Zhi Tea

Cold steeped, this tea tastes like fresh arugula. This is so weird…but a good weird. I feel like I’m drinking what should be a salad, though. A really refreshing liquid salad. Did I mention this is weird?

Another tea that came to me from my mystery swap with Moraiwe. In the package it smelled interesting and caught my “senses” so I decided to brew it up. As it brewed it started to smelled like fresh cracked pepper. I’m not too sure of what I think yet if this tea it will take a few other testings. There is a berry After taste that i was not expecting at all. It’s definitely different and I’m glad I got to experience it. Once again thank you moraiwe for opening up my pallet:)
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Too much licorice and stevia for me. The peppermint flavor is nice, but pretty much overwhelmed for me by the licorice and sweetness, even if I steep at the low end of the recommended time. I feel like I’m just working my way through this tea. Anyone want it?

i should just stop getting teas with licorice in them.

This one is really strange to me. It smells peppery but tastes vegetal orange-y with a bit of tartness. The shizandra berry has a little bit of bite and I wasn’t really thrilled with my first two or three sips. In fact, the first taste seemed unremarkable until the layers of citrus and berry hit me. But I warmed up quickly to this tea after that and found I really like it!

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Ok so I don’t think this is one that has aged well if I deduce the same one tea has been around since its first tasting notes on here 3 years ago. There’s something off about it. It doesn’t smell much like fruit at all, and it barely tastes like pineapple…and there’s just something weird about the aftertaste. I know I slightly steeped it longer than I wanted to, but it’s not the taste of oversteeping.

Another to join the garden I need to get started on soon, if only I hadn’t just painted my nails. Amanda problems.

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Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: 750ml at 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: Strong toasty scent
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet (floral), toasty
Flavor: sweet, silky, toasty
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: toasted, gritty
Liquor: translucent medium orange brown

Not the best oolong I’ve had, but a very nice one.

Resteep:
750ml at 175°F for 3 minutes and 30 seconds

Resteep:
750ml at 175°F for 4 minutes

It could have steeped more but I was headed home.

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2013/03/zhi-tea-loose-leaf-oolong-tea-royal.html

Had a cup this morning and couldn’t really taste the chocolate but after resteeping just now it’s hitting me pretty strongly. I added a splash of whole milk and honey as usual and I’ve gotta say I’m really satisfied with this chai.

This is a tea I was really looking forward to. I mean, lemongrass and rose? Yes please! Sounds divinely simple. But as soon as I started brewing this one up last night I knew there was something a little off. The bag (I got sample sized, so it’s around 1 ounce) has tons of lemongrass but very few rosebuds. Which wouldn’t be an issue if there was rose flavoring (note that I have zero issues with either natural or artificial flavoring!), but sadly there’s just not a whole lot of rose here.

The lemongrass is nice and very high quality, but I am missing the rose. There’s just a wisp of it at the end of the sip, a hint of floral, but this tea just leaves me wanting. I’m going to give it another try, possibly as a cold brew, before rating it but right now I’m just disappointed.

So there’s this magical place in the city called Doughnut Plant that makes the best donuts in the world. Seriously, there is nothing better than their creme brulee donut. It has actual caramelized sugar on top! But my favorite of theirs is the rose donut, filled with floral pastry cream. It’s so good!

And, happily, that’s what this tea reminds me of. Rose pastries! Rose cupcakes! Creamy, smooth, floral but not too strong with just the right hint of rose. I noticed a lot of reviews complain about it being weak but I cold brewed my cup and it came out quite strong! Kind of sad I only got a sample of this one.

Looks like this is a very different tea than the one I had a few years ago =/ More roasted, less delicate.
This is the thing I dont like about most tea shops.. they dont sell teas based on harvest or farmer.

Still figuring out how to correctly steep this one. The first time I had it I think my steeps were too short and sort of boring – plus I think I used my gaiwan instead of yixing. This time in the yixing with longer steeps was much better =) There are many flavors in this tea, so still discovering something new each steep!

I tried this tea again today. I found myself thinking about it the past few days and wanting more. The first steep was yummy and filled with subtle cherry goodness, again with no sugar. I think this may be a good tea to scale back my sweetener usage with. The second steeping had no cherry taste that I could pick out. I’m not sure if my taste buds are off today or what, but the second steeping was dull. Even so, I’m finding I like the first steeping of this tea a bit more than I initially did. I think it is growing on me.

This is one of Zhi’s new reserve teas (special & limited quantity). I was wondering what it would taste like – Oriental Beauty? Wu Yi? More like the former. A bit too much black tea-ish for my taste but I still like it. Ill have to try different steeping times next time.

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Yum. Very, very strong coconut aroma – I can smell it in my work locker as soon as I open the door! The scent backs off a little once you brew it, but still pretty powerful. It’s ok because I love the way coconut smells. The flavor is sweet, nutty and buttery. Actual piece of coconut in the tea impart a slightly slippery feel… I hesitate to say ‘greasy’ because it sounds negative, but the oils in the coconut bits do come out after a hot steeping. I could see some people put off by it but it doesn’t bother me.

This tea sounds delicious, but the taste ended up being quite subtle. I didn’t like it the first time I tried it, so I brewed it much stronger this time. I am now able to pick up on the nuttiness of the pecans on the sip which is followed quickly by a brief raspberry taste. Adding sugar brightens it up a bit, but I’m still not impressed. I’m glad I bought only a sample on this one.

I did a little local self guided tea tour the other day and Zhi Tea was my first stop. The cherry part of this tea caught my eye, so I got a sample. I love sample sizes! Dry, this tea smells like rich cherries. I can just barely smell the green tea behind it. The taste is pretty smooth and subtle compared to the loudly flavored teas I am used to and love. I can pick out some cherry on the sip, but most of what I am getting is on the after sip. There wasn’t any bitter or tart edge that needed to be balanced out, so I opted not to add sugar for most of it which is unusual for me. So far it has been equally good for two steepings and at the end of the second cup I added a little sugar which actually kinda killed the cherry. I like it, but it’s not the party in my mouth level of flavor that my favorite teas have. It feels like a more mature taste. I’m not crazy about it, but I feel like I need to explore this one some more before rating it. It has me a little puzzled.

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So I’m still on vacation in Austin today, and I went to not one tea store, but TWO (I’ll have to write about the other one later). I’ve heard of this tea company before, but I didn’t realize they had a storefront. So, I decided to check it out.

It’s quite nice, even though it’s off the beaten path. At first I was a little annoyed that they only sell loose tea in 8 oz increments OR in tins, but upon further inspection they also sell their flavors in “sample bags” that range around $4. So, that’s not too bad.

I was unsure of whether or not I wanted this tea, so the lady actually offered to brew me a sample. It’s not bad. A little bitter, but that’s to be expected with grapefruit. The flavor was nice, but I didn’t really think it was a tea I would drink every day, so I didn’t buy it. I DID, however, see some milk chocolate with jasmine tea in it, that I picked up for my BF since he LOVES Jasmine. Hopefully he does.

Also, kinda random, but the lady behind the counter kept referring to the teas as "he"s and "she"s. So, for this tea, she would say, “She can be quite bitter without too much brewing, but she has a nice flavor.” It threw me off a little bit.