Bird Pick Tea & Herb

I’m increasing the rating of this tea because this is the best cup that I’ve had so far. It’s buttery, milky and just slightly floral. What a tasty, gorgeous cup!

I’ve increased the rating for this tea. I’ve learned that it’s quite good as long as it’s steeped correctly. I think I will buy more of this when I’m out. Floral, buttery & clean.

I, like others, noticed that the leaves look almost identical to an oolong. In fact, I was really surprised when I popped open the bag that clearly says Silky GREEN. I’ve had quite a few cups of this one & initially brewed them around 190-195. At that temperature, I tasted an overwhelmingly large amount of pure floral flavor. To me, it was so floral that it was almost like soap or perfume. I was just about to give up on this tea before I tried it again at a lower temperature. There are still floral flavors, but I’m tasting much more of a buttery component. It’s not my favorite, but I like that I’ve found a good temperature for this tea. I wish it could be more buttery and less floral.

I have no idea why Bird Pick is trying to front that this is a green tea when judging from the taste, shape, and brewing parameters it’s obviously an oolong. I picked some of this up in store because someone I follow mentioned it and I loved the idea of a buttery green…but yo, this is a milk oolong. It’s not a super high grade one, but it’s a milk oolong if I’ve ever tasted one. It’s a green oolong, yes, in that it’s not roasted (or whatever they do to oolong sometimes to make me dislike it – oxidize it? pan-fry it? overdry it?), so maybe that’s what it meant. Bird Pick can be weird with their naming, as with their Beauty Slim tea, which they sell as a green and which you would think means weight-loss, when in fact it’s a ku ding and slim refers to the needle-like shape of the leaves.

That said: I am not mad at this! It’s a tasty tea, and a sick deal for the price. As mentioned above, this is clearly a milk oolong (or silk oolong), referring in this case to the way the leaves are processed as I don’t think there’s any flavoring added. This tastes a lot like David’s Tea Quangzhou Milk Oolong except not quite as creamy – a few rungs lower in quality, but still a totally epic deal since milk oolong can be ridiculously pricey. If you have a Bird Pick shop near you I’d suggest a visit, their prices are reasonable and there’s none of the two ounce minimum nonsense that Teavana forces down your throat.

Anyway, here was my actual experience with this tea: I brewed it at first at 170 degrees for two minutes, still thinking it was a green, and that did pretty much nothing for it, the leaves barely unfurled and I didn’t get a lot of flavor out of it. Upon realizing it was not in fact a green tea, I did a second steep with water a minute or so off boil, and gave her three minutes. This let the leaves really start to open up and I got a delicious cup off of it. A nice, creamy mouth feel, rich buttery flavor, just a quality milk oolong through and through. I did two more steeps after that, again both near boiling, three and a half minutes and then four, and these cups were great as well. The fifth steep was pretty weak, but still gave me a little something. Not exciting enough to drink on its own but I stirred a teaspoon of matcha into it and it was great, gave the matcha some added interest.

Anyway, I really recommend this tea! Tastes great, resteeps well, marvelous value for the price, sucks that Bird Pick have trolled us all by calling it a green!

I was captivated by the buttery sent of the leaves. This was the first loose tea i bought from bird pick. It isnt as strong as i would like, but definatly a really unique tea that i have enjoyed every cup of.

4tsps for 3 cups of water. The leaves have a faint smell that I associate with Lipton tea. I could smell the lychee but I couldn’t get past the Lipton smell.

The liquor is golden amber with a little bitter taste. I couldn’t really taste the lychee after it was brewed and my tongue felt like it was coated after drinking it.

Now this will be funny. I am being very picky when I am reviewing and I did like this tea and would have it again. At first I thought this tea would replace my lychee from “T” shoppe, but I decided ‘life is too short not to drink your favorite tea’.

I was hoping to find this in loose leaf, but for some reason Bird Pick only carries this flavor in bagged form. The scent is what got me – dry it’s a sweet, milky caramel, no green at all in there. The bags are odd little things, silky pyramid pouches with strings too short for all but the smallest cups, so you have to clip the string to the cup or it gets dragged in by the weight of the bag. The tea within looks like ground spinach, a very lovely green color. No visible caramel bits, so I think this one is just infused.

