Gryphon Tea Company

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Recent Tasting Notes

77

I think I’ve never had any good sencha, probably only a few basic teabags here and there. I believe Fleur de Geisha by Le Palais des Thes was also a Sencha, as it was a Japanese green in leaves. It was also flavored with Cherry Blossoms. However I finished this bag a few years ago and am not in a position to directly compare.
I was quite careful to avoid overbrewing and using too hot water, as I am wary of bitterness.
The brew was very light colored, more yellow than green to my eyes, and very clear.
The taste was surprising: the brew felt really creamy with a very strong grass taste. The grass taste was actually nice, as it felt like “fresh and rich” grass, and reminded me of an Irish lawn sprinkled with clover everywhere.
I have to admit though that this grassy taste, that I did not expect coming out so strong, totally covered the cherry blossom flavor, which was probably too subtle regards the tea base. I’ll see if I can get it while brewing my second bag of this tea.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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99

It is fantastic tea.
I had it in Singapore in Hotel Park.
I would drink this tea every day , but , i can,t get it in Europa.

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60

I seem to be the first one to post something about this tea. Surprising considering it’s included in the Treasures Box and a few people have bought this box.
At the same time, it’s not one of Gryphon’s best or must try.
It’s supposed to be a medium-bodied tea. To me, but I may have used too much water for this one, it was rather a weak-bodied tea.
And regarding the flavors, the bergamot was rather nice but the Eucalyptus brought a taste of medecinal plant, and brought out a kind of bitterness at resteep.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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43

This morning, I still have a cold with a highly stuffed nose and reduced smelling and tasting abilities.
I decided then it was the perfect day to try the Chai I got from Gryphon’s Treasure box, and whose spice laden smell through the plastic bag was never enticing to me, when I had my full capacity.
I know it’s supposed to be drunk with a cloud of milk, but I can’t do that, as just the smell of milk is enough to unsettle my stomach.
The spice taste is really strong, there’s definitely aniseed, cumin, cardamom, something that remind me of Cayenne pepper, a strong aftertaste of clove. It really smells like a spice market in Aceh and that’s quite amazing. However, all those spices tend to overwhelm me, but not in a very good sense.
Under all those perfumes, I cannot identify anything that remind me of tea and I am wondering whether the tea base is strong enough – what I’ve noticed regularly with Gryphon is that they were strong advocates of “less is more”, but sometimes this quest for subtlety goes to far and translates into a tasteless brew.
Chai is also supposed to be drunk with sugar. After my first small cup “nature” to get the most of the flavors, I tried one with honey, thinking it would be interesting to see the flavors’ mixing. My honey is rather strong and that was not a good idea; the honey did not manage to cover the spices just added something else to a pot already overflowing.
I finally decided to make it simple with raw sugar; it’s definitely required. With sugar added in the brew, the spices flavor blend together and seem like subdued in comparison with the plain and too rough brew.
It’s like trying to preparing a dish that requires long slow cooking (like Boeuf Bourguignon or Osso Bucco for instance) in a hurry and eating it before the ingredients have had the time to blend and turn a standard dish into a nice tasty delight.
However to my opinion, even with sugar, this Chai reminds me too much of a dish overflowing with spices, but in which both meats and vegetables would have been too sparsely included. It was my first Chai drinking experiment and may well probably be one my last.
For the record, I did not really appreciate the few “Christmas teas” some friends pushed to me in the past, because of that and the spice overload was definitely not as strong as in this one.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 30 sec
cteresa

cumin is a strange addition to a chai – not sure I would have dared. Though sometimes blenders do really know best.

My sympathies about the cold, I am getting out of one as well!

LaFleurBleue

That’s actually your post about your blending your own Homemade Chai which gave me the idea that this would be the perfect “cure”;)
Definitely hope you’re feeling better.

cteresa

Thank you, yes, I am feeling better, though the craving for chai is probably going to last a bit longer – it makes for a few grungy pots to scrub, but OMG it´s so good, where has that concept been all my life? My one best chai (so far) is Mariage Fréres´Chandernagor (predictably almost. it´s like they got a perfect profile on my nose and brain to figure out what cames out tasting perfect to me) but the homemade chai was fun to make and it is good – though admittedly I had some good spices at hand from Indian grocery stores which i think made a difference.

