Tea At Sea

I’m finally getting around to tssting this lovely tea sample from Tea at Sea. Having tasted it I think it fits perfectly in my collection as a nice afternoon tea when I want something that has the brightness of a darjeeling, but the honeyed cocoa notes of many chinese blacks. It has a nice complexity of brightness, spicyness, sweetness and depth, in a light to medium bodied tea with a creamy and syrupy texture. I will most likely buy some in the future.

The dry leaves have bright sharp note of Darjeeling, and a touch of toast and cocoa and lemon.

They are tightly rolled, dark roasted leaves with some stems.

1tsp/225ml @96°C

3min pretty mid amber orange colour
Scent. Lemon, honey, floral (dames rocket), cocoa, cinnamon, smells a little like scented honey over malt.

Flavour grain cocoa note dissolving into honey blended with a cream note with a touch of light floral, with lemon accent. Smooth texture with lemon honey spice aftertaste and a hint of astringency, thinner texture. I would not add milk. Quite a nice afternoon tea. Kind of like a Darjeeling, blended with a lighter bodied, honeyed Fujian with cocoa notes, with the Darjeeling characteristics in the foreground and the Fujian notes lingering afterwards.

330. Strong honey, cut with lemon, green floral, cocoa, hint of amber and a bit of pepperyness. creamy and light with bright top notes dominating.

Resteeps very well. I look forward to further this evening.

Lovely honey cocoa tempered with bright fruit and floral notes. Very nice afternoon tea.

Smell: The smell is strong and malted. It’s probably one of my favourite fragrances I’ve smelled in a while. It’s almost like I was burning an incense. Hmmm..maybe I should use this tea for tea meditation? ;)

Taste: Before I tasted the tea, I was kind of caught off guard and distracted with the little boat they sent with the teas. Every purchase comes with a little cork sail boat made from half of a bottle cork and a paper sail like in my Instagram photo above. After it is steeped, you are left with a lovely reddish brown colour. I’ve been calling it my “down to earth” tea because of all the rich, earthy flavours I am experiencing. I kind of notice hints of sweetness coming from a caramel or honey taste. I particularly enjoyed this blend because of the surprise flavours I am left with through each sip. The flavours are slightly smokey (which I’m not too crazy about, but glad it’s not over bearing!). You can especially notice that in the after taste. It’s a great tea to try out, and you can play with the packaging. What’s not to love!

www.theteacupoflife.blogspot.com

Thanks for the sample, Tea at Sea!

It’s redundant at this point, but I’m going to say it anyway: this is some of the cutest packaging I’ve ever seen. The sample packets are also resealable, which is quite nice.

I went with the company’s suggested steeping parameters: 185f, 2 tsp/16 oz, 6 mins. The brew smells sweet and grassy. It tastes very much like sencha. I’m getting a lot of savory spinach, with a slight drying at the end. For the second steep, I brewed at 195f for 8 mins. It came out smoother somehow. A touch of seaweed flavor peeked out. S’good. A nice, enjoyable cuppa.

By the way, the leaf of this tea expands a lot. If possible, use steeping tools that allow a lot of space for the leaves to unfurl.

It’s worth pointing out that this company had a rocky start on Steepster and has (in my opinion) thoroughly redeemed itself. So props, for taking heed of constructive criticism, being generous with samples, and having a truly good product. Thank you!

This Mountain Organic indonesian Green Tea from Tea at Sea is very good. The flavor is succulent, the liquor pale green, and the leaves unfurl in the manner of oolong, getting better and better with each subsequent infusion!

As this was my final pot, I am now putting this tea—the first I’ve ever tried from Indonesia—on my wishlist. Many thanks to Tea at Sea for the generous samples—you were right: tasting is believing!

second infusion: whoops! I just read at the Tea at Sea website that the first infusion is supposed to be discarded. So that’s why the second infusion is so good—because it’s really the first! ;-)

I received a generous sample of Mountain Organic Indonesian Green Tea from Tea at Sea. The packaging and presentation were truly adorable, and I was intrigued by the appearance of the gnarled knots of dark green tea.

Upon infusion, the liquor was pale greenish yellow, and the flavor seemed somewhere between Mao Feng and Long Jing. A very nice green tea indeed—my first from Indonesia!

The leaves take some time to unfurl, so although I initially steeped for two minutes, I changed my mind and let the brew continue for another minute or so. The resultant liquor tasted very flavorful and succulent. This is definitely a high quality green tea.

