The Tao of Tea

I came across one more tuocha of this puerh while attempting to clean off my desk so I decided to take a puerh break (anything to procrastinate the cleaning!)

I find this time around to be not so different from the first time I tried it. The addition of the rose really gives this a unique flavor, the rose is delicate … and it softens the overall cup, giving it a lighter, crisper, fresher kind of taste as opposed to the typical puerh. The earthy tones that one might expect from a puerh are there, but they are softened as they mingle with the floral notes of the rose.

Very pleasant… and a very nice break from cleaning!

I like this. I like it quite a bit. The flavor of the Pu-erh is rather light, I don’t get a strong earthy flavor (or aroma) from it. The rose is also quite subtle. Sweet and alluring.

Overall, I would say that this is quite an uncommon pu-erh, very light in comparison to others that I’ve tried. Sweet, woodsy, floral and very pleasant.

More infusions to follow!

So I had this tea in the first box of Steepster Select and never really sat down to write a tea note. I am drinking it now while making some ginger mint tea on the stove. Hopefully this will tie me over until it is ready. The dry leaf is spot on with ginger, but I can’t really make out the peach. The wet leaf has undertones of peach but the ginger is in the fore front. I like it but I’m not blow away by it. This is a tea that I think anyone would like to be honest. The occasional tea drinker would pick this up and make it iced probably. Me not being an ice tea person would pass this by. Still nice though, just not something I would buy….

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea!

This is a wonderful black tea. It has a very pleasant sweetness that reminds me of raw sugar cane. This tea needn’t be sweetened – it is so wonderfully sweet just the way it is.

With my first couple of sips, I noticed a similarity to an Oolong with the soft mouthfeel and the smoothness in flavor, as well as a hint of vegetative flavor that hits right before the finish, and I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me because I had recently tasted another Tao of Tea black and found it to be also quite similar to an Oolong in some respects. But then I read AmazonV’s review of this tea and saw that she too had noticed the Oolong similarities, so I guess maybe my mind is not playing tricks after all. The malty tones to this tea play to the soft mouthfeel very well, giving it a pleasant thickness but without the strong, hefty kind of note that you might find in, say, an Assam black.

It is very smooth, but there is a certain rustic edge to it too. There is a moderate amount of astringency, and a hint of savory bitterness (almost like bitter chocolate) toward mid-sip that I think is almost essential given the sweetness of this tea. I taste a note of fruit about mid-sip as well. The information about this tea on the website suggests a cherry flavor, and I kind of get that, but this isn’t one of those syrupy sweet kinds of cherry flavor (this is not cough syrup cherry), but more of a insinuation of cherry that doesn’t quite become fully recognized.

An excellent black tea, even if it isn’t quite as strong as the name might suggest.

Sipdown! I am finally done with this one, have probably had it for 3 years now. This is impossible to mess up, it’s good when you gong fu it and today I steeped it Western style. I don’t think will get bitter no matter what you do. Just a really pleasant, roasted fruity flavor and very earthy. This is not the best DHP I have ever had but it is certainly nice this afternoon.

This is one of those teas I’ve had forever but haven’t been drinking much of, maybe that will change now that winter is upon us. At any rate, I don’t think these roasted oolongs really go “bad” very quickly, I have one that is supposedly good for 15 years.

I didn’t like the first steep so I chucked that one out, 2nd steep has lovely notes of peach and honey with that delicious roasted fruit flavor. Steeped gong fu method in a yixing teapot… it’s good for at least 5 steeps from what I recall.

This is quite a nice Da Hong Pao, especially given the price I paid for it which was only $6 an ounce. Considerably much less than some of the same types of tea I have been sampling from the region… but also not as complex and delicious as some other ones i’ve tried.

Regarding flavor it is mostly sweet and honeylike, exhibits some minerality and lots of stone fruit. Delicate flavor. Very peachy and juicy is how I would describe this one. Steeped at around 180 degrees for 2 minutes. I would recommend this for someone who is new to this style of tea as it is quite mellow and soothing. Beautiful amber color.

