Camellia Sinensis

This is the first Jin Jun Mei from Meng Ding I’ve come across, and I was curious enough to add 25 g to my last order. At around $20 CAD, it was much cheaper than the Zheng Shan Tang Jin Jun Mei from Lapsangstore I’ve had on my bucket list for a while, which comes in at an eye-watering US$155 for 50 g. I steeped 6 g of this much more humble tea in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma of these black and gold fuzzy leaves is of heady roses, dark chocolate, and malt. The first steep features heady, realistic rose backed by bread, malt, dark chocolate, and brown sugar. I get more dark chocolate and some tannins in round two. The rose persists through the next couple steeps, with the addition of honey in the background. In steeps five and six, the rose starts to fade, leaving a tea with notes of bread, dark chocolate, malt, honey, and minerals. The tea is also a bit drying. By the eighth steep, the florals are evident but not specifically rosy. The final few steeps feature bread, malt, honey, earth, minerals, wood, and tannins.

As someone who enjoys floral teas, I was quite happy with this nontraditional Jin Jun Mei. The real JJM is supposed to have a strong rose component, and this fits that profile. Most affordable JJM emphasize malt, honey, and chocolate. These flavours can be nice, but there are lots of chocolatey teas out there that aren’t Jin Jun Mei. Though some might find it too perfumey, I like this tea and it seems to be high quality. I need to go through my tea museum to find the two other Jin Jun Mei I bought from this vendor back in 2023 or 2024 to see if they’re as good.

Gongfu!

I wanted something a little darker and more woody, and the deeply resinous, camphor-heavy notes of tree sap, incense, petrichor, wet pine wood, and molasses in this dark tea hit you in the back of the chest in exactly the way I was hoping for. It’s a thick, full-bodied heicha with quite a lot of complexity and just the right hint of underlying sweetness. One of those teas that sorta just tastes brown, but in all the good ways.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNG-NYpSF80/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8LQVrBH5Jc&ab_channel=ufoufo

My Mom got a variety box from Camellia Sinesis while we were away and I snagged this for my work bag. It was okay, not the best or worst Earl Grey I’ve had. Just… meh? It was fine, I’d drink it again but I wouldn’t reach for it in a re-buy/haul.

I got this one while I was at Camellia Sinesis with @Roswell Strange, going off of her suggestion, I cold-brewed it to bring to work while I catch up on the QR work.

This was so good! I loved how fruity and floral it was! It was the perfect milder caffeinated start to my day. Now I can’t wait to try it hot.

2025 sipdown no. 33

I while ago I ran out of matcha from Teavivre and picked this up as a replacement. While this is a good matcha, I personally found the vegetal flavour a bit too pronounced. On the positive side: it’s smooth with minimal bitterness and decently creamy. It works in a pinch (and we easily finished off 100g), but I know there are matches out there I’d enjoy more.

Finishing this as a cold matcha latte with homemade lavender syrup and oat milk.

gong fu!

j’avais pas de très hautes attentes en achetant ce thé relativement abordable, mais il est absolument délicieux! il ressemble effectivement beaucoup à un thé noir chinois, comme l’indique la description de Camellia Sinensis. pour moi, la saveur la plus présente est celle du cacao, un peu comme du beurre de cacao/chocolat blanc. il y a aussi des notes d’agrumes semblables à celles des thés noirs « anglais » classiques (orange pekoe, etc.) et un agréable côté malté. très peu d’astrigence et de tanins, vraiment une belle découverte d’un terroir que je n’avais jamais eu l’occasion de découvrir.
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my expectations weren’t very high when i bought this relatively cheap tea, but it is absolutely delicious! as noted in its description, it’s very similar to a Chinese black tea. strong cocoa/cocoa butter notes, somewhat similar to white chocolate, with citrusy notes that remind me of classic “english” teas like orange pekoe, and a nice malty aroma. very little astringency/tannins. very happy to have discovered this tea from a tea terroir i hadn’t explored before.

I picked up a sample of this tea in my last Camellia Sinensis order. This company has a few unusual black teas that I’ve been interested in trying, and this hongcha from Guizhou is one of them. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The glossy, rolled dry leaves have aromas of honey, malt, bread, and florals. The first steep has notes of buckwheat honey, malt, bread, florals, faint tannins, zucchini, and unripe red berries. Honey, sour/unripe berries, tannins, and malt are even more prominent in the next steep. The tannins are fuzzy in the mouth and I get something reminiscent of rye bread. The next couple steeps have notes of bread, malt, honey, and florals, with faint berry and plummy fruitiness and some astringency. Steeps five and six are similarly full of honey, rye bread, and tannins, with some floral hints and something vegetal that I’ve called zucchini. By steep seven, the tea loses its fruitiness and focuses on honey, lots of malt, rye bread, tannins, and minerals. The end of the session has notes of malt, honey, minerals, and earth.

