Bird Pick Tea & Herb

After reading ashmanra’s tasting notes on this one it has been on my shopping list, and so I was thrilled when there was a sample in my package from SimplyJenW. You are too good to me! I opened the pouch and woah: total milk oolong aroma. Milky, buttery, a little sweet corn, it smells really yummy. It looks like an oolong, too, with it’s little balls of leaf. I kind of don’t believe that this is a “green” tea at all. Green oolong, yes.

Steeped with the parameters that some others have used. The steeped tea has those buttery, creamy scents, along with a hint of a floral note. Definitely that sweet corn/kettle corn scents as well. Flavors start out as leafy, vegetal, not very strong, but as it cools more buttery notes come out as well as a fruitiness (peaches? nectarines? some kind of stone fruit maybe). It definitely gets sweeter as it cools, as well. The mouthfeel is not as creamy as I might have hoped, but overall it’s a very tasty tea. I would definitely call this a milk oolong (not shocking as it’s origin is Taiwan), and it’s a pretty good one at that.

I usually don’t drink bagged tea often, unless there is a flavor I simply adore. I won’t turn down a cup of tea if it comes in a bag, I just prefer loose. :) I found this hidden away in my tea collection and decided it was the perfect time to drink it! The scent of this tea wasn’t the most appealing, but the flavor was much better than the scent had me believe. The tea base is smooth, light and sweet. I don’t think there is much of a difference between this Earl Grey and others I’ve had.. it’s not the best, but it’s also not the worst. I prefer Creme Earl Grey teas over regular ones, but I enjoyed this cup this afternoon.

If I were to judge this tea by the look of the leaves alone, I would put it toward the top.
The leaves are not as beautiful as Verdant Teas’ Laoshan Black, but that is what they are probably aspiring to. I’d almost say that this tea aspires to be Laoshan Black (though, I can’t say for sure, since I’ve only had the latter in a blend, but still got a good idea about it).

Nonetheless, I find it to be a solid, enjoyable black tea. It is slightly earthly, perhaps a bit floral, and only a hint of astringency that is of course enjoyable in a black tea. It seems to be one that would be a good base for blends, etc.

Today, I went ahead and made a full pitcher of it iced, plucked 6 lemons from our tree in the backyard and squeezed them in, added some brown sugar, and voila, fresh ‘Arnold Palmer’. It was a perfect balance of earthy, sour, refreshing, and slightly sweet.

Tea of the morning……

Usually, I don’t drink green tea in the morning. However, the aroma of this one just kept calling to me. It smells just like a milk oolong. The leaves kind of look oolongish, but still somewhat like a large leaf green when they are brewed up.

First steep. I have to admit that I was not at all blown away by the first few sips, but I totally agree with Indigobloom on this one, that it draws you in more with each sip. By the end of the cup, you are so taken, that you immediately resteep it, and the process starts all over. Second steep is not quite as rich, but it is still very good. First sips are lightly vegetal, and then the butteriness kicks in. I do agree with TeaEqualsBliss that it tastes like buttered popcorn. Definitely a keeper!

Mug method, about 180 degree water, 3 minutes first steep, 4 minutes second steep.

I dearly love this tea. My first taste of it came from a swap with quiltguppy, a Steepsterite missed by all who knew her. I guess she moved on to other things, as often happens, but some leave more of an impact than others.

It was so great that in my tea newbie exuberance I bought three bags of it. And then hoarded it, and I decided that I need to drink it and get some fresh tea in the line up. Even after all these years, this is good and my daughter is remarking on how perfect it is to drink while she reads to me. It is buttery perfection. We have been drinking it all weekend – blustery, wet weekend! This is a sip down, and I think I may replace it with Milk Oolong from Teavivre just to keep from paying extra shipping from a lot of different companies as I replenish some favorites. But if you haven’t tried this very one, and you like milk oolongs, you really might want to get this very one. It is buttered popcorn heaven.

Backlogging: A few nights ago I was feeling grumpy because I really wanted to get Chinese takeout. Hubby offered to pick it up but I knew we had a few expenses coming up that meant we needed to save all we can. With a chip on my shoulder, I started cooking and I made this tea to go with the meal.

