Various Artists

Here’s Hoping Tea box

Korean Barley Tea

I’ve been wanting to try a Barley tea so here I go! Roasty and warming- I like it but it is reminiscent of coffee, so I may not be having it often.

Side note: I just got back from San Francisco so I’ll be having a couple great tax to add to this box.

Travelling Tea Box C

Jinseng Oolong

The label didn’t say what brand/origin. I’ve had a ginseng oolong before and this one I felt was not as good. I like the ginseng a little bit stronger. The base was slightly more woody then I like as well. Still refreshing though for an office morning.

Travelling Tea Box C

Spicy Cherry by Herbal Infusions

Tastes slightly like a Luden’s cough drop. Artificial cherry flavor w/a little bit of floral reinforcement. A nice, earthy rooibos and just a touch of chili pepper that brightens the whole thing up. Ok, but not likely to be a favorite.

Ancient Baked Heart by Wild Tea Qi

Thanks, Nicole_Martin, for this tea!

This is very different from all the dark, heavy teas I’ve been drinking lately. It was a welcome change. Warm, light, grassy and sweet- this reminds me of dancing in a field of grass and wildflowers. The mouth feel is silky smooth. I’m enjoying this a lot today!

Thanks, Kaylee, for giving me this mystery tea at the swap! Silver packet with red lettering that I can’t read!

So this tea is a little harsh- maybe I just used too much leaf? It was red, heavy, fruity, slightly charcoal-like, astringent, and almost a little starchy. It left my mouth feeling gritty, but not dry. I’ll try it again, but with less leaf.

Yum! Thanks, Nicole_Martin for a sample of this.

This is a great afternoon tea. I love the soft, almost fuzzy leaves. The taste is light, tangy mixed greens. It is a bright but not astringent. There are pineapple and citrus notes.

Since I’m in the neighborhood, I stopped by press tea and had the Wild Himalayan Black Tea. Last time I had it with cream and I felt I couldn’t properly gauge how the pressed tea compared to a normal black. This time I got it straight. Woohee! This is bitter and strongly malty. I had 3 sips and then I had to sweeten it. Once I added honey, it smoothed out the flavor and was much better. There is a build up of bitterness in the mouthfeel and I feel like I need to brush my teeth. This isn’tsmething I would drink on a regular basis.

Assam tea at Tea & Sympathy. I’m much too tired to even ask what brand tea this is. All I know is I’m enjoying a proper pot of tea. Sweet, malty and from a ceramic pot. Cosy and yummy!

Thanks, Greenteafairy for this tea!

The only English on this tea was the brand name, Ssangkye Tea, so I don’t know much about. The dryleaf is very light and looks more like an herbal tea because it has flower petals, bits of flowers and fruit pieces. Could there also be yabao? Tastes a little woody, sweet too.

Pomegranate Black Tea

Another tea bag to try during this class. They should only call it training if we’re moving as fast as a train… obviously boredom is playing with my head.

The black base to this tea is pretty weak and very generic. The pomegranate flavoring is weak and semi-fake tasting. It is however, mildy sweet so I don’t really want to dump it. Instead it is another tea I can mindlessly sip on while semi-paying attention to people asking for the umpteemth time how to enter data into certain parts of patient registration.

THanks, Shelley_Loraine for a packet of this tea to try.

White Pear by Ovation Teas

Thanks, Shelley_Lorraine for this tea.

Light, slightly astringent base- got bitter as it cooled. Very, very light pear taste- Couldn’t really get enough of it to tell if I liked it or not.

“Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!”

This was marked “Happy Tea” and was in a Teavana bag, but there was no ingredient list and I can’t find it anywhere. It looks like a guayasa with berries and that’s what it tastes like Yummy, but not something I’d have all the time.

So there’s this semi-fancy Chinese restaurant that I like to go to on occasion for lunch. They have a great Jasmine black tea that they serve up both hot or cold. They’re starting to know me there so when I ordered hot tea with my meal today they brought me a teapot! They probably just saved themselves a few trips to the kitchen! :-)

Anyway, the tea is a lovely jasmine, not overly floral and just the the right amount of bitter. The black to base is smooth and rich.

So I can’t add teas yet, so I’m adding my review of Om (Sound of the Universe) by Joy’s Teaspoon here. Frankly I didn’t like it. It smelled like soapy potpourri in the dry leaf and as a liquor. The rose was very overpowering and in a bad way. I didn’t taste much of any of the other spices except for maybe a little bit of licorice root. Not really my cup of tea. I think I like my floral teas a little more subtle.

