Camellia Sinensis

Just finished a mug of this one; it was my morning tea today.

I enjoyed it a lot actually – it’s was light and summery with sweet apricot and nectarine notes that enveloped the whole mouth and a buttery mouthfeel. The finish was floral and soft, and all in all the flavours just complimented really well. My tin is more empty than I’d remembered, so I may very well opt to pick up another 50g.

I’ve found this place nearby my house that carries really good stone fruit right now, so I’ve been eating a LOT of peaches, nectarines, and red plums. No apricots though, so all this stone fruit has got me really wanting some juicy apricots in my life to complete the hoard of stone fruit flavours in my life right now. Queue the kettle, and a few minutes later I have a deeply satisfying mug of liquid apricot scrumptiousness! Not as good as the real thing, but damn good.

This was such a wonderful cuppa; I think actually better than the first time I had brewed it up? The apricot just actually seemed to tasted even sweeter and juicier – sort of like an apricot jam or jelly. Also hints of nectarine, which is a nice addition/compliment to the apricot. Very sweet, stonefruit profile on the whole. However, the greener oolong base is very smooth as well – it’s got lots of those fresh floral notes that create that sort of refreshing, light “Spring Time Aroma” vibe. I could picture myself eating pastries with thick globs of apricot jam, while sitting in a field of flowers. Love teas that evoke such strong imagery like that…

Picked up a bag of this from my trip to Camellia Sinensis last weekend, along with a few other things…

This was a pretty cool moment for me; I’ve been shopping at CS for year now and have spent probably over a thousand dollars there in tea and teaware. It’s one of my favourite tea stores of all time, and I am FINALLY living somewhere were I can actually go there and shop/smell the teas in person. It was a big “crossing it off the tea bucket list” type of moment for me!

This tea smelled amazing in store – insanely ripe and juicy apricot notes that just jump out at you. It’s really full bodied, really sweet, and very in your face. The steeped tea definitely isn’t quite so lively as that dry aroma, nor is it as sweet and well defined of a flavour. However, it does still taste like fresh, ripe apricots and is very smooth. Not overly sweet, really natural tasting and perfectly compliments the more floral leaning base oolong tea. I do wish it was a little juicier so as to better match the dry aroma, but all in all its a really pleasant flavor and probably one of the best apricot teas I’ve ever had. I bet it would be KILLER iced or cold brewed!

Something that was shared in office today – in tea bag/sachet format. I’m not a chai person and this is very much classic “North American style” chai. Very typical for what I would expect from a generic grocery store type of chai tea, and I can see why Camellia Sinensis would want to see this/why this would be one of the few teas that they offer in sachet format so that it’s super accessible to the more ‘casual’ customer/consumer.

Not my jam though (aside from the cardamom notes) – and if I’ve going to get a chai from CS I feel like I would, personally, want one of the ones that is a little bit more unique to them and less ‘commercial’.

Back in 2015 when I was just getting into tea, I picked up 100 g of a Singell first flush Darjeeling from what was then Golden Tips Tea and was blown away. I’ve been plotting to get my hands on another one ever since. Judging from the previous seven-year-old tasting note, Camellia Sinensis carries this regularly. I steeped about 1.5 teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 200F for 3.5 and 5 minutes.

This is definitely a first flush tea. I get strong herbaceous notes (thyme?) backed by sap, minerals, and light florals. There’s no muscatel or other fruit. Although the range of flavours is small, this tea is exceptionally smooth and balanced and has little astringency. The second steep is almost as good as the first.

Though it didn’t live up to my transcendent experience with Singell in 2015, this is a very nice first flush Darjeeling, especially for those who like their teas on the greener side. Despite not being able to pinpoint all the flavours, I’ve had it four times in the past week or so, which is unusually consistent for a leafhopper like me. However, the Thurbo Darjeeling, with its muscatel flavours, is more my style, and I wish I’d bought more of it instead. I should just accept that I prefer later-invoice first flushes and second flush Darjeelings, in spite of the cachet of early-invoice FFs.

