Zen Tea

Wow! This is good. Real good.

Dry leaves: Smells of fresh cut hay and slightly floral. The leaves are small, dark green, and curled tightly. They have a bit of the white “peach fuzz” of young bud teas.

Brewing: Brews to a mellow grey-gold color typical of whites and young-leaf greens. The leaves expand quite a bit, almost tripling in volume, but maintain a slight curl.

Taste: Very mellow flavor with no bitterness at all. This is a very multifaceted tea, and in addition to the “green” flavors it has the dried fruit and mineral qualities of Ti Guan Yin, and the lightness and natural sweetness of a white monkey. There is also just a slight bit of smokiness reminiscent of gunpowder.

Reminds me of: K-Pop! Wait, no… Maybe that’s just my roommate blasting “Gangnam Style” on repeat…

Reminds me of: Well, all I can seem to think of for this one is that it reminds me of really good green tea! I guess that will have to do. :)

Cons: Gets pretty weak by the third steeping

Thank you, Zen Teas, for the wonderful samples :)

I was so excited for my samples from Zen Tea – and surprised that they arrived so quickly! The Coconut Oolong was the first one I opened, and I was very happy with the toasted coconut scent that hit my nose!

Once brewed, the toastiness definitely remained, but I’m not so sure about a real presence of coconut flavour. This tea is good enough that it really doesn’t matter – I loved it anyway. It was comforting and just what I was looking for. I appreciated that it wasn’t an artificial tasting coconut tea. I will probably order more of this with my next order.

Easily the best sencha I’ve had!

Mellow, grassy flavor with slightly floral notes, vibrant yellowish green color, short steep time and stays bold for many steepings.

Dry leaves are thin, needle-like and deep green in color. Mostly whole or large pieces. Wet leaves look like they’ve been freshly picked.

Zen Teas obviously did their homework in sourcing a great sencha :)

Got this as a sample from Zen Teas today, and it’s very good!

Dry leaf: Broad and flat with a yellow-green color typical of dragonwell. Bold, grassy, slightly salty smell.

Steep: Nice mellow green-yellow color, does not seem to get bitter if steeped for too long

Taste: Has a mild, nutty flavor with a slightly mineral background. Creamy mouthfeel. Very fresh and smooth tasting!

Reminds me of: Subtropical forest, sunny days

Got that one as the free sample offer from zen tea ( thank for that offer ) i was happy to see green popped rice when i opened the bag the first time i know it’s normal since there is matcha in it but i still find it funny ( sometime it don’t take me much to be amuse lol) i did 3 steep with that tea the flavour goes like this first steep – nearly only matcha taste with a hint of other green taste
Second – still some matcha !(that nice most genmaimatcha are just normal genmaicha at second steep) and a little more stronger toasted taste begin to appear
Third – mostly normal genmaicha at that point ( genmaicha still my favorite tea so that not a bad point)

Definitively a good tea i like the change of taste from the resteep ( diferent cup without having to change the kind of tea )

Will buy that one for sure

This is one of the teas I got as a sample from Zen Teas. I’ll start off by saying I love genmaicha teas, but this one, to me, was special. It has the trademark roasted, toasty, savory flavor that other genmaichas I’ve had possess, but it also had a wonderful grassy, sweet aftertaste from the green tea. It was a totally unexpected flavor that I was pleasantly surprised with.

As far as genmaicha goes, this one is my top pick. I’m very likely to be adding this to my cupboard in the near future.

I got this as a sample from Zen Tea, and I really quite like it. From what I’ve tried, their teas seem to have a very good balance; the flavoring isn’t too strong as to overpower the tea, and the tea isn’t too overwhelming for the flavorings. This tea was a perfect example of that.

The smell of it was like a coconut candy, sweet and roasty smelling. I ended up steeping it three times, and by the third time the brew lost most of it’s “coconuttiness” but the oolong was still flavorful enough to enjoy. The first brew, however, was just what I would like to expect. Very smooth, very balanced.

I really, really enjoy Zen Tea’s Sencha House. It tastes fresh and green, like I’m lying in an early Spring garden or on a freshly mowed lawn.

When I opened up my package of GenmaiMatcha was excited to see a couple of soft white popped rice kernels- I always see them in photos but never got any before. That was fun. It’s the toasted flavor and aroma of the rice that draws me to genmatcha, so I figured I was in for a real treat. I hate to say that I was disappointed that the rice’s lovely toastiness is muted in Zen Tea’s GenmaiMatcha. Not that this is a bad tea; I suspect that those who like a more subtle influence from the rice would be a fan of this version. My rating is therefore based on my need for a stronger influence from the rice.

My 3rd and final sample from Zen Tea. I had to get this as a sample. Not only was it a fruit tea, but the name was just so cute. Grandma’s Garden, aawww.

I had this while I making breakfast (at 3). When I opened the packaged I was smacked in the face with so many deep berry flavors I simply couldn’t wait to try it out!

It steeped into a mauve color and smelled just as great as the leaves did. This is tea has a more prominent dark berry taste than it does sweet berries, but you can definitely taste a bit of everything in there. This is a tea that would probably be really great with some honey or agave.

GOODBYE EARL GREY CREAM… YOU WERE REALLY GOOD… and I am going to buy more of you at a later date.

This very well may be the most delicious smelling tea I own.

