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Seeing the Canton Tea Co special offer today inspired me to have some pu-erh this morning. This time I gave the tuocha a quick rinse in hot water first, which puffs it up and helps it start to give off an aroma – the dry cake is almost odorless.

First steep at 90 seconds, and I’ve got myself a powerful cup! It is dark and soupy and full of earth and dry leaves. A bit of bitterness at the back end, but not unpleasant. It tastes like the tea has challenged me to a wrestling match, just to see what I’ve got. Bring it on, I say!

Second steep at 90 seconds is much mellower; the bitterness has vanished and now the flavor is wonderfully redolent of a walk in the woods in the middle of autumn. Very, very nice.

Nothing but rain, rain, rain here today, so it’s about time for a nice warm cup of coconutty goodness to vicariously transport me to a sunnier place. Super buttery flavor, although it’s very light it also has enough body to it to make me feel like I’m drinking more than just flavored water. Quite yummy!

Second try at this one, this time giving it a minute instead of 30 seconds steeping time. That definitely brings out the roastiness more, which is nice, but it also highlights a strangely astringent characteristic I hadn’t noticed before: I’m feeling the “puckeriness” more at the top of my mouth than at the back or on the sides.

It’s still just okay for me. I think I’d enjoy it more in the morning than in the late afternoon. We’ll just have to try it again!

This is the cutest tea I’ve seen in a long time – light green, flattened tips, soft and uniform, that look a lot like Douglas Fir needles. The dry leaf smells really fresh – almost minty, though I know logically that there is no mint in it, it’s just that fresh. When I really dig into the aroma, it’s generically like vegetables, and oddly, watermelon rind comes to mindas well.

I gave it two minutes at 180 degrees, and I think that was just about right. There is a lovely smell of new mown lawn and sugar snap peas. The taste is wonderful, melding vegetable goodness with a hint of sweetness. The liquor looks like slightly watered down apple juice, a clear golden yellow.

For the second steep, I stretched it out to 3 minutes to see what would happen. Mmm, still good. There is a noticeably rich mouth feel and a good amount of veggie taste as the base, with fresh cut grass filling in around the edges. A very relaxing and tasty cup!

The dry leaves are dark, and uncharacteristically long and full based on my previous experience with pu-erh teas. They give off a strong, sweet odor of fresh earth. After two minutes of hot water I had a very dark, coffee colored liquor with an enticing aroma. I got the earth scent for sure, but also something slightly spicy. The flavor had some of the typical hallmarks of pu-erh, but with some extras thrown in for good measure as well. There is a definite natural sweetness to the flavor, and a tiny bit of tartness in the aftertaste without being fishy or rotten tasting. I also get just a little bit of spiciness which is really nice – a general mix of cinnamon, clove, and ginger which is in both the aroma and the taste.

The second steep, at 3 minutes, didn’t seem to bring any additional surprises. In summary a nice pu-erh, which I think I’ll try with a little milk and sugar next time to see how it goes. Sacrilege, I know!

Another one from the Canton Tea Co sampler – as their description notes, although it’s called a green tea, it’s actually an oolong, and I think that comes through in the flavor. But I’m getting ahead of myself – the dry leaves are twisted but not as tightly rolled as gunpowder tea, and are a deep green in color. The scent is vegetal and fresh.

I gave the first steep one minute at 190 degrees, and got a much bigger burst of the vegetal scent right off the bat. There is also a sweetness mixed in, and I’d have to agree with the previous description of it as apricot – it’s a nice highlight. The flavor is walking the line between green and oolong; we’ve got the seaweed/buttered vegetables thing going on, but I’m also getting the sweet, juice-like flavor of a good oolong in there as well.
The second steep went for two minutes, but I found the flavor surprisingly muted this time. The vegetables got a little deeper, but the sweetness has receded into the background. It still has a pleasant amount of substance in the mouth feel though. Overall, a nice tea, but I’m wondering if my sensing it as neither fully green nor fully oolong might make it less than satisfying in the long run.

On the road this week, staying at a Fairmont Hotel for the first time, which features a line of teas in their own name. They do a great afternoon tea at this particular hotel, and I chose the Kenmare Ceylon to go with the little sandwiches and cakes. It came in a good-size pot with a moderate amount of leaf; the first cup had only been steeped about a minute, but by the time I got to the end of the pot the leaves had been sitting in the water for a long time. This was an interesting way to go about it because it let me examine the flavors that came out over the course of more and more steeping.

At the beginning there was a mild toastiness and a little bit of ripe fruit. Over the next couple cups the toastiness developed more fully, and the fruit gave way to more tannins and astringency. The final cup was very “leafy” – it really reminded me of fall. It was dry leaves, and the light smell of smoke in the air, warmth by the fireside. Up to this point I’d been drinking it straight, but added some milk and sugar at the very end and really liked it that way as well.

Trying another cup of this to compare it to my first tasting several weeks back. Again, I’m impressed by the depth of color after even a relatively short steep – it’s a deep and dark brown. I steeped it just a bit longer than last time (3.5 minutes vs. 3 minutes), and found that this brought out more distinctly the dried fruit flavors. Still getting a good amount of malt in there too. No cream or sugar around to try it with those additives this time, but I’ll try to remember them for next time – I think they would work out well.

I love jasmine tea and especially jasmine pearls, so it’s always fun for me to try a new variety in this family. The scent which emanated from the packet when I opened it was heavenly – sweet and juicy without being cloying. I took what seemed to me the right amount of tea (counted later and found it was 19 pearls), and gave them 8 ounces of 185 degree water to bathe in. I ended up with a light yellow-green liquor that gave off a fantastic scent. The flavor here is also exactly what I’m looking for in jasmine pearls: authentic, naturally sweet, floral, and not at all bitter or astringent. Seems able to withstand multiple infusions too, prolonging the enjoyment. This is good stuff!

This is a really interesting one, and gives me a sense of how widely oolongs can vary. The leaves are long, medium-dark green, and smell rich and vegetal. After two minutes, the liquor is light brown with a hint of green, and smells quite surprisingly of seaweed. Don’t get me wrong, I like the whiff of seaweed that often comes in with green and oolong teas; this one is just particularly pronounced.

On tasting, there is a lot going on. Melon, vegetable, definite toastiness there too. This is a good, interesting tea. Further steeps will need to wait until later today…