Tea Ave

[Backlog] – I adore Jin Xuan oolong teas. If you find the right one, you can get everything from leafy and green to peachy and creamy flavors in just one cup! Plus, the leaves are usually champs with resteeping so you do get more cups of tea for your money. This particular Jin Xuan is natural, according to Tea Ave, and lacks any sort of artificial flavors or additives. I don’t mind a flavored oolong tea, but there is something so beautiful about a natural oolong that can offer such an incredible range of flavors.

These tea leaves produce a lovely golden cup with just a hint of green. The first sips offer beautiful milky notes which linger and softly transition into a leafy finish. I also taste salted sweet cream butter and just a hint of mango. There is a slight drying sensation on the tongue, but the lovely creamy start keeps you coming back for more. Oh so delicious!

I can definitely say that this is one of my favorite Jin Xuan oolongs I’ve tried. It’s creamy, sweet and milky – just what I needed! I have a feeling that further infusions will bring out even more interesting flavors, but I will have to save that for another time. If you’re looking for a natural Jin Xuan oolong, this is a great place to start. It’s certainly worth the price, plus Tea Ave’s packaging and presentation are simply wonderful.

Got this tea in the postal teas subscription box. Love that I was able to try three different oolongs from Tea Ave. My favorite out of the three was the magnolia oolong but this one is a close second. I love ginger so I was excited to try this one. It has a very subtle gingersnap flavor to it. Very pleasant and smooth. I have really enjoyed all the oolongs I have sampled from Tea Ave so far. I will definitely purchase from them in the future.

A lovely tea with a floral and buttery aroma, that tastes creamy and sweet with a subtle hint of warm spiciness. Very gentle and warming. Will brew the leftover leaves in the fridge overnight as I usually do, and expect it will be delicious cold as well.

Finally we are getting some cold and rainy weather in S.F. which is perfect for tea drinking. So I need to start working on drinking down my stash soon. Currently I have enough tea for about 10 people so the greener ones are going to start going stale quickly.

I am still not blown away by this Lishan but I’m getting some nice vegetal notes as well as a light bit of butter. Good words to describe this are “fresh” and “light”

Picked this one up from Tea Ave recently. I’m finally getting to steep some tea in my gaiwan, which is something I haven’t had the chance to do much of lately.

I had a few steeps of this and it is very vegetal. It smells buttery but doesn’t taste too buttery to me. I’m picking up a bit of floral but to me, this has a bit of marine/seaweed/mineraly flavor that reminds me more of an Iron Goddess of Mercy than the LiShans I’ve tried in the past. I did three steeps, at around 30 seconds for the first two and then 10 seconds for the third. I wish I was getting more out of this, maybe I’ll need to try it soon as a cold brew? It’s ok but my least favorite of the Tea Ave’s so far I think.

The dry leaf has a lovely floral scent. I didn’t get any rose in the brewed taste or aroma though, and actually found it a little bitter. I put the rest in a jar in the fridge to cool, and preferred it that way the next day. There was still a hint of bitterness but I liked it better cold as it was refreshing. Also noted some nuttiness which I didn’t notice when hot, and was quite good. I would have liked more rose though

I love this one – a perfect combination of creamy, nutty and sweet floral with a hint of fresh green stems. Gorgeous fragrance. Brewed several cups hot and then cold steeped the used leaves in the fridge for a refreshing glass of chilled tea the next day.

Good afternoon Steepster. It’s been unusually hot for San Francisco so I haven’t been drinking much tea or other warm beverages. Finally last night things started cooling off a bit.

