Canton Tea Co

Picked from old trees in Yunnan, much larger buds than other white teas.
Da Bai Hao, or ‘Big White Bud’, is a very famous tea varietal. It gets its name from the very long soft buds, covered in fine white hairs. It is cultivated extensively in Fujian province to produce White Teas such as Silver Needle, but old trees grow semi-wild in Yunnan. The buds are dried and baked to make a tea similar to Silver needle Pekoe, but much larger and with a more pronounced aroma – the result of picking from old trees, not cultivars. 
 (from the Canton site)

5/24/14

2013 from Jinggu, Yunnan, China
Dry leaf – Huge long silver needles!!! Scent is a little more complex though,,,a note like a tomato with sugar on it (if anyone eats that). The leaves are so soft, like velvet, and large enough that I could pick up and feel on my cheek and lip how fuzzy soft they were.

Brewed this Western style at 185F
6 grams tea (filled the whole basket up) and 500 ml water/2 cups

Steeped 3”

Wet leaf- the most huge silver needle buds I have ever seen,,,,but more complex smelling than silver needle. Smell like Ya Bao with notes of subtle persimmon thrown in with the creamy white tea notes. The buds could still open up a bit more too so this one will be good for re-steeping.

Liquor- a light pearl, pale gold color with scents of light persimmon.

Flavor- Sugar, tomato, persimmon, cream.
VERY complex and VERY delicious!!!!!!

Resteeped and still had lots of flavor and the same notes,, none of the notes had faded. Very good.

6/18/14
Tasting some more of this today and it definitely tastes wild. It has that complexity and wild bud flavor to it. It tastes like Sheng that I’ve had.
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7/22/14
Drinking the last of this today. So interesting,,,so like sheng. Love how large and fuzzy the leaves are. Will have to order more of this next time if they offer some more from the next year.

I received this in a swap a while back. Thanks to the sender as it is a unique tea. I brought this one out to brew in a ceramic infuser cup. I gave it a 10 second soak to loosen it up a bit.
I has a nice aroma of hay and pine to it when I opened the lid up. It gave a decent color to the brew. It has light hints of smoke albeit somewhat subdued and hints of fresh hay on the palate.
It seems to be a pretty nice tea not strong and overpowering but enough of the hay, pine and touch of smoke with nice color that made it an enjoyable experience. I may just have to pick some of this up to add to the ever growing puerh stock I have.
If I can sneak it in the door……

I thought I would try this one for Mother’s Day weekend!!!
What a beautiful herbal!! It gets 100 for presentation!!!
The salted pink flowers smell like salty plumb-scented candy. They are so pretty!!! Shimmery, light pink flowers.
I included the instructions in the tea notes. You pre-soak the flowers in 140F water for 5 minutes to remove the salt. Then you drain that (and keep that liquid to flavor with) then infuse the flowers in a teacup with boiling water for 3 minutes.
The flowers in the water look like little pink fairy dresses,,,tutus,,,so beautiful how they wisp thru the water. The scent is a sweet plumb liquor.
After the flowers have soaked in the boiling water a while, they open like new and turn themselves and the water a light pale pink.
I added a teaspoon of the salted liquid to the flower water and that was perfect for me. It tasted like slightly sweet, but mostly salted plumb candy.
While drinking, the petals sort of melt in your mouth. They are so delicately thin.
This was such a fun experience!!!!!! I am honored to get to try this lovely drink from Japan.

5/9/14
OK,,instantly addicted to Puerh now!!!! This is my first cake and I love this little one!! I am aging this cake but decided to brew the loose leaves and chisel off a few more for one gong fu session. I got a puerh pick so I could keep the leaves whole and intact.
The cake is from Jing Gu county of Simao, Yang Ta village, China.
The dry leaves are dark brownish-forest green with whitish creamy colored ones mixed in.

Not gonna rate this tea because I am still learning about puerh and will be coming back to this one from time to time and drinking a bit more as it ages. But it tastes interesting and good so that’s all I need to know!!!!
I used 200F water and 3 tsp leaves in my little 4 ounce pot.

