teasenz

Method: 2 tsp @ 205 degrees in 8 oz, grandpa style

Aroma: Dry and Steeping aromas smell sweet and candy-like. These are a type of date, and that’s just what they smell like.

Flavor: I added a little rock sugar from the start because in my mind, date tea should be sweet. It was only 1/2 tsp or so, and the sweetness is very pleasant. The tea tastes warm, and I don’t mean the temperature. It definitely tastes like the dried dates I like to purchase. I wonder if I can make a tea out of those!

Method: 1.5 tsp @ 208 degrees in 8 oz, 4 minutes, French Press

Dry Leaf Aroma: Cocoa and light malt

Brewing Aroma: Strongly malty

Flavor: I was really hoping to pick up some of the honey flavor from the description, or at least some sweetness, but this was pretty neutral. I enjoyed the malty flavors, and I didn’t find the tea to be overly bitter or astringent, but I also did not find many interesting notes. I think this is a good tea, but not my fave.

It’s not milky, but it is excellent.

Method: 1.5 tsp in 8 oz at 200 degrees, 3 min, French Press

Dry Leaf Aroma: Sweet fruits, melon

Brewing Aroma: Same

Flavor: I don’t taste any of the usual milk flavors, and this doesn’t seem especially creamy to me. That being said, I think it’s an excellent tea. It’s sweet on its own, and the fruity flavors are really amazing. I usually pick up many florals in an oolong, but not as many fruits. This tasted kind of melony, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the exact fruit. Either way, I really enjoyed it!

Soft asparagus start, mild astringency that offers classic chinese green chestnut taste. Not really complex, but I’ve never had this tea before so I don’t really know what to look for!

I’m torn on this review! I like this tea, but it isn’t really a good representation of a Keemun, infact it tastes more like a Yunnan black tea than a Keemun.

A nice lovely chocolate taste, but it got that yunnan element to it. So do I rank this tea high because I like its taste? Or lower because it doesn’t represent Keemun in my opinion.

Gonna go with the rank high. :) taste is all that matters!

Well, a second brew of this, and the flavor has significantly decreased. I prefer the Monkey Picked, or the Anji Bai Cha. This feels weak and possibly stale.

This is a pleasant tea, not as good as their Anji Bai Cha. A lovely aroma when I opened the bag, very heavily perfumed, that didn’t really transfer over to the brewing.

A longjing that tastes more like it was grown outside the region and made into the "dragonwell’ style. There is that lovely chestnut element to Chinese green teas, but also a bitter and stale edge. Maybe this is from the previous year?

A lovely crisp green tea. Delicately picked and delicious to drink. Delicious buttered asparagus taste.

This is perhaps the best brunch tea I’ve had recently. Goes very well with French toast.

This is the latest in my quest to try as many Chinese black teas as possible. It has a lovely scent of honey and maybe bread as well. The flavour is sweet with hints of orange, along with a bit of wheat toast. Overall, I’ve found this to be a good morning tea.

I was looking forward to this sample. It smells awesome! Like sweet potato crisps and honey. The honey comes out a bit more in the flavour, and I get a little roast yam too.
Any tea that can taste like my fave tuber is a hit for me.

I have been wanting to try this one for a while. So I was pleased when Teasenz would send me this to try. It smells like running through a field of wild flowers that is near an orchard. (This here means, I get floral and citrus scents.) The flavour is mild, and refreshing.

The Aroma of the dry leafe is really sweet and honeylike, most pleasant.
The leafe appearance is beautiful golden yellow buds with very small visible hairs, very pretty to look at, they look a little different from most of the other yunnan golds I’ve had.

I steeped this one first as directed on the website 3-5 minutes at about 203degrees, I went for 5 minutes.
The taste is delicious with very nice yet slightly subtle flavors, sweet fruit notes and malt a little peppery on the end, very slight astringency on the aftertaste.
The taste is really good tho it is a little weak to me just not quite as bold as some yunnan golds and dian hongs that I’ve had.

