The Persimmon Tree Tea Company

I had this this morning. And I have to say the loose leaf looked like it would be this wonderful creamy vanilla-y tea! The almonds, and vanilla pods, and vanilla scent. It had a really earthy smell as well. The black tea base was a good choice but I have to say, it was not what I expected. Hot and unsweetened it just tasted like a morning black tea. So I let it sit to cool a little bit and it was still bland. So I added sugar and it got a little better and brought out the almond flavor. Then I let it sit for a little longer and added milk. Aaahhhhh hahhhh! I found the vanilla. The cooler it gets the sweeter and stronger it gets! This was definitely a nice blend but I’m going to have to continue searching for the perfect vanilla tea for me:) thank you to the persimmon tree tea company though!

Not bad, not bad! To me this tea is a generic “tropical” white. I personally can’t pick out any individual fruit flavors here. I am drinking it hot but I think it would be even better iced. I’m going to throw the rest of my sample in the fridge to cold brew I think :)

Ok. I upped my rating after trying this tea again. I steeped it for 3 minutes, as opposed to the 4-5 minutes recommended for white tea (I read this somewhere; do not remember where). This is still a pretty dry tea but I’m not feeling like I ran through the desert, which is a good thing. It is by no means refreshing because of the dry feeling, but I’m enjoying the flavor.

I can actually taste the fruity – almost raspberry – notes to the tea.

I got this as a sample from Persimmon Tree.
This is the DRIEST tea I’ve ever had. My entire mouth feels parched, and I don’t like it. It’s so dry that my throat even hurts a little bit.

Flavor-wise, it doesn’t taste sweet to me at all. It tastes almost nutty, but in a very flat way, and almost salty/smoky. And I can detect a weird metallic taste if I let it sit on my tongue.

Not a fan.

This tea is just okay. I’m starting to think that although I like stone fruit in tea, maybe not peaches by themselves. The peach is muted and flat in this tea. There is a good balance between the peachy flavor and the tea itself. It’s solid – just not for me.

A very lovely tea to behold. It smells great and brews up beautifully golden. The coconut is clean and natural without overwhelming the tea. Very nice indeed.

I was soooooo looking forward to this tea! Especially since my favorite milkshake is a chocolate banana milkshake from fosters freeze. You get the banana and chocolate flavors but I’m not sure the roobios was a good pair with the flavors. It left a super funky taste. Maybe I’ll try it once more before I toss it in the to-go box.

Still enjoying this one (though not quite as much as the Davidstea oolong version). I’m nearly done with my sample packet and it’s nice, light and fruity. My only complaint is the small pieces of green tea which create a small collection at the bottom of my mug.

Nearly as good as the DavidsTea Pineapple Oolong but it is a bit lighter. One thing I really like (that some people won’t) is that it doesn’t taste at all like green tea. I did the first steeping for 2 minutes, the 2nd for 3 minutes and it even lasted a 3rd that I kept in there for… awhile. Each time it was a nice balanced flavor and a smooth ending.

I did add sweetener for the first two cups which really brings out the pineapple flavor.

Another tea from the traveling tea box. This one immediately appealed to me – it just smelled delicious when I opened up the little bag. I also have loved everything from The Persimmon Tree Tea Company that I’ve tried, and this one is no exception. The dry leaves smell very strongly of sugary caramel. The tea itself has a sweet caramel aroma with a hint of toasted rice. The flavor is initially grassy from the green tea, but it has a toasty finish. There is a light, almost burnt tasting caramel aftertaste that follows. Overall, it’s a little lighter flavored than I’d prefer, but the caramel flavor does become stronger as it cools. The toasty rice flavor is a nice addition, and it almost reminds me of caramel popcorn. It is also surprisingly creamy for a green tea. Perfect afternoon tea after a morning of running errands!

-Dry blend has large flat green tea leaves and twigs and small red rooibos with large yellow petals and caramel pieces.
-Dry leaves smell overwhelmingly of sugary caramel. Tea liquor aroma is of sweet caramel with a hint of toasted rice.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium yellow color.
-Fresh grassy flavor with a toasty finish. Light almost burnt caramel aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. A cup of creamy caramel with a hint of toasty rice. Slightly reminiscent of caramel popcorn.

