Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls with Rooibos Tropica

Relaxing, calming combination of flavors. The aroma is heavenly, with the mix of tropical breezes and jasmine flowers.

This was the first Teavana tea I’ve ever tasted. Everywhere down here, they keep huge amounts of this one in sample containers and so as a first tea to try, its a pretty good one.

First, the smell. I ignored the Teavana sales person when he told me not to store my pearls with my rooibos because I love the way it smells blended. I can see their point in that if you keep them separated, you can blend your pearls and rooibos, yada yada. Whatever for them. If I want some pearls to brew with something else, I’ll go buy some. Nope. I keep my r/p in the same tin and man, I am not sorry I did.

When you store some teas together, especially teas that compliment each other as much as these two do, they take on a lovely blended flavor. I love to smell them together before I brew them.

Today I used my kettle for brewing since I’m at the boy’s house and I found that the Rooibos bits have traveled a bit more than they do when I’m at home and use a finer mesh strainer, but its ok. A few tea leaves never hurt me.

Over all this is a high 80s tea for me. Its one I use as an old standby and usually the one I bring with me when I’m introducing a new tea-drinker to the wonders of loose tea. But also, its a good ‘Hello Day! I am gonna kick your butt!" tea. It has a great jasmine flavor at the first of the sip with the Rooibos just filling out the back of the sip. I brew it at the temperature for Roobios, but I don’t let it steep too long at risk of making the pearls bitter. I have tried this tea sweetened and unsweetened and I prefer it sweet. (But that’s not a real surprise for me!) I use all sorts of sweetners so I really don’t care how it gets sweet, though I do prefer the brown rock sugar. However white sugar cubes do well when you’re using it for an English Style tea ceremony. :D

Anyway, if you’re looking at this tea and wondering if you should get it, I’d definitely recommend it. Its full and delicious and just right for new people coming into loose teas and blending.

I went to Teavana this weekend to get some tea for my girlfriend and this was one of the samples they had out for tasting. We both drank the samples and fell in love with the taste.. naturally we dropped 16$ for 4oz of the blend (Um a little expensive for 4oz? or is this just me), took it home, and here we are. In the store, it tasted amazingly sweet and bright; reminded me of fruity tootie gum. Then they wafted the mix into our faces, you know, the lid waving “technique” all the employees learn to do, and it just smelled SO GOOD.

Now here we stand. 16$ later and this tea sitting in my cup. Will it live up to my expectations or will it be sitting in dust for the next 6 months? Find out next time…

No but seriously here we go.

I poured a good 2 heaping teaspoons of the mix into my infuser, poured on my water, and let it steep for a little over 3 minutes (prolly around 3:30?). The rooibos tropicana (i like that better than tropica) smell is present throughout, but very light tasting. Jasmine is there. I would best describe it as a light taste of fruitiness with a Jasmine base. It’s not badddd… I don’t know. I think they sugared the crap out of it in the store because it tasted like candy. I didn’t toss any sugar in and didn’t conform to buying the sugar they pressured us into buying along with our tea. Then again, I never put sugar any of my tea so yeah, nothing is ever like crazy sweet. I will say that this tea isn’t dull, but it isn’t very busy. Nothing real complex going on. It’s nice. That’s about it.

I finished this cup about half an hour ago and my mouth and throat still feel extremely dry. I have no idea what exactly is causing the reaction but since I tend to run toward dry mouth naturally, I am not enjoying it.

The tea itself wasn’t bad. I didn’t get much jasmine (which is good since I don’t enjoy it) and the tropica flavour is nice. But the tea as a whole wasn’t memorable for me. Considering how pretty it looks in the cannister, I expected more from the steep.

Monday Feb. 28, 2011
2nd Steep of The Day.
Got this as a Gift from a Good Friend at Church.
Great Teavana Blend Good Green Jasmine with Tropica Flavors
This Is gonna be a Flavorful Gift to Continue to Enjoy.
Keep On Steepin

I can’t believe I haven’t logged this blend yet. It’s one of my favorites and goes quickly once I finally get around to buying more of it. You can of course add more or less of which ever tea you want to predominate the taste if you buy them separately, which is what I do. I’m very particular – I like about a 1:2 ratio of the tropica to the Jasmine pearls. This way, it’s more of the flowery taste with fruity undertones that don’t dominate the taste. I also prefer it sweetened. I also enjoy this tea because I can make it more mellow or strong depending on how I feel that day. Today I’ve made an entire pot of it in my beautiful purple cast iron teapot covered in vines and am loving it.

Have to use 1.5-2 tsp to get the right amount of flavor, but it’s great when I get it right. Also, this smells AMAZING.

Smells terrific. Tastes pretty good with sugar. But you could probably get something pretty similar with a (much) less expensive type of jasmine tea. I don’t think you’ll be getting many of the subtleties of the JDPP out from underneath all that rooibos.

This was one of the first teas I got when I was getting into tea. That was…I don’t even know how many years ago. Since then I’ve bought this one a couple more times, but since I started drinking teas from other places like Adagio and Tea Forte and Samovar, I have become increasingly unimpressed with this one.

