Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Apricot’

Ah, this tea smells tasty. The aroma of the dried leaf is very fruity, if also a bit floral. There are some spicy tones as well. It would appear the mixture is composed of rooibos, rose petals, and perhaps some dried citrus, among other things.

For my first infusions, I steeped a teaspoon and a half of this for five minutes in a cup of just-boiled water. The Shanti Tea website does not give many details regarding this tea, but judging by the fact that it has rooibos, I decided on the tea measurement and steep times. The steeped cup smells of sweet fruit, with big hints of apricot and citrus of some sort. The impression of the first sip is…subdued. Quite a bit of lemon and orange flavours, but not a lot else that stands out. More sips bring out the rooibos and mixed fruit flavours. They blend quite well, and the tea makes for a pleasant evening cuppa.

On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this tea a 68/100.

You can purchase the African Carnival directly from the Shanti Tea website.

My first attempts at this tea left me wishing that Ginger had not left the teabag. I was greatly disappointed that a tea with ginger in the name would not taste like ginger. Ginger is a flavor profile that is hard to forget once you have a good ginger tea, the bite on your tongue, the spiciness that fills your mouth like fireworks if you could have fireworks in your mouth. Ah, I am digressing from this review.

A few days ago, I accidentally let this tea brew for four minutes! Yikes! Bitter is what awaits me with this cup. I sipped “gingerly” (wait for it, the pun is upon us) and WHOA, I was blown away by the ginger blast that hit my mouth. I drank this cup and quickly brewed a second. Waited FOUR minutes and my mouth danced in excitement. Ginger had not left the teabag! She just needed more time to arrive in my cup.

This is an excellent tea. When you smell the dry teabag, you smell peaches, nice ripe peaches. A 2-3 minute infusion will leave you with a nice black peach tea. This is very tasty over ice on a hot day. A four minute infusion will give you a ginger blast that will knock your socks off and can cure a sore throat in just one cup.

You can purchase the Ginger, Peach and Apricot Black Tea directly from the Boston Tea Company website.

Canton Tea’s Alishan Oolong is absolutely fantastic! I haven’t tasted an oolong so flavourful in a long time. Alishan Oolong is one of Taiwan’s finest high-grown oolong teas. According to the Canton website, their Alishan won 2010′s Great Taste award and I can see why!

Dried leaf is in tightly rolled clumps that open up into medium long leaves with hot water. Liquor is an attractive clear, bright, green infusion. The scent is just heavenly, floral with apricot scents and most importantly the taste is just yummy. Smooth with very floral and fruity notes, not to the extent of being too perfumy or chemical but I would say a little goes a long way. I used about 9.5g in 1.6L of water which is on the more diluted side but it was still packed full of flavour. I think I would still prefer it to be even more diluted. My taste buds were on overdrive it seemed. Hey, this didn’t win the great taste award for nothing! For those of you who love quality, classic, flavourful oolong taste this is perfect for you but if you are looking for something more subtle or light then I would suggest you look elsewhere, probably not in the oolong category. This tea like many oolongs has many nuances and complexities and yet still has a bit of a vegetal base. One thing I found interesting was you get an aftertaste in your mouth like you’ve been chewing on some flower petals and have just eaten an apple after drinking this tea. My co-worker has been hinting at me to order this for the office and I have no hesitation to do so.

You can purchase the Ali Shan Oolong Tea directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

Bi Lo Chun is also known as Spring Green Snail tea and is as famous as Dragonwell tea. The original Bi Lo Chun is still grown in the Jiangsu area of China, most notably in the west part of Dongting Lake, home of the dragon boat races but now other provinces are also producing this exquisite tea. The highest quality is pre-Qing Ming (plucked before April 5 annually), distinct silvery-green tips. Bi Lo Chun is known for its youthful pekoe (“hairy”) tip that curls over looking like a little snail. It takes 60-80,000 tips to make 1 pound of this tea. Both the smell of the leaf and the liquor is refreshing, aromatic with a pale yellow liquor. Stone fruit trees such as peach and apricot are planted amongst the tea trees, providing the floral tones in this delicate tea. Conventional Bi Lo Chun (picked after April 5th) will not have as perky flavour and the liquor colour will be more dense.

The sample of Bi Lo Chun was very small, only 2.8 grams but my goodness, what a beautiful pluck with small elegant curls and a lazy twist to the leaf. The silver-grey tips were heavy with pekoe and constituted about 70% of the sample with the remainder a darker possibly older olive-green leaf with less pekoe. What appeared to be dust in the sample bag was actually the presence of pekoe. Pekoe carries the briskness in tea and also provides the best health benefits as it is rich in anti-oxidants, caffeine and aromatics. Usually the bud and the first leaf are picked for Bi Lo Chun provided the leaf contains sufficient pekoe.

I used a glass tea pot. The 1st steep was in 5 oz/150 ml water at 170 F/75 C for 1 minute and produced a somewhat cloudy, pale golden yellow liquor. The cloudiness came from the amount of pekoe floating in the water. When poured in a white ceramic cup, the pekoe becomes invisible and the liquor was clear. I smelled the liquor and it was unremarkable. I had my much anticipated first sip and immediately tasted the flavour of green beans. As much as I was expecting fragrant fruit or floral notes, I just couldn’t find it. There was also low astringency. I was a bit perplexed as I was expecting Bi Lo Chun flavours and I wasn’t getting them. Then, I got a head rush from all that pekoe and realized that some teas are going to deliver something special. I was anxious to see what a second steep would produce now that the leaf had opened.

The second steep of about 40 seconds with slightly cooler water at about 160 F, was again cloudy. There was more astringency now. There was a fullness in the mouth and an umani taste. I was still missing something though – a wisp of roastiness, a chestnut flavour, anything! I had to remind myself that this really was a delicate tea, and not to demand tea to taste a certain way, but to understand what it is giving you. Maybe this Bi Lo Chun also has a subtlety that may be lost on my inept palate. There was an unusual sensation though, of all those pekoe hairs that were dancing and tingling on my tongue. I must tell you that this tea gives you an unexpected experience and pleasure. By the way, the 3rd steep of 40 seconds at 160 F was also cloudy with pekoe and with less significant taste than the 2nd steep. I felt very cleansed and alert after my tasting no doubt due to all that pekoe.

Grace Tea doesn`t list this tea on their web site. I think if you wanted this rare and intimate Bi Lo Chun , you`d have to ask for it. If you were diving into a book on poetry or philosophy, this tea would make a good compliment. I wouldn`t take any food with this tea or you might miss the delivery of its message.

You can purchase Grace Tea Company products directly from the Grace Tea Company website.

I found myself in the mood for some Chinese red tea and reached for this one. The loose leaves are full and black, mixed with bits of ginger. The smell of apricot was the first to hit me when I opened this bag, then came the scent of peach, then ginger. Perfect scents to fight off the rainy night. The brew turned red as soon as the water touched it and the apricot smell intensified. Steeped for three minutes in boiling water then I set it down to let it cool while I enjoyed the scented steam.

The taste is smooth like you’d expect with a red tea, unfortunately, the smell that drew me in is just a bit too intense for my tastes. I would have loved it if this tea had more ginger to balance out the stronger fruity taste. Looking forward to brewing this one up with some added fresh ginger….

You can purchase the Ginger, Peach and Apricot Black Tea directly from the Boston Tea Company website.