Zen Tea

Thank you Zen tea for the sample!

This tea is so yummy! It has an amazing coconut smell that fills the room when brewed. It has a nice coconut taste that taste almost roasted. A great tea for coconut lovers!

Wow, I am the first to review this tea! And believe it or not, this is my first Darjeeling. At least the first that I can remember. I feel that I’ve probably had Darjeeling before, at least perhaps in a blend, because the scent of the steeping leaves is familiar.
I followed Zen Teas’ directions of a heaping teaspoon steeped for 2.5 minutes. The tea is a dark golden color.
Okay, this tea is smelling VERY familiar. I know I’ve had this somewhere! I’ve tasted it, and it’s a bit too hot to really taste at the moment, but I’m pretty sure my first introduction to loose leaf tea must have been a Darjeeling that my grandpa brought back from Russia. I instantly like this tea, and not just for nostalgic reasons. It’s tasty! It has some sort of a fruity flavor I can’t distinguish. I really wish I was better at this whole note finding thing, but I’m enjoying myself anyway. :-) It has an astringent finish that I’m not minding. I bet this tea would be amazing with cream and sweetener!

And so it is.

Thanks to Zen Tea for a sample of this!

My sample / new teas to try pile is out of control! That’s what I get for being sick for almost a week.

DRY: Smells like sweet mint.

STEEPED: Very earthy sweet mint smell coming from a dark red brown cup of tea.
Annoyingly, this sample did not have steep times on it, but the other samples did. I was too lazy to walk up to my computer to check, so I guessed. Apparently I was wrong, it should be boiling + 5 mins. DERRRP!

TASTE: Creamy taste! Lightly earthy background (lightness could of been my fail steeping) that has a robustness to it – with the mint gently hitting me last. Lingering creamy mouth feel! oh yeah! No bitterness or astringency.
Zen recommends to prepare this with sweetener and milk, I added some rock sugar to a cup and found the creamyness was brighter and more vanilla taste. I personally like this without sweetener.
Second steeping I did for boiling, 5 minutes. Less creamy taste and much more earthy pu’reh.

WHO’D LIKE THIS: I’m thinking back to all the bagged vanilla mint black teas I’ve tried and this one kicks them! I think the pu’erh is a great idea to this tea with the vanilla and mint calming the strong earthy a bit. A great tea for a black drinker to try a good flavored pu’erh. I did mention I prefer this without sweetener, but sweetened it’s not bad – so this be good for someone who likes to sweeten their tea.

COMMENTS: Not bad! I love pu’reh earthyness so this was good!

I have been so SO pleased with my box of teas from Zen after their 50% off sale. There is only one tea in the box I don’t like (it’s not this one) and sadly I don’t have any swap money because I want it gone, but that’s a story for another time.

This tea is creamy, coconutty, astringent (not bitter) and a bit buttery. Definitely vegetal – super delicious. I make pots of it and always put the last pot in the fridge for iced tea. Yummy with a splash of coconut milk after a work out!

Thank you SO much Zen Tea for this amazing sample!

Coconut Oolong, where have you been all my life? This is a seriously amazing oolong, it’s delicate but full of coconut flavour – CREAMY and slightly floral while being naturally sweet.
Milky and buttery – the dry smell almost reminded me of buttered popcorn.

Resteeping and putting in the fridge for a delicious iced tea, I can’t wait!

This will definitely be a cupboard staple when I have the means.

I could have sworn that I wrote something about this tea already! Upon further inspection it appears I haven’t, even though I drank it about a week ago. Curious indeed. I don’t know why I would have put it off: this was really a great tea! I also got the Coconut Oolong from them, basically for the sake of comparing and contrasting two coconut teas. I love coconut and would really like to find one that 1) I love and 2) is affordable enough to make big pitchers of. Now, their Coconut Oolong was fantastic but first off too expensive for everyday use (not a fault, of course, oolongs just tend to be pricey!) and was also similar to a tea I already have (GMT’s Coconut Pouchong.)

