Teabox

A lovely tea that surprises: sweeter than usual for a second flush, but also exhibiting a slight yet distinct bitterness. It is a bit stronger than I had expected from this garden, as well. Nevertheless, this is a very good tea.

First infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz water, 90 deg., 1:30 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz. water, 90 deg., 6:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz. water, 90 deg., 10:00+ min.

Bold and brisk – a bit bitter, on the edge of pleasant and unpleasant. Mouth coating, but not too puckery. Good flavour of baked bread up front, fruit note emerges mid cup, finishes with malt.

Would be good with milk and sugar.

Made this in my travel mug for running errands, so I’ll post a better tasting note some other time when I’m able to pay proper attention. Lower water temp or shorter steep time might be indicated.

This is a very nice FF Darjeeling, though it seems to be a tad muted as compared to similiar first flush teas I have had. In addition, it doesn’t have quite the staying power across several infusions of those rivals. Still, a great tea.

First infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz water, 90 deg., 2:30 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz. water, 90 deg., 4:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz. water, 90 deg., 10:00+ min.

I haven’t had a English Breakfast tea in ages, but I think I was expecting something with a pretty generic black tea, tea bags kind of flavour, and this is not that.

This smells very woody, with a bit of a tannic and acidic, roasted note to it. Fortunately, the flavour is a bit more complex, with malt, caramel, wood and char. It’s bold and a bit tangy, while also being incredibly smooth and only a tiny bit bitter.

Not my favourite flavour profile, but I’m enjoying this more than I expected initially. Finishing this cup up with milk and sugar, though it doesn’t actually need it, like I was expecting it to.

Woah, so much golden tips! The dry leaf is covered in that wonderful orange fairy dust, and smells strongly of malt, sweet potato, molasses and raisin.

Steeped, there’s a rich, slightly boozy note that comes out. On the palate, it’s sweet and delicious, with cocoa, sweet potato, molasses. No bitterness and only the faintest trace of astringency toward the bottom of the cup – quite smooth. Taste-wise this is somewhere between an Assam and a Yunnan. I’m not sure what I expect from Himalayan teas, but this took me by surprise a bit, in the best way possible.

So very tasty.

So I’ve been a bit obsessed with DAVIDs’ very limited Blue Mountain Twirl, which is a green tea from the Glendale estate. It’s very unique and delicious and gone from stores. (I stocked up but it won’t last forever.) So I’ve been really excited to have a lot of Glendale teas in my Teabox sampler.

On the palate it’s both juicy and perfumey. There are some grape notes and something vaguely tropical, that lend a certain sweetness to the cup. The floral is somewhere between orchid and rose.

Just a touch astringent, not unpleasant.

While this is quite different from Blue Mountain Twirl, it’s very lovely.

This is spicy, earthy, slightly bitter and very herbal tasting. I’ve had tulsi in food many times, but I think this is the first time I’ve tried it steeped.

Customer service at Teabox tells me this contains actual tea, which was really unclear from the packaging and listing. I’m not sure I can taste the tea, but the ginger is pretty strong, and I’m not sure what kind of notes come out with steeped tulsi, so maybe some of the bitterness and slight astringency is the tea. The liquor is certainly dark enough to make me believe there’s tea in this, though I couldn’t pick it out visually in the dry leaf either.

Anyhoo, quite tasty, very herbal and healthy tasting.

Oh my god, what is this strange magic?

This is unlike any oolong I’ve had before. The nose is sweet and fruity, with grape notes. On the palate it’s light, sweet and intensely fruity, more like a white tea than an oolong. There’s a touch of hay, and lots of bright, juicy, fresh fruit – peaches, grape, lychee, melon, plum… I’m not even sure – so many fresh summer fruit flavours.

Super unique and almost sparkling.

My officemate came to work all week with a cold that she insisted she had over the holidays and couldn’t be contagious at this point in time. So, of course, here I sit on a Saturday morning, snorking, snuffling, hacking and wishing the world would turn down it’s volume because my head is in a pressure cooker. What tea? What tea? I need AROMATICS!! Do I have any? Oh! A Sample of chai! I know I have one somewhere….where???? Ah. Found it.

I drank a lot of bad chai in the 1990s. Really bad chai, usually made from powdered mix and made “better” (ha!) by my adding Coffee Mate French Vanilla Creamer. I have been “done” with Chai since that time, as none have been able to erase that memory of my first chai experience. But this one has piqued my interest.

My biggest issue with chai is the amount of cinnamon that most blends use. If “just the right amount” for most folks is used, I find it overpowering and a bit bitter. Kolkata Street Chai removes the cinnamon from the chai equation for me, leaving just 3 aromatic spices to create an alt chai flavor profile. When I opened the packet, the blend of cardamom, nutmeg and saffron were almost intoxicating….heady and compelling… to the point where it felt like the longest 4 minutes of my life, steeping this tea. The CTC used is strong but not bitter when steeped at 4 minutes, and supports milk and honey well….so well, in fact, that I burned my mouth via lack of impulse control. I can be such a greedy greedy tea child, especially when I’m feeling ill.

Teabox has created a intriguing alternative to typical masala chai in their Kolkata Street Chai. I will purchase this tea. I will learn to drink it slowly so that I don’t have a numb spot on my tongue where I have burned my tongue. I will learn to savor the aromatic spiced tea instead of gulping it down, lost in the pure childlike joy in my mouth. ……maybe…..

Another Glendale Estate tea.

The dry leave is silvery green buds, all very uniform and lovely. It smells very faintly of sweet hay with a touch of green. The steeping recommendations suggest 1-2 teaspoons of dry leaf per cup. I was having a hard time fishing leaf out of the bag with my spoon, so I shook out 2g, which looked to be roughly 2 tsp.

