I did a bit of background research on this tea, revealing that it was indeed grown in New Zealand and that this is one of three different varieties being produced there at the moment (the others are Zealong Dark and Zealong Aromatic). Unlike the other two, this Zealong Pure features “sweet, fresh-tasting leaves” that are “unroasted, bringing out the pure, natural flavour of the tea” (zealong.com). Their website suggests 1 tsp of leaves per cup of water, infused for a minute (at least at first).

Opening the package, I take in the aroma of the dry leaves. Sweet, very clean-smelling. They are rolled into balls, reminiscent of a ti kawn yin oolong. I prepare the water, freshly boiled, but not still boiling. The first minute of infusion goes by. The steeped liquor smells fresh and slightly floral. The leaves have a very vegetal aroma and still smell quite sweet. Sipping this first cup is a joy. From the smell of the liquor, I expected a much weaker brew than what now dances around on my tongue. While not strong, this oolong does have a full body – floral, fresh, and with just a touch of that natural sweetness.

Eagerly, I go ahead and steep the leaves again, for the suggested one minute. The leaves now have taken on a fuller aroma, more “juicy,” but in a floral sense. The smell of the brewed tea is still subdued, but after the first cup, I know this subdued aroma could hold great flavour. I can tell that the flavour has gone, somewhat, from the leaves, in comparison to the first steeping. It is, however, still there with the sweetness becoming a bit more prominent and equal with the other flavours.

The third steep is for two minutes (as per the suggestions from zealong.com). The longer steep-time has brought the flavours and aromas back in line with the first steeping. Full bodied, perhaps even a bit stronger flavour-wise than the first infusion. Ah, it is still delicious, regardless. I go ahead and put this tea through several more steepings. The zealong.com website makes the claim that it will last six to eight infusions. I am satisfied, and gladly would rate this tea a 92/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Zealong Pure directly from the Tula Teas website.

Another day, another interesting oolong to try. This Taiwanese oolong is purported to be incredibly flavoured, with evolutions of flavour at every steeping. I start off by rinsing, then steeping this tea first for two minutes in boiled, but not boiling water. This first infusion smells sweet, slightly tart, and, in general, fruity. I often find that the leaves, after steeping, have a different aroma than the liquor itself. In this case, the smell of the leaves is far more buttery and creamy, in contrast to the liquor’s fruity notes. This infusion is super smooth, tastes very clean and fresh, and is reminiscent of apples.

Infusion number two, steeped for another two minutes, leaves the leaves smelling more vegetal than before. The flavour of the tea has evolved. Still fruity, there are now spicier notes of cinnamon, as well as floral tones that I had not noticed before.

Steeping this tea for a third time, letting it infuse for two and a half minutes. Still containing notes of cinnamon, the mild fruitiness is quite delectable. Four Seasons is a great name for this tea, as it evolves and changes like the seasons of the year, with every infusion. I highly recommend this tea for lovers of oolong, and I would give it a 91/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Four Seasons directly from the Tula Teas website.

My old friend Zealong, I’ve missed you.  Thrilled to receive some Zealong Pure from Tula Teas, it is one of my all time favourites.  The dark, tightly curled leaves make my heart sing.  Wild thing (sorry, had to say it, apologizing in advance if that song gets stuck in your head).  I think I love you, but I wanna know for sure…

Ripping open the package, unbelievably quick rinse, then a fast 45 second steep.  Now I sit in awe waiting for it to cool enough to taste.  The dry leaves had hardly any scent to them and absolutely no dust.  They relax and start to unravel, floating at the top of the water for the first few seconds before they start to dance to the bottom, releasing tiny little air bubbles in their path. You have to try Zealong to fully appreciate the agony of the leaves, the clearness of the brew allows for a perfect show.  It has a really light taste, not even slightly bitter. Clean with a level of complexity that is hard to find in other teas.

I’m onto my fifth steep with this one and the leaves are completely open.  The taste changed with each steep, it didn’t fade away though.  Ranged from a bit flowery to a bit nutty to a beautiful note of purity.  This is a great tea for the summer because it is so light. Not sure that the flavour is full enough to be nice as an iced tea but I’m definitely going to try it…

You can purchase the Zealong Pure directly from the Tula Teas website.