1. 20 seconds – rinse
2. 20 seconds- subtle smoke, smooth; liquor is champagne pearl color
3. 20 seconds- wet leaves smell like slightly sweet tobacco as does the liquor. There is a blue poppy seed flavor with smoke and a touch of cream.
4. 20 seconds- the leaves are really open and expanded now. They are very large leaves and then there are buds like silver needle in with them. This cake is made from the varietal Camellia Taliensis and the leaves are white tippy and very large. This is my favorite steeping,, it has subtle smoke with white tea cream qualities, the blue poppy seed, a hint of tobacco.
5. 25 seconds- smoky white tea cream flavor with a tiny tiny bit of astringency coming out now and a tiny tiny bit of bitter.

I live in the desert so I have been reading about storage for puerh a lot. I definitely have low humidity covered but I hope my cake has enough humidity for the organisms to live. There is humidity in the desert, just not tons,,so I think I should be fine.
I will check back here from time to time and date my entries so I can see the tea’s progression :)
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5/17/14
Had some more of this today. 200F 15" rinse then 3 more 15" steeps,,,(last two were at about 180F). Caught a bit of vanilla today, a tangy note like a white raspberry, mulberry, and the sweet tobacco is still coming thru. Lots of layered flavor. Once the leaves open up after about 5 steepings, there is a bit of astringency to cleanse your palette.
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7/1/14
Broke off a bit more today to try. I need to leave this alone to age bc it keeps getting better but I keep drinking it lol.
195F 4 oz gong fu porcelain pot
10" rinse
15"
25"
Flavors are smoky cream with a touch of honey and a touch of tamarind bitter.
There are lots of buds and young leaves in this cake. Giving off a touch of Se Wei but it is mellowing out each time I try it.

Making it in a teapot this time around. The resultant experience is still superb but quite different from the gaiwan. This time it is thick and fruity, reminding me of bread and butter pudding with a slight note of custard on the side. I really like this tea.

Making myself take time out from my revision schedule to spend quality time with my beloved, I decided it would also be a good opportunity to sample this tea, which a good friend sent me. The leaves are thick, fuzzy and curly, ranging from almost white, through green to a brownish olive green colour. The dry leaf has a sweet earthy aroma with caramel overtones. It already does not feel like a normal white tea.

I brewed the tea in a gaiwan because my teapot had not been washed from my Lapsang binge this afternoon and I am rather glad I did. The experience was much enhanced by this. The steeped liquor is amber in colour with a strong floral aroma and a definite citrus edge to it. It tastes silky sweet and floral, with a hint of caramel and that citrus edge comes through to cut the other flavours and produce a very different experience for a white tea. The aftertaste is phenomenal. It is sweet and citrussy but goes on forever. The sweetness leaves after a while but the taste of fresh, sweet tangerines remains even almost an hour after finishing the cup. Better yet, this is a whole body tea infused with a sense of well-being and relaxation. As I drank the tea I could feel this week’s crap melting away. I really needed something like this and am so glad I picked the right tea.

This is a truly superb tea that deserves a quiet contemplative moment if you are to enjoy it to the full. Don’t worry if you don’t have the time because the tea will grab you and massage you into submission. This is no shrinking violet. It is a firm yet compassionate nanny that will take proper care of you. It is not cloying like some white teas can be and it has so much more depth than many teas. It rewards care and the attention you pay to it. I so need more of this.

Yay, sipdown. I emptied the last of my sample packet (probably 5-6 grams) into my tempered glass pitcher. By now it’s more than two years old (I know, I know) so the quality’s degraded quite a bit, but it’s still serviceable.

One less tea in my cupboard. Small victories!

Smooth, buttery, spinachy, and slurpable, just the way I like my greens. A bit like the mao feng and jade cloud/cloud and mist specimens I’ve tasted, but there’s something about this one that I like even better. (This is the first mao jian I’ve tried, I believe, so my comparison may be lacking.) It’s a solid, unfussy tea that has lifted my spirits without having to pay very close attention to it. The fact that it tastes great even though it’s not super-fresh and I used hard unfiltered tap water makes me like it even more. At only £5 for 50 grams, I predict I’ll be buying more of this in the not too distant future.

