Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Spice’

Well, the notes on the website state that this tea will hit maturity in 2010 and peak in 2015. I have enough to try it now, and then hopefully remember to try this four years from now. The dry leaves smell creamy and smooth (I love the smell of cooked Pu’erh), and they have a bit of spice in the aroma. I notice a few stems in amongst the leaves, but the leaves are quite prettily twisted and twirled.

Rinsed, then steeped in a gaiwan for 30 seconds, the wet leaves smell even more creamy, still with a bit of spice, a bit like a nice brandy in a way. The liquor is a very bright and clear amber colour. For what it is worth, this tea looks great. I pour the first cup and sip…and sip…and sip. This tea is great. The flavour profile is not very bold, but it is delicious in its own simple way. There is even a strange hint of sweetness in the background.

The second and third infusions go by quickly as I thoroughly enjoy the simplistic wonder of this tea. I highly recommend it and give it an 87/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the 2005 Xing Hai Cooked Loose Puerh directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

OMG, this is the best smelling tea! Sweet with a wee bit of spice. As you sip, the slight sweetness of the pear lingers on the back of your tongue. The white tea base is very pleasing to the palate, not flowery (is that even a word?) like most white teas that I have tasted in the past.

This is a great dessert tea, it adds just the right amount of flavor to enhance your sweet dessert. I highly recommend this tea!

You can purchase Tea forte white ginger pear directly from their website.

After tasting and loving Shanti Tea’s Cherry Sencha, I was excited to try their silver needle, but I was rather disappointed. Well, I guess whether or not you will like it, depends on your expectations. To me their silver needle is just too far off from the characteristic mildly sweet, light signature tastes of the silver needle. If I were being nice, I could say Shanti Tea’s silver needle has a unique taste, or realistically I could say they are way off track.

Inspection of the dry leaf shows dark green backing to white down, buds are quite small. The aroma of the dry leaf has a sort of spice or hints of fragrance of like a flavoured tea.

I steeped 5 grams of leaves in 600ml of water for 2 minutes at 80 degrees Celsius. The resultant infusion was light yellow in colour and smelled like cooked spinach with ginger.

Silver needle is a very high quality, expensive tea; with picking of only the young, top buds of the tea bush. The taste is typically light, sweet and delicate. Tasting this was as if I had Tropicana 100% pure orange juice and compared it to orange Kool Aid. I liken this silver needle to the Kool Aid. It is like artificial white tea flavouring; it did not taste natural at all. It tasted like something was added, some flavouring, hints of ginger??? If I had to compare it to a like tea I would say it is similar to Indonesian white tea. Both have that sort of “artificial” taste that does not seem to come from the buds. It is still drinkable, but don’t expect exceptional silver needle quality here. I’m going to have to pass on this one.

You can purchase the Silver Needle directly from the Shanti Tea website.

Does this tea smell like dirt? Yes, this tea smells like dirt. But such is a quality beloved of pu’erh. This sheng, or raw, or uncooked (whichever term you wish to use, each variety of pu’erh is a many-named tea) has a clean and clear aroma.

For this tasting, I use a small seasoned yixing pot, filled approximately a third with leaf. The leaves are rinsed and the first steeping is prepared, letting the leaves steep for about 30 seconds. The first taste conveys the earthy flavour well, along with a few vegetal notes. The liquor is light and smells “wet” with a bit of spiciness to it. The aftertaste seems cool and sits lightly in the mouth.

The second steep, of about 20 seconds, is darker in colour. The flavour is not as intense but is far more robust, flowing strongly through the mouth, giving one the full flavour experience. It almost seems as though there is a hint of minty-ness in the aftertaste for this tea. A bit like peppermint, it seems, like a touch of cool spice. One notices that this steeping remains a bit rough around the edges

30 seconds after again immersing the leaves in water, the third steep appears, as dark in colour as the second, and much the same flavour and aroma profile.

Another 30 seconds. The fourth steep maintains the same deep brown, but not quite dark brown, colouration. The flavours, though, are lighter. I cannot escape the strange cool mint-like aftertaste, which is something that barely comes through in the aroma.

Over the next few steepings, various flavours show themselves more dominantly than others. Vegetal flavours, spicy notes, and the complete earthiness all put their best foot forward as the tea continues to evolve.

The seven-years aging has been kind to this tea. If you are looking for a decent pu’erh for regular drinking, this 2003 Qing Yun Hao will surely fit the bill. I rate it a 75/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the 2003 Qing Yun Hao directly from the Grand Tea website.

Todays tea is the Kalahari Tea, Red Tea Kalahari Reserve. I personally love Rooibos tea, the sweetness and nuttiness of it. I was looking forward to a good cup of high quality Rooibos tea, with a name like Reserve, it sounds pretty exclusive!

From the Kalahari Tea website: “Kalahari Reserve is 100% pure red tea, selected from the tender tips of the Rooibos bush. With it’s sweet, smooth taste, it can be enjoyed by itself, or with milk, lemon or a sweetener. Rich in antioxidants, red tea tastes great and is naturally caffeine free. It’s the healthy drink you can consume all day long.”

First of all, I heated the water to 100 deg C, pretty standard for Rooibos. I brewed the teabag for 5 mins., again, pretty standard. There are no instructions on the bag teabag package, and it is not very attractive, with just a typed name on it. It would be nice to see some sort of design, something to say that this is more than a boring old teabag!

The tea is a deep amber, again, what I come to expect from a Rooibos tea. The taste is slightly sweet, with some spicy notes – unique for Rooibos, as I have not really tasted any spice in a straight Rooibos before. Unfortunately, that is the end of the distinguishing characteristics for this tea. The brew is bland, almost stale tasting. I don’t detect any nuttiness whatsoever, and I found that I did not enjoy the tea at all. Not an offensive taste, just non-memorable. I am still waiting an enjoyable Kalahari Tea, and I am sure that it is there, I just have not found it yet!

Can anyone suggest which of the following is a good tea to review from them: Ruby Grapefruit White Tea, Cherry Vanilla Chocolatte Red Tea, Highlands Honey Red Tea, Safary Lullaby Red Tea – I really don’t want to do any more negative Kalahari reviews! Leave your comments below.

You can purchase Kalahari Tea Kalahari Reserve Red Tea directly from their website.