Zen Tea

Sipping on this while working on program notes for a concert featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 4. (May I just say that having to write program notes on Baroque music gives me a new love of it. No, not for any artistic reason. Because it’s logical, concise, and I can pick out what’s going on.) Mmmm. I don’t know why, but tonight this tea just hits the spot. Really it’s the aroma as much as anything, it’s always the aroma when it comes to tea.

Speaking of aromas, I dumped the used leaves from this into the trash bin a few weeks back, and the trash STILL smells like vanilla tea. I really hope the parents don’t mind.

I keep forgetting I have this tea. Whoops, guess I better try it.

Mmm! This is actually quite nice! Maybe a little less assertive in the vanilla than is desirable, but that could be my fault as well. It’s nice to have teas like this that are just all sweet and smooth. I took my second steep to work and I couldn’t stop sipping on it. A lighthearted comfort tea. Yay tasty sample!

I love licorice root, have for 15 years now, from my first bag of Stash Licorice Spice…despite how I can see how it’s very sweet and vaguely reminiscent of Sweet n’ Low which I think is vile. Weird huh. Anyway, as a lover of licorice root, I really enjoy this one. It’s sweet and calming, perfect for its claims of being a good destressor before bed.

Had this last night. Good. Sorry I’m not more detailed; I like to note when I try a tea for the first time, even if I don’t have much time or wherewithal to express things fully or even much at all. And EGs tend to be my go-to comfort blanket teas, had when I don’t feel like thinking much about anything at all. So. It takes a really egregious one OR an outrageously sublime one to make me sit up and take notice enough to say much for posterity—generally it’s a case of “any halfway decent EG is just fine for my purposes”.

Once again I try a coconut oolong and love the heck out of it—apparently as flavored oolongs go that’s my thing! This is sort of the perfect middle ground between the very creamy American Tea Room one I recently tried and the fresher, more intense, coconut water-ish Golden Moon one. Makese sense—I’ve noticed Zen Tea seems to excel at balanced flavor (their Earl Grey Cream is a good example). I’d happily drink this again; it’s delicious, both indulgently smooth and fresh, refreshingly perky. But the truth is I’d want all 3, ‘cause sometimes you want a mouthful of coconutty cream and sometimes you don’t. Yum!

Backlog:

I really liked this, although it still surprises me to admit it! I’m not a big fan of the earthy notes of pu-erh or of yerba mate … and this blend has both of those leaves in it! I was thinking this was gonna be way too earthy for me to like it! But, I liked it anyway!

This not exactly what I’d refer to as a “chai” since it really only has pepper and cardamom in it, but, it is still deliciously spiced and I love the vanilla and chocolate notes of this, and the coconut gives it even more creaminess and I think that the creamy tones help to offset some of the earthy notes.

Here’s my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/05/02/organic-energizing-chai-blend-from-zen-tea/

It’s my layman’s understanding that yellow tea is pretty hard to acquire at a reasonable price outside of China (or at has been least up until very recently), and I’m aware of the possibility of inferior or even counterfeit teas branded as such. Not at all implying that’s the case here, just noting in general as I really have no basis to judge what an authentic yellow tea “should” be like. (I have a couple more coming my way this month, so maybe I’ll get a better handle on what the general characteristics are based on common traits between the few I’ll be able to try.)

That said, I’m quite taken by how unique this appears. Dry it looks a little like long golden/tippy black leaves, there’s definitely a bit of oxidation, and the dry smell is quite extraordinary—it really is like a cross between all the basic tea types I’ve tried. There’s the toastiness of black tea and roasted oolongs, but also a fresh green mossiness more akin to greens and other types of oolongs, and that whole “delicately sweet floral perfume” aspect of Chinese whites and scented teas. Brewed in the cup this is surprisingly reddish brown but with gold undertones, reminds me of some of the peachiest and roastiest most classic/old-fashioned oolongs. The flavor is very mild and pretty smooth but as it cools a gentle darjeeling-ish woody astringency comes in that I really dig. As it cools further a fruity sweetness comes in. Good choice on an overcast damp mossy fall day like this as it evokes mossy forests and wet wood. Reminds me a bit of a class of oolongs, I forget which but I had some from Butiki a while back, where there are darjeeling qualities. Or perhaps it was the darjeeling that had oolong qualities, I forget. Whatever it is, I like it and it does come off as pretty unique.

This rooibos brews up so dark, it always catches me a little off-guard. I still think that this tea is more almond than vanilla. Thank you for changing the name (from Vanilla Heaven) Zen Tea— it exemplifies good customer service to listen to your customers!

The woodsy rooibos melds well with the almond and vanilla. It is better with a splash of milk, but I drank it bare tonight.

This was a good dessert tea. I found that it tasted just as much almond as vanilla though, so the name is a little misleading. But that’s ok because I enjoyed it. I added a tiny splash of vanilla creamer because I felt like I needed something to cut the rooibos a little and it amped up the flavour significantly (obviously).