The second steeping is a little better than the first the flavors are a little stronger but still sligthly “weak” I hate to call a tea weak like that maybe it’s just not bold enough for my personal preference, I think perhaps a rinse would have made the first steep even tastier so i’ll do that next time.
Overall this is a pretty good tea to me, the fact that it is a little weak to me means not much really because it is still very tasty and enjoyable, perhaps this would be perfect for some folks.

I think I’ll get some photos of the leafe and rewrite this as a blog post tonight, the leafe is really pretty to me I want to show it off :)

I’m not sure I like chamomile, so I had to try the Eastern version. This still has that “I fell into a meadow” scent. It has a sweet, mild flower flavour.

Now I feel very relaxed. But I might not have brewed it long enough.

This is the most interesting sounding tisane I’ve ever has. It certainly smells like dates, except slightly more baked (date bread maybe). I ate a couple. This is fruit, right? Pretty good too, tasted a little more like berries (of the goji variety).

Brewed- it does smell more like bread now. There is a sweet, fruity flavour.
I have a feeling this would be good iced… or as a snack.

Steep #1 // 15 min after boiling // 2-3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
I always love a ginseng oolong! The toy jewel rock tumbler tea. :D I can’t help but be reminded of that every time. Usually I can taste the licorice covering the oolong, but with this one, I can’t really find that flavor, even when I noticed that the coating has dissolved, even by the first cup. So if you like ginseng oolong, but not so much the licorice holding it together, this one might be mild enough for you. I could have used more of that flavor though. The oolong underneath is very nice too, though it doesn’t seem to fall into any of the oolong flavor categories… maybe the third steep might have. Boiling water on the second steep didn’t ruin it, even though the cup had the color of apple cider! I wanted to make sure I got all of that ginseng. It certainly seemed to give me super-brain powers all day!

Of all the complaints that I voice on this blog, I think my constant confusion about Midwestern weather’s unpredictability might be the one with the most recurrence. My most recent annoyance is the constant promise of storms, the classic Accuweather alert of severe storms bringing flooding rains, strong winds, lightning, hail and a tornado (only get one, folks. Use it well) for the last several and absolutely no payoff is frustrating. It is like making a favorite cup of tea and spilling it before you get to drink it. Today was a classic example of buildup with no payoff, a beautiful anvil drifted overhead with some really clear bulbous mammatus clouds…and I watched it just drift off to deliver its rainy present to somewhere else. The rest of the week is predicting storms, maybe one of those days I will get some happy rumbling.

But enough about weather, it is time for tea! Today is the last of the fancy Teasenz week and I might have saved my favorite for the end, you know me, I like to go out with a bang. Anji Bai Cha or Anji White Tea is an extremely delicate green tea from the bamboo covered region of Anji, China. You are probably wondering, if it is a green tea then why is it called a white tea, well it is not a reference to its processing (like white tea) but to the silvery white color of the leaves. This tea has been on my ‘must try’ list for quite a while, so let us dive right into the pile of leaves. The aroma is very delicate and very fresh, a mellow blend of fruit like sweetness and roasted chestnuts. Of course there is a vegetal presence, it is one of green beans and fresh vegetation, there is also a delicate hint of flowers at the finish. This tea smells wonderful, it has my favorite aspects of a delicate Chinese green tea, smelling like late spring and rain.

After a nice soak in my gaiwan the aroma of the leaves goes from delicate to rich. The chestnut and green bean notes are almost heady with their intensity, there is also a much stronger floral note (a cross between lilac and honeysuckle) with a finish of faint smoke. The liquid is a delightful blend of chestnut and green bean with a delicate touch of sweetness at the finish.

The first steep starts out with a delicate creamy mouthfeel, this is one of those teas that really fills the mouth up with each taste. And what a taste it is! Delicate vegetal notes of green beans and lima beans with a finish of sweet chestnuts. The taste is incredibly delicate and subtle but incredibly nuanced.

