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I love fiddling with this solid, basic green tea. I also love a good, hot cup of green tea when it starts to get cool out and that inevitable not-feeling-quite-so-well time comes.

I had already tried mixing in a bit of fresh dried mint leaves into this one, which worked wonderfully. So I did that again, this time also adding a bit of honey.

First, the good: Flavor is great. The Celadon Pearl base is just strong enough to shine through the bite of the mint leaves and the sweet of the honey. Can’t beat that super smooth, almost creamy feel with the honey, and the sweet but still a bit tangy taste with the mint leaves. Clears up the sinuses and soothes the throat faster than even Theraflu can do!

Now, the needed improvements: 3 tablespoons of Celadon Pearl to 3 dried mint leaves to 1 tablespoon of honey in the 32 ounce Bodum Assam teapot needs to reshaping. Fresh mint leaves, home dried hanging in my room, are just too potent. Needs a bit more honey and less mint in the mix. Next time I’ll keep the 3 tablespoons of Celadon Pearl, go down to 2 mint leaves, and up to 1.5 tablespoons of honey.

That should do the trick.

I am really picky about my black teas. The vast majority I have tried in my life are either boring or over spiced or too sweet. It’s hard to find one right in that Goldilocks Zone.

Enter Red Blossom’s Organic Formosa Red, Native Cultivar black tea. This one comes damn close.

Red Blossom has several Formosa Reds, this one being from plants native to Taiwan. They also have an Assam Formosa Red made of plants transplanted to the area, a “#18”, which is a mix of the Native and the Assam, and a Three Cultivar Red, which is a mix of three different varieties in Taiwan.

I started with this one, being the old school, the base to which I could compare the Assam, and then the mixes.

It was a good choice. This is a great, basic, black tea. It gets close to being a bit spicy for my palate, which for everyone else out there would be not spicy at all, but hey, that’s just me. I’m not into the whole spicy thing.

This actually sort of reminds me of that Twinnings Irish Breakfast Tea, just a little less fruity and more tea-y. a little bit bolder.

There is also an underlying, almost hidden taste in here. And it’s a really nice balance, one I don’t notice at first, but once you get through the sweet, spicy first taste, you find a nice mix of creamy, almost cognac, mixed with a bit of honey, and finally ending with a nice, clean, dry finish.

This is a damned good black tea. I can’t wait to try the others!

This. Tea. Is. Amazing.

The first smell, the first sip, this is what I think of when I want a great tea. Simple in it’s roots, but with an interesting twist that sets it apart without being over kill.

It’s teas like this that years ago helped me come to the conclusion that if I ever had to choose between tea and beer, tea would win hands down.

This is just a simple, solid green tea, with that tell tale grass, earth, and straw smell and taste, but with something extra. Strong hints of butter, and a smooth and almost creamy feel make this tea one of the best Green Teas I have ever tasted.

I got 4 steepings out of these leaves, 3 tablespoons in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam, and all 4 were full of flavor and life. Probably could have gotten a 5th out of them, but one must move on at some point.

Brilliant.

-E

Time for a new blend! Sort of…

Today’s blend is an Organic Shou Mei white tea and a Lapsang Souchong black tea, both from Red Blossom Tea Company, and some freshly dried mint leaves from Nob Hill Grocery Store.

First, let me say two things:

1. I have tried the Shou Mei/Lapsang blend before and liked it a lot. The super smokey feel and taste of the Lapsang works really well with the simple, solid, woodsy flavor of the Shou Mei. For my 32 ounce Bodum Assam I found that 3 tablespoons of Shou Mei to 1 teaspoon of Lapsang is a good mix, but you have to add a bit more Lapsang for additional steepings.

2. The mint leaves were an experiment a couple weeks ago. I went to the local grocery store and bought the only fresh mint leaves they had and dried them hanging in my room. In the future I would go to a farmer’s market or natural food store like Sprouts or Whole Foods and get a more specific mint leaf. After I research, of course.

Now, on to todays blend. First, the mix:

32 ounce Bodum Assam teapot
3 tablespoons Organic Shou Mei
1 teaspoon Lapsang Souchong
4 dried mint leaves
Quick rinse, about 15 seconds
Pulled the water off the stove at first boil
2 minute steeping time (recommended by Red Blossom for Organic Shou Mei base)

Here we go!

I could tell when I poured the water over the leaves this would be a good one. The first whiff I got from it made me smile. The Shou Mei base is a great, solid, white tea base for a blend like this due to it’s light, gentle, fragile taste with strong hints of wood, nuts, and Earth. Mix a bit of that uber campfire smoke taste of the Lapsang Souchong, and the two blend very well.