This was a good oolong, too bad it isn’t real coconut flavour though. It is very smooth and almost creamy coconut.
Resteep 5 minutes, tastes just as good as the first.
It is also delicious iced.

I cold brewed this yesterday. Too much hibiscus this way. I would need to add sugar for this to make it taste like strawberry for me.
I am not sure I would buy this again

This is pretty tart, and I wasn’t a fan hot. I will have to add a bit of sugar next time and see how that fairs!

Backlog…didn’t really look like pearls much, and I found the flavour lacking, by comparison to other black pearl teas like Teavivre’s Fengquing Dragon Pearls. Those were rich, this was thin. Maybe it was my brew. I have more sample from Cavocorax so maybe a steeping down the road will yield a better brew.

Thanks to Cavocorax for the sample! I just finished drinking a whole jug of cold brew, so a hot tea is muchly needed.

This is one mightily bold Assam. Maybe one of the most robust ones that I’ve had to date. Very dark and malty. This calls for some half and and half because I feel like something more desserty right now.

This one is so, so good with the cream. My mom always talks about the old-fashioned malts that she used to get in high school with her classmates, kind of like what Archie and the gang would have at Pop’s, and this is what I’d imagine those malts to taste like, except cold and thick like a milkshake. Wow, you know how awesome an Assam ice cream would be? Häagen Dazs ought to tackle that concept.

Well then, I finally sipped down my 100g tin of this. I even discarded the tin; as cute as it was, it didn’t seal that well. I adore this tea when it’s fresh. I’d say it’s the best EGC I’ve ever had. However, with all the other stuff going on in my cupboard, this tin took over a year to finish, and it started losing quite a bit of flavour after eight months or so. Guess that’s not too bad, and a little over a year is reasonable, but I find it’s something great to have around in larger quantities only if you have a small tea stash to begin with, you know?

Funny how when I first purchased 20g of this, that only lasted less than a week. Logically, you’d think the tin would have lasted no more than a couple months then, right? Honeymoon phase or not, I still highly recommend this tea to anyone, and it makes a great cold brew if you’re looking to finish it off, which is what I’ve been doing over the past couple weeks.

This makes a killer cold brew. Smooth base dusted with bergamot and creamy vanilla. Sign me up again and again and again.

And again.

Apparently I did not have enough bergamot in my system so I reached for this, my bottle of vanilla extract (I need to make sure I leave some though for post-Christmas baking!), and half and half. So deliciously creamy.

I even put a jug of cold brew in the fridge for tomorrow so can’t wait to see how it’ll turn out. Don’t think I’ve done that with this one yet.

Yesterday evening, I thought of the awesome sale that Zen had right after the New Year, and how I just had to pick up a lovely tin of this. I realized, whoa, that was almost a year ago already. And I barely touched this even though I absolutely love it. What gives?

So here I am sipping on a gigantic cup with light cream and vanilla extract. The dry leaf still smells almost as fragrant and delicious as it did the day I received it. But I still need to have this more often!

Sad sip down! I actually finished this last night, as a pseudo London Fog again and was it ever scrumptious. That means I ripped through my 1 oz. bag in one week. It’s safe to say that I should pick up more.

If you’re looking for a smooth, creamy, vanilla-packed EGC and you haven’t tried this one yet, I urge you to do so.

Mmm, this is one delectable EGC. I’ve had it sitting in a box for months now and kept putting it aside. What have I been waiting for? This is super creamy and very smooth. I’m enjoying it right now as a pseudo London Fog. I added some brown sugar, half and half, and a splash of vanilla extract. So delicious. The bergamot isn’t too strong, and this is also the best black base I’ve tried from them thus far.

Reminds me a lot of Tea Desire’s, or perhaps the one from Steeps, but granted, I haven’t had either in years. It’s always nice to stumble upon a beautiful EGC.

Love it. Vanilla, minty, chocolate-y goodness! First sip reminded me of Andes Thins for some reason, and I love that mint chocolate :D And the pu’erh base worked extremely well.

Dang, I thought this was a sip down, but apparently I didn’t add it to the cupboard in the first place!

Mostly a berry flavor with a little blueberry. The lemongrass in this blend adds some interest and pep without being flat. Sadly, I do not notice any creamy or yogurt flavors.

Back to knitting and listening to DMV’s drivers handbook.

I am not usually the biggest fan of pu’erh but this one is really good. Obviously, it is minty with vanilla notes. And I am getting the pu’erh base coming through a bit but not too strongly.
This is also very good iced.
Resteeped 4 minutes, and it was equally as good.

This is a good dessert tea. An after dinner treat. It is sweet and caramel like, with just a tad bit of cream. The rooibos base is certainly apparent, but it isn’t too woodsy.