I got this as a small sample with my last Tea Ave order. Brewing it Western style this afternoon in my new ‘For Life’ green infuser mug. When it comes to jasmine I am a fan of more subtlety so I’m enjoying this today. The base is an Alishan Jin Xuan and it has a sweet, buttercream sort of flavor. The jasmine is present but subtle, and the overall effect is quite relaxing. Of the 3 floral oolongs I’ve tried from Tea Ave, I think the Magnolia is my favorite but this is also quite good, and something I would consider ordering again. Tea Ave has a lot of nice options. :)

The texture of this tea was a real pleasure, Jin Xuan Oolong has a buttery mouthfeel, which was silky smooth, much like a rose petal. It was the perfect base for a rose oolong, but I found that the flavor was mild for a scented oolong— it had only the briefest hint of rose. I was hoping the rose was going to be more of a dominant flavor. By the third and fourth steepings of this tea there was hardly any sign of it, just a faint floral note in the background.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/8/18/tuesday-tea-rose-oolong-tea-ave

This is from yesterday morning. Wrote it in word to copy and paste to here as our internet was out. We finally called to ask what was going on, and ten minutes after the call ended we have internet.

Finally getting around to some samples. Sadly the cute tasting cups that TeaAve sent with the samples are still packed away somewhere. I’ve also decided that I really need to invest in a Gaiwan! I put the whole sample in my DavidsTea Steeper with 700ml of boiling water for 2 minutes. I love watching the leaves unfurl! The brewed tea smells somewhat floral, must be the Jasmine? I don’t believe I have had the pleasure of trying a jasmine tea yet. This is alright until I swallow, then a strange feeling attacks the back of my throat. I’m thinking that it’s just a strange feeling and taste of the unfamiliar floral tea? After a little over half my cup (the 700ml fits perfect in one mug that my mother insists is for soup!) the attack lessens. This tea feels very “light” in the mouth, if that’s possible. Overall, once the attack on the back of my throat ceased, this became a pleasant cup.

https://instagram.com/p/6aRd5CJnn1CXxx5yscjrcRK08dD-aIOmn0Uok0/?taken-by=kkpeltzer
https://instagram.com/p/6aRNNBJnnKycCEtokhbPeJx-Fg_EmQxW0NMEQ0/?taken-by=kkpeltzer

Pretty happy that I was able to locate a small sample of this: This tea sadly is marked as a disapointment for me. The jasmine oolong combination sounded interesting, but at the same time a bit nasty. I drank 3 steeps at work and today I am on steep 2. I just don’t find this to taste good at all. It is very similair to a small dosage of salted jasmine that has been warmed up; if there is such a thing.

This is quite a lovely and interesting oolong from Tea Ave. I got this a few weeks ago and am just getting around to trying it now. Due to being at work, I had to steep it Western style but hope to try the gong fu method soon.

The tea has an Alishan Jin Xuan (milk) oolong base. I definitely get the strong milk oolong element. It reminds me of fresh butter and has a creamy taste; almost decadent. The magnolia flower is light and fresh here and compliments the base tea well. Overall the bouquet of this tea is sweet but I am picking up on a very slight bitterness in the finish. I like this one a lot. It seems like the perfect thing to serve at an afternoon tea party.

Oolong for breakfast today as I go through Amazon and look at future apartment items and what not… let’s just say I can browse up to 1000 items every 30 minutes and find it enjoyable.

Today I found out that ‘rape blossoms’ are a real thing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed
Which means I could make a ‘Rape Blossom’ tea, but wouldn’t that sound sketchy ;p

Anyways, this is a rather smooth liquid with some nice sweetness to it. I’m not sure if I should have detected some ginger taste as I did not, but the leaf is beautiful and the liquid taste rather good so I have no complaints wit this tea except it probably isn’t a morning cup. I should have drank this outside later in the day, this is my error.

Sipdown (119)!

- Teabag/Western
- Smooth and more sweet than expected
- I’ve had this before but to be fair it’s been a long time
- Light, very natural jasmine
- Other supporting floral notes that are harder to pin point
- Has a bit of a weird but pleasant note?
- Kind of like cool air? I guess it’s the “fog” from the tea…
- Better than I recall it tasting last time I tried it

Sipdown (129)!

