Zen Tea

So I have no self control, you guys. I grabbed DavidsTea gongfu pot today and am experimenting with it. Instead of wasting a sample from CrowKettle, I went with a favourite that I’ve enjoyed many times.

I have no idea how to do this so I tried 30 seconds at 80C for my first steep. The water is only slightly yellowish so I was worried I understeeped it, but the taste is perfect. It’s very fresh and green and full of buttery, buttery creaminess. I love coconut, you guys!

Okay, second steep actually took hours to finish because of the crazy baby and housework and general life-things getting in the way. I think this was more floral and greener, but also sweeter. I steeped it for 40 seconds.

The third steep is nice and greenish-yellow, but I’m losing the flavour here. It’s more oolongy than it is coconutty. Still enjoyable but this’ll be the end of it for me. (50 seconds)

Results: this isn’t so hard! I didn’t realize you could steep, empty the pot and then wait awhile before doing it again. I had this impression that you had to do all the infusions at once and I didn’t know how you could dedicate all that time to do (although that would be great).

I’m on my first steeping of this and every sip is a mouthful of creamy buttery goodness. It makes me want shortbread cookies so badly. Why haven’t I made any yet?

Looks over at 7mo attempting to climb all the things and bump her head repeatedly. Riiiiiiight. :/

This tea is so good though. I just bought 50g more for $4.50 while the sale is still on. Gonna have to finish my DT Pumpkin Chai to clear out a tin! #bestproblems

As I was drinking this today, I had to log back in and check my rating. I’m going to bump it up again. This is just so good. I may need to buy a tin!

I’m still waiting for my Della Terra Teas order from Black Friday (#sadness) full of dessert blacks, and a few rooibos/honeybush samples, but my Zen Tea order came today!

After trying my oolong samples from Tea from Taiwan, I knew I wanted to try more oolongs so when Zen Tea started their 50% off sale (on Friday) I had to somehow justify ordering some. :P Good thing I did as a lot of the teas are sold out already! :O I got a lot for $21 (with shipping).

I picked up:
Oolongs – Coconut (50g), Monkey-Picked (20g) and Iron Goddess Mercy (20g).
Pu-erh – Loose. (20g) (Just so I could see what Pu-erh is.)
White – Toffee Dream. (50g) (Again because I don’t know what White Tea is like – I had it in DavidsTeas Cookie Dough but it was hidden?)
Rooibos – Raspberry Vanilla! (70g) (I had this as a sample first. I’m gifting 50g of this.)
Black – Assam Mangalam Second Flush FTGFOP1 (20g)(Because I haven’t had Assam and this one was highly rated. Maybe I’ll learn the difference between all these blacks)

The actual review is here. :P
With all these new teas, it was hard to decide which one to try. I’m happy I started with this one though. IT SMELLS SO GOOD.

I’ve had oolong enough now to recognize its characteristics better: with each sip I am getting toasty coconut notes, mixed in with the buttery / floral oolong. The coconut isn’t as strong as the initial smell would have me believe, but this is actually a good thing as I was worried the oolong would be overwhelmed and it isn’t. It seems like every oolong I try has complex flavors – this one is no different. Each sip is just a little different. AMAZING. The aftertaste is nice and creamy too. I will resteep it later!

I think it’s real coconut flavour too!

second cup is tasting even better, or perhaps is that because i let it steep for 5min. I’m tasting more pepper and sweeter notes in it now, perhaps thats the cocoa and coconut? i’m not sure about it but its a wonderful tea

even a third cup holds on pretty well but its more sweet and only very mild in spice :)

my third and last sample from zen tea and i’m at this point really thinking off placing an order on there shop!

Upon opening the small sample i notice loads off ingredients! The smell is wonderfull, strong mix off spicy flavors getting into my nose! (Even my dad standing a few meters away from me could smell the spices!)

Did my first cup a teaspoon full of tea and brewed it for 3min. I know the website advises to brew it indian style with milk, but i usually don’t like my tea’s milky so there we go the normal tea way :)

The first brew gives a very dark brown colored tea, it looks tasty but waiting to let it cool down a bit is just annoying because it smells great…

my first sips while its still hot hot taste a bit earthy and spicy at once, tought that the spices where going to undo the flavor off the tea but on first sight (or taste) its not the case. I’m not sure if i’m able to taste the coconut in this chai but i don’t mind there are so many spicy flavors going on that i’m enjoying my cup :) When its cooled down a bit the earthy flavors get more spicy and thats a good thing because i like drinking this when its starting to freeze outside. Will sure be trying out more chai’s because i didn’t had many off them before and i’m enjoying the complex tastes it has to offer :)

edit: forgot to mention i love the fact that everything in it is organic!

