Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Little Bit’

When I opened the small bag in which the leaves were held, I was immediately intrigued by how different this sheng pu smelled, compared to other pu’erh I have had recently (including other sheng). The aroma of the dry leaf tends toward more of a mossy smell with some tobacco notes. Definitely a crisp smell.

To start off the process of making this intriguing tea, I rinsed the leaves briefly and then went for a 30 second infusion. (I should mention that I am using a small gaiwan.) A lot of the leaves seem to be a bit broken up, but this could have been on account of some transit issues, as there are quite a few large leaves as well. The smell of the wet leaves still maintains its mossiness, but also smells of coffee and tobacco.

The first steeping produced a very light brew. The smell remains the same, which is why the flavour caught me completely off guard. Very rough edges combine with much stronger tobacco notes to almost overwhelm any remaining moss flavour. Then there comes a bit of a sour taste, which was a bit unpleasant, yet somehow fit with the general flavour of this tea.

Time for the second steeping. While the aroma has not changed at all, the edges of the tea have indeed smoothed out. The sourness still remains a bit on the aftertaste, but is not as prominent anymore. Toasted flavours of tobacco and that little bit of moss taste still remain.

Steep number three brings a diminished smell, which I found a bit strange. It was as though the smell had all but disappeared. The taste too has been muted a bit, yet still the same as the previous steeping. Some would call this muted-ness “smoothed”, but I disagree. It is definitely lacking for flavour now.

I put the leaves through another steeping, this time leaving it for a few minutes, to see if this would improve or affect the flavour. The result was not much different. This was a decent pu’erh, but quite green, and had a flavour to match that fact. I give it an 80/100 on my enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the 2009 Nan Nuo Shan – Ban Po Zhai directly from the Grand Tea website.

The Grand Tea company is a tea company that I am growing some respect for. I’m even asking to review their tea, so that is a good sign that they have something of higher standard to offer. Generally, pu-erh tea that comes from the Xishuangbanna mountains of Yiwu in Yunnan, China is considered to be of high quality. The 2009 Yang Pin Yiwu Pu-erh tea is made in the form of a tea cake. It is considered to be “sheng”, a raw or uncooked tea, naturally fermented and is aged a little bit more than 1 year. Aging removes much of the bitterness. However, with such a young cake tea, we can expect some bitterness. Grand Tea describes this tea as medium hard pressed, with a fresh and flowery aroma.

The sample was 11.5 grams and contained not only leaves flaked off from part of the cake, but there were also a few pieces showing the layers of the cake. This gave me a good feel and a visual reference for the quality of the cake. The smell of the sample was delightfully fragrant and floral for a pu-erh, with a high note of leather and other complexities.

I wanted to use my Gaiwan rather than a Xishing teapot as I don`t have one strictly for pu-erh yet. I poured off the initial two steeps as that is required for pu-erh tea to both wash and rehydrate the tea. I used half of the sample or 5.5 gram in 100 ml water for 15 seconds on the first drinkable steep and 10 seconds on the 2nd steep but a little less water as I wanted it stronger. My notes from a pu-erh specialist say to use 7 grams in 100 ml water and I tend to agree. I noted the golden brown liquor and that there was a slight earth smell. I examined the wet leaves and compared them to another blend, noting the size of the leaf in comparison was smaller and chopped. I made about 6 steepings and sampled each one to check on strength of flavour. It did not give up its flavours too soon so this type of tea is perfect for sharing among others with confidence.

As for tasting notes, this tea isn’t totally young but isn’t the damp foresty pu-erh you get with aged tea either. It has the mild sourness of a younger pu-erh, but is also transitional to a more mellow naturally aged tea. It has a unique floral note that sits on the tongue after the bitterness dissipates. There is also a fullness in the mouth that gives this tea another dimension of enjoyment. It`s rather interesting to think the manufacturer has made the decision to sell at this point because you can either drink this tea now, or tuck it away for another few years, perhaps sampling it at intervals to see what characteristics are developing further. However, it remains to be seen if a few more years would actually develop this tea. I think the delicate floral flavours may be compromised by time. I like the packaging as well. If you are going to have a cake around for a few years, you’d want it to look a bit artistic with some elegant calligraphy, rather than with cold industrial printing. As this cake is not a tightly compressed as other traditional tea cakes, you may want to turn to a more highly compressed cake for long-term storage purposes.

