Zenjala Tea Company

Well a sample of this has been sitting in my cupboard for a bit. I finally made the last mug of it tonight. The flavors in this one are really hard for me to pick out. It is a lightly sweet, lightly floral, and lightly fruity tea. Not anything to go crazy about, but it is so relaxing and just he perfect cup for tonight.

Nice tea. Gentle. Sweet. Unassuming. Which surprises me given it has coconut. Not sure if I’d be inclined to get a bag of this, but at the very least won’t mind finishing the cup. Like the last tea who’s suggested temp, because I don’t have 170 as an option I used another, though this time I went for lower, 160 which may have been to low and why this is so mild. Argh. I really need another thermometer.

Another sipdown. I think I’ll continue making small pots of tea for a while because it’s a great way to use up small samples and I can easily barrel through a two-cup pot in an hour or two.

This is much nicer than my impression of it last time. I think my best description of it would be the tea version of a strawberry milkshake: fruity and creamy. The coconut doesn’t lend much flavor to it, instead adding to the strawberry and letting it shine. There’s also not much tea flavor to it, but that’s okay because the fruit is true to flavor. It’s not one I think I’ll restock, but it was nice to try.

Another one out of my box from LiberTEAS. The dry blend is very pretty, with lots of different colors and textures.

I like this one. The rose and strawberry end up creating a cherry sort of flavor, and the coconut gives it some creaminess. As far as a fruit blend goes it’s pretty basic, but it’s definitely enjoyable.

Backlog:

Visually, this is a really appealing blend with the soft, down-covered white tea leaves, coconut shreds, pieces of strawberry and pink/red rose petals. It smells good too!

The tea is quite pleasant. The rose and berry are the two strongest notes of the cup. A soft, creamy coconut note comes through around mid-sip. I like that even though these flavors are strong, I can still taste the white tea. The flavors don’t overpower the white tea … everything is blended very thoughtfully here.

The white tea is soft, earthy, and vegetative. There is a creaminess to it that melds nicely with the creamy notes of the coconut. A really compelling combination of flavors.

Steeps 3 and 4 of this flavored oolong sent by K S – thank you!

These are so different from the first! The oolong is coming forward as the Meyer lemon and lime flavors start to fade. By fade, I mean they are coming down to the normal level of flavoring you would expect to find in a flavored tea. I don’t mean that in a bad way – quite the opposite. The first two steeps are candy candy candy! I don’t add sweetener, but if you did I bet you would feel like a kid in a candy store on allowance day. And it is a strong citrus flavor without being perceived as tart.

Now we have a nicely flavored adult beverage, still sweet and tasty enough to be a treat, but not candy-like anymore. I love how many good steeps you get from this tea without telling yourself you are saving money by resteeping on the last cup just to get through it because it is so weak. Four steeps, and this one isn’t weak yet.

Thank you, K S!

K S shared this so generously with me! Thank you!

I was warned to get past the first cup, as he found it a bit strong, so I made two steeps in rapid succession and blended them together. The dry leaf looks like a very good, very pretty oolong. Now the tea…

I am looking forward to the upcoming steeps.

I found the last little bit of this sample from K S in my box last night as I was sorting and set it aside to have in the morning. I was excited all night thinking about having it for breakfast. Ha! We tea people are strange beings!

This is Sweet Sixteen birthday weekend for youngest so we met big sister and her hubby at the beach for three days last week and then came home to have the weekend with my son, godson, and her best friend all staying for the whole weekend. Middle daughter already lives here. That’s right, bodies everywhere. I haven’t had a den in three days, but that’s okay. It’s fun!

Her friend doesn’t eat much, but she seems to like to try new “adult” things, so I offered her Bohea and gingerbread almond biscotti for breakfast. She thought it sounded good and accepted. I only had two teaspoons left but the package said it resteeps well, so I steeped it, poured it in a pot, and resteeped it, combining that into the pot as well.

