The Simple Leaf

Just a nice, light brew. Sort of sweet, not astringent. No need for milk and I think this would be too light for that. Think I need to try this one more time before I can give an accurate assesment.

On a lighter note, I bought this tea solely based on the name..What a silly and delightful movie this was. Best scene in the whole flick: Meryl Streep was holding her grown daughter in her lap and painting her daughter’s nails. How much sweeter can you get?

I went a little heavier on the leaf so I could finish off this tea, so I shortened the steep time by a hair. The Nilgiri, thick leaf taste is stronger than the first time I had this (but it still lacks the rough edge I associate with Nilgiris) plus I’m getting a pretty heavy honey aftertaste. I sort of like this in spite of my best efforts not to.

Smells like a slightly toasted Nilgiri but fortunately it doesn’t have the raw taste I associate with Nilgiris. Instead, this tastes like roasted nori sheets – a little fishy, a little soy sauce-y, fairly vegetal and crisp. It’s quite tasty and makes me crave rice with nori sheets.

Hmm, second steep isn’t nearly as nifty. The smell still brings to mind a Nilgiri and the taste has migrated from toasted nori sheets to a mix of wakame seaweed and Nilgiri rawness. I definitely prefer the first steep.
2.5g/5oz

I’m going to just rip off the band-aid: I think this one was over-hyped.
OK, I guess I’m just weird. Everyone else thinks it is the most amazing tea ever…I don’t. It’s not bad, just not teagasmic. I get the pre-brew smells. Yup, Chocolate in abundance. Trouble is, it just doesn’t come through on the steep for me. There have been several descriptions of the taste, but for me the thing it tastes most like is…ready?…boiled peanut shells. That’s not necessarily bad, and I love boiled peanuts, but maybe not in my morning tea. I mixed some Dawn with some Assam, and I thought it was infinitely better. As expensive as it was with shipping, I probably will not order more. Nomex suit is donned; fire away!

I cold brewed the leaves from yesterday for an iced green tea, but then I wasn’t in the mood for it. I decided to give it to my roses! I filled up the pitcher with even more water then poured the watery tea and leaves into the ground. Roses love tea and tea leaves – they are a good source of nitrogen for the soil.

I do this with leftover coffee too, sometimes straight from the coffee pot (but diluted!). Once the little boy next door stage whispered to his mom, “Look! She’s putting COFFEE in her FLOWERS!” when I was coffee-ing the mums.

Having this as an afternoon cuppa with a sliver of lemon – yum! I love it. I would rate this a solid 85 with lemon.

I know it’s not for purists, but if a little slice of citrus fruit allows me to enjoy plain green tea more, so be it! I now want to try all of my plain greens with either a little slice of lemon or orange.

I am enjoying this very light, slightly asparagus-y green this afternoon. Very delicate and nice to sip. I have to be in the mood for this type of vegetal green, but when I am, it’s so good. It’s almost like a broth, and it makes me feel as if I had a second course to my lunch!

I’m going to bump this up a few notches, especially since I gave it an appropriate second steep which took care of the bitterness that I experienced the last time I had this tea.

I’m in the mood for something in the green family today – must be the heat we are experiencing!

1st steep: very light and vegetal/asparagus. The tea is almost clear! I wonder if I could have used a slightly higher temperature? I’m going to stick with 175 for this whole cycle and see what happens, though. It’s very enjoyable in a virtuous way, and I think it would be good with food. I’m not getting any honey/apricot this steep (the reason I was attracted to this tea!).

2nd steep: (4 min) More color! A little sweeter, especially as it cools. The asparagus is still present, but morphing into something a bit grapey/musky. I now think 175 is an appropriate temperature. I definitely like this steep better, although I think I should have poured at 3:30 – slightest bit bitter.

3rd steep: (4 min again) Not bad. The second steep is the good one, though.

All in all, a solid green. My tastes prefer the naturally sweet greens and oolongs, but this is interesting and will have no trouble being drunk up ;) especially with a meal. I don’t think this is one I’d repurchase, though.

I think my tasting is off kilter today. Last night I burnt my tongue really bad on some Beef Pho. It was still very tasty…but I can tell my taste buds are still in a state of repair. As of right now, the tea tastes like light black tea mixed with tree bark. Oddly enough, it’s not awful…just kind of odd. There is a sweet note but the level of astringency is pretty killer. It’s bad when you take a sip of tea and immediately have to follow it with a drink of water to re-hydrate your mouth. The flavor isn’t the worse I’ve ever tasted, but it is far from the best. The astringency and thinness of the tea are the big downers.

Ok, after reading the other tasting notes on Black Frost, perhaps my taste buds aren’t too far off on this tea. If you are a Darjeeling fan you might like the flavor profile here.

Holy guacamole! I finally got to try this tea courtesy of JacquelineM. Thank you so very much!!!!!

I’m on my third steep (which tastes kind of like a waterier/chocolatier version of Adagio’s Golden Monkey), and had to do a quick peek at others’ notes on this tea. I knew it had great reviews, but I was curious about what others compared this tea to. I think others do a great job of giving full-out notes, so I’ll just add my highlighted impressions:

Yes, these leaves are insane! LOOOONG and a matte black. These might be the coolest leaves that I have yet to see.

I am completely flabbergasted that there are not additives in this tea. I think I want to call this a “black oolong.” Yes, I know that that’s impossible, but what I mean to say is that like an oolong it has a clearly veggie-base that’s not my favorite, but then the magic is what happens all around that base. I could grow to love this tea like I love oolongs. And that’s saying a lot. The only thing holding me back from a higher grade is the chocolate — which here is lovely, but I wouldn’t care to have it too often because of that particular taste in this tea.

