Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Sweetness’

I gave this tea two tries before I wrote up my review because the first round was rather rushed and I felt I could have gotten a better feel for the tea.

The dry tea is an interesting-looking dark-green/grey colour, shot through with silver.  It has a scent sort of like fresh hay with a bit of nuttiness.  But wow, does it ever change drastically when I add the water!  The smell morphs into something that I can only liken to dried seaweed – some people have called it ‘fishy’ but it’s not really that – to me it smells like the nori used to wrap sushi.  It’s a surprisingly pale-looking tea for all the scent and flavour that it has – a light, clear yellow.

Initially I followed Adagio’s steeping recommendations and steeped it for three minutes, but the second time I drank this tea I backed off on the steeping time a bit because I’ve noticed that Adagio tends to set them rather high.  Despite people’s opinions of the scent, the tea doesn’t taste fishy (thankfully).  It does have a savory note to it that gives the tea more body – this isn’t a fresh, light, delicate-tasting green. It has a nutty quality to it and a sort of green sweetness as well and it actually reminds me of some Dragonwell (Lung Ching) teas that I’ve tried in the past.  There wasn’t a huge difference in taste that I noticed between the first and second time I drank it, however the quicker steep the second time seems to have done this tea some good as the flavour is more subdued, but not dulled and I can still taste all the various nuances of the tea.

The tea seems to resteep well (@3:30 min), but it lacks much of the flavour profile of the original steeping. It has sort of lightly nutty, sweet flavour with little trace of the earlier savory notes.

I’m not sure what I think of this tea – I don’t love it, but it’s isn’t gack-worthy either. I think I’d have to be in a particular mood to drink this tea – I don’t think it’ll become my go-to green or anything like that.  Steepster Rating: 71/100

You can purchase the Xue Ya Ballad directly from the Adagio website.

Argh! I had a nice tasting notes written up for this tea when Bob the computer decided to die on me. *swears*  So I’ll try and reproduce what I remember from it. >:(

I have to say that I feel a little spoiled with the size of the samples Mike’s been giving me, there’s a good 30-40g of tea in this pouch, for instance!  Dry it has a sweet, vegetal scent, and the leaves are rolled like most green oolongs – although fairly loosely in this case – and the leaves look to be a bit paler than what I normally see. The steeped tea reveals how “Imperial Gold” likely got its name – it’s a deep, warmly-golden liquid. It also has a rather delicate floral aroma that teases the nose rather than punches it.

This is quite a ‘green’ green oolong, with a vegetal flavour profile and, oddly enough, little of the sweetness that I’m used to tasting as an oolong cools off. The first steep, at 4 minutes, is a little weak – not too surprising as the leaves take time to unroll and open up. I’ve been told that the 2nd steep of a green oolong is usually the best, and what I’ve experienced so far with this type of tea seems to bear that out, more or less.

The 2nd steep, at 5 minutes, has a fuller flavour and a more substantial body. It has a flavour like cooked greens with a faintly spicy or peppery note that lingers on the tongue. By the third steep, at 6 minutes, I can tell that the tea is starting to lose its omph, as it has a thinner liquor and a sweet, green taste that’s more fresh than cooked – although there are some buttery notes on the end.

Not my favourite – I like my oolongs sweeter, though I think you can put that down to a matter of personal preference rather than lack of quality in this case.  I gave this a Steepster rating of 69/100.  

You can purchase the Imperial Gold Oolong directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.

I am having a hard time writing this review. This tea makes me think of nothing more than sitting outside on a sunny day in the short grass. Sun is shining on your face, and the sweet scent of the lawn washing over you. There even may be a hammock involved. All of that in just a little cup of tea. Bliss. It’s a lovely image, and a really nice cup of tea. Very mellow, smooth, just a hint of astringency at the finish, just making you want to take that next sip all the sooner. It has a hint of sweetness in the aroma – I can see where Rishi finds the “sweetly toasted chestnut” from it’s product description. There are no stand-out notes in this tea for me – just a blended mellowness that I’m really enjoying. I have a feeling that drinking this on a cold, snowy December might instantly transport you to a very spring-like place.

Unfortunately for this review – outside it’s a beautiful sunny day, and there actually is a hammock. Both the cup of tea next to me, and the entire back yard are telling me I need to take this tea outside and sit and enjoy it in the sunshine. I don’t think I can hold out any longer.

You can purchase the Jade Cloud, Organic Fair Trade Green Tea directly from the Rishi Tea website.

I didn’t know what to expect from a 1st Flush Darjeeling, but I could have sworn it was a black tea. I did a bit of research and it turns out that the 1st flush is more like a green tea, so now that I knew a bit of what to expect I went ahead and brewed up some of this.

In the package, the aroma is very green but not vegetal. There is a bit of a fruity smell that is slightly hidden somewhere in there also. The leaves appear to be dark like you would expect from a black tea, but once they hit the water they turn a beautiful hunter green. As the tea steeps, the fruity aroma is intensified.

The Phuguri Darjeeling brews up to be a medium golden color similar to that of apple juice and still has that strongly fruity smell. The taste is similar to a green tea with a slight floral note that finishes with a grape-like sweetness. Even as this tea cools, the sweetness becomes stronger and the tea is perhaps even more pleasant.

This tea is a nice change of pace from what I usually drink and I’m looking forward to trying the other Darjeeling flushes in the future.

You can purchase the Phuguri SFTGFOP 1st Flush 2010 Darjeeling directly from the Lochan Tea website.

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever drank a First Flush Darjeeling before, so this will be a first for me.

The scent of the tea was quite unusual, very green and vegetale and not as much of the basic ‘tea’ scent as I was expecting. The leaves are surprisingly green-looking too and after I steeped them they looked more like the leaves of a green tea – brightly green and vibrant-looking. The liquor is a warm, amber-gold shade and very clear-looking, unlike some teas that have a cloudy appearance.

There’s definitely a buttered cooked-greens sort of flavour to this cup, though it also has a slightly sweetness that makes the flavour quite appealing. It’s not very astringent, just a hint of dryness on the tongue as I sip, though it’s still a very ‘clean’-tasting tea. The traditional muscatel flavour isn’t very strong and I get it near the end of each sip and it lingers more on the tongue as an aftertaste.

Admittedly my experience is hardly vast, but this tastes like a good tea. The sort of drink that might not be amiss at the tables of the world’s finest tea connoisseurs. I gave this a Steepster rating of 85/100.

You can purchase the Goomtee FTGFOP-1 directly from the Lochan Tea website.