Tea At Sea

A full-bodied and flavorful tea with a lovely golden liquor, which is smooth and slightly creamy. It fills one’s mouth with chocolatey and caramel notes, and is evocative a sweeter Chinese black tea. The rolled leaves smell of earth, and, after they’re steeped, of malt.

Today is cold and overcast and rainy. This is the kind of tea that gives one hugs and helps one get through days like these.

Thank you, Tea At Sea, for this sample!

I also got a sample of this for free from Tea by the Sea, and I’m excited about it. I always feel really special when I get free samples. First off, the packaging is ADORABLE. I guess that’s kind of a petty place to start, but when I opened the package, I noticed immediately how well marketed and how cute the packaging was. I hope the company continues this trend, because I smiled.

I’m drinking the tea now, and it’s a solid tea. I’m not much of a Ceylon tea fan, honestly, as I find it to be a bit too astringent for me. This tea I enjoy, but it’s not a tea I would pick up on my own (I’m thrilled about the other sample, though, which I will be reviewing and is much more up my black tea ally). This tea has the qualities of a Ceylon tea for sure. It is thin and sharp and also a bit sweet with a definite, and I can’t think of a better word for it, black tea taste. I would describe this as a significantly elevated Lipton bagged tea.

The tea in the package was a dark leaf, loosely rolled, and even though the leaves looked small to me, when it brewed, the leaves expanded significantly. It looked really pretty while it brewed. The color of the brewed tea is best described to me as auburn. It was a red-tinted brown, and it looked like a dark orange when it brewed.

Overall, I like this tea. I would certainly drink it again (very willingly) although I wouldn’t pick it out for myself.

Lovely grassy tea. The seaweed notes are especially nice. It must be the same type that they use heavily in China because I can’t stop thinking about my trip to China when I drink this. Quite an enjoyable tea none the less. And somehow, it still tastes good even though I steeped it way too long.

Honestly, I’m kind of running out of things to say – I just really like black tea, and there was nothing particularly disagreeable about this one. I really appreciate the sample from Tea at Sea, all of my interaction with them has been incredible.

Thank you for the free samples, Tea At Sea! I also love the little paper/cork/toothpick sail boat that came with the samples. It’s sitting on my shelf right now. Usually I don’t love Indonesian black teas but after trying this one, I might have to decide that I can’t ever say I don’t like a tea… especially if it’s a black tea. The little bundles of black tea leaves have a reddish tint to them. Usually Indonesian teas are very light flavored and sometimes like charcoal, which doesn’t suit my bold and robust black tea tastes. But this one was a nice change from the usual today. Yes, it’s light, but the flavor that is there is nice. Slightly charcoal, but very sweet. I love the fragrance coming from the cup. My tastebuds might not be able to notice what I love about this one, but I do.. and that is saying something if this type of tea was previously one of my least favorites.
tea-at-sea.com

Thanks to Tea at Sea for providing me with this lovely sample. As others have noted they have lovely packaging even these samples come in lovely resealable packaging with cute graphics.

This tea is tightly rolled like a green oolong. It is not smooth and smokey like a gunpowder green tea, but pellet like light to dark olive nuggets that smell of seaweed, dried alfalfa and a touch of red clover flowers.

I steeped 1 TSP in about 135 ml of water and got 4 good steeps out of it (45, 60, 80, 100s) at about 85°C.

The tea brewed to a nice bright yellow tinged green initially smell in of a light and soft slightly spicy floral with alfalfa underneath, becoming both sweeter and nuttier with later steeps.

The tea itself had mostly a rich smooth taste with the flavour initially more savoury and becoming sweeter and nuttier.

Flavour notes I noted were: slight spinach note, hay, clover, butter, plum, apricot, cream, honeydew melon, choclo ( a type of corn), alfalfa, buttery sweet greens, clover nectar, cooked peach, and chestnut.

Altogether a nice, smooth, and mild green tea.

I steeped this western style in order to permit multiple cups from a sample. Thanks to Tea at Sea for the sample.

I’ve been trying to reduce my stash lately so this is my first new tea since Christmas. I’m excited. The dry color is quite green. The aroma is grassy, with a hint of veggies. Feels very full and rich in the mouth, even with a small sip. Very green in style, with grass and straw flavors but not the spice I usually see in an oolong. Clean and balanced in style with a bit of astringency but not a hint of bitterness. Not overly complex. Long but modest finish.

