Zen Tea

The leaves are dark green for the most part with a few light green pieces present and as a whole they are very shiny. They are dry and crisp leaves which are mostly short/broken and has a sweet, mineral scent. I liken it to sweet grass, orchid and fresh kale.

My steeping parameters:
Leaf – 5g
Water Temperature – 70C
Vessel – Glass Gongfu 140ml
3 Steeps – 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes

First Steep – 1 Minute
The tea is yellow and a little cloudy with a sweet floral scent. Flavour is sweet and mineral with a grassy after taste that is a little dry. It does lighten after a few seconds to leave a raw pea flavour.

Second Steep – 2 Minutes
Thicker in strength with a touch of astringency. Sweet tones but still more mineral wise than floral, strong raw pea flavour now. Also high grass notes but no increase in dryness. It’s thick enough to resemble kale or cabbage at this point.

Third Steep – 3 Minutes
Heavy mineral flavour with more astringency than before and a touch of umami. Tastes similar to an instant Sencha powder I’ve had before. More savoury than sweet now but there is some still present.

Overall
A nice Sencha that increases in strength and umami the more you steep it. Offers sweet, grass and floral notes as well as vegetal/mineral richness.

For pictures and more information please view my blog –
http://www.kittylovestea.co.uk/2014/05/14/review-three-teas-from-zen-tea/

The leaves are dark green with the occasional pale yellow/silver spot. They are thin and curly with a light but sweet honeysuckle scent.

My steeping parameters:
Leaf – 3g
Water Temperature – 60C
Vessel – Glass Gongfu 140ml
3 Steeps – 2 minutes, 2 minutes, 3 minutes

First Steep – 2 minutes
Very light yellow liquid with a sweet floral scent, similar to honeysuckle and sweet pea. Flavour is very light but has a sweet after taste. Crystal clear and very smooth and buttery with a slight crispness. A little grassy after a few sips.

Second Steep – 2 minutes
Still very light and more so than the previous steep. Tastes like sweet grass and butter with a slight mineral after taste.

Third Steep – 3 minutes
Extremely light but floral and it’s sweetness toned down somewhat. Less honey more sugar cane though again I stress very mildly. A slight dryness in the after taste this time.

Overall
A light green tea that offers high sweet and floral notes with a buttery finish. Was very refreshing and clear.

For pics and more information please view my blog – http://www.kittylovestea.co.uk/2014/05/14/review-three-teas-from-zen-tea/

I got a couple of coconut teas from MissB in our Tea and Yarn swap, and this is one of them! I love coconut pouchongs so I am interested to try out some coconut greens.

This is certainly extremely coconutty! Sweet, creamy, and yet still light and fresh. I guess coconut works with green tea for me! The combo of coconut and green tea can result in a kind of fruity note as well, and I’m getting that a bit here. Definitely a tasty tea. Thanks MissB!

Mm creamy and tastes like chocolate.. perfect for a rainy day :)

ANOTHER one with no tasting notes yet? Could it be… all the blergamot and lavenblerg fans?
I don’t think that Zen’s Earl Grey Crème can be topped. It might be the best current EGC that is actually for sale today. It will be my go-to for Earl Grey Crème. I expected great things from a lavender EG. I think though, that it’s asking too much, as that EGC is just perfect and even if you add some lovely lavender, it just isn’t the same. It’s very good.. but the lavender or bergamot just isn’t strong enough for me, or they cancel each other out or something. If I want lavender and bergamot, I guess I want a lot of it. Maybe that’s too much for most. I do like the black tea base for this one… it isn’t like the one with the Vanilla Black I’m not a fan of. A nice black tea with bergamot and lavender is just what I crave once in a while. Give this one a try but the EGC is a MUST try!
Steep #1 // two minutes after boiling // 3 min steep

No tasting notes for this one yet! Sad sad. A solid no-nonsense yerba mate! This is a good yerba mate to stock up on if you want some energy in the morning and a change from black tea. This yerba mate is also a great price! For yerba mate newbies, I do NOT suggest you use boiling water, as it burns the yerba mate… it might scare you away from mate for good with that brisk flavor. A lower temperature is best! The flavor is very earthy and sweet tasting – just like you expect a yerba mate to be. Apparently there are a ton of vitamins and minerals in yerba mate as well (I could always use more of those). This is the plain yerba mate I would keep in stock at all times. This yerba mate is also a great price! It seems like Zen is my source for many cupboard staples.
Steep #1 // 35 minutes after boiling (unintentionally a little too long) // 5 min steep

Goodbye good ol’ Comfort Tea! Finishing this off tonight. Feeling very self-indulgent and oversugaring :D

Yum. What a great blend. Have been drinking nothing but ceylon+milk+sugar, so mixing it up today with chai+milk+sugar. :P

T&C TTB#8: A lovely, lemony yellow tea. Nice creamy coconut flavor. This reminds me of the Queen Mary Coconut Baozhong but I think I like this a bit better.

