Little Red Cup Tea Company

I love this jasmine. It’s definitely a sometimes tea for me, but it’s so great – I describe it to my friends as being like the tea you’ll get in a chinese restaurant, but 10 times better. The aroma is so wonderfully floral that you could smell it for ages, but when you drink it it’s smooth, balanced, and not overpowering at all. I really should drink it more often, but it’s a lovely treat whenever I remember to break it out.

This is my go-to tea at my job – I drink it practically any day that I go to the gym before work and thus don’t have a chance to make a cup of coffee. I’m operating under less-than-stellar tea-making conditions there (just getting hot water from a water cooler), but this turns out consistently well for me – pleasantly slightly bitter, not too tannic, and overall pretty delicious. The fair trade, organic aspect (and the immensely reasonable price) are a welcome bonus.

Loose
Appearance: large, bicolored curled leaf, green tones
Aroma when Dry: nutty, fuzzy, hints of sweetness
After water is first poured: seaweed broth
At end of steep: sweetened seaweed broth
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: clear
Staple? Yes
Preferred time of day: Any
Taste:
At first?: bitter sea vegetal, salt, brothy chewy notes
As it cools?: first notes get a bit grassy, salt notes surface more upon close
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, meaty, with sea salt notes

Second steep (5 min)
Salty, lightly brothy, very minor seaweed notes

Loose
Appearance: gunpowder pearls, deep green
Aroma when Dry: slightly smoky, vegital
After water is first poured: grassy
At end of steep: grassy, vegital
Tea liquor:
At beginning of steep:
At end of steep: grassy green
Staple? Type No, but will drink if offered/around might drink brand again
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first?: vegital, grass notes close
As it cools?: harsh grass notes surface
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, crisp grass, vegital notes, then the harsh grass notes follow as tea cools

Backlog: Another tea that I’ve been enjoying as I deal with whatever ails me. I could only taste barely there notes of the jasmine and the green tea, but I found it a comforting tea.

I held off trying this tea even though I bought it at the same time as the Keemun and the Bai Mu Dan from this company. Why? This jasmine is really quite good. Much better than I had come to expect from this company. OH, don’t get me wrong, the Keemun and the Bai Mu Dan were good teas, but they weren’t great. Of the three teas, this one is definitely the best of them.

The jasmine is soft. Not sharp. Not soapy. Not perfume-y. The tea is smooth and supple, with a soft, silky mouthfeel. It is sweet, even a little creamy. The jasmine is sweet and exotic tasting … and a bit on the lighter side of things. It is not in your face.

This reminds me of a jasmine tea they might serve you with your meal in a fine Chinese restaurant. The flavor is soft enough not to disrupt the flavors of your meal, but instead will compliment them.

A very pleasing Jasmine.

Like someone else said, this is not the fanciest, highest quality bai mu dan. It is, however, a fantastic one. Floral, light, and misty, I just can’t get enough of it. At a price you simply cannot beat, this is probably the purchase I recommend most to anyone interested in white teas. I typically get 4-5 steeps out of it, which is more than enough.

first post in awhile! anyway, I actually like the bitterness in this tea. I prefer less vegetal green teas, so this one works for me. It doesn’t have a huge amount of flavor, but it is slightly vegetal, bitter, and punchy.

Thanks to Nicole Martin for a sample
This tea comes in a cute brown baggy bag.
Quality Whole Leaf Tea from China
Packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable, biogradable.
www.LittleRedCupTea.com

This is my first Bai Mu Dan that I have reviewed. The tea leaves are dry and crunchy. I boiled some hot water. The flavor was very light.
The taste was light. A light tea taste, sort of when you drink a bit of Pepsi with lots of ice and all the cubes melt. You taste the Pepsi but it is diluted.
This tea reminds me of a tea called Lagg’s, a weak tea that darkens the water, but fails to come up big on flavor or caffeine.

I will blend this with Yerba Mate for now.

9/18/2012 – Tried this tea again. Crunchy leaves. Small cute twigs. Web site www.LittleRedCupTea.com has lots of information and brewing instructions. Here’s my take..
1. Used the best water you can (I’m using NYC tap)
2. The flavor is very faint, floral.
3. Used 1/2 the amount of water.
4. This is a late afternoon or night tea for me.

12/6/2012 It sits on my tea shelf, I haven’t touched it in awhile. I love the graphic brown bag. I’ll keep it around for awhile longer.

I’ll start by saying that this note will be somewhat limited in that,so far,I’ve only had a few black teas and am not well versed in them. I liked the roasted smell of the dry leaves, though I have nothing to compare it to. The leaves didn’t quite double in size after unfurling. the wet leaves smelled alot sweeter than I expected. Color was a more red than brown with a hint of gold. With the first drink I noticed a bold woodsy/leathery flavor, heading towards, but not entirely to, malty. Smooth with a pronounced smoke establishing itself within a few sips. The other thing that emerged was sweetness that I didn’t detect initially, and yet a hint of sour as well. There was alot going on in this drink, it seemed to be pulling me in two different directions, if that makes sense. I don’t feel I’ve done this tea justice and would like to log it again after I’ve gained more experience with black teas, but it was a sample that has retired from my cupboard so it will have to wait until I come across it again (as I’m sure there is a fair possibility). In general, a good cuppa that I would suggest to anyone, especially those who are partial toward black teas.

Another sample from Alphakitty (with the appearance of coming by way of LiberTEAS!)

