Cinoi

Still working on seasoning my yixing tumbler (according to Teavana guy, this is going to take about a year). So I am brewing my favorite oolongs (which aren’t all the same, I know that, but I am going for general oolong – the floral, crisp aroma, the nutty, clean flavor).

Today’s choice was some more Blue Unicorn. I have ordered this a few times, thoroughly enjoy it and always forget just how much I enjoy it. See previous note for tasting.

Pretty, nice design, keeps tea warmer for longer than expected and yixing, so in about a year, I will have a wonderfully seasoned tea tumbler!

Note: I always have such issues with yixing because I can not decide with what I want to season them. I have several mugs and tea sets that are yixing that go widely unused for this reason, however, I think with the travel mug all will be fine since I only drink one or two teas in the morning on my daily drive to work.

This was fantastic. I will resteep to give it a proper review later, however, for starters, this was amazing. I am very upset that there isn’t a lot of this to go around, this is something I could drink every day for the rest of my life.

The scent of the leaves is slight floral, a little nutty, smells divine. The liquor is a pale yellow with similar aroma. The taste is delicious.

So I’ve been holding onto this for a while, but being such a coveted tea, I wanted to make sure the conditions were perfect: I was feeling fine, I gave myself ample time to enjoy the tea, and most importantly, I brewed it correctly.

I tried to follow the Chicago Tea Garden’s direction for brewing (video number 2: http://www.chicagoteagarden.com/zealong-new-zealand-oolong), but wound up making some minor modifications.

I warmed the pot, using boiling water, drained it, covered the bottom of my pot in the leaves, then added enough water to cover them. Of course, they floated, so let’s say it was about a half cup of boiling water. Let the leaves steep for one minute like this. Drained the water, then filled the pot with boiling water. Allowed to steep for one full minute. Poured all the tea out and enjoyed.

The aroma of this is incredible; it is crisp, clean, sweet and actually smells mouthwatering, it is everything you would hope it to smell like and nothing that you would hope it doesn’t. In one word: pure. The liquor is a pale, golden yellow, not amber, yellow. The experience is cultivated in the drinking vessel, I used a matcha bowl because I wanted to get the full bouquet while drinking it. The flavor matches the aroma, clean, crisp, sweet, yet not overpowering, it tastes like the best of the best oolongs, it really just might be. I know I have had an oolong similar, though I am not sure where, it really doesn’t matter, because this is what I have now.

That was the first infusion. I did not repeat the whole tea ceremony for each infusion, just filled the pot with more water, steeped and drank. I got three full infusions out of the one sample and each was as good as the first.

All brewed hot, no additives:
Infusion 1: one minute
Infusion 2: one minute, 30 seconds
Infusion 3: two minutes

If you get a chance to try this, I highly recommend you do. I still have the other two (aromatic and dark) to give a go. Enjoy everyone!

Two scoops, brewed hot, four minutes, no additives.

I forgot about just how astringent this can get, I have been taking too many liberties with other teas. Anyway, still good, has a great flavor while hot/warm, but once it cools down starts to get astringent.

Edit: This is not a full review, I have already done that many times for this tea.

Not feeling well, this is the perfect pick-me-up tea and it keeps me going. Has all the health elements of tea and does not require milk or sugar which can make symptoms of cough worse.

Put the tea bag in my travel mug and fill with hot water. Sip and enjoy. The best part about the tea is you can re-steep the tea bag, at least three times. Really helps keep me going.

This tea was pretty awesome. The dried leaves have an oolong aroma, with an accept of butter and corn kernels. Steeped hot, 3.5 minutes, no additives. The aroma of the brewed tea is buttery, vegetal, and a hint of just popped corn (not strong, a hint). The flavor is smooth, sweet, buttery and a light vegetal base. Overall, very good oolong.

As the holidays have mostly left us and we are welcoming significantly warmer temperatures, and longer and sunnier days here in NJ, I thought I would take a stroll back with this tea.

This is still wonderful! Brewed hot, four minutes, no additives. There is the same lovely flavor I remember – richness, almost-spice, tea flavor, smokey sweet. Absolutely delicious.

As a side note, I came on here to rate a pile of teas I got and tried this weekend. Unfortunately, it looks like none of them (or the first three I checked for) are not on here yet. I will rectify this this afternoon. Until then, enjoy!

Finished my sample today. I have been finishing a decent amount of samples lately and unfortunately, not updating that they have now moved on from my cabinet.

