Vahdam Teas

This is a black tea that I don’t think I’ve had before today.

The tea is delicious with a fruity and floral taste, I found it quite enjoyable. I steeped the leaves twice, the second cup tasted a bit better than the first.

I’ve had Earl Grey tea before although only in bag form, so it will be interesting to try the loose leaf version.

It’s a very delicious tea, quite enjoyable.

This tea has a nice golden-brown colour to it, as well as small bits that have been left from steeping. It has a strong but pleasant taste. There is a noticeable but likeable aftertaste to the tea.

I’ve not had loose-leaf masala chai before. Trying it, I found the flavour robust but pleasant, it seems to be a good balance of sweet and spicy.

This is the first of the green tea samples I’m trying from the Vahdam samples I bought via Amazon. It has a yellowish appearance.

It has a very pleasant flavour, floral and citrusy and is certainly one of my favourites so far.

The final tea that I’m sampling today, the ingredient list makes this tea sound quite delicious. It has a reddish-brown colour.

It has a strong fruity taste which is quite enjoyable, I certainly would drink this regularly.

I think I’ve had white tea before, although I can’t remember what it was like, so it’ll be interesting to see how this tastes.

The tea has a pale golden-yellow appearance and a delicate floral taste. It is quite a pleasant tea, and I decided to steep it again to see how the flavour changed.

The second steeping produced a slightly stronger cup, still quite pleasant to drink.

I decided to try a black tea from the Vahdam samples today, choosing this one.

I’ve not had a lot of loose leaf black tea before – most of the time when I’ve had a black tea, it’s been bagged and most of the time when I’ve had loose leaf tea it’s been a green or herbal tea. With a bag I often just left it in for a second or two before disposing of the bag, which meant a rather weak taste.

This tea tastes fine, it has a malty flavour, it has a bit of an aftertaste which lingers for a few seconds after a sip. It’s not one of my favourites so far, but it is drinkable. I think the next time I drink this, I’ll steep it for three rather than four minutes.

Another of the samples I bought from Amazon.

I think I’ve had oolong tea before, but it was in a bag rather than loose leaf. This tea has a golden appearance. It tastes quite nice, the flavour is fruity and enjoyable.

Overall, I found it to be a really good tea, certainly one I would drink on a regular basis.

I wanted to get into teas, I’ve drunk many before but usually they’ve been bagged teas from the supermarket. Along with a temperature-controlled kettle, I purchased samples of tea from Vahdam Teas.

As I am quite sensitive to caffeine, I decided that the first tea I would try would be one of the herbal tisanes. I’ve had turmeric tea before but wasn’t a big fan, hopefully this tea will be better.

After steeping, the tea was a pleasant golden colour, I’m unable to describe the smell as I have a very poor sense of smell.

This tea was certainly a lot nicer than the turmeric tea I’ve had before, plus the ginger didn’t burn my throat as it often does when I drink teas with it in. The taste is good, not too strong and not too weak.

Gongfu Sipdown (719)!

Little bit of an older sample – but finished this one off over Thanksgiving weekend, and it was actually a relatively nice session. I brewed it out; around eight steeps – decent level of astringency, if I was repeating the session I’d tone down the water temperature and scale back my steep time a little bit to temper it some.

Here’s my instagram summary:

This tea has very sweet and floral smelling dry leaf accented with a juicy fruity note, like very ripe green grapes!? Liquor steeps up rather astringent/drying but has very strong and distinct floral notes: jasmine, gardenia, geranium. It’s very aromatic, with a hint of prune and minerality. Quite interesting!!

I really, really just was the emphasize how fucking floral, fragrant and juicy the dry leaf was! Kind of crazy yummy smelling, and drool worthy.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3kAUlzAsDv/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKL8Sq14MiQ

Going to have to rebrew this one when I’m more present mentally in regard to the tea; I steeped myself up a large mug of it on Friday at work while I was doing some lab tests and while it did make for a smooth, and unassuming tea to sip on while focused I don’t actually remember, like, anything about the taste? Maybe that it had a hint of warming spice notes? But definitely didn’t make an impression.

I received this tea as a gift in a fancy box that includes a trio of different Chai teas. I’m sure it was chosen because Oprah selected this tea for her list of “Favorite Things” in 2018.

This is the first tea I’ve tasted from the trio. It tastes like a high-quality Chai tea from India, similar to what I would expect from a fine dining Indian restaurant. The flavors are classic and well balanced, and the tannins and briskness are right-on.

The ingredients list Oolong tea, but I can’t identify anything significantly different from other assam and Darjeeling based black Chai teas I’ve had.

For a tea of this quality and purported freshness, after 2 brewings I expected to see more whole unfurled leaves and a lot less tea-leaf-dust in the bottom of my teapot. It also didn’t come out as strong as I expected, I ended up using more leaves than I normally would.