Just brewed a really small cup of this one to test out before leaving it behind. It smells just a touch smoky, and tastes likewise. Kind of like a bagged Lipton + smoke – astringency and other icky things that come with bagged tea? I do seem to like smokiness at a low to moderate level in my tea, so this works for me. But there are so many other teas out there that I’d rather drink, I will be ok leaving it behind. (I’m a poor descriptor; this is quite a nice tea, and really nothing like a bagged tea, there is just this particular flavour I associate with bagged tea that I’m catching. I need to figure out whether it’s a region or what, so I can stop making it sound like it’s a low quality tea!)

Thank you LiberTEAS for this Sample!

I find myself enjoying this one very much, as this being my first Keemun Black Tea. It certainly is a nice change from the traditional Darjeeling, Assam and Ceylon teas.

This leaf produces a pale brownish colored liquid with a nice smokey pine overtones, is coupled with some very nice buttery and faint citricy undertones. There is little to no astringency.

I’m very excited in trying other Keemun Black Teas, for this was a good experience. Thanks again, LiberTEAS for this great suggested sample!

I got this tea mostly for blending, since I don’t have any light whites to mix with stuff. In the spirit of making at least one cold brew a day, I mixed this up in a glass with cucumber slices, some shredded mint, and very finely chopped cantaloupe last night and let it steep for about 14 hours. I strained it all, including the cantaloupe, leaving a gorgeous-looking peachy brew. And it might be the most refreshing drink I’ve ever had—sweet from the cantaloupe, vibrant from the mint, cooling from the cucumber and there’s a lovely subtle tea taste in the background. A little floral and fruity, which really elevates this from “water with stuff steeped in it” to “fancy iced tea.”

FINALLY a cup of tea! Had to get up early today and get ready in five minutes flat and out the door NO morning cup! :(
Finally back home and was having major withdraws. Kept making ACK sounds and jerking around making my daughter and husband laugh.
Brewed up some of this tea here.
Its alright – probably a bad time to give it a first try as I would have done better with an LS to punch me in the face but this is a nice mellow morning cup.
No astringency, no bitterness, juicy, slightly smoky, and nice.
Its not my favorite morning cup but it is far better than I was anticipating as I too did not have the best luck with one of their other teas.
Will withhold rating until I have a chance to enjoy this when I am not already having major caffeine withdraws.

I am almost done tasting all my new teas (excluding samples) and the 4 I have left from Little Red Cup have been sitting on my kitchen table taunting me for some time. After a rather awful experience with the first tea of theirs that I tried, I was hesitant to dip into another. But this is about as far as spinachy bitter green as you can get (plus I need the space these are taking up!).

The dry leaves smell like smoke and hay—I actually like both of these in tea if they’re not overpowering. Brewed it’s still smokey but there’s also a hint of fruit—peach or grape maybe? This is a brisk, bold cup, and really exceeded my expectations for sure. It’s also my first experience with a Chinese black straight-up, and it definitely doesn’t need milk. A little astringent but not bitter at all.

Backlog: I enjoyed a cup of this earlier today. It is pleasantly robust, with a nice fruity character that is somewhat wine-like, ending in a wine-y sweetness and then some dry astringency. Sweet, bold, and full-flavored. I like it, it’s a good Keemun.

I am trying to brew this tea correctly, but it is really fighting back. My first steep (1 1/2 teaspoons, 190 degree water, 3 minutes) was awful. So so bitter, it totally overpowered any of the actual flavors of the tea. The second steep I dumped out half the leaves, lowered the water temp to 170, and steeped for only 2 minutes. And it tasted… like water. Well, the beginning of the sip was watery, then in the middle there’s some nice actual tea notes, then at the end… bitter! What the heck. It does say this is a “sharp” tea but it should NOT be bitter like that at only 170. Something here is going really wrong, so I am going to hold off on actually rating it until I get a gaiwan and can do some really short steeps.

This isn’t the highest quality Bai Mu Dan I’ve encountered. The leaves are broken and crumbled, and are certainly not as green as the photos on the website would like to suggest. They are dull and brown, with no visible signs of fuzzy down like I’ve come to expect from a high quality Bai Mu Dan.

With that said, this is not a bad Bai Mu Dan. It’s just not the very best that I’ve encountered. It’s nothing exceptional. But it is pleasant. It has deliciously sweet, fruity overtones and a nice hint of hay and air in the background.

Overall, a pleasant tea experience.

Fair Trade and Organic +2
Slightly Bitter -1
Lovely floral Balance +1
Good Pricing +1
A somewhat new company (I think) – nice website but it seems to still being worked on as it has already changed recently.
This is a nice tea – but there are many far better out there – here is the issue I have – I have been drinking Shang, Verdant, Teavivre all day today and yesterday so it is going to be very hard to measure up to those companies. HOWEVER in fairness to this one, I have had far worse! The thing is I am new to Jasmine tea as a whole so I have not necessarily had “far worse” jasmine tea. This company seems to be good and I have other teas of theirs to try so we will see.
I like that they seem to know who they are, simplistic bagged tea, with vibrant red, fair trade, organic, and excellent information about the teas, the company, sustainability, etc on their site.

Here is an excerpt from the site:
We decided to sell Chinese tea that is simple, high quality, and straightforward — tea that our friends from Beijing would recognize and enjoy. So: no Mango-Walnut-Green-Tea-Surprise. Instead we will sell green tea, black tea, and white tea. Just tea, no flavoring except for jasmine, which is as traditional a flavoring as tea itself.

I will sample more of the teas I have from them soon. For now this is good, not great maybe but very good.

Purchased on Fab.com during a foodie sale. I had Fab credits so got all five of their teas at a very good price. Basically paid shipping.
I am not in love with this tea although I would not toss it out.
I am going to give it more time, and a few more steeps before I decide on a rating for it.
I may give it a go with less leaf.
This steep however is leaving a lot to be desired.