Shanti

Eponymous tea! I’ve been looking forward to drinking, er, Shanti, for some time now. Ick, this feels weird, referring to it as “Shanti”. I know the Jessicas and Elizabeths and Jennifers of the world are used to this, but I’ve never met another Shanti before in my life, so this is exciting. Maybe I should take a page out of the GOP’s playbook and start referring us as “Shanti the Person” and “Shanti the Tea”? Or perhaps “Shantea”?

Mmm, these leaves smell mysterious and opaque. I know opaque isn’t a smell, but bear with me. You know how colors like lavender and periwinkle are always opaque and milky looking? Well, if that opaque quality had a smell, it’d smell like Shantea. It’s a very cozy, comforting smell.

Whoa. The smell coming from the liquor is smoky. Kind of like cigarettes, to be honest. And under the cigarette smoke, there’s the—OMFG I JUST SNORTED TEA UP MY NOSE. Well, that’s a first. Ow!

Where was I? Oh yeah. Smells like smoke and just barely like some kind of salted vegetable. Sipping now…Smoke! Smoke smoke smoke! There’s quiet a bit of bitterness, but it’s a good bitter. A drinkable bitter. A dull, non-astringent bitter. It fits in with the smoke nicely, and I think the tea would taste worse if it wasn’t there. The smoky, dull, opaqueness of the tea is actually making me a little sleepy. The more I sip on this, the more I taste sweet grass and hay. And gasoline, maybe. And, wow, now I’m getting flashbacks of the smell of the farms along the highway in my rural hometown in central California. It doesn’t even taste like smoke to me anymore, it tastes like driving home. And now I’m feeling all nostalgic and homesick and want to take a nap. Thanks a lot, Shantea.

After my week of work tea divine decadence (jasmine! violet! cherry! chestnut!) I decided to have a plain green today. I got a very nice sized bag of this free with my Dawn order. Thanks Simple Leaf!

This tea smells SMOKY!!

It tastes earthy and smoky, the slightest bit asparagus-y, but I like it! It’s not my usual “profile” at all, but it’s really nice after days of sweetness and refinement. This tea would be excellent with a meal. As it cools, it is a little less smoky, a little more asparagus-y and slightly sweeter.

2nd steep: (3:30) Nice! It’s more subdued and very delicious. I don’t know if I prefer the first or second steep! The first one is so interesting, but the second one is very harmonious. I am wishing I had a bowl of rice with salmon and bok choy (yeah – I know! specific!) to go with this tea!!

3rd steep: (4:00) Sweeter! even less smoke. I am so full, but I think this tea could go on to yet another steep (but I won’t save my leaves because I have dark chocolate covered graham crackers for my afternoon snack, and that would be an awful pairing!!). I wanted to mention it though, because if you are having guests for a meal, you can keep on refilling your teapot at least 4 times imo with this tea.

Look at me – evolving!! ;)

The Final Sipdown: Day 26.1

The tea. The tea. The tea is on fire. We don’t need no water, let the…

This tea is smoky. Smoky in a way that has me on the fence between wood burning fire and cigarettes. It would be full on firewood, if it weren’t, maybe ironically, for the vegetal quality underlying the whole thing. For me it’s giving it that nicotine-y tinge that’s making me think I won’t be finishing this cup.

The other flavors in it are savory and salty. There’s also a peppery note that is hitting the tip of my tongue. This is one of the least grassy green teas I’ve ever had, and were it not for the lightness of flavor beneath the smoke [and the coloring of the liquid] I may have pegged it for a black tea.

The sweeter notes don’t come into play for me until the end, and then it has an almost fruity sense about it. That fruit, however, is lending a more sickly quality than sweet and fresh…until the aftertaste really kicks in and the liquid is completely gone. Then it’s like a Febreze commercial.

I don’t know. I don’t mind a smoky tea, but this one’s poking at my gag reflex. The combination of flavors just doesn’t make any sense to me, and there isn’t really anything enjoyable about the profile as a whole. A pleasant aftertaste alone does not a good tea make.

Ah well. I appreciate Carolyn sending this to me nonetheless. And now it’s gone! Good things all around.

Teas Downed: 32

I recently placed an order with The Simple Leaf, and they sent me a 1oz sample of this for free! Much thanks to them. I was considering ordering it, but my order was already approaching 70 bucks after the 20% “simple20” discount – a decent sum for a part-time teacher!

I opened the packet and the first thing to hit me was the Chinese-ness of the tea. I know it’s an Indian tea, but I would not be surprised if this particular breed of camellia sinensis was brought over from China somewhat recently. At risk of overgeneralizing, what I mean by “Chinese” is the slightly gritty, astringent, strong sort of green, in opposition to the lighter, more vegetal or hay-ish Japanese style, and so on. It is a bit less harsh than that though, and I do plan on trying a shorter steep next time (1:30?) to see how that affects things.

