Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Tbs’

So, as I child, I used to eat grass.  Not a lot, and not actual grazing, but every so often when outside, I’d pick a blade and nibble.  Thank goodness my parently didn’t use chemical fertilizer, and that we didn’t have any dogs!  I favored wild grass, because you can get the milder white hearts of grass from the inner stem in larger portions than from regular lawn grass.

That is what this tea reminds me of – those mild grass hearts.  It’s a lovely mellow, smooth and grassy tea.   And grass really is a motif throughout the tea. The dry leaf looks like dried grass slippings, while having cocoa and nutty aroma notes.  The brewed leaf looks even more like grass clippings and smells like a typical green tea.

But the brew – oh!  the brew.  It’s lovely.  Others have called it sweet.  I don’t get sweet.  I get grassy, lightly nutty, and very mellow.  Mild.  Very lightly colored.  This is a tea I could sip all day.  Lovely, lovely tea.

You can purchase the Anji Bai Cha directly from the Canton Tea Co. website – Save 10% right now when you use the code IIATL at checkout!.

I have had AWESOME luck with Canton Tea Company’s teas!  I have enjoyed MANY and this one certainly followed suit!  It’s Creamy, Tangy, and a little semi-sweet grassy type taste. Light and Clean. Sometimes I think the creamy and tangy seem to contradict each other but in this tea they work really well together!  It was a pleasant surprise!  I love the fact that it’s a semi-sweet grassy type taste because I don’t think the stereotypical grassy-grass taste would work with this tea.  It’s just the right amount of sweet.   Having said all of that – this tea IS very Light and Clean.  The clean taste goes on to the aftertaste and it’s just delightful!

You can purchase the Anji Bai Cha directly from the Canton Tea Co. website – Save 10% right now when you use the code IIATL at checkout!.

What a beautiful tea!

The dark green dry leaves are tightly twisted. There are only whole leaves in the bag.

This is a green oolong, in case you were wondering.

I brewed the tea for 3 minutes, 1 tsp per 6 ounce cup.

The notes that I taste are Buttery flavors. Apricot undertones.

The smell is slightly vegetal.

Overall, a good green oolong.

You can purchase the Pouchong directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

First impressions of this tea upon opening the package: It smells old, and it smells like lemon. Not a bad old, but just…aged. There was also a bit of honey in the smell.

When I poured the water over the leaves, there was a really strong smell of flowers, but not an overwhelming smell.

Steeped according to the directions on the website: 1 tbs of leaves per cup of water for about two minutes.

After a couple minutes, I started to notice a deeper oolong smell to the steeping tea. Deep and rich, it smelled wonderful.

My first of this tea was delightful. I felt like my mouth was filled with flowers but not in a bad way at all. Delicious and smooth, I enjoyed how light it felt on my tongue. Then I swallowed the tea and encountered a whole different side. The aftertaste was completely oolong, no more flowers. The oolong flavour was rich and deep, and perhaps even a tad rough (something I am sure that will smooth out after a few steepings).

I had to force myself to drink the first steeping slowly. It was so tasty that I wanted to keep on drinking it.

The second steeping tasted much like the first, but sooo much smoother. There was a definite developed sweetness to the tea as well.

This is a great tea for people who want to start drinking oolongs, but are used to the light sweetness of floral green and white teas. I was a little disappointed that this tea did not live up to much of the hype I have heard surrounding Dan Cong oolongs. Regardless of this, I really enjoyed the experience of drinking this tea and give it a 85/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Mi Lan Dan Cong Tea | Phoenix Honey Orchid directly from the Canton Tea Co. website. Save 15% right now when you use the code LEAF at checkout!

This oolong from Canton Tea, hailing from the Wu Dong Mountain, Chao Zhou / Guan Dong, China. Yu Lan is associated with magnolias, and Dan Cong indicates a tea picked from a single bush. (There is some controversy in the Tea world about “single bush” vs another interpretation of the word as ‘single trunk’, a sub varietal in which tea trees uncommonly branch off a larger single trunk.  Oolongs need about 8-10kg of fresh leaves to produce 1kg of finished tea – which makes it unlikely that any tea commercially available in the west is sourced from a single tree and can be affordable.    This is uber-tea geek silliness , and all I really know is if someone offers me a Dan Cong, I say as graciously and politely as possible – “YES! PLEASE!”)

This Yu Lan is a long, twisted leaf with golden tips and olive and blacks – indicative of a moderate to high level of oxidation (40-60%) associated with this region and style.   The dry leaf has a very inviting floral nose, with a hint of stone fruit.  This is a physically big, good looking leaf, and with this type of oolong, I recommend weighing the portions. 

Brewed 3g of tea in 6oz water at 185F for 3 minutes in my oolong Xing teapot.   There is an excellent floral nose with strong notes of apricot or peach.  Clear bright yellow orange in the cup, with a bright taste of flowery stone fruit.  Refreshing mouth feel, with just the right amount of dryness, and a pleasant sweet aftertaste.  Both the aroma and aftertaste stay with you.

2nd infusion at 190F for 3:30 -  this is a very nuanced cup, the aroma and taste become more balanced, more satisfying.  This is the best infusion. 

3rd infusion at 190F for 4 min. – The aroma remains pronounced, and the taste is not unpleasantly faded.  There is a good dryness to this infusion.

The wet leaf opens to a full whole shape, with a excellent musky green smell and even olive green color, consistant with a high quality tea.

This teas leaves one fulfilled, content.  It is perfectly suited to a quiet conversation with a friend, or some contemplation.   Canton Tea’s YuLan Dancong is a very high quality tea and an excellent experience, that I recommend.

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