Jasmine Pearls

Traveling Tea Box Tea!!!

Today was just not my day. I didn’t hear my alarm and woke up at the time I usually leave for work! I rushed and packed my lunch only to forget it at home. It was (still!!) pouring rain when I left for the train, and the walk left me splattered with mud. I was 35 minutes late for work!

I wanted a strong black tea with milk and sugar but my little container of milk is in my packed lunch at home. Sigh! I remembered that Golden Moon’s Vanilla Jasmine put me in a fantastic mood, but of course the tin is at home! Double sigh! As I was digging through my tea stash at work, I found this one! It’s in a “gourmet bag” – one of those nylon sachets – and has a TON of pearls in it! I thought I’d give it a try – no measuring, no fuss.

Color me very pleasantly surprised (I’m not a huge Adagio fan) – it’s delicious! Flowery but not overwhelming or sickening…almost fruity too? Heady and sensual. I really like the oolong tea base – is that the fruity part I wonder? It’s very peachy/apricot! No bitterness. Absolutely delightful.

A second steep at 6 minutes: Once again, lovely. Softer floral and fruit but very, very delicious. I think it still has more to offer and I am going to try another steep after lunch – I’ll edit this post :)

Thank you Traveling Tea Box!!! You have completely changed the nature of my day – MUCH for the better!

EDIT: 4 lovely steeps, but I’m getting ready to leave for the day and can’t try a fifth – I think this tea could handle it, though!

Awkward Soul was kind enough to send me a sample of this tea. Every other sample she has sent me was spot on as far as my taste goes. This one, well…the first thing I noticed when pouring the hot water over the pearls was that strong, strong smell. It was very unpleasant to me. My girlfriend immediately pegged it as floral, but I didn’t get that. I sweetened it and hoped for the best.

The first 1/2 of the cup was all right, as long as I didn’t inhale while I was drinking. It was light, sweet, a tiny bit fruity maybe? The more I drank, though, the more it tasted like that scent. Obviously it’s the scent of jasmine and I just don’t fancy jasmine. So I’m not going to rate this tea. It would be unfair. That would be like rating a chocolate bar a 0 because it tastes like chocolate. :-D

This is part of Adagio Teas “Artisan Comfort Collection” from their new travel teas collections. It is a very nice jasmine pearl. I usually steep my jasmine pearls in my gaiwan, however, this would be great when I want my jasmine fix while traveling, as I did manage to still extract a very pleasing flavor from the pearls without the gaiwan.

Sweet, beautifully floral and a lovely vegetative tone to the green tea. Very nice indeed.

This is a Southern summer evening in a cup – sitting on the back porch, breeze off the Gulf, and the smell of the night blooming jasmine wafting through the air. All the atmosphere and flavor, but without the mosquitoes.

I set the kettle on to boil and huffed the little pearls for most of the time. They smell soooooo good. I love the smell of Jasmine tea, and this one smells more natural than the Thousand Mountain Jasmine that I have from Teavana.
this one made a lovely pot. The little pearls unfurled in the water and it turned a beautiful clear golden yellow color with just a hint of green. The smell coming out of the pot was just as delicious as the smell from the pearls themselves.
The flavor was very light, very pleasant. I added just about a teaspoon of sugar as I like my teas sweetened. The little bit of sugar really brought out the sweet flower taste. It tasted natural, and not artificial. I really enjoyed this one and am thinking that the girl that gave it to my husband may have brewed it to hot or to long, because this tea was much better than the Teavana Jasmine tea.
See full review on my blog at http://akoalateablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/tea-1.html

There’s nothing wrong with these jasmine pearls, but there’s nothing here to WOW me either. It’s not as intensely heady and floral as the unlabeled jasmine pearls I have from the local Asian market, and it’s not as buttery and nuanced as the jasmine pearls I just tried from Teavivre. However, it’s still good enough to be the flowery fix I needed tonight!

A gentle, mellow jasmine aroma jazzes up an easy-drinking, vegetal green tea. There’s no mistaking this for anything other than a jasmine pearl tea, but the flavor has a delicate, restrained quality. No intoxicating bouquet here, just a delicate sweep of flowery flavor over a balanced green base. There’s no bitterness, sharpness, fishiness… nothing I could pin down as “bad” in any way, but honestly, this tea feels a little bit flat and 2-D to me. There’s very little in the way of a lingering aftertaste. I would not recommend anyone to seek it out above other jasmine pearls, but if somebody handed me another cuppa I’d drink it cheerfully.

Thank you teaequalsbliss for the sample. :)

I DON’T like flower taste or smell. It reminds me of inhaling perfume. HOWEVER, this tea is goooood. The jasmine flavor is light and sweet, not overpowering like I was fearing. The only bad thing is that the smell of the tea before steeping is strongly floral. Not something I’d drink everyday, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

I got this as a free sample with a bigger order. I was surprised how fast the bag perfumed the air after cutting it open, smelled really good. Tastes strongly of jasmine, but not TOO strong, just right. Also reminds me of bubble gum, in a good way. This is now my top jasmine tea, until something else can dethrone it…

First steep (175F for 3:00): very pale in color, the scent is mellow. The tea is incredibly smooth, no bitterness. The flavor is mild but pleasant, delicately floral and ever so slightly sweet. A perfect comfort tea.

Second steep: 180F for 3:30 minutes. Darker in color, the pearls have started fully expanding in their mesh bag. The floral scent has become a bit more bold, the earthy tastes have come out on this steeping along with bitterness. I enjoyed the first cup much more.

Third steep: 175F for 4:00 minutes. Lighter in color than the 2nd but darker than the first. This is more similar to the first cup, with a mellow flavor and scent. Very pleasant.

Beautifully balanced jasmine and oolong.

Excellent on the nose. I like to smell this tea as much as taste it.

Gusto leggero e profumatissimo.

One of my faves, but I do prefer Harney’s Jasmine Pearls. This one is good though.

Not a bad tea but kind of average. Not nearly has as much flavor as Jasmine Dragon Tears from Apollo Tea

Great smell, wonderfully mild, calming taste. Brought me back from the edge after the stress of the work day.