Zenjala Tea Company

My how my tastes have changed. I asked for this one not knowing what it was. The name just sounded interesting and it was thrown overboard in the Boston harbor :) I opened the tin and could smell smoke. Uh oh. So I take 1 scoop of leaf and steep 3 minutes (the instructions said 4-5, but I was afraid), Last fall my first Keemun threw me. I didn’t know if I liked it or what to make of it. So here I go again. Wow, it doesn’t taste like an ashtray. There is a woodsy kind of smoky thing going on. This tea is sweet. The smoke and sweetness linger long after the cup is gone. There is no bitterness. No astringency. This is really good. No one is more surprised than me. I had three cups. Go me!

I can’t figure out how to grab the pictures off Zenjala’s website. The teas come in a nice tin. When you open the inner pouch the bergamot fills the air. I love the smell of bergamot in the morning. When steeping the scent of the tea is stout. Assam, Ceylon? I don’t know but it smells inviting. Although the bergamot and tea scents are strong this is not an overpowering cup. Bergamot is medium strength and you can still taste the tea. I don’t get the creamy reference in the taste, but then I have been living off the chocolate mint puerh lately. It does have a creamy texture, maybe that is what they mean. Not bitterness. A nice light bite. At any rate this is a solid Earl Grey with what seems to be cinnamon notes, though there is no cinnamon in this. 2 steeps. Quite nice.

This is the third day in a row with this neat puerh. Today only one cup with yesterday’s leaf to see if it could handle it. This is the 4th cup from the leaf and I steeped about 6 minutes. It looked a bit weak but was still quite chocolate and puerh flavored. If you can’t tell I like this one a lot.

Zenjala is a new company to me. This one sounded so good I had to try it. I have added chocolate mint to puerh for over a year and like it. This one has real curls of dark chocolate mixed in with the puerh. It smells so good in the pouch. I am putting together a longer review for the blog but for now let me say this is awesome. Spearmint makes me nervous but in this one it is light and well blended with the peppermint, chocolate, and puerh. The longer you steep the more present the chocolate becomes and the less pronounced the mints. The puerh base adds a pleasant taste and shu aroma. I used sweetener as I think chocolate and puerh both beg for it. High yum factor. I steeped 3 times and I am pretty sure it would go more.