Single Origin Teas

This is my tea of the morning… yum yum

Steepster is acting weird today and won’t let me add this to my cabinet. Anyway it was an evening of fitful sleep last night (maybe that Kenyan Tinderat last night was a mistake, too much caffeine!) and I felt the need for something strong, yet not too intense this morning. As far as assams go, this is definitely on the more mellow side, with a bright and fruity taste as well as a bit of malt. I’m drinking it this morning with soymilk, it doesn’t really need sugar though you could add some in.

I hope everyone is having a gentle Monday :)

A different kind of oolong! I love the delicate grape and nutty flavor notes, with some floral and woodsy musty. It is like a dong ding oolong and a Darjeeling black had a baby! The tea has a moderate amount of astringency, which gets really strong for the second infusion. The second infusion tasted sweeter and more fruity, but was way too dry for my tastes.

Full review on the blog The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/singbulli-oolong-darjeeling/

from the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

I like this one. It’s still green and floral, but also roasty and nutty at the same time. It has a really nice mouth feel as well, buttery. And it’s nice and sweet.

I think I’ll add this one to my wish list, so I remember to buy it. I’ve decided that there are enough SOT teas that I’m enjoying that I will place an order when my cupboard is back down to a comfortable level. Right now, it’s overflowing (literally. You should see the piles I have elsewhere because they won’t fit in the pantry) and I need to be patient. Patience…yeah, yeah, yeah…how long will that take?

sample provided for review thanks Awkward Soul for hooking me up!

This is one of the tastiest green oolongs I’ve had. Super floral with buttery sweetness and total “pudding mouth” effect! If you like them green and floral this ones for you!

from the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

I’m not sure about this tea. I feel like there’s probably a sweet spot magic for this tea because I didn’t get much from it. It was decent, but after reading other people’s reviews after I finished my cup, I wasn’t getting any of these flavors they were talking about. So I tried a longer second infusion and still none of what they were writing about.

Weird.

So this one was easy drinking and decent, but nothing special or amazing for me. Maybe hotter would have been better? I dunno.

From the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

This is a nice tea, but I probably wouldn’t order it. It’s not spectacular. It’s got a touch of sweetness to it, which is nice, and it’s not overly malty or astringent, and it definitely wasn’t bitter.

As it cooled, I got almost a sweet potato taste from it, which surprised me. I wasn’t expecting that as all. I think that’s the first time I’ve really gotten that sweet potato taste from a tea that people talk about all the time.

(The tea had cooled quite a bit by this point as my husband decided we were smoking pork today, and I was rushing to get it ready to go while he was outside getting smoke going in the modified Weber kettle.)

I think people who drink this kind of tea more would appreciate it and get more flavors out of it.

from the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

This is a nice tea. It’s kind of creamy, but not in a oolong kind of creamy way. It’s different. Fruity. It kind of makes me think citrus, sort of like a grapefruit, but not at the same time.

I would probably order this one, but I’m not sure I need 2oz of this.

In other news, we had a great little MINI trip to see my MINI Cooper friends. Wonderful friends, amazing food, delicious beer and wine, and just a really awesometastic fun time.

From the Unflavored TTB.

Brewed Western style. The dry leaf aroma has grassy, honeydew, and cantaloupe notes, while hay appears and is most prominent in the wet leaf aroma. The pale green-yellow liquor has a light body, and is delicate and airy, smooth, and clean, tasting of sweet grass. I am inexperienced with rarely drink white tea, so no rating for this one. Nonetheless, I still think it’s good – much sweeter than white teas I’ve tried before, has a “head in the clouds effect”. It was a pleasure to finally have a tea from Malawi, and a white tea from Africa. Thank you, Single Origin Teas!

From the Unflavored Traveling Tea Box.

Brewed Western style. The dry leaf aroma smells of maple syrup and caramel, and the wet leaf aroma of chocolate. I intended to use only 8oz of water but overestimated by 100% (I had just woken up….). I thought that the taste would be watered down, and to put in another teaspoon of leaf. But this tea is flexible. The liquor – orange, medium-bodied, and clear – is still flavorful with malt and bitter dark chocolate. It also has a spicy aftertaste, a little like ginger snap cookies. Delicious morning cup!

