Single Origin Teas

I had such bad luck yesterday with tea. First off, I think I used water that was too hot. And then oversteeped. It ended up tasting like a bit bitter like a black tea. It may also be because I used my travel tumbler for black teas lately and the smells/tastes kind of linger in the cap, sigh. Anyway, I hope I have better luck next time!

Noo, my crazy internet ate my tasting note. Well, here were my main points.

1. First steep, drank while eating really spicy food, so the tea tasted very sweet.

2. Second steep later was still sweet, can taste the nuttiness.

3. Thank you to Single Origin Teas for the sample! Wish they had steeping instructions on their website/packaging, though.

4. Will give rating later when not eating spicy foods and steeping less haphazardly.

I’ve really been wanting clean tasting teas (more than usual) while being sick because my head can’t comprehend anything complex very well. This bancha did a nice job of warming me up and providing a clean, veggie broth-like flavor tonight. I have to admit, that this tea can be a little TOO veggie for me sometimes, but it really fit the bill tonight!

I cold brewed this one again. This time, 1 tablespoon in my water bottle for 5 1/2 hours. I think that it turned out pretty well. It was light and grassy, very refreshing on this unusually hot October day in California. I can’t comment much on subtle flavors or bitterness because I had this while eating my lunch. I find that when I’m eating and drinking tea at the same time, I notice bitterness much less. Anyhow, I’ll just have to cold brew it again some time and remember to try some before eating.

Backlog. I left some of this cold brewing in the fridge. As usual, I totally let it sit there and steep for longer than I should have. So this time around, it was less sweet, more grassy, and more bitter. I never even thought to cold brew a bancha before, but I’m not gonna rule it out after this. I think I just need to keep a better eye on it.

I really like the natural sweetness in this tea. It’s a very light, smooth tea that I think also goes well with meals. In particular, I had some salty foods today and this contrasted it nicely. I do get the feeling that this tea is just on the edge of being bitter, yet not bitter, which kind of makes me nervous while drinking it for some odd reason. I guess I’ve just had bad experiences with bitter greens in the past.

Had this in the late afternoon and resteeped throughout the evening. The only other time I’ve had bancha was in a flavored tea, so I was surprised to find that this bancha alone was so sweet! It had a cheery, almost-neon-yellow color. It was also less grassy than I expected. The Single Origin website didn’t have a steeping time on it, so I just googled “bancha steeping time” and the internet consensus seemed to be ~30 seconds. I may have left it in a little longer, but there was only the slightest hint of bitterness. In fact, it was so slight that I’m starting to think I may have imagined it… Anyway, thank you to Single Origin Teas for the free sample! I’m definitely keeping my eye on this one for a reorder.

Thanks, Nicole_Martin again!

This tea reminds me a lot of Assams. It is fruity, malty and full-bodies, but still fairly light and sweet.

Backlog. Using my handy dandy variable temp kettle, I was able to steep this one at a nice low 175 F. I’ve had problems with bitterness with this tea in the past, but the low temp really seems to get rid of that problem and even introduce some sweetness to it. Mostly it’s a big punch of vegetal and some grassy flavors, though. Not my favorite flavors, but it was quite nice to have this evening.

Edit: Oh, this is my 500th tasting note! If I had known, I would have done something a little more exciting.. I guess I will just have to speed up my journey to tasting note #600!

It’s cold again around these parts (but not THAT cold), so I’ve been trying to get in some hot teas. This tea is not hitting the spot for me tonight. I think it’s partially because I steeped a little too long while I was testing out my new camera by taking pictures of the tea steeping in my clear gongfu teapot. Anyway, it’s vegetal with some bitterness mixed in. I think I may dump the leaves after this steep and go for a sweeter tea? We shall see.

So my sleeping schedule is a bit out of whack tonight (today?). Fortunately, my classes don’t start until after lunch today, so I will be able to sleep in a little. Anyway, I steeped this tea to start unwinding and destressing a bit. I’m getting a very strong pea flavor out of this one today. It’s a nice, smooth tea. Not my favorite flavors, but I’ve somehow managed to avoid bitterness this time around, so hooray!

I think I used water that was too hot because following the brief sweet, spinach taste, I can taste that strong bitterness that turns me off of Chinese greens. Last time I drank this (didn’t write a tasting note), I remember it being surprisingly sweet. Thankfully, I have more of the sample left to make more, so I will pay better attention to the temperature next time.

I tried ONE ginseng oolong a while back and I LOVED it. Very unique from the get go, as they look like little stones. I said before they look like the toy I had when I was kid, the rock tumbler where stones have the coating disappear an they turn into fake gems. I love it! Each piece of oolong is actually coated with ginseng and licorice in a green color that seems unique only to ginseng oolong. I’m not usually a fan of licorice, but I do love this tea!

