Chicago Tea Garden

This tea is full of subtle flavors. I could taste a faint background taste that reminded me of cinnamon flavored cactus candy. Not exactly like it, but similar in an undefinable way. This tea changes flavors as you hold it in your mouth. The flavor is primarily the flavor of a good jade oolong, sweet without being really sweet, floral without tasting as though is were made of flowers. Incredibly delicious in a delicate way that has to be drunk slowly to be appreciated.

The color is pale gold and shimmery.

Ordered this a while back when it was a Steepster Select item, and it’s almost gone :( Must buy more, soon. The aroma, the refreshing taste, the lovely color, and the way the leaves unfurl to full size…all make this tea a winner.

Purchased this through the Steepster promo, and I must say that it lives up to the anticipation :) The color, aroma, and taste are fantastic – really high quality and the tea never tastes bitter. My favorite part may be, though, seeing the tea leaves in all their glory as they unfurl in my cup. This tea confirms for me that oolong is my favorite, and this is one of the best oolongs I’ve had. Thank you Chicago Tea Garden!

Haven’t been drinking much of hot tea, and instead lots of generic iced tea so I havent logged in quite a while. Oh well, it’s summertime. My sample came and since the house has been air conditioned I figured I could make some hot tea.

The tea smells nice, like oolong. Steeped first for 30 seconds and after waiting for it to cool down i can say it tastes very nice. It doesn’t have a very strong flavor, but it is quite soothing. I think I’m just too used to my Da Hong Pao flavor which is much stronger. It taste sort of grassy, but not in a bad way. I very much like this tea, but I do not think I would purchase it in the future.

I will try second and third infusions soon ;)

Edit: Second infusion came out with a much better flavor. It’s a very grassy-green taste but it’s not very overpowering and still is a soothing cup of tea. I liked the second infusion much better than the first.

Slight green, mostly straw colored with a nutty aroma and taste. Very nice.

12 oz water
4 g tea
30 second steep is what was rec’d on the card, so that’s what i did.

The dry leaves didn’t seem to have much aroma at all. The steep is light yellow in color. It has a slightly sweet aroma. It tastes a bit vegetal. But not really fresh. I don’t think i’m getting the complexities described in all the other reviews, or i’m just not that sensitive to the subtle flavors. This didn’t do it for me.

I just can’t rate this as highly as I was hoping, based upon other reviews. The favor is there, its a great tea, but It just doesn’t seem as good as some others.

reading for class and sipping this delicious cup of tea :)

bought this with the steepster deal a few days ago. I’ve only had a sample of this back when Tony opened Chicago Tea Garden, but it left quite the impression on me, as i’m always thinking back to this tea when trying out other Tie Guan Yins. The taste is very smooth,floral, fruity and just plain fantastic.

So, I’ve been playing with this tea

190°F
1:30 minute

that is the way to make this tea, smooth, floral, delicious!

it’s pants are only kicked by coconut pouchong in this category

Steep Information:
Amount: 25g
Water: 750ml filtered water at 195°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL (Oolong, custom)
Steep Time: 1 minute
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: tropical, fruity, sweet, milk oolong
Steeped Tea Smell: fruity, sweet, milk oolong
Flavor: sweet, smooth, milky, vegetal
Body: Light
Aftertaste: sweet
Liquor: translucent pale yellow green

Wow! look at how much those leaves expanded! I kept the leaves in the refrigerator when I ran off to work in order to try a resteep or two when I get home tonight. I was tempted to try a cold brew but needed to run for my train.

I think I need to tweak with the steeping parameters, it’s a bit weak, I may try a little longer or a little hotter.

Overall even weak it was fruity and smooth and enjoyable. With current steeping parameters I would not buy more of this flavor, but would enjoy what I have and gladly select it when out. I am hoping it improves with tweaking.

I think sweetener would overpower the tea.

The packaging was beautiful and very well done. There was a pamphlet, a booklet, and a box. The box was textured black with slashes of green on the inner box that you could see through the cut outs on the side. Inside the box was a miniature brochure and a tin that was also textured. Inside the tin was a resealable vacuumed packaged bag that was also textured! I’m grateful for all the information included as well by the Chicago Tea Garden.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/07/chicago-tea-garden-loose-leaf-oolong.html

12 oz water
4 g tea

dark amber steep in color. The aroma is sweet. The flavor does have a bit of malt, but overall i’m not getting a real strong overwhelming flavor out of the tea. Not bitter.

A little disapointing. Flavor was mild. Slightly sweet. Didn’t detect the vanilla notes. As the tea cooled, more flavor became apparent, but still very mild.

Trying this one as a sample, with my recently purchased Tie Guan Yin. I followed the steeping directions, though I was worried the flavor would be weak after only 30 seconds. It is perfect :) The jasmine is light, just a hint of scent, and not at all overpowering

There is absolutely 100% no way that I should be drinking anything with caffeine in it at this time of night, but I could not help myself. I had a super-rich dinner of pasta with Lambrusco di Sorbara (I was wining and dining myself — tonight it was me, a bottle of sparkling wine, a carbohydrate overdose, and my writing!)…and…

I just wanted this.

The clean, fresh, earthy pu’erh piping hot sticky rice-ness of it sounded like the perfect counterpoint to all of that acidic bolognese and vino.

I think in my haste to sip it, I may have burned part of my tongue. >.<

But it’s still very nice. I wasn’t sure about buying the cannister of this when I got it, but I’m definitely not regretting it now. There’s really no other tea in my cupboard that can take its place (though I’d sure like to explore some — yum!).

This is a very, very strange experience.

Liquid sticky rice!

Reading the other tasting notes, I decided to cut my steep time WAY down, and start off by dipping the rinsed nest in the tea for only thirty seconds before giving it a try. I did return it to the hot water for another 15 or so when the water was so colorless (which is a weird state of being for a pu’erh in my mind, since I’ve only had the dark pu’erh before).

The flavor is pretty markedly ‘rice’ from beginning to end. There’s definitely a ‘green’ flavor here, but not bitter or astringent, so I think Auggy’s right — 30 and 45 seconds are the sweet spot; the longer steep times in a few other tasting notes recorded that the tea was bitter, and I don’t have any bitterness in my cup at all.

Interestingly, the more the tea cooled, the more I was able to detect cousin flavors between this tea and a darker pu’erh. I could be making that up in my head, but…I don’t think so. It’s a flavor at the back of the tongue more than anything, but it’s pleasant and goes quite well with the rice.

Thanks to these damp tea leaves, I now understand the proper meaning of “vegetal.” I won’t confirm whether this is positive or negative…

Anyway. This tea is pretty tasty. Lately I’ve been trying to branch out from greens, because it was all I drank when I learned of proper tea, but it’s my fallback. So when I requested a free sample from Chicago Tea Garden, I went with the green. I can’t resist it.

Good choice, though. This steeps up practically clear and has a light taste. I tend to oversteep my greens, but it’s no big deal with this one. Despite the ridiculous amount of green tea I have in my cupboard, I would buy this one, too. It has a complex fragrance, like a hint or roasted nuts or something beneath the tea. It’s quite fun.

I had to try a sample of this even though green Oolong isn’t on the top of my must have list. This is obviously superb tea. I’m still not sold on green Oolong, but if I were wired that way, I think this would be one of, if not the best I’ve tried.