The Persimmon Tree Tea Company

Just got home from Thursday shopping – where I did not stop at Starbucks for a green tea frap – I did however find a Black Sabbath album (Never Say Die) for $5 that I have never had on CD. Vinyl yes, CD no – pretty much no one even has CD’s anymore do they?

Any way I have been craving this tea since yesterday when my wife and sons burned a bunch of the tree tops we have left from when we had the 40+ trees dropped in our yard earlier. I had to stay away because of the lungs but I could smell this awesome smoke. So I brewed a cup this and handed it to my son. He loved it. Brewed one for me because I love it. Poured a little in another cup for my wife. She said, “This belongs on the bottom of the pile with the rest of the pine trees we burned!” You can’t please everybody. At least my stash is safe from her :)

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Lapsang Souchong to the rescue this morning. Steeped at 200 F for as long as it took to play about half of Stairway to Heaven on my guitar. So nicely sweet and smoky. Very good at a slightly lower temp than I usually use.

This has been a test of the Steepster broadcasting system. We now return you to your normal reviews… or total silence, depending on whether Steepster is actually functioning….

It has been two weeks already since I last had his tea – seriously? Where does time go? It is reasonably cool this morning and raining. Perfect weather for some smoke! Bring on the Lapsang. The tin aroma is intense but the cup itself is sweet and mellower. I mean it isn’t mellow but more so than the aroma would suggest. The smoke stays pine focused and does not stray into bacon or BBQ like a lot of LS. It is just a good hefty cup that is perfect for this morning.

I mentioned Buffy getting her cast off in my last post this morning. So another Buffy note follows – I have got to get a close up face picture of her face. She looks like Paul Stanley. Yep, from KISS. The fur on one side of her face is white with a black mascara look around the eye. The other side is all black (sadly not a star pattern). The black fur around her head is so long and shaggy you almost can’t tell where her ears are, so it looks like big ’80’s style rock and roll hair.

Had a long hard day yesterday. Won’t bother you with the details (how unlike me). Suffice it to say, I woke up today exhausted and in need of tea. I had my morning powdered green tea and milk breakfast. OK, I had a yogurt with it so it was officially a meal. Afterwards I was craving the hard stuff. I had a fresh tin of this just begging me to indulge. So I did.

Holy pine smoke Batman! This smells intense. Prepared it is lighter in taste than I was expecting based on the aroma, but make no mistake this is no light weight. This is without question Lapsang Souchong. The smoke is layered. It jumps through light and sweet crosses into the edges of ash (not ash tray) and then pulls back into sweet and smoky once again. Definitely not for the smoke wimps. Man if this only had some bergamot ;)

I crave LS regularly in the morning. This one left me satisfied today.

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I steeped this up double strength, and then iced it. The dry leaf of this smells sweet and jasmine.

The jasmine and fruity notes of this blend together so seamlessly. Sweet and fruity and floral, but also slightly vegetal from the green tea, with an extra something in the depth from the black tea. This is a perfect candidate for an iced tea on a hot day.

I had a half teaspoon of this I took from the Here’s Hoping teabox. So I brewed a half a mug. It’s an interesting half mug! It’s a very bright green with a surprising amount of flavor for half a teaspoon and the lotus adds an interesting flavor… tough to describe… kind of sweet. Should it remind me of jasmine, just less distinct? The second cup is even better but very different. More marine like. More floral. I wouldn’t mind some more of this in the ol’ cupboard. Maybe I’d be able to describe it better. haha.

The first thing I noticed is that this smells like roasted peanuts. If I closed my eyes I would swear thats what I was smelling, roasted peanuts.

I threw in my whole sample (~7g?) into my yixing pot, added 8oz of just shy of boiling water, and steeped for 15 seconds. This tastes just like it smells! Like roasted peanuts. My grandpa used to keep a jar of roasted peanuts on the little side table next to his spot on the couch in his Florida room. Taking a sip of this took me back to all those summer days when we would go to my grandpas house and run inside, grab a few peanuts, run and jump in the pool, swim around for a bit and then run back inside to fuel up again. Of all those fall nights when we’d sit in the Florida room with my grandpa, with the fireplace going even though it was 80 degrees outside, and just listen to my grandpa talk and joke.

I went through 8 infusions of about 15-45 seconds with this tea before the roasted peanut taste started to weaken. It that point it was 2am and time for me to hit the hay. I imagine I still could have gotten more infusions out of the leaves though, because they were still quite fragrant, and the liquor, while less roasty, was starting to get a slightly vegetal taste to it. I imagine I had just scratched the surface with this tea,a nd wish I had more to play around with and see just how far I could make it go.

This tea definitely smells very juicy, the sharpness of the passion fruit is cut by a fruity jasmine that together slightly reminds me of starburst candies. this sample is a little old now, so I can imagine that a new batch may smell quite intense.

This tea is a mix of black and green teas. This includes a CTC so I am going to be conservative with my brewing time and temperature. It is also scattered with jasmine flowers.

I brewed this @ 87°C for 2.45 min, which resulted in a clear copper red brew.

