Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Green Leaves’

The Sage Bergamot tea is one of Rishi’s new teas, an organic “botanical blend” containing lemon thyme, sage, mint, lemon verbena and oil of bergamot. I could see chopped green leaves through the sample package but no discernable bits. When I inhaled the essence from the package, I noted the immediate freshness of the mint, the citric scent of bergamot and the cleanness of the sage and lemon thyme.

I went to the Rishi Tea web site for preparation instructions. The Rishi brew promised mood boosting and mental clarification for anytime of the day. Its 9:30 a.m. Sunday and I wanted something to perk me up.

I used the recommended water temperature, quantities and steep time – 1 tablespoon of the herb blend in 8 oz using boiling water with a 5 minute steep. I selected the small Japanese cast iron tea pot as it holds the heat well and also holds exactly 8 oz water. After I poured the hot water into the pot, I smelled the vapors and was delighted with the sage coming off first, followed quickly by the thyme and mint.

I poured the tea into a glass serving pitcher and made a note to use a fine sieve or a tea bag as there are lots of fine bits that floated about. The colour of the liquor is golden yellow.

I inhaled the scent of bergamot through my nose as I drew the cup to my mouth. My first sip provided a minty wintergreen freshness and a roundness in the mouth from the sage. I found this beverage refreshing and would even do this blend as an iced tea for the summer, served with a fresh sprig of one of the herbs used in the tea. If you let the tea stand longer, the sage comes through with a bit more pungency like a perfume developing the warmer deeper notes with body heat.

The wet leaves showed they were quite spent and it would probably not do for a refill. If you wanted more tea, I think you could use more water for a longer albeit thinner liquor.

For food pairing, I had a cherry Danish which killed the taste of the tea. However, afterwards, a sip took me right back into the tea. The sage was much more pronounced as it was obviously continuing to steep in the mug. I finished with the strong flavour of sage and mint on my tongue.

Again Rishi provides a well-balanced blend for an all-day sippable tea. My recommendation though is to use less tea or more water if you find the sage too strong but keep the steep the 5 minutes to get the health benefits from the herbs. Drink up quickly to avoid any harsh tastes from the sage unless you truly enjoy the herb.

You can purchase the Bergamot Sage directly from the Rishi Tea website.

I prepared this tea in an almost reverential mood because the reputation of Mark T. Wendell teas is excellent.  And I was not disappointed.   Their River Mist Green tea is a great delicacy.  According to the Wendell web site, this tea is an “unusual Chinese green [which]  has abundant silver strands among the twisted green leaves and unopened buds. It’s supple, rich flavor is easy on the palate and a treat to drink.”  

This is no hyperbole at all.  This tea is a clear winner.  I’ve been tasting a lot of green teas lately noticing which ones manage to forge a distinctive identity on the memory of my nose and palate.  River Mist Green is a winner in terms of delicacy and refinement.  This is a tea to be sipped with attention and pleasure and not to be slurped down efficiently (and I do like teas that deliver huge flavor and caffeine while being hastily slurped). 

Mark T. Wendell’s River Mist Green is of the former company.  Choice, classy, and charming, it can serve as a centerpiece for entertainment or for quiet times alone.  I enjoyed every sip as if it were a delicate wine.  The tea does not have any overtly vegetal notes, which will be a recommendation for green tea lovers who don’t want to drink spinach juice.  This tea, instead, is what I would call bright, fresh, delicate, and refined.  It’s a very swanky tea but also an eminently affordable one.  

You can purchase the River Mist directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.

The Premium Dragon Well tea from the Grand tea Company is exquisitely light. I was intrigued by the sample, seeing the perfectly flat green leaves characteristic of Dragon Well tea through the stiff plastic sleeve. The leaves were whole and not broken. I knew the sample was small and I’d really have only one quick shot at capturing the essence of this tea from the Grand Tea Company of Hong Kong. The label was vague, identifying the sample only as Premium Dragon Well. I wondered what rated this tea as a premium tea.

I looked up the Grand Tea web site for this tea and found that the full name for this tea was 2010 First Harvest (Pre-Qingming) Xi Hu Dragon Well. I was delighted to have a first flush tea from this year. Now I really had some sleuthing to do as had no idea what Pre-Qingming meant. A quick look up in Wikipedia revealed that the Pre-Qingming tea is plucked 10 days before the Qingming Festival on April 5 each year. Only the youngest shoots are hand-picked by experienced hands and then processed. “Premium” not only refers to the quality of the tea, but also to its price. The leaves picked after the festival are called Yu Qian Longjin and are less expensive. “Longjing” means Dragon Well by the way, and Xi Hu is the name for West Lake in Zhejiang Province where the region’s earns its Dragon Well designation.

When I opened the packet, the most alluring scent of light grapefruit came through. I thought I was crazy because I had never come across grapefruit scent in a tea. Sure enough, even the next day I was sticking my nose into the packet for a deep inhalation. Even a few days later, I could still smell this amazing scent. I wondered if it would carry over to the taste. When I took the tea out the sleeve, I knew I had something special.

