The Tao of Tea

Sorry. I’ve been out of (brewed tea) commission for a while since I started a new job in April. I’ve been working long hours at an office where I haven’t time or an apparatus to brew and review new teas.

Enough with the excuses. Here I am, ready to get back into the swing of things by trying out this Nilgiri Blue tea that I picked up in the bargain bin at a local discount store.

When I opened the brown paper bag packaging (which a Teavana store associate once told me is a barbarous mechanism to store tender tea leaves – while she tried to sell me a thin metallic can for $12), a Darjeeling-like aroma wafted upward. I brewed the short mostly black leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees.

The brewed color was a deep reddish amber. The odor was mostly nondescript but slightly sweet.

My first few sips were not very powerful. After 1/3 of my cup was history, I began to discern a less-than-robust tea-like flavor with a faint sweet attribute.

This tea is not bad. It isn’t bitter. I just didn’t find it exciting or compelling (much like this review). The after taste had no astringency. It also was “ho-hum.”

I will drink this tea again but I won’t be brimming with anticipation to fire up the tea maker for it. Oh well. Can I take a nap now?

This is a nice example of Vietnamese green tea. No bitterness, nice and creamy. Overall a really nice tea for me :)

I think either this tea improves with age, or I have improved in my scooping and steeping amounts. It’s sweet and mellow today, yet still flavorful and aromatic. Thoroughly enjoying this cuppa.

I finally steeped this perfectly. It was magic. It has a mushy, thick mouthfeel, reminiscent of the flesh of a mango. The liquor brews a deep brown with green around the edges of the cup.

It’s very fragrant, floral and fruity. You do need to be careful about oversteeping though because the base is finicky, and it’s also tempting to overleaf because the dry leaf is rolled into little pellets. Trust me, a little goes a long way!

I must remember to try this with honey next time.

Making this one at work because I have 8 oz of it and it will never get drunk otherwise.

I recently had a lateral move at work, so I’m in a new location, and of course not even a week into it, I get sick with a nasty cold. I’m in the “recovery” stage now, but I’m still congested and I can’t really taste this as well as I usually can.

I took it black, as usual, and steeped it Western style.

I can still taste the nuttiness of the base tea and the perfume from the calendula, and I can still appreciate the beauty of the CTC leaf pellets opening in the water, though, so that’s something! This is such a lovely blend.

The more I drink this one, the more I love it! I don’t even like mango usually— I like the initial taste of the fruit, but the aftertaste ruins it for me. I think the bitterness of the tea and the flowery calendula petals balance out that tangy, grassy aftertaste that I dislike in mangos, and just leaves the sweet, floral flavor that I DO enjoy. Masterfully made. Will be sad when this is gone, although I’m not remotely worried about that yet because I have an 8 oz bag of it to play with.

I got 8 oz of this for $7! Unbelievable.

It’s so beautiful and delicate. I over-leafed (a chronic problem of mine) but it’s still a gorgeous tea. Mangoes have a natural perfumey quality to them from the start, and it just translates so well into tea! The black tea base is strong and nutty, and yet perfectly balanced with the sweet fragrance of the mango and the floralness of the calendula.

Gorgeous!

Good amount of tea for the price. Tastes like a First Flush should but on the weak side , a pretty standard daily drinker Darjeeling otherwise .

I had no clue what this tea was but it sounded cool so I bought it. When I opened it up I was wondering what in the world I was looking at. This is holy basil tea from India known as a healing plant and is considered sacred to some. The taste of this tea is completely different than anything else so I cannot compare it to anything- however, just imagine what would happen if India chai met yerba mate and blended together… that’s what it would be closest to. Rather strong and out there taste overall. Fun to try if you get the chance to taste a holy basil you should take it to understand the unique taste.

I’ve had so many black/lemon blends over the years that I’ve really enjoyed—unfortunately, this isn’t one of them. I think I was expecting more of a “lemon peel” flavor, and the lemon myrtle isn’t the same. There’s something menthol-like in the flavor that I find distracting or overpowering.

I can drink this if I mix it half and half with a straight black tea, but I won’t reorder it.

The dry flowers have a light fruity aroma. I put them in my 6 oz. glass teapot and gave them a good rinse, then brewed them for 3 min. at 185 degrees. The resulting medium-dark yellow brew was slightly bitter, so I tried a lower temperature the second time.

5-6g of flowers, 6 oz. of 170 degree water for 3 minutes: Now we’re talking! I got a golden yellow brew without much aroma, but fairly smooth with a mineral aftertaste. The surprise came after I let it cool for a bit—it became much sweeter, with a spicy warm flavor very much like cinnamon and fruit. Drinkable apple cobbler :)

Good for 2-3 infusions using this much “leaf” in a small pot.

I found this tea to e a bit dry tasting but overall it was pleasant to drink a large cup of. It’s an economical tea for the price and the tin it comes in has a cover which is nice. Overall the tea is decent though.

Pulled a serving of this out of one of the traveling boxes. I’m wondering if this is the right tea. It is a little smokey and not really EG like. A few sips in and the tea base is what I mostly taste. It’s mellow and smooth, a little bit of dry grass/hay flavor on top of malt. But that isn’t right, is it?! I feel like I need to walk away from the cup for a few minutes and come back later. Nope, still not what I would expect with the name, but also a very enjoyable cup.