I regret not having my first steep at boiling (subsequent ones have been so). My initial response was “Green beans? Yes, green beans.” I wonder how much of that had to do with the lower temp. It was like malty green beans. And there was what another reviewer mentioned: the hint of hash. But then the lightest milk chocolatey notes started to play with my tastebuds as an aftertaste. It was unbelievable. And suddenly, there were about four sips-worth of “MALTED MILKBALLS!” as the green bean taste subsided.

This truly is a remarkable tea. This tea reminds me how amazing tea is and how much I love it. TG

This is the first time trying this tea. It’s been in my cupboard for a little while, I bought it at the same time I purchased Dawn and Honeybee. But, as I said, I have a lot of teas …

Anyways… This tea is yummy! Fresh vegetal taste – less on the grassy side and more on the cooked veggie side. These beauitful, long, spiral-y leaves slowly unwind and unfurl to a full leaf that appears to be small and quite young… but whole… and absolutely lovely.

I am currently enjoying my third infusion of this tea. With each new infusion comes a smoother flavor that is savory and sweet all at once. The Simple Leaf is simply amazing!

I can’t believe how remiss I’ve been about adding tasting notes. I didn’t even have this one listed as in my cupboard, but I’ve had it for quite a while now…I’ve gone on to two other tea orders since then! Shameful.

This is a good Assam. The aroma — both of the dry leaves and of the tea itself — is really nice (I don’t ever talk about the smell of the wet leaves because for some reason, the smell of wet tea leaves of any variety is sort of gross to me).

I’ve noticed that many Assams have a sort of berry undertone for me. Sinharaja has that same sort of thing going on, despite being a Ceylon. It’s very complementary to additions of turbinado sugar — something in the molasses content blends nicely (though I tend most often to take my teas, even my black teas, straight).

Not the stiffest Assam I’ve ever had, but pretty stiff, and it has that honeyed biscotti sort of flavor that tends to define the ones I like most. Those people grieving the inevitable emptying of their tin of Thomas Samson might consider this as an alternative, with those shared notes…though it’s definitely a bolder cup of tea than Thomas, and may not tickle every fancy.

What an odd black tea.

Here’s my immediate tasting note…all taking place in my head:

“Oooh, this smells sweet like baking chocolate or dark coco powder…and sort of barnyard-y. sips Hmm? Interesting. This is black tea, right? Umm, I did not put honey in this. Why does it taste like I put honey in it? What the heck? Chocolate honey?!?”

The taste of honey creeps in until it is oh so sweet. The chocolate note lingers slightly bitter but pleasant in the aftertaste. I taste a light smoky taste that is apparent in some sips and not in others. This tea is complex and confusing. I must drink more in attempt to figure it out. What a terrible, terrible thing. :)

Thanks for another fascinating sample, Doulton.

I’ve drunk this for a couple of mornings now and am trying to reconcile my impressions with those of my fellow Steepsterites. Somehow I don’t perceive this one as big and bold at all; it brews up a light to medium amber, with some delicate flavor notes. On my first tasting I got a hint of cooked veggies (thank you, Harfatum, for letting me know I’m not hallucinating, although for me it was asparagus rather than Brussels sprouts!), and today I picked up on the bready quality more. Contrary to its name, it doesn’t strike me as super-malty, either. I will continue tasting and exploring this one.

My job keeps me even more busy than my classes did! It looks like during the summer I’ll only have time to log tea on my days off. This was a tea that the lovely Takgoti sent to me. Once again, I’m using my tiny oolong teapot from Samovar for this tasting.

I rinsed the leaves, then got down to some serious oolong business.

The tea is a medium brown color. It smells sugary sweet. The one taste that stands out the most is (obviously) honey, and this is a pretty light tea. It also tastes slightly doughy, yeasty, or “bakey”. It’s a good combination!

This is the second tea I’ve had from The Simple Leaf. I love Dawn, and I like this. Thanks, Takgoti!

Another good tea from The Simple Leaf that I drank on a daily basis until it was gone! As I recall, this one was a nice dark brew with a lot of flavor. I need to make a wishlist for teas from The Simple Leaf. This one deserves to be reordered.

This is the kind of tea you can drink for about a week straight and just not get tired of it! I enjoyed it quite a bit with just a little vanilla soy creamer and some sweetener. It’s just so good. I drank it while I was on a hiatus from steepster. (Life just got a little too busy!!) I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys unflavored black teas. It really is delicious.

Today was my final for my class. I should be happy, right? The semester is over! Instead I’m feeling so…bereft. I love going to class, learning, and getting inspired by my professor and fellow students. I have so much to do this summer – my garden needs me, my to-read pile is out of control, I have a painting all lined up, I need to do my knitting for Fall…but – sigh. I love going to school!

I really needed something light and sweet now that I’m in the office (I drank 3 cups of coffee before my test and my stomach is not appreciative!!). I’ve been working through four delicious steeps of this one. Very sweet, and lightly vegetal in the best way. I feel better – more relaxed – nourished. A buttery taste comes out in the 3rd and 4th steeps. I am really impressed with this Indian green tea!

Today is an amazingly annoying day. I’m herding cats, apparently through minefields. So I’m trying to not scream at people and drink lots of tea. I’m starting with some of this iced.. I think I brewed this too strong, but I think overall I may just like this better iced than not. We’ll see..

Cross your fingers for me!

I wanted to like this tea. I really did. But it’s just not oolong enough for me. This is too mild, and even when steeped extra strong tastes a little like it’s watered down to me. The aromas are nice, and I taste some of the sweet. But this just isn’t gonna be one of my all-time favorite oolongs. Sigh.

Second and final infusion of my pouch of Dawn. I added a touch of honey, which is something I don’t usually do with Dawn, due to the last cup being a tad on the bitter side. The honey did work to smooth things out, but the result still isn’t awesome as I remember Dawn being.