Zen Tea

Hmmm. This just doesn’t taste as rich as I remember. I wonder if it’s because I’ve had so many dragon pearls and I expect more, or I’ve just let this cup cool too much.

After talking about this one so much, it makes sense to have it now. I’m on my second steep. 24oz isn’t bad for one tea in a day!

Thanks ozli for getting me into this tea. It’s pretty great, and it resteeps well too! I still have an unopened 1 oz bag of this to sip through!

Ok how is this even the same tea I rated earlier? I drank it and immediately thought that this was amazing and my new favorite tea! I brewed it Western Style, and this is very smooth, delicate and lightly sweet. There are some really tasty flavors that I love but can’t quite narrow down, except cocoa and honey!

I will have to order some!!!

Thx ozli!

Are yunnan teas normally like this?

I’m not sure the directions are right on this – steep 3 minutes and then resteep 2-3 more times for more flavor and to allow the leaves to unfurl. I steeped it in my little gongfu pot and those leaves are already unfurled. Maybe I should have tried a minute to start?

(i don’t know how am i supposed to know i need to trust the directions whaaaat)

So my first cup is very strong and malty. It smells really good – earthy! I’m enjoying each sip, except right at the end the flavour kicks up a notch and is nearly too malty.

Second cup: First reaction, “wughh!” Not a great sign. This seems stronger? I am detecting cocoa notes now though, and I’m actually enjoying this now that I made it past the first few sips.

Third cup: Ok. This is more like it! Very smooth. Lots of cocoa notes. It’s very woodsy! I bet I could get another cup out of this!

I love how smooth this tea is. I could have had this with my sore throat!

Looking forward to trying this again sometime!

1.5 tablespoons for 375ml of water

Hazelnut aroma from brewed tea.

Coconut/nutty-like flavour on the sip. Mild nutty sweetness. Crisp celery flavour note which seems to come out of the nutty-ness. White tea taste compliments the flavour profile very well.

Thank you Indigobloom and Sil for sharing this with me!

Despite not drinking this regularly, I continuously stock up on my Coconut Oolong whenever I get the chance. I’m impulsive with my coconut oolongs.

I recently discovered that I love this as an overnight cold steep , which means I’ve picked up the consumption rates a little bit.

Today the taste reminds me of sour coconut water with greenish floral note. Contrarily, I also get macaroons due to buttery quality of oolong. The oolong character gives the coconut flavouring more versatility then it might normally have.

This is another one from the limited selection of teas that I’ll drink a pot of. Floral notes, and coconut flakes are touching upon milky today. This is why this tea gets “permanent” status in my stash. It goes along perfectly with the lengthy “A Beautiful Mind” and some episodes of Downton Abbey (thanks, Cavo).

You know what’s a really big fish? The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.

I’m procrastinating doing the serious part of the packing in favour of sorting through what tea stuff I want over on the island with me. It’s surprisingly difficult. I’ve only picked out three teas so far: Earl of Anxi, Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black, and this one.

I can’t say this Coconut Oolong has the classy finesse that the other two teas in the box do, but it makes up for that by being full of delicious floral-coconut gaudiness. It’s a big, showy comfort item that I find helps curb the appetite. I don’t understand how I enjoy the floral notes yet have such a low tolerance for them.. that first steep is almost too much.

Edit: In the future I’d be tempted to dump the first steep in favour of the second one. The buttery notes came out more here, and the flavouring seemed to blend better. Still heady though.

Sipdown.. I hoarded this bounty of floral coconut goodness as long as I could but it’s time to say good bye, at least for now, and move on to the other teas Cavocorax sent me. I will be ordering more of this!

Cavocorax sent me a parcel about a week ago that included this amazing tea! Thank you- I’ve been eying this for some time now. My roommate can attest to the amount of squeeing that went on when I opened this up. Love the evasive coconut smell- it even took over my room for a few days. :)

I couldn’t help but hold this up to the Coconut Pouchong from Golden Moon Tea, which is one of my favourite teas. Despite my love for that pouchong, and unfortunately for Golden Moon, I can’t afford the $15 addition for shipping it literally a few hours across the boarder. until I manage to make my way down to Seattle and pick this up in person I’ll need a substitute- and I think I’ve found it in this oolong!

It’s straight up coconut and floral green oolong. This comes off as more roasted nutty, and dessert-like than the other pouchong; I read Kittena’s note about this tasting more “flavoured”, which I feel puts it nicely. It’s not exactly the same but It’s now a staple! It’s one of the few oolong teas I make potfuls of!

Resteeped last night’s ceylon first thing, but this is my morning tea now. C’mon caffeine!

