Charleston Tea Plantation

Edit Company

Recent Tasting Notes

Every Charleston Tea Plantation variety I have tried has been good quality, but without a lot of heft. In this case, that worked well, as I got distracted (who, me? Oh, look, a bunny!) and left this bag to steep a good 8-10 minutes. Not a lick of bitterness. Instead, it’s a very pleasant, Ceylon-ish base with genuine cinnamon stick flavor, not red-hot cinnamon.

The tagline of my favorite boss ever was, “I’d rather have a work horse than a show pony.” This tea is a gentle workhorse; a fine addition to the stable.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

70

My parents were in Charleston so I asked them to pick me up some tea if they saw some. Unfortunately, the only thing they found were tea bags. While it isn’t astounding, it is much better than I expected. The dry leaves do not look like dust from the floor. There is a fair amount of stem and leaf it appears. We’ll play with it later to verify. The liquor aroma is decent. Slightly reminds me of some Indian teas. Slightly bready, a bit metallic, and somewhat woody. The taste is mid-range for tea bags. Not the best I’ve had but better than Lipton. You could drink it with milk/sugar. A lemon would probably be nice. The taste is somewhat like the liquor aroma I was correct in my assumption about the stems. They aren’t big but their color is quite noticeable against the darker leaves. IT is CTC but it seems different compared with India CTC. A decent brew but probably wouldn’t buy again.

ashmanra

There are several good teas from this company. They were bought by Bigelow a while back. I have purchased a few of their loose leaf teas and the peach one is very nice, both hot and iced. They have changed their name to Charleston Tea Garden.

ashmanra

The peach tea is now named “Peachy Peach.”

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

67

For the sipdown prompt, “a tea from a US company.” Prepared cold brew.

This last Tuesday, I held a presentation at the library where I work as part of our adult Summer Reading program line-up on U.S.-grown tea. Hopefully over the next several days I’ll manage to finally get down my thoughts on each of the four teas that I covered and provided as samples to the attendees. This was the green tea from the line-up, and the only one of the four that was offered cold brewed during the presentation.

Both the cold brew I’m currently drinking in my water bottle and the cold brew that was prepared for the presentation on Tuesday used a 3 teabag per liter ratio, though the tea made for the presentation had a very precise 8 hour steep (teabags went in at beginning of shift, out at end of shift) and what I’m drinking now cold brewed a bit longer in the fridge. On Tuesday, I found the tea slightly bracing with more of a gunpowder/hyson sort of flavor profile, that dry grass/hay mixed with smoke note. This longer steeped cold brew is instead very rich in grassy and vegetal green notes. Wet, squishy green grass and mixed asparagus/spinach. Still a little bracing on the aftertaste.

Not my favorite green, but honestly not that bag for teabag green, where I’ve had a lot worse than this. While I don’t typically sweeten my cold brew, this one may be a candidate since I’m not using much leaf and it’s still coming off a little stronger and more biting than I prefer my greens.

Flavors: Asparagus, Astringent, Grass, Hay, Smoke, Spinach, Spring Water, Vegetal

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 3 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML
Leafhopper

Sounds like a fun presentation! Did the participants enjoy the teas?

Mastress Alita

I think so. Of course not every person enjoyed every tea (I mean, what would be the point of taste testing otherwise?) and at least one was upset there was no caffeine-free option (I had to drop one of the two herbal infusions due to budget and felt yaupon was more “uniquely US”). If the library ropes me into it again, I may just do herbals next time. :-)

gmathis

How fun! I’ve never had the opportunity to do an adult tea demo, other than sticking samples under coworkers’ noses.

Leafhopper

I’m sure it would be hard to find “uniquely U.S.” herbals. (The only “uniquely Canadian” herbal I can think of is Labrador tea.) If there’s a next time, you could always just say you’ll be making caffeinated teas.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

66

A friend from postcrossing sent me this tea among a New Year card (received much earlier)! Thank you Benjamin from South Carolina, USA!

I needed to wake up call after another passed exam and for studying for another exam. It’s hard to have all of them so close to each other, but now only 4 are remaining, and three weeks of exam period. Luckily, at least two of them will be in summer term too; so I don’t have to worry that much about those two. But, naturally I would like to pass them all in time.

Anyway to the tea…
It’s very nice that they have used pyramid sachet, but they should know a better quality tea can be there… it’s mostly dust and fannings, which made me a bit sad.

The aroma was very nice, autumn leaf pile and barnyard, that typical for black teas, enjoyable and I knew it is going to be strong and hopefully tasty tea. Hmm. It seems it wasn’t delivered well into taste as I got, instead of baked bread, typical black tea tannic taste. It actually tasted like an quite cheap tea, somewhere between Lipton Yellow label and Twinings basic black teas.

What a shame it isn’t more complex; although it has been fun to try US produced tea, which lacks depth, but isn’t that bad as I was a bit afraid of! I can understand being it produced for sweet part of market, for people who are drinking tea only with sugar added and/or milk. For that, I reckon it will be a delicious and better than Lipton. But on its own… it’s 66. Above average, but just a tiny bit.

