Green Terrace Teas

Just getting around to trying out this black tea. I almost didn’t brew it this morning. Wanted to go for my ol’ familiar greens. So glad I brewed it up. It’s delicious. This the 2nd black tea from Green Terrace Teas I’ve loved and I don’t normally like black teas!!! It has an aroma like fresh baked bread. Plum sweet taste. Like sweet potatoes too. Very smooth and a bit light for a black tea (another reason I love it). With black teas like this I could very well become a black tea lover.

How have I not reviewed this tea yet? My sample is almost gone! Thank you Green terrace again for the sample!

Yum. Sweet and smooth thoughout multiple steeps. An extraordinary tea, and my first Eastern Beauty! I don’t usually drink tea with food, I think it doesn’t let me enjoy the tea properly, but this brew is robust enough to power through sweet or savory foods. Also good on it’s own to enjoy throughout the day.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

Ok, so after the last surprisingly weak tea, I decided to try another green oolong from Green Terrace Teas to see if it was just a fluke. This time I also increased the steepings.

I did 2 10 second rinses, and 15,15,30,30,60,60 4g 4oz

The first two steeps were stronger than the last tea. Nice butter aroma, but not much in the front and mid sip, and then some floral and astringency at the end of the sip.

I caved and added sweetener. I don’t usually sweeten straight greens or oolongs. It does enhance the flavors a bit. I’m getting some cream and butter and some floral and mineral notes. I didn’t really notice any astringency, but I’m not sure if that was masked by the sweetener or what.

I did something silly. I wasn’t paying attention and added water to the cup holding the fifth and sixth steeps, maybe about 4oz. I was spacing and poured it into the cup instead of the pot. As such I’m not getting much from this. Some very subtle butter and floral notes.

This seems to suit me better than the last one did. I’m getting a lot of buttery notes from it, which I prefer over floral, which is a plus.

Lewis and Clarke TTB

Decided to try this, even though I’m not usually into floral notes in a tea.

I did a 10 second rinse, and then 5,10,15,20,35,50 3g ~4oz water.

The first two steeping are sort of weak. A touch of floral and a touch of butter.

Third and forth steepings are also on the weak side. I’m also noticing a slight astringency.

Fifth through seventh steeping are a little stroger but still really light. A but more buttery floral. But also more astringency. Borderline unpleasant.

I’m really surprised by the lack of flavor I’m getting here. Strange.

The first thing I notice about this tea is that it smells like others I’ve had before. That’s not a bad thing, it just smells familiar, like I’ve had it before…. fruity and like sweet bread? The start of the sip tastes like raisins in honey and finishes with a touch of holiday spices. There is a shadow of molasses in the background, but not nearly as much as in the Honey Black. Following sips give me notes of baking chocolate and very light flowers, bordering on the soapy side of things.

This is a lovely cup with lots of different flavors going on at once. I think this one is a great choice, but I personally like the Honey Black a bit more. Thank you so much, Green Terrace Teas for a sample.

This is an interesting oolong, I don’t know that I’ve tasted anything quite like it. It smells like honey and apples and tastes quite the same, mixed with a bit of floral. I can’t put my finger on what exactly the floral flavor reminds me of, sort of a mix between honeysuckle and rose. It’s really light and lovely. I personally prefer darker heartier oolongs, but I still really enjoy this one. I think it’s a nice summer tea.
These are also some of the loveliest looking leaves I’ve ever seen. Just a beautiful rainbow of colors that unfurl into nice large leaves.

So far: Rinse, 35s, 35s, 45s, 60s…

Additional notes: Thanks for sending a bit of this one a while ago, Beorhthraefn! I’ve had a sample of this before and I enjoyed it. It’s the lightest black tea from the darkest leaves. These leaves look fierce & wicked, but the flavor is honey! It reminds me of Teavivre’s Yunnan Dian Hong Ancient Wild Tree tea but with a lighter level of flavor. It has some of those undertones of tanginess that make it interesting with the honey.
Steep #1 // 10 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // 7 min a.b. // 2 1/2 min

Another tea from before the tea kettle breakage:
Thank you Green Terrace for the generous samples! All three of the teas sound divine and I’m so sorry it has taken this long to review them. I’ve been ‘tea busy’ and I wanted to do a decent job reviewing them. These leaves the wiriest and longest tea leaves I’ve ever seen! The leaves make me expect a dark brew, but I think the name of the tea does a good job of changing my expectations. At first I thought the leaves had the fragrance of sweet plums, then raisins then I thought PRUNES. I used two teaspoons of leaves (really 2 1/2 to make up for how wirey they are).

Steep #1 // 10 min after boiling // 2 min
The cup has the fragrance of buttery sweet butternut squash. The light amber colored cup has the flavor of subtle squash but it also is very much like sweet potatoes. It’s almost like a golden Yunnan without the chocolate notes, but that is such an odd comparison since the leaves here are black and the leaves of a golden Yunnan are gold. I would think the black leaves would have the chocolate notes. But the honey description is accurate. As the cup cools, there is even more honey.