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #28
This tea was a little tough for my tastebuds to figure out. It had a lighter green tea flavor, a bit on the tangy side. Slightly vegetal. I should have kept enough to try another cup, I doubt I steeped this one correctly. The flavor was too light for me to have much to say.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 30 min after boiling // 2 1/2 min

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #21

I’ve recently learned that if you leave out already steeped leaves overnight, the flavor is drastically different… I never let leaves sit longer than 24 hours. Usually I have black teas/pu-erh all day and then have one cup of white/green/herbal/oolong at night and then leave the second steep until the next night. I thought the flavor difference was just because they were steeped twice. I have to do a better job on not leaving leaves overnight then…

The leaves here are HUGE and rainbowed! Rainbow colors for tea leaves anyway! I’m not sure the difference between a Bai Mu Dan and Pai Mu Tan other than this one is from Malawi and Bai Mu Dan is not. This one is very light flavored. But usually with this type of tea, the second cup is ever better. Maybe I should be rinsing the leaves a little. Otherwise I’m getting hints of fruit, but you can’t really tell what that is yet. A little creaminess. As suspected, there is a ton of extra flavor… creamy sweet candy citrus. It kind of reminds me of the White Rhino I had from Butiki… unless its something else I’m remembering. Sigh. So many teas. Actually, I think it’s just this type of tea that I’m being reminded of… these might be my favorite white teas: creamy citrus. I’m taking a little bit more of this one from the tea box, but there is a ton left! I’ll definitely try a third steep the next go around. Also, I don’t believe cooling boiling water for 2-3 minutes leaves you with 180 degree water like the description for this one says…
Steep #1 // 30 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // 25 min after boiling // 3 min

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #17
I’d agree with everything Veronica said about this one! Malty, with mild spice notes, and very raisin like! The cup is a mid-level strength… so I wish it were more malty and raisiny. Just read her much better tasting note. :D Sorry for the lame tasting notes lately, I’m NOT doing this tea box justice!
Just so everyone is aware, though this tea is good, I’ve tried a few other teas from Single Origin that I liked even more. Keep the Kaporet Kenya in mind as well as the Ginseng Oolong: super-brain-poweriest of all the Ginseng Oolongs. Maybe if I were sipping some now, my tasting notes would be better.

One of the flavors listed is “salty” and sadly that is sort of accurate. It is not as offensive as that may sound but it is also not for me. Thank you Sil for the chance to try it but I will pass on this in the future. (163)

Backlog! From SEVERAL days ago, so all I have is the stuff I jotted down while sipping.

Here goes:

Bitter nut shell.
Citrus.
Maple.
Sour.
Lime.
Rum.

I remember that it did taste more like an oolong than a black tea. The weight of the liquid, the lightness of body and the almost sparkling texture…it was very bright. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I’ll try this again soon, and I’ll make sure to be more precise in my description! Thanks for sending this my way hapatite!

Additional notes: I wanted to try this one again, as I know the parameters I used last time didn’t work. It was the wrong everything. The steeps were closer to ideal than last time, but the second cup was still a little too bitter. This is a picky steeper and cooler water/ less steep time/ less leaves work with this one. I’ll describe the flavors of the first non-bitter steep – it’s more like the flavor notes than before: light, buttery, pastries, maybe a little like jam. Definitely not chocolate to me though. This one is so touchy to steep though, so it isn’t a favorite and too light for me. Though it is a different flavor profile. One serving left, hopefully to perfect the steeps next time! It’s also interesting that one of my favorite OLDER blends of 52Teas is the Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish and the old base at least uses a nilgiri base, so that is probably where some of those butter/jam/ pastry flavors come from!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp// 12 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // few minutes after boiling // 3-4 min

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #2
Oh if only this tea had the flavor notes for me like they did in Kimquat’s tasting note. I’m gonna just copy & paste them right here: “Flavors: Butter, Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Fruity, Jam, Malt, Sweet” That sounds like my favorite tea ever!! I was hoping some would be left when I got the tea box! Sadly, if only the tea had a deeper, darker flavor, it would been a better fit for me. The cup is actually the color of honeybush, so this is as light of a black tea that you can get. I even used two teaspoons. It’s probably the lightest black tea I’ve ever tried, except for some of those golden yunnans but these leaves aren’t gold, they are very dark. So disappointing. It was a sweet cup though, just not enough flavor for my tastebuds to distinguish. The second steep I filled half the mug at boiling and it had a similar flavor. I’m not sure if Kimquat and I were even drinking the same tea, but I sure wish I was!
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // 17 min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min?

I went to the orthopedist this morning for my shoulder and the first thing out of his mouth was, “well we could do surgery” EEEEEKKK luckily he followed it up by saying he’d prefer to do PT and cortisone shots along with NSAIDs for now. Me too!

