scottjb

Still a 9. I had this at work today and got a good 7 infusions out of it. Awesome for longevity.

I got this one with the black matcha. And I like this one less than the black matcha. Straight, I find the white matcha far too astringent (I had an involuntary, physical pucker). Like the black matcha, it’s better in a latte, but the brighter taste of the black matcha works better against the milk.

I was excited to try this, because such respectable reviewers have given it such good remarks. Alas, I just don’t like this very much. I find it on the bitter side, and very astringent, when taken straight. It does make a decent latte, though. As a latte, the texture is nice and rich, and the bitterness/astringency is balanced with the milk. As a straight matcha, this is a 6. As a latte, it’s an 8. Overall, 7. I’ll keep it around, and use it in the mornings before work when I need caffeine but don’t want to start a regular pot of tea. I doubt I’d choose it over other teas when I have the time to be leisurely.

My coworker was visiting family in Taiwan and offered to bring me back tea. Apparently, he and his cousins went out trying a whole bunch of different tea shops on the hunt. I’m both thankful he did it and jealous. I’ll be reviewing the various teas he got for me over the next little bit.

Starting with the Sun Moon Lake black tea. Appearance: beautiful, long twisted tea leaves. I seriously love how these look. When steeped, they have a leathery appearance. Liquor: dark amber-brown. Very smooth, complex mouthfeel. Smell: dark, malty, and a little smoky. Taste: Sun Moon Lake is interesting because it is an Assam variety plant, grown in Taiwan (so the course reversed, where the Chinese variety were taken to Darjeeling). This definitely tastes like an Assam – assertive, malty, complex. It has some nutty, almost cocoa, flavor notes. It is good (and varied) throughout the cooling process. Much less astringency than most black teas (although I did steep for a short time for a black tea) This is right up there with a good Darjeeling as my top-two favorite black teas – for obviously different reasons. Yum.

I know I still have a bunch of teas in my cupboard for which I need to do tasting notes, but I wanted to do a quick note about osmanthus flowers. I love, love, adding them to all sorts of teas to add a floral note, or perk up a fading third infusion. While I’m not particularly a fan of straight osmanthus tea (6/10), the fun things it can do to a blend make it an 8/10. I’ve had great success with a Darjeeling black tea, a sencha green tea, and even with mint. The flavor is bright and soft at the same time, and I like the floral flavor more in osmanthus than I do in jasmine. Anyone else use osmanthus?

Aroma – Charcoal Roasted Dong Ding. Loose leaf. Appearance: wrinkled dark brown rolled leaves when dry. When steeped the leaves unroll and are still dark and wrinkled. Liquor: nutty brown, with very minimal sedimentation. Smell: soft, roasted smell. Taste: roasted oolongs may be my favorite anytime teas, and this is a really nice one. The taste is smooth, with a soft mouthfeel, roasted flavor with cherry notes. It handles multiple infusions, and multiple steeping times really well. Low astringency. Caramel aftertaste. Just delightful for drinking throughout the day. 9/10

Appearance: jade colored broken leaves. I really like the color of a sencha – it just seems like green tea is supposed to be this green. Liquor: green-hued gold. Like other Japanese green teas, there is some sedimentation. Smell: very vegetal. Taste: again, vegetal, like spinach almost, but with sweet and nutty undertones. The price is reasonable, so this is a good staple to have in the cupboard. The price also means I’m comfortable being a little more flexible with experimenting. Today I added some osmanthus flowers, and loved it. Solid flavor, reasonable price, so an overall 7/10.

Appearance: standard dark, broken, black tea leaves, with minimal stems. Liquor: dark brown – more brown than the red I often associate with black teas. Smell: So nice! Loose and brewed, there is a strong hazelnut flavor and underlying cocoa. I keep searching for hazelnut chunks. The smell is amazing. Taste: This is surprisingly sweet without milk or sugar. The hazelnut is quite pleasant, and there’s just enough chocolaty flavor that it could stand in for a hot cocoa. Like many H&S teas, as it cools the flavor develops some citrus notes that don’t really work with the other flavors. I don’t think it needs sugar, but adding it does make it very decadent. Adding milk makes it a really good hot cocoa stand in. This may be my favorite milk and sugar tea so far. Very nice way to start a weekend morning. 8/10

Not sure what I did differently, but I’m upping the rating to 8/10. I’ve found myself craving this one for its clear, non-astringent, well rounded flavor. I am liking more and more that it has a distinct character from either the Japanese greens or dragonwells that I normally drink.

