The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants

This also came in the bulk section at Whole foods. It smells sooo good in the bag I had to try it! Roses and cardamom, lovely! But how would the flavor hold up?

I ended up steeping this for 4 minutes. It is very heavy on the cardamom, which I don’t mind, but you would have to be a big fan of the stuff. There’s a definite rose element and the ginger is more subdued. I tried mine with soymilk this morning and it IS a very interesting blend. The spices are very strong in this. I think the rich, malty assam lends a nice backdrop to this tea. Might also be interesting to try as a latte!

For me it might be more of an afternoon tea than a breakfast tea, but I like it! Glad I tried it, it’s yummy. :)

I just tried this at Medley, a new tea shop in Multnomah Village. It’s quite good – the ginger is spicy without being overwhelming and it does have a hint of peach. I’d definitely drink this again.

It was The Jasmine Pearl’s eighth anniversary when I went to pick this up. When I first planned the outing with my brother, I didn’t know that. My only mission was to pick up some Earl Grey, which – even with all my teas – I had none of. EVERY one needs an Earl in their cupboard. (Unless you’re allergic to citrus.)

I’ve only ever encountered one or two near-perfect Earl Greys before. My criteria for perfection is: “The more bergamot, the better”. No, not those double-bergamot hackjobs. They’re too much of a good thing. What I mean is a bold citrusy presence without being too astringent. This met that requirement in spades. As I write this feverishly, I’m downing a pot of it. The Ceylon/Keemun base also shines through with floral aplomb.

My account of JP’s anniversary (and other announcements) can be found here: http://steepstories.com/2012/11/04/cheating-nanowrimo/

hmm, I’ll be glad when I can do yoga again as part of my workout routine.. might be a while before I’m up for the downward dog however. This is such a nice herbal blend anyway. It’s very much like a chai but has a bit of an herby element — maybe from the nettles? I like the honeybush in here and the cinnamon. Overall really a nice blend! This and the Bombay Breakfast are my favorites from TJP.

Another sipdown… I am all out of this but I really like it so it will probably be back in stock someday. :)

Backlogging – last night we we hanging out at an ashram listening to this guy, Laraaji play the zither and practicing laughter yoga.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzt44XYoyJY

(yes, I am weird, so what, lol) So it seemed like this was an appropriate tisane to have in the evening time. This is really good with a touch of coconut sugar to just sweeten it up a bit. Takes the chill out of the fog here and the cardamom/ginger blend is good for digestion.

Tea of the afternoon here, post yoga! It’s been so warm here for the lat few days but today is foggy and cold and this tea is nice and soothing for that. I should be doing my homework for art class but here I am procrastinating on Steepster… oh well

this is a nice herbal blend which is good for anytime, see previous notes for more details

This came in the bulk bin at Whole Foods, I am not sure what marketing gurus decided that you need a special tea for yoga, but since I just did some yoga I thought I would drink it. :)

I actually like this blend, a lot. It is very flavorful with a nicely balanced mix of herbs: cardamom, fennel and cinnamon seem to predominate. Yes, ginger too. I am not sure what nettles are supposed to taste like or what they contribute, but this is a very nice herbal blend and is delightfully warming.

Namaste!

I was at Whole foods tonight and I noticed they seem to have changed their bulk tea selection so they have more stuff by the Jasmine Pearl and less by the Silk Road and others – I don’t know if this is an improvement or not but of course I had to pick a few things to try.

This stuff is interesting, it was meant to be a coffee substitute which makes it nice for the evening. I am definitely picking up on the cacao as well as a strong cinnamon element. When you add soymilk to it, it reminds me of a Mexican hot chocolate. There is also a LOT of cinnamon in here. The blend is a little strong for me so I am wondering how this would be mixed in with some regular black tea, although I do not have any plain decaffeinated tea at the moment. This was ok but I doubt I will need to get anymore.

This tea is amazing. I’m not much of a caffeinated tea drinker, but this was just too good to pass up. Perfect taste, and great as a chai or a tea latte. But best of all- this is GREAT for infusing vodka with. I made it for a birthday party with four other tea-infused vodkas, and it was the first gone. Everyone loved it!

This is one of the few keemuns I am actually fond of. I got this in the bulk section at Whole Foods so I hope they have more when I go back. It’s very hefty and also takes soymilk well, but it isn’t too “winey” or bitter which is a problem I have with some other teas of this variety. It is fruity with a very slight smokiness.

They have this at the local Whole Foods in the bulk section so I picked some up to try. The price was about $2/oz., not too bad at all.

My experience in the past with keemuns has been somewhat mixed but I rather liked this one. It has a “biscuity” aroma that I often hear people use to describe teas. I steeped this in my 6 oz. Finum cup which is my new favorite toy. :)

The tea liquor is a sort of medium reddish brown. The tea is supposed to be mildly smoky but I am not really getting that at all. Perhaps I oversmoked my palate from drinking too much lapsang lately, lol. I am picking up the fruity taste which is very pleasant. I am getting light cocoa notes as well. It has a mild astringency but nothing too parching. This has a sweet and mellow quality about it. I am not getting pine either, but I can see why people would akin this tea to a fine red wine, it does have a sort of wine-y quality about it. Would definitely be good with food but also excels as my Friday afternoon tea. I like it and am glad I know where I can restock some! I might be brave enough now to try some other keemuns…

It’s another foggy morning here, surprise surprise…

I am trying to slug some of this down in order to wake myself up and motivate to get over to the gym. But it is Sunday, and somehow the thought of puttering around seems a bit more appealing, you know?