I got it because an employee at Teavana recommended it to me, and then she did that little wavy thing they do with the lid to waft the aroma into your face. Even to this day, I will tell you straight off that it smells like heaven.

It’s not that it tastes bad. It doesn’t. It just doesn’t…taste. At all. In a little experiment I let it sit for 6 minutes, and still? Nothing. Or at least not enough for me to enjoy the experience. I don’t feel like I should have to actively search my tea for flavor.

I hate to say it, but this is a big part of why it took me so long to really get into tea. I’d had some of the watered down stuff that they give you at restaurants from time to time, and the bagged stuff that isn’t exactly bursting with flavor, and then I decided to try some loose tea because I’d heard it was so much better. This one smelled a AMAZINGLY delicious, but the taste just didn’t live up to the hype [you know, in that it wasn’t present].

I figured that maybe all tea, even the “good stuff” just didn’t have much of a taste at all. Or that it was just too subtle for me to do anything other than smell it to appreciate it. [Obviously, this was before I tried Lapsang Souchong.] Now I know that this isn’t true, and so I can’t recommend this tea to anyone.

Since he said it better than I probably did in the above paragraphs, I leave you with a quote Uncle Iroh, one of my favorite characters from Avatar [yes, the cartoon – don’t judge, it’s phenomenal], “THIS IS NOTHING BUT HOT LEAF JUICE!”

Though, it may make for some nice potpourri.

Now that I’m properly brewing green tea at the right temp I’m loving this. Only enough for one cup though :(. Ill have to buy more when I work my way through some others (no more room in my home,lol)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this mixture! A little sugar and mmmmmm….. Just as good ice too!

My mother-in-law was at the store and asked the people there what to get. This is what they recommended. I am so glad they did. When dry it has a strong smell but after it is steeped, it taste fruity but not overwhelming. I had a friend try it and now every time he comes over this is what he wants to drink.

Steep Information:
Amount: 4 tsp mix
Additives: 1 tsp german rock sugar
Water: filtered almost boiling water, 1 teapot
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell:
Steeped Tea Smell: jasmine and fruit
Flavor:
Bobbie: OMG too much sugar
AmazonV: floral, fruity, sweet
MilitaJim: fruity, generically tropical
Body: Light
Aftertaste: no
Liquor: deep translucent reddish orange

My friend Bobbie came over with this pre mixed from Teavana, so we didn’t even have to mix our two separate bags of tea we had ordered online.

The tea is not very distinct in it’s flavoring, it’s just a fruity floral light tea. We all still love this mix, but it doesn’t hold the complexity or distinct flavors you would expect from a well proportioned mix.

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: lost track of the time, had to leave it on a while to get flavor, the jasmine is much more pronounced in the second steep, but still a very generic fruit taste.

images:http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/02/teavana-loose-leaf-green-tea-and-red.html

I love the simplicity of this tea. I don’t taste too many fruity notes and the jasmine is pretty light but welcoming. I add about a teaspoon of rock sugar for no reason, I just like it that way. I had this with my dinner and I’m about to steep another cup. To me it’s nothing too special or mind blowing but I still love it for what it is. Yum!

Not what I was expecting, but lovely none the less. A bit too light for my tastes (I like stronger flavors) but the jasmine is lovely.

Jasmine flavour is at the front with a mingling of tropical tastes in the background. Strong jasmine after taste. I am not very fond of the mixing of these flavours. I feel that the tropical tastes take away from the delicacy of the jasmine flavour.

Being new to loose-leaf teas, I now realize that I should have done a lot more experimenting/research before walking into a place like Teavana. One of the staff members was in the doorway with samples, so I promptly took one and had to pick myself up off the floor. It was pure heaven. The aroma only seemed otherworldly. I asked whether or not it was sweetened, to which, she replied, with a tiny bit of that rock cane sugar that they sell. Okay…I don’t put sugar in my tea, so no need to buy the sugar.
I opted to go with the separate canisters instead of the blend, since I wanted the option to try the teas individually. Now, here’s’ where I begin to embarrass myself. I have a Teavana catalog (a friend of mine gave me a wonderful gift of an Yixing teapot and some tea cups along with other accessories), so I knew that the tea was expensive. But I didn’t read the little footnote that stated the prices were per 2oz’s. So, after loading up with 8oz of the Rooibos and the JDPP each, I had to take out a second mortgage (don’t worry…my rate is pretty good).
Nevertheless, I was excited to get home and brew a pot. Suffice it to say, the combination of loose-leaf Rooibos and a novice tea maker does not invoke visions of Tea Brewing Artistry. The aroma was there – it is simply divine – but to quote another member of this wonderful community (and Iroh), it did “taste” like hot leaf juice. In all fairness, I’m still new to this, so I feel a bit like Iroh’s nephew, Zuko (“Uncle…that’s what ALL tea is!”). The taste was pleasant enough, but the fragrance belied its flavor.
I’ve decided that it will take me a couple of tries to get it right, so I am withholding definitive judgment. I have a feeling it will get better when I do.

A birthday tea from my roomie!

My morning staple for several years.