The Persimmon Tree Tea Company

Ick, not a fan. Keep scratching my head that I can love lemongrass so much in food but dislike it so much in tea. It’s like bathroom cleaner, which in turn makes me think faint whiff of urine, bleugh. Huh.

This is a nice green tea with a little bit of fruit flavoring (it doesn’t necessarily taste like pomegranate—the leaves are indeed flavored with other fruits—but the fruity touch is nice). Proper temperature and steeping time are definitely important with this tea, as I made it way too bitter the first time. While this is a very pleasant tea, right now it’s not a “stand out” so I probably won’t buy more when I finish my sample.

Apparently, I can go through a ridiculous amount of tea at the office (since they keep the AC mildly above freezing). The last remaining ounce of this was finished in a couple of weeks when I decided to bring some of my oolongs to work. Well, best decision I ever made since I rarely drink them at home, unless it’s the weekend. Is this a carbon copy of one of the larger distributers’ versions? Since I already have the tin, no need to really repurchase that method, right? If it’s a carbon copy of a cheaper blend, I’m all ears!

Sipdown!

I was packaging up some of this tea for a swap and realized that I hadn’t tried it yet. Silly me. So I brewed up a cup while my husband and I watched the latest DVD release of Castle. I used just under 2 tsp of the leaves since Oolongs tend to go a ways.

I sweetened it as always and it is a very smooth creamy vanilla with a hint of citrus. I’ve heard it’s comparable to Davidstea Vanilla Orchid Oolong which should be coming my way soon so I’ll be able to compare. I got another steep out of it but it tastes like it is losing a bit of flavor. Still, I think I’ll keep one of the two around if they are similar.

Sipdown! I’m glad to be under 70 teas but I’m sad to see this one go. After that first pepperoni misunderstanding, I think we were starting to grow close.

Not much in cedar today, but lots of sweet buttery earth- makes me think cinnamon. I’m not sure if that last note is intended or if it’s just because it sat beside Jackie T’s winter chai in my cupboard for four plus months. Either way, the overall outcome is delicious. Thanks again for the samples, Jackie T.

Thanks for the sample, Jackie T!

I did a quick rinse for the fishiness, and then steeped it for about 3 min in my David’s Tea mug (feeling lazy). The flavour isn’t bad, but a little strange. It reminds me of a wood-smoked, honey garlic pepperoni stick, and I can’t shake the comparison. Maybe this isn’t for me but it was neat to try!

Edit: Maybe I was a little quick on my toes. Sometimes I have no patience. I did a second steep for a shorter time period of 1 min 30 sec, which yielded cedar with a sweet floral coating. Midsip is still a tad earthy-sharp, but the finish is nice and smooth. The pepperoni is gone and I’m actually sad there’s not much left now. Thank you for the advice, Bonnie :)

I ordered a sample of this tea months ago, when I first started drinking loose leaf tea. I made a couple of cups back then, and always felt there was something slightly off about the taste of the tea. But now that I am a more seasoned tea maker (and at the end of my sample) the tea tastes better! Go figure. ;)

The positives: The flavors of the tea mesh together well for a light, fruity taste, and the base tea is very bright. The spices and fruit flavors are at their peak when the tea has cooled off a bit. I sipped at it for a bit when it was still very hot, and then started gulping when it hit the sweet spot temperature-wise.

The negatives: The cobbler effect is slight, and the tea is definitely drying. I don’t like it iced at all; some flavor quality about it does not ice well, and it tastes kind of soapy.

Bottom line: I wouldn’t turn a cup of this down in the future, but I wouldn’t order it again.

I did not taste any chocolate in this… and perhaps not any banana, either. There was a generic “fruity” taste that you could have told me was strawberry, blueberry, etc. and I would have believed it. (In other words, the flavor was not distinctly banana. This is in contrast to Persimmon’s Banana Coconut tea, which I quite liked and clearly detected both main flavors.) The red rooibos flavor was the strongest. This was definitely drinkable, but far from delicious.

(Sample from silentrequiem. Thanks!)

The jasmine flavor in this tea is delicious, and the black tea flavor (which I usually dislike) isn’t too strong. The green tea seems to mellow out the black tea flavor nicely. Today I finished my sample of this, and while I enjoyed the sample I won’t be buying more. I prefer plain jasmine green tea.

The jasmine flavor was quite nice, and it was interesting to have it paired with black tea. It tasted pretty good at first, but the black tea flavor seemed to settle at the bottom, making the last 1/2-1/3 of the cup fairly bitter. I prefer jasmine tea green.

Backlog from Monday

A sample from Queen of Tarts, and the second of tonight’s stone fruit rooibos blends. This one has a bit more going on – it’s a green rooibos base, with peach, strawberry, and citrus flavouring. I like the idea of this one, and I’ll be a happy thing indeed if I can taste both the peach and the strawberry. More so if they taste even vaguely natural. Let’s see…

I gave this one three minutes, maybe just over, in boiling water. The scent here is mostly green rooibos – I’m not really getting any fruit. To taste, though, it’s a completely different story. Peach is the predominant flavour, as might well be expected, but I can also taste a hint of strawberry in the background which develops quite well in the aftertaste. There’s a slight sharpness, too, although I’d be hard pressed to identify exactly which fruit contributed that. Lemon? Orange? Probably one of those. This is another one that’s nice and natural tasting, so I’m happy about that. The fruit flavouring comes across sweet and juicy, and melds perfectly with the green rooibos base, which adds a slightly woody taste but it otherwise unobtrusive.