The tea still had nice body and flavor. I found it to be barely smokey, if there was any at all it was mainly in the aroma, but it was sweet and good. I drank it plain, she took it with milk and sugar, and we dunked our biscotti happily through the whole pot!

I got a surprise in the mail yesterday! K S so generously sent me this tea and several others to try! Thank you!

Since this is one that is supposed to resteep well, I decided to gong fu steep it today. As soon as I smelled that first steep, I knew I had to call youngest in to try it with me. This is exactly the kind of tea she loves! I still find it astounding that my youngest child loves smokey tea and strong cheese!

I believe this is only my second Bohea ever; the first one, if I recall correctly, was a sample sent by TeaEqualsBliss on my very first ever steepster swap! I wanted to try Bohea because of its history, but I love its taste now that I am over my fear of smokey tea. It took about six months of sniffing Lapsangs at the tea shop before I had the courage to try one!

This tea has a thinner body or texture than Baker Street, a similar level of smoke, and it is oh so sweet! This is delicious! I would say this is just a hint less smokey than the Teavivre Lapsang. We had two good, strong steeps, and now a third that is much lighter but still tasty and still has a sweet smoke. But something strange is happening to the texture…good strange! I think of Baker Street as being CHEWY because of how much body it has, and this one was not chewy. Now however, the third steep, while lighter in flavor, seems to be coating my lips and mouth with a buttery smooth taste that I can only liken to a later steep of Mengku Palace Ripened Godlen Buds Puerh, which I have compared to old beams polished with Murphy’s Oil Soap. Would someone please express that better for me? LOL! I really like it, but my description does not sound appealing even though it IS!

So…thank you, K S, for this morning’s tea adventure and for this delicious tea!

Saved this sample from K S for a day when I could have time to enjoy it. And enjoy it I am. This is candy in a cup, even without aditional sweetening. Junior Mints. I am having to strain to detect any puerh personality at all, though I’m sure it’s creating a rich base for the chocolate.

Looking forward to more steeps! My thanks.

This sample came from my liberteas tasting box. It tastes good slightly vanilla and sweet but nothing super memorable.

So its been a few months since I bought this, my first pu’erh purchase, done on a whim with no research. When I bought it, it smelled, and tasted like, a moldy sack of mulch with just a tiny bit of mellow sweetness. I resisted the urge to throw it out, and let it air out for a while to see if there’s any improvement.

The bag still has a bit of mold smell, but now it also has a nice pu’erh sweetness. I decided to brew it in my gaiwan, because honestly I don’t trust it enough to let it near my yixing.

I did two quick rinses, brewed it up, and hey, not half bad! Not especially good, but much better than it was a few months ago (its actually drinkable) It brews a nice red color with flavors of raisin and cedar, but still has a bit of young shu flavor, as well as a touch of penicillin, but its enjoyable, and it was cheap at half price. It made seven steeps, which I guess isn’t too bad.

Honestly, its not a very good value when you can get an awesome Menghai Red Rhyme or Yunnan Sourcing mini-cake for a similar price. If you do buy this, prepare to let it air out in your closet for a few months.

It IS an acceptable, drinkable tea now, which is much better than it was when I first tried it :P I would give it a better rating if it had come tasting like this, but a much lower one had I reviewed it when I bought it, so I feel like 60 is a reasonable midpoint.

Loose
Appearance: large med brown, knobby oolong
Aroma when Dry: fruity, chewy, tobacco notes
After water is first poured: floral, fruity
At end of first steep: chewy, fruity
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: hints of yellow
Staple? Type no, would use brand again
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first?: bitter, chewy fruity finish
As it cools?: gets bland, slight butter notes
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? only slightly, with brothy textures
Second steep (5 min)
Aroma: same, warmer
Taste:
At first: fruity, peach, grape, pear notes
As it cools: stays fruity, buttery notes surface

Third Steep (7 min) brothy, salty
Fourth Steep (8 min)brothy, salty

Loose
Appearance: curly, bicolored green, white. Slightly fuzzy
Aroma when Dry: very faint melon
After water is first poured: melon cucumber
At end of first steep: sour, slight melon, slight fruity notes
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: hint of grass
Staple? No
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first: slight floral and melon, grass, closes with a creamy melon note
As it cools ? tea gets a bit grassier, melon notes get deeper, fuller, tea gets a bit brothy, then all notes flatten
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, primarily the melon notes

Second steep (2min)
at first: weak melon notes
as it cools: starts to sour

I really enjoyed this tea. It wasn’t syrupy like some apple teas end up being. It had a pleasant cinnamon scent, and a very slight flavoring of it. Mostly it tasted like roasted apples. A nice tea that I’ll be having again.