T&C TTB#5: This was fairly weak. Maybe more a caramely vanilla but not even much of that, really. Just kind of meh.

I received this pleasant surprise in the mail yesterday from TeaTiff, who is providing me with a welcome distraction from all my green-tea tastings lately! (Gotta throw in some black teas here and there, because, let’s face it, there’s nothing quite as good as a deep, dark, rich cup of black tea to help one wake up and power through the day!)

I decided I couldn’t resist trying this sample first, because for some reason without intending to I have ended up being sort of on a little Earl Grey kick…I first tried that green EG, then the one by Williamson, and now, this fabulous cup of perfection. I am so spoiled to have enjoyed these really nice Earl Greys over the past two weeks, and this Earl Grey Cream is the icing on the cake, the piece de resistance, the…(okay, I think you get the point, haha) It’s AMAZING!

Oh gosh, the flavor: SO good! It does not have a super strong Ear Grey flavor, but that’s not to say it’s weak. It just tastes as though the bergamot has taken a respectful step to the side to give the cream more of the spotlight on center stage. (This is CREAM Earl Grey, after all) The bergamot is there, it is present, singing out it’s lively citrusy notes in harmony with the star of the show: the lovely cream! Mmmm that vanilla cream flavor is outstanding, belting out its melodiously rich, smooth song just like a famous opera singer! The cream mellows out the citrus and astringent black tea qualities, but is delightfully well-balanced with the other flavors. A nice sweet robust black tea flavor still shines through, so you don’t forget you’re drinking a black tea!

Overall this is deliciously rich and robust, yet sweet and creamy; it has no bitterness or sharp notes. It has a light citrus flavor, calm and soothing, like orange blossoms. Simply superb!

My dessert tonight consists of this chai blend brewed in 2 full cups of sunflower seed milk, 2 teaspoon of raw cocoa powder, a cinnamon stick and a few drops of maple syrup.

Can you feel how good this is?

Out.of.this.world. Traditional chai with a twist.

This blend is good in itself, excellent balance between cardamom, clove and ginger. I like that the clove isn’t overwhelming.

But with the added ingredients slowly simmered on the stove top, it gets elevated to the 10th power!

Yum, yum, yum…

One of my new favorites. This one stands out as unique without overpowering or seeming fake at all. I am in love with this tea. I usually don’t like cocoa notes much but this one is right on. I saw a review earlier that said there is something cozy about this tea, and they are so right. It has a certain indescribable quality. I just ordered a big bag after having two samples – so delicious, cannot wait for my order to arrive. Stunning tea that will be a staple in my kitchen.

A solid assam! The dry leaves are wirey with hints of gold. The flavor is slightly malty, sweet and it doesn’t really get astringent. It reminds me of one of my favorite teas from another tea company that went out of business… a nice replacement! I like this one, but to me, it should be more robust. It doesn’t have enough body to it, but I guess that would mean trying Zen’s CTC teas. I’ll try more leaves next time. Both steeps tasted the similar no matter how I steeped it. If you’re interested in trying a sweeter, more mild assam, try this one!
Steep #1 // 10 mins after boiling // 3 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min steep

I was expecting magic from this vanilla blend from Zen! I love vanilla blends! Sadly, I must have tried too many of them, and already have a few favorites, as this one is not my favorite. Others might be a fan of this base, but I am not. The flavor is not for me and it seems too weak. I did see actual big pieces of vanilla in the blend, but the vanilla also doesn’t seem strong enough for my tastes. With a different base and more vanilla, I would have liked this one better. I suppose I can’t stock up on EVERY Zen tea!
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 min steep

I received this from the amazing TheTeaFairy. Thank you so much.
When I saw this one in my most recent package from her, I tought “why didn’t I order this?” This is right up my alley – I should love this and was surprised that I didn’t have it in my cupboard.

