Camellia Sinensis

Cold Brew!

I’m gonna reserve judgement on this one until I try it hot. It’s not so much that it was too sencha-y for me as a not-so-huge lover of sencha, but I just thought the yuzu was sooo delicate to the point where I barely tasted it against the unctuous, buttery nori and umami of the green tea. I guess it added a bit of brightness. I’m just not sure how I feel about it overall since the yuzu is for sure the selling point of the blend…

I made a Camellia Sinensis order not long ago for their new flavoured blends, and I ended up adding a tin of this matcha to help me meet the free shipping minimum. I had it as usucha earlier this week and thought it was pleasant. Just a touch of bitterness, but no astringency. The flavour leans a bit more crisp and vegetal with notes of garden peas to go alongside a more buttery finish with notes of steamed milk.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRDcxN_EidZ/?img_index=1 (Fourth Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xqP5vu7BMQ

Camellia Sinensis recently released a bunch of new flavoured tea blends which is, honestly, kind of weird behaviour for them. Like, they carry a few blends but they’re really much more well known for their straight/traditional teas and the amount they just released is more in a one week span than they’ve rolled out in the last three or four years combined. It’s curious…

Of course, I wanted to try all of them so I placed an order for all four newbies and one that was released maybe a year or so ago that I just hadn’t gotten around to trying. I was a bit frustrated because the day after my order the released one last new blend. I’m not going to go out of my way to order/visit the store again for the one tea, but just annoying that they didn’t cluster the launch together (the drops were less than a week apart). I’ll get to it eventually though, I’m sure!

But what about this tea!? Well, it’s also very curious. Mostly because the flavours in the ingredient list are ones I would certainly not typically associate with creme brulee. But sometimes flavour combine together in weird ways and are able to paint a flavour picture very different from how they taste in isolation. So, I went into the mug pretty open minded. With that said, am I tasting creme brulee? …eh…

Okay, here’s what it is like…

The black tea is full bodied and rich with an almost chocolate-like undertone to it. I appreciate that is has a strong fullness to it, without being really brisk and astringent because I don’t think those qualities would suit the sort of decadence that CS is leaning towards here. It’s also very creamy, but more in a pudding or flan-like way with a sort of light caramelization and vanilla note to it. You could argue that kind of describes the custard portion of a creme brulee, but it’s just striking me as in the right wheelhouse but different enough that I wouldn’t blindly jump to creme brulee. Maybe because it’s not a “pure” enough vanilla custard note or because it’s caramel-like but not pushed to the point of having that sharper, crisp burnt sugar taste.

And the peach. Yup, I totally taste that peach flavouring. It’s smooth and silky with some floral undertones but it is definitely peach. I’m less familiar with naranjilla, which is the other flavouring, so I don’t know how much of this soft, creamy and delicate fruity profile is also coming from that flavouring. I actually think it taste quite wonderful, but there’s not really anything about it that evokes creme brulee for me in the slightest. With the creaminess I’d almost think a Peach Creamsicle first.

So, overall, I think it’s a very interesting tea with a lovely delicate sweetness and a unique and appealing intersection of soft fruits and really creamy caramel. I really wish that CS had gone for a more ethereal name in the vain of some of their other teas like Moulin Rouge or One Night In Rio instead of something with such a literal flavour. I don’t think it’s set this blend up very well to meet the expectations the name they chose promises…

Once again, I wildly overbought green tea this year so I could do some educational comparison sessions. This time, I’m focusing on three kinds of Anji Bai Cha, two from Seven Cups and one from Camellia Sinensis.

Tea bush: Bai Ye
Location: Zhejiang Province
Picking date: April 12, 2025
Price in USD/g: $0.46

For the side-by-side comparison, I steeped 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded. I also did a more normal session with 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water, with times as above.

The dry aroma had notes of green beans, asparagus, cut grass, honey, and magnolia. In the side-by-side session, the first steep featured green beans, cut grass, asparagus, heady magnolia, kale, lemon, and orange. Later on, I tasted green beans, grass, asparagus, kale, and magnolia, with the florals persisting until the end of the session.

With my regular setup, the first steep had notes of green beans, asparagus, white sugar, lemon, orange, and magnolia. Later steeps lost this complexity and focused on green beans, asparagus, grass, and faint magnolia. The end of the session was grassy and vegetal.

This tea was sharper and grassier than the Seven Cups offerings. It had a heady, almost perfumey magnolia aroma and flavour through most of the session, as well as a good amount of citrus. It also had the sweetness of the other Anji Bai Cha, though to a lesser extent in later steeps. If I hadn’t done a side-by-side comparison with the Anji from Seven Cups, I’d say this was a perfectly nice green tea, and it’s still great for the price.

