Zen Tea

This was my tea of the morning (no incident today, y’all, smooth easy going morning…)

I probably like Darjeeling as much as I do Assam. Some of them are as effective in the morning as any bold Assams.

This is another one I purchase by the tin (when I say by the tin, I mean 100g or more).

I only slightly prefer SF to FF cause they usually hold more of that fruity muscatel taste I like so much. I also love the fresh citrusy astringency this one offers (not bitter) that activates my tastebuds. That feature is usually more present in the FF I own. So this tea makes the Dajeeling worlds collide!

I’ve said in previous note on this tea that it feels like my favourite pair of denim: it hugs me in all the right places. Well nothing has changed.

I’m in love with this tea and always surprised it hasn’t received more reviews.

(See previous note)

Today was a very good day, I was at home with the cats and dog. I watched some old Seinfeld episodes and laugh really hard. «Master of your domain» and «Goerge’s world collides» for those familiar with the show…OMG, a gem.

Laughter is the best therapy. If your a cat lover like I am please don’t hesitate and click this link. If you’re not a cat lover, don’t click cause it will make you hate them even more. I don’t want that!
A special friend sent it to me 2 days ago, and i can’t explain how much it amused me. Still does. Thanks, you know who you are :-)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s13dLaTIHSg

Almost 1am, just came back from a nice evening with friends, drank the most exquisite Pinot Noir from New Zealand, ended the evening with a decadent Porto. I’m not a heavy drinker, but I can’t resist red wine and good company!

Waited to be at home to get me some decent tea. Muscat grape is screaming at me!

I equally love first and second flush Darjeeling for their obvious distinctions. While I appreciate the more floral, citrusy and earthy taste of the FF, I just die for the rich fruity muscatel that is much more prominent in SF.

This tea just feels like my favourite pair of jeans, it hugs me in all the right places!

The bouquet adds a touch of femininity to the bite I usually look for in a black tea, you just can’t find that in a straight bold Assam. No wonder they refer to Darjeeling as being «Le Champagne des Thés»! This one is so well balanced, I find very little astringency in comparison to some other Darjeeling I own. Just lovely!

The night person that I am will continue sipping on this for a couple more hours, listening to great groovy jazzy music…

My Love is Red, by David Poe (fairly unkown artist that I just adore)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qL5XVABQvQU

Last tea review for the day! (Then off to bed, or try to knit some more… I had about 9 rows of cable stitching done, and some of it looked great, but one part was horribly ruined. So…. I frogged it and am restarting. I think I’ve done those first 3 rows about 10 times now – no exaggerating. But I’m really learning a lot this way, and I’ll be happier with the end result!)

Anyway – THE TEA:
This smells like cranberry, and it tastes sorta like cranberry and pine needles. That can’t be right? Maybe that’s a combination of the verbena and lemon grass. But it makes me think of Christmas!

There’s a bit of an odd aftertaste I can’t identity, and then another piney one after that! What is going on in my mouth? :P I tried looking up verbena on wikipedia to see if that was one of the odd notes I’m getting and I learned that apparently verbena is good for nursing moms, and it’s also a sex steroid. So… the more you know…

Gosh, I’m all over the place today. In summary, this is an odd tea, mostly because I haven’t had a lot of these ingredients before so I’m not really sure what I’m tasting. I look forward to trying it again!

This wasn’t bad at all, but I just had Persimmon Tree’s Mint Chocolate Chip Rooibos a couple days ago and it evoked that rich creamy dessert flavor more vividly. This one’s more on the “fresh mint” zippy side of things, which is good in its own way but I happen to prefer that ice cream-y treatiness! Certainly fine, just not as indulgent (and I was quite astonished at how accurate PT’s was, so it’s not a dis at all).

Additional notes & sipdown! My first tasting note for this one is from May 2013. I’m finishing up this one now, and surprisingly the coconut is still sweet and delicious! I will definitely throw a little more of this one in the cart next time I order from Zen. Lasting coconut teas are rare! Raising the rating from an 83.

I wanted a genmaicha today but I couldn’t find the one I was looking for… so this was my next choice!