Yummm love this so much has such a great finish and aftertaste!!

REALLY. GOOD.

My final sample from Zen Tea! GOLLY they weren’t kidding about the cream, you can even smell that when you open the bag AND I LOVE IT. MAN the only way I can really think to describe this tea is COZY! Probably one of my favorite earl greys yet, honestly. I usually add quite a bit of milk and sugar to my earl greys anyway, but this one barely needed anything. LOVE THE SMOOTH VANILLA and you definitely get that defining bergamot finish and YUM.

I am on a quest to find the perfect grapefruit tea, so of course I had to ask for this blend when I got my samples from Zen Tea! Anything with grapefruit, I’ll get. Orange grapefruit usually isn’t my favorite combo though, I find that the orange is often used to mask the grapefruit and in the end it tastes just like, well, an orange blend. I decided to be brave and cold brew this one: cold brewing anything with hibiscus makes me nervous since it tends to overwhelm everything when made that way. And when I strained this one, wow, it’s bright red. Like… Kool-aid red, fruit punch red. BUT there’s beet in this used to get that lovely ruby tone, so I wasn’t too worried about the tartness.

This blend is hibiscus done right! It’s so mild and really only comes in at the very very end of the sip, a little tartness which goes well with grapefruit and kind of mimics/adds to the grapefruit taste. And the grapefruit… wow! It’s really present! The orange doesn’t take away from it but just adds another layer of citrusy goodness, a little sweetness as well. Kind of like if you mixed grapefruit juice and orange-ade.

Halfway through my glass and I’m convinced something magical is going on in here. You can taste all the components: citrus from grapefruit, orange & lemongrass, fruity sweetness from the carrot & beet, a slight tartness from the hibiscus and a really nice, brisk herbaceous tone from the eucalyptus. But together.. it’s magic! SO GOOD! The eucalyptus is what does it I think, I’d swear it was juniper berry but it just ties everything together and elevates it into what I honestly think is the best herbal tisane I’ve ever had. I am so so impressed by these samples, and sad I only have one left to try! Definitely placing an order soon, hopefully with a ton of this beauty.

I totally forgot to mention it, but this blend is stunning! Whole orange slices, gorgeous whole herbs, bits of carrot and beet! Just lovely, everything about this cuppa is perfection.

My samples from Zen Tea came in yesterday, and man do they all smell good! I have two cold brews to try today, with this one being first. I was the most excited about this one, I even asked for the Green Coconut as well to compare the two. GMT’s Coconut Pouchong is one of my favorite teas, and I was hoping this one would be similar since they have the same base & flavoring combo.

The coconut flavor here is SO good! Kind of toasty bake-y, but also with some fresh coconut sweetness. It’s a nice combo, and really natural tasting. Fake coconut is… blargh, reminds me of suntan lotion, but thankfully this tea doesn’t remind me of a day at the beach. Well, maybe a tropical beach, sitting on a little foldy chair while sipping a drink from a coconut. Mm yeah, this is a vacation drink for sure! Some teas really transport you by association, kind of a mental vacation. And this, well, it’s so relaxing and refreshing, makes me feel like it’s still summer.

The Bao Zhong is lovely too, lightly floral and a little creamy. A perfect compliment to the succulent coconut! This obviously reminds me a LOT of GMT’s Coconut Pouchong, in fact I like it just as much. Coconut + oolong is a winning combination for sure!

I gave this tea another shot yesterday while making dinner. Instead of steeping for the recommended 2-3 minutes, I tried 6 in hopes that it would bring out the strawberry more. This time around I also decided not add milk, or sugar until I tried it plain.

The black tea was really strong when I took my first sip, with slight strawberry undertones. It was okay, but definitely needed sugar. After I put about a 1tsp of sugar in it tasted a lot better. Definitely not as creamy as the last time I had it.

I would have still liked the strawberry to be more pronounced in this. I saw that they have a fruit version of this tea as well. Maybe that version is more along the lines of what I was thinking this would be. It’s just not doing it for me. Next time I give this a go I will probably try it iced.

Another Zen Tea sample. I broke into this as something I wanted for dessert. The last cup of tea for the night! When I opened it I got a burst of berry… chocolate? Definitely smelled like chocolate which is really off-putting for me because, call me crazy, I don’t care for chocolate that much.

When I went to pour the leaves into the infuser I was not impressed by the look of the leaves either, it didn’t do much to calm my nerves. I saw a lot of dark leaves, and the strawberries looked dark too. At this point I’m wondering if I should have gone with a different tea that I’m comfortable with and saved being adventurous for another day.

I followed the recommended instructions, put the boiling water to the leaves for 3 minutes, then added some sugar and milk when it got in my cup. It smells a lot more like strawberry cream now, which is good.

Took a sip and yeah, this is strawberry cream alright. Unfortunately though, something just feels missing to me. It’s a really subdued mild flavor when I guess I was wanting something a bit more tart. Less cream, more strawberry. Next time I try this I’ll hold off on the milk and sugar and see what I get. For now I’m just a bit underwhelmed.

On first steeping, the tea had a nutty, creamy, and slightly sweet flavor. The texture was crisp with a lightness to it. The tea also had a very savory taste that was more pronounced with the second steeping. There was no bitterness. Some of the leaves were broken, but overall, a great tasting tea and a good Dragon Well with a complex range of flavors.