It mostly like pudding, or maybe a cream pie. The flavour is like somebody put a banana in spiced hot chocolate. Though a bit mild, it’s still a good blend. Maybe needs cinnamon though.

Although I love fresh & dried berries, I’m not as fond of them in tea. Also, somehow the rooibos in this one is just way too present for me.
Thank you to Sil for the sample. Sipdown.

Another tea from Sil. :)
So, when I opened the bag, I was like, “Oh crap…rooibos…meh…”
But I made a cup anyway. The aroma was a turn off for me, & the first couple of sips were a little to bright for me, too intense.
I almost dumped it out.
I’m sitting around watching old episodes of NCIS. I let the tea cool for a few minutes, taking an occasional sip, & it sort of grew on me a little, at least enough to drink the rest of the cup.
It’s wierd…I don’t really know how I feel about it. I have mixed feelings. The flavor has the intensity of cough syrup, that would be the combo of rooibos & hibiscus, then there is the fruity currant, which I like. There is a pleasant creaminess from vanilla & some white chocolate as well.
So I don’t really like it. There’s something over the top & fake about the taste, that lingers in the after-taste & gives me a queasy feeling.

Lemongrass! Why is there so much lemongrass? It does have nice scent brewed though. Not really the flavor I was expecting. There is a definitely an herbal taste, but I don’t pick up much ginger.

I’m working on a knitted shawl, so far, very easy and I’m about 30% done in like 2 days, and I could work on it more if I wanted to.

Anyways, drinking tea, knitting and listening to Super Junior (Eunhyuk fan here!). How about a new black blend? I gotta say, Periwinkle is a great name for a tea!

Periwinkle, hmmm. This is hard to rate, but was easy to review. My 1oz tin only had one white tea flower thing, so I only had a small teapot with it. It’s got a nice rich and bold black tea, with a vanilla smoothness, ending with a bit of floral sweet. And slightly bitter.
Sweetened, no bitterness. As a regular cup of tea, ehh, not my type of tea. The bitterness wasn’t for me and the white tea didn’t come out much (but could be my lack of white tea)
Latte however, Periwinkle is quite good – very vanillay and smooth. I’d probably drink the rest of the tin only as latte, or gift it to someone who is a bigger black tea fan. I let my roommate (ex coffee drinker) have some and he was going crazy “I could drink this every day!”

Full review on my blog, Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/periwinkle-from-the-persimmon-tree-tea-review/

Ordered a sample of this, and I have brewed it twice so far. When I opened the sample pouch, I immediately got a strong scent of vanilla, which was pleasant. I brewed the tea in my french press, since I am waiting for my infuser in the mail, and it worked well for this purpose.

My first cup had a really hearty vanilla flavor, almost like a vanilla dessert, and though I don’t add sugar to tea, I wanted to with this one. However, the tea was also very astringent, and I thought that it was likely due to me steeping it too long at just over 4 minutes. So the next time I made a cup, I tried steeping for 3 minutes… still flavorful, but still rather astringent. I am hoping it’s me and not the tea, so I will try again once my infuser comes in the mail, and see if it works better for me.

TTB-A sample, yet another with only a bit yet, and I fear yet another contaminated one based on the scent of the dry leaf. It’s like those teas with only a cup left don’t have enough of their own power to fight off the scents from all the other teas in the box!

I do taste pomegranate and raspberry (sort of unexpected in a tea called just pomegranate, but whatever) in the main part of the sip, but they are joined by a host of other indistinct oddness. It’s getting quite bitter as it cools, but that’s definitely not the result of contamination. Ah well, moving on.

I got this as a sample way back when I ordered from Persimmon Tree, and I was craving silver needle. I’ve got this and a couple other packets to get through before I open my half pound bag of the stuff. It’s been too long since I’ve had some silver needle, ahhh.

The rating makes this tea look bad, it’s not bad. It’s not as good as Teavivre’s, but it’s not bad at all. I’d think a bad silver needle would be really obvious haha.

It just doesn’t seem as intense, but that’s easily fixed with a bit more leaf. I think normally I drink silver needle pretty strongly, but it still has that taste of spring to it. I miss spring. I went to check the weather earlier and it was 30 degrees warmer in Canada. I didn’t think that was very nice.