Song pairing (to write a note):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0pQTEhj8A

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Barnyard, Tannic

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 300 ML
ashmanra

This tea plantation is only a few hours from me, but I have never been! Maybe soon!

gmathis

The plantation also has a few more upscale blends that are better quality. I think I have tried a couple, but I can’t remember which ones.

Martin Bednář

Ashmanra, as it is that close to you, I thought you were there! It seems like a nice place to visit.
gmathis Yep, as I was lurking around their website, I saw a few blends that sounds better. I was just sad seeing pyramid sachet and not a better tea in.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

70

The tea was decent for tea grown in the US, but I didn’t like how the taste was overpowered by raspberry. I like to actually be able to taste the tea leaves. I think people who don’t like traditional teas as much and prefer strong fruity or berry flavors might like this tea , but it was a bit too strong for me.

Flavors: Raspberry

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Plantation peach tea
Smelled like peach. Taste lingers. Not much of a big fan of peach. But if you don’t mind peaches the tea is quite peachy.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

The smell of tea leaves is quite pleasant. The color is caramel looking. Overall the tea in a way is sweet like raspberry but subtle. I really enjoyed it. I’d recommend 10/10.

Flavors: Raspberry, Tea

ashmanra

I almost bought this one. This review makes me wish I had! Fortunately, it is available online so now I can give it a try.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85

I really enjoyed this tea. I love peach flavored things but a lot of places make the peach too sweet, too strong, or too fake. This tea does a really good job of giving a real peach flavor without overwhelming you with peach. I also enjoyed it hot which I wasn’t expecting because I usually like iced peach tea.

Flavors: Peach

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80

This tea is absolutely wonderful. The taste is exactly like a fresh raspberry and is extremely refreshing. It has a fruity refreshing taste without being too sweet or too bitter which is why I really enjoy it.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85

This first time a had this tea was during an afternoon tea outing on a brisk Winter afternoon, and it was the perfect juxtaposition to the chilly weather. I had it more recently during our tea tasting in class and had the opportunity to prepare it for everyone. It’s so much more enjoyable to be able to take the time to boil the water to just the right temperature for you, to fill the bowl of the teapot so that the bottom is covered with the beautiful dry leaves, and then after brewing you get to see how they have transformed and swelled with water.
The fragrance of this tea is a great enhancement and adds a moreish quality, the flavor is deep and earthy with more of a raspberry aftertaste. In fact, the lingering aftertaste is my favorite part.

Flavors: Grass, Raspberry

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 15 sec 3 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

85

I really enjoyed the raspberry taste. It wasn’t too bitter for me, which is a big thing for me when deciding if I like a tea or not.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 5 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

50

Another basic green tea. No intense or complex notes just vaguely green and vegetal. There wasn’t a lasting mouthfeel either which makes me wonder about quality. There were no “island” notes nor did I find any hay or lasting bitter greeness.

Flavors: Green, Smooth, Vegetal

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

50

I didn’t like this one either, the tea flavor didn’t last in your mouth but the artificial peach flavor did.

Flavors: Artificial, Peach

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

35

We tried this in class, it was okay I am just not a fan of fruity teas.

Flavors: Caramel, Fruity, Raspberry, Red Fruits

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75

A solid English style black tea. Brewed a large pot in the Western style, and enjoyed the taste without cream or sugar. Definitely worth checking out for casual drinking or for less sophisticated tastes.

Flavors: Floral, Fruity, Tea

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 7 tsp 48 OZ / 1419 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

36

When things say island it elicits the thoughts of tropical fruits, beaches, the ocean etc. Nothing about this tea shouts island to me besides the fact that it was made on an island. I honestly find it a bit bland. Greenish should at least have some grassy flavors but this… maybe some hay?

Preparation
4 min, 45 sec 1 tsp

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80

Mmm, this is delicious! The base tea has a rich, bready flavor that mixes perfectly with the pop of sweet, juicy peach. Not sure what the difference is, but the loose leaf version is SO MUCH better than the bagged one.

Flavors: Bread, Peach

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

I made myself a cup of this like an hour ago and completely forgot I was steeping it for a solid chunk of time and was expecting it to taste awful. I quick took it out of my Ingenuitea and it was fine… I’m convinced its impossible to oversteep this tea!

The black base definitely shines through a little more than usual and the raspberry becomes more of an undertone but it’s still a nice cuppa.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

Always a favorite. I think I didn’t steep it for long enough this round but it’s still wonderful as always.

Flavors: Raspberry

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

This one will probably always be a favorite. I generally like it iced but this morning I needed something cozy to keep me awake. I’m getting towards the bottom of the tin and the raspberry flavor is not as strong as it once was.

Flavors: Fruity, Raspberry

Preparation
1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

I think this is my favorite flavored black. The raspberry notes are strong and it makes for a great hot tea and a great iced tea.

Preparation
1 tsp

Login or sign up to leave a comment.