Great Wall Tea Company

Got this mostly to mix with black tea and to drink in the evenings. Lavender is probably the only floral tea that doesn’t taste… floral. Or at least not like perfume. It’s more like a mild spice, something like sage. It’s also a very clear brew. Just a faint green. Maybe it’s just because it’s a bit old, but it’s not a harsh tea, though you get something medicinal in the back of your throat. Not as prominent as the lavender in the lavender-chamomile blend I got for Christmas.

Weird thing to be drinking while listening to David Bowie and also trying to read research papers on glaciers for class.

This is another one that’s really good as a cold-brew. Smooth black tea with a refreshing blueberry flavour!

Better than David’s Tea Pumpkin Spice tea.

I got a sample of this while I was in Vancouver, just trying it now. Wow, there are a lot of different opinions online about how to brew genmaicha! I ended up going with 5g of tea for 10oz of water, 80 C, 2min. This is nice. Mellow green tea base, no bitterness, and lots of toasty flavours from the rice. There’s an underlying sweetness that I wasn’t expecting, and is quite nice.

eep…yeah this one was a no go for me as well omgsrsly I tried a lower temp and a shorter steep and it was just not doing anything for me :( thanks for letting me try it though ‘cause it’s something i would have been drawn towards!

omgsrsly passed this one on to me. Having not had any teas from the great wall of tea company yet, i was intrigued. While i didn’t hate this cup of tea, the tea is a little on the bitter side which kept me from really enjoying the pumpkin spice aspect of things. The flavouring wasn’t terrible but given my love for the pumpkin ginger tea that terri found us, this one falls short heh thanks though omgsrsly!

The steeping time on this depends on how you make it. You either make it gong fu style with more tea, tell water, less time and more steepings or you make it western way.

I would suggest considering washing the tea first by throwing out the first steeping which is said to only have some colour and dust in it.

That would be 15-30 secounds at full boil or just under then throw away this and potentially doing a secound wash for a couple secounds. After the first brew increase the time based on what it tasted like (or decrease it).

Awesome

(264) I actually really like this tea. A good sour cherry flavour, with some sweetness and juiciness from the fig.

I will definitely get it again, but probably not from this company. I just haven’t been wow’d, and it’s easy enough to add a bag to a Tealux order (it’s Cherry Fantasy). If I find I’m craving this tea then I can go pick up a sample pack, but I’ll probably just wait.

(1.5 tsp in 10 oz water)

Not bad. This one will stay in my cupboard, I think.

A 2 minute steep worked way better. It’s definitely cherry. A little tart, though. Is there hibiscus or rosehip in here? IDK. Waiting for the ingredients.

There are slices of freeze dried green figs, though. Can’t really taste them, I think they mostly just contribute to a sweet tea flavour.

I got a whole cherry in my scoop. I think I’m going to eat it. (Edit: OMG THAT WAS SOUR!)

This tea didn’t work for me either. I steeped 3 mins at 195C. Next time I’ll try 2 minutes. It smells pretty good – at least the flavouring isn’t strong alcohol like the Pumpkin Spice – but it didn’t translate into the cup. I mostly got overbearing base.

I didn’t add anything to the tea when I tried it, and my kitten is super sick right now so I’ve only been taking sips here and there of the teas I’ve been making. I’m fully prepared to admit to Operator Error.

This smells so extremely boozy. I think a lot of their teas are flavoured with alcohol-based flavourings rather than flavour oils, as “alcohol” was a prominent note when I was sniffing all their teas the other day.

This tea is warm brown sugar, rum, and cinnamon. There are apple pieces in it, but I can’t taste them. I also can’t taste pumpkin. I taste alcohol.

Not a favourite. It might be improved by some airing out, so I’m going to put it on a bookshelf, open, to see if the alcohol taste/smell diminishes a bit.

Not sure what makes it “roasted”, but there’s a nice pear scent, and I do get a bit of pear in the cup as well.

Hot banana just smells bizarre. This was gifted as a sample during my latest visit (I was there when they carried in a new shipment, and this was one of the new teas included). I don’t know if I’m liking it. Dry, the smell was just “dried banana” (my dad used to dry fruits). Again, brewed, hot banana smell. It’s just odd.

The taste of the banana is very mild—barely there. It does come back in the aftertaste a bit, and there’s a natural sweetness that lingers. I probably won’t buy it, but I’ve got a good sized sample to play around with.

Edit: There was another, odd, drying taste that I thought might be the tea base, but no—or well, maybe it is—but it reminds me of banana peal. Definitely.

As someone who rarely drinks green tea when it’s not mixed with black, I was a little obsessive today that all the parameters were perfect. So as a not-really-green-tea-drinker, I’d get the best out of it.

I got this as a sample from the Great Wall (they shower me in samples). Smells like slightly overcooked rice. Sadly, their giant tin didn’t have any rice that had managed to actually pop (I like calling it popcorn tea).

First sip… Is actually very pleasant. I can definitely get the toasted rice, and the green tea managed to turn out enjoyable and mellow. I remember trying some from Murchie’s very-cold-sample-pot. Tasted cold and slimy.

This is nice, though. Toasty. I could see me carrying this around in my tea libre.

Green’s coming out a bit more as it cools, but I’m still liking it.

I went to remove this from my cupboard as I finished it off, only to realize it was never in my cupboard to begin with.

Huh.

It seems I am sipping a phantom tea.

Finishing off this one.

I have no idea what’s in this, but she gave me the very last of the tin as a sample. There was just enough left for a cup.

I just know it’s black and green tea… And I can taste that. But there were also some huge purple-yellow flowers mixed in this (I had to pick them out to get a proper scoop, they were bigger than my teaspoon; I put them in the infuser with the tea, though—I just needed them out of the way to scoop better).

There’ll probably be information once they get their site up. There’s a sweetness, though. Maybe from the flowers. Reminds me of grenadine or whatever from Monk’s Blend.

There’s a touch of bitterness, but I didn’t very strongly take into consideration how much green tea might be in this, so it’s probably from that and the hotter temperature/longer steep time. Still, the bitterness and the stronger black tea does impart a “breakfast blend” feel. The sweet flavouring is just a nice touch.

Mmmm blueberries. The smell’s strong in the leaves and in the cup. There were a few freeze-dried ones in the tin as well, although I don’t know if any of them actually made it to my sample packet.

I also think I’m smelling a bit of… liquorish? How odd. Although, blueberry and liquorish doesn’t seem like too bad a combination.

First sip… Still quite hot… Oooh, blueberry. Yup, I don’t think this is going to be one of those sissy barely-there flavoured teas. Still, probably shouldn’t be eating spicy pizza at the same time. Totally going to/may already be ruining my tastebuds for the experience.

Aah, but I’m getting a sweetness and the blueberries are in your nose. There’s a bit of a tang in it, from the berries I suppose.

The tea itself is very mild, which does good with the blueberries. I will have to type out a more detailed ramble when I’m not eating pizza with this.

Made this in a mug. As always, very strongly floral, not strongly vegetal. It’s gone cold now, but it’s even great cold (I should ice it). There’s an almost cream essence when cold—mouthcoating, maybe. One of the few greener oolongs that I’m finding I quite like.

Made this in a gaiwan. It’s powerfully floral this way. Very distinct sensation of sticking your face in a bouquet.

Continues all through the sip, with hints of savoryness and faint minerals.