Tea At Sea

I was trying to find a day I could enjoy many infusions of this tea but that’s not about to happen until the week-end. As soon as I saw the leaves I just knew this was going to be a high quality green tea. The green leaves were curled like an oolong. Even the flavour was a bit like an oolong. Nutty and buttery not grassy. I like grassy but this is very different for a green tea. Didn’t pick up too much fruit notes or seaweed like the others. Maybe with a second infusion. I hope my leaves last until the afternoon. I think I would buy this one from Tea at Sea. It’s a keeper. Thank-you Tea at Sea for the free sample.

Finally cracked open the sample package!
I can’t drink black tea without milk and sugar, so I made this with milk and sugar.
The flavor was lovely and strong but it was missing some “high notes” that i have become really accustomed to in chinese teas, so ( to me) it was missing the rounded-ness and wasn’t was grounded as the chinese blacks i am used to.
Other wise it was a nice tea :) .

And now, the final sample from Tea at Sea. And it’s a sipdown, too!

Dry leaf: Dark and crumbly. It had a very tannin-heavy, tea-y smell that took me back to the kind of black bagged teas I remember. I definitely smelled notes of raisins and caramel. Please note that I am NOT a drinker of black teas, so getting a sample from Tea at Sea seemed like a low-risk way to try and expand my tea horizons.

Steep parameters: I’m not a black tea drinker and didn’t want to split the sample up into two steeps in case I didn’t like it, so I dumped the whole sample into a single steep. So: about 5 tsp of leaf to 24 oz of boiling water. Steeped for 3.5 – 4 minutes for the first infusion.

Liquor: The liquor was a rich, deep, dark amber. The smell reminded me of molasses or raisins – thick and dark. However, the taste was very different. I was expecting it to taste fruity and juicy, but instead it was thin, earthy, and smoky – I could totally taste the cedar notes, as others have mentioned.

Verdict: I’m still not a black tea person, but this was an okay tea. However, it has been extremely interesting comparing all three of the Tea at Sea examples that I got, and figuring out how the different oxidation and roasting processes change the flavour profile of the same tea. The green was floral, the oolong was nutty and mineral, and the black was woody and earthy. Definitely an interesting progression.

This is my second brewing of this tea, and it’s also a sipdown!

First infusion was still fairly nutty. I changed the brewing vessel, though, so instead of using a small glass teapot for the oolong, I just put it all into a big mug. The tea’s continually steeping as I drink.

Because of this, I’m getting kind of a seaweedy taste, but it’s not unpleasant. That said, the nutty savouriness of this tea is still the most strongest element to me. Not astringent at all.

Another free sample from Tea at Sea’s forum thread.

Packaging/Instructions: Same as Tea at Sea’s Indonesian Green: a small resealable bag with the instructions on a separate label attached with a piece of string. The instructions here said 100°C water, and, remembering my steeping experience with their Green tea, followed their advice. I made 4 steeps out of this, each time with near-boiling water.

Dry leaf: I gotta say that the smell of the oolong dry leaf was much less apparent than that of the green, though they appear to be sourced from the same estate. It was sweeter, perhaps, but it didn’t have any of the seaweed smells that I noticed in the green tea leaves. They did look different, though – they were slightly lighter in appearance, and looked to be clumped up like knots rather than pellets.

Liquor: All 4 infusions tasted fairly similar – I detected some nuttiness, but not a lot of sweetness. Oddly, this oolong tasted more like a straight green tea than the green did, and the green tea tasted more like an oolong than the oolong did! The final infusion tasted more mineral than the previous ones did. Also, as the infusions progressed, the liquor changed from yellow with a green undertone to yellow with an amber undertone.

Verdict: Although I did enjoy it, I think I may not have brewed this correctly. I still have half of the sample left to try, so fingers crossed.

This is a good tea. I have been drinking almost exclusively black teas for awhile now, so this oolong was a bit of a change. This is the kind of oolong I tend to like less than roasted oolongs, and this does have the properties I kind a bit less suited to me, which doesn’t mean I didn’t like this tea. The first steeping was bright! It had a thin sharpness which is ideal to me for this kind of oolong. It’s mildly floral, and it manages to be vegetable without being grassy—and I dislike vegetable tasting teas quite a bit. Drinking it was kind of like drinking the experience of spending a bright sunny may afternoon in a very well cultivated park. I know that sounds crazy, but that was the experience I thought of when I first sipped this tea.

The leaves unfolded beautifully when it steeped, and were wide and green in appearance, rolled and bundled before brewed.