Steep #2 // 8 min after boiling // 3 min
Another cup that almost tastes exactly the same as the first. I’m a little surprised. More squash and sweet potato, which I don’t think many other people are mentioning so far. The flavor is light yet very delicious, something I could definitely crave for a change of pace every once in a while.
GreenTerraceTeas.com

I’m still trying to sip-down all of my samples and, quite frankly, not making much head-way. Thankfully I was craving an oolong this afternoon, so I randomly picked one of the GTT 1/2 brewed samples that I have laying around.

I brewed Western this time, as I did gong-fu previously, and I find oolongs tend to shine one way or the other so I like to try both. This time the first thing I noticed was a scent of kettle corn and a strong hit of cinnamon. That’s a new one for a green oolong! But, oh, is it lovely! It’s creamy and sweet and green with that cinnamon hanging out throughout the sip. I didn’t find floral notes this time which is surprising. (ETA – Second steep is showing some lovely peppery lavender) Still it’s absolutely lovely to sip. I think I prefer this one Western, that cinnamon note is very surprising.

Green Terrace has such lovely oolongs. I only wish they offered smaller sizes in them all. Some have a minimum 150g which is just too large for me, sadly. I’ll definitely consider ordering this one in the future though.

This tea is delicious. It’s smooth and buttery, with a beautiful balance of sweet and vegetal flavors. I usually go for darker oolongs, but I’m really glad I picked this one up. Brewed gongfu I’ve got two steeps out of it so far. The second one is a little more complex, with noticeable vegetal notes that were muted in the first steep and more floral notes coming through. I honestly think it’s creamier than some of the milk oolongs I’ve tried.

I’ll update when I do some further steepings
So far: 15s rinse, 25s, 25s, 35s, 50s(floral notes fading a little here, very creamy)…

3g of this left, so I mixed it with 3g of the Li Shan Black.

Delicious.

I do prefer the Li Shan Black, I just feel the flavours are more in line with my personal tastes. It’s rich and dark the way I’ve steeped it though, with no bitterness and only a touch of the good kind of astringency. :)

I’m updating my tea spreadsheet tonight. OMG. So many teas to add to it. D: Hopefully there will be a lot of teas to remove from it at some point as well…

I managed to snag a couple servings of this and an unopened (!) sample pack of the Li Shan Black while in Toronto at Sil’s.

So good. I’m having this one first as it’s open, and that bothers me… it’s a nice, delicate, sweet tea. I haven’t been drinking teas like this lately, so it’ll be interesting to see what I think of the other as well.

I’ll probably try the rest of this gong fu later today, just because I can.

This tea.

It’s nice enough, but next to the intensity of the Li Shan Black, this tea feels watery and almost bland. It is very gentle and sweet, and would be good for people who aren’t really into black teas. It reminds me of a mild, sweet Yunnan black. Delicious, but totally not my thing.

I… love Assams. Strong, dark, rich, malty Assams. So the Li Shan Black with its intensity and carbiness (ugh, how else to describe?) just works better for me.

Definitely give this one a try, but if you like black teas make sure you try the other one as well. :)

Having this again tonight, and I have 1 tbsp for more in the future! I think I’ll need to buy some of this tea, though. It is SO amazingly good.

Very rich, very thick feeling. I don’t really know how to describe it tonight.

http://instagram.com/p/xYMQD_R5GB/

1st steep: 2 minutes, after a 5 second rinse.
2nd steep: IDK yet. :D 3 minutes
3rd steep: 3 minutes
4th steep: 5 minutes as a yoga break. :)
5th steep: 7-8 minutes I think, and that will be after yoga.

Yum!

Another tea I ordered with the free shipping coupon.

OMG. I think I’m with Sil. This one is better than the Honey Black. Dry, it smells like Terra Chips. Seriously. SO sweet and carby. Just what I want right now.

The depth of flavour is just… more. Way more. The Honey Black was good, but not special enough to me. I’ve had similar teas before. This one is in a league of its own. And the fact I’m craving comfort foods (I am sooo grumpy!) means that this one wins. Haha.

The flavour is sweet, with lots of fried sweet potato (but more like Terra Chips instead of french fries), and a lingering richness. It kind of reminds me of Butiki’s PTA, due to the sweetness. I think. Or another Butiki tea I had in the past but don’t remember. The richness is almost maybe a touch smokey. I think this tea would be excellent with maple syrup or sugar… I’ll have to package up a little maple sugar for The Box when I finally know where to send it. All these samples will be going in there for everyone to have a little taste of as well.

So good. Highly recommend.

(The leaves are quite large, so I used 2 loose tsp in my 12 oz mug. Definitely a tea to resteep, as well. The leaves haven’t reached full potential after a 3 minute steep.)

Flavours: sweet potatoes, fries, wood, roasted plums, buckwheat honey. (Haha. Not all are options, so I’m just putting them here.)

