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I had planned to bring some tea home with me for the holidays (I have a whole 2 weeks to spend with my parents, which is lovely) and then I completely forgot. So while in Thunder Bay on the way home I picked up a couple of sampler tins from the International House of Tea – the Black Tea Sampler, and the Premium Tea Sampler. They were okay, but all the black teas in the sampler are Indian, and I find I’ve been craving a good malty Chinese black tea recently. We don’t have a lot of options for loose leaf tea in this area, so while out running some errands with my mom today I decided to brave the Teavana in the mall to see if they might have anything. I ordered a cup of the Golden Monkey to try it out – I didn’t see how much tea she put in, or what the water temperature was, but she steeped it for 3min.

It wasn’t bad, though it definitely wasn’t anywhere near the best I’ve tried of this type of tea. It was malty, with a bit of sweet potato. The girl in the store claimed it has chocolate notes, but I didn’t get any of that at all. There was a bit of bitterness that I didn’t like – I wonder if it would have been better steeped at a slightly lower temperature. The 16oz cup turned out to be a little over $5, which I felt was crazy, and I definitely wasn’t about to pay $16 for 50g of it, which is the smallest quantity they’d sell me. I guess I’ll just have to wait… I ordered some tea from Tealux’s Boxing Day sale for my parents, so hopefully it arrives soon. :)

I tried this in the gaiwan. 1 tuocha, 3-4oz water (which started out boiling and cooled off a bit as I went along – I reheated it a couple of times). I went with the Teavivre recommended: rinse(10s),10s,10s,10s,15s,20s,30s. Then I tacked a 1min and 2min steep on the end for good measure. :)

The flavour is earthy, woody, a bit leathery. It reminds me of walking in the woods after the rain, when everything is damp. I was surprised by the thick, almost oily mouthfeel, and the sweetness at the end of the sip, that lingered. Very pleasant, no bitterness or astringency. I sometimes get a bit of a fishy odour off the leaves, but never in the cup. I didn’t perceive much difference from one steeping to the next – the colour was probably darkest in steepings 2-4, but I found the flavour pretty consistent.

This isn’t blowing me away or anything, but I’m happy to have it in my cupboard. I can see myself reaching for it when I’m in the mood for a straight shou pu-erh.

I got a sample of this while I was in Vancouver, just trying it now. Wow, there are a lot of different opinions online about how to brew genmaicha! I ended up going with 5g of tea for 10oz of water, 80 C, 2min. This is nice. Mellow green tea base, no bitterness, and lots of toasty flavours from the rice. There’s an underlying sweetness that I wasn’t expecting, and is quite nice.

I’m kind of glad I caved to Tiesta’s 50% off Black Friday sale, because now I have a bunch of fruity tisanes to drink in the evening when I want something caffeine-free. (You should have been here when I opened the bubble envelope and it was like a crazy blast of fruity scents! Even with all the teas sealed in their own bags. Ok, I just stuck my nose in the envelope and it’s still really fruity in there after a week. Amazing.)

Anyway, I liked this! The dry tisane and the scent as it brews are both very blueberry-ish. It brews up a lovely reddish colour from the hibiscus, but the tartness is balanced out with the sweetness of the dried fruits and the richness of the blueberry flavour. It reminds me of cooked blueberries – like the inside of a blueberry pie, but without all the sugar.

Probably should be avoided if you hate hibiscus completely, but if you’re a fan of slightly tart fruity/berry tisanes I recommend giving this one a try.

So, having ascertained last night that I’m capable of operating the gaiwan without spilling hot tea all over myself, I decided to try one of Verdant’s black teas in it this morning. 3g of tea, 4oz of water. Verdant’s standard instructions suggest to steep for 2-5 seconds, and add a few seconds with each infusion. I think I started with 20 seconds, and immediately started going for longer and longer infusions trying to get the richness of flavour I was craving, until finally I had to just admit to myself that what I really wanted was to be steeping this western style. :) Oh well, live and learn. It was a perfectly pleasant tea to drink, I just found it… light… gong fu style. After the first infusion the wet leaves smelled way more interesting than the tea did. I only got the cocoa notes for the first 2-3 infusions, and then after that it was all roasty flavours, like a roasted oolong. Not bad, but I think just not what I was looking for first thing in the morning.

Took my new gaiwan for a test run with this! I wanted to start out with a tea I had tried before, for comparison purposes. I’m still totally entertained by how these leaves start out so small, and end up so big. And with my glass gaiwan, I can watch it happen! So. 4g of tea for 4oz of water. I can’t remember exactly how I timed the steepings, but I think it was something like: rinse, 20s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 60s, 1.5min, 2 min, 3 min. It’s not dramatically different from steeping western-style with multiple infusions, but there’s definitely more of a progression of flavours. It starts out light, gets sweeter, then creamier, then grassier. Also, I think I’ve found a solution to the “holy crap that’s a huge (cumulative) amount of tea” problem: I set up a pyrex measuring cup next to me on the table, and with each steeping I poured 2oz into my little cup to drink and 2oz into the pyrex cup. At the end the pyrex cup got a covering of saran wrap and went in the fridge, so tomorrow I’ll see what it this Jin Xuan tastes like cold. :)

I am obviously falling in love with malty, chocolatey black teas. I can definitely see why this one is so popular! The dried leaves are small and curly, and smell like chocolate and bread. The chocolate aroma intensifies once the water hits it. Usually I set a timer and walk away to do something else while my tea is brewing, but this time I just stood over the cup, inhaling the chocolately steam and willing the timer to go faster. :)

The flavour is heavy with the same dark cocoa, plus cooked grain or bread. It’s smooth, and so easy to drink. Wow, this is delicious! I’m already looking forward to the resteep.

Yep, I still love this tea. Which is good, because I now own a ludicrous amount of it! :D Soon to be slightly less ludicrous, once I give Anlina her half. Yummy, malty, sweet potatoey goodness. Mmmm. :)

Oh man, this is so good. I mean, it’s not quite as ridiculously decadent as Golden Orchid (same tea, but with vanilla beans added!), but I can see myself just wanting to drink this every day. Damn it. Just as I am vowing to myself to stick to Canadian companies (why did I have to develop a tea obsession just as the Canadian dollar tanked?? the exchange rate is killing me here) with reasonable shipping costs (y’all have already heard my rant about shipping), I discover that I might not be able to live without this tea. Hrmph. Luckily I can’t even stay mad about it, because I have this warm cup of chocolatey yumminess to soothe me. :)