So, like last year, I’m doing a “Mugtober” challenge where I’m featuring a different mug from my collection in my stories every day this month. Last year there was simultaneously a tea challenge being run by another IG tea friend so I was picking mugs/teas based on that challenge.

This year I’m just choosing the mugs based on why I want to highlight, but I am secretly (ie. I haven’t officially said this on IG) trying to pair up a tea to each mug I choose. The first day I did the Chinese Matcha from Bitterleaf that I just reviewed with a mug with green gloops on it. This was the tea for October 2nd, and I picked it out because the mug was shark themed. So, tropical tea inspired by a country with sharks. You get the idea, hopefully.

The tea itself was pretty nice! Definitely has an oiliness in mouthfeel from the fat that’s steeped out of the coconut pieces, but it didn’t really bother me. The taste is a little bright and sharp before those creamier coconut notes really hit. Definitely a punch of tropical mango, but not necessarily in tandem with sweetness. Don’t worry, though, the sweetness does eventually come in the after taste in the form of a heavy, lingering and mouth coating licorice root note. Not a favourite flavour of mine, and not super well integrated into the rest of the profile IMO.

The rooibos is also pretty strong, with a distinct woody character. I like rooibos, but because it’s so prominent I probably wouldn’t recommend this blend to someone more sensitive to those mineral notes of red rooibos.

It’s not a bad blend at all, but there’s just some qualities that I found a touch rough around the edges. Personally, I would reach for DT’s Mango Sunset over this one since both are mango and coconut rooibos blends. I just think the green rooibos in the DT blend is less abrasive and though the DT blend is certainly much sweeter overall I do think that sweetness is better integrated. Obviously I have a HUGE bias, though.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW4EfjBI4bk

Gongfu!

The mouthfeel on this oolong is so smooth and buttery, with a velvety fullness that suits the highly aromatic mix of creamy white florals, coconut oil, vanilla, candied lilac blossoms, and hint of sweetgrass. Quite naturally sweet, and the kind of oolong that pulls you in and has you brewing the next infusion before you’ve finished sipping on the one in front of you!

This teacup was part of this recent Camellia Sinensis order, and I could not stop staring at it during this session. I mean, the tea liquor practically had a golden glow to it what with all those yellow and brown earth-tones from the interior of the cup bouncing around in it! Makiko’s work is always breathtaking, and I’m stoked to have another of her pieces in my teaware collection!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPKVVG8EnqG/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ERH52dK5L8

Gongfu!

I stopped by Parcours Ceramique this weekend and picked up this gorgeous kyusu from Chao Ceramica and teacup from Natanya Nerenberg – even though they have different finishes, I think they work pretty well together as a set!! For my first time brewing with both, I’m steeping up a session of Gyokuro Asanoka (from a recent tea order) paired with some fresh figs, white chocolate with different embedded fruits and nuts, & some red wine infused goat cheese!

I’ve been a lot more exploratory with gyokuro lately, and this was probably one of the best I’ve tasted. It was really rich and unctuous with such strong, well-defined notes of sweet corn, hazelnut oil, and fresh summer peaches with an overarching brothy, umami top note. With the expansion of the green tea, the pot ended up being the PERFECT size for this cup, and all of my little treats made such good nibbles between each steep. Goat cheese and gyokuro is one of my favourite tea and cheese pairings because of how it draws out the buttery notes of the tea, and I found the white chocolate and assorted nuts only doubled down on that aspect!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DPMvXrdEod7/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrXzvVQBRMo

I’m still finishing off the ridiculous amount of green tea I bought this spring. Camellia Sinensis had two versions of Meng Ding Gan Lu this year, this being the first. The product description matched the one on this page almost exactly, so I’m including my tasting note here. I steeped 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded.

The dry aroma is of nuts, bread, sweet corn, and flowers. The first steep has notes of hazelnut, bread, corn, kale, spinach, butter, and faint florals. This tea is fairly vegetal right off the bat. Further steeps reveal slightly more florals, plus grass, minerals, and what Togo calls lime. The tea is rather drying. The final steeps are grassy, nutty, mineral, and vegetal.

This is a nice enough green tea, but it gets too drying and vegetal to be a favourite. The hints of citrus and florals are fun, though.

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.

There’s a lot of ingredients in this blend, but most of them don’t come through in the taste very much. Instead it’s a really thick, muddy feeling liquor with strong notes of cocoa powder, cardamom, and a bit of a peppery kick to the finish. Not bad, but not super memorable either.