Now add the mint. Here is where I didn’t know what would happen. I don’t notice much of the mint in the aroma, the Lapsang pretty much owns the nose. But when I taste it, there it is. The mint is right there, present and accounted for. It works really well with the base Shou Mei and the smoky Lapsang, adding just a bit more depth and flavor.

Basically, I get a lightish, woodsy tea with a strong feel of smoked mint. Very interesting.

I would certainly try this again, but maybe with slightly less Lapsang, maybe ¾ of a teaspoon instead of a whole one, and 3 mint leaves instead of 4.

But yeah, today’s blend is a damn good one! I can already picture myself sipping this while reading on a cool, rainy Winter’s day.

-E

Time for a new blend! Sort of…

Today’s blend is an Organic Shou Mei white tea and a Lapsang Souchong black tea, both from Red Blossom Tea Company, and some freshly dried mint leaves from Nob Hill Grocery Store.

First, let me say two things:

1. I have tried the Shou Mei/Lapsang blend before and liked it a lot. The super smokey feel and taste of the Lapsang works really well with the simple, solid, woodsy flavor of the Shou Mei. For my 32 ounce Bodum Assam I found that 3 tablespoons of Shou Mei to 1 teaspoon of Lapsang is a good mix, but you have to add a bit more Lapsang for additional steepings.

2. The mint leaves were an experiment a couple weeks ago. I went to the local grocery store and bought the only fresh mint leaves they had and dried them hanging in my room. In the future I would go to a farmer’s market or natural food store like Sprouts or Whole Foods and get a more specific mint leaf. After I research, of course.

Now, on to todays blend. First, the mix:

32 ounce Bodum Assam teapot
3 tablespoons Organic Shou Mei
1 teaspoon Lapsang Souchong
4 dried mint leaves
Quick rinse, about 15 seconds
Pulled the water off the stove at first boil
2 minute steeping time (recommended by Red Blossom for Organic Shou Mei base)

Here we go!

I could tell when I poured the water over the leaves this would be a good one. The first whiff I got from it made me smile. The Shou Mei base is a great, solid, white tea base for a blend like this due to it’s light, gentle, fragile taste with strong hints of wood, nuts, and Earth. Mix a bit of that uber campfire smoke taste of the Lapsang Souchong, and the two blend very well.

Now add the mint. Here is where I didn’t know what would happen. I don’t notice much of the mint in the aroma, the Lapsang pretty much owns the nose. But when I taste it, there it is. The mint is right there, present and accounted for. It works really well with the base Shou Mei and the smoky Lapsang, adding just a bit more depth and flavor.

Basically, I get a lightish, woodsy tea with a strong feel of smoked mint. Very interesting.

I would certainly try this again, but maybe with slightly less Lapsang, maybe ¾ of a teaspoon instead of a whole one, and 3 mint leaves instead of 4.

But yeah, today’s blend is a damn good one! I can already picture myself sipping this while reading on a cool, rainy Winter’s day.

-E

Went a different direction with this tea today. I wanted to try making my own mint tea, which is just great on those cold winter evenings, or when you’re not feeling so well. So, just to try it out, I went to the local grocery store, bought a few sprigs of mint leaves, hung them in a doorway at home for 1.5 weeks to dry, and here we go:

First off, I choose this green tea for this little experiment because it’s a simple, solid, amazingly straight up green tea. I used just under 3 tablespoons of tea leaves in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam tea pot, with water just starting to boil. I added 3 dried mint leaves to the steep.

The color is the same, still that nearly see through yellowish orange strawish color. Aroma and taste are exactly what I expected. Mint tea! Maybe a little on the strong side, and not quite the mint flavor I want, but for going to the store and buying whatever mint they had for a first try, I’m liking it, and loving it’s potential.

It’s ALREADY better than any mint tea that I have bought in a store.

In the future, I think I would like to get some more gunpowder green tea for a little more strength against the mint flavor, and I will be going to a farmers market or one of the local natural food stores to find more specific type of mint.

Also, I might try using either slightly less mint leaves, or adding them halfway through the steeping process.

Anyone out there have experience making their own mint tea?

Another visit to this formosa oolong. I think I got it right this time. Of course, I actually listened and followed the directions and advice from Red Blossom.

These leaves are very loose, so my regular way of measuring by the tablespoon did not work so well the first time I brewed this tea about a week ago. This time I tried using the kitchen scale, which is not at all that accurate, but at least I can get a better idea of how much these sparse leaves weigh. It turned out to be about 4 heaping tablespoons, nearly twice as much as the first brew.

So, with the correct amount of leaves, here we go!

4.5 tablespoons of leaves in 32 ounces of boiling water in my Bodum Assam teapot with 2:30 steeping time gave me a nice, dark reddish brown colored liquor, clear but not transparent. Like a Newcastle Brown Ale, for yet another beer reference.

