongue without being thick or heavy.

As I said, im not,much of a fruit tea fan, and maybe it was my mood, but i really liked this tea. I only did 2 infusions which was almost too many as the second cup lost much of the tea backdrop, but the remaining fruit flavor became more developed,and took on a slightly spicy quality that reminded me of persimmons and a hint of cinnamon.

overall the tea was lightly sweet and really did not require any sweetener at all. I prefer hot tea but this seems like a good choice for iced tea too. There is no astringency at all and should keep,quite well.

I highly recommend the 180 185 temp. I made a another cup with boiling water and the tea turned bitter…still drinkable but not as enjoyable.

The tea gives off a roasted aroma both in the canister and while it steeps. The recommended steeping time was longer than what I’d normally give a green(ish) oolong on the first round and it produced a fairly dark-coloured cup of tea. Despite the dark colour though the first steep was light-tasting to the point of being bland.

The second steeping @ 6 min was a bit better, and I could taste some lightly sweet flowery notes at the beginning of each sip, but even so it lacks the vivid flavours I’d expect from a Tie Guan Yin oolong. Perhaps I’m just spoiled by better teas. ;)

Very tasty. Could drink this nonstop.

This is a tea I recenly purchased because of all the teas I do have, I didn’t have a Ceylon, and this one looked nice and delicious! Plus, my first experience with the Tao of Tea was a memorable one indeed.

You can definitely see the silver (white), tippy leaves in the tin, but the leaves are much smaller than in the picture, and a pretty tea regardless of the fact. I couldn’t detect much aroma from the leaves.

Upon steeping my first cup, the cup color was a deep brown, and at times it looked to have a dark red hue to it. The sweet aroma is one of dark brown sugar. Then I read the description, which states aromas of molasses, and black cherry. It has been quite a while since I’ve had molasses, but the aroma really may be more like molasses. Come to think of it, the darkly hued cup is akin to molasses. As far as the black cherry aroma, I wasn’t getting that at all, but there are woody and somewhat fruity aromas in the cup.

This really is a full flavored cup, but not stout. A definite woody flavor coats my tongue-oak comes to mind. The fruity aspects are secondary. I can’t really describe them except to say they are dark, like the brew itself. I detect no black cherry per se, but upon swallowing, there is a definite tang on my palate. There is also a light, unoffensive astringency as part of the flavor profile.

I had another cup on St. Pat’s Day, with much the same result. I was questioning myself as to this black cherry aspect, as far as aroma and flavor. I decided it wasn’t there (at least for me), with the possible exception of the tang on my palate I mentioned earlier. Also, I had plans to drink only green tea the rest of the day, & peppermint tea later at night, but that didn’t happen. ://

As Lotis and I were finishing dinner (he really does eat with me when I eat), he started acting peculiar raising his leg. I thought he was about to have an accident. The Monday before Thanksgiving he got out and chased the neighborhood cats-yes, he does like to chase cats! He ended up tearing his left hind ACL, and it was about 85-90% healed, when he slightly reinjured it about a month ago. Well, he got up from the floor raising his leg, and I got upset, because I knew he had stressed his ACL again! So, long story a little shorter, I sat on the couch by him and fell asleep early Saturday night. No green teas for me on St. Pat’s Day, and no tea for the rest of the night. [SIGH!] Lotis does seem to be doing better, but will have to take it easy-as much as possible anyway.

I had a couple more cups of this Ceylon today. Sweet, dark brown sugar/molasses, somewhat fruity aroma, with woody (oak), tangy flavors, and slight astringency on the palate.

Overall, I found this to be a worthy Ceylon tea to have in my cupboard. It is not my favorite, but it is unique. I’m used to Ceylons that are predominantly oaky (this tea wasn’t), lemony, or even minty. Honestly, I wanted this tea, EXPECTED this tea to have one (or a combination) of these qualities. I’ll say it again-I appreciate this tea for what it is! As a matter of fact, I’m glad it is different. It is a sweet, solid, delicious Ceylon, and a new tea experience! That’s what makes tea drinking so much fun. :))

Cupped: Friday, Saturday, & Monday, March 16, 17, & 19, 2012.

Reviewed: Monday, March 19, 2012.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tisane to try.

The aroma prior to brewing was very light and herbaceous, with hints of mint. After infusion, I noticed a distinct medicinal quality to the aroma as I poured the tisane, in fact, the smell reminds me of vapor rub. Not exactly what I would consider a delicious beverage – vapor rub – but, once I managed to get over the scent of it and actually take a sip, I found myself taking another and another… at first, I think it was mostly curiosity, and then as I continued to sip, I found myself enjoying it.

This isn’t my first Tulsi, but most of the other Tulsi I’ve had have either been a mix of the three types of the Holy Basil, or it has been Rama or Krishna Tulsi, I’ve had very little experience with Vana Tulsi in a pure version of it like this. It has a very powerful aroma, almost off-putting at first, but, now, it is really quite good. Spicy, with notes of of citrus, and lovely hints of mint.