I am very much looking forward to the second infusion later on today as a decaffeinated version, as there is clearly a lot more flavor left in these spent leaves, judging by their scent… So far I am impressed!

second infusion: at this point, the leaves have finally achieved their full potential—huge and beautiful like banana leaves. The flavor is excellent. I’ll try a third infusion with so much aroma still hovering above this not-so-spent tea…

third infusion: aroma and flavor still going strong. The liquor is now bright yellow!

fourth infusion: a rarity for me, but the taste is still good. I’m impressed by the huge and bountiful fully unfurled leaves of Mountain Organic Indonesian Green Tea. Who knew how much goodness was crammed into those apparently small gnarled knots! To my amazement, the third and fourth infusions were even better than the first.

Backlog:

One of the most impressive teas that I’ve tried from Indonesia.

A very fresh, uplifting flavor. Soft and silky. Buttery taste and texture. Mildly vegetal, reminiscent of freshly steamed spinach, and with the buttery notes, it becomes a steamed spinach that’s been lightly drizzled with butter. Nice.

But this has a nice complexity to it too, with floral mid-notes, and delicate nutty tones and a fruit note in the distance. One of the sweeter green teas I’ve come across in my tea journeys.

I love the two teas that I’ve tried from this company. Here’s my full-length review of this one: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/02/05/organic-mountain-indonesian-green-tea-tea-sea/

I put this tea in my cup and forgot…its been brewing away but this is such a delightful sweet green it really doesn’t get bitter (just don’t burn it). I had forgotten how much I love it. After my free sample I bought more for myself and my friends. Steeped this long it seems to have stronger cherry and plum notes than I noticed in the past and its a bit less buttery.
Two tasting note in one day and no steepster malfunctions perhaps the whole world is starting to smooth out again? Porbalby not so I’d better just enjoy the tea!

I still love this tea. I received my shipment and it tormented me open me drink me. So I did used 2 tsp in a small tea pot with a long soak and once again it did not disappoint. The liquid is quite pale a very light yellow but the scent and taste are such a deep mix of honey and butter and corn and some fruit, more fruit in subsequent steeping’s. This one is taking me thorugh a logn day of head bashing!

I received this tea as a free sample from tea at sea with the cute boat and packaging. I had time for just 2 brewing’s of the leaves before I had to leave. For the last week I’ve been longing for more of this tea, I drink green tea all the time but this one is fuller, less grassy than most. More bread and wood flavors with undertones of cherry and other fruit, its a most satisfying afternoon tea.

This one behaves more like an Assam than a Ceylon. Lots of rye and raisin personality. Very tasty on a Very Cold, Rainy and Blustery Morning. Rabbit would suggest having a second cuppa instead of going outside. Pooh would ask for a Very Small Sploosh of Honey with it. Eeyore would insist we should all just go back to Bed.

DELICIOUS. It brews golden green and smells like sweet buttery honey cream. I tried it with and without cream and preferred it without. The taste is light, there’s a bit of a… nutty almost(?) and honey taste at the beginning then it fades to a light, creamy marine taste. Being organic is just a bonus! Wonderful! I highly recommend!

It’s fitting to drink Tea at Sea teas with my whale mug! :O Yep, I’m happy with it – can’t you tell?

And I’m happy with this tea as well. The instructions said to steep around 100C, but not for how long, so I went with 2 minutes. I don’t taste the promised honey milk aroma, but I do get floral notes. I re-steeped it for 4, and it’s a little roastier, but still very floral. I can tell that this is a good oolong, but because of the floral notes, it’s not one I would reach for often.

I still am happy I had the chance to sample it. Thanks Tea At Sea!
sipdown (184)

I am very grateful that I got to try this tea from Tea At Sea – thank you very much for the sample! I got two samples that were very different to try the range of this company. This is a basic tea, but well done. I can tell that it is high quality, and has a nice bright taste.
Steep 1: Brisk! It has the classic orange pekoe smell, color, and taste, but it is more refined than others I’ve tried. It is very drinkable and comforting. It is not greatly complex, but that’s okay. I am not looking for complexity when drinking an OP. It is a nice, solid, everyday black tea. I drank it in the evening, but I can see it being a really nice afternoon tea.
Steep 2: I don’t know if I used enough leaves for my first steep, but my second was too weak to drink.

Finally getting around to trying the black tea that Tea at Sea was generous enough to send my way. It was the one i was most looking forward to out of the green/oolong and this one they sent me. What struck me first about this tea is that the little black leaves look more like oolongs that i drink. However, no oolongy weird smell coming from it so i wasn’t too worried. Brewed this up and the aroma was quite pleasant. This isn’t a super bold tea, but it’s smooth and there’s little to no astringency. On the whole it was a much needed pleasant cup to drink this morning. I’d be willing to try this again and maybe check out the rest of tea at sea’s teas :) thanks for sending the samples my way tea at sea!

