The Tea Emporium

So I splurged and bought me some of this. I have SO many samples, and more on the way… but I’ve been thinking about this one for ages. I couldn’t help myself. I am weak!
This tea however, was not weak at all. It’s pretty much a simple white peony that’s been laced with rose petals. Unfortunately… The floral part is disappointingly mild, but adds a fascinating complexity. Of course, I do enjoy it more than the white peony I currently have in stock, but not the one I had before this current batch (too much roasting I think). I can only imagine how amazing it might be with a fresher leaf! mmmmm
Maybe next time I’ll let it cool more… as that tends to tease out the subtle notes.

Really hit the spot this morning! a little plastic-ish, since it’s getting old already.

So… looks away shamefully
I’ve done something that I never imagined doing, something that six months ago, I would have decried with all of my tea might.
But… well, it’s made me happy, it’s brought me those fleeting sips of heaven that I crave so desperately!!
Yup, I added sugar, and plenty of it, to my oolong. AND milk. Yup, and I stand by it! it’s brought the standard of my tea experiences up to a tolerable level of badness.
It seems to work here because well, since I can’t taste the natural sweetness in teas, adding sugar just brings it back to how it normally tastes, for me anyhow. and the milk, ehhh that was simply an inspired decision. It tastes just like a simple red rose tea this way. Hey, I’ll take what I can get! pretty darn great when compared to nothing at all…
Not so much as the cup cools, it kinda gets gross then… but when hot, holy yummm :)
Anyhow, I hope everyone here is well. Miss you all xx

This seems to be my go to tea lately. Funny, when I found the Rose Congou, I thought it was destined to be my tea “home” but for some reason I always end up reaching for this oolong. Lord knows what would happen if I ever found my elusive roasty toasty heaven in a cup! :P
One day, I WILL make it to 7 steeps, it’s a goal of mine.
Oh, something I really love about this one is that even in the second and third steep, it never loses the sweetness. I think maybe in the third it gets a tad weak, but not if I do short steeps. What does the fourth steep door hide hmm? Ahhh, like I said… one day!
Now, off to watch some more mindless television while I take my mind off this incredibly long and awkward week!

SO. I’ve had this extreme craving for a deep, roasty, mildly nutty OOLONG TEA for weeks!!!
and this was my latest attempt at quelching it. Was I successful? not quite. However I don’t regret this purchase. I needed an oolong for the office anyhow.
The taste is indeed bakey, and fruity just as the description indicates. No sugar required, it’s very sweet all on it’s own, even into the third steep! I wish I’d had time for more :)
I do wish it had more oomph though. It was a little weak on the oolong part and too heavy on the fruit.
The shop didn’t have the “roasty” oolong I waaaaaaant sooooo badly so I had to settle for this, but really it’s not such a bad deal!
They had an oolong/black blend that piqued my interest but I’m wary. That’s a big committment to make! I was 80% sure I would like this one, and if I didn’t well a friend of mine offered to take it off my hands.
Oh, and something else- the leaves had twigs living amongt them! and they were crunchy. Dried out as if they’d been left out of the tin in the sun! Meh. It makes a decent cuppa so it can’t be that badly dried out. (right??)
I think I need to hit up Tea Dynasty. Oi, Zeus help me… please don’t let me buy more tea!
(says the girl who can’t stop thinking about sampling the new David’s tea, or that roasty oolong. or malty assams or… oh dear, I could go on forever)

Thanks to Indigobloom for sending me this! I think I slightly oversteeped it, and there was a hint of bitterness. I added half a teaspoon of sugar into the mix, and bam solution fixed. It’s been awhile since I tried to sweeten any tea at all. The mate looks like it’s just been mixed with orange peels. Smells are that of orange vicks candies and some lemon, and it basically tastes like citrus overall. Some mate undertones but really mostly citrus. I’m glad it doesn’t taste like the funky tangerine flavoring I’ve been experiencing in some teas. Overall its good, not super AMAZING but good. I wouldn’t mind a few more cups of this.

I’m sampling this one thanks to Indigobloom. Thank you! :)

Dry, the tea is unremarkable. I don’t pick up any hints of anything out of the ordinary to remark upon. Instead, I find it calming and it reminds me of smelling the tea my mom would make. 200F(93C)/2 min. Interesting… a darjeeling. It’s not my favorite tea most of the time, but I’ve had a few knock my socks off and I’m hoping this is one of them. Now that it’s steeped, I’m able to pick up a syrup scent. With the first sip, this is confirmed. I can taste a syrup like sweetness, but it’s not overly sweet. The tea is good and solid. It reminds me of tea from my youth. Plain, yet strong and slightly malty. The strength of this tea surprises me as it’s a medium brown color, yet it packs quite a punch in the flavor department. As it cools, it becomes bitter quickly and I find that I’m unable to finish the cup. (Shouldn’t have filled the entire travel mug!) Hot, I really enjoyed it!