This blend is a typical green sencha with little specks of coconut in it. I waited for the water to cool a while and steeped for two minutes. Right away I could tell how sweet it would taste by the fragrance! It is so sweet and creamy. The coconut is perfect with the buttery sencha. I wouldn’t call the sencha “brisk” like the description does though. This is exactly the type of coconut I love. Smooth, silky, buttery sweet deliciousness!

Sipdown! This is a damn good coconut oolong but who knows if I’ll ever get it again since Zen got rid of most of the teas I liked from them. It’s an amazing price today being Black Friday and all but still can’t do it! The majority of this 100g tin got the cold brew treatment. Buttery smooth coconut that’s good all year round, even when it’s below freezing temperature.

Ok, well, maybe it isn’t a good idea to drink it this way when the hands and feetz are freezing cold.

I cold steeped the last bit of this mixed with some of Lupicia’s Sakura & Berry and it was really good. As cold as I have been feeling today, I couldn’t stop drinking the strawberry black tea + coconut oolong combination.

Mmm, like drinking sweet coconut water when cold brewed. I can barely taste the oolong.

Upping the rating because this deserves better than an 82.

Another hearty sipdown. I’ve been sick over the past couple days. Picked up the “stomach flu” from someone at the community garage sale, so I’ve been restricted to water up until now.

Even though I’m still super dehydrated, I finished this up à la cold brew. I prefer DT’s and hope one of the stores still has some, but this is pretty good too.

Not a surprise, but did you know that this makes a faaaabulous iced tea? I had it cold steeping in the fridge for three days since I haven’t been home to enjoy it, so I was a little scared to try it. But it’s coconut heaven! I like it even more cold than hot. And the base didn’t go weird at all. Just remained fresh and ever so gently floral.

I still prefer DT’s hot. Or at least I think I do. I really hope one of the stores still has it because I won’t be able to make it to a store for another 2-3 weeks. But for now, this is satisfying my coconut oolong craving.

I’m finally getting down to this. I have some cold brewing in the fridge, but for now, I’ve only experienced this hot.

The dry leaf smells like milky, creamy coconut. Toasted coconut. My mom commented that it smells good enough to eat, like baked goods. Macaroons maybe?

The taste is quite pleasant. A little more floral than expected, but the coconut is there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the coconut comes out even more in the cold brew. I think I may prefer DT’s version though. It’s more coconutty. I’m a coconut fiend so I always appreciate more. I see it’s not on their site anymore but I wonder if some stores still carry it.

I’m watching International Househunters right now, and they’re showing Kongsberg, Norway! Love this show. It’s a wonderful way to see the world. Paired with this tea, it’s a relaxing morning.

I love how creamy and sweet this smells both dry and brewing, more like really good pastry that includes fresh strawberries (a summer tart, yum) than most blah grocery store berry tea. That said, I was a bit nervous as I tend not to like astringent fruity teas and alas there was some of that element I dislike in the cup. A little bit of milk helped some but didn’t erase that zingy now-the-inside-of-my-mouth-needs-scrubbing dimension I just don’t like. Alas. If it was my sort of thing I’d be all over this though; it’s extremely well done for the kind of tea it is. Guess I’ll send some of it to my tea buddy via post, and/or ice it (bet it’d be good that way!).

This tea smells perfect dry—lusciously creamy earl grey without the harsh vanilla extract burn note some EGCs have. Just fresh, heady vanilla, flowers, and black tea. Brewed it just smells richer than many EGCs too. The flavor is strong but not too overwhelming, and with milk it’s so rich and creamy both texture and flavor-wise it’s almost shocking this is tea (looks and tastes almost like a vanilla coffee latte). Yum.

SIPDOWN

This was the rest of my sample from Shelley_Lorraine.

I found this to be a really easy cup to relax into after work. Hopefully I find something tomorrow now too. Being a retail drone on holidays/holiday weekends is pretty much as bad as it gets.

My allergies are in full swing right now, so it will definitely be a stay in and enjoy the sunshine from the air conditioning kind of day. Sigh.

That being said, I hope to make the day better by sampling a bunch of tea!

So, thank you for letting me sample this one Shelley_Lorraine!

This is the first toffee flavored tea I’ve tried that actually captures toffee flavor to me. I get nutty toasted caramel on a slightly vegetal white base. I think the white base gives it a smoothness and sweetness that the black tea blends I’ve been trying seem to be lacking.