This is a nice breakfast-type tea that is a bit heavy on the tannins for me. I wish I could detect a little more fruit and that the malt was less overbearing. This is not a bad tea, just not the one for me.

pas mal bon. céréales, herbe fraîchement coupée, fruits légers… le tout avec une texture veloutée qui enveloppe entièrement la bouche. il faut faire bien attention de ne pas surinfuser ce thé, il peut rapidement développer un côté astringent désagréable. il peut être difficile d’équilibrer la richesse de sa saveur avec cette astringence dans le temps d’infusion.
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pretty good. toasted grain, fresh cut grass, light fruitiness… and a nice smooth mouthfeel. gotta be careful not to oversteep this one, it can quickly develop some unpleasant astringency. difficult to get a good balance between intensity of flavour and astringency when trying to find a good steep time.

One of the teas I picked up at Toronto Tea Festival. I probably wouldn’t have, but they were sampling it and I actually very much enjoyed how fresh tasting it was. Plus, I’ve been drinking more and more yerba mate blends in the mornings/early afternoons while working, so added another option to my rotation felt like a good thing. It’s a simple flavour, with a crisp and sweet peppermint note balanced by the gentle umami and grassiness of both the matcha and mate. Smooth, cooling, and just overall really enjoyable even if it’s not particularly unique or innovative feeling.

Picked up a sample of this last year and since I know Camellia Sinensis takes their teas very seriously, I figured this would be a really lovely tea. Plus I generally love teas from India. Extremely smooth, almost creamy taste with bready/grainy notes. Very thick, luxurious mouthfeel. Not astringent at all, not particularly bright (more mellow), not tannic at all. Enjoyed this very much. I may have to put it on the list of teas to get more of when I get some more sipdowns completed.

The “drag” feature doesn’t work on my phone, so…
I used 3 g leaf in a moderately-sized gaiwan, 200 F water, brewed for one minute.
This is the Spring 2024 wild silver needle from Verdant Tea.
I don’t have a ton of experience with white teas, so I had to play around with it a bit. Lower temp water just didn’t work. The flavor definitely came out with water 200F to boiling. I don’t think I’ve had artichokes before so what came to mind were a light combination of vegetal and slightly sweet, fruity notes – apricots, yes.

Had this in sachet format earlier in the week. It was fine. Basically just a incredibly classic feeling Earl Grey, which isn’t my personal favourite thing but there were no off notes or elements to point to negatively. It’s standard, but quality.

Lovely Pu Er from Camellia Sinensis! Earthy, woody and leathery. Easy to drink too.

I’ve had maybe three Dancongs from Camellia Sinensis and have liked only one (the 2010 Mi Lan Xiang). Nonetheless, I had to order 25 g of this both because of the name and because it’s made by the same producer as their Feng Huang Hong Cha, another tea I love. This note is for the 2023 harvest. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some long, uncounted steeps.

The dry aroma is of peach, lychee, honey, orchid, grain, and roast. The first steep really delivers on the soft, sweet peach I was hoping for. It also has notes of lychee, apricot, honey, orchid, butter, grain, roast, and tannins, which kind of make the peach feel fuzzy. There’s a peachy aftertaste that reminds me of peach pits. The next steep has a little upfront roast but is mostly peach, orchid, other florals, honey, and lychee. Grain and roast become more prominent in steeps three and four, though the peach is holding strong and the florals are still evident. The aftertaste shifts to grilled peaches and honey. In the next four steeps, I get more charcoal, wood, cream, and florals, although the peach is going strong. The final steeps emphasize charcoal, roast, minerals, wood, tannins, and faint hints of peach.

This may not be the world’s most complex
Dancong, but the sweet, persistent peach makes me happy. It isn’t as heavily roasted as some other Dancongs, although this could be due to age. I’d highly recommend this tea for any peach lovers out there.

A blend that beckons with a discreet charm. Its spicy profile, dominated by nettle, is interwoven with a delicate floral note courtesy of calendula, knapweed, fireweed and oregano flower. The leaves themselves are a sight to behold – large and elegant, as is the hallmark of Camellia Sinensis herbal teas. These bigger leaves demand a rather tactile approach, as a spoon would not allow a balanced selection of ingredients.

