Capital Tea Ltd.

When I first opened this packet the scent of the dry leaves was very intense, with sharp, bright, notes that seemed almost harsh and pungent at first, but mellowed to notes of grape, lemon, spicy, earthy, biscuit notes with a hint of woody sandalwood.

The leaves are fairly large, and are mostly various shades of brown, with some sage to olive green silvery tips.

Because of the intensity of the dry leaf scent I used slightly less leaf than I normally do and instead used 1 tsp/225ml which I brewed at 3 minutes at 90*c.

The tea brewed to a copper amber colour. The scent of the brewed tea was awesome with hints of fruity white wine, lychee, pink grapefruit, spice( fall leaves mixed with carnation), with a hint of biscuit underneath.

The first flavour note was bright and fruity, followed by biscuit with a fall leaf note accompanied by a light astringency that opens to fruit notes of wine, grapefruit , a hint of melon, and a light syrupy note. I found this to be a relatively smooth and bright darjeeling.

The tea finishes with a bright clean feeling in the mouth that fades to a spicy note that lingers in the mouth. The fruit and spice dominate over the earthy tones.

The 2nd steep at 4 minutes produced a smooth, and a bit heavier and deeper flavoured liquor with spicy, leaf note, over more distinct, wine note with slight woody sandalwood. nutty note, followed by citrus notes and syrup.

A 3rd steep at 5min was slightly floral, with lychee, citrus, and syrup notes over faint sandalwood.

The spent leaves were entire and were mostly brown with some green ones.

Altogether this tea was very enjoyable and I could easily see myself keeping a little bit of it in my collection. Thanks again to Capital Tea Ltd. for this generous sample.

I just read the tasting note that I wrote about this tea a year ago – wow have my tastes changed. I rated it 95 and said LOVED IT – one of my fav black teas. Hmmmm I’ve tried a lot of black teas since then and this is no longer a 95 and no where near the top of my list of favorites.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a quality black tea. This is the 2nd 100g package that I’ve drank – so obviously I don’t dislike it, it’s just not special. Great tea for work – you can do anything to it and it doesn’t get bitter or astringent. Decently priced, afford to drink it everyday – that’s what this – fantastic everyday black tea. Yep – that’s how I feel, great affordable everyday tea, nothing really special though.

I’ve been drinking some of my teas from Capital Tea Ltd. and have been pretty impressed with them (I really should write some tasting notes).

I have this one with me a work tonight. OMG!!!! I LOVE IT!!!! I can’t explain what I like about it. It just seems to have the correct balance between a dark malty black, and a lighter astringent black. It’s different from most of the ones I’ve been drinking. This is way up there on my list of favorite black – like keep in your cupboard always.

Thank you yyz for recommending Capital Tea and this one specifically. :))

EDIT TO ADD – WOW – I highly recommend trying this at lower water temp longer steep. I just had a cup at about 90C for 7 minutes. WOW!!! Massive chocolate notes – zero astringency.

This tea is quite different than the Chinese blacks I’ve been drinking lately. For one thing the spent leaves are huge, with the one I measured being 5.5cm long or around 2.25 inches. Secondly it’s flavour profile reminds me a little bit of a cross between a Indian and a Taiwanese( I haven’t had many of these though) assam. It has the thick rich texture of an Indian assam, replete with malt and biscuit, combined with the bright fruit and spice notes, of mint, nutmeg and cinnamon I’ve had more in the Taiwanese versions. Really interesting and nice flavour notes which were not exactly what I was expecting as the dry leaf smells mostly of chocolate and cinnamon.

The leaves themselves look exactly like the picture, dark, thick, glossy and twisted. I used around 1.5 tsp for 225ml and brewed at around 95*C.

50s brewed to a rich reddish brown
scent: red fruit, malt, cinnamon, nutmeg note, hint of biscuit, honey,

flavour: fruit ( a cherry, currant like note), honey, malt, slight floral note, hint of chocolate, cinnamon and nutmeg.

faintly astringent, rich makes a nice breakfast tea,

45s above notes with a slightly minty fruit note (reminds me of creeping snowberry (northern peat bog plant with white berries tasting of blueberry and mint)). It’s smoother with more cocoa and a stronger nutmeg note. Feels cooling.

60s spice, nutmeg, cinnamon fruit, cocoa, malt fruit and honey.

90s faint fruit malt, biscuit, hint of cocoa.

Next time I’d like to try a longer western style brew to see what notes come out.