Three badly written haiku in honor of Tao Tea Leaf’s Phoenix Dan Cong tea:

I
Lovely long brown leaves
Hints of honey and lychee
Soft taste, whisper sweet

II
Fawn tint, floral scent
Mild taste and silky mouthfeel
Some astringency

III
Too mild for my taste
Tasty, but makes me want more
Fascinating cup

You can purchase the products directly from the Tao Tea Leaf website.

Here at Its All About The Leaf, we were recently contacted by Adagio – asking if we were interested in reviewing their new line of gourmet tea bags. Now, I have been following Charles Cain of Adagio on twitter, and on the tearetailer.com website, and on several occasions the issue of loose leaf tea vs. teabag has arisen. Often it is brought up by new “tea retailers” in a bit of a snobby attempt to differentiate themselves from other store-bought teabag companies. Claims of the non-teabag faction include:

- teabags contain only fannings – the tea “leftovers”
- the teabag interferes with the taste of the tea
- teabags are for old ladies and young children not hip middle agers
- only loose leaf tea will give you the full taste and experience of tea.

I have to admit, that at one time, I thought all of these things exactly. However, since starting this website, I have had a chance to review tea in all different forms and fashions, from teabag to loose, to dried, even baked in chocolate. And I have come to the conclusion – it is not the container the tea is in, it is the quality of tea.

And with that, I come back around to Adagios’ offering. This collection includes Jasmine Pearls, Silver Needle, Dragonwell, Wuyi Oolong, Golden Yunnan and Oolong Goddess. Each tea is packaged individually in a sealed wrapper, and in each wrapper is a teabag *GASP* containing just enough for one cup of tea. The tea bag its self is a good quality, pyramid teabag, allowing plenty of room for the tea to expand as it infuses.

Now, lets compare these teabags to the most popular claims by the anti-bag groups:

1. Teabags contain only fannings -> not here folks. The Jasmine Pearls for example, contained ACTUAL Jasmine Pearls – kind of a waste in my opinion, since it is such a high quality tea that’s neat to watch unfurl, but it is clear, that these are no fannings. The same goes with the rest of the teas – we are talking full leaf tea, not broken down old leaf.

2. The teabag interferes with the taste of the tea -> what are you, a supertaster? The fact is, 75% of people do not even have the capacity to tell the difference between good and bad tea, never mind to detect if a teabag interferes with a teas taste! I will tell you, I consider myself relatively picky with tea, that comes with the territory of drinking it daily and in great variety, and in not one single tea I had from this collection, could I taste the “teabag”.

3. Teabags are for old ladies and young children -> I am neither. Nor is my family, or friends. All of them mix teabags and loose leaf. Lets be real, how many old ladies do you know that will pay $19.00 for 30 bags of tea – not many I warrant. And kids? Rarely will they even do the buying. Lets just drop this myth entirely, it smacks of 50′s England, and I have never seen anyone in North America drink tea with a pinky out!

4. Only loose leaf tea will give you the full taste and experience of tea -> nope. That is plain old tea bigotry. Anyone who says this without qualification is either willfully ignorant, or is trying to sell you something. The reality is the quality of the TEA is what gives you the taste and experience – not the delivery mechanism. I have had loose leaf that is garbage, and teabags that sing (i.e. the Adagio Silver Needle in this collection) – it is about the tea folks, not the wrapper.

So – now that we have dispelled the myths, lets again, focus on this collection.

Jasmine Pearls – the taste is exactly what I would expect out of a good quality Jasmine tea. I enjoyed it very much, but the Pearls part is a bit of a waste since you cannot really see them unfurl. From a marketing point of view, I get it, but the same quality Jasmine tea would have accomplished the same experience. None the less – I loved it, it reminded me of my youth at home in the kitchen with my Grandmother!

Silver Needles – By far, I am a Silver Needle guy. No matter where I am, if Silver Needles are on the menu, I am buying/drinking/taking it home. I have had some stinkers, but this one is NOT! I loved every drop, and even got 3 good steepings out of it. There would have been more, but the teabag mysteriously disappeared in a whirl of kitchen cleaning…

Dragonwell – I am not a huge Dragonwell fan, but enough so that I know good green when I taste it, and again, this is it. Adagio has not skimped on the tea part of these teabags!