I couldn’t stay mad. Every time I caught a whiff of the tea I smiled automatically. The teapot, the basket of spent leaves, it all smelled so good. Despite the confusion the name of the tea engenders, this is a milk oolong, not a green.

So thankful to the long absent Quiltguppy for introducing me to this one.

I think I know better now. I bought a ton of this when I fell in love with it, not realizing that I was doing that with every tea I loved, and you really can’t drink 200 teas before they get stale when you buy seven or eight ounces of each.

Still, as old as this is, it is delicious and I love it. It is labeled green, but it HAS to be a milk oolong. I realize it is also probably a scented one, but I love it anyway. It smells like sweet butter, like popcorn, like nomnomnom.

I served it to a student today (what is it with all these kids being willing to try new things? I wouldn’t have at their age! My first student is 9 and has fallen in love with white tea at my house. I invited her to come over to try my new white tangerine when it gets here.) She agreed that it is smooth and buttery.

Very nice that it resteeps well, too. When I run out of this one, I think I will replace it with a Teavivre Ali Shan.

I had given my son’s girlfriend a cup of green tea a few weeks ago and she noticed that it tastes a great deal like steamed kale, one of her favorite veggies. She liked it, but said she still found it disturbing for her tea to taste like food.

I set a pot of this on the table and walked away saying, “How would like to try a tea that tastes like buttered popcorn?” They continued playing their game and a few minutes later I heard her tell my son, “Taste this! Taste this! It tastes like kettle corn!”

This was new to me, as I always thought of buttered popcorn, but I can see where she got the idea of kettle corn from the natural sweetness of this tea.

It is listed with green tea on their website unless they have changed it, but I am convinced it is a milk oolong. I saw another review site where someone held forth that it as almost certainly an artificially flavored milk oolong.

I got nowhere when I called the seller to find out about the origin and precise description of this tea, but I can tell you that whatever it is, it is absolutely fantastic.

My daughter and new brand new husband invited us to spend a few days at the beach with them, and I packed this as a never fail take along. I know it was good and I drank two whole pots of it while we were there but I still have a somewhat stuffy head and a cough and it is affecting my taste worse now than it did at the beginning of this cold over a week ago.

While we were at the beach, a dear lady who taught us to work with stained glass at her studio there died from lupus and complications of H1N1 virus. She never ever complained but just kept going and blessing people with her generous heart and her art. If you think of it, raise a glass to Pati and say a prayer for those who will miss her so much. She was an inspiration.

This is one of those teas that I would build a special underground bunker for if its existence were ever threatened. When I got this in a swap from the sorely missed Quiltguppy I had to have it, and I ordered a LOT of it.

When drinking it by itself it tastes like buttered popcorn, heavy on the butter. Last night, my son and I had it with Asian buffet takeout and it. was. heavenly. I had it again today with leftovers and it was every bit as good. I even drank some of it cold and it was still amazing.

I wish I knew exactly what it was. They call it a green but it really has to be an oolong. It HAS to be. Just look at it. But what kind? I called the company and they told me that oolongs were roasty and when I told them that they can be roasty toasty or green, the clerk said she hadn’t heard of that and really needed to learn more. Sigh. So I have never found out.

If I ever was challenged to win someone over to green (or oolong) tea in just one try, this would probably be the one I would pick to do that.

Hubby used to drink only black tea, and even then it was loaded with sugar and milk. And sugar.
He got adventurous and started drinking puerh, greens, and oolongs – PLAIN! The past two weekends he has asked me after breakfast if I am making tea. When I ask what he wants, he says, “I don’t know. Nothing weird. Maybe something green.”

Today’s nothing weird something green was Premium Silky Green from Bird Pick, which we are pretty sure is a green oolong. It is so buttery and good.

On a side note, and only the forty and over crowd will probably know the answer: there was a comedian/magician who was on TV in maybe the 70’s. He sort of hummed this little song as he did a trick where he hit his hands together and he was holding up several fingers on one hand and they would magically “transfer” to the other hand. I think it was on Johnny Carson. I have googled and youTubed exhaustively and can’t find the guy. Does anyone remember who it was? I did find someone doing the same thing, but it was a much newer video.