I went with hot water, no additives in a travel mug. This means it was longer infusion time, with constant temperature. The tea has a wonderful toasty aroma – it is light, crisp, and toasty rice. Don’t let it sit too long, it will get bitter because you do not pull the leaves out, but I drank it over about 15 minutes, and then got a second infusion out of the leaves. The second infusion started to turn a bit bitter after an additional 15 minutes (30 minutes total on these leaves).

Final note: mixed feelings – sad my sample is gone, but excited that I can now open all the other Genmai Cha Teas I have collected. Until then

Let me start by saying, I LOVE Banana Bread. Especially hot and buttered Banana Bread, and since I have high expectations of 52Teas, I was extremely excited to make this. As soon as I received it, I had to tear the package open so that I could indulge, the aroma of the dried leaves is heavily banana and a slight baked/sweet smell that you would expect from banana bread. Very exciting.

Made this yesterday, hot, three minutes, no additives.

The main flavor is a slightly toasty/baked black tea. Then there is a sweetness with the banana flavor, not artificial at all, natural sweetness and just a touch of it to not overwhelm the tea itself. There is a hint of nuttiness and followed up by creaminess from butter.

I think this would be fantastic with milk/half and half or whatever you fancy. Will definitely have to give it a try.

Drinking this again this morning. It snowed last night, a lot, and I knew I had to trudge into work eventually and I could think of no better companion than this.

There is a richness to it, a slight almost spice, though there is no spice, there is a strong black flavor without bitterness or astringency, and a hint of smoke (and you know I love my smoky teas) not enough to turn anyone off of it, followed by the slightest hint of sweetness just the right amount to get me through the snow.

Brewed the same as before, 1 heaping scoop, hot, four minutes, no additives. I think this would be wonderful with a second steep or some additives (I am thinking half and half or some light cream) would really take this to the next level.

Instead of my original plan of just dusting over why I have not posted in so long, let me be completely honest. A lot has changed in my life, and while I could come up with excuses and reasons to tell you, they don’t matter. What matters is that I essentially had lost my way and stopped enjoying the teas I was drinking, it was becoming a game, something to rate and critique to add to my personal list. I had lost the passion and appreciation for the tea that had brought me to this site in the first place.

I plan to not do that anymore. I want to slow down and actually enjoy the tea and really experience it instead of just ranking at rating it. I have had many teas in the break, I will go back and experience what I can and rate them appropriately, because I do love doing this, but I had been doing it for the wrong reasons, I am sorry and I plan to rectify this.

Whew – now that that is out of the way, I want to say this tea is delicious. Infused hot, no additives, four minutes. Sipped as it cooled there is a delicious black tea flavor in this, it is clean and bright and crisp without being astringent or bitter. The aroma of both the dried leaves and the brewed tea is fantastic, captivating and intriguing. I will be drinking this more often. Thank you for bringing me back.

Sorry for the lack of posting, I have been insanely busy traveling for work and have not gotten to drink my usual amount of tea. While I hope to rectify that this weekend, I figured a little bit of Starbucks might hold me over. Instead of my usual coffee, I decided to be adventurous and try the Tazo Chai Tea Latte. As we know from my previous posts, my chai tea must be hot, with some sort of milk and sweetened. Assuming a latte incorporated these attributes (and not wanting to be too snarky so early in the morning with colleagues present) I ordered the latte straight off the menu with no adjustments.

Overall it was pretty good – the right amount of spice and artificial sweetness with some creamy smoothness and froth blending it all together. I am glad I have found something I can order right off of the menu that I actually like.

Please note, I am on my cellphone posting this, as I said traveling for work, and it will not let me go review and proof what I wrote or actually give the tea a rated score. Will rectify these issues later. Thanks!!

As I have mentioned before, my commute is annoyingly bad. It is now ten times worse because school is back in session and absolutely everyone is back at work – no more holidays or vacations and my commute has multiplied. I have rectified this by multiplying my tea consumption. I woke up this morning and made myself three separate vessels of tea. Each of the teas were different, therefore each one was constructed differently. The first tea was my Chocolate Pu-Erh from Numi organic (see other reviews). This was made for immediate consumption – hot, half and half, drank immediately. Delicious.

My second and third teas were made for my travel. The first of them was Jasmine Pearls by thepuritea (see other review). The third tea was for lunchtime consumption. I cold brewed my Coconut Cream Pie from 52Teas. I added a scoop of tea to the bottom of my travel mug with some German Rock Sugar (about ¼ teaspoon). Added enough hot water to cover the leaves and allow a dark liquor to start brewing. After about three minutes, I filled the remainder of the travel mug with cold water, sealed it and was on my way.

