Zhi Tea

A while back I soaked a bunch of this in some vodka and made an extract of this tea which I used when I made some marshmallows and they turned out SOOOO GOOD!!! Now when I drink this tea it brings me back to the memory of stuffing my face full of marshmallows! Today I’m having it with cream and sugar and it is super delicious. I steeped it for two minutes just below boiling and it think that is the magic settings for this tea because it is perfect. It has a nice lavender punch to it with an amazing aftertaste. I can’t pick out any citrus on it’s own, but I suspect it is working with the lavender to perk up and amplify the floral flavor. This tea is pretty amazing and ALMOST makes up for them discontinuing their Kashmiri Chai, which was my all time favorite. If you like lavender, this one is a must try!

Zhi, if you are reading this, job well done on the VF and bring back the KC by any means necessary!!!!

Violet Femme. Heh. Cute.
Went on a walk to Zhi Tea today and grabbed a sample of this since I have been interested in violet teas. The people that work there are always so sweet, accommodating and mellow! So it turns out this isn’t actually violet flavored, it is lavender and it smelled so good that I had to try it. I love floral flavors and this definitely has that! The citrus, lavender and vanilla dance so well together in the scent of this tea dry. At first I smell the combination of all three merged, then they take turns standing out on their own. I want to smell like this tea all the time!

It is late in the day and the other Zhi teas I have had pack quite the caffeinated punch, so we will see if I regret this cup come bedtime! Once it is brewed the smell is almost honey like. Citrusy honey with a touch of lavender on the end.

The first sip was a little harsh. Not sure if it was the tea base or the lavender punch, but it quickly subsided and smoothed out. Again, the flavors take turns merging and stepping out. It tastes quite good without sugar and I’m a sugar in my flavored tea kinda gal. I could enjoy the whole cup like this, but I’m going to try it sweet too. Hmmm, it is good with sugar too, but it doesn’t really make this tea significantly better, just different. I think it is better without.

Overall this tea is pretty tasty and I wouldn’t mind having it around for a while! If you like floral, give it a go!

Very nicely aged sheng; dark and beatiful leaves; strong, positive feel. Tasted it quite some time now and, in general, it really has a strong effect on people, as in laughing kicks, yawning, singing etc. Thus, the name is well chosen, happiness, but watch out, it’s a warm gun :)

This leaf produces a scrumptious comforting cup of tea. The dry leaves are twisted black (with a little gold thrown in) wires with a very pleasant dark-chocolate fruit aroma. The reddish brown liquid has a smooth sweetness that is caramelized with a hint of bittersweet chocolate and a very pleasant aftertaste. No tea bitterness and very little astringency. This tea is a winner.

First to review this tea! I don’t know if I can handle the pressure! I decided to try this as my iced tea after getting back from errands and the doctor.

It’s a very nice tasting oolong, light and floral. However, I’m not getting much coconut. When I was at Zhi Tea, I was torn between getting an iced cup of this or Coconut Assam. The girl working there told me that she liked the assam more, because the coconut flavor was more pronounced. So I was expecting this to have a lighter flavor, but I’m having trouble finding the coconut! I’m not sure if I would guess this was coconut without knowing. The coconut seems to add a smooth creaminess instead of actually flavoring very much. I do like how this tea tastes, I was just looking for a bit MORE on the coconut part. I will try this hot, and cold-brewed and see how those go, but for now I’m a bit disappointed.

One of the teas I got from my trip to Zhi Tea in Austin. I didn’t see steeping instructions on the bag, but I could have just missed them. I went with three minutes to start with.

This tea smells really good in the bag. It smells a lot like the gummy peach rings. Some people may not like that, but I had those all the time as a kid! After three minutes of steeping however, I wasn’t getting that flavor. I wasn’t getting any peach flavor, and the tea was a bit bitter. Looks like three minutes was too long! I ended up falling asleep, and the cup cooled off. I took a sip, and tasted chocolate! Weird. I’ll definitely try this one again

Ok so I don’t think this is one that has aged well if I deduce the same one tea has been around since its first tasting notes on here 3 years ago. There’s something off about it. It doesn’t smell much like fruit at all, and it barely tastes like pineapple…and there’s just something weird about the aftertaste. I know I slightly steeped it longer than I wanted to, but it’s not the taste of oversteeping.

Another to join the garden I need to get started on soon, if only I hadn’t just painted my nails. Amanda problems.

This is a tea I was really looking forward to. I mean, lemongrass and rose? Yes please! Sounds divinely simple. But as soon as I started brewing this one up last night I knew there was something a little off. The bag (I got sample sized, so it’s around 1 ounce) has tons of lemongrass but very few rosebuds. Which wouldn’t be an issue if there was rose flavoring (note that I have zero issues with either natural or artificial flavoring!), but sadly there’s just not a whole lot of rose here.

The lemongrass is nice and very high quality, but I am missing the rose. There’s just a wisp of it at the end of the sip, a hint of floral, but this tea just leaves me wanting. I’m going to give it another try, possibly as a cold brew, before rating it but right now I’m just disappointed.

This is one of Zhi’s new reserve teas (special & limited quantity). I was wondering what it would taste like – Oriental Beauty? Wu Yi? More like the former. A bit too much black tea-ish for my taste but I still like it. Ill have to try different steeping times next time.

Still figuring out how to correctly steep this one. The first time I had it I think my steeps were too short and sort of boring – plus I think I used my gaiwan instead of yixing. This time in the yixing with longer steeps was much better =) There are many flavors in this tea, so still discovering something new each steep!

So I’m still on vacation in Austin today, and I went to not one tea store, but TWO (I’ll have to write about the other one later). I’ve heard of this tea company before, but I didn’t realize they had a storefront. So, I decided to check it out.

It’s quite nice, even though it’s off the beaten path. At first I was a little annoyed that they only sell loose tea in 8 oz increments OR in tins, but upon further inspection they also sell their flavors in “sample bags” that range around $4. So, that’s not too bad.

I was unsure of whether or not I wanted this tea, so the lady actually offered to brew me a sample. It’s not bad. A little bitter, but that’s to be expected with grapefruit. The flavor was nice, but I didn’t really think it was a tea I would drink every day, so I didn’t buy it. I DID, however, see some milk chocolate with jasmine tea in it, that I picked up for my BF since he LOVES Jasmine. Hopefully he does.

Also, kinda random, but the lady behind the counter kept referring to the teas as "he"s and "she"s. So, for this tea, she would say, “She can be quite bitter without too much brewing, but she has a nice flavor.” It threw me off a little bit.