Sipdown (117)! I only had about two teaspoons of this left, and I realized that I’ve never tried cold brewing a Da Hong Pao before. Given that I love roasty cold brews, I thought this would be perfect! So I took the last of my sample and stuck it in the fridge for 16 hours. In hindsight, I should’ve taken it out sooner because it was a bit strong, but I never remember to take my cold brews out on time.

Anyway, I’m so glad that I tried this one out as a cold brew because now I love da hong paos both hot and iced. There was that signature sweet oolong flavor with the roastiness of a dark oolong. I think that between this one and the hot version, the cold brew is more naturally sweet.

So, this is good news and bad news. Good news because I love it! Bad news because I’m rapidly running out of da hong pao, and cold brews use up more leaf. Oh well, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the rest of this one for now!

Blindly picked a tea just for fun. This was the lucky winner! Has a nice roasted taste like last time. I’m also tasting a bit of a seaweed broth-y type taste. Anyway, a solid tea to accompany me while I work on dreaded biostatistics.

Thank you for the free sample, Tea at Sea! This is the second of the three samples that I’m trying out today. I feel like most of the oolongs I’ve been trying out have been on the greener side, and this oolong is definitely different. It has a dark, roasty, malt flavor to it that was really intense for me on the first steep. I think the second steep really hit the spot because the intensity mellowed out a bit, yet the flavors were there. It was also a bit sweeter, maybe even fruity the second time around. By the third and fourth steeps, the tea was getting weak, so I just sipped on it alongside some dinner and didn’t think too much about it. If it weren’t for my overflowing cupboard, I would probably consider purchasing more of this. Maybe in a couple months…

Thanks to Tea At Sea for sending out samples! I like this oolong, it’s got that floral taste but it’s not too strong for me. It was a really light yellow color when steeped the first time.. maybe it wasn’t long enough but I liked the mild taste and could taste a little sweetness. I steeped it a couple more times and it was good.

Mercy, the size of the leaves when they unroll—big as spinach! Second steep is significantly more floral than the first—tastes a little like lilacs to me.

After half a week of scurry-and-scream (work) and half a week of scurry-fret-panic-no-sleep (parent care), today is a blessing: weather rotten enough to justify staying in and time enough to make a cuppa something to enjoy slowly.

The vendor description calls this oolong " light creamy taste with a hint of marine." I get that, definitely the creamy part; however, my first taste association was sweet white grape juice. It’s not drying in the mouth at all.

Because I failed to completly read the label, I pulled the leaves out well ahead of the 5-8 minute recommended steep time (that’s definitely maritime tea!) but even so, it has a velvety, buttery-rich, texture and is plenty flavorful. Looking forward to the second submersion, cap’n.

Tea At Sea does samples well, and the little cork sailboat is definitely cute! It’s a tasty black tea. It’s got a strong, yummy taste – a little baky, sweet – and went well with my breakfast anpan. Nothing about it that I didn’t like. Happy day… I love Saturdays.

Well! Hello there, Steepsters! I haven’t posted in what feels like years. School work has been taking over my life and I barely have time to make tea. I’ve been sticking to my custom Adagio mix, but today I took 4 tests and didn’t have too much homework so I decided I would try a sample. I remembered that I had this that was mailed a long ago. So, I decided I would give this a shot.

I have not had a straight black tea before, so this should be interesting. The closest thing I’ve ever had to a straight black tea was a bag of Yorkshire gold, but I honestly don’t even count that.

I really enjoy this! It is very smooth and isn’t too overpowering. I am glad I did an extra bit of tea because I think it would have been too weak. I really love that this doesn’t taste earthy. I despise earthy teas. Or maybe I am used to drinking plain green teas that I expect super earthy flavors when I drink a plain tea.

Whatever the case, I really enjoy this tea.

P.s. cute packaging!

got this sample along with my last TaS order – i might have purchased it, or they might have just sent it along, i can’t remember. either way, yay tea!
well, this is a nice good solid black tea. it is, indeed, smooth. HOWEVER i am not the biggest black tea fan in the world. if i am drinking black tea, it is probably early in the morning AND doused in sugar and milk. i don’t prefer black black tea.
this tea is FANTASTIC doused in sugar and milk! but i’m not sure it will serve my purposes for morning black tea any better than the much cheaper PG Tips that i’m used to.
TaS is still a favorite tea company, and i will be ordering from there many times again, i know, but it will not be the Ceylon Pekoe, alas.

I really don’t enjoy black teas but I tried this early this morning. It is a robust black tea with smokey, molasses tastes. It didn’t have the bitter after taste that some black teas do and I could tell this one was of good quality but it’s just not for me.