The aroma is sweet and malty, and pretty smooth. This tea has an interesting mouthfeel, as it is smooth and almost creamy, but still dry and tart without entering on the bitter side.

That first taste is a wonderful thing. The thick, malty taste is wonderfully smooth and creamy. Red Blossom mentions a honey taste, I would probably get more of that with a slightly shorter steep time, but I do notice it a tiny bit.

This is a great, solid black tea, although the next brew I will cut down the steep time to see if I can get more of the sweet honey taste and less of the malty tartness.

Great black tea.

-E

Been saving this one for a while. Aged Tung Ting, ca. 1980, Formosa Oolong.

A 34 year old Tung Ting (yes, from 1980), from when it was still hand rolled in Taiwan, which makes for looser tea clusters, requiring firing at higher temperatures for preservation, in turn producing a richer, more robust tea.

I’m sold.

Actually, I didn’t have to be. This was a sample sent to me from Red Blossom along with an order from several months ago, and I’ve been waiting for a good time to try it. Patience is not my best virtue, so I got sick of waiting and… here we go!

I didn’t use my large tea pot for this one, as I only got a 1 ounce sample. I used my tea ball and set it into a large ceramic mug. I can tell just by looking at it this is something special. Deep reddish in color, very rich and smooth in aroma.

The taste. Is. Amazing. So rich, so smooth. Just a hint of that roasted goodness brings out the richness even more. Hints of cocoa dance on the tip of my tongue. And did I mention it was smooth? So smooth. I could use the word velvet. Like the first bike of a Red Velvet Cake, the way the taste overwhelms the taste buds, the heavens align, and for just that moment, all is well in the world.

This may be the best tea I have ever tried. If, in the end, it is, I’d be OK with that.

-E

More new tea! I love interesting teas, with interesting stories. This green tea comes to us from Pan’an County, Zhejiang, China, and is harvested on April 5th, the beginning of a two week green tea harvest period that wraps up on April 20th. That date is important because that is before the Spring rain, so this early harvest is specifically a “pre-rain” harvest.

These leaves looks more like a delicate white tea, with very small, flat, non-rolled, light green leaves, having been picked when the leaf buds have just barely opened. Red Blossom Tea Company is rather specific about brewing this one with a slightly longer steeping time and a lower water temperature, so following the directions on their website, I get a darkish, semi clear yellow brew. Almost straw-ie in color. Imagine a darkish, semi filtered Hefeweizen in color, for those beer fans out there.

Time for a taste.

Aroma is nice and light, with a hint of straw and grass. Just a bit on the sweet side. Veru inviting.

The first taste gives a smooth, almost buttery mouthfeel. The 1st second of that taste is nothing out of this world, but just be patient and wait for second number 2. Wow. That second taste is when the light, roasted straw-ie, grassy taste is matched with that sweet, buttery smoothness. Like two heavy weight boxers going head to head in the ring, but just before they pummel the crap out of each other, they hug and play a board game. Maybe cribbage.

This is a VERY good green tea. A little more specific in taste and feel, and brewing, for that matter, than normal green teas, so do trust the good folks at Red Blossom, and you will have a great experience with this one.

Off the top of my head, I would imagine this being a great early Spring brew, to sip while listening to the late Winter, early Spring rain while life begins again around you.

-E

Another new one for me this morning. Nothing better than discovering new teas, that first steeping, watching the color form, getting that first whiff of a new aroma.

I had been craving new black teas recently, so this is the second of an order I received from Red Blossom a few days ago. Here we go!

This is one of three Formosa Red tea cultivars Red Blossom has to offer, four if you count the Three Cultivar Red, a blend of all three. I decided to start with this one because it’s the one native to the area of Nantou County, Taiwan. The others are Formosa Red Assam, brought to the area by the colonial Japanese in the 20th Century, and Formosa Red #18, a hybrid cultivar.

On first sight, the color is a beautiful, crystal clear dark, deep orangish red, or even a deep, dark amber.

The aroma is much more subtle than previous black teas. That may be due to using slightly less leaves, I did use the same 2.5-3 tablespoons in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam, but these eaves are long, thin, wiry, and rather spacious. Next brew I’ll use a bit more. The smell is still nice and sweet, with an earthy, floral overtone.

The taste is great. That first feel is smooth and creamy, followed by a nice and earthy, malty, sweet taste. Clean finishing, no bitter second taste, just a bit on the dry side.

I’m sure using more leaves will really bring all of those aspects out even more, and I can’t wait to try it, but even on the under-side, this is a really good, solid, simple black tea.

Definitely need to use more leaves next time. I should have this time, but I had never worked with a tea whose leaves were this spacious. Maybe this is a good reason to switch to a weight measurement instead of volume…

-E