Super good! It’s light and sweet and slightly nutty and just tastes so good.

My first Bai Mu Dan! I’ve previously only tried Adagio’s Silver Needle. This is yummy and light, fresh and slightly sweet. It leaves my mouth feeling clean. I feel like I could drink this all day and feel relaxed and happy.

This is an old Canton Tea Club sample that I’ve tried before but forgot to review. Luckily I have just enough left to write some quick notes with. Usually my husband would be joining me but tonight he’s riding the Jack Daniels train and I can’t drink on my medication.

The leaves are very dark brown almost black with a few golden tips present. They are long and thin for the most part, guessing an average of 8mm long. They have a smoky, damp wooden scent with a dry leather like presence.

Steeping in my gaiwan using 6g of leaves and roughly 160ml of water.

First Steep – 20 seconds
Light yet sweet and fruity with malt tones. I’m tasting honey also. Fruit wise all I can think of is apricot which is unusual for a black tea.

Second Steep – 40 seconds
Light but still flavourful. Floral wise I say it reminds me of orchid, but also still getting the malt and apricot tones too. Also a little dry in the after taste.

Third Steep – 60 seconds
Carrying on in flavour nicely though it’s starting to become more subtle. I’m really starting to like the orchid and apricot combo, unusual but refreshing.

Fourth Steep – 80 seconds
Definitely the end of tonight’s steeps, it’s now very delicate and a little sour. All that remains is the apricot and honey.

For the most part this tea remained consistent in flavour throughout steeps. It never became astringent and though it became a little dry towards the end it was more than acceptable. While I am not overly keen on light black teas I found this particular one to be full of flavour and very enjoyable. Sad to see this one go.

The dry tea leaves smell like sorghum and are pretty tiny and twisted with a few golden colored ones among the mix.
This smells sweeter than it tastes. It does have notes of malt, chocolate, and a touch of orange pith because it has a tiny bitter note but not an unpleasant bitter.
This was a nice afternoon pick-me-up tea!!
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7/22/14
Tried this again Western style this morning. Can’t seem to brew this without bringing out bitterness. This is a hand made Orange Pekoe from Amba Estate in Sri Lanka and so pretty to look at. I’m trying it again at a lower temp even though they suggest 203F.

Tried it one more time at 190F and still got strong bitter notes. :( Luckily I didn’t get a lot of this tea and it is gone. I feel badly that I was not able to bring out the notes that Canton brought out bc someone made this tea by hand and worked hard on it.

Fresh tea leaves with their distinctive speckled colors. Very delicious Oriental Beauty. This one is from Taiwan and I feel it is zippier and livelier than the couple of others I have tried. It is zingy and fresh. Besides the citrus zing, it has flavor notes of apricot, honey, a tad of maybe a woodiness? It is tea umami,,,Oriental Beauty is so hard to describe!
I keep using the word fresh with Canton teas because I feel I am getting the best representation of the teas from them,,,,, fresh teas that have just been packaged. I have been very impressed, I wish they were in my country :( :( :( :( :( but I am glad I tried them. Though I do wish I had ordered more tea because of that but I didn’t know how good it would all be to me!!
Also, I feel like their directions have a tad lower temperature for their teas which is good. At first I thought, am I not converting Celsius to Fahrenheit properly? But they are just very careful and have the perfect temperature and brew times to bring out the best of the teas.

The tea I have gotten from Canton is extremely fresh. These tea leaves smell like dark, unsweetened cocoa.
The liquor is definitely roasted flavor with dark, unsweetened cocoa notes. There are no sweet notes to this Da Hong Pao, it is very dominant in its roasted notes.
Has a great cream note and mouthfeel in the finish as well. Very delicious, this one is like dark coffee with cream and no sugar.

OH Wow! This is really wonderful!!!!! This tea has been roasted along with a bit of red cane sugar in the firing process. Red Cane is like a Muscovado, according to the Canton website. This black tea is sweet but not sickie sweet, it’s naturally sweet. There is no bitterness to the black tea. It smells like molasses but tastes like the top of a crème brülee which every time I find this in tea it just is the best!!!!
I never add anything to my teas so I love the sweetness of the sugar actually involved in the firing process. This is definitely a treat and special tea. Definitely worth getting more of this,,,this is a necessity in life!!!!
Oh and I also found on their website that the black tea used is Zheng shan xiao zhong (the same varietal used for Lapsang Souchong).