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3

Didn’t like the basil-peony mix. Tasted like some sort of metallic/astringent floral to me.

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2

I’m the odd anomaly here as the herby-bergamot pairing seemed “off” to me & like both were trying to overpower each other. But tt’s just my personal taste I guess.

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80

Gorgeous, one of the few rose teas I can recommend. Soft, aromatic and nicely balanced.

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88

I got this tea thanks to LaFleurBleue, merci beaucoup :)

(by the way if anyone can help me by telling me how to manage to put some writing in bold here on Steepster I would be more than grateful – I really don’t see where to do this)

So merci beaucoup because it is really a very nice tea, very delicate, refined.

To me, basil is the main flavor but not overpowering, it’s just on the top of the other flavors : rose and peony. It’s like the cherry on the top of the cake, it sublimates the whole tea.

This is a mild tea, may be perfect for an evening.

This is my first Gryphon tea and I really appreciated it. However I liked the tea bag quality which is really high and all the information provided on the wrapping sachet (character, aroma,origin, tea pairing suggestions)

The flowers and basil seemed to be of highest quality.

Great tea.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 15 sec
Hesper June

I am not sure how others do it, but for me I simply put my words between asterisks and it shows up bold, such as bold
Sounds like an interesting tea!

Hesper June

ha! see it showed up bold just now! just simply add 2 asterisks in front and behind the word or sentence you want to make bold:)

Ysaurella

thanks very much Hesper June

Azzrian

Yay I was so happy when someone taught me how to do that! :)

Geoffrey Norman

Almost read that as Nympho of the Nile, then thought, Who’d want a tea that’s been around?

Luckily I gave it a second glance.

Nik

lol, Geoffrey!

Ysaurella, thanks for this review. I’ve never had a tea with basil in it. Sounds interesting, I’ve added this to my (very long) shopping list. Plus I really like its name!

In addition to placing an asterisk on either side of text to make it bold, you can put an underscore on either side to italicise it, or put a dash/hyphen on either side to strike it through.

Ysaurella

thank you all for your comments :)

Angrboda

If you look in the FAQ post at the discussion boards, there is a guide as well to the different sorts of formatting you can do. This is the link http://steepster.com/discuss/2768-steepster-faq, but you have to scroll down pretty far to get to the formatting section.

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75

I have only 2 tea bags of this one, from the Gryphon Treasures box, and I’m quite unhappy with myself for having spoiled this first try. I’m convinced the water was too hot and I left it steeping the 1st time for too long (water like 95° and almost 10 mn steeping…)
I’m not used to drinking sencha, so I confess not to have lots of experience and memories to compare it with.
Despite my extremely poor handling of this, I found there was something interesting in this tea.
The color is a light greenish-yellow. The smell is very pleasant, very Japanese tea and not only that, but also something very sweet, slightly flowery. The taste is also quite delicate, green but not only, very sweet (despite a slight bitterness in my first brew due to mishandling).
This tea reminds me of a piece of silk material, less shiny than satin but perfectly smooth and very fine.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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65

Pleasant and refreshing, with a nice Mint taste, that really reminded me of mint leaves, not freshly plucked from the plant but with no fake mint chewing-gum taste. I did not really find the lemongrass, though I’ll try looking for it again when drinking the second tea bag from the Treasure box.
The green tea used as a basis was to my opinion too weak. The third steep already turned quite watery and the fourth was a lightly colored hot water with a very very slight mint-infusion taste.
Last thing, I was expecting some taste closer from Morrocan mint tea; I’m not sure how they brew it in Morrocco, but I believe the tea used is not as green as this one, plus they use tons of sugar. This one was probably better without sugar, but then it just cannot be a real Morrocan taste.
Another blend from Gryphon that I find quite nice, with no wow factor, and definitely overpriced.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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56

That’s a plain black tea, with rather good quality tea inside the bag. The leaves are all broken within the bag, but are real pieces of leaves, not grinded leaves nor dust.
During steeping, the leaves expand quite a lot and the bag looks almost too small.
The color is a nice golden-brown.
The taste is, I suppose, quite nice for a non-flavored black tea. However, both Boh teas I have (one Flowery Pekoe and the other a Pekoe A leaves) are rather nicer, with nice full leaves, and were significantly cheaper.
I was rather disappointed by tasting this tea, whose main merit was to help me understand my Malaysian black tea was definitely very good quality. My second finding is that I’m really not a huge fan of plain breakfast teas.
I also believe a shorter steeping of around 3 mn would probably be better for the first steep.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 30 sec

