Ten Ren

This is a strong tasting and very fruity version of a high mountain Jin Xuan that has not been flavoured. It is quite resilient and can last well over 10 steeps with strong and pleasant flavours. Throughout a brewing session there are dominant flavours notes of pineapple, peach, cream, and gardenia with notes of peaches and cream corn, clover, hay, lemon, artichoke and grass appearing through out the brewing process. The tea retains a relatively thick and creamy mouth feel for about half of the brewing session. This tea would probably be enjoyed by those who love fruity green oolongs, the floral notes are present but remain mostly in the background blending into the cream. On taste alone I would probably rate this tea around 95. However at $38.00 per 150g it is hardly the most affordable Jin Xuan available. Mountain tea’s option is $13.00 for around the same amount and Teavivre’s would cost around $17.20 for the same amount. I am curious to compare this to Mountain Teas once I open it and will probably adjust my ratings then.

Below are more detailed notes

Dry leaf – lime to spruce green tightly coiled leaves, with a fruity, peach, pineapple, cereal/hay scent.

steeped at 60s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 65s, 80s, 85s, 90s, 95s, 105s with water temperature between 85-95 degrees Celsius (increased for later sessions)
Tea consistently brewed to a bright green gold yellow colour.

60s scent – sweet pineapple peach, cream, hint of gardenia and corn.
taste – pineapple tempered by warn peach, hint of cream, hint of gardenia hint of hay, smooth, medium to thick bodied, light freshening feeling at front of mouth. Aftertaste of pineapple and hay.

40s scent – pineapple peach, hay, cream faint floral notes
flavour – stronger vegetal notes of hay ,and floral spice of gardenia, still strong notes of pineapple and peach, creamy buttery mouth feel with stronger hints of cooling at top and front of mouth. Aftertaste is similar to original with slight floral notes.

50s scent – cream, peach pineapple faint hay
taste – gardenia mixed equally with peaches and cream with a hint of pineapple over a faintly bitter vegetal note. Slightly thinner body but still creamy.

60s scent – same
flavour – fruit/gardenia and hay thinner and slightly more astringent, clean feeling in mouth including back of mouth, aftertaste of eating peaches with clover. sweet and slightly spicy.

65s scent – fruit and gardenia and cream
taste – cream, peach mixed with gardenia and faint artichoke, slightly less sweet, and more vegetal with a hint of bitterness.

80s cream gardenia and faint fruit taste consistent with smell plus a hint of hay and a vegetal bitterness. slightly more astringent aftertaste of peach and pineapple and clover.

85s scent – same as above with a hint of lemon.
taste – thinner still with a light creamy floral note over peaches over a now stronger bitter artichoke note and a hint of grass. mildly astringent.

90s smell – sweet cream with a hint of floral
same taste touch thinner with slightly more grassy aftertaste.

95s same scent
taste – more sweet fruit with a hint of floral spice mixed with artichoke.

105s scent – corn, cream and a hint of peach with floral note
taste – sweet green tea with fruit and cream tones followed by bitter tones followed by spicy floral notes with a slightly grassy aftertaste with a hint of lemon.

spent leaves – fairly large with hints of brown along the edges.

This is a mild tasting tea.. I like to drink this as an alternative to water at times..

Good choice for an everyday green tea.

Good everyday green.

Unpleasantly sweet.

Much too sweet for me.

A rich and smooth dark oolong that is more mellow than nutty. Holds up fairly well to multiple infusions and is one of the better ones that I’ve had in some time.

I love this tea so much! You can brew it over and over again, and it really does have a lovely vegetal yet light and sweet taste. And a little goes a long way – a tiny scoop of the tea expands into large, flavourful leaves during brewing. It’s my staple tea.

This Tung Ting has quickly become one of my favourite everyday green oolongs and has left me with a desire to explore more of its type.
It is affordable and has a flavour profile that lies between the peaches and cream of Jin Xuan and the Green Floral of a green TGY. It is a good stepping off point for those who want to expand their horizons with green oolongs but are not sure if they will enjoy a floral green.

The dry leaves are a tightly rolled olive green with wide bands of a darker Khaki green. With carefully managed steepings, the leaves have lots of flavour in them. During this Brew session I am currently on the 10th steeping and they are still are offering a rich flavour. I brewed them in a Gaiwan with steepings starting at 30s and increasing 5s each time until the last 2 sessions which were around 90s.

Brewed the scent and flavour profile has included gardenia, orchid, cream , cinnamon, floral spice, peaches both fresh and poached, cantelope and vanilla throughout the steepings.

The floral spice was dominant through out the first 4 steepings followed by undertones of fruit and cream. The floral, fuit, and spice tones were relatively equally balanced through out the middle steepings and the soft fruit flavours maintained dominance in the later sessions with the floral tones and spice tones slowly dissipating.

The spent leaves are fairly large with rich green with reddish brown oxidized edges.

Quite a nice and affordable option for someone who wishes to explore this type of oolong.

This tea has been opened for a while so it is starting to loose some of its potency, but when opened if I was careful I could steep it about 11 times, 7 or 8 of which would have really developed flavour.

This is a green anxi style oolong with tightly rolled spring green leaves when dry. After a wash I steeped this tea 6 times this time before I stopped. This tea can be quite spicy and bitter so ten ren recommended short steeping times starting at 10 seconds and moving up at 5 second intervals. This tea is the most floral of the oolongs that I own that I have tried at the moment its flavours develops into a spicy floral referencing gardenia in scent and taste with a strong bitter undertone. Throughout the various steepings it also exhibited notes of a citrus overtone, spicy peach, spinach and green beans moving to the sweet yet bitter taste of coooked greens. It leaves a tingling on the side and back of the tongue and and a dryness at the front of the mouth. This is not my favourite oolong, but it has left me with a desire to taste more floral oolongs and is still an enjoyable experience in itself.