The second seeping was also good, and the second steeping definitely held on to the floral qualities. The more vegetable qualities disappeared some, but so did the sharpness of the cup. The second steeping mellowed the tea out. I haven’t yet tried for a third.

Overall, this is a solid oolong, and I would add this to my cupboard in a heartbeat. It’s very tasty, even though it’s different from what I usually drink.

Day 2 of drinking this tea, and now this is a sipdown! My sample has been used up.

When I first received this tea, I thought the label’s recommendation for brewing at 85°C was unusual. Most of the greens that I know of prefer a steep a few degrees lower, and so my initial steep yesterday was at 80-81°. The third steep was done at a higher temperature, and I liked it a lot more.

Today, I steeped it at the recommended temperature, and it’s amazing what a difference that made. Where yesterday the first and second steeps were light and floral, today’s higher temperature has brought out a lot of nutty notes. It’s still sweet, but much deeper in flavour.

I don’t know if I’ll make this a staple yet, but it’s definitely better brewed at a higher temperature.

I got this as part of Tea at Sea’s free sample promotion in the Steepster discussions area.

Packaging/Instructions: The sample came in a small zip-seal bag with the brewing instructions included on a label attached with a string. According to them, it should be brewed at 85°C, but I did it a bit lower for about 3 minutes.

Dry leaf: The dry leaf looks like little dark green pellets, all curled and twisted up. The smell of the dry leaf is strongly vegetal – I noticed seaweed the most, but I do get why others would smell corn silk.

Liquor: The liquor is a clear yellow-green, and smells less seaweed-y and more oolong-y than the dry leaf. This is borne out when I taste it – it reminds me a lot of the lightly-roasted coconut oolong I had yesterday. Not very astringent, but I can detect a floral hint underneath. Orchid perhaps?

Verdict: This is nice, but I think I prefer my green teas a bit stronger. This is a bit too light for me.

EDIT: I’ve steeped this three times now. The third infusion was a bit hotter and ran a bit longer to get more tea out of the leaf. So far, I like the depth of the third infusion best – it developed a sweet/savoury flavour reminiscent of squash.

My second sample from Tea at Sea!

I was most excited by this sample, as it is the kind of tea I like most, light and black. However, I found this tea to be a bit too light. I brewed it for 4 minutes at boiling, and the tea only ended up a light reddish brown color.

The tea leaves themselves are really beautifully rolled, resembling a gunpowder or an oolong, almost, and when I poured the water on them, they released a pleasant earthy aroma. The tea is both very fragrant and very aesthetically pleasing.

As I mentioned earlier (this is a poorly composed piece of writing…), the tea brewed very light in color, and it is also very light in flavor for me. It’s a good tea, and I love the delicious malty afternotes in the sip, but it’s too soft and too delicate for me to appreciate fully. Even though I like more delicate black teas, I like them to have body, and this tea lacks that crucial element for me.

I still have only done one steeping with this tea. I am going to try for a second. I’ll update my tasting note when I do. Overall, I liked this tea a lot, and I so appreciate the free sample. I drink a lot of similar teas that are more suited for my tastes than this one, and for that reason, I like the Ceylon tea by Tea at Sea a bit more. This is a lovely cup, though, and I’m enjoying it immensely.

This resteeped well, and I got a similar pot of tea for my second steeping! I was finished drinking tea by that point in the day, so I didn’t try for a third pot. I’m not sure how it would hold up, since it was so light to begin with.

My 400th tasting note! And the first tea that I am steeping up properly in my new summer apartment. Honestly, I didn’t put too much thought into it. I opened up my tea box, and there it was sitting at the top. The first couple of sips were gloriously sweet and smooth, probably having to do with the fact that I haven’t made myself a proper cuppa in weeks. As the cup cooled and I got down to the bottom, it suddenly became really bitter. I guess this tea was a little more sensitive than I had thought. Nevertheless, a solid choice for this morning. I really needed it because I’m surrounded by boxes and my new roommates don’t seem like the cleanest of folks (but they are nice!). I would probably not repurchase this one just because I have so many other green oolongs that pull ahead of this one, but the sample was nice to have and taste.

Thanks to Tea at Sea for the free sample! A month ago, this probably would have been a contender for one of my favorites, but I have had many many oolongs since, so I’ve become a bit pickier. This one was floral and smooth, which was very nice. However, the flavor was a bit mild for me. Perhaps I should have used more leaf. Also, there was nothing particularly special about it that made me instantly want to order more. I definitely enjoyed it, though, and I would recommend it as a nice oolong, just not the best I’ve had.