This was the final tea of tea party today. Because it was sold as a green, I made it like a green tea even though I knew it MUST be oolong. Those parameters have served me well so I still use them. Three minutes in 180F water and you get a pot of buttery popcorn flavor. Treat it like oolong and you still get great flavor, just nuttier and less butter-y. The memory of this tea is tantalizing me even now.

I needed a healing tea this morning, soul and body. I only slept about 5 hours Sunday night because I was trying to get the painting done, and I only slept two hours Monday night because I was too wired about the election. It is a hard day, physically and emotionally. I woke up so sore I looked for the truck that ran me over.

I used one teaspoon of leaves in my little pot and quickly made three steeps in a row and poured them together. The water must have been hotter than usual. It tasted less buttery and more nutty, still smooth with no bitterness, though. What a bargain!

This was the final tea served at tea party today, and I think it was a big surprise for my guest. She used to be a coffee person, then started liking black tea, and seems to enjoy adventuring into other teas now as well.

As soon as she lifted the cup she said, “This smells like butter! Buttered popcorn!” And that hits the nail on the head.

It is still hotly debated whether this is really a green tea as the company has it classified, or whether it is a green oolong, which is what it looks like, tastes like, and acts like. When I called the company, the person who answered the phone said it wasn’t a oolong because they taste roasted. When I told her there are both green and roasted or dark oolongs she said she didn’t know that and would have to look into it.

Whatever it is, it sure is amazing. My guest loved it, as have most of the people who have tried it.

ETA: It looks like Jason Walker reviewed this on his tea blog and called it a wulong.

Ah! This is a great tea for a really good day! Hubby got off work early and we drove to Pinehurst – the golf capital of the world where the Rockefellers used to hang out – to go to an estate sale. It was a hot day, but we drove through the empty woods and fields of the military base, where the GPS doesn’t take you because it doesnt work there. We saw few cars, and the road was lined with hillocks of grass and almost completely bordered with pretty little yellow flowers blooming all along the way. We stopped to look at a little church that was built in 1854 and has a graveyard behind it, and now it is all fenced in because the government bought the property in 1922. There it sits, well kept and in perfect condition, quiet and peaceful, surrounded by tall pine woods. No houses for miles and miles! They all went away when it became federal property.

At the estate sale, I found four table toppers, or shawls if you want them to be, for my tea table. They were bought in Iran, and a lady who was in the house told me that she, too, lived in Iran and watched the watched the girls making these tablecloths and beautiful dishcloths by hand, stamping them with natural dyes one color at a time. I bought all four! And they were only $10 each. I LOVE estate sales! There was a collection of actress glass there from the 1870’s! And beautiful blue Chinese tea cups and saucers with the rice pattern to let the light shine through. I would have bought them, but I was concerned about lead.

Then home for our Friday night Chinese takeout. I called youngest and asked if she would make us a pot of tea to go with it, and this is what she made. Magnificent! This is one of the teas that would make the cut if I had to live with only five teas. (Shudder!)

This is so perfectly smooth, buttery, and sweet. Tonight I feel like I am picking up a gardenia note as well. Happy, happy sigh. Happy weekend to all!

This was the first tea I served to my friend today. She told me about a week ago that she does not like or drink green tea, then promptly fell in love with Teavivre’s Jasmine Dragon Pearls. She looked a bit dubious when I told her we were starting with a green tea today. I suppose she didn’t think the chances were good that there would be TWO greens she liked!

She sipped, then almost chugged her cup, refilling it twice in just a short time. It was a hit! She said that this was something she could drink every day. Buttery and floral, and unbelievably smooth.

I called the Pasadena shop today and asked them to confirm that this is a green and not an oolong. It looks, tastes, and acts like a fine green oolong. The young lady who answered the phone took her time to explain the difference in green and oolong tea, but referred to oolongs as being more roasty. At first she insisted that this is definitely a green. When I pointed out that there are green oolongs, or light and dark as some classify them, she said that she could be wrong about the tea and would research it. She was very sweet and helpful even though I was just calling with a question and not with an order! She said she thought I should continue to steep it as if making a green tea, just as I have been doing.