A review of Bossa Nova Oolong Tea Flavoured by Zen Tea

Company: Zen Tea
Tea Name: Bossa Nova Oolong tea flavoured
Tea Type/Varietal: Oolong
Region: China
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: cup/ loose leaf
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: dark reddish brown
Leaf Characteristics: the leaves are small and finely curled with bits of the hazelnut brittle which smelled more like cocoa or naturally unprocessed cocoa kind of bitterness.

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit
Time: 5 minutes

The oolongs I have had from Zen Tea have all been wonderfully clean and pure. I understand that this is a popular blend but unfortunately for me it is not. I steeped this tea for five minutes with boiled water; removing the tea leaves which are plumper but still small leaves. The teas’ aroma is very lovely as it is a robust and flavorful aroma almost coffee like. The hazelnut brittles mixed with the vanilla is heady indeed. But when sipping the tea it is mildly bitter; like naturally pure cocoa and with the vanilla bean it makes it even more so.

Since I don’t add anything to my teas usually, but adding milk or cream with sweetener might make this a more enjoyable cup of tea.

2nd Steeping:
Water temperature: 200 Fahrenheit
Time: 3 minutes

I am trying for another cup of this tea steeped for a few minutes and the aroma is as before very enjoyable and when sipping of tea the astringency found in the tea’s mixture of vanilla bean and hazelnut brittle still exists.

The tea is layered nicely with the vanilla and hazelnut brittle tantalizing the taste buds and if one prefers their teas with milk/cream and sugar than this tea is ideally for this. Since I prefer plainer tea, I find this oolong to be too much like that of a black tea than an oolong. Aside from the Magnolia Oolong I would prefer and enjoy this oolong best if it were a true oolong and not passing for black tea.

I mean I don’t like this tea, but this tea is well suited for those favoring black teas.

Sipdown #2.

Sad to see this one go. So yummy!

I think you’re sexier than socks on a rooster.

This was my morning cuppa today and it was a toffee dream. The white tea and toffee flavor blend smoothly to make an almost creamy decadent treat.

Thank you, Zen Tea for this generous sample. I wanted to order more during the sale, but it appears to be out of stock :(

Sipdown of this one! I’m trying to convince my bf that this will be tastier than the flavored spearmint water he buys, especially because he likes caffeinated drinks. Will update later with the results.

This is equally delicious iced. I used 3 tsp for half a pitcher and added ice. I still have enough in my sample for 1-2 more cups!

Yum! I wish I had ordered some of this when I placed my order on Friday. I always see peppermint in teas, but this is the first spearmint.

It pairs really well with the gunpowder green tea. My mouth is both warmed by the tea and refreshed by the mint. Interesting!

While I think my labeling is wrong on my sample – ingredients say it has puffed corn, brown rice, and matcha with sencha (sounds like genmaicha to me) the tea is clearly what the name says on the label which is this one.
This is an excellent sencha with a VERY fresh taste like a fresh mowed lawn.
Bright and cherry on a foggy dreary day.

Sample from Evol Ving ness funny how compared to others…for me this tea was nothing special. It had a sort of flat flavour and while i drank it, it just didn’t call out to me. Maybe this is a different harvest than previous years but i was sort of "meh’ about it…

Another tea from this afternoon and another sample from evol ving ness This is another tha ti’ve had before but like 2 yrs ago, so awesome to revisit it and see how my tastebuds have changed. I really enjoyed this cup – cocao notes, dark, delicious brew. yep, still a winner! thanks evol!

mmmm so second time around with my sample from Zen tea and i have to say, bumping the rating up a little. This is a delicious malty, chocolatey yummy tea. It’s up there with my premium tawainese assam from Butiki and my laoshan black from Verdant tea!

I’m looking forward to additional steeps of this to run through the flavour profile.

Another free sample from Zen tea! Thank you so much!

I have to say that this is a pretty nice tea. It’s much less subtle than other blacks that I typically enjoy but that doesn’t take away from the tea. Although it’s not a strong tea, it’s got plenty of flavour! There’s a sweetness to it, but not in the sense of say biting into a chocolate bar. I drank this down without even realising it and had to go make more :)

A review of Baihao Yinzhen (White Hair Silver Needle) Chinese White Tea by Zen Tea

Company: Zen Tea
Tea Name: Baihao Yinzhen (White Hair Silver Needle) Chinese White Tea
Tea Type/Varietal: White
Region: China
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: cup/ loose leaf
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: light amber with 1st steep/ darker amber/ orange base with later steeps
Leaf Characteristics: very thinly silver colored tips when steeps looks like thinly sliced cut green beans.

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 170 Fahrenheit
Time: 2 minutes

I decided to try this tea today for no particular reason other than I am trying to go through this tea package that I received from Zen Tea a while back. This is a most prize tea (only top buds) are used to produce this tea.