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53

The teabag content was less grinded than chamomile dream, although the mint leaves are cut into rather small pieces and some pieces of ginger can be seen.
The taste is also mild and shall soon turn weak.
I could really taste both the freshness of the mint at first, then the more lingering taste of ginger; the tanginess of the lemon was to my opinion a bit overshadowed by the two previous ones, really not long-lasting and there could have been more of it in the mix. The mix is quite pleasant but is not really so very special.
This is definitely more a late afternoon / evening drink and I’m not convinced this brew is the right one to “lift my spirits for the day”, as is mentioned.
Will not buy it again, after having finished the 2 bags from the Treasure box. Not a good value for money.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 8 min or more
LaFleurBleue

I had the second bag this late afternoon. It tastes nicer than I remember, though it’s quite mild and the small 2g bag does not allow for a resteep.
At 16.40 SGD (or more depending on the shop) for 20 bags *2g, it makes 41 sgd for 100 g, hence 26 Euro or 33 USD.
It’s good but definitely not worth this price to my opinion.

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63

A disappointment !
After opening the plastic bag and taking out the “silk” tea-bag, I was already a bit reluctant, as the chamomile and other herbs looks grinded, while I was expecting full leaves and flowers.
The herbal tea color, once steeped, is a nice bright yellow. The smell is rather pleasant. The taste is rather pleasant, though the chamomile is rather short-lasting and the verbena takes rapidly over. I could not taste the marigold (though I never managed to identify its taste, as I’ve always had some in blends). The lavender may be responsible for some of the remaining after-taste, but I’m not so sure about it either.
Though a quite pleasant brew, I did not feel it was really special and I have better memories of drinks made only with entire chamomile flowers.
The second steep came out very light and with little flavor. At least with the Gryphon teas I’ve tried until now, I could manage up to 5 steeps, which were still interesting, though feeling weaker at the end, which makes them much better value for money.
Totally overpriced and not worth it.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 7 min, 0 sec
LaFleurBleue

I’m reviewing a bit my initial impression. This time I brewed an almost full teapot with one bag and it’s not weak at all. This tea-bag allows for a large quantity though no resteep.
I can definitely recognize all flavors: the chamomile, rather mild, the verbena and the lingering lavender. The blend is rather subtle as none of this flavors is stronger than the next. That’s what makes it rather pleasant and not too bland. However it is clearly a blend herbal tea and not a chamomile one, which was what I expected the first time and why I was so disappointed.
It remains too expensive for me to buy it again.

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94

I have had a few more bags of this one (for which I bought a complete box, in addition to the 2 teabags from the Treasure box). The more I drink it, the more I like it and find it the perfect Earl Grey, that I want to drink again and again.
And I’m so impressed by the number of steeps possible with one single tea-bag.
Very expensive, but it’s worth while at least a try. The best blend from Gryphon with Nymph of the Nile, to my opinion.
My husband also liked it a lot and asked for more, while usually he just finishes the first cup or regularly even does not finish it.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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94

I was really curious to try this one out, as I used to drink quite a lot of Earl Grey years ago from average quality stock usually, had never tried any finer, nor any with lavender.
The tea color was rather lighter than I expected, golden honey. The smell is quite refreshing with both citrus and lavender coming up. And it’s definitely real lavender, like one directly picked from the garden, not the artificial one from most air fresheners.
Drinking it is also extremely pleasant : the black tea has a lighter taste than what I expected, the tastes from lavender and bergamot mix very well with each other; neither of them is too strong, nor overwhelming. The taste lasts very long in the mouth after drinking.
And after a few cups, I find myself wanting more. My feeling is that it’s a very delicate Earl Grey, like a very fine china cup, while the previous I used to drink were more like Ikea basic mugs : something that does the job, is nice enough to look at and practical to use but nothing to cry out about.
I may try to compare it later with MF Earl Grey Provence…

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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69

