The Persimmon Tree Tea Company

Well, I accidentally steeped this for over 20 minutes, so… it tastes like medicine. Pills. Yea… not going to rate it, because it’s definitely user error. Bah!

Thanks though Suziqzer, this definitely has my name all over it! :) I love me some herbal tea.

Kinda, sorta surprised I had to add this Steepster. Isn’t this a novel idea, a white chai? I’d think Steepsterites would jump on it!

Anyway. I added it, because I’m drinking it, thanks to a lovely surprise gift from Suziqzer. It’s a light, creamy blend, with a kick of spice from the red peppercorns, I believe. It’s a nice blend, a bit surprising really, as I’d never considered using a white for a chai… didn’t think the tea could hold up such bold flavors. I do like it though!

Another yummy tea from The Great Canadian Travelling Tea box round 1. I had this tea on April 30th/2014 as well !

Dry leaf: Genmaichas are just so visually appealing to me. I love the contrast in colors and textures in this tea. In this genmaicha, the leaves are sencha tea nestled with the beautiful roasted rice. It was very picturesque and I enjoyed taking photographs of this tea to capture its beauty. The leaves smell nice and sweet, as well as grassy, rich, and nutty. I really loved the myriad of scents in this tea.

Steeped: When pouring the water over these leaves I got a really nice roasted grassy smell. The water itself was a nice, light yellowy/green-y color. The 1st steep was nice and light with subtle flavors of grass.

I picked this up as a sample with my recent order. I generally find that I really enjoy coconut blends and the reviews of this one made me want to try it.

Dry leaf smells wonderfully of sweet coconut.

I found it a bit difficult to measure this, as most white teas, due to some of the larger leaves. Steeped I get a nice natural coconut flavor on the initial part of every sip with a rich dense mouth feel from the white tea base, heavier than I expected from a white tea but I haven’t had very many of them yet. As it cools I find that after the initial natural coconut flavor, it tastes a bit like coconut lotion/soaps smell, not like soap, but the smell of coconut scented soap. Many have commented that this is similar to coconut milk or water in flavor, & I have to admit I don’t think I’ve ever had either one, so I don’t have anything like that to compare this to. I am also finding a bit of an aftertaste that lingers long after the sip… not sure what that is from. I will give this a second steep and see how it does.

Several of you have mentioned that this is good as a cold steep. I may have to try that with what’s left to see how that changes this one. I’ll hold off on rating for now.

Hm…. light and super creamy with the smell of caramel, even though it’s lacking a bit for me with caramel flavor, it’s still delicious. Thank you to Suziqzer for sending this to me!

On an unrelated note: Mother’s Day. Happy days to all of you who are celebrating as mothers, with your mothers, or with other people’s mothers. This (used) to be a really challenging day for me, when I was still grieving my Mom’s passing (I was 16, she was 45). Once I got through that first year of celebrations however, things became easier, to the point of where I forgot the pain or sadness at all, and now only think of her fondly.

Why am I sharing this? Because a gent I dated briefly, who ended things because he “needed to figure things out,” is having his first Mother’s Day since his mother passed late last year. Part of him trying to figure things out was realizing he needed more time to mourn and release, and I understood that completely (and did the same thing with a relationship I’d just started prior to my Dad passing, many years ago).

And so, I dedicate my tea-drinking, the lovely peonies sitting on my desk right now, and all of my happy, warm-and-fuzzy thoughts to those struggling with today for whatever reason that may be. I hope that you all find joy and peace in the comfort of knowing you’re far from alone, and that it really does get better.

Another backlog from this week. This came as a sample with my small order from Persimmon Tree. I’m not sure I would have picked this one out… I love Della Terra’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake but am not the biggest fan of green tea. Oddly enough, my order from them was green and white teas and no black tea (probably why they sent me a sample of green).. strange for me as black is my “go to” base.

Dry this smells mostly green and grassy to me.. not something I would buy if I smelled it in a shop. It steeps up to a nice green base that isn’t too vegetal/green for me, although I’m becoming more comfortable with them as time goes by. I can sense the fruitiness of the blend, but if asked to describe it I’m not sure I’d come up with pineapple. I understand that the name is Green Pineapple, implying that green comes first I would assume. There is just a fruity sweet smell to it that lightly translates to the flavor. I am glad to have tried this one but not one I would purchase… I would need more distinct pineapple to consider it again.

Ooooch, wow! Yup, that’s a chai! The spices are intense in this and exactly what I’d expect from a chai! Adding cream and sugar mellows out the spices a little. I prefer my chais to be a little more peppery and hot, but this is a really nice cup too. The cup seems to be pretty well balanced and isn’t too much of one spice or another. It looks like the base might be CTC? It is a good first impression of Persimmon Tree!

I tried this one this morning.. I picked it up as a sample with my recent order. I haven’t had too many white teas but this one intrigued me with the peppercorns.