I’m not a big fan of green teas, so this tea is on the wrong side of the oolong style spectrum for me. However, it is very well made and would be a good oolong for a fan of the greener style of oolong.

I haven’t had much luck with Ceylon teas in the past, largely I think because they are relatively simple compared to the Darjeeling and Chinese blacks I usually drink. Still, I took advantage of Tea at Sea’s generous offer of free sample in hopes that maybe this would be the one.

The aroma in the cup wasn’t strong but held hints of malt and vanilla; a promising start. However, I couldn’t fine those flavors in the taste: just a relatively straightforward breakfast tea style. Not bad, but not the sort of tea I crave.

Thanks again to Tea at Sea for the sample

wow, took quite a while for the tightly curled leaves to unfurl. definitely 8+ minutes!! although it was past the recommended steeping time i wasn’t worried since this is an organic tea, and in my experience, they tend to have a very clean flavor & aren’t dramatically altered by oversteeping.

the aroma of the infused leaves reminds me somehow of corn. not really getting seaweed, grassy or vegetal notes, although this has a ‘green tea feel’ for sure but not a typical one, at least not for me. if i’m not mistaken, this tea tastes an awful lot like Stash’s Organic Premium Green (one of my favorites!)….the liquor is even the same color. in my cup it’s a light yellow/peridot, but in the tea maker it looked like more of a jade for some reason. the leaves are a rich dark olive green.

ultimately, the flavor is light and clean with an astringent bite, and i feel like there is a predominant corn note, but not a sweet corn. i will say, this tea got increasingly bitter (almost tart) as it cooled down, but i blame my steeping parameters. perhaps it wasn’t necessary for the leaves to unfurl quite so lavishly? 5-6 minutes might have done the trick. but it’s nothing that ruined this experience for me as i quite enjoyed it, and interestingly enough, as i said before, it reminded me of Stash’s Organic, a green tea i am thoroughly impressed with!

my first experience with Indonesian tea. cool!

thank you so much, Tea At Sea for your generosity in sending out free samples for everyone to try!!

Decided to try this one next and save the green tea for tomorrow. I haven’t had a lot of experience at all with oolongs (if I’ve had any; I can’t remember, but this may be my first), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

The rolled-up leaves looked cool, and made a satisfying clinking sound when I dropped them into my French press. The leaves looked small, but as soon as I poured water over them, they began to unfold. I was really surprised at how big they got; I suppose even the loose-leaf tea I’ve had hasn’t been all full leaf, because this was like nothing I’d ever seen before; the leaves looked like they completely filled the water.

The first cup was close to the color of a green tea. The aroma was floral, and the taste was lightly floral, as well. It was very smooth. The second steep was similar, but the floral notes were more prominent, and it tasted even sweeter. This tea was simply delicious; I’m not sure if all oolongs are this good, or if it’s just this particular one, but I’m excited to try more at some point. A wonderful cup of tea (I might go try a third steep soon)

(Edit: Third steep was also delicious)

This was my first free sample from Tea At Sea! I’m happy they are providing us a chance to review their teas, and I adore the packaging these came in. The little cork boat was an awesome add-in too!

I only asked for 2 samples, and they snuck in a third. So they get bonus points there!

Now I thought I’d try this a tea that’s not too challenging, and I was right. This is a nice pekoe, but doesn’t seem to have a lot of depth. I’m enjoying it but I’m not lingering over every sip. I would drink it if I had it around though!

I’m far more excited about the other two samples though, and this one doesn’t disappoint. I just want the other ones more. :D

I LOVE Tea at Sea’s teas! The two samples that they gave me are like.. really nice quality.
Tea leaves dry are rolled up so tight, and I actually brew my tea in a mason jar (because I’m a cheapo college student and it has the oz. markings already so I know how much water to put in for however much my tea weighs) and THE LEAVES JUST EXPAND SO BIG AND IT’S SO FREAKIN GORGEOUS AND I LOVE IT WHEN YOU SEE NICE AND BIG FULL LEAF TEAS IT’S SO PRETTY. I SEE THAT THE TEAS TAKE UP LIKE NO SPACE AT ALL IN THE MASON JAR, I DO WORK AND MY TIMER DINGS, AND THEN I LOOK UP AND BAM THE LEAVES HAVE EXPANDED AND ALL YOU SEE ARE THE LEAVES EVERYWHERE IT’S GREAT.