Ingredients according to Joy’s Teaspoon website are: cardamom, saffron, licorice root, fennel, ginger root, cinnamon, rosebuds, lemongrass, rose scen

I went to Alice’s Tea Cup on the Upper East Side with a friend and ordered their “Sassa” tea which is an assam. The only other plain Assam I’ve had is Butiki’s Premiem Taiwanese Assam. This one is less buttery, but more fruity and tannic. I did not taste as many things going on in this cup although it was strong. I didn’t feel it was as smooth either. I think I can taste that they are related to each other, but I definitely like Butiki’s better. Also this one left me with an unpleasantly dry mouth.

Allergy Relief Tea by Physical GraffiTEA

I picked this up the other day when I was at the store and started to drink this today to see if it helps my allergies. It has red clover, plaintain leaf, elder flower, nettle, peppermint, licorice root, and hibiscus. I threw in a spoonful of raw honey for good measure. I let the infuser just sit in my travel mug for the duration of my 2 hour commute and now on a second steeping.

I decided to have some fun doing side by side tasting of Lopchu Golden Orange Pekoe and Lopchu Flowery orange Pekoe. I used 125ml of boiling water over 3/4 tsp of leaf brewed for 2 minutes and decanted into glass.

The resulting Tea both have the deep rich slightly earthy sweet fruity notes mixed with cocoa I love in the teas from this Darjeeling Estate.

The Golden Orange Pekoe has more of the muscat found in Darjeeling as well as some brighter floral notes, a touch of honey and a menthol slightly camphorous notes over the richer base notes.

The Flowery orange Pekoe has much more stonefruit notes, more cocoa, some biscuit and tastes much richer to me.

The Flowery orange Pekoe is admittedly one of my favourite teas and tends to be a tea most people Ihave shared it with have liked even Darjeeling haters.

As they cool the Golden orange Pekoe continues to taste brighter and sharper than the Flowery orange Pekoe but becomes a bit rounder and fuller tasting. I enjoy them both.

Cinnamint

1.5- 2 inches cinnamon and 1.5 tbsp of full Leaf peppermint in 150 ml of water steep 7-10 min.

I’m sick again. I made this along with chrysanthemum Shou, lemongrass, ginger, the third day of my current Sheng and various other caffeinated offerings. It smells like a balance between the two ingredients and is really soothing right now on my throat and chest. The cinnamon is more present initially and then it finishes with peppermint notes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrWADemK_s/

This evening I’m experimenting with using teacups as a mini Gaiwan with one of my Dancong that I have taken through 22 steeps before. I used 3g/65ml and so far it’s been a success. Steeped this way It recaptures the whiskey liqueur mixed with light peach notes I love in my other Osmanthus Dancong. This one also has cream and cocoa notes. It is more heavily roasted than my other Dancong of this type.

I’ve steeped this tea a few times. The first time I had bitter orange and honey, a second time was closer tonight and another time when I used less leaf it was heavily perfumed and floral. Altogether, I am having fun playing with this tea I got off aliexpress. https://instagram.com/p/37onvBGK-s/
https://instagram.com/p/37oHcLmK9w/

Random notes about teas I’ve had so far today.

1.jinmaohou-yixiang tea company. While I still prefer the yinhao from this company, I find that this tea makes a nice lighter bodied golden monkey if I keep to my normal leafing (@2.5g/225ml) and allow it to steep at least 2minutes. It then yields, a bright sweet potato and honey tea with underlying grainy notes and cocoa.

2 Rou GUI Fu Tea Store Aliexpress. This tea still yields a nice German chocolate torte with cherry kirsh taste two years after its harvest.

3. Pomme de verger damman Frères. Though this isn’t my favourite df tea I appreciate best with longer steep times closer to 5 minutes.

Edit 4. 5. TenRen Dragon Well. This is a very old green but it still is very flavourful. It has a good mix of grilled fruit bitter green, chestnut, and floral notes with honey. It wasn’t what I started out intending to drink but I am quite enjoying it right now.

I drank a Xue Pian ( snowflake) Dancong from a heli tea sampler last night. The first time I had it I was not that impressed it really tasted mainly of mineral notes and not much else. The second time I doubled the leaf I originally used it and brewed it using the chazhou method ( lots of leaf and flash steeping) and it was a different animal. The mineral notes were still there, but the tea had these lovely honey nectar notes that I always imagine finding in mi lan xiang but haven’t found yet. The leaf of this one was only mildly oxidized and were not completely folded into bars. The tea did have a nice resiliency using this method and I would be happy to try more Dancong of this fragrance type. The honey and nectar flavour lingered for a long time.

Mystery Shou Tuocha aka as Chinese Apothecary Tuocha

Herb Depot Toronto

https://instagram.com/p/yQ49IxmK0t/

Sadly, this is my first and only tea for the day.

However, this tea is easily drinkable, very cheap, and is a pretty good entry into shou and is cheap enough that I don’t feel guilty if I don’t steep it into exhaustion.