But now I hurt from his poking prodding and manipulating. Normally I’d go for a standard comfort tea but my shame at seeing the number of samples sitting in my cupboard unreviewed overtook me and luckily this was a nice choice for something light.

Now onto the tea—Fruity! Peachy and light. Very green tasting. My first Darjeeling in a very long time. I’ve forgotten what they tasted like so I don’t know what to compare it to.

The site said to use boiling water that had cooled for 3-5 minutes. I want to know what temp! I guessed 195 and well it tasted good so that’s something?

ETA held up to a second steep nicely. I had no idea if I should try or not but figured worse case I wasted 6oz of water. Steeped for about 3-3.5 minutes. Lighter flavor but more fruity than grassy this time.

An elegant, buttery sweet milk, liliac and lilies and snap pea vegetal oolong! I personally prefer a more oxidized or roasted oolong, but this green oolong was pretty good. I love the thick flavor and the high volume of steeps I got with gongfu short infusions (9!). Four Seasons oolong was pretty sweet – I think this would be a great dessert tea for the tea drinker that prefers unflavored teas.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/four-seasons-oolong-single-origin-teas-oolong-owl-tea-review/

Cards and tea Travelling tea box

I tried this one out today since i am always on the hunt for new straight blacks. However, colour me unimpressed. this has a bitterness and an astringency that i wasn’t a fan of. Mostly just, an average sort of tea, that i can live without. so BOOOO on that!

Trying this again today and I have to admit it is just not a very good yunnan in my opinion. Especially not compared to the ones I have been drinking as of late. Tastes too earthy, almost to the point of being flat and muddy. So while SOT has some really good choices, I wouldn’t say this is one of them. Sorry…

I got this one the other day and am just getting around to trying it.

I accidentally left it steeping too long so I’m not going to rate it right now. It might have been 5 minutes or longer. There’s been a lot of talk about the “barnyard” flavor of this tea. I’m not really picking this up. If anything it seems to be earthy in some ways like a good shu pu-erh is. It’s also kind of chocolate-y and also… savory. It almost seems to me like there is salt in here. So anyway I definitely plan to revisit this soon and rate it, but I’m glad it isn’t as scary ass I thought it would be. In fact, I kind of like it. :)

T&C TTB Tea # 22 Backlog May 30

I had to laugh at this one. I liked how it looked in the bag, all brown and goldeny, so I wanted to try it. But when I read the reviews on Steepster, they all talked about a “barnlike aroma”

And I live in a place with lots of farms and stuff, but I grew up strictly in the city. I don’t DO barns. I don’t do cow poop. I love horses but my husband is deathly allergic so I don’t even get to go near horses. Basically, if it smells like a barn, you won’t find me anywhere nearby.

I thought I’d pull up muh britches and try this one anyway, just fth of it.

So….it tastes like a barn smells.
Um.

People in other reviews are all like “It has a pleasant barnlike taste! That’s a good thing!”

And i’m like – NO. JUST NO.

So I can’t help but wonder if I would have clued in to the “delightful barnyard aroma” of this tea if I hadn’t read the other reviews first.

I tried really hard to disassociate myself from that, and it was a pretty flavorful cup of tea, I will admit. I added milk to make it more of a breakfast tea. It was a hearty, dark, rich liquor.

But ultimately, I’m not interested in drinking anything that reminds me of the smell of a barn. Seriously, I’d rather drink something that tastes like dirty slush from the side of a high traffic road during a Maritime winter. At least that would be ALL CITY, BABY.

hah.

I wasn’t kidding when I said i was going through old teas. My last review for this was four years ago, and here i am still with a tiny baggie of it.

Good news – I didn’t oversteep this time! I think i enjoy Darjeelings. I would like to make a point of trying some more in the future. This was a nice cup to start my morning with.

Where can I get a super delicious Darjeeling?? Any recommendations? (where shipping to Canada isn’t hilariously costly)

T&C TTB Tea # 20 Backlog May 29

I may have slightly oversteeped this one as I got a hint of bitterness, but I really enjoyed this cup.

I kept the sample because I have a goal to experiment more with straight teas like Keemuns and Darjeelings.

I liked the flavours in this one, though I can’t pinpoint them. I have no idea what muscatel is or what it’s supposed to taste like, but people throw that word around a lot for Darjeelings.

I have some left so next time I will decrease the steep time to avoid the bitterness I got the first round.