Right at the start, this tea has a lot of the things I am looking for in a nice iced tropical blend. Reasonable price, actual coconut bits, and it smells great! Of course, the time for iced tea here has come and gone, in fact I’m sipping an iced green right now and shivering… yet I continue to drink, because I just love iced tea so much! I swear, it’ll be the dead of winter during one of those NY blackouts and I’ll be drinking iced tea while freezing my butt off under a pile of blankets.

Anyway, onto the tea! It’s definitely quite coconutty—not the same super strong upfront coconut as the oolong, a more delicate and somehow relaxed tea. It isn’t super fancy or frilly, it’s just a great everyday tea. Most of my absolute favorites are in the same category: as nice as it is to have fancy, special occasion teas I am very loyal to the ones I can have all the time and find myself reaching for over and over again. And this… yes, it definitely delivers on that front. It’s light, sweet, fresh coconut, with a strong but not overly dominant green base. Which is exactly what I was looking for! Sadly, I have to wait until it’s October to order any more tea since I have to use my debit card 10 times a month (or face the wrath of banking fees). But this and the Orange Grapefruit will definitely come home with me!

Thank you Zen Tea for this large sample! I opened the package and smelled it- STRONG coconut! That made me a little worried this would be very artificial tasting. I followed their directions of 1 tsp of tea per cup , and steeped for 3 minutes. I am very pleased with how it turned out! The coconut is present but isn’t nasty artificial tasting, and the oolong base is creamy. The only thing that would make this better is if it had real coconut in it, but I think this as good as a coconut tea can get without it! It’s quite good!

Tea: 2 tsp
Water: 8 oz
Additives: none

Dry leaf
Lovely toffee scent, beautiful leaves, seems to be a good quality white peony. Lots of big whole leafs and buds. The blue cornflowers add a pretty touch.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8126244@N06/8035958091/in/photostream

Liquor
Lovely clear straw color, smells of toffee, no smell of white tea
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8126244@N06/8035958774/in/photostream

Really nice toffee taste, sweet, nutty and rich. I regret drinking this for breakfast, I should have saved it for dessert! As I sip the white base comes through, which is nice I was worried the toffee was going to be overpowering based on the scent. Very very good! I’m a big fan of white tea and I can definitely see having this around. Now I just need to get my stash down a bit so I can justify buying it!

This is a very enjoyable tea, the dry leaves were bright and pretty, slightly broken(may have just gotten smashed in shipping) with a slight green tea like aroma, 1st steep was very light with a nice floral aroma, 2nd steep lost a little of the floral aroma and a very nice green taste to it with a nice “buttery” mouthfeel, 3rd steep was perfect the leaves had opened and the aroma went from floral to a more grassy type aroma with even better mouthfeel, the flavor was at its best also with a nice green tiguanyin flavor that we all love followed by a grassy vegetal aftertaste.Nice Tea :)

http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/

I’m finishing my last little bit of this tea (weeps). This is a great Irish Breakfast tea, and I have no doubt that it will find its way into my cupboard again. Until then I will miss the rich, biscuity goodness that is this tea!

Tea of the morning. I woke up wanting a milk and sugar tea, and this tea suits that purpose down to the ground. Bready and rich, this is an excellent cup to wake up to.

More snow. I am so thoroughly sick of snow that when I received the phone calls at 4:50 this morning saying that the start of school was being delayed for two hours I wanted to pull the covers over my head and weep. Instead I said some not very nice words about the weather and went back to sleep for a few hours.

Now that I’m awake and have the kids up and moving (hopefully) I need something nice and strong to help us get out the door. O’Sullivan’s Favourite it is. Plus it’s St. Patrick’s Day, so I’ll get bonus points from my kids when I point out that they’re drinking an Irish breakfast tea. And I’ll get to enjoy the rich, malty, bready goodness that I have come to adore.

Okay, so it’s not such a horrible start to the day, but I still hate the snow.

Tea of the morning. I often reach for this tea when I’ve stayed up too late or am having trouble getting my self moving in the morning. Today, however, I just wanted to enjoy the biscuity flavor and fullness of a good Irish breakfast. Still loving this one.