I really like this more than I thought I would when I first smelled the brewed tisane.

I am really glad that I checked the Tao of Tea website before steeping this tea – from the appearance, I would have guessed this to be an Oolong or a black tea (the leaves do not look as green as the photo would suggest), instead, they are rather dark, like a chocolate brown.

The tea brews to a surprisingly pale color (at least, paler than I expected considering the color of the dry leaf).

This tea is amazingly good. One of the best green teas I’ve had, period. The flavor is nutty, sweet, with a deliciously sweet vanilla-y taste. I taste the anise notes as suggested in the tasting notes. It tastes creamy and floral and it is SO good. I think I may have to consider ordering some of this, as I need to send the rest of this sample to my SororiTea Sister.

I figured I’d make a nice black tea to go along with my Spicy Black Bean burger for lunch, and so I picked this one out from the selections that LiberTEAS sent me.

This is very nice! It’s very smooth and kind of light for a black tea. It doesn’t have a lot of astringency but it is there. What’s strange though is that the astringency can be detected while you’re drinking it, rather than after you swallow when it leaves that distinct dryness in your mouth. The one word I think of with the aftertaste is juicy. It’s very wet in your mouth afterwords (if that makes sense) and it leaves kind of a heavy feeling. It has a nice fruit taste, but not a sweet fruit. More like a savory apple, if that makes any sense. It definitely has an essence of sweetness without being like flat out sweet, if that makes sense. Kind of like a really convincing pseudo-sweet.

A very nice cuppa, thank you LiberTEAS for sending this my way!

Review of Ceylon Silver Stripped from The Tao of Tea sampler

I have been enjoying this tea for two days now. I began the morning of last with a brimming cup of this tea.

I placed two teaspoon of this tea in a cup and poured boiling water into the cup and placing lid on the cup let steep for 5 minutes. One teaspoon per 8 oz cup and steep for 4-5 minutes for one infusion is recommended.

While the tea steeps, I could not help notice the difference in the leaves in the disk like tin container. The leaves are very fine and curled; I don’t see silver in coloring but a rich darkish green in color.

Anyhow, in sipping this tea once, I could not help but take in the malt and robust of the flavor. On second sip I could sense chalkiness in my palette, not bad mind you, since the chalk makes me want to wet the taste buds more and so that is how I drank this tea through out the day. I drank this one sip at a time, while trying to quench the chalk in taste.

The color is dark reddish brown. The container of the leaves smells slightly vegetal but when brewed it is a robust, full body tea, well balanced in that it is not too astringent, nor too sweet. I can see where adding honey (Rock honey) would play nicely with this tea. And yes brown sugar would play nicely with this as well, it does enrich and enliven the cup.

This is a nice cup of tea, full in body and robust in flavor. I continue drinking it at dinner and this did not disturb nor curb my appetite. It is full in body but not filling; so that even after dinner it can still be enjoyed well into the early afternoon.

Thank you, Lelias Teaware for sending me these samples. I am enjoying them all so far.

For a non-chai drinker, this tea was purchased largely for my steeping mug when I wanted to carry tea to a meeting without a teapot and the associated mess. It serves that purposes especially well as you can sweeten it to taste and it does not taste foul after steeping for a while. An almost floral smell, it has a bit of bite but pleasant tasting overall.

Sipdown – finally!
I’ve had this for over 2 years, it just needed to go. I ended up mixing it with some chai spices which is kind of a sacrilege, I know… I just can’t seem to get that into white teas although they are healthy, there’s only a few I’ve had that capture my imagination.

Tea of the mid-morning here; already got up and had a green smoothie with matcha and lots of fruit; I guess I’m feeling in need of an antioxidant boost so I brewed some of this up. Haven’t had too many white teas lately. This has a nice delicate flavor, a bit of sweetness and slighty nutty (like me!).

This is a nice tea to experiment with. I thought I would try steeping it along with some dried goji berries to see what would happen. The goji lends a nice tart fruitiness while the silver needle is sweet and slightly vegetal. I finished a painting today and now I am off to do some yoga. :)

I really like tinkering around with my own blends, I think it’s the artist/creative weirdo in me that can’t always leave well enough alone.

I thought I’d try this tea steeped today along with some dried ginger root; I was feeling a bit queasy and thought the ginger would help. The result is delicious, like a sweet ginger candy! A great experiment which I will be repeating again soon. I find ginger root goes well with many teas, I’ve also tried it in green, black and rooibos, but the white tea and ginger might be my favorite yet. Fun and healthy.

I cold brewed this in the refrigerator for about 16 hours, my first time cold brewing a white tea. It’s still very mild but very fresh tasting, slightly buttery and sweet. Perhaps I will make them this way more often in the future since I now have a lot of white tea. :)