This was a really interesting tea that I think would make a nice breakfast tea. Thanks again to Capital Tea for their generous opportunity to sample this tea. http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=224&cat=6&page=1

I’m currently sipping steep number six of this tea and thinking about how different it is from my other Golden Monkey. While my other one is cocoa, jelly and violets. This one is more like a full meal with savoury notes of roasted sweet potato, butter, pepper, malt, and chestnut (in early steeps) blending with cocoa, honey, plum, cinnamon and longan ( which to me is kind of like a sharper tasting citrus lychee cross). When allowed to steep for longer steeps a slightly floral honeysuckle note comes out as well. In early steeps the sweet potato and cocoa notes are stronger and the tea is sweeter, but as you continue to steep the longan notes become stronger. This tea has tightly rolled leaves with about 30% golden tips which smell of sweet potato, and sweet cocoa, bubbles appear on top of the liquor when you brew it and the liquor is a orangish brown with tints of green. As the wet leaves unroll the long furry hairs are quite apparent on the leaves. I’ve steeped this tea using both longer steeps and shorter steeps and am enjoying the blend of flavours the shorter steeps bring out. Altogether a nice comforting tea for winter with great warming notes and a variety of flavours. Thanks again to Capital tea Ltd. for providing me with such a generous sample!
http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=154&cat=6&page=1

donkeytiara ’s interest in assams made me want to revisit this one. Not much more to say from my last review http://steepster.com/yyz/posts/194229, except that it has aged really well. It still has really good red fruit, spice and biscuit notes. It does taste a little bit more syrupy to me. Perhaps I used more leaf?

Anyways I still thoroughly enjoy it and would restock it.

This is a really elegant well balanced assam. It is not in your face with strong bitter malt notes, but rather a well made tea that presents a smooth mix of the fruit, cocoa, malt, spice, biscuit and floral notes that assams often have.

The dry leaf has a cocoa, molasses, floral scent, with rich brown leaves scattered with gold. After 3 minutes at around 94* C. The tea is a deep copper red colour with a scent of spice, red fruit, malt, cocoa, baked goods, and spicy floral.

The tea tastes smooth and elegant with a medium body, with a sweet flavour with notes of light biscuit, blackberry and cherry, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, light floral note, and malt.

It re-steeps really well with cocoa and malt notes strengthening over the sweet fruit spice and biscuit notes.

A really good example of a well made assam.

Revisiting this tea this morning, it has developed a yam tone and has a great floral spicy gardenia note mixed with ginger, cocoa and a good dose of malt, mixed with honey and red fruits. The spiciness seems to have increased as it’s aged. It’s not quite as fruity as when I first opened it, but right now its a lovely warming cup and a great way to start the day. The last time I resteeped it 5 times so I look forward to spending more time with it this morning.

This tea is quite lovely well made Assam that is lighter and more fruity than the Borsapori Assam I have from Capital Tea.

This one smells like dark chocolate mixed with molasses ginger cookies, with allspice. The dry leaves are twisted shorter fat dark brown leaves with lots of shiny furry rich golden tips, which produce a beautiful dark golden red copper coloured clear tea.

It smells of a fruity plum and berry mix, honey, chocolate, and spice(almost like it had a pinch of Chinese five spice powder with nutmeg) with a light spicy floral note.

It tastes smooth with a bright sweet top note of honey, fruit and a little bit of the top note of malt, then a brief floral note, followed by slightly bitter note of malt, molasses and chocolate. It has a mild astringency. The fruit has a jammy/compote note of stewed fruit mixed with spice.

It re-steeps really well (I’m on the fifth steep) with honey an bright fruit notes ( lychee and citrus) mixing with spice and malt, with a light floral. The aftertaste is of milk chocolate mixed with floral spice and a bit of citrus.

I quite enjoyed this tea it make a nice afternoon tea. It is a little lighter in body than some of my Assams. I brewed the first steep at 3.5 minutes at around 90*C. I think I might try it a lower temperature to minimize astringency. The fruity spicy notes in this tea are quite nice and memorable. Once again thanks very much to Capital tea for providing me with this very generous sample.

http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=207&cat=1&page=1

Cloud an mist teas tend are grown at mid to higher altitudes in areas with high humidity and less sunshine as a result of high cloud cover through out the years. This video is a nice introduction to the manufacturing of this style of tea:

I really enjoyed this tea. It seems like a nice green to take into winter as it had a nice body and a good depth and variety in its flavour with a good mix of floral and fruity sweetness, nuttiness, and sweet and bitter vegetal notes combined with a really nice sparkling brightness.

The dry leaves smell bright and sweet with a green pea scent and a hint of tartness. The leaves are tightly twisted forest to earthy green leaves with silvery straw coloured furry buds.

After 45s brewed in an open gaiwan at about 175*F I had a pale golden yellow green tinted broth, with a sweet scent with hints of fresh hulled peas, chestnut, and sweet honeysuckle floral. The tea had a clean taste. The broth was silky to buttery with a first note that was nutty to bitter green that opened up to sweet pea, with light floral and herbal notes (faint basil), with a hint of brightness that was slightly fruity hinting at orange. A light astringency created a fresh and sparkling sensation in the mouth. There was a sweet green, floral aftertaste that lingers. A lower temperature and a little less leaf might reduce the astringency and increase the focus on the teas sweetness. The Wet leaf smelled of chestnuts.

The tea has enough body and depth to the flavour that it is a nice green to take into winter. It had a nice level of caffeine that left me feeling pleasantly alert.