I steeped this Western Style, 1 tsp in 8 oz of near boiling water. I might try this gongfu style in the future, but I don’t want to use this tea too quickly, so less tea lets me have more pots.
Steep 1: 3 min. The taste profile was roasted and oolong-y. Maybe a little floral. Definitely rich and smooth with a pleasant astringent bitterness. Yum! This is definitely a high quality tea with a depth of flavor. It required attention, too. I did not want to just sip it and ignore it, it kept catching my attention!
Steep 2: 3 min. Flavors still strong – unchanged, except a touch less better and less malty. But, the flavors were still smooth and it still had a rich quality to it.
Steep 3: 3 min, 30 sec. Significantly lighter in both color and flavor. There is a touch more of a floral taste to this steeping, but overall, the flavor is a bit washed out. I left part of it in the pot to steep longer, and it came out better, but just a little astringent.
Steep 4: 5+ min. Light in color, a pleasant pale gold. Very light in flavor – pretty much just a whisper. I think I need to use more tea leaves to get more steepings. Still pleasant, though, and not bitter.
I really love this tea. It is my first experience with a Da Hong Pao, and I look forward to trying more.

internet dropping. highlights = nice green tea, spinach, tasty, refreshing…would get this one again when i want to rotate a green into my cupboard.

internet dropping like flies in summer… i’ll try and write a proper review of this tomorrow if it comes back up. This is not as oolongy as other oolongs i dislike, but nothing here wows me. prefer the green tea from tea @ sea

Thank you Tea at Sea, both for the sample and for the perfect excuse to put off doing my taxes (tea has a higher priority). This is the last of my samples and IMHO the best.

The dry leaf is dark green and rolled like an oolong. The leaves took a while to unwrap, so I almost gave the tea a longer steep, but 3 minutes is my standard time and I like to have that as my basis for comparison to other teas.

The aroma was earthy with hints of stone fruit and not overly strong. The taste was dominated by the stone fruit flavor, reminding me a bit of a 2nd flush Darjeeling. The flavor was quite strong, with very little astringency and no bitterness at all. This is a style I like. The finish was mostly just an echo of the fruit but went on for a very long time.

My one complaint is in the packaging. Tea at Sea went overboard with the cutesy package: a re-sealable foil package with the name of the tea on a separate tag tied to the package. But when you cut open the package, the label is removed, so I had to write the names of the teas on the package with a pen. They didn’t really think this one through. I just hope the larger packages that they sell are more practical.

Husband, Master of Spatial Relationships, noted that the round tags that came with the samples fit precisely inside the rim of a standard Mason canning jar. We tried it.

The tea itself is a surprise. Tightly rolled leaves, like an oolong, that huge-n up remarkably when you steep. Taste is sweet up front, dark in the back, but a little fruity and oolong-y in the middle. A whole flavor parade.

Resisting the urge to float my cork boat in it. Gotta get to work. Creativity on a deadline.

Samples arrived this week and I am saving them for this weekend when I can take some time to enjoy. However, I have to say something about the wonderful packaging. I put together the little cork boat before I even looked at the packets. And with the cheerful nautical-themed tags and packets, this gets my vote for “most funnest sample packages ever.”

Avast and ahoy—-we’ll dive into ’em tomorrow.

I received my samples today from Tea At Sea and so thankful they have generously sent them. This oolong brews up a yellow/amber colour. The taste is delicious with a bit of the milkiness like the milk oolongs but not overly strong. It’s the same for the floral notes in the tea. It’s a very smooth tasting tea and I could definitely get used to this as an everyday oolong.

Thanks for the samples! This tea has a fresh smell to it, like cucumbers. Brewed for 2 minutes there’s no bitterness or astringency, it’s light and smooth. There’s a subtle chocolatey flavor. At 3 minutes there’s a nice bitterness. It’s good with nothing added or with sugar and soy milk.

The aroma of the dry leaf is pleasantly floral and also smells creamier after being steeped. The liquor, a pale yellow, is full-bodied and rich with a peachy flavor that reminds me of eating freshly peaches in the summer. In this regard, it is evocative of sunshine with a “just right” intensity. The liquor’s texture is clear but becomes just a little creamy after sitting in the mouth for a few seconds. This tea has a tart aftertaste; the peach lingers for in a minute in the mouth.

This tea is like an object lesson in what a difference a little toasting can make. Not bad, but not nearly as deep as the corresponding oolong and black teas. Ah well, can’t win ’em all!