Mark T. Wendell

Finishing up my sample. A nice, typical Jasmine Pearl. Very enjoyable.

Mmm…finishing up my Jasmine Pearls! I have to be in the mood for these, but when that mood strikes, this tea tastes awesome! I think I’ll need to search out the perfect Jasmine Pearls to add to my cupboard. Any suggestions?

I always think it is interesting when you try a new tea and you like it enough, but it doesn’t blow you away….until later on you realize that you are craving that tea, so maybe you like it more than you initially thought. I was really craving this tea last night but it was late and I picked rooibos instead. I woke up today and was considering this tea when I saw wombatgirl drinking this – I knew, it was a sign, I needed to drink this tea!
Today it appears that I used more pearls than yesterday (even though I measured out the same 2 teaspoon serving, maybe I should have weighed it) and I think this is the way to go! The tea has a broth-like feel that almost has a buttery aspect to it without the butter flavor. The jasmine is very smooth and I’m starting to kick myself for not trying jasmine pearls sooner. I think I may need up up the rating, but I will not do so unless:
1) This tea can hold up nicely to several infusions (the more, the better)
2) The next time I have this tea I feel the same way – I don’t want to up the rating if my feelings about it today are a product of my mood or if I can not replicate the brothy fullness I’m getting today.

There was a time early in my tea drinking that I would have never, under any circumstances, thought about trying this tea. Why? Because I was pretty sure I hated super floral tasting teas. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that my tastes have changed so I thought, maybe I WILL like this tea…..
The little pearls are so cute and fuzzy, but they have a very, very strong scent. Perhaps it is because I’ve been avoiding several floral teas, but this doesn’t smell like I thought jasmine smelled like….but I’m pretty sure the company used jasmine so I’m obviously off. The brewed tea is light gold in color and still has a really strong aroma that reminds me of soap or lotion or something…eek!
Thank tea heaven! The taste is not that of a soap or a lotion! It is actually a nice green tea with a layer of floral jasmine with hardly any aftertaste. I’m sure my rating with change as I become accustomed to this floral tea, but I am really glad I got up the nerve to try something this far outside of my comfort zone.

Second infusion is a tad sweeter, but other than that the taste is the same as the first infusion. This tea could probably keep going for awhile, but I have so many other teas I want to try….

Well, these pearls certainly are downy…I felt one of the little balls of tea and it was soft and fuzzy. The jasmine smell is sharp and sweet in the dry leaf, and makes me wonder if the taste will be the same.

I used approximately two teaspoons of pearls, in two cups of water, for three minutes (give or take ten seconds, as I initially forgot to start my timer, oops). At the end of three minutes, the brew was very watery, so I let it sit for two minutes more. At this point, I’d like to take a moment to say that while I enjoy the challenge of matching up just the right steeping time with just the right amount of leaf and water to make a delectable cup, I do wish that more companies would give what they believe the ideal steeping conditions to be, even if it’s a rough estimate, since not all teas are created equally, and generalizing conditions does not always work out. Regardless, the extra two minutes seems to have helped immensely, as there is greater unfurl to the leaves and more colour to the liquor.

The jasmine scent is just as sharp in the completed cup as it was in the dry leaf. And the taste….Wow…that’s incredibly…mediocre. Thankfully, the sharpness of the jasmine hasn’t come through in the taste of the liquor, yet everything about it is very average. The flavour is smooth, and light, and has a nice jasmine scent and taste, but, all in all, it just seems to be lacking something in a big way.

I enjoyed drinking it, but Jasmine Pearls are one of my favourites, so that could bias me a bit. I give it a 65 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

Keep me awake, please!

“An important part of this good breakfast…”

Opening the package, the dry leaves smell grassy and have a perky sweetness about them that I’m eager to try (too much time spent drinking roasted and musty green teas has drawn me from teas like this). Two teaspoons of leaves, two cups of water, and three minutes later, I had a pale green brew with a much deeper aroma than the dry leaf had. Deeper, yet still as sweet, the grassy notes linger as well.

