ZenTea

Comparing to other flavored white teas I’ve gotten, this has some big fluffy leaves for being $2.50 an ounce (roughly). I cold steeped some earlier, just for a few hours, so the tea was overall light. I wanted that though, because I actually really am not sure I even like black currant. It’s the main berry in here, although I got a bit of blackberry too. Even with just a few hours it still had the lightness of the white tea. I think the longer it would steep, the more it would become straight berry.

I’m going to steep it longer, more like overnight, soon and also give it a try hot. It seems like a good tea to go either way.

I got a small sample of this tea with my order from ZenTea, and I was pretty sure I’d want to drink it with milk and sugar because it smelled quite spicy. Actually I might not have had any issue with drinking this straight, but I decided I wanted to have this fairly Christmasy tea (cinnamon, clove and orange, which is standard Christmas-tea fare) with additions anyway.

The spice bend is pretty nice with both cinnamon and clove distinguishable and robust but without being overpowering. The orange isn’t super strong and instead just adds a light fruity note, which is fine because it keeps this tea as one focused on the spice, instead of one focused on the orange. The black tea base seems pleasant enough and it is certainly a major player in the flavor. Overall a pleasant spiced black tea and a nice holiday cup of tea.

Sampled a little bit of this today – it was pretty good. Just a hint of black pepper taste – or perhaps – smoke? Very faint, tho, regardless.

Interesting thing happened to me on my lunch walk today. Got chased by a duck! Posted them on instagram. LOL

This is from Traveling Tea Box B. I finally got around to trying it out. I love oxidized oolongs. Actually, I love all kinds of oolong teas. This one was difficult to brew just because so many things were going on in my house. In the end, I brewed it for a minute and it was delicious! I wish I could have made several steepings out of this, but once Western style was enough. I love the dark cocoa/caramel tones in this tea mixed with sweetness. The brew was a honey gold color. Good tea overall! :)

from Traveling Tea Box B
i love black oolongs. i’ve known this for a long time. i like green oolongs too. basically i like oolongs.
too bad i oversteeped it when a professor came in to talk to me about his running.
but i saved it’s yummy happy face of tea by adding more hot water.
all is right with the world.

Just getting ready for some of the great Oolongs that I have in the mail! This tightly rolled Taiwanese oolong has some of the savory notes of a dong ding but unfolds into the floral excellence that I love in a green high mountain oolong. Tangy and complex! Gonna sit with this one for a while.

Every gunpowder tea I’ve ever had has been basically the same thing. Pretty good, kinda smokey, savory. For some reason it reminds me of mushroom broth. Really dark brew for a green tea. Sediment at the bottom of my cup. It’s delicious but I keep getting this visual in my heard of some massive gunpowder factory in china that supplies all the world’s gunpowder with uniformity year-round.

Days after I suffered the news that my beloved Jasmine Oolong had been discontinued by a certain “Place where tea goes when it dies” I may have found a worthy replacement.

I overlooked this tea a few times because, honestly, dry leaf smell is strong and overly floral. Very very feminine smelling, and I’m a dude I use tools to fix stuff. But on my last trip to ZenTea I decided to just go ahead and grab some. Holy Smokes! I’m glad I did!

The TGY base for this is fantastic. Take away the magnolia scent and it’s easily one of the best oolongs in the store. And contrary to what the dry leaf smell would have you believe it’s not at all over powered by the magnolia scent. The magnolia seems to highlight certain aspects of the TGY, I’m constantly getting a citrus note, and another thing that’s almost coconut but really just reminds me of suntan lotion. I know that sounds gross but I’m really enjoying this. There’s complexity here. I digs.

Stopped by the local tea house and grabbed a few things. This Nilgiri from Tiger Hill is quite nice. It reminds me of a second flush Darjeeling with the fruitiness. It also has a woody, chestnutty character. When it cools it gets a chocolate note. I’m pleased.

Tea is like art. Sometimes it’s open to interpretation. That’s the case with this tea, the flavors are so subtle and ambiguous that it allows my subconscious to imply whatever it wants onto the canvas of this flavor painting.

This tea is very much like a Pai Mu Tan. It even looks like one. The only thing telling me it’s an oolong (besides the label) is the golden colored liquor. It has a very sweet finish. Slightly citrus-y. This might be a regular in my cupboard.

Trying to work through some swap samples. I still enjoy this one quite a bit :)

Thanks for the swap My Friend Rashad! This is pretty good :) Hard to describe but good!

A bit of backlogging – I’m so far behind! Sipdown, 819.

Still quite enjoy the flavouring in this tea – I still think it’s more of a candy flavour than real, tart raspberry, but I enjoy in nonetheless. Brewing up a second infusion now as I inexplicably swelter in my not-all-that-hot (but presumably somewhat humid) house.

Ummm…. this is absolutely delicious! Thanks for passing some of this along as well, momo!

The tea in my baggie looks like a dark rolled oolong, even though the picture shown here definitely looks like a green oolong. Hrrrrrm.

Anyways, this tea smells like candy. Like really delicious, sweet, fruity, yummy candy. And that is exactly how the flavour is too – all candy-sweet and delicious atop a lovely creamy oolong base (so this is probably a green oolong that’s perhaps a bit old? Idk.) You know, this actually kind of tastes like cotton candy, in a way. I think I’d be hard-pressed to say that this is raspberry… it’s certainly a sweetened raspberry, if it is, because raspberries are usually more tart. It does have raspberry-ish tones to its fruit flavour, though, especially lingering in the aftertaste.

Regardless of accuracy, I’m really enjoying this tea! I haven’t had as many tasty flavoured oolongs as I would like, and this one is certainly filling a gap in there. I don’t think this is the first tea that I’ve really enjoyed from ZenTea; may have to look into trying more teas from there/making an order at some point! Thanks again momo!