Another great rooibos blend, seemingly I’m on a roll with these at the moment! Thanks again to Queen of Tarts!

This is a very smooth and rich tea. The coconut is subtle but a lovely note. I really enjoyed this one.

This is really pleasant. I steeped it for 2 minutes per the label instructions, and the first few sips tasted a little bitter, but it soon mellows out to be a slightly sweet white tea. Really nice and pleasant that doesn’t need any additional sugar.

I wanted something a little bit fruity so I decided to try this sample today. The dry leaf smells like grape juice and prunes. I think I was expecting this to be a brighter scent, but what it smells like is baking, a little bit like a cross between date squares and apple crisp.

The flavouring has scents of fruit, more of baked apple or peach to me than lychee, and cinnamon. The base has a mix of pastry and leather\licorice notes.

The first sip has a floral, lily like note opening upto a peppery lychee note, the base adds a deeper malty note, a slight biscuit note and a hint of fruit. The tea has an aftertaste of floral accented lychee. Without sugar the taste seems disconnected from the scent. Sugar brings out more of the baked good notes and actually minimizes the lychee note and makes it taste slightly more floral. Altogether pleasant for an occasional sip.

It’s been probably two weeks since I tried this (I am way behind on my tea-logging), so I should probably log this when I next try it. The aroma of the dry leaves is… weird and not appealing, so I was nervous about how this would taste. Fortunately, the taste was much better than the smell! It was subtle and relaxing. It has a flowery flavor, but not the lack of a sweet flower aroma made it taste quite different from other flower teas (basically, the polar opposite of jasmine, which is strong, sweet, and demands attention). The subtle flavor made it a nice “wind down” evening tea, but I wasn’t particularly excited about this. I have so many other teas I like more than this right now so I may have some trouble finishing my sample of this… It’s not bad, but it’s not distinctive.

I made this last night and decided to skip sugar, risking that the flavor might be weak without it… The banana flavor was actually quite strong (I can’t remember how long I steeped it) and I think I could taste a bit of the coconut. This was a fun tea. It’s both flavorful without sugar and caffeine-free, so I’ll definitely be happily finishing my sample of this in the evenings.

Teabox B! This definitely had an element that made it different than a typical rooibos… but I’m not sure that I would say it was bergamot. It seemed like a hint of grapefruit for one sip. It definitely wasn’t just a plain rooibos though, and it was a good one! I really need to get filter steeping bags for rooibos though.

Yum, thai chai! I do like coconut, spices and bold tea!

The Persimmon Tree’s Thai Chai is not bad – straight up it is coconutty as first, then it gets quite lemon grassy, mixed with some chai spice, with more lemon grass finish.

However, Thai Chai made with some coconut milk, oh man, very good! The spices cut through the creamy coconut milk making a nice rich drink. Lemon grass toned down, adding some zest and interest to the blend. When I drink this tea again – latte all the way!

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/thai-chai-persimmon-tree-oolong-owl-tea-review/

Sample from chrimabro – thanks!

The chamomile in this is strong – very very strong. I can’t really taste any other flavors because of it. I can maybe taste a smidge of banana or coconut sometimes but the chamomile is what comes out the strongest. I’m a bit disappointed since I’m not a large chamomile fan. It definitely tastes better with sugar – but I just put in the sugar and didn’t mix it (I didn’t have a spoon. I am feeling lazy.) so all the sugar is at the bottom and the tea is now sickeningly sweet.

I’ll have to resteep this tea with sugar from the very beginning. Hopefully it will improve. But so far, I’m not inclined to buy this.

Backlog:

I liked this one quite a bit. I liked that it’s a green rooibos blend as I tend to prefer green over red rooibos. I find the green rooibos to have more notable fruity tones, and this taste blends very nicely with the flavor of peach, strawberry and citrus.

A very refreshing, light beverage … this one is good over ice!

Here’s my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/04/27/peach-picnic-green-rooibos-blend-from-the-persimmon-tree/

Nom nom nom. I wanted something tropical for dessert and this really hit the spot. The pretty dry leaves smell of mango, as does the brewed tea. The taste is very natural. For whatever reason I’m getting mango rather than guava, but that’s just fine by me! There’s also the faintest hint of ginger here to keep it from being too sweet. The tea even holds up nicely to a second steep. Thanks to Stephanie for the sample!

This is quite delicious. I wasn’t expecting it to be but the rave reviews on the company website persuaded me to give it a try. This is smooth. The coconut gives this tea a real creamy taste and feel. The chocolate is less prevalent but still there in the background. I don’t normally like chocolate in tea – in fact, I have never liked it before. So this is a first.

I’ve sipping the second steeping of this now. The flavor was much stronger in the first steeping but the second steeping is still enjoyable to drink. This will also be the last steep because I need to go to bed soon. But I imagine, like any good pu’erh, I could get a few more cups out of the tea.