I resteeped it and threw it some chamomile. It turned out nicely. I was able to taste the oolong more, but the cinnamon apple flavoring was definitely still there.

Backlog: I just realized that I did not log this tea from the other night. This is really quite tasty. It is a darker Ti Kuan Yin, with hints of roasted flavors that meld nicely with the toasted hazelnut flavor and touch of creamy vanilla. It is sweet, nutty and really quite a comforting tea. Very autumnal. I quite enjoyed it.

Finished the last of this one. I enjoyed it but won’t really miss it. Why does it get a 92? It is good for what it is, I just prefer less intense flavoring. Definitely not a subtle coconut almond tea.

I checked, I got this in July 2012. I have one mug left after today. It still tastes as fresh as the day I got it. When I drink flavored tea, I want the additions to be light. Earl Grey being the main exception even here I want to taste tea. This one, to me, is pretty highly flavored. The coconut and almond taste natural, in fact there are big shreds of both in the scoop. I can taste tea but would personally prefer the additions be toned down. Based on other’s reviews of flavored teas I am probably in the minority. It is very good just a touch over the top for my tastes.

This is very tasty. The almond and coconut just seem made for each other. This is a year old and I was a little concerned as someone here on Steepster said coconut can turn rancid after a while. I guess my storage was sufficient as this is still very fresh. I do notice the sencha base today which is something I missed previously. All in all a good cup of summer… I can dream.

In other news, sadly I marooned three Kerbal astronauts in orbit around Mun (Kerbal’s moon) yesterday. I ran out of fuel before escape velocity was reached. They will be missed but another launch is scheduled for minutes from now. Jebediah, Captain of the Orbitor 2 would want it that way. If only we had installed a docking port we might have been able to launch a rescue mission.

It says I haven’t logged this in seven months. I read my previous reviews. Sorry to repeat myself but I’m going to. Shreds of coconut. Large slivers of almond. The only thing that would improve this is use a Fujian black base instead of sencha. Excellent start to my day.

A couple days ago I switched my OTC allergy medicine to generic Allegra. I can breathe better today but still don’t think I have all of my sense of smell back. It is like someone scooped the middle out of everything I taste. Makes reviews a little more difficult. I am sure some of the more subtle teas I have tasted this spring have suffered for it.

Big almond slivers, shredded coconut, and large pieces of sencha leaves. Mmmmm. The brew itself is light green and more cloudy than I am used to seeing. This is what I want a coconut tea to taste like. The only thing I can think of to improve it would be to scrap the sencha and go with a chocolaty Chinese black tea base. Until that happens, this is very tasty.

Oh wow! This is good. Sweet shredded coconut, almond slivers. Mmmm. You don’t really taste the green tea which seems a shame but you really don’t miss it because, well its coconut and almond. I gave the second steep to a co-worker. He buzzed me later and said, “You have got to try this on ice” So I did. He was right it was a great glass of sweet refreshment.

As I was drinking this I kept thinking I have got to mix this with the chocolate mint fusion puerh. I am thinking Almond Joy in a cup. I will make this thought a reality come Monday.

Glad I read my own notes on this one. I have had it for a year and a half. It is still very potent. The first cup seems almost peppery. The flavor is very strong and candy like. Now having read my previous notes I know when I resteep this the later cups are far better. The lemon/lime flavors will tone way down and the oolong will shine forth. his becomes a very good tea once you get past the initial scream of flavor.