I don’t know what changed from my earlier rating to today’s rating, but today this was just delicious. I’m revising my rating up. The taste was deep and very, very pleasant.

Golden Osmanthus Tie Kuan Yin, Golden Tea Shop (Oakland, CA). I picked this up on the recommendation of the proprietress of Golden Tea Shop in Oakland’s China Town. Appearance: tightly rolled loose leaf oolong with minimal oxidation and light green color. This is a scented oolong (meaning the tea leaves are covered with osmanthus flowers and scented, like most jasmine teas, instead of blended). The color of the leaves doesn’t change much as the tea steeps. Liquor: clear, mostly chartreuse yellow but a little darker gold than a color wheel chartreuse. Smell: I really like the smell of both osmanthus and of tie kuan yin, and this is a very pleasant middle ground for those. Meaning, it has the nice vegetal smells of an iron goddess, and the warmth of the osmanthus. Taste: like the smell, this is a nice blend of a lightly oxidized iron goddess with the osmanthus aroma. It’s slightly vegetal from the iron goddess, but slightly soapy from the osmanthus. I find that disappointing, because I get less of a soapy taste when I use straight osmanthus flowers (which I do quite a bit, actually). It’s not terrible, but it just detracts from the taste. Overall, 6/10. It’s not bad, but not good enough I’m going to restock. I will probably keep my eye out for other options like this though.

Loose leaf rooibos with chunks of dried pineapple. Liquor: dark amber or light caramel. Smell: nice rooibos with distinct pineapple notes. Taste: I like rooibos a lot. It’s a distinct rooibos flavor, but the pineapple upper notes and coconut undertones do a lot to round out the flavor and make it interesting. Enjoyingtea.com describes it as having rum notes, and I agree that there are rum notes but they’re subtle. Like most rooibos, you need a good filter or sachet, or there will be sedimentation. But, you also don’t really have to worry about overextraction. I actually use this for a chia seed drink when I need the fiber. 7/10

Appearance: dark (almost forest) green broken leaves with some golden yellow pieces. I really like the color of a shincha – it just seems like green tea is supposed to be this green. Liquor: mossy green. The liquor is more green than a lot of Japanese greens – hooray for the freshness (April 2012 harvest). Like most sencha there is some sedimentation, so a good strainer is recommended. Smell: very vegetal, with creamy high notes. Having lived in Japan, the smell of sencha is powerfully nostalgic. Taste: again, very vegetal, like spinach almost, but it’s sweet, creamy, and has nice nutty (chestnut) undertones. The aftertaste is grassy but only mildly astringent. I like the grassiness of a Japanese green, and this is a great example. Overall I’m really happy I was in Japantown recently to see this one. 9/10.

Loose. Appearance: leaves are mottled light and dark green, in pretty, flat strips. They open into mossy green leaves when steeped. I actually prefer looking at the dry leaves because they are more jade like and pretty. Liquor: yellow chartreuse. Smell: nutty and vegetal. Taste: Dragonwell is probably my favorite Chinese green tea, and this is a very nice version. This taste is vegetal but sweet, nutty (a hint of the pan firing), with a creamy mouthfeel, and minimal astringency. It is smooth enough I can drink it all day. 8/10. (The Monkey King from Sky Tea I’ve also reviewed was probably better in terms of tea quality – I love the long leaves – but this dragonwell also gets an 8 because the price is nice enough it can be a regular presence at work.)