It has a nice sweet smell, but not overly so. Steeped it is a nice butterscotch that isn’t too rich/heavy, but not too light either. I made sure to get a couple of the peppercorns in my steeper basket, but fail to find them in the flavor. It may be that I just love my spices too much and I need more personally to taste them.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Most white teas I just find too delicate and sometimes even vegetal (which I don’t care for). This one was balanced well and with a touch of sugar was like drinking a dessert.

I have several tasting notes to catch up on, but this has been a busy week and today we are preparing for a birthday party for my son who will be 9.. time goes by way too fast! I have made some homemade iced tea w/fresh spearmint (just enough in the garden..Yeah) to share.. My best friend from high school and I will likely drink most of it.. although I did make her a cold steeped mango rooibos to drink here or take w/her. I plan to spoil her this summer w/peach and mango teas… her favorite!

Thanks for sharing this tea with me, 221Tea! A couple days ago every tea was blah. Today I’m doing really well with my choices. This tea has a nice butterscotch/candy taste. The white tea seems to be a very good base. It doesn’t overwhelm the butterscotch which is very good, since that was the flavor I was looking forward to. I’m not sure I sense much of a creamy taste. Its good and I am having a nice break from cleaning windows on a sunny, fresh day!

The brewed color of this tea is gorgeous. It’s a bright pinky red. But then the first sip: WOOO Sour!

It’s hard for me to imagine anyone enjoying this without a sweetener. I added a tsp of rock sugar and suddenly all was right with the world. The tea really shines!

People not into sweetening teas should probably avoid this one, but once the sourness is cut, the hibiscus and rosehips are quite pleasant and this is a great sipper for after dinner when caffeine is not desirable.

Not a review, so skip it if you don’t care about my awesome day :p

I went to Harrisburg’s Pride Fest with my mom, my friends, and a wee little baby. We had a blast. I love the drag queens! There was one lonely protester, and I felt a little sorry for him. Anyways, after that, the crew came back to my place and we watched Mean Girls.

Then that group of friends left and two more friends came over, with two 5 year olds. We decided to go for a swim up at the swim club. That was wonderful! It was later in the day, so there weren’t many people. We went to the longest dinner ever after swimming. The food was good, but everything just took about 1000 years.

I am finally home and am very likely to pass out before Brian even gets home from work. I figured this tea would probably do the trick, since it’s pretty much just chamomile, IMO. I hope you all had a wonderful day!!!

I wanted to love this, but I can’t taste anything past the chamomile. No banana or coconut. And I was really trying! I even stirred up the dry tea, because contents settle during shipping, and I thought that perhaps all the chamomile just made it’s way to the top of the tin. Unfortunately, this didn’t help. The chamomile is overpowering here. In fact, I don’t even smell banana or coconut in the dry tea.

I am expanding my herbal tea repertoire because I enjoy drinking tea after dinner, but I do not want caffeine keeping me awake at night. This would have been perfect, because chamomile is known for its relaxing properties.

I will keep this and drink it for that purpose, but I won’t repurchase and the search for evening teas will continue!

Ho hum.

I’m debating a Persimmon Tree order and I remembered I had an old sample of this to try, which is great because I’d been considering adding it to my cart.

I won’t be doing so.

It’s not terrible, I mean I didn’t hate it, but it was only ok.
I appreciated the lack of chemical flavoring taste, and it really seemed to be more about the tea than the vanilla.

It was definitely a strong cuppa, and I’m wondering if I accidentally oversteeped it as it was quite bitter and astringent at the end. Left my mouth dry.

Not the vanilla tea for me!

I didn’t think I under steeped this tea but there is not much here. :( Very little chai spice taste. A little floral. No boldness that I expect when I think of chai. i won’t bother to finish this as I have so many others to try.

Drank this a few days ago; I’m way behind with my tea logs. I wish I had more! Sadly, this was a sipdown, so I’ve added it to my ever-expanding list of teas on my wishlist/to-buy list. Thanks again Suziqser for this surprise gift!

A package from Permission Tree magically appears on my doorstep today.

“Huh?”I think to myself. “I didn’t order any tea from them. Or, did I?”

I walk upstairs, boil some water in anticipation, and open the small box. Oooh. I see! It seems the Tea Fairy (not TheTeaFairy on here, ha!) sent me some tea as a thank you, and in this case, it’s Suziqzer. So unexpected, unnecessary, and yet absolutely wonderful at the same time. I’m so excited!

Some really lovely options in the box, all of which I’m excited to try. This one however, this sample, it called to me to drink it.

The smell was a bit earthy and surprising, considering the ingredients. After steeping however and drinking it, I’m hooked. There’s a dryness to it (likely from the cacao), akin to eating a large amount of hazelnuts with the skin still on. I get the faint hazelnut flavor too, although it tricks me somewhat — there’s chocolate, coconut (only to add smoothness, as I detect little in the flavor itself) and creamy nut-likeness. I’d say this is the closest things to a Nutella tea that I’ve had.

Thanks again Suziqzer, for my first taste of Permission Tree!

This is like drinking grass. Which I am a fan of. It isn’t bitter and held up to a few steeps. I haven’t had a whole lot of sencha before, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but I would happily drink it again.