I’m still learning my way around sencha, so I was pretty conservative with the steeping parameters on this one. The first time I made it I definitely gave it my standard three minutes for a green and boy did I end up with a cup of sweet spinach water. Blech. Cut the steep down this time and it’s better.

A whiff of caramel on the nose when I raise up the cup, but mostly this one’s all sencha. The first hot sips give me sencha all the way. As it cools down the caramel starts to come out, but only a hint of it, an extra sweetness that lingers in the mouth. Cooler still and the caramel finally begins to dominate, which is good since I don’t think sweet caramel and spinach-y sencha are the most natural pairing. Still, not a bad cup!

I just can’t get into this tea. I tend to like greener oolongs, but this one isn’t bad for a darker type, the flowery flavor definitely sets it apart. Unfortunately it’s not a flowery flavor I particularly like. Extra points added for the fact that I managed to get through an entire tin of this, including multiple steeps for each serving – so it can’t be that bad. It reminds me a bit of the teas you get at Chinese restaurants, and I think this flavor does better suit Chinese food, at least the fried/not-spicy kind you get at American buffets. Unfortunately I don’t eat like that very often, so I can’t say this tea was ever a great fit for my kitchen.

If you like more roasted/oxidized oolongs or floral flavors this will be right up your alley!

I purchased this vanilla sencha, as well as Bird Pick’s caramel and honeydew senchas, and then 52Teas Banana Peach green, which has a sencha base…then I found out I’m pretty sure I don’t like sencha. Ack. This was the first I tried, and I’ve been fiddling with it since, trying to understand this particular green and make it work for me instead of against me.

The trouble is, no matter which variety I make, the sencha always pushes through and tastes, whether subtly or intensely, like I’m drinking ground-up spinach. Eurgh. I mean, I love spinach! But like, in salads, or on sandwiches. Not in a cup overlaid with a dessert-y taste.

The best I’ve managed to do with this one in particular is keep the steep super-short. So far the lowest I’ve gone is about a minute and a half, but I might reduce that further. This is also a pretty weird vanilla, I think, which doesn’t help – it’s a particularly creamy sort of vanilla flavoring, which normally I’d be over the moon about but I just don’t think it suits this variety of green. I’m going to keep fiddling with it, but any tips on how to best brew sencha would be appreciated!

Making my way through the last of this, I just put two teaspoons of it straight into my two serving teapot, leaving the strainer out entirely so the leaves could properly get their steep on. This was a good call! I think this is one of the best cups I’ve gotten out of this, the leaves had plenty of room to fully unfurl and bump up against each other. It’s very pretty in the pot and rather pleasant to watch it steep, kind of like watching goldfish swim. Calming, you know?

I don’t think I’ll be repurchasing this one as I’ve since discovered other oolongs I find more spectacular, but I’ve enjoyed having this one in my cupboard and in my cup.

This is such a smooth tea! It’s pretty much exactly what I think of when I think of oolong – lightly floral, good through about four steeps, a nice unchallenging tea that does what it’s supposed to. The leaves are curled so tightly that I use my biggest tea strainer so they can really unfurl fully, which I’d recommend if only so you can marvel over how huge these tea leaves are after several cups.

I bought this not realizing it was a ku ding tea, which I’ve been put off by in the past. This one’s not bad, though, milder than what I’ve tried before. It’s still pretty bitter, but a three minute steep and a little while to cool off will make it tolerable. Use only two twigs at a time, and I wouldn’t recommend resteeping. Drink it fast and between two sweeter cups and it’s a nice way to clear your head.

