Tealux

I polished off my 25 gram envelope of Tealux Cloud’s Green today, which turned out to be a perfect post-lunch brew to follow a frittata of baby kale, swiss chard, and spinach made with parmesan and romano, some sautéed red onion and mushrooms, and served with the final hunk of a loaf of rye-whole wheat white bread slathered with butter. Yeah, that’s right: slathered.

I wanted a more robust tea, given the dark vegetables in the egg dish, and this was entirely compatible! The dried leaves look a lot like the Mao Jian from Nourishtea: wiry and crisp. I wonder whether these teas are related? Well, I’ll probably be restocking, so I should be able to do a steep off at some point in the future…

I brewed up a large tetsubin of Cloud’s Green today, using a liberal amount of dried leaves, as a result of which I now have a much clearer concept of this tea than I had the last time I tried. It’s really very good, with a completely distinct personality from other greens, whether Chinese or otherwise. I find the strong vegetable quality very appealing, and I can certainly see reaching for this particular tea to imbibe alongside savory lunch fare. The flavor is not at all like roasted spinach or green beans. This seems more like artichokes to me. Yum!

I decided that it was about time to try some of the other greens in my cupboard, having been obsessed lately with Mao Feng, Long Jing, and Sencha. I ordered a number of 1 ounce envelopes from Tealux, in the hopes of educating myself on the wide range of green teas out there, way beyond my ken.

This one, Zhejiang Cloud’s Green, brewed up golden (not green), and was somewhat redolent of dark green vegetables, but not exactly spinach. It actually reminded me a bit of Teavivre’s Mao Feng. I’m going to have to brew up another pot or two before I can decide what I think about Cloud’s Green, which may simply fall into a category yet to be recognizable by me. I lack at this point a concept of this tea.

second infusion: same story—still not clear on the concept here, and the brew is just like first infusion!

It’s 1 a.m. and I can’t sleep so of course I decided it was a good time to sample teas. Woo-hoo for sleep deprivation! At least it’s keeping me away from late-night shopping on tea sites.

This tea has a nice cherry aroma and the flavor reminds me of a flat shirley temple… but with way less sugar. Again, I’m tempted to add cream just to see if it turns into a cherry cream soda. Hmm… maybe it’s sleep depravity coupled with the heavy rain that’s brining out the mad scientist in me because I’m suddenly tempted to experiment by putting this in my soda stream. I better wrap up the tea tasting before things get out of hand.

Tulsi is very strong flavoured in this tea with a bit of green tea and very mild jasmine in the background. Tulsi is supposed to be relaxing and green tea a stimulant. So far I think the Tulsi is winning. The taste combination takes a bit of getting used to but i could enjoy it as a relaxing cup of tea.

I needed something with no caffeine as I overdosed on tea yesterday. This one smelled kind of perfumy in the bag and I could pick up the cinnamon. Brewed up I can taste the pear faintly . There’s nothing really holding this mix together. I think adding a white tea would give it a little base and dimension. However then, it wouldn’t be caffeine free would it? As it cools down a bit I am getting a bit more of the flavour: Popcorn, faint cinnamon . It’s not a bad tea but I’m glad I only have a sample size of it.

SIPDOWN! This tea was OLD (from last year) but still tastes great. One of the few roasted oolongs I love.

It’s like this tea is just on the border of being a black tea but not quite. It brews up a rich dark color like a black tea with a malty flavor and just a touch of the creaminess. It doesn’t have any bitterness or harshness that I find sometimes in black teas. Well, of course it’s not a black tea. It’s an oolong.
As this cools down a bit more it’s even more delicious. Got caught up in a conversation with my mother in law forgetting about my tea and then I took a sip. Wow! More milky notes coming through along with the dark robust malty flavor. What a treat!

Second Infusion and it seems to lose the milky flavor and less malty. More like a black tea. Not too thrilled with the 2nd infusion but maybe I didn’t use enough tea or didn’t let it steep long enough.

Thanks to Raritea for a sample of this one from quite a while back :) I’m trying to get a few sipdowns out of the way today… just to make myself feel better. Haha. I so shouldn’t have placed those two joint orders…

Anyhow, it’s not bad. Does kind of taste pumpkiny, and spiced, but it’s not quite the way I’d like a pumpkin spice rooibos to taste. Maybe a bit light on both? I’m not sure. On the plus side, the rooibos is just fine here – no weird aftertaste or anything, so it’s a perfectly enjoyable cup, just not quite what one would hope from a tea with such a name. The spicing in Della Terra and Butiki’s pumpkin teas is definitely superior.