The tuocha itself is composed of the broken leaves you expect from cheap tuocha. There are flecks of gold among the dark leaves.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B04XXZKzObY1ekxEeFV3aVNpYXM/edit?usp=docslist_api

The scent of the tuocha is pretty innocuous, a little bit barn yardy, but no fishy smell. I have always rinsed the tuocha, but I think I could get away without it with this tea.

The first steeps brew very dark and gradually fade to a peachy brown, gold colour.

I usually steep it in a 120ml gaiwan.

The brewed scent includes: camphor leather, smoke, red fruit, cocoa, a bit of a yeast note.

My first steep is usually between 2-5s and I increase in 2 second intervals until it weakens at which, I increase intervals. This tea has lasted me over 16 steeps before, though I have had more resilient Tuocha before.

The first steeps can be dense in texture and coffee like, but the tea yields flavour notes of : cream, red fruit, cocoa, earth, caramel, ash, insence smoke, smoke, camphor, cedar, loam, a slight marine vegetative note and malt and yeast.

Towards later steeps the tea becomes sweeter with cream and fruit and caramel notes having higher prominence. The tea is quite smooth though there is a cooling spice sensation that develops in the aftertaste.

Altogether easy to drink and it makes me less afraid of trying their Sheng.

Next time:-)!

Last night I made a variation of this recipe for Turkish Apple Tea after dinner. It made a nice caffeine free option for every one and brought back memories of my brief time in Turkey for me :-)
http://www.questturkey.com/lifestyle/fooddrink/1082-turkish-traditional-apple-tea-recipe.html
I used:
1 Medium sized orange
@ 4-5 apples
A couple of cinnamon sticks and @ 5 cloves.

You quarter the fruit and toss all of it and the spices in a mid sized pot and then top it with water simmer the fruit for at least 10min, sweeten to taste and then save the liquid and squueze out the liquid from the fruit and you’re left with a nice, slightly ciderish tea with a citrus tinge. Everyone liked it so I guess it was a success:-).

Today I decided to compare to Zhenghe teas Tao Tea Leaf’s Zhenghe gongfu, Jin Ping village http://www.taotealeaf.com/zhenghe-gongfu-black-tea-jin-ping-village/ and Titan teas Zhenghe Gongfu. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Fujian-Zhenghe-Gongfu-Black-Tea-herbal-tea-health-tea-Chinese-100g-bagged-tea/1359449_1980624893.html

I decided to use western brewing for this comparison starting with the following parameters:
2g/2 min/95°C/150ml water

http://instagram.com/p/tYLxcFGK4v/

Titan tea

Dry leaf. Long folded and lightly twisted and curled dark brown leaves with dome copper brown tips. The tea smells of carob with grain notes.

Brewed colour.clear deeper copper brew.

2 min.
Scent. Hot Chocolate, cinnamon, stone fruit, hint of yam.

Taste. Hot chocolate, roasted grain/leaf note, caramel, hint of a mineral note, cinnamon, hint of yam and cherry.

3min. hints of molasses chocolate, fruit, cinnamon

Smooth, cream, chocolate, roasted notes, caramel, cinnamon, plum. Very sweet aftertaste.

4min. Cocoa, hints of citrus notes, spice

Grain, cocoa, molasses, spice, faintly peppery, cream, plum.

5.3 min. Cocoa, grain, hints of citrus, peppery notes, caramel, hints of plum.

Tao Tea Leaf

Dry leaf shorter, smaller and thinner than the titan tea slightly more wound but still loosely wound leaves with some copper, gold tips.
Scent, fall leaves, grain, and cocoa notes.

Brewed Colour. copper

2 min
Scent. Longan, plum, honey, grainy notes, hints of cocoa.

Taste, longan, floral, spicy, grainy note with cinnamon and ppepper, honey, cream and a hint of cocoa, slight astringency and cooling in the mouth, hints of cherry and stone fruit with the cocoa.

3min longan, grain, honey, hints of cocoa

Honey, grain,longan, cocoa, hints of cream, plum and a peppery floral spice, tingly on the tongue. Aftertaste of longan, cocoa,cream and honey.

4 min grain, hints of longan, cocoa, pepper, hints of plum.

5.30 min. Grain, longan, honey, cocoa, pepper, cinnamon, cherry, hints of nuts.

First steep picture http://instagram.com/p/tYNfikGK7h/

Flavour wise these are quite different teas. Tao’s tea is bright and llively, peppery, and complex, with more grain notes, less chocolate, and nutty, floral notes. Whereas Titans tea has a lot of Chocolate. They are both quite resilient, still yielding a lot of flavour after 4 western steeps. I enjoy both teas and am glad to have them in my cupboard.