I am drinking this tea now, 6 hours later, and as expected, it is wonderful. It is cool and refreshing with a burst of sweetness, followed by a rich tea flavor and finished off with creamy smooth coconut. I kept the tea cold by adding it to the communal refrigerator. The liquor is not as dark as the starting hot brew was – it is a toasty golden honey color. I believe this tea could continue to be infused and could will continue to get better, but I should be honest, it will not last that long.

“The best laid schemes of Mice and Men…” I planned on a light relaxing week yesterday – that was before my commute, which seems to get longer every day, got in the way. Today I refused to let the day get the best of me and I planned ahead (see Coconut Cream Pie by 52Teas review). This was the first tea I enjoyed during my commute.

I added the full sample packet, about 2 scoops to my very large travel mug. Added ¼ teaspoon of German Rock Sugar, in case it took me too long to get to the tea, then filled it half way with hot water, let it infuse 4 minutes, then filled the rest with cold water (so as to shock the tea and not let it over-infuse and get bitter). I was lucky in that I got to drink it almost immediately. The liquor is a pale green color, the fragrance is a light Jasmine. The flavor follows the fragrance very closely, it is light, slightly toasty and definitely jasmine.

The tea itself was very good, nice and light.

I am so sad to say that I finished this off this morning.

I try to not flood the site with repeat reviews unless I try it a different way or have to change the rating because of something I did or found out. That being said, I have finished most of this using my protein shake review below. With barely enough for one more serving, I finished my Strawberry Matcha with some orange juice in my match bowl.

I used about a cup of Minute Maid Orange Juice – no pulp – this way it does not get stuck in my whisk. I added the remainder of my matcha (as with previous reviews, I still do not have a matcha scoop, and use about 1/2 teaspoon matcha typically). This time was probably a bit more matcha because I tapped the bag until I was satisfied that I got most of my matcha out.

It whisked up nice and smooth and was absolutely delicious – the strawberry flavor accented the overall orange-matcha flavor. Very nice, very sad this is gone.

Happened to travel by a Teavana yesterday and decided, on a whim, to go inside and get a cuppa of my favorite. While I was paying, I was told that it is actually being discontinued…Sad Cinoi…so I bought a pound – I will save the rest for all of you…sigh

I have already had an upsetting amount of coffee today and the caffeine rush has passed, time for something calming and soothing. The raw tea smells like a chap stick – the pink “cherry” one that smells like artificial cherry and fruit and wax. This is most likely because I have no idea just how old it is, and it has been in the plastic pouch neighboring four other Tea Frog teas in my tea basket. I feel since I did not repackage them, that they have all melded in aroma. Oh well. I am not put-off by the smell, but the ingredients have me a little wary. There is a lot in here that could get bitter very easily…

That in mind, I go for a small batch, 1 tsp tea, hot water, no additives, infusion time: 3.5 minutes. The liquor is very pink. The aroma has liberated more, I smell hibiscus and citrus. The flavor is surprisingly mild, there is a slight tang to it, I wouldn’t say tart (I don’t think I let it infuse long enough to get tart) but a tang, most likely coming from hibiscus and rosehips. The flavor after the tang is predominantly mango, then a spike of pineapple and papaya flavors finished off by a high citrus note, most likely from the orange peel.

I don’t think this was bad. I think this needs some work. I think that this blended with a green tea or a white tea, maybe some sweetener, and maybe iced would be extremely refreshing. I did not try it this way, I should have enough to do so later…

Very much like the Sencha Shot (Ito En) this feels very thick. The can almost feels dense like there is something that needs to be liberated from the bottom of the can with shaking, though, upon pouring and drinking, you realize it is the bottom of the can. The tea itself has an oolong aroma, a little toasty that might scare people away, but I am loving my oolong adventures. The mouthfeel is also very thick, it feels like it is a concentrated tea, almost a very light-syrup, rich and toasty – this is the best way that I can explain it.

Overall, the flavor is good. It is toasty, which contrasts the fact that the tea itself is chilled, it is unsweetened and there are no artificial or unnecessary additional flavors, it is just the pure tea; purely unadulterated oolong tea – I couldn’t ask for anything more.

