The Tao of Tea

★★★☆☆

Flavor Notes:
•Malty
•Sweet
•Astringent (tangy)

★★★☆☆

★★★★★

Update:
I’ve taken this Wuyi Oolong review from 4 stars to 5.

★★★★

Notes:
•Nutty (aroma + taste)
•Toasted (aroma + taste)
•Smooth (starts and finishes smooth)

Steeped Tea Liquor Color: Golden-Amber

A mild but somewhat complex Oolong tea. Extremely clean and smooth with an overall nutty/toasted flavor. No bitter or acidic flavors present. Starts with a toasted flavor, the middle is slightly nutty gradually shifting to a mild hint of fruitiness and it finishes with a fruity and slightly sweet nutty and smokey flavor. (Whew! Yeah that’s what I meant by ‘complex’.) The lingering smokey/nutty flavor left on the palate is wonderful.

My Ratings…
★ = Didn’t Hate It.
★★ = Not Bad.
★★★ = Me Likey.
★★★★ = Impressive!
★★★★★ = AwesomeSauce!

OMG! I think I found a way to use up my peppermint!! I got a big bag of it awhile back and have been adding it to some of my teas as a pick-me-up but 50g of peppermint goes a long way….
I hadn’t tried it with Rooibos because I disliked the mint chocolate rooibos, and of course I’d never considered that it was the chocolate part I disliked! ha!
This was an actual “peppermint rooibos” sample so I will have to see if my homemade version works just as well.
Peppermint on it’s own is too much for me, so this is a great way to cut it. and the rooibos adds it’s own sweetness to.
I wonder if the organic part makes that much of a difference? we shall see…
This is a mood tea so no doubt this rating is inflated a bit.
I can’t help it! This is so very soothing, and smooth. Maybe I’ll try it before bed next time instead of my chamomile.
I need to pick up some regular (roasted?) rooibos as well.

This was good!! crisp, defined flavours in the peach and white tea… grassy and fresh tasting, and not too heavy. Naturally sweet on it’s own, coming out of the peach essence, but not in a tart way at all.
Still, nothing beats DTs strawberry white!!!

Thanks LiberTEAs!!!

This is a nice medium strength green – not too bitter, not too sweet, not too buttery, not too vegetal! Lovely in every way and one of those “just right” types! YAY!

Thank you, TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

Yet another example of why I think Tao of Tea is an extraordinary tea company. This Yunnan is a very pleasant cup, indeed. It is a perfect tea for this lovely Saturday afternoon. Strong but not aggressive and a fantastic malty quality.

Very nice.

Sipdown #4 of the day!

Apparently I am one of the few steepsterities that are up and rearin’-to-go this morning! I do see a few others and those I say GOOD MORNING! :)

Because I am going a little more hardcore than usual today – I want you all to take a look at my other loggings because there is something FREE mentioned in at least one of them! Check it out!

Anyhow…This is a decent pu-erh – one of the first ones I enjoyed after fails from other companies. This mad me be more open-minded and for that I am thankful! It’s well rounded and flavorful without being too intense! A nice one!

Backlogging…smoother than most pu-erhs, NICE…see previous notes

Thanks for this LiberTEAs!

The pre-infused aroma isn’t very intense but once infused it’s a little stinky. The taste, however, is one of the more subtle stereotypical pu-erhs I have come across. I like that. It’s smooth. I like THAT. It’s woodsy but more importantly a little sweet! I LOVE that!

This tea makes a fantastic chai. This tea is really to strong for me to drink without adding milk and sugar. This is how I prepare it –
Bring to a boil 2 cups of water and 8 tsp turbinado sugar (more or less, depending on your taste).
Add 2-4 teaspoons 500 mile chai and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Add two cups of milk and gently simmer for 5 minutes, or until the milk makes a bit of a skin.
Stir, strain and enjoy.

This tea has been my unchallenged favorite for several years. It’s the perfect blend when I need a little caffeine boost – just about every weekday morning. It’s a strong black tea mixed with wonderfully-scented rose petals. I’ve had other flower-scented teas, but they were always too floral and cloying. This one somehow manages to convey the scent of roses in foody, non-floral way. This tea is lightly sweet even without sugar, but is robust enough stand up to extra sugar and a splash of milk. It’s also wonderful on its own.

This is the perfect tea for the last week of damp, cool mornings of spring. This has great chestnut, toast, and walnut overtones. This is very smooth and savory, best brewed light, strong steeps make the flavors harsh and uunhappy. The leaves are gorgous and true to their name: the dark cracks in some of the light green leaves look like dragon scales. Hopefully I’l be able to sneak a few more cups out of this one before the family stops fighting over who gets the tin!

A beautiful green tea. Such a lovely contrast of flavors, from bitter, to roasty-toasty sweetness. Fruity taste in the foreground and a hint of a sharp, licorice-y taste in the background. A smooth tea with a fair amount of dry astringency. Really pleasant and calming to sip.

It’s hard to believe I’ve never logged this before. I must’ve gone through a pound of it this year alone!

It’s a very refreshing sencha. Light and fruity with some alfalfa notes. It changes slightly with different brewing factors and is fairly forgiving for sencha. And just as important as taste is the organic factor. It gives this tea cupboard tenure in big green canister.

Nice Tulsi – unflavored but still natural citrus notes come thru :)

Well…the color is interesting…it’s light brown with an orange hue…I guess that would be the best away to describe it. It’s not much for smell but if I had to say one thing about the aroma it would be there is a HINT of wood smell to it…but not very much. As for the taste…it’s very weak! One of the more mild – if not the most mild – black tea I have ever tasted, really. It’s not bad…it’s just quite weak.

I agree with Geoffrey’s note about it tasting like sweet seaweed or Nori type tasting…This is a nice matcha standby to have. It’s ok! I love the smoothness of it! That’s my favorite part of this one…

I had put off my first cup of tea for the day because I had planned on heading back to bed for a nap and didn’t want any caffeine, but now it looks like I’ll be up a while, and I NEED tea. So… I reached for this one.

So very good. Malty, rich and stimulating… just what I needed this “morning” (yeah, I know it isn’t morning, but, it’s morning somewhere… right?)

This is a delightful Assam. Malty is right! I don’t think I’ve tasted a maltier tea. It is strong and bold with an undertone of sweet caramel notes. There is a note of bitter towards the middle of the sip – not one of those “I oversteeped the Assam” kind of bitter tastes, but more of a “hint of bitterness that is here to cut through some of the heavier notes of this tea and make things interesting” kind of bitterness that is ever so slight.

Teasnob mentioned a “salty” note to this tea, and I am tasting that too. I didn’t get it in the first couple of sips, but, now that I’m about a 1/4th of the way through this cup the salty tone is presenting itself. It’s a very interesting quality to this tea that I don’t think I’ve really ever experienced before – I like it!

Malty with a touch of sweetness! Not bitter at all! This is MARVY! I really like this! YUM! It’s medium brown in color and of medium strength for a black tea. A nice sweet-smooth finish. YUM!

My assumptions:
This tea would be darker than dark! A pure black brew! Stronger than strong…almost coffee-like.

I was wrong!

The color was a light brown. The taste was strong but not a thick black chewy tea taste is was astringent and almost darjeeling tasting.

This was quite good just much different from what I was expecting!

We tasted the two varieties of Tao of Tea jasmine pearls side by side at the shop. Both are delicious! But, I favor the cheaper ones. It’s a more earthy flavor. The expensive ones are sweeter and have a stronger floral scent.