Anyway this is a decent ceylon, nothing to write home about so I doubt I will be getting anymore. I feel like I need a nice Ceylon to add to my tea collection since the one I was really fond of is now gone. Any suggestions?

I don’t know a lot about ceylons so I decided to pick a bit of this up at Whole Foods since they have it in the bulk bin section. I doubt this is a first class example of what a ceylon can be but I wanted to try some. :)

I steeped this for 3 minutes at around 205 F. It is very pleasant, somewhat brisk, a bit fruity with some astringency. I don’t think this is an orange pekoe but it does share some similarities with that style. I was able to drink it plain just fine but I liked it better with a touch of organic soymilk added to it. It seems good but I don’t have much to compare it to. In any case I am not totally loving it. I might try steeping again at 2 minutes next time.

Another sample I picked up at Whole Foods to try. When I first smelled it I was worried it would be too much like the dreaded darjeeling I don’t really care for. I was pleasantly surprised that it was a very mellow, slightly fruity and slighty chocolate-y tea. We drank this for breakfast and it was delicious. Very non-astringent without a hint of bitterness. I may have discovered a new favorite type of black tea!

On my way home from a job interview, I made a pit stop into The Jasmine Pearl HQ for a bowl of matcha. (Yes, that’s right. Most people stop by normal bars on the way home, I stop for tea. Shush.) While having my bowl o’ matcha, I was coaxed by the owners into trying one of their “bingcha” raw pu-erhs.

I…love…sheng pu-erh. This was an ‘06. Other than that, I don’t know much about it. I can tell you that it had a deep, winy, floral-fruity character on even the first thirty-second infusion…and didn’t deviate from that. While I only had three infusions, I’m more than certain it could’ve lasted more. I wanted to buy an ounce of it, but it wasn’t exactly in the budgetary cards. Next time…next time. Le yum.

Tea on nitro. Wow. I had already made my frivolous tea purchase for the month, but a discussion on Twitter between me and three others caused my curiosity to swell. I had heard of GABA teas before, never understood the fuss of it all, and chalked up the health benefits claims to “hooey”…like biodynamics.

For instant gratification, I went to The Jasmine Pearl HQ to test drive the stuff. The host and hostess politely humored my request, and steeped it gongfu-style three times. Each time, the flavor profile was pretty much the same; creamy, fruit-like, mildly leafy, and zero oolong “chalkboard-on-tongue” feeling. And it packed a wallop of strength each steep.

I’m not sure if it did anything to my…uh…“neurotransmitters”. I was still hurling expletives at rush hour traffic on the way home. But I felt good while do it, if that says something.

I received a bit of this to try from LiberTEAS and it was quite unusual.

The initial fragrance was strong of licorice and berry. Once brewed, it became slightly citrusy and sweet.

The taste isn’t what I expected. From the name, I thought this would be sweet and fruity. Instead, it had the citrusy, astringent “snap” of a good darjeeling (+ points) and a slightly bitter and herbal taste from the anise. I didn’t detect much in the way of blackberry but you could sense the fig as a mellow, lingering subtly sweet fruit aftertaste.

Overall, I really liked this as it has an excellent base. However, the product doesn’t seem to match its name well.

I drank this a week ago at my local Wholefoods. I keep wondering when I’ll be able to go back at try it again. I wasn’t paying much attention at first. I just wanted something wet. I dumped in half and half and started sipping – a very nice, mellow breakfast blend with a surprising and delicious caramel in the finish. I found myself slurping. Very nice.

I actually mooched this off my brother. Yes, I mooched a tea off someone who’s not a tea drinker. It’s an unusual blend that doesn’t appear to be on the merchant site yet, indicating its…uh…new-ness. Or something. The one ingredient I was worried about was the lavender, but thankfully its understated. Lemongrass and fennel seem to be the dominant flavors I can identify. Overall, the effect is a good one, and it – indeed – does make you tired.

Since I’m on such a Yunnan Gold kick lately, I felt it was time to revisit this. This time, though, I obeyed the brewing instructions on the Jasmine Pearl website. Instead of boiling water, I dialed it down to 190F (oolong-ish). The result was sheer perfection. That does it. This type is my favorite black tea ever. I have decided.

Full Review: Pending on www.teaviews.com

I’m starting to think that the existence of Yunnan Golden Buds (or Needles) is unfair to the rest of its black tea brethren. It is quite quickly becoming my favorite type of black tea. Nectar-like in its initial delivery with only a slight – but complimentary – bitterness, this amber cup has an effect on me. I started this morning in pretty foul spirits until I sipped this. This quickly relaxed me and revitalized me at the same time. Such a perk-up, no other black tea can come close to comparing.

I knew of this merchant for years – knew they were a local wholesaler – but aside from their Cranberry Sencha (which I had at a coffee shop) I hadn’t sampled many of their wares. Until tonight. They finally had an actual teashop open, and allowed for tastings at the counter. I had eyed this particular rooibos blend for years, mainly for the inclusion of honeycomb. I tried it, liked it and bought some. But I wondered how it would stand up to MY way of brewing.

I steeped it for six instead of the recommended five. That and I added a glob of Greek honey to the mix. It probably didn’t need it due to the honeycomb and honey flavoring, but I was going for broke. And I’ll tell ya what…it was a good garnish. The cup was sweet, creamy, and nutty. The rooibos base with the added elements actually takes on the attributes of its cousin – honeybush. Which also makes me wonder, why they didn’t use honeybush as a base instead…perhaps they didn’t want to go for a trifecta. I dunno.

All said, a damn good drink.

Backlogging and sipdown! See previous notes :)