Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Quality Tea’

White teas are generally early spring pick, young growth leaf, that are picked early in the day.  They are delicately handled, to ensure the leaf is not damaged, and sun dried for short periods, and are minimally oxidized. White teas have very delicate aromas and taste, and need some patience to prepare and appreciate.

This white tea has a classic big leaf with round tight shape.  The leaf is covered with silvery fluffy down, and has a mild sweet aroma.This fluffy down is indicative of proper processing and high quality.  (And proper storage and handling by the vendor.)

The down begs a choice: some classic tea masters advise a very quick rinse with at temperature water prior to brewing, others advise against it. I am going to forgo the rinse – it is purely about cosmetics in this case, to wash away any loose down, so it does not float in the cup.

There are also two schools of thought as to the brewing temperature. Classically, whites are brewed with “warm” water in the 155F-170F range.  Some modern masters advise “very warm’ water in the 170F-180F range, but very short steeps.  My view is that this is a high quality tea, and I will stick with the classic thought which is consistent with the vendors suggestion of 75C/about 165F.

Brewed 1 TBLS of tea (about 5g) in 6oz water @ 168F for 2 minutes in my for green Xing pot. Pale golden in the cup, like a Chablis wine – with a very very small amount of the down floating on the surface.  There is a very delicate aroma of chestnut, with a hint of sweetness.  Dry, refreshing taste, just a small amount of astringency, with a hint of mellon in the aftertaste.

Plump wet leaves unfurl to the classic two leaf shape expected.  These are good looking leaves.

2nd Steep @ 168F for 2:30.  Creamy, smooth on the tongue, more astringency.  This is a most satisfying cup. The flavors are not prominent, more expressions of sweetness, dryness. 

3rd Steep @ 170F for 3:00.  Aroma almost gone, and the flavors an afterimage, but still nicely refreshing.

This is an excellent, high quality, satisfying, white tea.  It is worth the attention to detail it demands.

You can purchase the Silver Needle – Bai Hao Yin Zhen directly from the Canton Tea Co. website. Save 15% right now when you use the code LEAF at checkout!

I like green tea but it’s never the first tea I reach for. I generally oversteep it and then fight to get past the bitter taste of my own forgetfulness. A friend of mine swears by the bitterness of green, says that you don’t get the full benefit without oversteeping it…. erm I don’t know. He’s cool but always leaves me shaking my head, so misguided. So green tea is just okay for me unless it’s Pouchong.

Pouchong green from Canton is among the best Pouchongs I’ve had. It’s a triple threat when it comes to tea. It’s an antioxidant and an antimutagenic and it’s tasty all in one. The leaves are big, dark, and twisted just right (reminds me of another one of my friends hmm). The tea brews to a light golden yellow, almost clear, like liquid sunshine. I put stevia in the first brew (out of habit with greens) but found it was a bit much and it took away from the clean taste of the tea. Second steep, without stevia, brewed up just as clean and with a slight melon scent. Third steep was a bit longer (on purpose) and it still was smooth and almost clear.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pouchong or who shy away from greens the way I do, this is one tea you must try. This is a high quality tea that will not disappoint.

You can purchase the Pouchong directly from the Canton Tea Co. website. Save 15% right now when you use the code LEAF at checkout!

This green tea is also known as “precious eyebrows” due to its descriptive leaf shape. The rolled leaf is delicate, and boasts shades of dark jade green.  A slightly sweet smell to the very small, uniform leaf size, indicative of good finishing and quality tea.

Brewed 3g (1tsp) tea in 6oz water @170F for 2 min in my for green Xing teapot. Bright yellow Spicy nose with sweet notes. Warm, soothing mouth feel, with honey accents, and a spicy dry aftertaste.

Wet leaf has a nice musky aroma, and the leaf opens to a consistent size and shape.

2nd Infusion 2:30 @ 175F. More general sweet nose, less honey in taste, but overall a more subtle and nuanced cup. Smoother, drier finish.

This is an excellent green tea – it leaves one refreshed, brightened, like good green tea should.

You can purchase the Chun Mee directly from the TeaFrog website.

I love Tea Forte. Every single tea that I have tried to date has been flavourful, without being overwhelming. I also quite enjoy Oolong Tea. To date, I have mostly focused on the darker, more oxidized Formosa Oolongs, and enjoy the robust flavours that they produce. With that in mind, I reached for the Tea Forte Silk Oolong this morning to give it a try.

First of all, Tea Forte has packaging nailed. The Chest that was sent to us contains the teas nicely, and the pyramid tea bags and wrapping are minimalist enough to let you focus on the tea, while giving you the impression that, even tho this is a teabag, you are about to embark on a high quality tea experience. In the past, I found for the most part the bags give enough room for the teas to expand, so I was not too worried about this here, even tho it is an Oolong that should expand enough to release all the flavours.

I have to say, that this is the first Tea Forte that has disappointed me. Perhaps my expectations were too high going into it. First of all, clearly there was not enough room for the tea to expand in the tea bag. After brewing it at about 195 deg F for about 3 minutes, the tea leaves were straining the confines of the bag. Usually, you can get a nice scent of the tea through the bag, and certainly once it has hit the water, but here, I found the scent to be very muted and almost undetectable.

The tea it’s self is nothing to write home about. It is very light, bordering on almost tasteless. It is certainly smooth as the name “Silk Oolong” implies, but has no interesting aftertaste that lingers, and is overall, unmemorable. Perhaps being used to stronger Oolong infusions I was prepared for a stronger tea, but this certainly is not that. It leaves me feeling indifferent enough to it that I am not even going to bother with a second or third infusion.

Maybe if you steeped it for much longer, you could coax more flavour out of it, or even cutting the leaves out of the bag, buy why do that when you receive it in a bag? You can purchase the loose leaves from Tea Forte directly, but for the price (Tea Forte teas can tend to the expensive side), I don’t see the value on this tea.

Overall, Tea Forte is a fantastic company producing fantastic teas, but in this case, it is one tea that I would remove from the lineup, as it does not seem to fit into the flavourful, memorable teas that I have come to know Tea Forte for.

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