This yielded a spicy fruity scented brew. Their are tones of passion fruit and something creamy and almost fig like, a fruity jasmine tone, and a tone that reminds me of juicy fruit gum. The base is present contributing a deeper malt tone, fruity tones, and a hint of baked goods.

The first sip reveals warm sweet fruit tones, opening up to sweet jasmine floral tones and a hint of vanilla, this is balanced by a malty biscuit finish with a slightly bitter spice note. There is a bit of a tannic note in this tea and a touch of astringency.

The dry leaf of this smells exactly like fruit gushers, those little fruity sugary chewy gummy snacks that my mom refused to buy for me as a kid because they weren’t healthy.

I decided to cold brew this (I’ve been cold brewing a lot this week) over night. After about 12 hours, the taste was a little weak, so I gave it another couple hours and tried again. Better this time, though still mellow.

This is what I consider a nice light refreshing tea. Something you can gulp down easy on a hot day, and feel hydrated. There’s not much but a fresh taste at the front of the sip, but mid sip the fruit pokes it’s head up, and sticks around through the end of the sip, leaving a sweet tropical fruit taste, accented by a slight green taste, not quite vegetal, just fresh and sort of crisp.

The fact that you dot get much until mid sip is the reason I can see myself chugging this. Another one I might be on my reorder list.

It had a nice aroma of spearmint & lavender. Yet when it came to brewing i didn’t notice the rose or much of anything else it was quite bland & a little bitter.

So I decided to try this iced, I wasn’t to sure about floral and cold, but something was telling me give it a try.

This is so delicious and refreshing. Instead of tasting like I was drinking perfume like I feared, this actually just tasted like sitting on the porch on a hot spring day next to the fragrant jasmine flowers that are intertwined along the porch railing and climbing their way up the wire arches. You’re drinking an ice cold green tea, and the jasmines smell so strong you can almost swear you can taste them in your tea. And you love it, you couldn’t imagine a more perfect place. And that’s what this taste like. Cool and flowery and slightly sweet and just fresh. Even in the dead of night I can almost feel a warm breeze. I need a big pitcher of this cold in my fridge for the hot Florida days.

The second steeping is just as bright and floral as the first and the leaves are still so fragrant there’s no doubt in my mind that I could get at least one or two more good cups out of this.

After spending all day with Mandala Special Dark, I wanted to transition to something creamy but fruity. This seemed like it would fit the bill.

This tea smells like what I imagine buttermilk smells like, but with a dash of vanilla. This is definitely a creamy tea. Taking a sip, I first and foremost taste vanilla cream. Then I get a sort of buttery taste. At the end of the sip I can almost believe I detect a citrus note. With a name like Mandarin Cream I was expecting something similar to like an orange creamsicle.

This is almost purely cream. It’s actually sort of amazing because it even seems to have a thick creamy mouthfeel to it to. If I closed my eyes I might even think I was drinking warm sweetened vanilla cream. It’s actually pretty good. It kind of seems like a thinned out coffee creamer. Different from what I was expecting but not bad.

First Sip Thought: “Energizer bunny.”

Smell: I enjoyed the scent very much. It was floral with fruity undertones. To me it smells very fresh and it awakens my senses with the added spices.

Taste: My first sip thought was all about the energizer bunny. Why? Simply because the Wellness Blend is filled with invigorating, organic ingredients that can boost your mood and immune system. When you take a sip, be prepared for some extra energy to come your way! I was expecting it to be a bit spicier than it was because of the chili pepper. I believe the added fruitiness and sweetness calmed down the spices included which made it into a wonderfully balanced blend. I wouldn’t get confused by “green” rooibos, as this can steep longer than your typical green tea and still taste great. I think this is a perfect life pick me up. Even if you’re not feeling under the weather this blend will keep you from feeling that way anytime soon. I absolutely love that there is Echinacea in it. I used to swear by Cold 911 from David’s Tea but I think I’ve found a new favourite that I will be referring to all my friends and family. I also find the Wellness Blend to be perfect for an after yoga drink. With it’s organic and calming ingredients it can also help you unwind after a spiritual journey with your mind, body and soul.

www.theteacupoflife.blogspot.com

This is a nice tea. Drinkable. Enjoyable. It’s not spectacular, but I’m enjoying it. Surprisingly, the caramel does not overwhelm the green in this tea. I’ve gotten two infusions out of it, but I don’t think I could get a third that would still have the caramel to it. I’m not tasting the rooibos at all.

I seem to really like Assam tea. I got this sample along with the genmaicha sample a few weeks ago. This Assam actually doesn’t feel as malty as others I’ve had. There’s something else to it, but I can’t place it….
Still a good tea, but Tealux already has this one covered. :P

The first smell I get when about to sip this tea reminds me of trail mix with dried, juicy fruit. The taste itself is more mild and clean. The taste opens with guava and then leads into the white peony. The aftertaste is a mix of strawberry and guava bouncing back and forth and finishing with strawberry.

I didn’t think I’d care for this one, but it was really good! It had a very convincing chai flavor, but without the caffeine. Very nicely done!!