ETA: Oooh, picking up some bitterness in the re-infusion, although it’s still tasty. Less candy-like, as other reviewers have mentioned. As with many teas, this one would be best with infusions done a bit closer together than 12+ hours, IMO. The leaves still had some aroma after this infusion, so we shall see if I end up re-steeping them again (possibly not; I have at least 6 other teas waiting their turn for an infuser downstairs, and I think 2 western-style infusions for most teas is pretty good!)

ETA again: I think I lied. Pretty sure the above re-steep was actually Leslie Grove Strawberry Patch. Drinking the proper infusion now, and I pretty much have the same opinion, except there is no astringency :) Also, it tastes more like raspberry.

My neighborhood is the exact opposite of a food desert. A food oasis! It’s so packed with places to get delicious goodies that I honestly don’t know about even half the places within a 2 block radius. Might sound like I am exaggerating but it’s the truth! For example, 2 weeks ago I discovered a Chinese bakery literally around the corner from me that has been there for years. Yet I missed it! Considering that I am addicted to red bean buns this is like the best news ever.

Plus, everything is insanely cheap. Spent $4 today (no taxes since it’s cash only!) and got a red bean bun, a taro bun, a pastry cream stuffed croissant and a raisin & cream cheese pastry. Yum! Of course I can’t eat all of those in one day, I’m so stuffed from my late lunch of homemade korma that I don’t even have room for a bite right now. But they smell so delicious! I keep sticking my face in the bag and taking big whiffs.

Um, yeah, so this is supposed to be about tea. Whoops, I got carried away by my love for red beans! Can you really blame me? I made this last night while planning my bakery trip (see, they are connected!) thinking that a citrusy jasmine would go well with heavy desserts. This tea isn’t really what I expected, though. It’s floral and citursy but not in any identifiable way. I’d never go “oh, this is jasmine and lemon!” Really, it might as well be rose and lime or lavender and orange on the label.

It’s weird that the flavor is so vague. I am usually really good at identifying floral scents—we had all kinds of flowers in the garden when I was little and I spent a ton of time gardening with my dad (or rather, running around with the kitties while he worked ^^;) so I can generally tell the difference between lilac, magnolia, violet, hyacinth, rose, etc. But here it’s just… kinda generic floral. Like walking by a flower shop—you get hit by all these flowery smells but none of them are distinct. And the citrus is the same way! What kind of magic is this?

It’s not a bad cup of tea, it’s just… weird. Well, not weird tasting, but it’s frustrating not being able to identify smells and tastes. Ah well, lemon jasmine tea does sound really good so now I am thinking about hunting one down!

Tea #20 from the ‘Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

I am slowly becoming a fan of raspberry especially when paired with Oolong. With the first steep of this tea (3 minutes) the raspberry flavor was so light it was almost floral. It was sweet and soft while just hinting at juicy berries. Combined with the buttery flavor of the Oolong the tea was delicious. The second steep (5 minutes) gave a tea that was all raspberry with almost no Oolong flavor to be found. I was kind of surprised at how strong the raspberry flavor was, but it was still wonderful. I may do a third steep later tonight just to see what happens.

Sunday Sipdown #1

Thanks to whoever sent this to me as a sample! It was so long ago I couldn’t even begin to make guesses!

I am trying (and actually succeeding!) to move away from adding soy milk to every tea that I drink and only drinking dessert teas, so I like to push myself with non-dessert teas that do NOT warent soy.

Anyway, for that reason, I started with this nice, light green. Though I am rather inexperienced in green tea, I think this one has nice, smooth base to it. The “caribbean” flavoring is okay, but I wish it could be stronger. I did add just over 3tsp to a 16oz travel mug, so I don’t think it’s brewed weak; I just think the flavoring is subtle.

Half of me wishes it was more “in your face” flavoring, but the other half thinks it’s fine just the way it is. Guess you’ll just have to decide for yourself!

Had this as a latte at the Zen tea bar today with my mom. It’s the first time I’ve been there – or any tea room, for that matter. Mom tried the herbal Pitta blend (which was a nice combination of lemon and mint), but I wanted something decadent.

Steep notes: I don’t know, for a change! There’s something both awesome and unnerving (because I’m a control freak) about having tea made for me!

I didn’t really know what to think about it, though. I feel like there was an artificial caramel note that I could pick up on on some sips, and then not on others. And sometimes the texture would be nice and chocolatey rich, but then others – it seemed like it might have been made with skim milk and was therefore too thin for me. And then sometimes it tasted sweetened, but sometimes it didn’t…so weird, now that I think about it.

But I love that I got to try it, and that my mom and I got to just sit somewhere and relax with a pot/mug of tea and not feel rushed to go anywhere. Since mom teaches yoga and they offer classes I will probably go back with her one of these days to try it out. So fun!

Backlogging: circa 2 months ago. I had nice detailed reviews written out and misplaced them in the boyfriends room! This was before the introduction of a tea journal unfortunately. :S

A sample I received from ZenTea months ago, this was my very first Earl Grey and in retrospect was the best earl grey I have had! The bergamot and citrus are so strong and delicious, with cream and sugar this made the perfect morning blend! The leaves are beautiful and high quality, I have seldom seen a broken leaf from a ZenTea blend. They also resteep very very well- I think I steeped the same bit of this tea 4 times over the course of 3 days, keeping chilled in-between steepings.

I want more more more! I will be buying this tea when I get the chance to do so!

2 steeps of this yesterday, for some reason the 2nd didn’t turn out as good as it usually does. I love this tea, but I hate messing around with temperatures.

Afternoon is for green tea! I would drink way more green tea if it wasn’t such a huge pain in the ass to mess with temperatures. I love this tea.