It is already a long day after a long holiday weekend (which I will be backlogging tea from throughout the week). this I tried to brew when I got to work. I am extremely disappointed to say that I think I brewed this tea completely wrong. I typically do not use boiling water – I almost always use “hot” water from the water cooler (the things in offices that deliver hot and cold water out of a large 5 gallon jug) which at home is around 180°F. We have one in work also, today the “hot” side was not working, so I quickly brewed up some water in my little coffee pot for tea (I just boil water in it, no coffee ever goes in there), unfortunately, I did not let the water cool enough and I am afraid the water was too hot and I let the tea infuse too long (at five minutes – the end of the brew spectrum for this tea).

The fragrance of the dried leaves was wonderful, even the aroma of the brewed tea is very nice, a sweet note with some woodsy aroma, however my tea is very astringent in flavor. I am getting no woodsy flavor or sweetness that everyone else experienced.

I have another sample of this, I will have to try again. For now, I will hold the rating because I do not think this was a true review.

It’s Tuesday – that means I get my favorite bottled tea today. =)

Nothing new to update about it, just that I now have three people at work hooked on the stuff. We are going to get some cases of it so we can expand the horizons as NewLeaf actually has quite a few flavors.

I should start this review by saying I drink this just about every day – I do not post it every day, because honestly, not that much changes about it, hot brew, minimal time (I can tell when it is done by sight and smell now, I rarely time it), no additives. There are a few reasons I have it everyday. 1. I bought 16 ounces of this right off the bat after the first time I tried it, as I said, obsessed with green tea and this is no exception. 2. Those 16 ounces are taking surprisingly long to get through because you do not need more than one scoop, and you get 3 perfect infusions out of it.

I decided to post today because, I made a variation on my usual brew and I think it worked out very nicely. I brewed this one differently, I made it in my travel mug, one scoop of tea and added cold water, no additives. That has relaxed on my desk and patiently waited a solid 5 hours for me to drink it. I am enjoying it now. The tea has a light aroma. It is very vegetal in flavor and has a slightly bitter bite at the end of it. This does not concern me, I do not mind the bitter, if you do mind the bitter, I suggest a much shorter infusion.

As I said, I no longer time the infusions on this tea, I typically do what I like to call “flash infusions” (less than one minute). I use the normal amount of tea (one scoop), no additives, hot water and infuse til the tea is slightly green, 45 seconds – 1 minute and that seems to work beautifully, for a light, refreshing and slightly sweet tea with a little bit of vegetal in the middle.

Enjoy!

Tried to have a cup of this today, because I thought it would help me to feel better. Unfortunately, I let it steep WAY too long and it was undrinkable. Do not let this steep too long, it will be very bad.

Typical Steep: 2-3 minutes
Over Steep: ANYTHING after three minutes.

Happy Monday Steepsterites! I know I am definitely suffering from “a case of the Mondays” or maybe I am getting sick from the annoyingly fall weather we have been having here in NJ. It is hot during the day (like need the air conditioning and a fan) and then cold at night (as pile on as many blankets and cats as you have to keep warm). That mixed with my hectic work and activity schedule means I am run down. I asked for some honey for one of my many other teas from my co-worker and was offered a bag of this to try and help. How could I refuse? I have never had this and might as well get a tasting note out of it.

Well I have never had “camomile” – I have had chamomile, but never on it’s own, always with green or black tea as an additive for soothing and comfort, never just straight.

The tea bag has literally no aroma. Nothing. I put it in my mug and poured some hot water over and waited. I allowed the bag to infuse for 5 minutes. Slightly grassy aroma, something like weeds and flowers on a warm spring day when all the flowers are blooming and you are overwhelmed with pollen. The flavor: Blech. This tastes like nothing. That’s not true, it tastes like something, I don’t know what, but not what I pictured. Leave the bag in the tea for another 5 minutes (10 minutes total). Now I am getting the grassy flavor, a little like the dandelions or other random flowers – nothing I would call tea (then again, I should not call it tea, it is herbal tea, meaning no actual tea). It is however soothing and calming, the throat pain is melting away, good, but the taste, I am going to have trouble drinking the rest of this…

Have no fear! I got honey for a reason, added a teaspoon to my tea. Now it tastes like warm honey followed immediately by the floral-grass taste. This is not much better, but just enough that I should be able to finish my mug, as for any energy from this, that is not going to happen, but as long as I feel better…

I will hold out on an actual rating because I do not like this, this is not something I would normally drink, but all of my senses might not be 100% either. Furthermore, if it actually soothes and calms and I feel better it would get a higher rating because it did what was advertised, so until then, enjoy!