Thanks again, Indigobloom! :)

Wow a tea from Kenya! I would have never imagined… thanks Indigobloom! Recently with all my exploits with darjeeling teas I think I have understood this word acronym game. GFBOP stands for Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe. So this is neither a first flush, or a tippy grade tea. Doing some research online, I found out that this tea comes from a high altitude plantation of above 1800m.

Colour is a deep golden brown, very similiar to some darjeelings again. There is no astringency at all with this tea, the malt does come through, but stops short of being caramel. Overall, it is very sweet and very easy to drink. The floral tones only came through from the dry leaves and not so much after the brew. What comes out to the end is that it really lacks the character of darjeelings but as it is grown at similar altitudes, it does taste relatively similar. Though it is not at all a bad tea, there’s not too much that stands out beside coming from Kenya, it would make a fine breakfast tea.

When I took the first sip of this tea, I though, mmm… a refreshing Earl Grey! I drank it, formulating my review around the bergamot flavor, and then went to write my review. But, wait, it’s not an Earl Grey? Cinnamon!? Passion fruit!? Mango!? Really!?

This tea has completely thrown me.

It’s an Earl Grey. Only it’s not.

Dry, the tea looks beautiful. It’s black with long, yellow petals scattered throughout. It smells refreshing and clean, slightly spicy. 200/1.25 min. I went with a light steep. I’m really glad I did as this is one heck of a strong tea. It smells of Earl Grey. It looks like Earl Grey. It tastes like Earl Grey. It’s bitter like Earl Grey. Hm. It’s not Earl Grey?

Oh well, it’s still good.

Thank you, Indigobloom, for this baffling, yet lovely tea swap! :)

This. is. home.
I’ve been sampling so many new teas lately that I was forgetting my tea roots! so I decided to take a jaunt down memory lane and look what I found :)
Oh man does this ever hit home for me. I was worried that it might be too old, as I believe it’s been in my cupboard forgotten for almost a year now… but it’s as good as ever! Thank goodness!
Malty and a bit floral this time, with just the right amount of boldness and astringency.
Funny, even with the super tasty teas I’ve had, none of them gave me tea chi. With this one, well let’s just say I am in a very happy place. I really needed my chi today!!
Now off to study…

Mmmmmmmm this was just what I wanted. Ya know when you crave something very particular, and then manage to fill that want with the perfect thing? well, this was one of those times. The brewing circumstances turned out to be ideal as well. I will have to remember: 1.5-1.7 tsp(extra large mug), 5 min steep, boiling water. Perfection!!
I think my beloved Lover’s Leap could have done a better job… the only thing missing was that extra complexity I search for. No matter, I so badly wanted a bold, malty tea with milk! The last few days it’s been missing from my diet so it was becoming an issue. It was all I could think about! haha.
Anyhow, this rating is artificially high(previously an 86), but I’m ok with that. I feel that tomorrow will be a Marco Polo day though, if I’m home that is :)
Sidenote: does it annoy anyone else that when you create a second tea review and change your initial rating, it does the same to your earlier review as well? I know I am!! (annoyed)

This is a solid black tea, but for me, has to be taken with milk. It’s bold, but I’m having trouble finding the floral part. Maybe a hint, but I think it may also be my imagination placing it there??
There is no astringency though, or very little, if any- I really like that part. and… well, It’s loads better than Tim’s tea, which is what counts in my books :)

This is still a tasty, tasty tea, but I’m starting to notice a pattern. When I cold brew rooibos, it seems to trigger a migraine of epic proportions. Sometimes bad enough to send me to a dark room with an icepack. So I’m going to give all my rooibos that I only have cold to my sister in law and in a few days I’m going to try some hot to see if it triggers the same result.

This tea is in the sipdown tins pile and with good reason. It’s okay, fairly good, actually, but it’s not something I ever reach for…

…okay, now that I’ve given it a shake and the sugar has mixed into this coldbrew, my opinion is changing. The strawberry is coming forward and while I’d call this a strawberries and cream more than shortcake, it’s still yummy and deserving of the 94 rating.

Staying in the sipdowns, though.

So I thought I hadn’t tried this, but it turns out I have. Oh well, this is still amazing, I am in love with it! We haven’t been to the Tea Emporium yet, but I think we need to stop in! But I’m worried, I can’t find this on the website! Has anyone seen it there lately? Also, thank you, Indigobloom, for this lovely sample!

Thanks to the wonderful Indigobloom for sending this my way! We headed over to the in-law’s for dinner yesterday, and I made cup of this in my travel mug to fortify me for our adventure into Red Rose Land. I really, really liked it! I was drinking it hotter than I like to and mixing it with All Dressed chips, so I can’t really say if the taste changed over time, but I did really enjoy it and look forward to giving it a proper tasting. Thanks again!