Sara’s tealog entry about this tea tipped me off to the fact that this isn’t a tea at all. It seems to be the leaves of a plant called kuding with is a species of Ilex (holly). And yet on the website it’s listed as a green tea and there’s no indication in the description of the tea of it being anything other than one. ⌐_⌐

I followed Sara’s advice and only used two ‘sticks’ and while it still tastes bitter (kuding is supposed to taste bitter) it isn’t as wretchedly horrible as my first ‘experiment’ and I’m actually noticing that it has a nice, sweet aftertaste. Taking the nature of this tea into account (and the fact I’m not massively overdosing) I’ve decided to up the rating a bit. I’m still pissed at the company for being so obscure though. *grumble *

This is a really interesting-looking tea with the leaves tightly rolled into thin, little sticks an inch or two long. I couldn’t exactly measure out a teaspoon with my little scoop so instead I just used six of the ‘sticks’ assuming that would be enough.

The description was right when it described this tea as bitter – wow is it ever! I was surprised that something brewed up so clear (only a few shades darker than water) could be so pungent. Maybe I just used too much tea from the start. The bitterness isn’t as bad after the first couple of sips and I can taste a bit of a cool, mint-like quality to it – it gives the tea very clean flavour, too bad it’s almost on par with industrial-strength cleaners.

Normally I’d resteep the leaves, but I don’t think I could stomach another cup. I’ll try using less of the tea next time and see if that help. But for now – bleh!

I’m having another cup of this tea and writing a review of it for the SororiTea Sisters blog.

The flavor is so good – sweet, vegetative and fruit-like! Very pleasant, very soothing, very mild and just perfect.

I don’t know if this is the correct listing for this tea, but, I’ll go with it. What I’m drinking is “Supreme” Dragon’s Well Organic Green Tea, but, I couldn’t find the correct item number even on the website, so… anyways…

This is a very flavorful Dragon’s Well. There is a pleasant fruit flavor in the forefront of the tea. It’s very mellow and vegetative. The more I sip on this, the more I like it. It has such a lovely light flavor. One of the best Dragon’s Well teas I’ve encountered.

I don’t generally like chamomile, but I’m sick, so I’ve been going through my stash of this. I like that this is just straight-up chamomile, not a blend. It keeps the taste mild and not too sweet, so I can add some honey without feeling like my teeth are going to rot. Just a little bit grassy, and a touch spicy in a way that reminds me of cinnamon.

This tea kind of blows my mind. I only had it once, but it was like eating buttered toast with jasmine flowers sprinkled on it. Super rich taste. Since they brewed it in the store for me, I can’t tell you much about the steeping parameters, but I’m fairly certain they steeped it for about 3 min.

An outstanding Oolong. The flavor is so delightfully complex!

The flavor is so smooth and rich. Delicious! I can taste notes of fruit: plum, apricot and lime zest! I can taste hints of wood and the autumn air!

This is really so… so… so… GOOD!

Soothing! Very, VERY Soothing! I think this is a great Dragonwell! Smooth, creamy, true green, clean, semi-sweet! Lovely!

Another SIPDOWN today! This will also be missed. Take a look at my previous notes on this one :)

YUMYUMYUM
A cup hot and another cold both very nice…see my other notes on this!

This has a slight woodsy aroma and on top of that a more charcoal type aroma with hints of fruit…altho I can’t tell you what type of fruit…and it’s more of a rind or skin of the fruit than the actual ‘meat’ or ‘flesh’ of the fruit if that makes sense.

As for the taste…it’s VERY different! Again, taste-wise, I can taste the fruit comparison but it’s more of a rind/zest or skin type fruit taste than the actual fruit itself, I suppose. There is a slight drier-wine type taste so maybe the fruit I am tasting could be comparable to grape-skin type taste!? Not sure…but it’s interesting!

The more I sip the more I like. And the more I am thinking of a wine comparison. There are hints at the strawberry that Shinobicha mentioned…I’m thinking more like the top of the strawberry – like up top by the leaves and stem rather than a plump juicy strawberry. Again…I hope you can picture what I am trying to describe here…lol…

Regardless this is GOOD because it’s interesting and unique and I am enjoying my cuppa!

Enjoying another cup of this today and writing a review for it (which will publish in a few days).

I am getting the most enchanting cocoa notes as well as a nice, caramel-y sweetness and a note of bitter that cuts through the sweetness to prevent it from being too cloying. A very nice tea. This could make a very nice substitution for Dawn!