437 Tasting Notes
This is quite a nice tea from which you can draw a lot of complex intricate flavours, over multiple steeps, from a small amount of leaf. Of my two Silver Needles that I own at the moment this is the one that I go to want something softer, and maybe more meditative. The other one I own is Zen Tea’s offering.
Dry, the tea smells of straw and hay mixed together with soft and slightly powdery, sweet and citrusy notes. The leaves are pale yellow to pale green with fine silvery downy pale hairs. The leaves are around one inch long.
The first steep of around 50 seconds resulted in pale beige with a grey tinged tea. it smelled faintly of buttered rice both slightly nutty and creamy, of faint citrus notes, of notes of straw and grain, and of a touch of smoke. It tasted sweet, with a smoky note, a hint of citrus/vitamin C and of straw, all underlain with a silky sweet note that hinted of a mildly flavoured bready fruit and a taste that reminds me of Choclo ( a corn staple in many countries in Latin America). The tea has a noticeable full and silky body. The sweet flavour intensify as it cools.
The 2nd steep had a scent that hints of citrus, with nutty sweet grains, and a faint combined floral/vegetal note like blooming alfalfa mixed with a note of jasmine. The smoke was gone leaving a hint of amber. It tasted of citrus notes, combined with wildflowers nectar (clover and someting spicier), with the straw receeding to the background. The tea remained sweet, but in a cooked fuit / squash or grain type of sweetness. Their was a faint taste of smoke. The aftertaste was mainly a mix of sweet, citrus and vegetal notes.
The 3rd steep was a silky straw, and grain flavour, followed by sweet floral nectar/citrus flavour with an aftertaste of stewed mild flavoured plums with a lingering sweetness.
In the 4th steep the sweet nectar references were more dominant with citrus, straw accents in the background
The remaining steeps required an increase in brewing temperature and maintained a sliky, warm sweetness over straw flavour.
I have steeped this tea up to 10 times before and it is a nice tea when you have some time to explore subtle nuances in flavour and scent. A nice example of this genre of tea. but I am going to hold off rating at this time until I have an opportunity to compare it to Zen Teas option.
Preparation
I’m not a huge fan of coconut but I do really like this tea. The dry leaves are long, deep green, and very fresh looking. They are covered with a generous scattering of small flakes of coconut that are absorbing the colour of the sencha. The tea smells strongly of fresh coconut.
The brewed tea smells of a less sweet version of coconut squares, both sweet and of cooked fresh coconut. It brews to a deep yellow. The first flavour notes are a top note of nutty coconut meat, followed by a sweetness that hints of marzipan.
The Tea base is at first silky, with a flavour that adds to the teas sweetness and which is followed by a refreshing aftertaste and a tingling on the tongue. The flavour of the tea blends with the
coconut leaving just a hint of something savory and vegetal. This tea has a strong sweet coconut flavour.
During the second steep the coconut flavour is unchanged and present but the sweet green tea base is more present and softens the coconut and there is a faint bitterness and a hint of fresh green leafy vegetables. This tea holds up to around 5 steeps if one is careful with steeping time and brewing temperature.
This is a great tea for those who enjoy coconut and who value a well presented simplicity in there blends.
Preparation
When I first bought this tea the box was labelled as blueberry tea. Ironically, it didn’t contain any blueberries but only the closely related billberries so I am glad they changed the name. To be honest the first thing I taste here is the elderberry, which has been sweetened by the other ingredients. The tea is not overly tart, but does have enough tartness to suggest a slightly sour fruit. As you continue to sip the flavours do mix and I can see why they used to call it blueberry. It is not exact but it is close to the flavour of blueberry juice. Does anyone know what billberries taste like? Anyways this is a pleasant fruit tea, and makes a nice caffeine free option.
This is a pleasant warming cup and I totally get the warm rum notes. I get the taste of butter but not really the creamy feel of it. It smells and tastes like rum flavoured toffee. My only complaint is the tea underneath it seems to be kind of thin without much depth of flavour, but that could just be because I’ve had it in the cupboard for a while.
This tea is a very nice Ceylon blend. It has a rich flavour, and resteeps well retaining a full flavour for at least three resteeps. I quite enjoyed it.
The dry leaves are small to medium full leaves with some silver buds. It smells of sweet potatoe and orange, with a note of burnt sugar.
It tastes of burnt sugar, a hint of blackberry and orange, with a hint of vegetal. It is slightly flowery almost like a note of rose. The tea company suggests that this should taste of plum. My first steep was longer than I normally use and perhaps I would have found this note if I had shortened the steep.
It brews to colour of mahogany, with a medium body and little to no astringency and a hint of bitterness. There is an aftertaste of homemade brown sugar pull toffee. It leaves me with a feeling of calm wakefulness and is very smooth.
The 2nd steep similar flavour wuth citrus notes coming more forward and a burnt sugar flavour present with sweet potatoe. The 3rd steep has sweet potatoe, vegetal notes, and indistinct fruit notes. It has a sweet, lightly tangy aftertaste like having eaten ripe berries.
A nice tea to drink all day.
Preparation
When I smell this tea brewed it always reminds me of two things, cherry soda crossed with cream soda, and babysoft perfume.
Having said that it is a really nice tea for those who enjoy floral cherry senchas and like all of the Zen Tea green teas I have had it comes to you incredible fresh tasting. I like that for this tea I was provided with harvest dates and provenance.
The dry leaf was quite pretty a bright rich green sencha scattered with rose petals. The dry leaf smelled about the same as the brewed but the brewed tea does smell sweeter.
The sencha underneath the tea is quite sweet, with little to no astringency. The tea has a medium body, and has a sense of thickness and creaminess in the mouth.
A sweet cherry flavour is prominent followed by a clean green flavour which is very slightly grassy, followed by a spicy floral taste from the rose, The rose doesn’t seem to be adding the bitterness I find it can add at some times. All of these flavours are neatly distinguishable from eah other and as it cools the tea base comes more to the fore front.
This tea resteeps well. I have resteeped it up to 5 times before and it keeps a consistent flavour for the first three steepings, at least, before it starts to change.
I don’t find that it tastes medicinal like some people report with cherry teas if anything the rose can make it taste a little powdery but the cherry is sweet enough that I dont feel like I am tasting perfume. It leaves an aftertaste like the one I get after eating black cherries. This is a nice example of this classic flavour.
The dry leaf appears to be a BOP with some golden tips. The tea smells sweet with fruit references to raisin and plum and faintly traces of cinnamon, and bisuit. It brews to the colour of red wood. It has vegetal top notes, followed by faint bisuit, than a lingering sweet raisin flavour with faint reference to spice. The tea seems thin at first but deepens as the flavour develops in the mouth. It is fairly smooth with very little astrigency. The second steep is more biscuity and less sweet, with stronger bitter vegetal notes. This tea is another Polish tea that I picked up at a local European grocer. Quite nice for a tea in its price range.