So last night my daughter was finishing up a project on mythology for her Latin class when she realized she’d misread the directions and did a large part of the project incorrectly. Normally this is the sort of thing that sends me over the edge, but I had to read the directions multiple times before I understood what the teacher was asking for, so I couldn’t be mad at my daughter. After I got her out of panic mode she and I worked on the project until 2am. The poor kid (and her mom) had to wake up at six this morning, so I knew we needed a good strong tea.

Oh, this tea. It’s such a cup full of malty deliciousness. It has rich crusty notes but also something that just hints at cocoa. The thickness of it reminds me of a good French roast, but this has none of the bitterness. Add some sugar and milk and it is the perfect builder’s tea. And now that I have my daughter and the project from hell on their way to school I can enjoy this cup for a few minutes until it’s time to get my son up and moving. Thank heaven (or Jupiter or Juno or Ceres) for tea!

My daughter has perfected the art of sleeping ‘til noon, so when she woke up and asked for breakfast at lunchtime I thought I’d join her. I settled on bacon, toast, homemade fig jam, and this tea. This is such a good Irish Breakfast tea. Robust and strong. Lots of malty notes, but not at all bitter. I added cream and sugar and enjoyed thoroughly.

Used my last bit of this today. I’ll be ordering more. It’s a great basic black to have around. Stronger than a lot of teas, but no bitterness or astringency. Perfect way to get myself way to get myself going in the morning.

Today I was doubly thankful for this tea. My daughter had to go back to school because her school chose to end spring break two days early to make up for the days they missed from Hurricane Sandy. Needless to say, my girl was not a happy spirit when she came to the breakfast table this morning. She eased in to her day with a cup of Strawberry Cream. I drank my tea and avoided all conversation while she grumbled about the unfairness of life. Thank heaven her brother, who goes to a different school and is still on spring break, was asleep. By the time I had resteeped my tea she was heading out the door and even managed a polite goodbye before walking to the bus stop. Sometimes twelve-year-olds can be scary little creatures. *shudders * :)

Sipdown!

So much to do today. I’ve been playing nursemaid or been sick myself for well over a week. Now that everyone has recovered (fingers crossed) I have a to-do list a mile long to knock out. Thankfully I still have a bit of this in my pantry. Simple, rich, smooth, and strong enough to kick me into gear.

My thanks to the Irish for knowing how to make an excellent cup of tea. ;-)

6am came way too early. I didn’t even consider the other teas in my pantry. I grabbed this and made myself a deliciously strong cuppa. Even though this is strong there is not a hint of bitterness. Good stuff!

This is a really good Irish Breakfast tea. It’s simple and steady and just… good. I guess all tea drinkers need one or two basic teas (black, green, or otherwise) that they can turn to time after time. When it comes to strong black tea this is my choice.

I bumped my rating up a bit because I finally wrote out my rating system (although it’s still rather vague) and I feel like this tea could be a mainstay in my pantry for a while.

Oy. After feeling like I had the black death for a few days I’m beginning to feel semi-human again. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, autumn and I do not get along. Anyway, I received several samples while I was sick, and I am excited to try them.

This is a nice Irish Breakfast. Stronger than some, but nothing too over the top. It uses tea leaves that have gone through the CTC process, so it’s difficult to pick out nuances in the tea. Still, it gives the caffeine kick I want in the morning, and there is no bitterness to be had. Just a smooth steady cup of tea. I added sugar to my second cup but ignored the milk. I did like it more with sugar, but that could be my sweet tooth talking.

Thanks Zen Tea for the sample! Trying new teas is always fun. :)

Can’t believe I forgot to leave reviews for the samples Zen Tea was kind enough to send. Just finished the last of my sample for this tea tonight. Its incredibly delicious, sweet and nutty, and the white base is excellent. Definitely going on my must purchase list.

Mm this was a good choice for my next cup. It’s incredibly smooth. Nice vanilla/hazelnut flavor. Very relaxing :)

A nice creamy oolong when you can’t decide what you want. Goes very well with chocolate :)