The infusion offers a mild, soothing taste. Beyond its flavour, this tea’s virtues lie in its utility—relieving headaches and aiding digestion. A quiet yet dependable ally in one’s collection albeit its steep price, perfect for moments of restorative calm.

I drank this yesterday while I was working and to be perfectly honest it barely made an impression at all, positively or negatively. I remember the thickness of the liquor and notes of both black pepper and cardamom but generally speaking it was sort of this heavier and more dense spice profile that totally just slipped right into the backdrop of my day. It was warmth, and caffeine but, well, not really flavour…

I guess I will need to drink it again and try and focus better!

A new limited edition blend from this past winter.

I was torn whether I wanted to try this one since it’s got a heavy amount of chamomile in it, but curiosity won out and I decided to grab a bag anyway. Well, definitely really strong notes of chamomile but with a slight fruity edge to it. I drank it when I was still VERY out of it following my dental surgery (still numbed up and everything) so I don’t recall much else about the cup. It was so-so but a nice, warm drink to sip on before crashing out and having a nap…

This herbal tea bears witness to the rigorous selection of leaves by Camellia Sinensis. The leaves themselves are of the size and quality typical of this tea house, which is better hand-picked, rather than scooped out with a spoon.

The aroma is dominated by a vivacious lemongrass note, yet artfully interwoven with delicate florals, and a refreshing zest. Upon infusion, the brew unfolds with a delightful interplay of tartness and subtle floral undertones. The lemongrass remains a prominent protagonist, lending a vibrant acidity. However, the infusion threatens to veer towards an assertive boldness after seven minutes, while a mere minute earlier, it risks becoming disappointingly watery whilst maintaining an astringency.

This tisane being on the more expensive spectrum (80 CAD$ for 100g), I wonder if I could find something similar and as relaxing in another teahouse.

I don’t have much experience with tulsi or gotu kola and I was intrigued enough to buy a big bag of this tea for $6 or so. I might have been hoping that the flavour would be a less sweet version of Coca Cola. I steeped about 3 g of tea in 355 ml of 190F water for 4, 6, 8, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of basil, cloves, herbs, and cola. The first steep is heavy on the clove, with basil, herbs, caramel, and what I presume is the gotu kola in the background. The flavour is sweet, earthy, and spicy. The next couple steeps are very similar, though the clove fades into the background and the basil becomes more prominent. By the end of the session, the tea is grassy, herbaceous, earthy, and sweet. I probably should have stopped at three steeps, as the last one is kind of watery.

So, does this taste like Coke? Sort of, though it’s too clove heavy to be convincing and is missing a citrus element. This tea is pleasant enough to enjoy on a snowy evening. At least it doesn’t have licorice, hibiscus, or chamomile, which are ubiquitous in most herbal teas.

gong fu!
dry buds are exceptionally pale and have a pleasant fresh hay smell. i brewed this tea at 80°C instead of the recommended 75°C, as i feel this helps to bring out its sheng puer-like qualities without completely destroying its delicate flavours. it also has a nice astringency that i feel is quite common with vietnamese and yunnanese teas. delicate peach, floral and honey flavours take the stage in the first few steeps. in subsequent infusions, these are softened, and darker hay and autumn leaf notes are more present (along with that astringency i mentioned). overall a very enjoyable tea! lasted for 8 infusions.

grandpa style!
i love bug-bitten teas so much, and this is no exception. even when i brew it grandpa style, this guei fei has a wonderfully complex floral flavour that lingers for quite a while after sipping, with some nice berry notes somewhat similar to raspberry leaf tea. visually, this tea has long, narrow leaves and a dark amber colour. super comforting for autumn, but i drink this year-round.

i used to pick wintergreen in the woods when i was a kid! love infusing this stuff. it’s refreshing and relaxing, smells incredible and has a surprisingly complex flavour. it’s a bit menthol-y, very “fresh” – don’t really know how else to describe it. it’s quite similar to old school bubble gum (if i recall correctly, this is what they used to flavour it with). great to sip at the end of the day, and i love drinking some of this when i get migraines, i find it helps a little.

This is a complex and lovely tea. It tastes like a forest, but not just fir, all the things that could be found in a boreal forest. There’s a natural sweetness that is really amazing, a definite taste of blueberry and the fir is very much present. The other ingredients serve to add layers and depth to the cup overall. I might pick up a bag of this one in my next CS order. Thanks for sharing Cameron!

2024 sipdown no. 76

Thanks Cameron for sharing this one! There are a fair few ingredients here, and I can pick out thyme and (somewhat) mellowed mint but am unsure what the other ingredients taste like, so can’t comment there. The steeped scent is almost like lemonade, in a unique twist. This is a nice enough herbal.