I received this as a free sample and am very happy with the choice, 10g is a lot for free.
I used 4g to 4oz of water and it make a solid 6 steeps before giving up most of its flavor.
It tastes like raisins dipped in a hint of honey or syrup. It was never an overwhelming taste, it went together nicely each time. The finish was wet with a slight honey aftertaste that didn’t stick around long.
Steeps 2-5 were my favorites as they had the most flavor and changed slightly with each steep. Even the leaves had a fun smell after each steeping since they kept changing too.
The color was a beautiful deep gold color at its peak, and smelled sweet to the nose.

This Bi Luo Chun is from Taiwan so it is a little different from one for the mainland of China. It is dryer dark green leaves. That doesn’t stop it from being smooth and soft in the mouth. It has a bit of a vegetable taste and finishes dry in the mouth. Not harsh at all and very relaxing of a drink

Thanks to Green Terrace Teas for the free shipping code! :)

I am quite liking this tea! I don’t have much experience with oolongs, but I have to say that this one has flavours I like. It’s a little green, a little like buttered corn, a little spinachy, and floral. I’ve been sipping on it as it cools, then making another cup.

The first steep at 1 minute was very buttery and very light.

The second steep at 2 minutes smells a little spinachy and very sweet like lilacs, and tastes quite creamy.

The third steep at 2 minutes is very similar to the second. I could probably get more steeps out of this, but instead I am focusing on making cookies and popsicles. :)

Do you have a tea in your cupboard that’s so good it’s a special occasion tea? And you hardly ever get to drink it because it’s that good? This is one of those teas and I resolve to just drink down my good oolongs. Having this in the morning because I never seem to fit oolongs in for afternoon.

I just brewed this Western style this morning. No fuss and took in the aroma and taste of the beautiful floral buttery oolong. Mmmmmmmm. It was nice after doing some Rodney Yee Yoga. I like his calm voice (and he’s not bad looking either!) but he sometimes rushes the yoga moves too much.

I’ve already left a review on this one but am enjoying it this snowy afternoon. A wonderful floral oolong to dream of spring flowers. Today is groundhog day and I can’t believe they got Wiarton Willie out on a day like this. So it’s supposed to be an early spring but two other groundhogs say 6 more weeks. Hope Wiarton Willie is right.

This is a wonderful light oolong. Floral with fruity notes (melon). Only slightly astringent. 3 infusions brewed at 30s, 45s, & 60s. I like the first two infusions better. I think 60s was a bit too much as it give it too much punch. I like my oolongs very light. I think I will try a little more of this later in the day. In my tiny yixing teapot, the leaves were still uncurling with the 2nd and 3rd infusion so there’s lots of flavour left there.

After my really EXCELLENT experience with the Li Shan Black from Green Terrance, I was really looking forward to this tea. Sadly, I did not have a good experience. I tried it first gong fu @ 200F 30/30/1:00/1:30/2 and at first thought I would really enjoy it as it had a gorgeous peach-apricot aroma. Sadly, on tasting each steep was really bitter until the 5th when there wasn’t much left but a hay flavor.

I had enough (the samples are REALLY generous) to do a western style cup, so I tried a tablespoon in 10 ounces of 200F water. It wasn’t bitter this way, but tasted odd and I didn’t finish the cup.

I’m wondering if I got a flawed sample. I’m going to refrain from giving this a numerical rating.

This is such a unique tea! I don’t think I’ve tried anything like it before. The first thing I notice is how rich and dark it is. With just one sip, I notice thick and heavy notes of molasses. I’m reminded instantly of a gingerbread cake – soft, sweet and so distinct. This tea would be absolutely perfect for an evening cup during the holiday season. It really does bring to mind gooey, sticky, dripping molasses. Other cups I’ve had bring to mind a dark honey with stone fruits. I personally have to be in the mood for a tea like this as it’s so deeply specific, but it is very much a beauty. Many thanks to Green Terrace Teas for a sample. This has been a real treat to try!

Li Shan Black is the first of three samples I received from Green Terrace Teas to review. I am out of town visiting my sisters this weekend and while I had tea, I didn’t have the hardware to brew gong fu style as recommended by Green Terrace. So I improvised.

Using a Fiesta Ware cream pitcher, a strainer and some custard cups, my sisters and I had an impromptu session with this tea.

A sniff of the dry leaf in the bag is a big malty, fruity nose-bomb. As these are two of my favorite things in a tea, I was hopeful the brewed tea would taste the way it smells and it did not disappoint.

Using just-off boiling water, we started with 1 minute steeps increasing 30 seconds and went through 5 steeps.

The first steep was malty, with honey-rose scent and a flavor we all likened to apricots. Subsequent steeps continued to provide a sweet, smooth ride. There is no astringency here, just an extremely balanced sweet and fruity medium-bodied cup.

More (including the song) on my blog at: http://atasteofmzpriss.wordpress.com/2014/07/27/li-shan-black-tea-green-terrace-teas/