I received this one as a free sample in my last Tea Ave. order; and while I have not tried this tea previously I did get a chance to try ‘Jasmine Oolong’ prior to Tea Ave’s launch; initially I wasn’t 100% sure what the difference between the two blends was, but what I’m gathering from reading the descriptions for both is that Jasmine Oolong is meant to be a little more earthy with perhaps some stronger base tea notes while Cape Jasmine is naturally sweeter. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

I steeped this one up hot, and drank half of the mug that way and then half after it had cooled down. Initially with the hot cup I thought that the jasmine was coming off fairly dominant, masking most of the creamier milk oolong-like notes of the base tea. The aroma was incredibly strong and lovely, with a plump sweetness to it – but monotone and without much nuance. I far prefer the taste of the cold half of the mug which tasted similarly but had an underlying fruitier sweetness to it, was less aromatic and ‘in your face’ overall, and which also floral notes like peony as well.

As far as the comparison between Tea Ave’s Jasmine blend and this one goes – I had to go back and reread my previous review to refresh myself but I do think there are differences; the former definitely had stronger flavours from the base and was more vegetal overall, the latter (this tea) was sweeter and fruitier and the natural flavours from the base that were present were more the floral/fruity aspects of an oolong rather than the vegetal ones. Think peach! Overall, both were good jasmine oolongs, though it’d be redundant to have both on hand because despite differences they are quite similar. I think I just SLIGHTLY might prefer this one more because of the extra sweetness though.

Cape Jasmine Oolong
Origin: Alishan Mountain Region, Nantou, Taiwan
Cultivar: Jin Xuan
Elevation: 1200m

Dry Leaves: The leaves were the most striking of the three samples, mostly green, but with a fair bit of yellow and blues running through it. Otherwise it has a strong Gardenia aroma as well as some minor floral ones more towards orchid than anything else, but it was a little murky.

First Steeping
Temperature: Boiling
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Gardenia and Floral
Flavor: Gardenia, Jasmine and Milk
Tasting Notes: This was my favorite of the three samples I received. Initially I wasn’t getting much besides jasmine, but after a few seconds I began to distinguish the gardenia notes. I wonder if this is scented with gardenia blossoms. The gardenia is very powerful and intoxicating. I didn’t notice the milk taste till I tried this for the second time, although if I read the entirety of the sample I would have known this has a Jin Xuan base. I don’t think this had a very strong Jin Xuan, it’s not that creamy and the milk notes are the weakest, but if this was scented with gardenias it would not be surprising if it overpowered some of the base tea’s characteristics. It was a little buttery, not too much though. I tend to find Taiwanese teas grown below 1000m or those grown above 2000m (especially winter harvests) tend to be rather buttery, but everything inbetween in my experience has thinner mouthfeels.

[Originally on: http://rah-tea.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/tea-ave-preview.html)

Another good oolong from Liquid Proust! My review may be a little bit skewed because it’s an older sample, but this tea has one of the better mouth feels that I’ve gotten so far. Like others I’ve had, it’s kind got a texture like butter. As for the flavor, it’s fairly consistent with each steep, being grassy, creamy, and barely floral. Otherwise, it’s blander compared to the others that I’ve had. Does not detract from the mouth feel, though.

This is a very pleasant oolong from Tea Ave. Roasted TGY’s don’t tend to be a big favorite of mine, but I am enjoying this. The nutty and roasted barley notes hit me first, and then it has a sweet/fruity aftertaste where I’m getting pineapple. I’m not finding the subtle bitterness mentioned on the package… maybe if I had steeped it longer I’d be getting that. I’m not sure of my exact steeping temp. as I’m drinking this at work but it’s definitely below the boil.

An interesting, complex tea but not one I feel compelled to add to my collection at this point.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of this one. I found it a little disappointing because I was hoping for more rose and what’s there is extremely subtle and light. Almost to the point of being non-existent for me! Other than that it is nice, sweet and a bit creamy but just not finding it as intoxicating as the Wenshan Baochung I had yesterday. Might have been better if I had gong fu’d it, but I am never at home to do that it seems.

Trying this tea from my recent TeaAve haul. I don’t really have the capacity (or time) to gong fu things at work so I made this Western style in my glass tea tumbler this morning.