This is okay, above average, and tasty. I don’t think I’ll bother resteeping it so I can go drink something else now.

Thanks whatshesaid for a surprise sample of this tea! Coconut teas are hit or miss for me and I’m afraid this one is a miss. For some reason, every time I take a sip I get a soap flavor. Not really what I was going for. I feel a little bit like Ralphie right now and I didn’t even say fudge!

[Head nod to those who get that reference :-)]

Thanks to whatshesaid for another coconut tea! Have I mentioned how much I love coconut?

This tea is decent. I shouldn’t have had anything after the amazingness that was Coconut Cocoa I’m thinking. I’m getting coconut initially but also a bit of a bizarre taste that I’m not quite sure what to make of.

I’ll have to update as I sip away.

So I went back on my blog to see when my review for Amore showed up – um – it didn’t. Gaaah. My blog is driving me nuts, doesn’t post when I tell it to, no facebook apps work anymore… and with that in mind I’m sipping this tea right now, re-writing the post – and the stress melts away. Hey, the name of this tea changed too so it’s due for a re-write!

Rose mojito is so fitting, off to ice it for pics!

EDIT: Oh maaaan I iced it with fresh mint and lime and sparkling water! Amaaaazing – and finally made sure that post was up and about: http://www.daisychubb.com/review-rose-mojito-by-the-persimmon-tree/

TTB countdown, only 5 left now I think!

I am keeping this, I feel like I really don’t have any plain sencha. It’s not much, just one of Persimmon Tree’s sample packets but I quite enjoy it. Grassy and sweet, and just right for when I had it…right before noon, more beer cheese soup. I am so full still.

Also I really, really love the color of the brewed tea. It’s almost as if it’s tinged with neon yellow just slightly.

Previously I tried this using a makeshift teacup gaiwan. I am now steeping this using my standard press method. I used about 3-4g of leaf, and a 2 1/2 minute steep. On the first cup the leaf only partially opens and smells minty. The taste is light roasted and vegetal. It is like pulling fresh green vines out of a fencerow and chewing on them.

Cup two is a little stronger, sweeter but otherwise similar to the first. The leaf is mostly open now. Two mugs in and it is equal to the six cups of tea I had with my earlier gaiwan experience. Like the gaiwan this still has more steeps in it.

What I can tell from this one time experience is the two methods do give subtle though different results. The gaiwan does seem to give more complex results. BUT the gaiwan method is more labor intensive. The extra effort can be part of the art and celebration of tea preparation or it may just be more work. I haven’t decided yet.

This tea is new to me but this is really more a review of my trying a new steeping method. Bonnie pointed me in the direction of a video for using a teacup as a makeshift gaiwan. Today I dug deep into the cabinet and came up with two Corelle cups. They are bone white with herb designs around the outside. I poured water in them and found they held 8oz filled to the very top. Pretty and perfect for steeping just 4oz at a time. I also found a shallow pan to catch spillage.

I heated the cups and added 5-7g of nuggets to one of them. A scale is on my list for future obtainment for more accuracy. I covered the cup with the other and let the leaf absorb the small amount of moisture in the cup. The leaf smells minty. Minty? I read the ingredients – this is straight tieguanyin.

I heated and poured 4oz over the leaf and covered. I let it set for about 15 seconds. I really didn’t know how long to steep. Pouring into the second cup over the pan revealed a lovely golden liquor. The scent is minty and slightly roasted. The taste is light and vegetal.

The second cup has more heft but is still light. The scent is still roasted and minty but not in the sip. The more intense flavor makes me think nettle. I have no idea why as I can’t recall ever tasting nettle. It is sharp, prickly, and slightly bitter. It tastes way better than I make it sound. Maybe it’s my imagination but I think I am already feeling the caffeine. I know it has opened my airways.

The third cup is less prickly and more balanced. A little roasted in the aftertaste. Still not experiencing the typical latex aftertaste of green oolongs. What I am getting is just a nice cooling sensation.

This is unlike any TGY I have had before. Is it the leaf or the method? I won’t know until I try this again with my normal press method later. I am going to keep steeping and if I get major changes I’ll write an update.