After a 60s brew the tea smelt of sweet floral spice with chestnut underneath. It tasted very sweet at first and was creamy and silky opening up to bright freshness, with a sweet fresh green note (like eating green pea pods) with fruit notes merging into a floral orange blossom note. Chestnut was lightly present underneath. The floral fruity green aftertaste lingers. The tea scent had floral, herbal, green notes as it cooled.

Later steeps (70, 80, 90, 110s) had a sweet floral scent and tasted of plum, orange, light bitter green, floral and chestnut notes.

This particular tea is from Hunan, China and was provided as a very generous and much appreciated sample by Capital Tea Ltd http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=225&cat=5&page=1 . I look forward to future experimentation with this tea and am definitely interested in purchasing some more once I work through at least one of the greens I currently have in my cupboard.

This is getting old. Very tasty still, but old. That’s fine, because it’s almost the last of my straight Assam black teas. I think I still have my Sloane Assam left.
Today, this one is especially good because I added a pinch of first flush Darjeeling. Mmmmmmm. And honey. Lots of honey, since I’m recovering from Strep throat! Oh man, I’ve never appreciated my honey more.
As for the actual tea, I’m getting used to the smokiness, and figuring out the delicate nuances, in how it differs from one cup to another. Except now I find I can’t have this without my extra Darj. Nevermind. It’s been a great ride :)
and of course I love my Assams, but I find myself in the mood to explore lately. So I think I’ll back-burner them for awhile. Maybe I’ll buy one/two instead of my usual rotation of three or four I need to reorganize my stash first, and start a serious sipdown pile.
Anyhow, off to get some work done. Dang I love working from home. (although the main benefit is that of drinking endless tea, which I can’t do at the moment for fear of my dampened buds ruining the taste. Ah well!)

I think I prefer this without milk??! an assam without milk, it just feels so wrong!
It’s crisp and fresh, floral and just a little malty. With all those letters attached, it’s no wonder why :)
A la dairy, it’s a little smoky, and I’m not sure I like that.
The kind gent from Capital Teas gifted this to me and I plan to cherish every spoonful. Though I need to indulge a few more cups before deciding on a rating.

1.5 tablespoons for 375 ml

Very light flavour. Little to no flavour on the sip. Slightly broth-y mouth-feel. Floral notes in aftertaste. Grapefruit-y note in aftertaste.

As the tea cools, I’m detecting a bit of a fresh hay note on the sip.

I may want to experiment with the infusion parameters.

Rating: 77

This is definitely a great example of an Assam. It is deep in flavour and very malty, with an astrigency that only hit after I was more than halfway through my cup. It brewed to a beautiful dark brown and I’d almost forgotten that an Assam could actually taste this way after a few weaker ones I’ve had lately. The first sips took me by surprise, they were so full of flavour.

That said, apparently I’m not the biggest Assam fan right now in my tea journey. I used to love them but I know despite this being an absolutely amazing quality tea, I just won’t be reaching for it. So, it is up for trade. If you’re interested, just drop me Steepster message! I’m not rating it solely because its my personal tastes and not the quality that would give it a lower number.

Very light and astringent.

sipdown! and thanks to raritea for this one. While this IS a green oolong, it’s also jsut kinda hanging out being a slightly flavourful water. This is a tea that i could take or leave but will never drive me to hating it OR loving it. it’s just kind of there…

Borsapori Estate has a sustainable farm certification given by a
subsidiary of the Rainforest Alliance, which means that it meets
certain standards with regards to fair and ethical treatment of its
workers and he surrounding community, does not employ child labour, and
has introduced several standards with regards to environmental and
wildlife proection, conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. For more information see here:

http://sustaiablefarmcert.com/?page_id=172
http://sustainablefarmcert.com/?page_id=23&idD=1471
http://www.sanstandards.org/sitio/sections/display/2

The dry tea leaves are quite pretty with silvery dark grey brown with a
lot of golden tips that smell of chocolate and raisins. It brews to a
beautifully clear rosewood colour, and smells of milk chocolate and
spice (cinnamon) with a floral note. The tea tastes of bitter sweet
and milk chocolates. It is a smooth tea with little to no astringency.
The tea also has a powdery floral note and a hint of cinnamon and
sandalwood. This Assam has a strong flavour without the astringency,
and leaves afreshening feeling towards the back of the mouth. The tea
develops a faint fruity note such as ripe plum as it cools sweetening
the tea a little, however chocolate remains the dominant note. The
aftertaste is of milk chocolate with a slightly bitter note, and a
cinnamon floral.

The second steep is a little bit more fruity with the chocolate, floral spice remaining dominant. It is quite a nice tea and is robust enough that It will hold up well to milk. I however pretty well always take my tea black.

A very pleasant black tea, having strong hints of dark chocolate along with undertones of sweetness. An alluring tannic taste is also present. It can become bitter if brewed too long, however, on the first infusion.

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, boiling, 45 sec.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, boiling, 4:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, boiling, 10+ min.

Strong bergamot balanced nicely with a creamy bouquet, very nice when Earl Grey is what you crave!

Bleh! Not for me!

I was excited to try this, only to discover that I just don’t like plain chamomile as much as I thought.