I might get some more of this as more of an everyday tea, it is quite a good value.

I’m a little surprised by the couple of tasting notes on this tea. Yes, it is a lighter black tea (certainly not something I’d characterize as a full-flavored black), but it has a very pleasing complexity that I’m really enjoying. I find it to be somewhat like a dark Oolong in not only dry leaf appearance, but also liquor color and texture. Even a little bit in the flavor.

I actually quite like this. It isn’t what I expected from a Nilgiri tea, but, it still is quite enjoyable.

well, this tea is certainly very interesting. It has a very beautiful long and slender leaf shape.

Upon opening it I got a smoky smell like a lapsang souchong which was really surprising!

I stepped this for about 90 seconds in cooler water (not sure of the exact temperature)

To me this tastes of pine, wood and ocean. I’m not sure I love it but it is very intriguing and complex… the website says it carries the taste and smells of the misty northern Fujian countryside where it is grown. I am definitely picking that up here, very cool.

Sipdown! The last of this is gone for now but I will get more eventually. I highly recommend it!

I also steeped this with a cardamom pod this afternoon and it’s good! I really need to stick to flavoring my own tea instead of buying flavored tea. Unfortunately I am almost out of this and my tea budget has been totally blown for the month of Jan. already (I got excited… )

i’m running low on this so already mentally planning my next Tao of Tea order. :)

A true gem I discovered thanks to Steepster. So smooth it’s like drinking hot chocolate. yummm

Bumped up the rating to 100 today… just ‘cause I love it so!! And it’s organic. wheeee.

yeah baby!
Now this is really my kind of black tea… malty, smooth, with hints of caramel and yes, sweet potatoes! Not astringent at all, just heavenly! I brewed up a strong cup of this and am quite a happy camper. Thanks to the Steepsterites who recommended it. You can also add me to the list of devoteas. ;-) If you like assams you should give it a try.

Mmm…japanese tea. So yums. As much as I enjoy Japanese green tea, I have only small sample sizes of them from swaps. I should fix this. :)

As for this tea, it’s slightly oceanic, which I greatly enjoy. It’s green and fresh and toasty. And the liquid is a nice yellowish green. Very enjoyable.

It’s a sip down. Gone but not forgotten, I have appreciated it a lot!

This was only my second straight up nilgiri and I am having a cup of it again this morning. It is fruity, (I am getting plums and berries in this steep) but lacks the tannins/astringency of a darjeeling which makes it nice for me. I upped the rating a bit today.

I upped the rating a bit today, this benefits from a slightly longer steeping time and then it is rich and luscious.

This is a pretty nice Organic Nilgiri, overall I do not like it quite as much as the one I got from the Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchant at the bulk section in my local Whole Foods. It seems a bit more on the astringent-y, darjeeling-ish side so I had to add soy milk to mellow it out a bit. Probably will try steeping it a little less next time. I am enjoying it this morning but probably will not add to the “must have” list.

I am trying to finish this off but today I noticed the water coming out of my tea kettle has a greyish/pink off color – I wonder what that means. Perhaps it is time to get a new kettle, the one I have is probably 15 years old.

Attempting to de-cupboard some things; this is another green tea whose subtleness is mostly lost on me. I tried cold brewing it last night and this morning I am getting some interesting cucumber and minty notes. Will probably finish the rest of it off in the cold brewed way. :)

I realized I still had this in my stash recently and since it is a few months since I opened it I wanted to focus on drinking it. It’s a very light green tea, also very mellow, kind of a welcome change from the Lupicia sencha I just had but still not much to write home about. See my previous tasting notes.

I knew this would be a very light green tea from the description on the website. Steeped for 90 seconds at 160 degrees, the flavor was definitely too faint. Second steep was around 3 minutes. Definitely more on the floral than vegetal side, slightly buttery but nothing like a milk oolong for instance. Reminds me a little bit of a white tea. This is a pleasant cup and I will have no problems finishing the bag but I doubt it’s something I will need to purchase more of.