For the second steep, the aroma is very sweet and nutty with a distinctly gardenia aroma at the finish. The taste is sweet, very sweet, like sucking on a piece of sugar cane that fades to chestnuts. The finish is lima beans and green peas with leaves a lingering vegetal taste.

The third steep’s aroma is still delicately floral and chestnut sweet, I really like the aroma of this tea, it has a very natural and spring like feel to it. The taste for this steeping is mostly vegetal with delicate notes of lettuce, green beans, and green peas. For the finish there is a delicate sweetness that lingers long after the sipping ends.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teasenz-anji-bai-cha-tea-review.html

My day started kinda gloomy for me, I had a much dreaded dentist appointment in the afternoon and the thought of it was making me cranky. I was expecting to go back and find out I had more work to be done, that some new problem had arisen thanks to my wacky immune system, but no! I was given a clean bill of mouth health! Combine that with my ‘Sistah from anothah Mothah’ buying my leftover jewelry supplies meaning I could finally get the new travel gaiwan set I have been dreaming of for months means I actually had a surprisingly good day.

Today’s tea from Teasenz is of the floral variety, Snow Chrysanthemum Tea or Xue Ju Hua Cha. This is a fancy type of Chrysanthemum, not the usual fluffy white flowers I am used to, these are a beautiful blend of golden petals and amber ‘disks’ (which are actually a cluster of tiny flowers, an interesting quirk of composite flowers) that are quite small and delicate. Grown only on the Kunlun Mountains, this flower is lauded for its health benefits thanks to having 18 amino acids, pretty cool little flowers! The aroma is a strange yet not unpleasant blend of strawflowers, dill weed, cocoa, fresh flowers, caramel, and raw honey. It is really complex, I found myself sniffing the flowers for quite a while just trying to pick out all the notes and see how they blend together.

Steeping the tea changes the flower’s aroma to more herbaceous and dill like, with notes of strawflower. There are still delicate notes of sweetness, but they are mostly overshadowed by the other notes. The bright red liquid has captured all the sweetness! With a blend of caramel and cocoa, there are only hints of dill and strawflower.

I am drinking this tea hot, as I usually do, but I am astounded by how cooling the tea is. If I didn’t know that is an affect of chrysanthemum tea (in Traditional Chinese Medicine, chrysanthemum tea is recommended for people with too much heat) I would be thinking that the snow themed name was putting ideas into my head. This tea is surprisingly rich for a floral tea, there are flavor notes of dill and sage with a nice kick of strawflowers. This fades to sweet caramel and apricots that leaves a lingering sweetness. I gave this tea a second steep and had the same result, it is very enjoyable…and as someone who is usually not the biggest fan of chrysanthemum tea, I consider that a win. I did run into one little hiccup while drinking this tea, it had some very grainy sand-like sediment that was made for some unpleasant dregs. Teasenz website does not mention rinsing, but after doing a little research on the Snow Chrysanthemum I saw quite a few recommendations for rinsing, so that should take care of any sediment. Other than that, this tea gets my seal of approval!

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teasenz-snow-chrysanthemum-flower-tea.html

Today I recieved an awesome gift from my awesome sweetheart, the gift of paper! Barnes and Noble has this great massive book (and I say book lightly) of origami paper in a load of fun patterns. This Origami Paper Mega Pack (as they are calling it) has more than 895 sheets of paper! Why they cannot just tell me the exact amount of paper is beyond me, but it doesn’t matter since I prefer smaller paper and will most likely be quartering and cutting up all those sheets. I think I will need another box for all the paper I will get out of it since my other three are quite full.

For today’s Teasenz tea, we are taking a break from springy greens and going with Mini Pu’erh Tea Bar, a nice candybar shaped block of ripe, 2012, pu erh. This is actually my first block of pu erh, and I had a blast breaking a nice chunk off for brewing. The aroma a great blend of sweetness, wet leather, peat, forest floor, and a touch of that slightly metallic market place aroma that I have come to love in ripe pu erh. This tea has a strong and quite bold presence, it does not demure! A very nice contrast to the green teas from earlier…almost a shock to the senses really, delicate, delicate, delicate…whoa, hello there!