I haven’t really been big on green tea, but a few weeks ago in a swap, Albertocanfly sent me a tea bag of Genmaicha tea. Didn’t think I’d like it at all, but it was so different that I kinda fell in love with it. Ever since I’ve been trying to find who has the best Genmaicha out there. This is the third Genmaicha I’m trying now.
The sample size of this might be one of the reasons why this tea doesn’t smell much. The sample is maybe a few teaspoons, so pretty small. But even when this steeped it didn’t smell really. The flavor is mostly just green tea that’s slightly roasty. Barely a popcorn flavor like in the other two I’ve tried.
So this one is clearly not the best Genmaicha in my book.
The search continues!

This is one of those introductions to today’s tea that is a little lame, I had a mostly uneventful day today and sadly I have not really had any inspiring thoughts. I did some laundry, had some tea, walked to the drug store, watched some lectures, and did a bit of writing. Also Tao did something clever, she learned that meowing in front of the closed window and trying to pull open the window with her paw was a clear way to get me to open the window. That was my day!

Today’s tea is Assam Gold from The Persimmon Tree Tea Company, a lovely black tea from Assam, India, with a sprinkling of curly, fuzzy, golden tipped leaves. You all know me, you know that if my tea has fuzzy, golden leaves I am immediately happy, I am not too hard to please. The aroma is rich and malty with sweet notes of dried cherries. This fades to a blend of cocoa and tobacco with a touch of cedar at the finish.

After what seems like an eternity of steeping (one of the side-effects of doing a bunch of gongfu brewing, all those short steeps!) the aroma if the wet leaves is brisk and sweet, almost surprisingly sweet! There are strong notes of cherries and malt with a faint finish of molasses. The liquid is richly sweet with a tiny bit of tartness, like a more tart cherry. Accompanying this are notes of malt and molasses.

Well, this is certainly not a mild or unassuming tea! The initial taste is quite bold and bit brisk, with notes of cherries, cocoa, and a touch of oak which adds a bit of astringency. This fades to a rich malt that lingers as an aftertaste. Feeling whimsical I added a bit of cream and sugar, this takes away the briskness and that touch of astringency and leaves a rich and very malty cup. The notes of fruit and cocoa are not as strong, there is more of an earthiness as well. I found this tea quite good both creamed and sweetened and straight, it is a great breakfast tea.

For blog and photo: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-persimmon-tree-tea-company-assam.html

This particular tea has a flavor that is full of depth. It starts out with a subtle vegetal flavor which more closely resembles a green tea before the delicate floral flavor blossoms. It has slight sweetness to it that reminds me somewhat of a well ripened piece of fruit, although I’m having trouble deciding just which variety it most closely resembles. When making iced tea it’s natural sweetness means you won’t need to add additional sweeteners to it, keeping your healthy beverage just that, healthy. Oh, and did I mention that this tea is organic too?

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/6/17/tuesday-tea-bao-zhong-the-persimmon-tree-tea-company.html

When I have an upset stomach I tend to shy away from caffeine, which typically only makes things worse. Instead I look for a tea that contains a digestive aid such as peppermint, chamomile, licorice root, ginger, or fennel. Herbal Balance happens to have 4 of the 5 ingredients I generally look for, as well as lemon balm, which works as a mild sedative. Overall the flavor and scent of this tea is mild and soothing, just what you need when you aren’t feeling well or have had a stressful day. The strongest flavors come from the peppermint and licorice root, although I can taste the subtle flavor of chamomile as well. The fennel and lemon balm hide out in the background contributing a little bit of flavor, but are mostly included for their herbal properties. This is a nice tea to relax with at the end of the day, as long as you aren’t turned off by the fact that it contains licorice root. I know many people don’t care for the strong, sweet taste of licorice, but it has always been one of my favorite herbal ingredients. I know I’ll be keeping some of this on hand for a more natural way to soothe myself after a long day trying day (or a 18 hour trip through various airports.) I don’t know a single person who hasn’t come back from the airport completely stressed out, do you? Perhaps I’ll start packing this in my carry-on when I travel.

You can read the full review on my blog
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/6/17/tuesday-tea-herbal-balance-the-persimmon-tree-tea-company.html

At first this is peppery with bite – not hot peppery, just spicy. Then the ginger, cardamon, and clove kick in to kick it up a notch. Under it I taste hints of apple coated lightly with cinnamon. There is pineapple and lemongrass here as well though I can’t single them out. The coconut adds just a touch of creamy to the mug. I would like the white base to be a bit more assertive but I really don’t miss a black tea base at all.

In other news, it is the 24th of the month and this will almost certainly be my last note until after the first of the month thanks to Verizon – the bane of my existence. I usually make it to the 30th. My son must be downloading games again. See you in July!

I wanted tea this morning. Thinking hurt. This is morning tea. Strong but not bitter. Brisk. Astringent – like most breakfast teas. Woodsy. Malt in the aftertaste. Never thought to call it this but Awkward Soul is dead one with raisin late in the sip. Not likely destined to be anyone’s favorite tea but it is more like that friend that is always there for you that kind of goes unnoticed – and shouldn’t.