Capital Tea Ltd.

my other cup from this morning. Love this one at home…hate drinking it in the travel mug. I also bring the temp down a little when i brew this one as i find it helps to make any sort of astringency go away.

Long weekend! Of course i really wish i had new teas to drink and try this weekend but it’s not meant to be. At least this is a nice one to have at home – works better than in the travel mug for me :)

Need to write on the package to brew this one at lower temps. Every time i do, i’m much happier with results :)

This works really well brewed at a lower temperature for a shorter period of time. makes it much less astringent and a smoother brew. a good start to the morning.

morning tea with a crazy dog. While this isn’t my favourite tea, it’s anice morning cup to kick the day off.

This one is in my cupboard after getting a sample an eternity ago from YYZ which i really enjoyed. This is going to be a great every day cup for me…something that i can drink every day without feeling guilty for not paying attention to a seriously incredible cup of tea. It is smooth and well balanced, a tasty ceylon!

Another sample from YYZ Again, i didn’t get nearly as much tea drinking in today as i’d hoped but some is better than none! I had this earlier this afternoon and it was a very pleasant cup of tea. It’s nice to find a ceylon that isn’t “red rose” like. This is a malty, fruity cup of delicious. I might need to pick some up to share with the BBB ladies in the future :)

Wow, this handmade tea is special! Incredibly complex it has the bright light citrusy, top notes of many darjeeling’s, a bright green floral mixed with a faint eucalyptus menthol (possibly from the plantations grown in this region), lemon thyme and cinnamon and pepper, with sweet potato, roasted cashew, cream, honey, and wood tinged malt, mixed with a savoury vegetal, and light cocoa notes underneath.

The long dried leaves are long, loosely twisted, and wiry, ranging in colour from medium to dark brown with scattered silver green, gold touched downy tips. They smell very bright and inviting with hints of citrus, sweet potato, hay, and green citrus flowers.

Using 1 TSP/225ml at around 95 °C I had a bright light copper orange tea that smelled of muscatel like tones, sweet red grapefruit, sweet potato and honey. As it cooled a nutty cashew like tone also appeared.

This tea tasted incredibly well rounded with its bright, light and fruity, citrusy top notes, blending well sweet potato, honey notes underneath. These notes lie on top of a deeper slightly woody note that lies on top of a slightly vegetal, slightly mineral light malt note.

As it cools a slightly lemony green floral blends with the fruit, a cream and roasted cashew note blends with the sweet potato and honey, with the honey intensifying, and a hint of cocoa blends with the lower base notes, it also becomes more buttery and smooth in texture and develops a feeling of greater density.

The tea has a mild to moderate astringency, a good balance of flavours, and a moderate level of caffeine.

The aftertaste has a good blend of honey and spice, with notes of lemon thyme, menthol, cinnamon, pepper and cocoa mixed with a tang of citrus.

This teas price is a result of the low yield of its style of plucking, its hand processing, and the general quality of the finished product which is unique and special.

It is absolutely delicious!

Special thanks to Capital Tea Ltd for this sample. The tea is available in 20g and 50g packages here: http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=242&cat=0&page=1

For more information on Glendale estate go here: http://www.glendale-tea.com/about-glendale.html

I’ve had this cupboard for a while. The first few times I had it I think I overleafed or over steeped it as I did not experience the delicious fruitiness and spice that I am getting today.

Today after steeping 1tsp in 225 ml of water at around 94°C for 3 min I have a tea that’s yielding a lovely spicy, fruity tea. This tea has notes of brown sugar, yam, malt,cocoa, blackberry, cinnamon, and a faint floral clover nectar. The second steep remained delicious and smooth even though I rediculously over steeped it.

I would purchase this tea again if Capital Tea restocks it, in the mean time this one is tempting me. http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=247&cat=3&page=1!

This was a sample from a swap with Christina. The leaves were so small and a dark dark green. I brewed at 185F/85C for 1 min. First taste it was nutty, sweet and smooth, not as much seaweed taste as other senchas but as I got further down on the cup it started changing. A slight bitter edge slowly became more prominent especially with the last part of the cup and the seaweed taste became stronger (really strong). Perhaps I brewed this a little too high. Instructions were for 75C. It started out such a fantastic sencha but the bitterness at the end was too much. I am going to try a second infusion at 75C and see if there’s a difference.
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2nd infusion. Yes, more of that nutty, sweet sencha again. On the first part of the cup alone I would give this a score of 90. It’s a fantastic sencha but again it has a bitter edge at the bottom of the cup even brewed at 75C. I still had so much bitterness on my tongue from the last cup it was hard to taste the sweetness on the first part of this cup. I think because this sencha is so fine (the finest grade I’ve seen so far), it’s super sensitive to temperature. Or maybe it was at the end of a bag and had more tea dust on it? I don’t know but it was a strange Dr Jeckyll/Mr Hyde tea.

Thanks Christina for giving me the chance to try this great tea.

thanks again to YYZ for sending this one my way. this is a really interesting tea for me. I don’t get much in the way of chocolate notes, but i am getting a slight hint of malt with a bit of spiciness?? to it. i’m guessing that’s what YYZ describes as cinnamon/sandalwood. I actually am enjoying this because of it’s unique taste. it’s similar to other teas that i’ve had but slightly different. Just a good time :) thanks YYZ!

another backlog from yesterday – this one came my way via the lovely yyz i nede to have this one again to fully decide how i feel about it, but i’m leaning towards YAY! versus NAY lol My hang up is on the slightly floral note that i was getting in between the chocolatey notes. There is no astringency or bitterness in this cup and on the whole i found myself enjoying it. I just need another cup to fully decide :) thanks again YYZ!