Holy BITTER!! wow. The first batch I made was so incredibly awful that I had to pour it down the drain. Ewwwww.
A bunch of agave did nothing to balance it out. In fact, it seemed to bring out more bitter. The second batch, I made at a much lower temperature and used less powder. This seemed to make it a hair more palatable. Still, at this point I was ready to toss the whole tin. I had hoped that making it with my new bamboo whisk might turn this around, but no such luck :(
Anyhow, I tried it with some milk and it totally changed the matcha’s ‘tude!! Mum hated it, but all of a sudden I found it was so much more mellow and matcha like. I really like the white aspect of the tea. So mild and creamy. Soon, I’ll try this as a latte. For now… well I’m energized, so I’m off to clean the house… whistles wizard of oz tune

This was a tea making disaster! I had no whisk but desperately wanted to try some of this… as I LOVE green matcha but can’t handle the jitters that come with it, so had hoped to find an alternate.
This rating will likely get bumped up when I try it proper- or rather, I really hope it does.
I used nearly a whole teaspoon in one mug, and as expected it came out rather lumpy. and bitter!!! nearly two teaspoons of agave later, it was just barely palatable.
However, very satisfying! I had a few “ahhhh” moments here. Once it settled down into the bottom of course, it wasn’t so tasty anymore. I added more water to keep mixing it up (the fork failed at whisking) but eventually there was no helping it and I poured half a mug down the drain :(
I feel bad for having wasted so much of the precious powder. I know much better now… lesson learned.

Backlog…
Oh. My. Goodness!!!! I had an itch to give this one another go, and for some reason really liked it this time!!
I had some beef jerky with it (the ONLY thing that can make me happier than tea, though I don’t have it often. This stuff was freshly made, and organic! bestill my carnivore ways :P)
Anyhow, I swear it tasted as if I added lemon to the brew, even after I added milk. It was quite yummy, but then for the second steep I thought to myself… what I added honey? and no milk. Well, I don’t normally have black tea without milk, but that is most definitely how I will be having it henceforward!! It blew me away. Just wow. Now I regret having wasted so much of it with milk.
Not a very versatile tea, but then most of mine aren’t! raising the score on this…

Not bad for a black tea. It’s slightly complex, but not quite as much as I had hoped. The flavour is good, but rather light, unless I oversteep it and then it gets bitter. Hmm, I can’t quite seem to win with this one! Still, it’s better than my standard bagged Red Rose which makes it worthwhile in my books…
As for the flavour, when it’s hot, I taste just regular, solid tea, with a malty note if I add some extra leaves. However, when the tea cools, there is a slight bitterness because of it. I can’t have one without the other. Hmph.
There is a definite raisin note when cool, which I also do not get when hot.
The astringency really comes out on the finish however, when it’s hot, but less when it is cool. This is a tea of contradictions!! complex, in the strangest places, and never all in one sip.
Oh, and I do get a spiciness now, after having half a teacup cool and bare, in the aftertaste.
I wonder… is the David’s version of this tea is as confusing???

Now that I’ve tried a few of these, I can tell that this is a high quality Milk Oolong! I purchased this one months ago before I knew what it was all about, and wasn’t able to appreciate the quality. When I went digging through my stash I found this at the bottom and had to give it another go!! I only have one serving left so I will definitely be buying some more :)
This is very creamy and sweet without any added sugar at all. It really does taste like I added some sweetener.
Overall, a close second to the the ATM version that QuiltGuppy sent me. That one has more depth, so I find it more satisfying, and the flavour is more peachy and distinct. Also, I don’t really taste much of the tea here, it’s all milk and sweetness. I don’t mind that though. There is some scratchiness, but then, it doesn’t help that on the first infusion, I
accidentally oversteeped, again… *sighs
So I’m going to try a resteep but I suspect it may not last beyond two or three of them. Oh well, live n learn. Let’s see what the next cup brings me :)
EDIT: the second cup is much rounder and a bit less creamy. I’d love to try this in gaiwan one day. I’m getting some of the tea now and it has a really nice finish… a bit sour and milky.

wow, so apparently steeping parameters make all the difference! (duh).
I cooled the water down after boiling (who knows to what temperature, I certainly hope it was around 90c) and watched the time, but went by the package instructions which say 3-5 min. I think I was around 4 minutes when I poured it outta my tea master.
The website says 2-4 minutes, so perhaps I will try 2.5 min next time. I have enough for maybe one more cup. This one was not exactly budget friendly.
Anyhow, as alluded to above, it is a much tastier brew this time around. Very smooth, slightly scratchy but perhaps that shorter infusion will fix that… It’s a rather calming tea that demands savouring.
The buttery/slippery honey texture, building on the lightness and super mild nutty base makes me wanna sit back and feel the summer breeze, the sun, and listen to the birds. Don’t try this one at work folks!
Now… Would I buy this again? Yes, I think so- but it’s not a must have at that price. I have a feeling though, that if I had more of this leaf, it’d grow on me.
Now, off for my second infusion :)