Deliciously smooth. The grassy flavour does not overwhelm, as some greens are apt to do. For such a lightly flavoured tea, the brew seems to carry a moderate amount of thickness to the mouthfeel. However, even those light flavours are complex by themselves, making each sip a lingering pleasure, if left to settle on the tongue.

The sweetness and delicacy of the brew leave one with a very refreshed feeling, and it is a very enjoyable tea to drink. I gladly give it a 77 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale, and would certainly recommend it.

When I look for a breakfast tea, I look for a distinct malty body (in this case, Assam), but with a suitable variety of estate and small and large leaf to provide a few different layers of flavor across the palate and a clean finish. MTW Irish Breakfast is perfect. The tea is strong, but consistently so, and it does not overpower. I brew it hot and steep it for a long time.
75% of my mornings are started with a visit to the tea cabinet and a reach for the MTW IB. (The rest is usually the MTW Scottish breakfast, which I save for when I want something a bit more malty and less ascorbic.)
Excellent way to start the day.

Based on the smell I was anticipating something tooth-numbingly sweet but this is actually quite mild. The Chinese sencha base tastes more like bancha, but it adds a nice woody touch to the flavor that, combined with the fruit flavoring, makes me think of biting on pomegranate seeds. It’s surprisingly nice. Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for the share!

ETA: Drastically dropping the rating because something in this tea has made me violently nauseous. Oh dear.

The last of this tasty Taiwanese oolong. It shall be (moderately) missed.

I love oolong, and I love finery, especially in the tea world. So when the chance to try this tea came up…an oolong, mind you, that is supposed to be one of the finest available, and available only in limited quantities, I jumped at the opportunity.

The dry leaf holds light, vegetal notes that are, surprisingly, reminiscent of a few white teas that I have tried.

The steeped liquor is a brilliant gold, with excellent clarity (the benefits of utilizing a glass vessel for steeping). It also has a darker aroma, more akin to darjeeling. Ah, but the first sip was nothing like drinking darjeeling. Light and fruity (what specific fruit flavours – I cannot quite place), the liquor slipped over the tongue easily. Incredibly soft mouthfeel combined with a surprisingly bold, yet not overwhelming, aftertaste to provide a wonderfully pleasant drink.

Steeping the tea again, for a few minutes longer (five this time), led to a brew of much the same strength and character as the first. I was pleased at the resilience and quality of this tea. I most definitely enjoyed drinking this and would certainly keep this on my list of teas to keep in stock. I give it a 90/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

Argh! I had a nice tasting notes written for this tea when Bob the computer decided to die on me. * swears * So I’ll try and reproduce what I remember from it. >:(

This tea was another of the samples that Mike from “It’s All About the Leaf” (http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/) gave me to review. I have to say that I feel a little spoiled with the size of the samples he’s giving me, there’s a good 30-40 g of tea in this pouch, for instance.

Dry it has a sweet, vegetal scent, and the leaves are rolled like most green oolongs – although fairly loosely in this case – and the leaves look to be a bit paler than what I normally see. The steeped tea reveals how “Imperial Gold” likely got its name – it’s a deep, warmly-golden liquid. It also has a rather delicate floral aroma that teases the nose rather than punches it.

This is quite a ‘green’ green oolong, with a vegetal flavour profile and, oddly enough, little of the sweetness that I’m used to tasting as an oolong cools off. The first steep, at 4 minutes, is a little weak – not too surprising as the leaves take time to unroll and open up. I’ve been told that the 2nd steep of a green oolong is usually the best, and what I’ve experienced so far with this type of tea seems to bear that out, more or less.

The 2nd steep, at 5 minutes, has a fuller flavour and a more substancial body. It has a flavour like cooked greens with a faintly spicy or peppery note that lingers on the tongue. By the third steep, at 6 minutes, I can tell that the tea is starting to lose its omph, as it has a thinner liquor and a sweet, green taste that’s more fresh than cooked – although there are some buttery notes on the end.

Not my favourite – I like my oolongs sweeter, though I think you can put that down to a matter of personal preference rather than lack of quality in this case.

SIPDOWN!!!!! Great for mid-mornings!