In any case, on that canvas are subtle strokes of clay, smoke, and soil after a rain. It’s sort of a nice memory for me, because this combination is the smell of mornings at my paternal grandparents’ house – my grandma is a sculptor, and she let us play with big old chunks of grey clay in the backyard on the driveway. My grandparents smoked, so there was always a hint of smoke even though they stopped smoking while we were around. The yard had a lot of tree cover, so the rain or dew would linger just a bit longer on the ground, stirring up smells that I loved.

I’m pretty sensitive to astringency in tea, and generally prefer the lighter greens, so Shanti still isn’t quite going to go down as one of my favorites. I would recommend trying it if you enjoy greens that lean toward the punchier side, or want to experience a green tea that has this somewhat peculiar blend of flavors.

This tea does smell slightly smoky and there is a smokiness to the flavor along with a vegetal note. I’m used to drinking strong black teas so sometimes when I sip a green the first thing that hits me is that this tastes like yellow/green water. I have to remember that green tea is delicate so I slow down and as the tea cools I get more flavors. I also tend to get the water too hot and then I have to wait. Waiting is not my strong point. Overall this is a nice drinkable tea, Next I intend to double the leaf like Teaequalsbliss did and see how I like it. I do like the Maharani much better though.

This is the first time trying this tea. It’s been in my cupboard for a little while, I bought it at the same time I purchased Dawn and Honeybee. But, as I said, I have a lot of teas …

Anyways… This tea is yummy! Fresh vegetal taste – less on the grassy side and more on the cooked veggie side. These beauitful, long, spiral-y leaves slowly unwind and unfurl to a full leaf that appears to be small and quite young… but whole… and absolutely lovely.

I am currently enjoying my third infusion of this tea. With each new infusion comes a smoother flavor that is savory and sweet all at once. The Simple Leaf is simply amazing!

Apparently I am in the minority…but I really like this tea! It’s another selection from the goodie-bag I received from SoccerMom. It’s extremely juicy – VERY mouth watering. A nice relaxing cup!

I doubled the suggested amount of loose leaf, however, and infused for about 4 minutes.

In my book…this is YUMMY…thanks SoccerMom for sending this my way…

Another good tea from The Simple Leaf that I drank on a daily basis until it was gone! As I recall, this one was a nice dark brew with a lot of flavor. I need to make a wishlist for teas from The Simple Leaf. This one deserves to be reordered.

Beautiful long dark green leaves give off a smoky fragrance when dry. Steeped it has an even stronger smoky smell which also dominates the taste. There is a very slight bitter edge. Overall, this isn’t really my sort of tea.

Thanks to LiberTeas for the sample of this.

I’ve never had a green tea from India, so it was fun to try one. This isn’t one I would seek after, but it was pleasant enough.

The leaves looked like I would think of as a small-leaf green phoenix oolong (if there was such a thing). They smelled like Gunpowder green tea, somewhat smokey and pan fried.

The flavor was like dragonwell/long jing, in that it was something like chestnuts, stir fry, but not as good. However, it had a very strong note of honey at the top of the mouth that was quite tasty and interesting. Strange too, to feel like it was a savory flavor on the one hand, and then a sweet one on the other (aftertaste).
As I said, it’s a pleasant cup.

I know Shanti is a love it or hate it tea, and I love it. The smokiness really shines through, with a slight hint of vegetal flavor. If you don’t like smoky teas, you won’t like this.

I had not had a green tea in a long time and thought that this might be a pleasant change in my normal drinking habits. The first thing I was struct with was the balance of sweetness and grassiness in the dry leaves. They had the vegetal aroma of gunpowder green tea mixed with a sharp sweetness that did not overwhelm, but rather blended well.

I was surprised to find that this green tea comes from India, specifically Arunachal Pradesh. Having never tried any green tea from India before, I figured I was in for a treat.
The aroma of the brewed tea matches the dry leaves perfectly with an excellent balance of vegetal and sweet. My first sip is surprising, as the cup is really quite bold. Right when the taste is almost too much on the vegetal side, it lapses into soft sweetness, before I even swallow. A pleasant surprise indeed, as most teas this bold are merely full of grassiness and vegetal flavours.
The cup continues to develop, leaving me with slightly smoky aftertastes, yet smooth finishes throughout.
As I sip my way through the cup, I enjoy this tea more and more. It has complexities in the aroma and flavour that put it a step above other greens that I have tried. I would definitely recommend giving this tea a try. I rate it a 75 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

This some how came in with my order from the Simple leaf ? I don’t know if I ordered on accident or if they sent me a whole pouch as a sample I haven’t went back to check my C.C. bill yet. (Please don’t tell :) anyway it is just as the other reviews have so correctly stated a smoky flavored green tea. I don’t love it I don’t hate it but I for sure would not order it!

BTW the leaves are dark green and quite lovely.

I tried this tea when it was infused with dried orange peel, spearmint, and fennel seeds. It was amazing, it was very light and extreamly smooth, almost a silky texture. The infusions were very well balanced making it extremely enjoyable.

Simple, fresh, yet plain flavor. Not bad. Not great.

Really scrumptious Indian green. Vegetal and sweet at the same time.