The bag almost looks empty, with a few small jasmine pearls. However during steeping, the pearls unravel nicely within the “silk” bag.
The color is a light yellow, though stronger yellow than TenFu’s Jasmine Pearls.
The jasmine tea is very sweet and without any bitterness (at least with 3 to 3 mn 30 steeping time). However I found the jasmine tea overshadowed, both at smelling and at tasting by the rose flavor.
The tea really smells like an oversized rose bouquet or a rose pot-pourri made with fresh petals. Very nice, but to my opinion too strong. When drinking, I did not really manage to identify the delicate jasmine taste hidden under the rose.
It’s supposed to be perfect for pairing with fish and white meat. I could personally never drink this tea with a meal, excluding dessert time.
It’s not subtle or delicate and designed to please rose-flavor addicts.
If I could compare it with a woman portrait, this tea would be a middle-age socialite with platinum perfect hair, perfect clothes but trying to hide her wrinkles by too much foundation and wearing too much perfume.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 30 sec
LaFleurBleue

I had my second sample of Pearl of the Orient today. Still too strong on the rose flavor for my taste, though I appreciate that the rose smells and tastes like a real rose directly picked in a garden and not like artificial rosewater scent.
The taste is rather long lasting and the bag can be resteeped quite a few times. I forgot it during a later steeping today for almost half an hour… I was really wary when tasting it after, that it would be bitter, as most Jasmine teas turn out to be when left more than a few minutes. To my surprise, it was not bitter at all.

LaFleurBleue

Though expensive, I believe it’s rather good value for money, as I steeped in total around 1.5 liter tea with each tea-bag (filled with 2.5g). And I felt I could still go on if I had felt like drinking more rose jasmine.
A must try for the rose flavor addicts

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90

Lovely blend of Earl Grey and Lavender. I love a cold brew of this. It brings out more of the floral notes of Lavender.

Flavors: Bergamot, Earl Grey, Lavender

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more

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90

A new favourite!!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 15 sec

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79

Very pleasant white tea with a subtle and refined taste. The lemongrass is very light, almost indistinguinshable. When drinking it, the first taste is decidedly different from that remaining in the mouth afterwards; the first one is really flowery and tangy, while the aftertaste is much stronger and reminds me a bit of cinnamon (not advertised as such by Gryphon, but my personal perception).
Though really nice, I do not like it as much as the Nymph of the Nile from the same brand which had something more original and striking.
Were it available loose, I might purchase it.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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90

I drank this tea in a hotel at breakfast. It’s more an afternoon than a breakfast tea, in my opinion.
However I really liked it and when I asked for further information about it, I got 3 tea-bags of this Nymph of the Nile and 2 of the White Gingerlily of the same brand to bring home. In less than one week, I finished the Nymph of the Nile…
The color is a golden yellow. The roses give out a nice fragrance and most probably contribute to the sweet mellow taste. The basil leaves small pieces give a refreshing and slightly herbal taste.
Even when forgotten a few minutes more in the teapot, the tea does not turn very bitter.
I would definitely buy it, were it not always conditioned in mousseline bags and will probably try again drinking both white peony teas and teas from Gryphon, which make very high quality perfumed teas.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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100

Lovely tea to take in the afternoon. No sugar pls :) Pair it with a piece of coffee cake.

It has a subtle rose and jasmine fragrance that makes the tea delicate and mellow. Golden yellow in colour. Perfect for ladies ;)

Remove tea bag after steeping 3-4 mins as the tea turns slightly acidic if left steeping.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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95

I have been obsessed with anything Moroccan lately! I am browsing accommodation in Marrakesh and drinking this tea at the same time. ;D The tea is actually different from traditional Moroccan mint tea because it contains lemongrass and is not sugared, but being not exactly Moroccan doesn’t stop me from loving it! I absolutely enjoy the lemongrass + mint combination; it makes the tea doubly refreshing and soothing! This is my ideal night time tea as it cleanses my palate, helps me relax and gets me ready for bed. :)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Stephanie

I love researching travel locations too. My next trip will be to either Peru or India!

Devilish

Peru and India are great travel destinations, Stephanie! I hope I can visit them in the next few years too. But I have too many destinations in mind haha… Bhutan is one of the top priorities on my list! ;)

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