Grace Tea Company

This is a classic, a very nice tea from a company that says they only do a few teas, but they only sell the very best they can find. This Keemun lives up to its name, not smoky like many are but rather richly flavored with a hint of deep red wine. Very nice with sweets.

This was the final tea served at tea party yesterday, and while I love it, I was too busy downing that huge pot of Formosa Oolong and didn’t get around to drinking this! My guest had one cup of it, then went back to drinking Anna’s by Tin Roof Tea because she was really in love with it.

I had planned to make some of my new samples today when I remembered the leftover pot of tea. I didn’t want to be wasteful so I reheated this and have been sipping away at it all morning.

When I heated it and the aroma began to float from the cup, I thought, now THAT is tea. This is a good quality cup of what you expect tea to be. This Keemun isn’t chocolate-y, I don’t pick up lots of cocoa, and it really isn’t smoky. It does have a Winey tang to it that is very pleasant, but it is not astringent or drying. I take it without milk and sugar.

This is listed as an English breakfast tea, but it is equally at home as an afternoon tea, sans additions and served with food or snacks. For tea party today it was served with brownies, strawberries, and blueberries, all topped with whipped cream, plus a cookie plate and Milka Toffee Bars.

This is a very smooth Keemun, so much so that I wonder if some would consider it too tame for mornings. I love it, but I almost exclusively drink it in the afternoon or evening. There are no strong chocolate or roasty aromas and flavors to this, it really is a bit Winey!

Youngest chose Baker Street for today, and I chose this one! This was the first good loose tea I ever purchased, and it is still a favorite. (My early Harney purchases were all sachets.). This is excellent tea, a Keemun that has a little less of chocolate/smoky aroma and flavor, and a little more of the burgundy grape taste. So good! I had never heard of this tea and only bought it because the company has the same name as my tea loving daughter and the tin is beautiful! I display it with two others from Grace Rare Tea on a shelf in the living room. This one is a favorite with guests.

This was the second tea served at tea party today. The aroma grabbed up as soon as I poured. Delicious stuff! This is one of the least smokey Keemun teas I have ever had, and it does have that hint of wine. It is a pretty full bodied tea, not overly sweet but sweet and smooth enough to be enjoyed absolutely plain. Very nice!

This was a tea time treat today! It amazes me how my tastes are changing. I used to think of this as one of my stronger teas, now it is one of my milder teas! And I still love it!
I am better at identifying the flavors and nuances in teas now, and I finally detect that muscatel flavor they mention. This is indeed a refined tea. They refer to it as an English Breakfast and indeed it is keemun, but it is milder than MY breakfast choices and I love it as an afternoon tea.

This is a very nice breakfast tea. I often have it in the afternoon with Pepperidge Farm cookies as well. It is not as strong as some keemuns, being lighter in cocoa notes and lacking smokiness as well. This is a great keemun for people who don’t like strong keemuns. They say it has red wine or muscatel flavors, but so far I haven’t picked that up. I will have to try to sharpen my senses….

Sip down! Wow, this feels like a landmark for me, because this very tin is the first oolong I ever bought.

Grace Rare Tea Company does not disappoint. They don’t have a huge catalog because they chose to specialize and committed themselves to finding the best they could of a few types of tea. They have done that very well.

My weekly tea guest who started out as a lover of black tea is very fond of this one. I will most likely restock it one day, but for now I am removing it from my cupboard simply because I have so much tea. I really have reached a point where my own tea collection is a little overwhelming to me, partly because I feel like there are so many things I need to be drinking, but I am always wanting to try something new.

I have given away one box and one bag of teas just to try to gain control of the stash but more needs to be done. I think a weekend long sample sip down is in order, too!

Formosa Oolong – au revoir! Until we meet again!

I made an extra large pot of this today because I remembered that my guest loved it last time. Today, however, she loved the Anna’s tea so much that I drank mostly this so she could have more of her favorite! I have really been craving oolongs lately, so I didn’t mind!

It was no sacrifice. This is a lovely Formosa oolong and as usual, GRT does it right. My tin is almost empty, but I will keep it because the labels are so cool!

I had this one long ago, before I knew much about different types of tea and what to expect. I wanted to try this one again since I just had my first really premium oolong, and I found it to be light and refreshing. It is definitely a flowery oolong rather than a fruity one to me. I did a short steep since I wasn’t too sure of this one. Might try it again with a longer steep time.

It’s sweet – I almost wanted to ask the wife if she put sugar in it. It’s not overly sweet – but much more than I expected. It has a hint of Darjeeling like dryness/sharpness at the end – but is smoother. A bit earth. I could drink a lot of this.

Drinking this again! I really like this one. Malty, bold, and smooth – seriously good plain or with milk/sugar. After this I only have enough for another cup, but I may save that for a rainy day!

Rich, full, malty, and just bold enough for breakfast or an afternoon break.

This tea is great! Remarkably chewy, malty and bold but never bitter. There is a reason that I find myself wanting this tea multiple times per day!

This is a really great, malty, chewy, smooth, and bold tea. I really like that this particular Yunnan is not peppery, but stays on the malty side of things. I’ll edit as I move through the infusions.

Yes, it is almost 1am. Yes, I am drinking black tea….no, I’m not sure if I will be sleeping anytime soon.
I needed something strong to get the grass taste out of my mouth after the sencha fiasco…this is working and is also very good.

Okay, silly question: This tea tastes remarkably similar to the Golden Monkey sample I’ve had. I know that Golden Monkey is from a Yunnan, but do they do anything special to it for the tea to be called Golden Monkey? Or is this Yunnan pretty much the same thing?

This tea is really, really good. Dark brown in color, highly malty, and slightly sweet – everything I think a Yunnan should be – good for 3 delightful infusions either plain or with a splash of milk.

This turned out better today than previously but it isn’t robust enough for my liking.

This is a decent, basic black tea. I tend to like my blacks teas a little bolder, but this will do in a pinch.

On the plus side, I should be receiving some awesome teas in the mail soon! I placed a small order with Harney and Sons and 52teas this morning!

This tea is very mild to have for breakfast, but it is very smooth. The taste is of a basic black tea without any special features. This is decent, but I prefer my breakfast teas to be aggressive.

And it’s another TeaEqualsBliss tea! Yay!

This one is smooth, mild, woody and a little fruity sweet. Peach is the closest fruit flavor I can associate it with but it’s a little milder and… more fibrous than a typical peach. It’s very typically ‘tea’ tasting with some added light, sweet notes (peach and maybe honey) and faint, woody notes.

Not my typical oolong but still a nice darker one and I like the fact that it doesn’t make me think of cigars. The rating totally reflects my personal tea tastes, not the quality of this one because it is quite nice.
10g/20oz

Vegetal aroma and taste. Pleasant tho. Not overly so. Lightly toasty, perhaps??? Nom.