Arbor Teas

After reading the reviews for this tea, I was very excited about it. I love spicy chai and it sounded like this would be excellent. I made some last night, then tried it again this morning just to be sure. As much as I wanted to love this chai, I simply don’t.

I used about 2 tbsp in my 3-cup teapot the first time and steeped it for five minutes as directed. It was so weak that my husband and I actually ended up dumping most of it.

This morning I used the other half of the packet (it was a little more than 2 tbsp) and steeped it for more than twice the time. It’s slightly stronger, but I really feel like I had to push it to get it this strong. It’s still pretty weak. I can taste the spices, and the promise of them, but they’re still feeble.

This is the end of the sample, and I don’t know if maybe I got a bad or older mix, but for me this just doesn’t live up to the hype. I’m disappointed. Of the four teas I got from Arbor, the only winner was my husband’s Mini Tree Pu-erh – the one I won’t touch!

Mmm… tasty! I ordered a sample of this on a lark, and I’m glad I did. It’s a delightful and sweet cup to enjoy on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Dry, the fruity smells overwhelm the white leaves, but when steeped the fruit takes backseat to the tea leaves. I made up a pot of this in my 3-cup teapot, and added two tablespoons each of tea and Sugar in the Raw.

I’ve had pomegranate before, and this doesn’t remind me of it at all. My husband says it tastes more like peach to him, and I have to agree. It might not be a white pomegranate but a white peach still sounds good to me!

I’m working on sipping this one down. It’s a fairly close thing. Preparing tea samplers for Christmas did wonderful things for the numbers of tea in my cupboard… and allowed me to find new homes for some of the wonderful apple teas my husband hadn’t yet finished!

This is pretty much as I remember it – a little light, with a bright little burst of bergamot. It’s not going to be a hardship to finish, but I’m also not going to be ordering more.

The only other Ear Grey I have to compare this to right now is my Teavana Earl Grey Black, so I opened them up and sniffed them side by side. Of the two, this is less sweet and more sharp. I can’t detect the slight licorice flavor of the Teavana in it, and while it smells a little more… I can only think of the word astringent, it doesn’t shout bergamot at me either. Huh. I don’t know what I was expecting, but so far this isn’t broadcasting any kind of “Wow!” factor.

Today felt like a mug morning, so I loaded a tea ball 1/2 way and steeped it for five minutes. I’m trying to get better about not over-steeping things, so I set my most annoying timer. When its shrieks brought me back into the room, I was surprised at how dark this one came out. Even after I put in a generous pour of milk, and a tablespoon or so of Sugar in the Raw, it is only the color of hot chocolate.

I did sample it before I put in the milk and sugar, and I found that its sharp dry smell had been blunted rather decisively. This tastes a lot milder than I had anticipated, and while it’s a nice and even EG I guess I’m just craving something… different. I love everything this company stands for – organic, free-trade, bio-degradable packaging – and I wanted to love their tea as well, but it’s just not grabbing my senses and sending them whirling. It’s a nice standard cup, but probably won’t be a staple.

twig tea! i definitely get it!
and not super grassy for that reason. but still very greeney fresh.
i’ll try to make sure my sister drinks the rest with me. i think it will help give her an appreciation of more greens.
thanks very much Shelley_Lorraine!

brewed in my small glass gong fu, so pretty. half of the leaves slowly float to the bottom. expanding slightly and turning fresh. the tea is a bright greenish yellow. i even brewed a second steep and it was only slightly less green tasting than the first. very very nice. i have another cups worth and i might even just go and brew it right now. thank you very much for this tasty cup Shelley_Lorraine!

So i was thinking I’d make a black tea and I pulled this out of my unopened samples box, not paying too much attention and kind of in a hurry. After a few minutes, when I was going to take the leaves out of the cup, I thought, “hey, thats a funny colored black tea!” It’s not exactly green though either, more like amber. I thought maybe I didnt use enough leaves or something. Oh well. Then I took a sip and it was definitely not black tea flavor. haha. Still, very good. Once I overcame the state of confusion, I decided that I like it quite a lot. It’s a very unique flavor of Green Tea.

Sorry for the lack of notes recently. I’m always here reading everyone else’s notes, but I don’t have so many new teas to review myself anymore. Last year was my tea-discovery year. I had to try everything. Now I’ve mostly narrowed down what I like and don’t like. I don’t need to add 20 new teas to every order anymore. I’ll always have to occasional free sample and I might add one or few new teas that look particularly interesting. I guess I’ll just have to start writing random “Hi! Im drinking tea today” notes for all the oldies, like this one. (^.^)

This tea comes and goes from my favorite list. I always like it, but sometimes its not my favorite green and sometimes I can’t get enough of it. Right now I tend to crave kukicha more often, but Im almost out of kukicha again, so I made a cup of the five peaks.