Considering the gorgeous box, and the fact that Oprah selected this as the best tea for 2018, I maybe had unreasonably high expectations. This tea is a fine and capable Chai tea, but it didn’t wow me any more than other capable Chai teas I’ve had.

I like organic tea.

- royal milk tea, with half milk half water and a spoonful of honey -

- straight, leftover tea -
Using the leftovers from my previous cup I made a smaller glass with no milk. The flavor of this chai is very relaxing and not too overpowering. I tend to dislike chai when it has too much cinnamon, but this one is perfect.

- with milk and a spoonful of honey -
I don’t often drink Chai tea but this was very good.

This one was a bonus sample that tea-sipper sent when I purchased from her stash sale.

I admit, I was a bit worried when I saw this one, as I’m not a fan of rose. But I gave it a sniff, and it didn’t seem overly rose-y, so I decided to give it a try. And looking at the ingredients, it looks like the rose is just rose petals and not flavor or essence, so that’s a good sign. Makes me wonder why they put “rose” in the name though.

This is interesting, and I like it. The green tea base is smooth and very mild, with a soft dry grass flavor. I can taste a bit of spice – definitely cardamom and licorice with a bit of clove. They give a lovely warming sensation as well. I’m really enjoying the herbs, though the flavor is hard to describe. I can pick out ginseng and mint with perhaps a hint of rose. The overall flavor is warm and aromatic with a lovely sweetness.

This is lovely and relaxing, perfect for the evening. I bet it would make a delicious iced tea as well. Thanks tea-sipper! :)

Discovery TTB #6

I’m not generally a big fan of smoky teas, but this one is lovely! It has a good amount of smokiness without tasting burnt and the malty flavor of the Assam adds a nice depth to the flavor. I may be hang on to this one!

As a fan of Japanese greens, Darjeelings, and Bai Mu Dan, I could smell this tea all day. Dry and steeped, it is sweet and bright, but with maltiness hints, like a diverse garden. It will remind you of a vegetative Darjeeling or like a green Assam, to the nose? But the first sip will send you in another direction, rooted mostly in bright, crisp greens, a grassy bite, with a hint of sweetness. There’s a woodiness too, like fresh cut Hickory, or Black Walnut. The aftertaste is wheatgrass-forward with a sweet, almost stevia-like taste near the throat. It lingers for minutes, 5 easy. Can get easily bitter with too much tea, ideal to me at 1.5 tsp.

The original magical scent of the tea is gone after two years (or perhaps it’s just the much lower humidity during winter), but I was not a very diligent drinker of the 16oz bag. The energy is still good, though! Could it be… the caffeine? Those drinking bulk darj should consider buying empty disposable teabags. The amount of fine dust that floats on top even after multiple filtering sessions is distracting and can contribute to a sore throat, but can be largely solved by using disposables.

After all the hyper exxy pu, it is hard to believe this darj was a mere 3 cents per gram. Gave it the gongfu treatment for comparison’s sake. The fragrance is still beautiful. Dried stone fruits. Leaves not fully intact but rehydrate into large chunks. It is mixed with a great deal of dust, so use a very fine filter or teabag. I have been hearing so much hatred against all darj lately, but this tea is not so terrible, especially for this price. I am skeptical it is really organic and the grade labeled on the bag – FTGFOP1. But it is absolutely drinkable. Smells great. Tastes all right. I don’t see the problem besides possible vendor dishonesty.

Magnificent. I love Gopaldhara teas. The 2018 first flush was a favorite of mine, and now so is the second flush. This one drinks like a dark red wine with prominent notes of mature dark grapes, which combines with a woody autumn leaf quality reminiscent of a nice Dian Hong black tea.

357/365

The last of the Vahdam Chai sampler! I’m glad I tried this, since it allowed me to try a lot of combinations I probably wouldn’t have come across otherwise…and maybe wouldn’t have chosen all that readily if I did! I didn’t save this one until last purposefully, but I remember trying another saffron based blend from this sampler and really enjoying it, so it’s a nice way to round things off.

Like many of the blends, this one has a black CTC base. My feelings about that generally are well documented, but they work pretty well so I can’t complain too much. No exception here – the base is just that – a base – and the spices really shine. This particular blend contains cardamon, cloves, cinnamon, saffron, and almonds – the saffron isn’t really a flavour as such, but it absolutely has an influence. It’s a texture, more than anything – the closest I can get in descriptive terms is smooth, maybe a little honeyed. It’s undeniably saffron, even though it’s a really difficult flavour to pin down. Otherwise, the main flavour is cardamom, closely followed by cinnamon. The clove is really subtle, but that works for me! The almond is just about there in the aftertaste, but I feel I have to concentrate to pick it out. Really, this is all about the saffron!

I enjoyed this thoroughly, and I’ll happily finish up the rest of my sample. It’s one I’d consider repurchasing, especially when the weather gets colder!