This is a sipdown, and I’m partial for it to go. Like it’s a really great quality tea, I’m just not so big on the flavour? It tastes like.. it has a hint of seaweed so I don’t know if I like it all that much. I know that I absolutely love the Black Oolong so when I finally finish off that tea sample, I’ll be quite sad.

We made fresh pasta in cooking yesterday and we learned about the 4 different types of pasta. I was curious where gnocchi fell into the categories and Chef Brown said it was considered a dumpling. Huh. Good to know!
Well because of yesterday, I found out how EASY it was to make fresh pasta! The dough itself is fairly simple, it’s the shaping of the pasta that’s pretty time consuming.

Because of that, here I am drinking my Indonesian Green from Tea at Sea as my potatoes boil to make gnocchi :) I’ve never made gnocchi before, but I have made fresh pasta… like five times already soo EXPERIMENTATION! And if this comes out to a success, looks like we’ll be having fresh gnocchi in like a pesto chicken sauce in my next dinner party :)

Okay, tea time!
Tea at Sea seems like such a great tea company! And their packaging is SO FREAKIN CUTE.
This tea smells like any other green tea, but I know with my experience from the black, the actual taste of it is soooo much better! I’ve got high expectations for this tea!
Oohhh it smells like a bit of a roasted tea as it steeps! It’s actually fairly light green in colour.
Nice and smooth in taste. Between this and the black, I like the black a bit more. But good nonetheless :)

Well…. I have to say I’m impressed. The tea is delicious. I got this as a free sample which arrived yesterday in a beautiful packaging with the cutest little sailboat. :) Thank you! I’m loving the fact that the sample packets have little ziplock although for this tea I used the whole packet. I like to overleaf my oolongs and steep them at a shorter time, allowing for more steeps. :)

The dry tea smelled delicately vegetal. I steeped it at 90C for 1 minute. The resulting liquid was pale green/yellow with beautiful sweet floral aroma. The taste – exquisite. Really lovely. It was just right amount of floral, a little vegetal and creamy with sweet notes of honey. Everything I want in oolong was present.

My second steep was 1.5 minutes long and the resulting cup once again full of aroma and flavour. There was a milkiness to it that I would associate with natural milk oolong… Yummy!

I will continue steeping this and see how far I can take it. I will say again… I’m impressed. I’m definitely considering a purchase.

Edit: I forgot to mention that before the first steep I rinsed the leaves and waited 30 seconds to wake them up before proceeding further.

Realized after trying this tea that I’ve never been much of a straight black tea drinker. Nothing against them, I just prefer flavored black teas it appears. As far as this tea goes; it’s pretty solid. Though I’m tasting some weird things…. like mac and cheese. My it’s because I’m pregnant. Or maybe the cedar notes reminds me of mac and cheese? Odd. I suggest trying it when it’s cooled off a bit when its hot I don’t find the flavor very appealing.

Received the samples yesterday—a big thanks to Tea at Sea for their generosity! First up was the Mountain Organic Indonesian Black Tea. Back when I was a coffee expert, I really enjoyed Indonesian coffees, so I was curious to try a tea from Indonesia (I think Assam, Darjeeling, and Kenyan were the only kinds of black teas I had tried before, and the Kenyan tea only in a blend). Opening the package, the tea smelled good. Very good. I scooped it out, and it came to just about two teaspoons full. The leaves were nicely rolled, and included some twigs, as well. It’s at times like this, when I come across a tea that might not measure the same as others, that I wish I had a scale, but I decided to just go by amount instead of weight, as I usually do. Boiled water and steeped for a little over four minutes.

The smell of the tea itself was earthy, with perhaps a hint of smokiness. The taste itself was intriguing—very different from other black teas I had tasted. In fact, its slight vegetative flavor reminded me somewhat of a green (but it was definitely still black, retaining that oxidized flavor). Mellow and delicate like a Darjeeling, but still with a bit of a nice kick. Low astringency, very little bitterness, and a pleasant aftertaste. If I weren’t poor, I would definitely buy a tin of this tea (and this will probably be one of the teas I ask for once Christmas comes around again, or if anyone decides to give me a random tea present). Excellent tea!