I only had a sample size of this and today is the last cup. I thought I had left a review but it appears I didn’t. I won’t be buying this tea again as the hibiscus notes are just too strong. It’s a bit like that sour orange from Tazo Wild Sweet Orange and hibiscus too. Not totally bad. … Okay, I just added a bit of sweetener to it. I never add sweetener to my tea but this one needed it. It really smoothed out the sour edges and made it tastier.

Bold spinach-y flavour- almost bitter but not unpleasant. Medium-thin mouth-feel.

This was from my Black Friday Tealux horde and was chosen at random for tonights bedtime tea.

The raw blend smells very spicy with strong cinnamon and black pepper notes but with cardamom in the background adding touch of freshness.

Flavour is fresh and fairly light with cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and sweet flower notes. It’s got a nice spicy quality but is equally floral too which is helping to keep it light. I’m drinking my Chai without milk or sugar and if I’m honest I think it’s too light for milk and the sugar would overpower the spice. So for me plain is just right.

It’s a nice Chai blend and the flowers go well with the spices but I don’t think it’s going to beat a classic Chai.

I had this tea before and reordered. It’s an excellent sencha but their instructions are to brew it for 2-3 min. I did 1 1/2 and it was a tad too long. It was sweet but with a slight bitter edge. The brewing time needs to be under 1 min. Very grassy, buttery. Love this sencha! I only got 25g on my re-order but this is a sencha to stock up on.

Last cup of this lovely buttery Sencha. Will miss it until I can do another order from Tealux.

Second time having this tea and I’m starting to really love it. Darn. Only one cup left after this one. Steeped this one longer than I meant to by accident but it still tastes great.

I’ve been trying a few sencha’s but they are really not my favourites. I decided to just try this one with no flavourings added to see if I would take to a pure sencha tea. Yes! I think this could be a regular tea. It has a mellow grassiness and toasted flavour to it. I would say like the toasted brown rice but there’s no rice in it.

I’m not so sure about this one. There’s a familiar scent here that I can’t place – but it’s neither coconut nor chai. I’m not huge on chai teas as it is, but Zhena’s coconut chai is pretty tasty.

There is coconut here, though the taste is pretty subtle. I can’t really say I get a lot of chai flavour at all. Not a bad tea, but not coconut chai. Perhaps a different name is in order.

I finally found a government report on fisheries and bycatch! Now I need to find the follow-up report that was supposedly released in 2011 to really make way on my data research.

Today’s two-glass tetsubin of Tealux Superfine High Mountain Mao Feng was indeed mighty fine.

I enjoyed this brew right after a lunch of red, yellow, and orange bell pepper quittata (a cross between a frittata and a quiche) made also with scallions and Swiss cheese. An organic purple wheat boule was the accompanying pain du jour. Superfine High Mountain Mao Feng was perfect for a post-meal tea: slightly vegetal, with a full texture.

I am nearing the end of my Tealux haul of 1 ounce envelopes of China greens and will likely shop there again.

I could not resist brewing up a small tetsubin of Mao Feng just to confirm my impression that Green Terrace Teas Bi Luo Chun is very similar to Mao Feng.

And it is! What is somewhat amusing is that the dried leaf form of this particular Mao Feng from Tealux looks closer to the fluffy, ashen versions of Bi Luo Chun! The leaves exhibit a range of coloring, from dark to light, and also seem fluffier than some of the other Mao Fengs.

I seem to be addicted to mid-day green. Even though I’ve been wanting to embark on a serious journey through the world of oolong, I just don’t feel quite right without first getting some green tea under my belt. Today’s selection: Tealux Superfine High Mountain Mao Feng.

This tea is good—basically exemplifying my concept of Mao Feng. Slightly vegetal with a tiny bit of florality. The liquor is pale green veering peach. I like it, I do. In this two-glass testsubin, I used more tea and steeped for a shorter time, in keeping with my slow evolution toward gongfu brewing… The result is better than usual.

Now that I have a cute little scale for tea weighing, I am making sure to use a full 5 grams for a regular-sized tetsubin pot. Today’s Tealux Mao Feng Superfine High Mountain did taste mighty fine as a result!

Very pale greenish yellow liquor veering peach. Very Mao-Fengy flavor with a bit of vegetal undertone.

My batch of Tealux Superfine High Montain Mao Feng is much better today than last time (not that it was bad!), probably because I used more tea. The flavor is more succulent and the liquor is literally beckoning me to imbibe.

The color of the brew is pale yellow veering toward brown, but the flavor is a bit fresher than I recall. I am increasing my evaluation accordingly. Another good Mao Feng. Now that I finally know what Mao Feng is—I hope!—I see that I may be developing a specific Mao Feng need which could eventually come to rival the Japanese greens so dear to me.