The Tea Centre

Very smoky taste. Tastes a little like ham for some strange reason. Very strong, bold taste. Very unique. Probably a little out of my taste bud’s regions.

I’m not a big fan of black teas, but this one is mild enough to suit me. Good flavour without being overpowering and works well with a little honey added. Brewed for four minutes with water just under boiling point (95C).

Teas with this many elements to them can be iffy, but this one turned out to be beautifully balanced. The aroma is sweet, but not overpoweringly so, and the mix of green and white tea with all the other flavours results in a subtle, complex tea. Steeped for about three minutes at 85C.

This is one of my favourite minty teas. The spearmint dominates, but doesn’t overwhelm, and while you can’t really pick out the other ingredients individually you definitely notice their effect in preventing this tea from tasting like just another mint tea.

When I’m in the mood for a mint tea, I just keep coming back to this one. It has a permanent place in my tea cupboard.

A friend of mine had a bad reaction to eating spicy food on an empty stomach when she was visiting me the other day, so we both ended up drinking three or four cups of this. I thought that since the mint dominates the flavour of this it might be gentle to the stomach, and I was right. It’s also just generally a pleasant, easy-drinking sort of tea.

I’m feeling a trifle off-colour tonight and I was craving a minty tea. This is quite a decent mint tea. You can’t really detect much of the floral elements in the flavour, but they do serve to keep the mint from becoming too much. Nice and gentle, so it delivers what I want from it tonight.

Not bad if you’re in the mood for a gentle minty green tea. The spearmint stands out from the other flavours, and it also lingers the most. I steeped this for two minutes at 80C this time, but I’ll think I’ll leave it a fraction longer next time and see if I can draw a little more flavour out of it.

Trying this again, still at 55C but steeping for only one minute this time. Well, that’s got rid of the astringency that started to creep in after the extra half a minute, but it’s also lost a lot of the flavour. It’s produced a cup of tea that’s pale and weak instead of delicate and rich. I’m really disappointed in this tea and won’t be buying it again.

I haven’t had this particular gyokuro before. I used my usual method for brewing gyokuro – two teaspoons of leaves steeped for one and a half minutes in water at 55C – but it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. Quite good, rich and flavoursome as gyokuro should be, but a little more astringent than I like. I left the second steeping for only one minute but it was significantly more astringent than the first. I’ll have another try at getting this one right before deciding to go back to my usual organic gyokuro from teas.com.au.

Sweet and soft but with plenty of jasmine in both scent and taste. I haven’t found a better jasmine tea than this one.

A really good jasmine tea: delicate and smooth and really easy to keep drinking. The jasmine flavour is neither too little nor too much, and the scent is great. One of the best jasmine teas I’ve had.

There are some teas that I enjoy all year round, and then there are others that speak more of a particular season. A cold snap hit today, and put me in the mood for something warm and sweet and comforting – this tea, which I haven’t had since the beginning of summer.

I’d almost forgotten how much I like this tea. “Creamy” isn’t something that I usually want to associate with oolong, but it’s definitely an accurate description of this blend and it works really well here. It’s sweet and warm in a way that puts me in mind of something just out of the oven – maybe an almond croissant? I even like the way the dry leaves look, with their little bits of colour here and there.

I felt like something sweeter after the sharp flavour of the Green Darjeeling, so I had some of this. This tea comes closer to being a guilty pleasure than any other in my cupboard, mainly because its slightly creamy, slightly toffee sweetness goes perfectly with a Tim Tam, so that’s what I usually have with it. And that’s what I’m doing tonight.

Mmm-mm.

I needed something from the sweeter end of the tea spectrum to replace the aftertaste of the awful Sakura Vert I just had, and this was the first tea that came to mind. It’s doing the job excellently, but it’s a lot more than just a mouth wash.

I love the aroma of this tea, sort of creamy toffee. The flavour is less pronounced, but it makes a really effective blend with the oolong. Every time I drink it, it feels like a tiny indulgence, a little like the feeling you get when you indulge in a really rich, sweet dessert. And yeah, it goes really well with those sorts of desserts, too. After drinking this tea, I’m sort of wanting one of those desserts right now, even though it’s the middle of the afternoon. Oops.

Was in the mood for something a bit sweet last night, and this tea was the perfect fit.

Nice aroma, not bad sweet-ish, creamy flavour. Went really well with a Tim Tam, but I don’t think I’ll attempt the Tim Tam Suck with this tea. g

I love this tea, it has a lovely light flavour and is very refreshing.

My current favourite

This is a wonderful delicate white tea. This tea can be steeped many times, I find it improves in flavour after the 2nd or 3rd. This is a perfect tea to leave at the bottom of your cup as it doesn’t turn bitter, just top up as the water begins to run out.

This tea has a strong aroma of cinnamon about it, and the flavour is more cinnamon than citrus as well. I liked the aftertaste a lot. Not really quite what I was expecting, but good.

Not sure how the Chinese laurel pollen is meant to taste, but I’m not detecting it. This oolong reminds me of Ti Kuan Yin in flavour. It’s nice, but there’s nothing terribly distinctive about it.

The liquor is a shade of light yellow typical of China greens, but it’s sweet and delicate like a white tea without any astringent or bitter notes. I really like the flavour of this one.

Not a bad spicy chai-style green tea. I think Feisty Jade from teas.com.au might just have the edge over this one, but it’s certainly a good cup of this sort of tea.

Slightly darker gold in colour and also slightly maltier in flavour than some other Formosa oolongs I’ve had. Very smooth, with a little more astringency in the aftertaste. This tea reminds me quite a lot of the Ten Fu High Mountain Oolong from Ten Ren that I had the other week. Not my absolute favourite oolong, but it’s not too far behind.