Their website suggests brewing the tea in a yixing teapot, meaning this was the perfect oportunity to try out my new seasoned for ripe pu erh teapot! This lovely pot was a gift from my friend and fellow tea enthusiast. After the tea was rinsed and steeped, the aroma of the wet leaves is rich and earthy with strong notes of wet leather, loam, and wet pinewood. It has a wonderful summer forest floor after a rainstorm feel to it that makes a nature lover like me very happy. The liquid has a surprisingly smoky note, not a strong one, but the whisper of a distant forest fire. There are also notes of loam and pine wood.

The teapot is small by teapot standards, but I have gotten used to my tiny gaiwan and tiny servings, it just makes having a ton of steepings a lot easier, so I was only able to get three steeps before I started sloshing around like a very full Kool-aid man. The first impressions of the first steep, dense. Not in a ‘this is a tea that is not passing its physics class’ but more like ‘this forest is very dense and heavy’ kinda way. It fills up the mouth with the taste of loam, sweet wet pine wood, and a bit of the acrid peat. There is a tiny finish of smoke that ties the sipping off nicely, completing the forest aesthetic.

Steep number two and three had an identical aroma and taste. The aroma is very rich and earthy, it is loamy and dark with notes of wet leather and wet wood. The taste is very smooth, absolutely no bitterness whatsoever. There are strong notes of loam, pine wood, and wet leather with a stronger smokier finish. Unlike the first steep there is no sweetness in these two steeps, just smooth earthy tastes. Overall, I would say this is quite good! I am tempted to age my bar and come back for a visit once a year, let’s see how much it changes. This would be a great pu erh for someone who is wanting to give this type of tea a try since it lacks any of the unpleasant qualities that some ripe pu erhs can have.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teasenz-mini-puerh-tea-bar-tea-review.html

I am having one of those days where I just cannot get my brain to stay focused on one thing for more than five minutes. I have drifted from one thing to another just like a butterfly to thought flowers, yep, that is why my blog is named what it is. Let’s just blame this day of fluttering thoughts and short attention span on the weather, because it is nasty hot out today! Luckily it is nice and cool in the ‘Tea Lair’ but in the bedroom it is hot and I got very unfulfilling sleep last night. Thankfully tomorrow brings storms and cooler weather, I am very excited for the Spring weather to return.

Speaking off all things Spring like, today’s Teasenz tea is First Flush Longjing Tea, if this won’t transport me back to Spring in my mind then I don’t know what will. Plucked this Spring in the West Lake Mountain region of Zhejiang, China. The first thing about these leaves that struck me was the size, they are so adorably tiny for Longjing! Usually when dealing with Longjing the leaves are long and broad, but the first flush is delicate, like they just sprouted, not to mention some of the leaves have delicate balls of fuzz (or trichomes for the science types) stuck to them. The aroma is delightfully sweet and nutty, like a blend of roasted peanuts and chestnuts with a nice hint of green bean. There is a really amusing finish of toast and sesame seeds that makes my mouth water.

As I am sure you all know, I brewed these adorable leaves in my gaiwan, because any chance to use my gaiwan makes me happy. The aroma of the wet leaves is very sweet and nutty, this time there is more vegetal hints of spinach and green beans with that finish of toast still present. The liquid is still sweet and nutty, but now the sweetness has a mild fruity quality to it. This fades to a nice green bean finish to it.

Time for the sipping of the first steep, initial impressions? Yum! The mouthfeel is really smooth, almost creamy with the way it fills up my mouth. The taste is a really great blend of toast, sesame seeds, cherries, green beans, and spinach. I feel like there is a Spring themed carnival in my mouth, especially since the finish is very sweet, just like sugar cane juice.