Wuyi Oolong – Oolong can be a lifelong study. There are so many kinds, from a greener Oolong to a dark, rich Oolong, to buttery light Oolongs. Wuyi is one of the more recognizable (see a pattern in this collection?) and is a good mid-range Oolong, appealing to a wider audience than say, a Formosa Oolong. It tasted… just as it should. No teabag flavours, no bitterness, just smooth, Oolongy goodness.

Golden Yunnan – a Chinese black “standard” – it is again, a good mid-range selection that appeals to a wide variety of palates. You get the boldness of a black tea, without the over-astringent flavours of a poor quality Black. I would have liked to see this replaced with a good Darjeeling or Assam, but to keep with the theme, it does work

Finally – Oolong Goddess. To be honest, I have not had a chance to try this out of the sampler, but I can assure you, that it will be a good example of this kind of Oolong, it will be fully leafed, and it will not suffer in the least for being presented in a teabag!

The Gourmet Tea Collections from Adagio are not meant for established, hard core loose leaf tea drinkers, nor are they meant to replace Adagios’ high quality loose leaf tea offerings. As Charles Cain has pointed out in the past, too many people are “scared” of loose leaf tea, I think because it has been made out to be too exclusive a club. These tea bag collections are intended to assist people in the transition of poor quality teabags, to loose leaf, being the intermediate step along the way. I think that they accomplish that admirably. High quality tea in a teabag is NOT a new concept, but the presentation of these in a retail environment like Adagio is doing will only serve to convert more people to good quality tea, and for that, Adagio gets kudos for a great effort, and I am looking forward to more collections just like this!

If you have gotten this far, you have probably formed your own opinion – and I am dying to know what it is! Leave me a comment, and I will reply to each and every one of them, pro-teabag or not, this website is about the everyday tea drinker – which you are! So let me know your thoughts!

You can purchase the Gourmet Tea Collection – Artisan Comfort directly from the Adagio website.

When you start reviewing a large number of teas, it may feel like you are reviewing many that are just mediocre and coming across a real gem may seem hard to come by. But of course it is really worth it when you do find that one tea that stands out above the rest. “Pure Zealong,” a New Zealand Oolong tea is just that special tea. And you know you’ve had a good tea when the review starts to write itself.

This tea came with a brochure that boasts its purity, and that is the perfect description for it; it is clean and pure and refreshing. Pure it certainly is. Unlike with Chinese and Taiwan Oolongs where the first infusion is usually poured away to rid of impurities and the second infusion is consumed, with the Pure Zealong the first and second infusion are just as drinkable. Moreover, it is difficult to be refreshing when you are a hot tea but the Pure Zealong has that bit of tang you get when you taste something refreshing. It is long in the mouth having a lingering aftertaste, a sign of a quality tea. Be careful with the time and temperature used in steeping as poor time and temperature can lead to a soapy taste. I recommend 90-93C for 2 to 4 minutes. It has a bit of an aftertaste that is sweet like a Baimudan. I’d say the taste is in between the taste of a Baimudan and a lightly oxidized oolong.

Before seeing this tea, I never knew New Zealand produced teas, and why not? As they say on their website, New Zealand has a pure, clean, fertile environment. That coupled with the hand pick of the finest tea leaves and plants from Taiwan, and processed with the best Chinese traditions and world leading food safety standards, you inevitably are left with the “world’s purest Oolong tea, with superb fragrance and flavour.” And I agree. This is certainly a special tea. The price at $58.00 for 100grams certainly attests to that. But it is worth it, with a delicate green infusion, soft perfumy aroma, and refreshingly sweet aftertaste. This is a superb tea. And superb teas are best to be taken on its own. I would not pair it with any food. Maybe try serving it gongfu-style to appreciate the nuances of each infusion. Imagine that, superb tea with good company and good conversation – one way this tea can be and enjoyed. Just the way I like it.

You can purchase the Zealong Pure directly from the Chicago Tea Garden website.

Once again utilising my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, Tea Forte Tea Tray, and Tea Forte Tea Timer iPhone application , I start out steeping this tea for a recommended average of 3 minutes. It may sound like a shameless plug, but their app is great, and the Cafe Cup (with its specially designed lid) is perfect for steeping Tea Forte pyramid infuser bags. The leaves inside the pyramid infuser look very broken up. This worries me a bit, but not being one to judge a tea from its appearance (at least not completely), I wait patiently for the steeping to finish.

