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Oriental Beauty Premium Grade from Radiance Tea House and Books
100

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Radiance Tea House and Books in NYC! This is the tea we chose to have there. No preparation details as it was lovingly prepared in house.

1st infusion:

Amazing golden apricot color and the fragrance was so sweet. Honey, honey, honey! I couldn’t believe the rich honey notes I was getting from this tea. Each sip was heavenly. I’ve never had a tea, yet alone an oolong tea, with so much sweet flavor. I feel like I’m doing an extraordinarily poor job of describing this tea – I think it must be experienced!! It went so well with the buttery tea crackers with black sesame seeds that were served with it. This was my husband’s favorite infusion.

2nd infusion:

This one was heavy on apricot. Slight honey notes and some of what I associate with “oolong” flavor coming out – and a fine oolong flavor it was. I’ve never had anything so fine. We had this pot with our dumplings and entree (me: Teriyaki Salmon rice bowl with mushrooms and bok choy, Husband: Rice bowl with shrimp and avocado) This was my favorite one and it was PERFECT for food.

3rd infusion:

More fantastic tea flavor, slightly floral, not as sweet, not as fruity. Still delightful. We had it with more tea crackers. It was a great finish to the meal and perfect for digestion.

Photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/steepster/pool/

and a couple more of my day here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/sets/72157623565672780/

People who liked this

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Comments

Cofftea
Cofftea 2010-03-06 11:28:36 -0500

It’s so freakin awesome to be able to give a tea a 100 when you have absolutely no control over any of the steeping parameters!

JacquelineM
JacquelineM 2010-03-06 15:17:27 -0500

Agreed!!! They so very know their stuff there! I didn’t even take any leaves home because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make it as carefully as they did!

chrine
chrine 2010-03-06 16:28:48 -0500

Thanks for sharing your photos, Jacqueline. It sounds like an awesome tea shop experience.

Ricky
Ricky 2010-03-07 10:26:04 -0500

Jealous! I have to go there sometime. All I had was a some bubble tea yesterday =(

Haha, picture in the bathroom!?!?! Hahaa that was hilarious.

teaplz
teaplz 2010-03-07 10:51:24 -0500

Lovely photos! Hahaha, and my friends and I have taken pictures in some pretty awesome bathrooms. But this sounds delicious! I definitely would try an oolong because of the multiple infusions.

JacquelineM
JacquelineM 2010-03-07 11:03:14 -0500

Ricky – :P !!!!

teaplz – if you are having food, oolong is def the way to go (and the food was sooooo good! Simple and perfectly prepared). Although there was a table near us having some kind of bubble tea concoction which looked like it also had ice cream in it with spicy cold noodles and they looked very happy! The other table near us had tea with tea cookies and they looked happy! There was also a man out front with tea, cookies, and a novel and boy if I lived closer that would be me every chance I got!!!

LadyLondonderry
LadyLondonderry 2010-03-08 23:22:33 -0500

The tea (and the entire experience) sounds marvelous! I’m still planning my first visit to
Radiance — it will most likely be one of their tea tastings, as soon as I can find one that fits into my weekend schedule.

JacquelineM
JacquelineM 2010-03-09 07:01:54 -0500

The tastings look like so much fun!

takgoti
takgoti 2010-03-12 02:44:02 -0500

Lovely pictures! Next time I’m in NY I’ll need to give Radiance a look-see.

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Profile

Bio

I love to cook, bake, read, paint, knit, do needlework, and garden. I need my coffee, but I LOVE my tea. I work at an Art School, and I am currently taking classes in order to become certified to teach.

I enjoy writing tasting notes, but have decided not to numerically rate teas as of 9/14/10. For an explanation, see my looooong tasting note about Mountain Malt from the Simple Leaf.

My favorites:
Chinese black teas
A good “milk and sugar” English style black
Earl Grey (classic, and in all variations!)
Vanilla teas (classic, and in all variations!)
Jasmine, Rose, Violet and other froofy, flowery teas!
An Occasional Oolong
Flavored Rooibos
Herbal Tisanes

Location

Collingswood, NJ

Website

http://jackiemania.wordpress....

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