Second steeping time! The aroma is much more nutty and vegetal, only a hint of the previous steep’s sweet aroma remains. The taste certainly takes its cues from the aroma, there are much stronger notes of spinach and green beans with a strong presence of toast and sesame seeds. The sweetness is mostly gone until the finish and aftertaste where it leaves a nice sugar cane memory.

For the third and final steep is mostly all gone, just a slight toasty aroma with a hint of green beans. The taste is faintly vegetal and gently fruity, it finishes its little show with a hint of toast and pepper. Ok, I have a confession, usually Longjing does not wow me, sure it is tasty, but usually I would reach for another green if I am in the mood. This Longjing did wow me, the tastes were so clear and good and the aroma was delightful. I am so happy that I finally found a Longjing that lets me see what all the fuss is about!

For blog and photo (and a link to a really neat article on tea fuzz): http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teasenz-first-flush-longjing-tea-tea.html

Tragedy struck my house this morning. Last night I was lounging in bed with Ben watching classic Star Trek and folding a Skeletal Dodecahedron, after I finished I placed it on the bedside table expecting it to be safe. I woke up to an awful stabbing pain in my stomach and rolled over to find my Skeletal Dodecahedron, smashed under my stomach. Someone sabotaged my origami! That someone is none other than destroyer of nice things, Espeon. Luckily for her and me I was able to salvage it (yay for stiff paper!) and it looks perfectly fine, still not a good way to wake up.

Today’s tea in the Teasenz feature week is Ming Qian Huang Shan Mao Feng Tea, a delightfully delicate green tea from Huang Shan in Anhui Province. Ming Qian is in reference to the time of year the tea leaves were plucked, basically it is before the Qing Ming festival (which falls around April 5th) giving the tea a higher quality. This might be the most fresh tea I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, I can practically feel the mountain air and mist while drinking this tea. The aroma is sweet, a blend of delicate cherry and a delicate floral and fresh vegetation. Sniffing this tea reminds me of the aroma of spring rain and refreshing cool air, it is very evocative and delicate.

Brewing the leaves in my gaiwan, the wet leaves take on a more nutty quality, but there is still the aroma of spring rain and cherries. Again, the aroma is very delicate and mild. The liquid without its accompanying leaves is like spring rain and and faint nuttiness. I am struck by how delicate the aroma is, I keep saying it but it is astoundingly so. I really feel like I am sniffing a bowl of rain, capturing not just the smell of the rain itself but also the smell of the air after rain.

The first thing that strikes me after my first sip of the first steep is how refreshing it is, I feel revitalized! Again the comparison to spring rain shows up, there is the green taste of rained on vegetation with subtle notes of spinach and nuts. The finish is smooth and it ends on a sweet note of cherry.

On the second steeping the aroma of the tea has more of a cherry sweet aroma with faint hints of spinach, again the aroma is super delicate. The taste is incredibly delicate and refreshing, again with the spring rain! I am really fixated on comparing this tea to spring rain but really I cannot say enough how perfect the comparison is, it makes me want to go run around in the rain while I am sipping it. There are also hints of fresh spinach and very delicate nuttiness. The finish is similar to the first steep with a touch of sweetness and cherries.

I feel really bad because I have nothing much to say about the third steeping. For number three I noticed no difference in the aroma and only a slightly stronger nuttiness in the taste.

For the fourth steep I wanted to try something fun and exciting! Instead of pouring the tea out of the gaiwan I went for a pseudo ‘grandpa style’ and just drank the tea out of my gaiwan. Sipping around the leaves is fun, I think I only managed to drink one or two of them. The aroma was the same as the second and third steep. The taste was surprisingly smooth and had absolutely no bitterness, even to the last sip that I took what had to be 10 minutes later was smooth and vegetal. There was a strong sweetness and a delicate nuttiness, the tea still had the refreshing delicate quality of spring rain, but doing it like this gave it a bit more of a presence. I am not sure I could sip this tea everyday, it is so delicate that it needs to be reserved for special occasions. I am tempted to make this my rainy day tea, in honor of how it reminds me of my favorite weather.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teasenz-ming-qian-huang-shan-mao-feng.html

I am so excited, as soon as my varnish dries I will have a nice new tea tray! Well that is not entirely true, I still need to find a cake pan or something along those lines to place under it to catch drips, but the part that the tea gear rests on is all finished. Hopefully eight coats of waterproof varnish are enough, because I am a little sick of the varnish!