First of all, this tea smells absolutely amazing. It is worth it for the smell alone, I think. It’s definitely honeysuckle and very intense! If you don’t like floral smelling teas, this may not be the one for you. The taste is really nice, buttery with macadamia nut, a hint of fresh greens and flowers. And maybe a bit of coconut? le sigh

I will have to gong fu this soon because I’m most likely missing out on some really subtle flavor variations by steeping it once Western style. Still I’m pretty impressed with this so far. Glad I bought some!

I also like how TeaAve has such informative packaging, For instance this tea has a roasting level of: 01, An oxidation level of: 1.2, a mountain altitude of 400-800m, an Origin of PingLing District in New TaiPei City and a Cultivar of Quixin. Plus you get steeping insructions — that’s a lot of cool information about your tea. ;)

The dry leaf aroma is a dark, misty jasmine. It reminds me of fog and high mountaintops. The brewed tea aroma is a good mixture of oolong and floral jasmine. The first infusion is much more flavorful than previous reviews would have led me to expect. I wouldn’t describe this as light on jasmine flavor. Perhaps it’s the oolong base that confuses the taste buds. I believe green and white bases are more prevalent for jasmine scenting. But it’s a beautiful addition to this oolong!

I followed the gaiwan brewing instructions but opted to use my Teavana Perfectea Maker instead of my new Verdant Tea gaiwan. I’ve found that if I’m brewing a tea that calls for boiling water, I just can’t handle the heat with my fingertips on the delicate porcelain. The Teavana Perfectea Maker also allows for easy resteeping and controlled pouring into the Tea Ave cups.

I must say, I was blown away by Tea Ave’s generosity in their initial marketing campaign. I received two identical teaware gifts and sample teas, along with reusable totes and coupons to redeem on a future order. I gave one of these sets to my doula as a thank you for helping me through my tough birth experience. I kept the other for myself.

At first, I thought the aroma cup (the tall skinny one) was going to be a bit useless. But I figured there’s no harm in trying it, so I attempted to keep an open mind. And you know what? It actually does enhance the aroma of teas! The shorter, wider opening of the more traditional tea cup allows the tea to cool faster for quicker drinking but also allows the aroma to escape. I found it much easier to appreciate the aroma using the aroma cup, and it had the added bonus of keeping my refill hot. :) Once I finished one cup, I could immediately pour another from the aroma cup while a second infusion was steeping in the Teavana Perfectea Maker.

BACK TO THE TEA!

I detected a hint of pepperiness at the end of the first infusion. Latter infusions didn’t have that note though. I thoroughly enjoyed infusions 1-3. I allowed the fourth to cool a little too much while writing this note and a bitterness appeared that wasn’t in the earlier infusions. This tea is best enjoyed piping hot. I rinsed the leaves before the fifth infusion and that seems to have eradicated the bitter note. So it’s quite possible that letting the wet leaves sit exposed to air is what caused the bitterness. The tea itself is lovely. Funny, I just read the description of this tea on the package and it talks about fog too. That element really does come across in the aroma!

Overall, I found this tea to be a lovely balance of floral jasmine and buttery, creamy oolong. I don’t think I’ve had a jasmine-scented oolong before and I really quite like it. Oolong is one of my favorite teas. It’s pretty interesting and fun to me that there’s a new company completely devoted just to oolong teas. If I didn’t already have so much tea, I’d definitely consider placing an order. Hopefully I can drink through my stash enough to use that coupon before it expires. If not, I promise I’ll pass it along to one of my fellow Steepsterites. It definitely should not go to waste! I still have two more samples to try, but I think I can confidently say that I am a Tea Ave convert.

https://instagram.com/p/5QctEfl-qI/

This was another free sample in my last order. I would never have picked this out for myself as I am not big on floral teas. It’s really delicious though. Silky, like the texture of rose petals, as well as the fragrance, is in the tea. I think the rose also adds a sweetness to it. It’s definitely floral, but the other characteristics make it enjoyable for me. It’s also really pretty. ;)

I got this as a free sample in my last order. I didn’t specify which samples I wanted, and Tea Ave was awesome in selecting only one repeat, even though I’ve had a lot of their teas!

As usual, Tea Ave never disappoints! This is a silky, milky, fresh oolong. Love it!