There are lots of preferred characteristics that I look for in a tea depending on its type, starting from the leaf and how it has been handled right down to how the tea finishes a few minutes after the final drunk drop! I really enjoyed seeing the pluck of the leaf and will use other teas to compare to the sample as you’ll soon see below.

Dragon Well is typically made from a bud and one or two leaves. The whole leaves are distinctively emerald green and flat and are pan-fired. Dragon Well tea liquor has a pale greeny-yellow liquor with the scent of fresh-cut grass and toasted chestnuts. It leans towards the savory, with a unique sweet and slightly bitter quality that invites one to drink more of this mellow brew.

The tea sample showed me a small delicate leaf that was light emerald green in colour. The surface of the leaves were even and there was a slight polish. The perfectly flat leaves were slippery against each other the presentation bowl . This showed there had been a lot of care and attention during the pan-firing to ensure consistency of finish. I could easily see that there was a bud and a leaf on most of the sample and for the most part were unbroken sets. Adding water would open the leaves for further inspection.

I weighed the sample in at 2.8 grams and used a glass teapot with about 150 ml of water at 85 degrees Celsius . By the way, on the Grand Tea web site there is a link to a youtube video showing the proper way to steep a quality Dragon Well tea in a tall glass. I appreciated the instruction but prefer my wider glass teapot so I can see more the action of the leaves with the water. Maybe I’m a bit of an amateur in that respect. The recommended steep from Grand Tea is 85 degrees Celsius for 1-2 minutes. I timed at 1 minute, The liquor was a light lemon-green colour and smelled lightly grassy. After allowing the tea to cool down slightly, I took my much anticipated sip. The natural sweetness came through with low astringency and suprizingly, no grapefruit taste. I received a toasty almost caramel note that left me with a smile on my face. It was a bit short on lingering flavours so I decided I want sightly more intensity on the second steep. For that, I decided to use a little less water but would keep to the 1 minute timing.

For the 2nd steep, I was rewarded with a more robust flavours, with more biscuit tastes rather than toasty. The liquor was more astringent now but fully round in the mouth and I found the flow of chi going to my heart and head. I went for the 3rd steep to see how much this young tea would hold up under pressure. Again I gave a 1 minute steep. The colour was more pale now, washed out but the flavour still held in there without losing its profile. I think if I were to have this tea again, I’d use a 2.5 or a full 3 grams and steep a bit longer for the 1st steep, maybe 1 ½ minutes. There is no point in increasing the water temperature with such a delicate tea. Just play with the timing and you will be rewarded. By the way, the price for this premium tea at $5.60 USD per 25 grams is excellent.

After the tea was consumed, I grabbed an inexpensive Dragon Well tea that cost $10 CND for 100 grams, no doubt it was last year’s post-Qingming. See the photo to the left. The leaves on the left are the Premium Dragon Well from Grand Tea. See how small and tight they are with a vibrant green set of 1 leaf and a bud. The picker was very careful to pick only at the base of the bud and leaf set. The Dragon Well on the right is large, bulky and in some cases clearly shows a bud and two leaves. The picker grabbed a lot of twig as well. I prefer to pay a premium price for tea that is well picked and processed rather than by the weight of twigs and branches. So, I will recommend the Premium Dragon Well Tea from the Grand Tea Company as indeed a premium tea that is good to present and to steep. I will be reviewing the Grand Tea’s Bi lo Chun and hope to report that it too, is premium.

You can purchase the Xi Hu Premium Dragon Well directly from the Grand Tea website.

Ginger Peach is a popular flavor combination.  It’s also a very difficult one to pull off.   Too much ginger and the peach will disappear.   Too much peach and any discernible ginger is gone.  Sometimes popular dessert combinations do not translate well to tea blends.   Red Leaf does a better job than most with their Ginger Peach offering.

The dry leaves have a distinct peach aroma and it’s very difficult to pick up traces of ginger.   But that’s a good sign:  the ginger should not overwhelm the peach in the tea liquor.  After a three minute brew, the leaves looked bright green and I wondered if Red Leaf had mixed some green in with the black tea.   The underlying tea is certainly black, but the short, choppy green leaves were attractive.   The dried peach and ginger bits had expanded, of course, and looked quite nice.  The scent of the steeped tea proved a contrast to the dry tea in that the ginger stepped forward and claimed its primacy.  It was not a very strong or tangy ginger.  The aroma was more subdued and not at all piquant.

The tea is a pleasure to drink.  The ginger and peach seem to be engaged in a stately gavotte in which each flavor takes the lead by turns and then politely turns over the position of primacy to the other.  I’ve never experienced a ginger peach that was as successful in allowing each flavor to shine so distinctly.  

I recommend this tea for a quiet afternoon drink or as an accompaniment to a meal that includes some ginger components.  It would also be a great choice to serve as a dessert tea and would be brilliant for a themed dessert.  Whip up some Ginger Peach Pandowdy or Ginger Peach crumble and serve this tea with it.   You will have a sensational hosting moment!  The tea does not need sugar, but I added some for my second steep and the sugar did not overcome the tea at all but enhanced it nicely.   Red Leaf has another success to add to its already impressive resumé of teas.

You can purchase the Ginger Peach directly from the Red Leaf Tea website.