I enjoy the less full-bodiedness of this more than I thought I would for a dessert flavor. On the flip side, I think this is kind of an as-is blend, because I feel like milk and sugar might ruin the layers of flavor and make a giant cup of blech.

I’m not familiar with Assam teas on their own, although they’re in quite a few flavoured and breakfast blends I’ve had. I thought trying this and Butiki’s Taiwanese Assam would help me understand what “Assam” means, but the two teas are different, both in geography and taste. At least I know a little bit more than I originally did, but that doesn’t say much.

I really enjoyed this tea and every time I drank it I noticed something different. It’s fun for myself to note that I never would’ve liked this tea a year ago; it’s the mouth drying astringency that I’ve warmed up to recently.

I enjoyed drinking this with and without milk as both emphasized and curbed different things in the tea. Without milk, it really drove home that this is a full bodied tea with a kick, with a good dose of malt and astringency and a touch of dried fruit. I often had it like that for early mornings, when I needed something to wake me up.

I chose to drink it with milk today as I didn’t want to deal with the astringency (ok, so I haven’t quite warmed up to it). I guess it’s common sense that milk brings out cream but this gets really creamy! It’s like the difference between milk in a Cream of Earl Grey versus milk in a normal Earl Grey- it multiplies the creaminess instead of just adding cream. I don’t know how else to put it without sounding even sillier.

The cream is good but my favourite part of this tea is its quiet sweetness. It’s a “brown” sweetness- like raisins, maple syrup, or dates. The dry leaf and now empty cup smell of raisins and cocoa and the lingering aftertaste is fruity dark chocolate.

I’ve never had so many blossoms in one cup! I’m not a huge a fan of floral teas and this one was about average. No one flavor left an impression on me. I couldn’t really taste the Rooibos either. Not horrible my any means but not the first cup of tea I would reach for (and not one I’ll re-order.)

Sipped down the second order of this tea. As always, I ripped through this cold brew style. Light tropical coconut with a mild green base. Yes please.

Bittersweet sip down. While this means I can go on and try something new (I don’t like having everything opened at once), I really enjoyed this iced. Coconut + green tea = Refreshment City. And the price is super decent too.

Mmmm, coconut. I just couldn’t resist. The dry leaf smells like creamy, creamy coconut. Straight up, simple yet that’s how it sometimes should be.

I’ve only had this iced so far. In fact, I’m on my third jug, cold brewed, and I’m super happy with this. The base is mellow and refreshing, and the coconut tastes like freshly shredded coconut. Wonderful choice for the hot weather.

Definitely my favourite Zen Tea so far. I’m curious about the oolong, but will maybe wait a few more days before trying it.

Happy New Year to everyone on Steepster!! Let’s hope that 2014 is a wonderful, tea filled year for all!!

As I say this, my first NY resolution is to not buy so much tea LOL, I somehow have 128 in my cupboard and I like staying around 100 for space, so I’ll have to get drinking!

I should have logged my one tea NY beverage I had last night, it was quite good, we went to Mongolie Grill, a restaurant I had never been to due to peanuts being present in the buffet lol, but I informed them of my allergy and it was all good! I had a great drink there called Ginger Tea – it was Higgins & Burke bagged green tea (observed the teabag of course I did haha), cognac, mint leaves, simple syrup and ginger, I think those ginger crystals, as at the end it was super gingery. Yummy! And it was hot! Very nice on the -22C night lol.

So that was my last tea bevvy of 2013, and this lovely EGC is the first one I’m having in 2014! I woke up feeling a bit less than stellar lol, and it still looks cold out, so I broke out this old classic. Creamy goodness, going down easy and waking me up a bit. Funny, for some reason today feels like a new year to me, you know that fresh new spring day feeling? Even though it’s Jan. and cold as heck here, I still have that feeling for some reason. Here’s to the new year, and great things to come in it! Oh and see previous notes on this tea lol.

So now that it’s actually kind of cold out (-6 C), my office is actually freezing. So cold. I am bundled up in my sweater and my scarf I got on the weekend, and this tea is keeping me warm enough to use my computer without numb hands haha. Everyone is complaining about how cold it is in the office too lol. Ah well, only going to get worse haha. More tea will be required! See previous notes on this awesome creamy tea!

ETA – It’s actually -8 out :( winter must be here! Booo :(