This is the last tea in the Indian taster kit I picked up earlier this year. I’ve heard good things about the Glendale Estate, and honestly, it was this tea that convinced me to get the sampler. These gorgeous fuzzy white needles sold out quickly and the description is no longer on the website. I went with the steeping instructions for the Nilgiri white tea that’s currently available, though 167F seems a bit low to me. Nonetheless, I steeped three teaspoons of leaf in a 120 ml vessel at 167F for 30, 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few untimed steeps at the end of the session.

The aroma of the wet tea leaves is a mix of hay and stonefruit, possibly apricot. The first steep has notes of hay, banana, honey, linen, and herbs, with a sugarcane sweetness in the aftertaste. The liquor also tastes fuzzy, either from the trichomes or from the power of suggestion. In short, it’s a high-quality version of a generic white tea. Upping the temperature to 175F in the next couple steeps introduces a faint grassy note, but leaves the rest of the flavour profile pretty much unchanged. Subtle hints of apricot show up here and there, but I really have to look for them. The tea fades slowly, acquiring a sharper, more herbaceous astringency but changing very little.

I had perhaps too high expectations for this tea, and while it’s solid, I didn’t think it was remarkable or distinctive. Maybe I’m using the wrong instructions, or maybe it’s better Western steeped. I’ll continue to play with the 15 or so grams I have left.

I received this tea as a free sample with my last Camellia Sinensis order. It’s slightly pricier than the Namring Darjeeling and Temi Sikkim teas that were part of the Indian sampler pack, and the fluffy, bud-heavy leaves seem to be of high quality. I steeped two teaspoons of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 3:30 and 5:00 minutes.

While the Namring was very herbaceous, this tea has more of the muscatel and peach notes typical of a second flush Darjeeling, with fainter notes of florals, herbs, spices, and grass. (I have no idea what amber tastes like, so I can’t say whether that part of the website’s description is accurate.) The second steep is sweeter, more floral, and ever so slightly astringent. There’s a lovely herbaceous and muscatel aroma left in my Finum infuser, but I know by now that the third cup of Darjeeling is always disappointing.

This tea has a great balance of fruity, floral, and herbaceous notes. My only complaint is that even with two heaping teaspoons, it’s very subtle and the flavours never really pop. Next time, I might try it with more leaf.

Sipdown (701)!

Intoxicatingly smooth and robust cuppa, which I feel like I wasted a little bit by drinking Western style – but I just really wanted something rich and complex and I also had a strange amount of tea leaf left…

Very deep flavour, coats the mouth and lingers well after finishing the sip. Majority of the notes are the same as Gongfu but a little less complex, and there’s obviously less evolution of flavour. Notes, I would say, as oak/mahogany wood, sandalwood, really robust leather, dark chocolate, and black cherries.

This is a WOW tea – gotta remember to check is CS still has it in stock…

This is my “MVT” – most valuable tea – for the week.

I brewed this one Gong Fu, after first taking it to work with the intention of brewing it there and being told by my manager that this tea was too good to brew at work and I needed to take it home instead and brew it Gong Fu and really focus on the flavours/session. Who am I to tell my manager, the head of research and development for a tea company no!? If he gives me a tea recommendation I generally listen to him; he’s got great taste! Except when it comes to green tea, then I usually just tune him out, haha!

I’m glad he made the suggestion though; I know I definitely would not have been able to brew this at work with the same care and attention and it was a VERY good tea. Like, I enjoyed it more than the shou I had this week that literally caused me to have an emotional breakdown at my desk.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwhuePDHXxb/

I wish I could better convey how amazing the tea was to you, but I think just recapturing my “in the moment” thoughts from instagram will have to suffice because after I finished snapping photos and writing up that instagram blurb it was like all words vanished from my mind and I could only drink tea and be happy. It was delicious, and I steeped this tea fifteen times, literally right down until there was NO MORE flavour coming from the tea at all. My last infusion might as well have just been water…

So here’s what I said on instagram:

“Notes of Sandalwood, malt, black currant, apricot, red wine/muscatel grapes, oak, and soft smoke. Coats and lingers in the back of the throat really long and intensely.”

It’s been a while since I last had a black tea that flavourful and nuanced, and to think that this was a freebie sample that I received from CS and not something I selected myself! It was an amazing selection though, and 100% something I recommend and am going to purchase more of. Just… Damn!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11kLhDXsG0&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=75&t=0s

Freebie sample from one of my past orders.

