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Cha Cha Tea is a little tea shop in Kingston, Ontario, run by a lovely Japanese lady (Kaoru Sato Miller). Most of what she sells is from Metropolitan Tea Co, but she does have a small collection of fresh Japanese green teas that she orders in directly from a Japanese tea garden. So this is one of those.

The dry leaf is gorgeous. The tea leaves are small, thin, a bit broken, and dark green. There is a generous amount of brown roasted rice. The scent of the dry leaf is sweet and fresh. After the hot water hits it, that’s when you get all the toasty aroma (I turned away to do something else while it was steeping, and suddenly noticed the toasty scent several steps away from where my mug was sitting on the counter).

Now. The brewing method listed on the package is as follows:
“Use 1 1/2 – 2 tsp/6oz cup. Pour boiling water. Steep for 1 min. Can be reinfused 2-3 times consecutively.”
I like to brew my tea in a 300ml mug with a brewing basket. I measured two “tea spoons” (the kind that actually hold 1.5 tsp) into the basket and that came out to 12g, which seemed like plenty, so that’s what I went with. Brewing green tea with boiling water is a bit taboo, but it totally works for this tea. I’ve done two steepings so far, first for 1min, second for 2min. The leaf expanded to half-fill my brewing basket after the first steeping and about 3/4 full after the second, so I don’t think I’ll try leafing any more heavily, at least not with this brewing method.

The tea liquor is golden in colour and has a light toasty/grassy aroma. The flavour is very smooth, almost no bitterness or astringency. The toasted rice flavours are nicely balanced with the sencha, which is grassy and vegetal, almost spinach-like. Very warm and comforting. Definitely recommend.

Oh man, this tea is so old, haha. The aromas have definitely faded. I went a little heavy with the leaf and hit it with boiling water to try to extract whatever flavour is still in there. Scent is slightly citrusy and vegetal with just a hint of the frankincense. Flavour is lightly floral and vegetal from the oolong and hints of the other ingredients are fleeting. It’s quite pleasant, but definitely not as interesting as it used to be. I’ll probably do a long second steep to see what else may be in there. Remember to enjoy your teas while they’re fresh, folks!

Got this a couple years ago when an online Metropolitan reseller had a going out of business sale. What is there to say? It’s chamomile flowers and mint leaves. It tastes exactly like you would expect. Actually, I’ll note that it feels like good quality – lots of big, fluffy, intact-ish chamomile flowers, and a lovely fresh mint scent from both the dry leaf and the brewed tisane. I have done two steepings (heavily leafed because didn’t bother to get out the scale and was trying to compensate for how fluffy the chamomile is) and both have been very nice. If you have been drinking a teabag version of this I recommend trying it in loose leaf form.

Freshly brewed it’s VERY cinnamon forward, well cinnamon and clove I suppose, that combination that feels like “winter spice”. As it cools you can taste more of the black tea and orange and a slight vegetal note that I think is the moringa. On one sip I got a slight floral note. Overall it’s decent, didn’t really stand out from other similar teas I’ve tried. Can’t really tell the tea is decaffeinated as any flavour change there is completely overwhelmed by the spice, so it’s a good after dinner or bedtime choice.

I decided to sort/reorganize my teas, which resulted in finding a lot of little samples of this and that and going “holy cow I really need to finish these”. So, nice caffeine free sipdown here, though I’m pretty sure some of the flavour has been lost over the years. A little bit sweet, a little bit creamy, a little bit spicy, generally quite pleasant.

I’m visiting my brother and sister-in-law and helping myself to their stash of random loose leaf tea that they never use. ;) This is a decent rooibos chai, nothing to write home about. Very cinnamon-heavy, as others have said. I can taste cinnamon, and rooibos, and maybe if I really concentrate a hint of ginger or vanilla but that could just be wishful thinking. Nice enough tisane to drink before bed.

My first Canadian-grown tea! I bought a sample (10g for $35 y’all) mostly out of a desire to support the company, and also because I was really curious to know what it would taste like. Pretty great, as it turns out! Very fresh, crisp, vegetal flavours and aromas. Slight sweetness. Little to no astringency. Comparable to a nice long jing. I’m impressed.

My brother got me a 3 month subscription to the Amoda tea box, and I just got my first box! This is the only unflavoured tea in the box, and I actually really like it. It’s a dark, roasted oolong so it brews up a warm orange colour and has some lovely toasty aromas and caramel flavours. It reminds me of more of a chinese black/oolong tea than any indian tea I’ve had before, though there is a juicy fruitiness and a slight floral character that does remind me of a 2nd or 3rd flush darjeeling. It’s interesting! I like it.

After many many months of looking over at it, thinking “wow I haven’t had a proper gongfu session in ages”, I finally got the tea tray and gaiwan out and used them to make tea! It’s amazing how I can develop these weird mental blocks about things where something seems like “too much trouble”, so I procrastinate forever, then when I finally go ahead and do it, it’s no big deal.

8g of tea is a LOT for my 100ml ruyao gaiwan from White2Tea so I’ve basically just been steeping this all afternoon. It’s a good black tea, medium bodied with a bit of astringency. Malty, somewhat floral early on, but in later steeps it develops a kind of “generic black tea” flavour. Not unpleasant, but also not very exciting? I did really enjoy the whole tea ball concept though, so I look forward to trying some more of them. :)

So I bought a sample of this years ago, and then lost it in the back of a cupboard, and recently found it again. Thought it might be a bit old and stale, but nope! I opened the package and it had a bit of nice roasty/floral aroma. Measured some out into a steeping basket, poured on the hot water, was standing there setting the timer when the aroma rose up out of the mug and smacked me in the face. I actually said (out loud, we’ll say it was to my dog) “damn, that is some good fricken tea!”. As I sit here sipping it, the aroma is a complex mixture of flowers and like, carmelized fruit, honey-drenched pastries, just yummy. The flavour is light and sweet and with only a hint of that mineral note I associate with rock oolongs. Lovely. :)