It’s nice and strong. I’m not a huge fan of Ten Ren teas in general, but I’ve had fairly positive experiences tasting their teas that are brewed in house.

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Actually found this tin laying around the office unwanted. Enjoyed it many times and happend to look it up one day during an Oolong phase of mine in Jan 13. I was surprised to see how expensive it was. As a reference price Adagio sells it for $34 for a 3oz bag ($.91/cup).

Golden yellow color. Rich flavor. I can’t brew it enough times in the day to get it to weaken. Still very rich and strong on the 7th brew!

Loose
Appearance: grey green med crinkle leaf, no jasmine buds or flowers
Aroma when Dry: fruity floral, deeply sweet, deserty
After water is first poured: syrupy sweet, floral, nutty
At end of steep: sticky floral sweet
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: pale green
Staple? No
Time of day preferred: any
Taste:
At first: deserty, slightly fruity like floral sticky rice
As it cools ? floral notes open, stickyness lessens
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? no
Lingers? Yes, creamy, jammy cloying floral sweetness

Second steep (6min)
Same characteristics

I bought this tea at a tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and I absolutely love it. It’s one of my favorite teas. I steep the teabag in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. The taste isn’t too earthy, just very light and fresh.

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I had some ginger tea at the Golden Wok a few months ago, and have been trying to find something that imitates the flavor. I really like the ginger flavor. It gets spicier as it cools, which is spectacular.

Personally every time I tried to brew this one hot I got less than ideal results, so I only make this one in a Mr. Coffee Ice Tea maker. Personally I like darker oolongs to blacks when it comes to ice tea but I keep this on hand for the people that like their tea to be lighter. It is one that I do not mind drinking as ice tea but there are ones that I like a lot better. The bulk of this tea goes to making batches of ice tea for my girlfriend and my grandmother so if both of them love it a lot it can’t be that bad even if it is not my personal favorite.

Tried the bagged version today. A serious MEH! compared to the loose one. I got alot more “earth” and less of everything else. Perhaps next time I’ll break open the tea bag. Still very good for a bagged tea though
Rating: 79

I’ve been craving Pu’erh lately but always feel that it deserves more attention than I can reasonably give it at work, which is where I drink most of my tea. and the only pu’erhs I have are tuochas, so I figured a bagged tea would solve my problem. It’s quick, and I’ll feel less guilty about just grabbing it when on the go!
So when I walked by the Ten Rens shop yesterday, I was compelled to ask the “tea lady” if they had any. On busy days, they have a lady dedicated to selling tea, separate from the bubble tea line-up. Well!! she invited us (me and my friend) to sit down for a tasting. She obviously thought I was a newb and went on the whole shpiel about what pu’erh is and it’s benefits etc. But then I started asking questions. Was this a shou, or a sheng? (this was prior to my tasting the tea, or seeing the cakes) _{She had no idea what I was asking… so perhaps it has another name that I’m not aware of?}
She blinked in confusion. I’m a white girl! how do I know about tea!? so she asked me. and I told her, my best friend growing up, she is Japanese. That explained it. She needed no further details lol
Oh and the lady was so pleased to see a “non-asian” girl knowing about tea(she’d gone over to a co-worker, gesticulating happily towards us) that she gave me two free tuochas! score!! I think I’ll save them for a rainy day, let them age a bit.
Anyhow, the tea! it was super tasty! earthy and rich. and smooth. A little sweet on its own. Bready, in a way I don’t often see with Pu’erhs. With each steeping, it got a little richer and deeper. We went through atleast three.
Now, we didn’t stay long and and the place was hopping so paying attention to the subtle notes was difficult. The bagged version will surely be a bit muted, but if I notice any other points of interest, you can be sure I’ll update this.
For the price, 31c per bag… I’d say it’s a deal. Most likely anyhow, since I haven’t been back to work yet so that I can try it out in it’s intended setting.
ALSO, my friend that was with me, she likes tea but will drink anything, esp EG. So when she told me afterwards that it tasted like “earth”, but in a good way, and she didn’t know what to make of it… I was grinning from ear to ear. Folks, I might be breeding a convert here. muahahahaaaa
Raitng: 88 looseleaf, bagged tbd!

On another note… do you ever feel that tea is a secret? I mean, it’s SO good, and so many people seem to have no idea how amazing it can be. They go about their lives drinking bagged crud and have NO IDEA what they are missing out on. I feel so privileged to have been let into the club. I’m not sure what’s gotten into me now, but I am grateful to have tea.

As soon as I saw the word lychee, I knew that I had to try. It’s one of my favourite fruits, how could I resist? I found this tea quite good & plan on purchasing it again in the future.

So I’m just getting started with teas—I’ve always generally been a cold-drinks kind of person and have never bothered obtaining a palate for tea, until now! I feel like it’s something worth trying (and, as I don’t drink coffee but am constantly nodding off, feel that a source of caffeine would do me good).

This is the first tea that I’ve tried and have actually, thoroughly enjoyed! It had a toasty, satisfying aftertaste that I could still distinctly feel hours afterward (like a phantom taste… or a craving). It was absolutely delicious! My previous attempts at green teas were bitter, oversteeped disasters, but after a little more education I’m proud to say I finally had a wonderful tea experience. :)

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