Three steeps of this today – it’s nice to have something easy you can just add hot water to with no stopping to clean out the infuser. ;)

Niiiice tea to have on this afternoon where all I plan to do is sit on my ass and eat lemon squares. XD! I had a busy morning, alright?! Just gonna keep resteeping this baby so I don’t even have to rinse out the infuser. On my 2nd now, om nom. (And my …fourth?… lemon square.)

I just finished steeping this when K showed up with a coffee for me. :-O Gotta wean off the large ones I was having while the FIL was here! Probably doesn’t work when I’m having all the tea alongside, oh well. :P

This tea is perfectionnn. I am so ill today, NO FAIR, I was doing so well at being the only well one! >:( I just wanted something normal but lovely, and that’s this one. It says to resteep 2-3 times for different experience & I’ll probably be doing that until my cookies run out.

Great blend by Zen Tea – Thank you for giving me the opportunity to try it.

Suggested steeping time was 4-5 minutes. I’ve found that Zen’s steeping times are always spot on in every tea I’ve tried from them. I steeped some batches a bit longer, at 8 and 16 minutes respectively.

At 4-5 minutes; You’ve got a beautiful tisane. Really lovely.

8 minutes; Very strong tisane.

16 minutes; Extremely juice-like. My man likes super strong flavours, so I was making this batch for him as an iced drink.

Flavours overall didn’t go through much of a transformation, which I think is good because they were already so well balanced to begin with. On the whole, I tasted currants and hibiscus the most. There were definitely blueberries in the berry mix, but it became a little hard to pick individual notes out. I didn’t find a yogurt note anywhere, nor did my man.

I liked this tea, but didn’t love it – which comes down to personal taste preferences really. It seemed like a wonderfully balanced blend and good quality however, so I’m pretty keen to try it in another flavor (Strawberry Cream, I’m looking at you!) at some point.

I’m so whiny today. K’s off in top-secret meetings all week where they take his phone so he hasn’t even bothered to bring it AND he’s away from the office so no email AND he took the car and I’m just sitting here like it’s the end of the world because I’m addicted to coffee and it’s way over there across the neighbourhood :P :P :P Saddest Ozli.

But this! The blackest of black teas! With milk & sugar for the self-pity. Oversteeped it but it didn’t hurt it any.

Hearty breakfast tea. :D Resteeped for moar noms.

Liked this, & the resteep. Like 85% of my tea diet is ideally strong black teas but I really don’t have anything to say about them? Morning tea!!!

Another day, another darjeeling. :P

I thought I had had this before, but I guess I didn’t rate it. It’s a lot nicer than I remember it being. The first few sips are remarkable smooth and lightly fruity. It’s rather pleasant yet a bit mild. I was distracted when I made it and I think I understeeped it! I’m also WAY too sleepy to try and describe the complexity in this flavour properly.

Whoops!

Anyways, I’ll pass the rest on to CrowKettle, but next time Zen Tea does a sale, I think I’ll try more. I like it almost as much as David’s Darjeeling, and more than David’s Second Flush.

Update: I resteeped it and lost track of the time again. :| But it’s very malty with subtle coca notes I think. Very enjoyable! And I bought my 20g pack for 50% off! I’m so happy I tried it!

I liked the idea of a stronger flavored oolong, so I wanted to try this one. The leaves smell very grassy.

Steep one// 2 min// I decided to follow Zen’s instructions and steeped for two minutes. (And they also suggest almost boiling… odd for an oolong!) The steep color isn’t the usual oolong yellow, but a very light brown. The flavor reminds me a bit of a lighter houjicha (probably because they are both roasted!) There is also a bit of that grassy flavor and a bit of a sweet flavor. It’s a bit spicy and a bit milky when it cools. I’d say it’s a bit of everything BUT it doesn’t taste peachy or floral, which is what I’m accustomed to oolongs tasting like. (I guess I’ve been drinking many unusual oolongs lately!) This is good, but I guess I was expecting a stronger flavor. I took a peek in the infuser and the dry brown leaves turned black! Interesting.

Steep two// 2.5 min// This cup is even better! The flavor is deeper and more complex, probably because the leaves have unfurled more. It has a very silky flavor that lingers! Still has that roasted flavor like a houjicha.

Steep three// 3-4 min at boiling// Flavor is still pretty consistent! The second steep was the best. I could probably get more steeps out of this, but I won’t. It’s very good! Another unique oolong.

Drank a whole pot. Still a tired frazzled mess with a grumpy sick baby, but I’m a happy frazzled mess. :)

This has a light toffee taste and it’s super nutty. Good, but not essential.