Steep #1 // waited a while after boiling // 3 1/2 minutes
The oolong is hardly unraveled so far.. the ginseng/licorice has dissolved. Amazingly, the oolong flavor shows through anyway. And it is amazing! It’s a great oolong, and the ginseng/licorice adds a smooth sweetness to it. At first sip, I was wishing I had the money to order every tea that Single Origin Teas has. I’m so glad they offered these samples or I would never have heard of them. 3/3 teas are amazing so far. One more to try! It’s so good when you want an oolong but you want a little something extra with it. And I love the ginseng for when I want some extra brain power and I’ve already had too many black teas (like I could ever have too many black teas).

Steep #2 // a few minutes after boiling // 3 min
The flavor is still the same! So silky smooth! There is no astringency here, even though the temp and time is kind of high for an oolong. I can’t tell if the oolong is more like floral, fruity or milky though. I think it’s an oolong of its own flavor!

Steep #3 // right after boiling // 3 min
This one has less ginseng/ licorice.. I guess it disappeared with cup two. But the oolong is still going strong. I can’t believe I didn’t know that oolong didn’t burn at boiling before now… at least this one doesn’t. I’d stock up on this one!

Num! I am sooo glad to finally have this back in my cupboard. :)

Just a fantastically smooth and luscious tea.

Yum. This is a tasty tea. I don’t get much maltiness, but it’s a good straight, basic black. Nowhere near as bitter as the CTCs get.

And it does indeed take milk very well. I have been trying milk more often with the straight blacks that I have – mainly because I have cream leftover from the Halloween tea party that I need to use. I hate to waste cream and yet I am still holding off from just whipping it with some vanilla and eating it with a spoon. :) So what I’ve been doing is making a pot, drinking one straight, one with cream, one with sugar, one with cream and sugar and then the remaining cups however I liked the best. I use about a teaspoon of cream and one sugar cube for a 6 ounce cup. Sugared is not my favorite way to have tea but it does mellow out some teas and bring hidden flavors out in others.

I think I prefer this with that little bit of cream but it isn’t a necessity. Rating based on plain tea.

After I run out of cream, I probably won’t be reviewing much with cream/sugar added, but since I’m discovering I do like that silky feel it gives, I might have to keep some on hand…

I think I’m just not a Ceylon gal. I’ve tried 3 cups and a whole pot of this now and I’m just not noticing anything that jumps out at me as awesome. It’s a good tea that falls into the category of “tea-tea” for me. I’d never turn down a cup of it but at the same time I’m not sure yet that I’d keep it on hand on purpose. I am going to keep on experimenting with time, temp and leaf amount though and see if I can squeak out of it what gmathis got out of it. :) So no rating for now.

This latest steep was for 2 minutes at about 200F as 3 at boiling made it too bitter for my taste. It wasn’t bitter but it wasn’t smooth either. Magic spot, reveal yourself to me! :)

So, this is the second time I’ve tried ginseng oolong, the first one from Teavivre. I figured it wasn’t for me as Teavivre is pretty solid. When I saw Single Origin Tea sent me some to review and I was like “Doh! Not this tea again!” So, I decided to break up the black tea blend train I’ve been on today and give ginseng oolong another go. Maybe this one is different? The look of ginseng oolong is really cool and I like the concept of it being sweet and healthy like.

As I sip it, it tastes good – a nice light floral oolong vibe. I felt hopeful. Then it hit me end of sip – that sweet, lingering licorice tongue coating flavor that makes me want to sandpaper my tongue so I can’t taste it anymore.

Nope, 2nd time and still ginseng oolong isn’t for me. I’ll try it one more time (someother time) to fully try out ginseng oolong. It’s totally personal taste why I dislike this type of tea. Though, if you do like licorice teas you should really try this tea out.

I let this one leave my cupboard for awhile but no longer! I find I have slightly more descriptors for it than I had a year ago (and wow, how time flies!).

This has a honey smell of hay, molasses and oats. It smells like horse feed. I used to love that smell… It was my one of the things that made getting out in the freezing winter to feed the horse worth it (other than the horse, of course!). So this tea brings back memories of a very long time ago it seems.

The flavor is malty with molasses and honey both. A wonderful Assam.

Mmm. This one smells malty and rich when steeped. I used my normal heaping teaspoon in about 10 ounces of water. The leaves are on the small side but the flavor is not. This is a good cup. I’d keep it in my rotation of Assams.

And on a good note, the doctor followup went well. Everything well below danger level – cholesterol, sugars, the whole works. Whew. The only inconvenient directive I got was to exercise. So this is now my 3rd cup of tea since I got home 2 hours ago. Wooohooo for caffeine! And anecdotally for black tea which I chose to believe has been keeping my cholesterol down. ;)

This was my first lemongrass tea, the aroma was great lemon & ginger it was much more noticeable after the leaves had steeped. It was a pale colored tea & left me with very little flavor. I’m going to try brewing it again to see if I can get more flavor from it.

This is very reminiscent of a green tea in a lot of ways. The leaves are very, very green and the liquid is light golden. It is very light, very mildly astringent and fruity. I don’t often drink first flushes so I don’t have a lot of points of comparison but this is nice.