I take a teaspoon of the tea leaves and put them in tea mug and pour in the hot water with a steep time of two minutes. Tea color lightens straight away to light yellow color; tea’s aroma is mildly floral with a slight astringent. I sip it slowly to just take in the tea and taking in the aroma as well which is nice.

This tea makes me think of an oolong tea and not so much white tea, as it is unlike the Bai Mu Dan Peony Tea I had earlier this year. This is more floral and sweetly.

2nd Steeping:
Water temperature: 180 Fahrenheit
Time: 2 minutes

The second steep the tea is dark amber in color with an orange base to it and this is very much like an oolong tea to me; it is smoothly with a slight drying after taste. I would say overall this tea impression is to leave smoothness with no after taste yet there is slight dryness when swallowed.

My second sample from zentea, yes there is one more i need to review but i need to make time for it!

I once had a genmaicha before from an other company, but never one that had matcha powder added to the mix! Needles to say i’m very curious how it turns out…

When i did open my sample the first thing i notice is that there is alot off rice in this genmaicha, more then my previous genmaicha experience. The senscha looks small but overal with the nice dark green powder over it it looks good for me :)

In my opinion the smell of dry leaf and rice is a bit like popcorn, wish i don’t think is a bad thing!

Did my brewing for 1m30sec like recommended with 70°C water and the brew turns out to be dark green almost fluomarker, so far with the smells and looks off the dry tea time to taste!

Because i never had matcha before i have no clue how it has to taste, but my first sip from the cup tastes sweet, almost like i put a bit off sugar in it but that was not the case because i like my tea’s unsweetend. It tastes like a good bright green tea, with the smell of popcorn! I like this one, tough i’m curious how the tastes holds on when i brew my second and maybe third cup, because i’m thinking that the matcha powder will be almost fully in the first cup…

edit: the second cup tastes alot more like a regular genmaicha, i can still taste a bit off the sweeter matcha but way less now… still the tastes holds on very well!

Additional notes: Sipping this one now. I still love it. So sad Zen doesn’t sell it anymore.

I recently acquired a new tea storage shelf. But I’m a little worried on reorganizing everything, as I usually remember where the ridiculous number teas I have are located now (mostly in small sample amounts of tea.) They are mostly organized by tea company OR by the lovely Steepsterer who sent them to me (like a bunch of teas together in a gallon ziplock.) But a mass moving of teas will disrupt the tea filing in my brain. It’s the same reason I hate moving books around…. or music. I’ll make the most fun of it that I can though!

Additional notes: An unexpected sample sipdown on this one! I will MISS this one. It is so nice. I love the minty creaminess on the lovely pu-erh. I’m definitely buying this one whenever I order from Zen (a looonng time from now, probably) and they better still have it in stock! One of their best blends, I think.

Another generous sample from zentealife.com! They are quickly becoming a favorite! I wanted to try this one because I wanted to try one of their vanilla blends and I knew the flavor profile of a pu-erh is very giving to other flavors it is paired with… I thought the vanilla would be stronger here than with a black tea, for example! Also, I LOVE Zen’s Chocolate Mint Rooibos, surprisingly for the mint (usually not a mint fan.) I steeped for five minutes after waiting a couple minutes after it boiled. The steep color looks like a cuppa coffee! The most interesting thing about this one was seeing the tiny pieces of crushed vanilla bean around the rim of my cup and the slight crunchiness of it in my teeth! Yum! As I expected, the pu-erh is very generous to the flavors. I can smell the pu-erh more than I can taste it. Which is why I think I prefer black teas to pu-erh… I’d rather have that flavor kick of a black tea! But I think I have heard pu-erh has more caffeine? The most prominent is the mint with the vanilla making it taste like a minty ice cream. The little bit of cinnamon flavor helps smooth it out as well. With the second steep, the pu-erh flavor was more present. This is another scrumptious tea from Zen! Any tea fan needs to try zentealife.com. I know as soon as I get some tea moola, they will be the next tea company I order from.

Thanks Zen Tea for this sample!
I’ve recently discovered that I absolutely love genmaicha. I have tried quite a few different ones so far and this definitely ranks high among those. Its very toasty with a little bit of a sweet note at the end. A very solid genmaicha.

This sample was from Zen Tea. Thank you!

Holy berries, Batman! This herbal is berries through and through. The elderberries and black currant seemed to dominate, but every now and then I could taste a bit of blackberry. I could see strawberry bits in the dry tea, but I never tasted them in the infusion. The other berry flavors completely overpowered it. I would have liked to have less elderberry and more strawberry. There is also hibiscus in here, of which I am not a fan. It was not overpowering, but every now and then I would get that jaw clinching tart note. So not my favorite herbal, but still a good one.