Me: Do you want to do yoga?
Hubby: Do yoga or have tea?
Me: Well, both are good for us. Do you want to do yoga or have tea?
Hubby: I’ll have tea.
Me: Okay. What kind?
Hubby: Ummm, platypus picked!
Me: You are not going to believe this, but I don’t have any platypus picked. So you know what that means.
Hubby: You need to buy more tea!

Lol! Welcome to tasting note number 1,000! If I were commemorating the tasting note by myself, I would drink Queen Catherine symbolically, as she has seen me through much, but since hubby is joining me I will have one that is a favorite of his as well! That is something to celebrate, too, because not so long ago he would not have touched a green tea. This note marks a lot of changes in tastes, likes, and habits. Here’s to the next thousand cups together!

I am drinking a lot of the same things over and again since we are still at the beach and away from my home stash. I made three steeps of this today and probably wouldn’t review it again except that it was a little different. I was using my tea press and for the first time I left the second steep in it instead of pouring it into a pitcher. I had wondered if lowering the screen really stopped it from steeping or if somehow it could get horribly bitter. The good news is that it did not get horribly bitter. It did, however, change. The second steep smelled so fruity, and the taste was buttery and fruity both. The third steep, done the same way, was fruity and the buttery flavor has diminished a bit more. Wow, still a delicious tea, but changing the steeping parameters made a very different experience.

I was AWOL for a day. This is what I assume knocked out Internet so I couldn’t get on steepster. Other than losing Internet, the little island didn’t seem to suffer any harm from this lovely storm. We love thunderstorms at the beach!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/7209555932/in/photostream/

Last night when my daughter was trying her new teas and they were a bust for her, she asked me to make her something green that tastes good. I made this. We both drank it, we both enjoyed it. YAY! And I got eight ounces of it for Mothers’ Day. EVEN BIGGER HOORAY! MMMM, butter, butter, butter….this stuff is sooo good!

Hooray! One of my tea orders arrived today and I don’t have to keep hoarding the last leaves of this! Two friends tried it and wanted some so I ordered four packs, which is one pound, and a half pound of it is all mine. I made an Asian Stir Fry again the cheat-y way (from frozen Sam’s club pack) and hubby drank a whole pot of this. YUUUUM! So good. I will be resteeping this little beauty.

Technically I can’t have my new tea yet because it is my Mothers’ Day gift, but I can still finish off this pouch in anticipation!

My neighbor who is laid up with a broken foot (this is a month now and they had to put in a screw because it wasn’t healing) is very health conscious. I asked him today if he drank tea, and he said he drinks green tea, bagged. rubs hands together gleefully

I took this back over to his house when I finished being dragged by….I mean, TRAINING his doggie. He was astounded. He wanted to know if I had put something in it. I told him, “Nope, that’s just what it tastes like.” Then his sweet doggie licked the cup out thoroughly, so I guess she liked it, too!

As always, this one is impressive, buttery, creamy, and one of the most soothing teas I have tried, right there alongside Jasmine Dragon Pearl. Ooo, I will have to take that one, too.

We had a quick teaching session about dust and fannings, resteeping, and water temps. Tomorrow, he is trying puerh! Hooray!

I don’t want to bore anyone, so I will just say, “Silky Green resteep, butter, butter, mmmmm……”

A friend came over today who used to only drink coffee, then she started drinking black tea and shu puerh with me, and now she wants to start drinking green for her health. I made this to see if she would like it better than the grocery store greens that have turned her off. I guess it is easiest to just say that she has asked me to order some for her when I reorder mine! Resteeps beautifully, so that four ounces for $15 goes a long way.

Back logging from last night: I made an Asian stir fry last night and this to go with it. Hubby used to drink nothing but Tetley or Ceylon, heavy on the milk and sugar. Last night he drank this plain, refilled his cup, then sat back and said, “That is GOOD tea.” I am so pleased that he likes this one so much, partly because I love it, too, and want a good reason to never run out!

You can’t say the word “buttery” too many times when describing this tea. It is amazing, sweet, and creamy. Today I started wondering if it is possible that this is steamed over milk like a milk oolong sometimes is, because it is so hard to conceive that this could naturally be this creamy. Excellent, excellent tea. Again, I have to say thank you to Quiltguppy for getting us hooked in this one!

I don’t usually give a numerical rating, but I just have to do it for this one. It is too good not to do so.