This one smells amazing as dry leaf; really intense and rich with notes of super dark chocolate, red wine, oak wood, toasted almond, and undertones of overripe raspberries. Steeped up, the flavour is definitely a little less robust and full bodied but it’s still really strong and very smooth – zero astringency. The primary taste is a combination of dark chocolate and malt, with top notes of brown rice or toasted nuts of some kind. Body has that some oak wood taste. There’s more of a bright sweetness/fruitiness to the undertones – something raspberry like, or like a very ripe cherry? I seem to have lost the wine aroma I was getting from the dry leaf though; doesn’t translate to the taste.

As a “whole” this gives me high quality dark chocolate truffle with raspberry filling kind of vibes – decadent, and perfectly indulgent.

Tea Experiments!

I took inspiration from someone on instagram who had made some shou with star anise, a flavour combination I’ve enjoyed in flavoured teas before, and I decided to do some cupping of shou with licorice mint, star anise and then just straight as a control. I used 2g per cupping set for each tea, and then for the star anise I just added a whole star anise in addition to the two grams, and for the licorice mint I added two lightly bruised leaves.

The straight tea is woody and earthy but has an underlying and coating sweetness that is actually comparable to black licorice. It’s delicious on its own, but I think it could be something really unique and interesting with either addition…

The licorice mint cup has a deeper and very strong licorice sweetness in the cup w/ a cooling lingering sweetness. It’s the most overly changed of the two cups with additions.

My favourite is the star anise cup; the woody elements of the shou are exaggerated in the body but the finish has more of the anise punching through.

All are good, though!! Black licorice and shou!? Definitely a flavour I can get behind!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7O9zszA3eg/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijRRdjp_6N0

Made in a tea press.

Very soft/mellow and smooth for a shou pu’erh with primary notes of dates, dried out wood, and prunes. Pleasant, but also a little bland? I don’t know; I guess it wasn’t bad but sipping on it I found it not meeting my cravings. I think it just wasn’t bold enough in the flavour it was offering…

Nap tea.

Am I the only one who does this? I just reach a point on my days off where I just sort of ‘conk out’ mid afternoon, and I make myself a cup of tea and plop myself down on the couch or my bed with the tea on a side table next to me and I just drift in and out of sleep, taking sips of tea in between moments of slumber. By the time I wake up and hour or so later I’ve finished the cup of tea – usually with next to no recollection of doing so. It’s a very calming/relaxing experience but also just not helpful for recollecting tasting notes. All I remember from this one was an overall mellowness of flavour, and hints of sweetness and camphor.

I think I enjoyed it though.

This is another of the teas in the India taster kit. While I enjoy trying things from less well-known growing regions, the reviews of past offerings from the Temi tea garden didn’t look promising. For this reason, I probably wouldn’t have purchased this on its own.

I made two attempts to brew this tea correctly. Both times, I steeped two teaspoons of the unbroken khakhi leaves in 355 ml of 200F water. In the first session, I steeped it for 3 and 6 minutes, respectively, but because the flavours weren’t coming through, I upped the time to 4 and 6 minutes in the second round. My notes are for session number two.

First off, the aroma is wonderful, with notes of sweet muscatel and papaya. In the mouth, wood, tannins, grass, dried flowers, and lemon balance the profile. The longer steep time did produce a bit more astringency. The second steep is a muted version of the first, though I could detect faint hints of the spice promised in the product description.

This is an enjoyable Darjeeling-like tea that I won’t have any trouble finishing. It’s not mindblowing, but it’s better than I was led to believe by some of the reviews of previous lots.

Woohoo! I finally have some spring 2018 teas! Camellia Sinensis is one of my favourite Canadian tea retailers, not least because I don’t have to deal with the U.S. exchange rate.

This Darjeeling is part of a three-tea India taster kit. If I remember rightly, the EX preface on the invoice number means that it’s harvested before the standard DJ invoices, and the fluffy green leaves bear this out. I steeped two teaspoons in 355 ml of 203F water for 4 and 6 minutes.

The first steep has notes of salt, minerals, umami, muscatel, dried flowers, and herbs, with a drying astringency. The aftertaste is especially green and herbaceous. My initial four-minute steep may have been a mistake, and next time, I’ll cut it down to three. The second steep is also vegetal, herbaceous, and astringent.