Second Steeping—Still delicious flavors and a touch less sweet (which they said it would be) but still a sweet and not bitter at all black tea. So good!!!

Third Steeping—Starting to lose its yum factor but still o.k…..I’d say that two sessions is what you can get from these particular leaves but maybe I could have left the leaves in the water a little longer (I only steeped for 3 minutes each time to keep leaves from turning bitter). Still such a delicious tea, I rarely get to a third steeping but that’s how good this is!!!!

5/14/14 — Oh Sugarcane Black,,,why are you so good?? I have to pay international shipping to get you :( Drinking some more today yum yum :)
I had a cup left because I had had another tea before that,,,so I put it in the fridge for iced tea later. When I had this chilled on ice,,,it was like the yummiest Southern sweet tea only with quality tea and not as sicky sweet as sweet teas can be. So delicious!!!!
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7/30/14
Having a cup Western style today. Sooooo good!!!! I usually don’t resteep this one now because the sugar effect gets washed away with the first but it is still a light smoky black tea with no sweetness if you do resteep.

Very fresh tea with spring green colored leaves, scents of mineral and spinach. Very light spring green color liquor that is very light and delicate as it is brewed at a lower temperature.
It is very cleansing and has a touch of astringency. It almost has a hint of jasmine but this is not a jasmine tea. It is supposed to have an “oily” liquor but I didn’t find that at all. I found it very clean.
LIght, fresh, and springy green tea.

This tea also has Se Wei (which is a term I just read about) which I have found in some younger white teas. It is a feeling of having a rough tongue, as astringency deploys, the taste buds contract and it can feel a bit itchy. It is very itchy in the back of the throat.

The tea leaves are very clean, beautiful, fresh, and green as if they just picked and dried them and they haven’t been stored,,just straight to your cup so that was very nice.
This is brewed at a low temp so it is very delicate and subtle in its flavors. This is a lovely, cleansing white tea.
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6/19/14
Dry leaves are silver needles mixed with sage green colored very young leaves. Gorgeous and delicate tea. Scents of spices and apricot.
Only had a tiny bit of sample leaf left so I brewed in a Pyrex cup at 170F for 3 minutes. Had about 1 tsp left so I used 1/2 cup water.
Liquor has a vanilla scent with subtle spice and apricot. It has a white pearl color.
Wet Leaf is so pretty. Baby leaves that have gone from the sage green to a lovely sea vegetable green color.
Flavor is very subtle. Light, refreshing, light light strawberry note. Not bitter at all.

My usual supply of Jasmine Pearls are coming from Jing, but because i had a rather huge discount with canton tea i ordered them with them. The basics are the same authentic jasmine pearls without artificial flavors.

These Pearls are a little bit bigger then those from jing but they smell the same, intense floral and fresh. I’m using only a small teaspoon of pearls in my 270ml teapot and steep them for 2m30 sec (my new standard time for greens).

The first cup is lighter green then the one from jing, smells intense like jasmine (as expected) and is light and clean in taste. The green tea is less robust then i’m used to but the jasmine is sweet, i like my first cup but finding it a bit week.

The second cup is steeped for 3m and because the pearls are more unfurled and opened the color is a bit darker green and way more intense and robust in taste. This is by far a better cup of jasmine for my taste.

The third cup is holding on the same as the second, so this tea is very good but i’m not sure if i can choose between jing or canton, they are different but well… overall almost the same!

This white tea has been sitting in my cupboard for way to long now. Time to start drinking from the rare Big White Bud tea. Actually its like silver needles, but bigger! When i say big i mean big, there almost double in size then the other Silver Needles i drank before from other company’s.

I start with one big teaspoon of these tips (big spoon because its a very difficult tea to get the amount right) in 80°c water and i steep it for 2m30sec. The liquor i get from this is a very pale yellowish tea. Actually you can compare this to a good white wine!