The price of this tea is 400 gram cake for $16. USD and is very inexpensive, making about 60 servings from a 7-gram, remembering you will get multiple steepings. I recently paid more than that for 50 grams of pu-erh. Go ahead and get a stack of 5 cakes for $96. You’ll enjoy this for while or give the cakes as gifts to those who appreciate sheng pu-erh. Drink this tea alone to enjoy its qualities and remember to smell the warm empty cup for the floral aromas.

You can purchase the 2009 Yang Pin Yiwu Pu-erh directly from the Grand Tea website.

English breakfast labels are slapped on such a wide variety of teas–from blecchy generic bagged leaf clippings to good quality full-leaf Ceylons and Assams–that you never really know what to expect when you try one. Even the commonly accepted definition of English breakfast is a little vague: “full, robust, takes milk and sugar well.” Fortunately, with Tea Forte’s translation of that definition, you are getting a nice, hefty blend of Assam teas instead of generic hot leaf juice.

My sample came in Tea Forte’s trademark pyramid linen filterbag, which masked the appearance and aroma of the dry leaves a little bit. (Only as I type this do I remember reading on Steepster.com about somebody who actually cut the bag open and brewed its contents loose-leaf; duh–why didn’t I think of that?) Though the leaves were small, I noted some little gold tippy pieces–a good sign that what you’re about to drink has some quality to it.

Didn’t take long, with boiling water, for the liquid to turn a beautiful garnet red-brown. Steeped aroma was dark and red and rooty with what reminded me of sasparilla dancing around in the background. Steeped flavor was rich with a little bitter bite. The bite lingers on the tongue if you prefer your EB’s straight up; if not, a teeny bit of milk tames it without dulling the flavor.

All in all, a jolly good premium blend for a tea-ophile’s collection.

You can purchase the English Breakfast directly from the Tea Forte website.

The cold weather always makes me reach from stronger blends so today I’m trying a nice black tea blend from SpecialTea Brew. It’s called Pink Grapefruit and you can see pieces of citrus mixed in with the dark leaves. The dry leaves smell amazingly rich and fresh, really inviting.

Steeped it in almost boiling water (195 degrees) for just over two minutes and it brewed up to a nice red color. It smells really good while it’s steeping, not a grapefruit scent though, more orange than anything. It’s a nice clean brew with very little dust. Tastes really smooth but a little bit on the bitter side, thinking I may have to steep it in slightly cooler water next time. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to warm up and wake up on cool morning.

You can purchase the Pink Grapefruit directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.

Vendor Description and Ingredients: One of our most flavorful teas. Light fruity grenadine lifts exotic caramel vanilla creating a unique heavenly flavor. Excellent smooth and mellow finish.

Review: I recently received this from a friend.  Apparently she lives near the Tea House where this came from.

The Pre-Infusion/Dry Loose Leaf smell is like Vanilla, Apricot, and a hint of chocolate… which is interesting because I don’t think 2 out of those 3 are even in there! But it smells really nice!  My nose can also pick up on a slight cookie or pastry speck of something, too.

While this loose leaf tea is infusing I can smell a little caramel, a little vanilla, a little grenadine, and of course, a little black tea.  The aroma is quite unique and the more I breath in the scents the more intrigued I am by it.

After infusing the wet leaves smell almost candied.  They also smell a little bit like wood.  The liquid itself certainly hits me as grenadine and black tea.

Organic Monks Sacred Blend by the Path of Tea has a handsome medium-dark brown color to it.

Much of the actual ingredients seem to play nice with each other and there isn’t any one ingredient that seems to be too over the top.  As far as I can taste – the grenadine – is in the forefront a bit more than the other ingredients – but it’s sweet and juicy and a great contribution to the flavor instead of being distracting.

You can purchase the Organic Monks Sacred Blend directly from the The Path of Tea website.