Another sample sipdown (106)! I’m going through my sipdown drawer amazingly fast considering it is summer. Although, maybe it makes more sense because I’m cold brewing a lot and it takes up more leaf? Anyway, I took my last tablespoon of this and cold brewed in my water bottle overnight. Cold brewing really emphasizes and brings out that honey flavor in the tea, so the malty flavor becomes more of a background taste. It’s quite refreshing, and I’m glad to have tried it both hot and cold. While I appreciate honey as an ingredient (like in baked goods and roasted nuts), I don’t actually like straight up honey, so this tea is getting a little too close to that for me to restock. However, if you love honey and want a light, refreshing black tea, this is the one!

I have this tea in my sipdown drawer, so I picked it as my morning cuppa. It’s a good tea with malty, honey flavors, yet is a bit too gentle for my mornings. There is some astringency, but it’s not too noticeable. I’m enjoying this tea, but I’m not going to repurchase because there are just so many other straight black teas that I prefer and that I have yet to try. I think I only have one serving left, so I’ll definitely be able to sip this one down before I move at the end of August.

I steeped a teapot full of this tea even though it was after dinner, and I probably should have cut off my caffeine intake at that point. But my mom requested black tea, so who am I to deny her request? She was surprised at how sweet this tea was compared to black tea bags. Cue long conversation in which I explain to her the differences between tea bags and loose leaf and why tea bag tea can be so bitter in comparison.

Anyway, this time around, there was still that mild malt flavor, but I also finally put a finger on the sweetness of the tea. It tastes just like honey. I’m not sure how I missed that before because it was so obvious this time. It’s definitely a mellower black tea, but that is probably a good thing since I drank it so late in the evening. There was some astringency, but it wasn’t too off-putting. I had a pretty lovely time with this tea tonight, and I’d consider repurchasing when I run low on straight black teas (which is going to take a while).

Edit: As the cup cooled down, the honey flavor definitely popped up and became even stronger. Perhaps this would be a good tea to cold brew? I’m putting it on the list.

Oops, I had forgotten about my little samples from The Persimmon Tree, but now I’m getting around to them again. I’ve had many a breakfast tea blend as well as flavored teas with Assam bases, but never just straight up Assam. That’s why I decided to get this one in the sampler pack. It’s malty as expected, and a little bit astringent (also pretty expected). I guess I thought it would have a stronger/bolder taste than this tea actually did. It seemed much mellower than my usual EB blends. Not sure if that would apply just to this one Assam or to all Assams in general, so it looks like I still have more tasting and experimenting to do! I do quite like it, though, and it still is bold enough that I can appreciate it on this slightly cool slightly sunny morning.

Sipdown!

I really liked this tea while I had it. It was just kicking around in my stash for so long that I decided the other day to just dump what was left in my steeping basket and make a super potent cup of tea, just to get rid of the rest. So it was like 3-4 tsp of leaves for one 12 oz cup. I only let it steep 2 min because I didn’t want to get all crazy.

It actually was a nice, flavourful cup. I would totally recommend it. Creamy, fresh, light, really nice. Definitely OOLONGY. I was just done with it. And now I have another tin to use for one of my Butiki teas……. hmmmmmmmmmmmm….

Weird, this tea is rated so low! Yet I enjoyed it so much! Just a reminder that ratings aren’t necessarily something to go by, though I really put too much stock in them, I think.

I’ve had this one in my cupboard for awhile, I’d actually ordered it from Persimmon.

I’d almost forgotten that I drank this one right after supper. Not sure what made me choose it, I guess because it’s been so long.

I find it creamy and delicious. Somewhat buttery, sweet but not in a fake way. Natural vanilla and an element of “freshness” to the taste.

A nice spring tea for sure. So good. Glad I own it.

ETA O HAY 250th tasting note! :)
This one is worthy, I suppose!

I thought I had written a tasting note about this one previously but I’m not seeing it now. I have been sipping down some of the teas I bought in the last year since I became familiar with the world of loose leaf teas. I find that I dig into something that I enjoy and drink it down to a couple of teaspoons and move on to something else… I hate parting with something I like and that has become like a friend. Much of what I have purchased so far has been black or herbal teas, but this one made it into the batch. I believe someone sent me this one as a sample and I enjoyed it… I can’t remember who & am not certain of that but I’m glad I ordered it.

This is certainly a green tea, but not too vegetal to me which is something I’m happy about. The little caramel balls fascinate me and I’m always certain to make sure I get one in my steeper basket when I make a cup. I’m not sure the little bits of grain/rice add much flavor but somehow they make me think more cereal flavor less vegetal… maybe it’s a mental thing. I hadn’t had any of this tea for awhile, but after having some today I remember I enjoyed how light it is compared to the blacks I often drink. The caramel gives it another dimension without hiding the green tea base. I do like this one. The second steep was almost as good as the first, missing a little of the caramel flavoring when I was hoping that little ball of caramel might come even more alive.. still good though.

After having this today, I ventured over to the Persimmon Tree Tea website and it looks as though most everything on their site is “out of stock” yet they posted on facebook not long ago. Anyone ordered from them recently?