Loose. Appearance: leaves are small, gently rolled slate gray-green. They do look like greenish eyebrows (the name). They become much greener after steeping but lose their shape. Liquor: yellow with green tints. It is a warmer yellow on second infusion. Smell: smoky, earthy, but still green tea. I think it smells like a lot of other Chinese greens. (On just smell alone, I usually prefer the overt vegetal notes of a Japanese green.) Taste: The taste is nice and mellow, with only some bitterness. It is less sweet than other teas, and the smoky notes of the smell come through – and become stronger as it cools. When it very first hits the palate there is a vegetal (dark leafy green) taste, but that tends to fade into a lingering astringency and smoky aftertaste. The second infusion is even smoother and smokier. (Some chun mee teas are said to have a plum flavor and I don’t get that at all). It’s not my favorite green tea but this is pleasant enough. 6/10

Appearance: warm red and brown … wood chips? ;-) Liquor: coppery red, with sedimentation – I recommend a sachet or fine mesh filter. Smell: the smell is amazing! it has a warm earthy smell with bright citrus notes. Just opening the bag and taking a whiff can make me happy. Taste: as billed, this is very similar to rooibos but with citrus notes and a slightly sweeter taste. Taken straight, I prefer honeybush to to rooibos (the more neutral flavor of rooibos works better in blends). Still, the taste is not particularly noteworthy. 6/10.

Appearance: small mixed mint leaves, from different types of mint. The leaves can slip through some of the bigger filters, so I prefer this in the Mighty Leaf sachets. Liquor: pleasant green (with sedimentation if not in a sachet). Smell: I may actually prefer the smell of this one dry. Either way this is nice and minty. Taste: because this is a blend of mint varieties, it doesn’t have the same brightness that a single variety, say peppermint, will. But it’s a nice, solid mint that works really well when you want an herbal. It also works well in blends. 7/10.

Appearance: pretty chamomile flowers. Liquor: bright, clear yellow. Very pleasant. Smell: sometimes I’ll open this bag just to smell the chamomile it’s so nice. It’s a classical chamomile, but it just smells and tastes so clean. Taste: As with the smell, I think this is a classic, simple, but completely solid chamomile. 8/10.

I can’t really put my finger on it, but I just don’t like this tea. After trying for a while, I gave up and threw it away.

Appearance: grayish green broken leaves. Liquor: light brown with little sedimentation. Smell: swampy. I didn’t like this smell at all. The scent is off from other green teas. Meaning I can tell that it is related to other green teas, but not how it is. Taste: As with the smell, this was swampy. I found this hard to drink. The only way I was able to drink it was ice brewed with a lot of lemon juice, which feels heretical for a green tea. Anything I throw out gets a 1/10.

Appearance: curled pu-erh leaves, with citrus zest. Liquor: light brown with little sedimentation. Smell: I didn’t detect the chocolate or mocha notes in this one. Taste: As with the smell, I didn’t detect chocolate notes in this. Pu-erh is a softer, rounder flavor profile than blacks, and this was less astringent than the black teas in the blend, but the flavor was generally unremarkable. 4/10.

Appearance: broken leaf black with pieces of pear and malleable caramel chunks. Liquor: light reddish-brown, minimal sedimentation. Smell: sweet black tea. Honestly, I didn’t detect pear or caramel notes in either the dry or brewed tea. Taste: As with smell, I found this nondescript. It was smoother than a lot of black teas, which indicates that it was a good quality black tea leaf, and there was a softening element from something, but it wasn’t distinct. Sugar did help. 4/10.

Appearance: large chunks of whole spices. Liquor: brown with heavy sedimentation. Smell: very strong and spicy. Taste: I don’t actually get the chocolate taste very much with this one. It is a lovely, warm spice blend, with strong cinnamon and cardamom flavors. Standing on it’s own, this is a 5/10. What I actually like to do with this one, though, is blend it with other teas and tisanes. Blended with rooibos is really good, and it’s a nice way of bringing variety to an otherwise nondescript black. As a blending agent, I may rate this as a 7/10.

Appearance: large chunks of dried fruit and chocolate pieces. Liquor: orange hues with considerable sedimentation. I don’t like how the chocolate pieces melt, because it makes the texture of the liquor thicker than it should be. Smell: fruity and chocolate-y. Taste: More fruit than anything, with nice spice notes. The chocolate comes through. Not my standard tea, but in the right mood, this is an okay way to mix it up. 5/10.

Appearance: broken leaf black tea with dried orange zest and visible cacao nibs. Liquor: light reddish-brown (I think the orange lightens it up a little). Smell: fragrant and softly rounded. The orange smell comes through in both dry leaves and the liquor. Taste: smooth, well blended, and the orange comes through. Does not need sugar (which is part of why I like this one). I have a friend who normally drinks coffee but really likes this one when he comes over. 7/10.