Taste wise its comparable to other silver needles but the taste is deeper and stays way longer in the mouth. I find it to be sweeter and more special.

Made a total of 3 brews from the same leafs and each infusion is slightly different, but the quality is very high.

a side note, the picture above is a cake but the leafs where loose in my package could’t find a better picture to show this tea.

This is the second lemongrass I’m trying from the box. This one is a herbal, and as such (I never drink herbals! I have no idea why. It might be the lack of actual tea. Is that elitist? Eli-tea-st? Are we even doing puns this month? I’m so out of touch.) I had no idea how to brew it, so I used Scheherezade’s steeping parametres – 4 minutes at boiling.

In the bag, this didn’t smell like anything specific, just a vaguely citrusy whole, but fairly subtle. Brewed, though, it’s half Fox lemon toffee and half lemongrass, which is somewhat confusing, seeing as that’s about as broad a representation on the artificial —> natural scale as is even possible. After I let the cup sit for a few minutes, the scent slid all the way into lemongrass territory, however – again, confusing, seeing as lemongrass equals food to me, rather than beverage. I’m expecting this to be a savoury broth, but it’s not.

The confusion prevails as I sip my way through this – my brain thinks it’s having a plain broth to cleanse the palate between courses, and it refuses to accept that we’re actually drinking tea. It’s looking forward to a scented towelette in the near future. It’s anxiously anticipating the green mango salad and also, if possible, something cashewy, please. Is this a fusion place? Are there fancy cocktails to be had? Are we on a date? If so, do we get to make out later? And when is that salad coming?

It’s good; I’m glad I got to try some. It’s just not teaful enough to suit me.

Thanks to KittyLovesTea for sharing!

[Sample from the second round of the EU Travelling Box, spring 2014.]

Just before Christmas I received a surprise letter from Canton tea which included a coupon for money off my next order and a 5g sample of their new Chocolate Tea. It was a very nice gesture and the tea was certainly appreciated so it has been lovingly stored for any day I want chocolate. That day is today.

Opening the packet released a pure chocolate scent, one of the most natural chocolate teas I have sniffed so far. I did note seeing chocolate chips amongst the blend too. It also had a vague vanilla after tone.

Steeped this via the recommended instructions.

First few sips reveal a malty and rather smoky black tea, smooth and silky in texture with a hint of sweetness. Not as chocolatey as it’s raw scent, in fact it’s more like cocoa nib, sour and strong with minimal sweetness. Not quite what I had in mind for Cantons so called luxurious Chocolate Tea.

I am liking the black tea base though, but I think it would be nicer without the sour chocolate. Maybe it’s just me but compared to someone like Della Terra’s chocolate teas this one is very subtle. I really was expecting more. If I was to do a blind taste test I would never have said chocolate, I would think it was just a nice black tea.

So while I really do like this black base tea (as my score will reflect) I don’t think it’s a nice chocolate tea due to the lack of actual chocolate flavour. Oh and I’m sure the vanilla will keep it smooth and creamy but in terms of flavour unfortunately the smoke element masks over it.

The dry leaf doesn’t smell of much, but when the hot water hits, it releases the citrusy aromas promised. The liquor is sweet, fruity, and smooth with a lovely, lightly floral aftertaste. There’s absolutely nothing bad I can say about this tea (except for a somewhat unpleasant tingle at the bottom of the throat, but it’s barely worth mentioning). Granted this is the first example of an Oriental Beauty I’ve tried, but I’m very impressed.

ETA: Second steep had an interesting lemony tartness, which was overtaken by woodiness in subsequent steepings.

I’m having this one again and this time I added a bit more leaf. It certainly brews up a lovely, dark cup once again. This cup has a bit more of a molasses kind of sweetness. It’s thick and has edges that resemble burnt sugar. It’s not really a milk caramel flavor, but one that is a little smokey, woody and wrapped up with that molasses. There are still earthy and bready flavors that pop out towards the end of the sip — mostly hay and sourdough bread, for me. The sweetness lingers on the tongue long after the cup is empty. Delicious!