The liquor has steeped to a milk-chocolate brown. Nutty smells waft up from the cup. This tea smells quite nutty. In the aroma, there even appears to be some subdued cocoa notes. Taking my first sip, it appears that three minutes was long enough to steep this tea. Perhaps even a bit too long.

The taste is much smoother than the smell would lead one to believe. Unlike many Formosa oolongs I have tried, this one slips nicely over the tongue, ending in an expressive aftertaste. Robust is a good descriptor for this tea. Oolongs are known to be warming to the body, and this one seems to be the epitome of that factoid.

My tea time was enjoyable, thanks to this tea. It was a good representation of a decent Formosa oolong. On my personal enjoyment scale, I rate it an 80/100.

You can purchase the Formosa Oolong directly from the Tea Forte website.

This being the first Tea Forte tea that I have tried in quite some time, I decided to go all out. I am using my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, Tea Forte Tea Tray, and the Tea Forte Tea Timer app for iPhone. The instructions, acquired from the application itself recommend 2-4 minutes of steep time. For a happy medium, I choose three, using just-under-boil filtered water.

I have a decent amount of experience with oolong teas. As this tea is steeping, I cannot help but wonder if the tea is being restricted from expansion by the pyramid in which it rests, as most oolongs like this one do a decent amount of unfurling while steeping.

The colour of the tea is a brownish yellow; the smells wafting from the cup are smooth, mellow, with perhaps a faint hint of spice. After a couple of small sips, I determine to put the pyramid back into the cup for another minute. The strength is okay but not quite as strong as I like. (If you like your oolongs light and mellow, three minutes will probably suffice.) Another minute, and it is back to tasting. Pleasantly, I can still taste the buttery aftertaste of those couple sips, with hints of vegetal flavour. The taste of this tea reminds me a lot of a Ti Kwan Yin.

In my opinion, four minutes was a prime amount of time for this tea. The flavours are much more full-bodied and literally burst in the mouth. There is a bit of vegetal bite on the sides of the tongue, as with a slightly-oversteeped green tea (like a gunpowder), but this is hardly noticeable, and probably due to my long steep time.

Overall I really enjoyed this tea. It was a very pleasant cuppa, and I do not think I have any complaints with it, other than a bit of lacking in the flavour department. I would perhaps be interested to know if this was due to the pyramid or the tea itself. 85/100 is what I would rate this tea on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase Tea Forte Silk Oolong directly from their website.

The chief thing Blue Q’s line of tea has going for it is the cute and clever packaging: in this case “ooo-long” is punctuated by a retro Daschund and a pink box that reminds me of a 1960′s Dippity-Doo ad. Then again, Blue Q is not exactly a tea specialist—their site has all kinds of gifts, gags, and goodies as well as a really fun “About Us” page.

With that said, Today’s Special Oolong Plum is not quite as appealing as the box, but not an unpleasant cuppa, either. Following packaging directions, you’ll get a golden-colored liquid with a very pleasant floral smell. Flavor is plum-flowery rather than plum-fruity, and leaves a bit of a Juicy Fruit aftertaste. If you’re looking for any oolong personality, it’s overpowered by the plum blossom thing. Do be careful not to oversteep; it goes bitter pretty easily.

This wouldn’t be one you’d choose to impress a hard-core tea-ophile, but if you’re looking for a fun gift for a casual tea drinker or a surprise for a little girls’ tea party, Blue Q’s pretty-in-pink box of bagged tea will be just fine.

You can purchase the Today directly from the Blue Q website.

I hate the word mouthfeel. Hate it. Because it feels so pretentious to me. Per the Random House dictionary, it was developed in the 1980′s, which tells me it was likely developed by a Yuppie. Possibly in response to an overpriced wine. As I was child in the 80′s, I have a yuppie aversion almost as strong as my shoulder-pad aversion, my hyper-color shirt aversion, and my aversion to electric pink.

Even after all that, I still use this term. Because it’s such a good descriptor. One of my favorite things about the green rolled oolongs are the ways the liquor can feel like liquid silk rolling around on your tongue.

All that being said – the mouthfeel of this tea was amazing. One of the most silky and creamy textured teas I’ve had. I was however a little disappointed with the rest of the tea. The aroma was fairly mild, and the flavor was a little too delicate for me. But, oh, I would drink this a lot just for the mouthfeel. So nice.

You can purchase the Four Seasons directly from the Tula Teas website.