Today’s tea is from Teasenz, starting off a week of looking at their teas. Starting that week is Xing Yang Mao Jian, a green tea from Xing Yang in Henan Province, China. The Mao Jian part of the tea’s name translates to Green Tip, describing its appearance, and according to Wikipedia, this tea has a 2,300 year history, impressive! Another interesting tidbit of information about this tea is its reputation of being China’s toughest tea, since during the winter they withstand the cold while the other plants have withered. But as much as I am sure all of you love learning about tea, you are probably here to know what this tea is like from an olfactory and gustatory perspective! When I snipped open the little pouch this tea came in and gave it a good sniff, the first thing I noticed is how brothy, almost meaty the leaves smell, how intriguing! Once I poured the leaves I planned on steeping into my official sniffing dish, the leaves still retained their hint of broth, but it became more of a vegetable broth with strong notes of spinach, nuttiness, and fresh vegetation. There is a faint finish of sweetness like roasted chestnuts, the aroma of this tea certainly has a strong presence, I could sniff it for hours.

Into the gaiwan the little leaves go! After a quick steeping the aroma of the leaves is still strongly vegetal with spinach, bok choy, and a hint of kale, but there is a much stronger sweetness now. There is still a bit of the broth aroma but it is faint, allowing the other aromas to take the lead. The liquid is sweet, almost fruity, with a hint of spiciness that reminds me of spicebush. There is also a vegetal aroma that is more delicate and quite nice.

The first steeping’s taste starts out very vegetal, almost a bitter green taste of kale, spinach, and bok choy, but that very quickly fades to a fruity sweetness. The fruitiness reminds me of very delicate pear nectar with a hint of spicebush. The mouthfeel is great, it is one of those teas that tickles the mouth from the delicate hairs that are present on the leaf, one of my favorite things about drinking fuzzy teas.

For the second steep the aroma is a blend of savory broth and sweet fruit. I hestitate to call a tea that is Chinese Umami, but this tea’s aroma has one of the most clear Umami aromas I have ever run into, that alone has the power to enamor this tea to me. Tasting the tea I notice there is absolutely no bitterness as before, no kale, just refreshing bok choy vegetal and savory broth that fades to a delicate nutty sweetness at the end. Letting the tea cool causes the taste to become even more savory giving it almost mushroom (I am specifically thinking of shitake) quality to the vegetal broth taste.

The aroma of the third steep is still brothy, but now there are notes of citrus and pepper. The taste is refreshingly light, savory bok choy (I should specify that is is definitely the taste of steamed bok choy rather than fresh) and light vegetal lettuce, this fades to a delicate peppery taste and a tiny touch of smokiness. If you let this steep cool you will notice a delicate sweetness at the finish.

For the fourth and final steep the aroma is faintly sweet and vegetal with a tiny hint of fruit and a tiny hint of pepper. The taste starts off sweet with a hint of cherry and a nice note of lettuce which lingers until the peppery finish. This tea is unlike any green tea I have had before, I will go on a limb and say it is unlike any tea I have had before and I love it! I sometimes forget how unique Chinese green teas can be since (usually) if I want a green tea I go for a Japanese green, but this tea reminded me how delicate yet complex they can be. My favorite aspect of this tea is how refreshingly savory it was, it is the perfect taste for when you want a tea that has a presence but not a sweet one.

For blog and photos (including the new tea tray!): http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teasenz-xin-yang-mao-jian-tea-tea-review.html