The recommended steeping parameters suggested 85-95C for 3-4 min. I typically enjoy shorter steeps and lower temperatures, so I started with 85C water for one minute. No flavour. Two, then three, three and a half, four… I think I finally settled on about six minutes and this still tasted like barely anything, even though the liquor steeped up to a pretty intense gold.

Hot, this isn’t worth drinking. Cooled to luke warm, it’s very delicate but lovely. The nose is very grapey. On the palate it’s fresh, light and cooling, with notes of grape, cucumber, fresh peas and zucchini.

Don’t drink this one with anything else on your palate – it gets easily overwhelmed.

After drinking Blue Mountain Twirl today, I thought I’d try out some other Glendale Estate teas, in hope of finding a similar flavour profile.

While Blue Mountain Twirl is a green, this is a black, from the Glendale Twirl Plantation. The flavours of these two teas are very different. While BMT is sweet, malty and very grapey, this has strong mineral, vegetal (chard or kale?) and muscatel notes. Much less sweetness, which mainly shows up on the finish, instead of in the whole sip. This is mildly astringent.

I notice similarities to both a Darjeeling and Da Hong Pao. It gets even tastier as it cools.

An enjoyable cup, but not as interesting or delicious as BMT.

A very unusual tea. It has a lot of green in it, and brews and tastes to me more like a green tea than a black, as the other reviewer mentioned. It also has a small unpleasant bitterness. I think the next time I brew it, I will make it like a green tea with a lower temperature.

The smell is vegetal and aromatic. The taste is grassy, vegetal, and earthy. I like it, I just don’t like bitter aftertaste, so will have to experiment with it and do another tasting note. Ordered more than a sample of this, so will have to experiment with it in different ways.

Today my sweetie and I are sampling Darjeelings. First up are two autumn 2014 flushes from the Turbo Estate.

This one is a clonal black, one teaspoon steeped for 5 min at 86C.
The other is an organic black, two teaspoons for 4 minutes at 90C. http://steepster.com/teas/teabox/42874-thurbo-autumn-darjeeling-black-tea

These teas are extremely different. While they are both distinctly Darjeeling, as I’m starting to develop a palate for, I would not have guessed that these are both from the same estate and flush.

This one is quite light – sweet, floral and fruity. It’s mildly astringent with no bitterness – very smooth in comparison to the organic black. There’s an ever so faint note of olives on the nose, which appears in the flavour as the cup cools.

The Organic black is very bold, brisk and astringent. Slightly bitter, though not unpleasant. My initial impression was that it had a very typical “black tea” flavour, though there’s a vegetal tang at the end of the sip, and that faint ash or char characteristic that I notice in many Darjeelings. It smells rich and bold, with a fruity note that I’m coming to associate with muscatel.

This dry leaf smells light and grapey, and is a mix of green and grey medium size leaves.

The Organic black smells much less sweet, with a touch of malt, and more of a generic black tea scent. The leaves are slightly darker and shorter than the clonal.

Neither of these teas appeals to me overly much, though they are both pleasant.

Today my sweetie and I are sampling Darjeelings. First up are two autumn 2014 flushes from the Turbo Estate.

One is a clonal black, one teaspoon steeped for 5 min at 86C. http://steepster.com/teas/teabox/54838-thurbo-clonal-autumn-darjeeling-black-tea
The other is this organic black, two teaspoons for 4 minutes at 90C.

These teas are extremely different. While they are both distinctly Darjeeling, as I’m starting to develop a palate for, I would not have guessed that these are both from the same estate and flush.

This is very bold, brisk and astringent. Slightly bitter, though not unpleasant. My initial impression was that it had a very typical “black tea” flavour, though there’s a vegetal tang at the end of the sip, and that faint ash or char characteristic that I notice in many Darjeelings. It smells rich and bold, with a fruity note that I’m coming to associate with muscatel.

The Clonal is quite light – sweet, floral and fruity. It’s mildly astringent with no bitterness – very smooth in comparison to the organic black. There’s an ever so faint note of olives on the nose, which appears in the flavour as the cup cools.

The Clonal dry leaf smells light and grapey, and is a mix of green and grey medium size leaves.

This smells much less sweet, with a touch of malt, and more of a generic black tea scent. The leaves are slightly darker and shorter than the clonal.

Neither of these teas appeals to me overly much, though they are both pleasant.

I’m finally digging into my Teabox order from Black Friday, even as I continue to work to log it all in my cupboard (probably about 40 teas to go?)

I thought I would start off with a Darjeeling oolong, which is something I don’t think I’ve tried before.

The steeping directions recommend 2tsp, 80-90C water and 5 min. I tend to prefer my teas steeped a bit shorter, so I went with 85C water for 3 minutes.

The dry leaf is medium brown and irregular sized pieces. It smells slightly creamy, with a fruity note.

Steeped, this has a very distinct flavour that I’m coming to realize is a characteristic of Darjeelings. Not just the muscatel, but a slightly acrid char flavour (or maybe it’s a mineral note?) It’s not bitter or unpleasant, though it’s not my favourite flavour either, but it seems to be a common thread amongst many of the Darjeelings I’ve tried.

There’s also a lot of fruit – primarily apricot and peach, with some grape, and a bit of vegetal tang that’s on the grassy side. Very smooth and easy to drink.

This is quite nice. I’m not sure if I would have been able to identify it as an oolong – Darjeelings are so distinctive and different from other teas. I probably would have guessed a green on a blind taste test.

I’m looking forward to further developing my palate for Darjeelings.