A very green first flush Darjeeling, this tea would probably benefit from shorter steeps and lower temperatures. As is, I like the herbaceous character, but wish there was more fruit to balance it out.

It’s not the time of year where I find myself gravitating much more heavily towards brewing yancha/roasted oolongs, but Rougui is still one of my favourites so I make time for it in my rotation. This was just a Western style mug during a “work from home” day and not a Gongfu session, but I still loved those deeper woody and mineral notes and the nutty chestnut flavours mixed with hints of sweet fruits and orchids. It’s a complex, beautiful tea and maybe steeping it Western style doesn’t do it the most justice but it’s still a damn good cup!

Just a late night mug of it while binging some Game Grumps on Youtube. There’s something very hilarious, to me, in the contrast between such a warm, comforting and nuanced cup of tea like a Rou Gui when paired with two very loud, sort of sexually deviant Youtubers shouting into their microphones as they trash talk each other rather violently during an especially aggressive game of Monopoly. I think the delicate, calming elements of the tea cancel it out, though…

Tasting notes were roasted pecans and almonds, oak wood, tree bark, raisin, cinnamon, REALLY light hints of dark cherries, and a somewhat floral finish. A lot of flavours to unpack in this one; but if you take the time to focus on it in between shouting matches about unfair Community Chest rewards and immediately hitting luxury tax after passing go then it’s a really unique, interesting varietal with a lot of interesting qualities.

Made this one in a tea press.

I swear I’ve had this one before; maybe it’s just one of those very rare teas that seems to slip through the cracks that I forget to review…

Regardless; this was nice. I always sort of prefer to steep Rou Gui gongfu because I really love the typical evolution of flavour that this tea has, but I was craving a roasted oolong on this particular morning and this was the first when I saw when browsing my cupboards, and I’ve got enough of it on hand that making a travel mug of it certainly wasn’t going to tap out my stash. It has a very nice roasted barley and char sort of initial sip with more of those expected cinnamon notes coming through immediately following the initial roastyness. In addition to cinnamon, I feel like this tea also had some other spice notes such as cumin and clove. The body then rounds out to more of a sweet and malty note, with undertones of raisins and plums. Also quite woody. I feel like because I didn’t do multiple infusions I didn’t really get to tap into the floral elements or more robustly sweet fruity qualities that I generally do with a Rou Gui but the overall profile was really comforting, and I think that’s why I was craving something like this on such a drizzly, rainy day.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yLQL5m4Niw&list=PUa8Zt6zg9KNOCg41_TkX29g&index=10

Gongfu!

This is something that I made Gongfu near the end of last week to be shared between myself and my roommates over supper – I prepared the tea, one of the roommates provided the food, and the other cooked it. It was a nice trio of contributions! Unfortunately the food was really spicy; and it kind of killed my palate quite a bit during the tea session. Especially for the first part of it as well.

However, after the initial wave of heat had cleared I paced myself better and found a nicer balance between eating and drinking the tea. I think even without the wave of extremely spicy food I would have found this tea a little bit thin/light tasting, but I’m sure the spice didn’t help that feeling. It was, if nothing else, very clean and well rounded. No off notes/fermentation funk to it! Mostly tasted like a sweet woody quality; had a touch of a higher note so I’m inclined to say Cedar just because I think there’s an associated high note that Cedar has over other wood types – but it was also sweeter/smoother than I associate cedar, so maybe it was more of an oak type thing? What’s the in between/cross of cedar and oak!? Perhaps it was that. A little bit of cherry too – but only a smidge, just a hint of that sweet fruity note in the finish.

Despite feeling this was a little thin, I think I still enjoyed it more Gongfu than I have in the past when I’ve prepared this one Western style…

Something I drank during the week – Western style.

I don’t know why, but this just tasted funky to me this time around? Had to nail exactly what element was off to me as it wasn’t the “oily/muddy/fishy/dank” type of funk that is often described with unpleasant shou. What this did taste like was leathery and sweet. Maybe too sweet? I don’t know. Bottom line is that this tea wasn’t vibing with me.

Maybe next time.