Thank you Cookies for an amazing tea!
Heavy notes of pine and ceder , lighter notes of smokiness like a keemun tea and some dry cherry . a definite order for me soon !

This was a perfect treat for me this morning. My stomach is not always reliable these days, with pregnancy food aversions and queasiness coming and going constantly…but I still need my daily cup of tea and this was quite a soothing choice. I’ve been enjoying several ginger teas the last few months, including ginger rooibos and ginger pu-erh, my go-to tummy helpers, but I’m glad to try something new and fruity!

This has all the elements I could ask for right now: nice dark black tea to get me going, combined with a lovely light peach flavor and warm ginger. I like how the ginger isn’t too spicy or strong in this tea. It works really well with the sweet peach. Smooth, soothing, warm, mellow and bright—this is very good! I am glad I have enough to last until my baby is born!

I had this tea this morning. This was a sample from Cameron B.

When I smelled the leaves dry, I thought “uh oh”. It wasn’t a good smell to me. Kind of leathery.

I brewed at 200F for 3 min, 8oz. I can truthfully say I have never had a tea like this one. I wanted something different and I certainly got something different.

This is a very bold robust black tea. It brews up really dark. It was very woody & earthy with notes of leather . I’ve read notes with others saying they got leather notes in other teas. When I would read that, I would cringe. Yuk. Leather. However, it’s not as terrible as it seems. It was actually quite good. It was sweet and smooth and also had fig notes.

Will I be wanting to buy this tea? No , but I’m glad I got the chance to try it!

Good morning, Steepster! My first tea for today came from miss cookies, who has been sweet enough to let me try a bunch of teas from The Tao of Tea, a company that I was curious about. I’m excited for this one, partially because I find the name adorable and partially because I’ve tasted some Ceylons that I really enjoyed lately. This one has teeny thin and dark leaves (no silver stripes, hmm…). I’m getting a strong citrus aroma from the leaves, as well as hay and honey.

The steeped tea smells rich and sweet with a raisin-y aroma. This tea has a rather simple flavor, but still a tasty one! It’s strong on the malt and has an Assam-like intensity that borders on bitterness. However, the molasses and raisin notes really improve this for me, as those are a couple of my favorite flavors to find in black teas. There’s a teeny bit of drying sensation at the end. Pretty tasty!

This sample came from cookies. Another Nilgiri tea to try! The leaves of my sample and much more broken than the picture implies, but they still have that light & feathery Nilgiri look about them. Color is a dark and warm chocolate brown. The leaves smell of dry, sweet hay.

This tea smells and tastes rather generic to me. When I say generic, I mean that it reminds me of unsweetened iced tea that you would get at a restaurant, or Lipton tea bags. It’s not unpleasant to drink, there just isn’t a lot of flavor aside from that plain ol’
“black tea” that I don’t know how to describe. There’s a touch of grassiness perhaps. It’s not bitter at all, and quite smooth, so it has that going for it. Overall, just not enough flavor for me!

I’m so glad I tried this at home last night because it meant I got to share it with my boyfriend and try it both plain and as a latte. One of my coworkers got me the vanilla latte powder from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for Christmas. As it’s one of those things that I really like but can’t justify the cost of, I am using it sparingly. I happened to have some milk on hand (another rare occurrence) and figured that a creamy vanilla rose latte sounded fan-freaking-tastic. And oh boy was it ever! Granted, I went very easy on the milk, adding only maybe a tablespoon to my 12 oz cup, out of concern that it might otherwise overpower the rose too much. It was perfect.

As a plain cup, the base could be tasted but seemed mostly to be keeping the rose from tasting too “grandma’s perfume.” So, that was good :)

I was also able to get two very nice steeps out of the same leaves, which makes me very happy because I could see myself drinking lots of this at work.

This one came from miss cookies. She sent me several Tao of Tea samples, which made me very happy since I was curious about the company. Thanks cookies! This one has somewhat broken leaves, and they’re a dark greyish brown with a few golden tips. Dry scent is mostly dry hay with a lot of sweetness, almost as if there’s honey involved.

The steeped tea smells somewhat smoky, which I was not expecting. Hmm, I think this tea is not for me. It’s not horrible or anything, but it’s definitely quite earthy. There’s also a touch of wood, along with mineral and slightly smoky notes. Not my favorite flavor profile… Maybe there’s a touch of malt? On a positive note, there’s no bitterness or astringency here, which is appreciated. :)

I apologize – I no longer recall who shared this with me. Thanks, if it was you!

The tea is definitely noticeable though I don’t get any specific notes from it, like malt or anything. The cardamom is the strongest note here but strangely, from seeing the number of pods in this blend, the spicing as a whole is not terribly strong. It’s not bad, but there is an odd aftertaste to it that I’m not sure I care for enough to put this on my wishlist.

Made with 4 oz light cream and 4 oz water, 2 teaspoons chai & 1 tablespoon sugar. If I had more of this I’d try it with honey next time.