This tea is FANTASTIC, it’s everything it should have been. I love it. For me it was nutty and a bit caramely, toasty, roasty, dersserty with a hint of vanilla. Yum is all I have to say. For sure on my next order.

This just might be the fanciest looking tea I’ve ever seen. Curly, thin, twigs of reddish-salmon-pink hue with vividly green tea leaves attached to them. So lovely.

I was hoping this would taste similar to Fragrant Yellow Bud, also from Zen Tea, but it is more similar to a TGY, pretty vegetal in both aroma and flavor. The twigs seem to add a bit of underlying bitterness. I steeped it twice and both times the tea was flavorful and tasty.

I don’t think I would buy it again any time soon, but I am glad I got to try it. It is definitely unique and special!

Thank you 221tea for this lovely sample. I love dessert teas and this is very nice. I smell the almond well and the rooibos somewhat less in the dry tea. The taste is sweet almond and a small amount of cherry. I (as always) have to try it with a tiny bit of my favorite vanilla stevia. It brings up the almond and cherry both. I am worried that I have gotten too use to the sweet teas and will have trouble when I get the Butiki Educational Traveling Tea box. Will I be able to appreciate the subtleties of “good” teas? I really hope so and I promise not to add stevia to the “good stuff”.

Another sample from my Zen order. A change of pace with spearmint! I’m not sure if Moroccan Mint teas usually have peppermint or spearmint, but this might be my only spearmint tea. At some point I liked spearmint more than peppermint, but peppermint makes headaches disappear, so there you go. This is certainly refreshing and tasty. Plenty of spearmint flavor… so much so, that it tends to overpower the green tea and I can’t really taste that at all for either steep. Very good if you like spearmint, but not for those who are searching for that gunpowder flavor itself.
Steep #1 // 32 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 min steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 3-4 min steep

Got a generous sample of this to try in a tea swap. Currently my brain is fried and I can’t remember who gave this to me, but thanks to whoever you are!

I’m not a big fan of rooibos tea, but I’m learning that I do enjoy some flavored varieties. This is a blend I could definitely drink on a regular basis! It’s got a little burst of tartness from the raspberries, but the vanilla helps sweeten and round out the taste. A lot of roobios teas have a very dry mouthfeel, which I absolutely hate. I am loving the fact that this doesn’t possess this quality. Ordinarily I take sugar and cream with my teas, but this one I can actually drink without any additives because of its natural sweetness. I bet this tastes divine iced as well. If I have any leftover I might just try that when temperatures warm up a bit.

T&C TTB

Without sweetener, this is a nice tea but with sweetener and cream (…yeah, I know) it tastes so much more coconut-y. I just need to find a decent pineapple oolong (maybe even add a dehydrated cherry) so that I can concoct a tasty Pina Colada blend.

Another yummy tea shared by TeaTiff in the TTB!

Yes, I had to place a small Zen order… they are one of my favorites and they had a sale. Just sample pouches of some of my favorites and samples of new ones to try. I love this type of tea – I call it the creamed/breaded corn tea. To me it tastes just like creamed corn or that breaded corn side dish. The dry leaves are shiny like a gunpowder but usually I’ve seen maofeng that have fuzzy leaves like a white tea. I wonder how they taste the same either way? I’m forgetting that all tea is from the same leaf though. To be fair, Zen sent me this tea for free with my order because it was a bit older, so my review might not be as fair as if it were fresh, but to me, it tastes exactly as it should. The breaded/creamed corn flavor. It also has a nuttiness to it that I love. There is a bit of a bite to it, it could just be because it was a green tea and it was steeped for three minutes, or it could be the only hint of an old tea. But I’m not complaining! I love this type of tea.
Steep #1 // 30 minutes after boiling // 3 min steep

This is just ok for me. This is the second chai that I’ve had today that wasn’t really chai for me. This is black tea with a bit of spice and a hint of chocolate. It’s like the blenders couldn’t commit to the concept. I would prefer this if it were more chai and more chocolate.
Thank you TheTeaFairy for sending this one my way.

T&C TTB #20

I have this notion that vanilla tea should be the best thing ever, but I am finding that I have such high expectation for vanilla tea and that most straight vanilla black teas do not live up to it. This was tasty, but nothing to write home about.