I haven’t had this one in my cupboard for a while, and I’m glad to have it back!

Last time I logged this, I said it didn’t compare to Laoshan green. I take it back. This is currently my favorite green. I think I had this whole psychosomatic response to the Laoshan, being the first fresh-from-the farm tea that I purchased. I made up my mind that is has to be superb, therefor it was. Well of course, it still is a good green, but most of my enthusiasm was the novelty of it.

Anyhow, back to normal daily tea life, this five peaks is the star of my cupboard. It’s such an easy tea to work with. Doesn’t go bitter if I look at it funny, doesn’t have that textured/granular flavor (yes, Im referring to a texture as a flavor, because to me it does have a flavor :p ) that some of the heavy vegetal greens get. Its pleasant, sweet and juicy without overdoing it.

trying to fit in a cup of tea before I leave to see my piano teacher for a short rehearsal. So hard to find quality tea-time ;_;

This is a decent green tea. I think after my encounters with Laoshan green, I’ll rarely be so kind with my descriptions of other greens.

This one has a delicate vegetal flavor. It’s not bitter or astringent. A good every day green.

This was what I was looking for from Arbor Teas!!! I ended up getting a sample from Silver Tips Tea of their Assam Organic tea and was trying to find a similar one from a company that sells organic Moroccan Mint AND organic Assam. Unfortunately, Arbor Teas regular Assam tastes nothing like Silver Tips but this English Breakfast one is a close contender! I love how deep and robust it is WITHOUT a hint of astringency…unlike Arbor teas Assam, Nillgeri, and Irish Breakfast(this one is a runner up to English Breakfast). Two thumbs way, way up!

This is a very solid example pu-erh and its comparatively easy on the palate. Earthy, full bodied mineral “cave floor” mineral/mushrooms without any gnarly leather notes. Brings a nice Qi to boot and is friendly enough for daily drinking. A good introduction to the world of ripe pu-erh; mellow enough, yet brings a full bodied genuine pu-erh experience.

Finished off my current bag of this tea earlier this evening. It really is quite good, but I don’t know if I’ll be re-stocking anytime soon as I am in a steady relationship with my more vegetal greens atm. (#^.^#)

Dragonwell was one of my favorites in the beginning of my tea adventures, but lately I’ve been craving more savory vegetal greens. I have this dragonwell along with arbor teas less premium variety. I can detect the differences, but neither is particularly ‘better’ to me. I also have one from Adagio that I don’t like so much (it is vaguely reminiscent of cat pee, not kidding). I still like my dragonwells and will keep trying new ones from different sources, but it’s not my favorite green at the moment.

I tried brewing this that past couple of times according to ‘traditional’ methods (using more leaf per oz, 160-150deg water, 90sec) and it seemes to produce a more bitter cup than when I originally brewed it at 175 for 2 min with less leaf. It’s been a while since that first cup, so I am going to have to try again to see if it makes the difference. It’s still really good, even with the bitterness. I like it better than sencha for sure.

EDIT: I just re-steeped the leaves after a few hours. I used 150deg water like the first time (I meant to use hotter, but I let it cool too long). I let the leaves steep for 60 seconds (an arbitrary choice) and the final product was a lot less bitter than the first cup. This is probably the first time that a second steeping has turned out better than the first for me.

I think gyokuro is going to take a lot of experimentation to get it just right all the time. But I look forward to the task :)

I used whistled water, which is why it had a bitter undertone. I forgot which tea I was preparing the water for. I gave a cup to my daughter who was in bed with a sore throat bug. She said it made her throat feel better. I finished off my cup of Chun Mee and, although not prepared correctly, was satisfying just the same.

Sipdown

Don’t know if I’ll be restocking yet. It was good, but I want to try out other black teas too.

I haven’t had a lot of black teas. I tried the occasional bagged ‘English Breakfast’ blends before I started buying loose tea, but mostly I drank bagged green teas. I don’t know quite how an Assam is supposed to taste, but based on descriptions I’ve read, I wouldn’t describe this as similar to one. I have Yunnan gold-tip teas from two different sources and I don’t think this tea significantly different in terms of strength and astringency. I’ll have to start expanding my black tea collection in order to make better assessments :)

I’ve had this many times hot, but this is the first time I cold -steeped it. I like it better this way. It cuts down on that menthol-like taste I find in a lot rooibos and brought out the creamier aspect of the tea. Also the blackberry flavor seemed much stronger. I will have to make it again soon .

Whenever I drink this tea, I’m always struck by a of menthol sensation and I don’t know what would cause it. The flavor is more rooibos than blackberry. Earthy, almost clay-like rooibos. Defininitely an aquired taste, but it’s grown on me.