Yesterday’s leaf. This is even more delicious than yesterday. Honey sweetness, orchid floral, and something lightly spicy. Much happiness in my belly.

I used a couple ounces more water than intended but the results were good. This is a solid contender for a everyday oolong. The liquor is highly floral scented and a lovely green. The cup is much more behaved than the aroma might suggest. It is buttery, tasting of honey with a spiciness that reminds me of mild ginger. Reading the description I see orchid mentioned and yes I think that nails what I’m getting later in the sip. The aftertaste is sweet but dissolves into a drying sensation without really seeming astringent.

My favorite thing about this tea is though it smells highly floral, the taste does not overpower your senses with flowers. This is a smooth and gentle cup. Not being in love with oolongs, I found this to be an interesting and delicious cup.

I enjoyed this very much! I got a free sample from the company and I am glad I did. It is a very traditional green, but of good quality. It is definitely fruity but has a little astringency. I like it!

SCREAMING BECAUSE I JUST FINISHED MY LAST FINAL AND I WENT TO CHECK MY MAIL BECAUSE I WAS EXPECTING A PACKAGE FROM MY PARENTS AND THEN I FOUND ANOTHER PACKAGE TAPED TO MY OTHER PACKAGE AND MISSB GOT ME TEA AND I’M ALL WHAT WOW OKAY THEN AHHHH I’M LITERALLY SITTING IN MY ROOM SCREAMING BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW WHICH TEAS TO BRING BACK HOME FOR SPRING BREAK

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But yes. THIS IS A GREAT OOLONG AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH and when I get money, I’m totally going to buy more tea from Tea at Sea because that tea company is GREAT.

This is a sipdown, but the count doesn’t even matter because I FREAKIN JUST GOT LIKE 15 NEW TEAS FROM BONNY LIKE NO THIS IS GREAT BUT AHHH TEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEATEEEEAAAAAAAA

MY ROOMMATEA ARE MAKING FUN OF ME BECAUSE I’M FREAKING OUT BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE EATEATEATEATEATEAT AHAHHAHA OH MY GOSH WHAT IS THIS WHAT IS MY LIFE.

Disney application was sent last night, checked my email the second I woke up and “Based on the information you provided in your application, you have been selected to participate in an initial interview for a possible opportunity with the Disney College Program.” I’M DYING. I actually thought I wouldn’t get through to the Web Interview because I was so specific with my role choices. Going to do the WBI sometime after class and oh my gosh WHAT IF I DON’T GET THROUGH. It is so much more nerve-wracking. I’ve done a program once already, so to all my friends and family, it’s kinda expected that I’ll get accepted again and if I don’t, it’ll be such a huge disappointment.

Ahh okay. But let’s get on with the tea!

I was SUPER excited to get my Tea at Sea samples in the mail the other day! I definitely wasn’t going to drink it till this weekend, but I’m so scared for the DCP, I NEEDED the black tea to calm me down a bit haha.

Dry, the leaves look gorgeous! Smells like a typical, nice and smooth black tea.
Steeping, the aroma really did come out a bit more. It wasn’t as dark as some of my other black teas, but the aroma. Dang it smelled sooo nice! I poured it through my strainer and the leaves just unfolded soooo nicely. Ahh I kinda just love the concept of tea and how you just let them soak in water and BAM FLAVOUR and the leaves always look gorgeous!
I’ve left it to cool down a bit, but now it’s a drinkable temperature and WOW THIS IS GOOD. The flavour is so nice and smooth! There a bit of a punch the second it hits your tongue, and it mellows out a bit. Does that make sense? Oh I don’t even know. I just know that I like this tea hahah.

This has a very fruity and honeyed taste, and a strong aroma! I was taken aback by how strong. It is a bit smokey, but isn’t overwhelming. I really appreciated this free sample, and I really enjoyed this overall!

I received this sample from Tea at Sea. I am not generally a green tea drinker. This seems a usual green tea, somewhat vegetal and grassy. I do not detect any fruitiness or seaweed, as the company has described. Just a usual green tea. I do like their oolong very much though.