Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘tea review’

Much to my delight, I recently received a shipment of 3 teas from Davids Tea. I have been looking forward to sampling and reviewing tea from Davids ever since a store opened close to me here. They are truly a Canadian company (unlike the mistake I made with Mighty Leaf, Davids really was started, and is run, in Canada ), and I have been itching to feature them in a review.

Out of the 3 samples I was sent, the Mojito Mint was the one that caught my eye first. It could have been because after my wife going to Cuba, she has been on a Mojito kick, and we finally perfected our own Mojito recipe here, or it could be because of the sweet smell to the tea, or perhaps the odd mixing of Black tea and Rooibos. Whatever the reason, the Mojito Mint gets the nod for the first review.

This blend is part of Davids Tea’s Summer 2010 collection. I have, in all my years of tasting, never seen a blend of Black Tea and Rooibos together. In the bag, I get a sweet scent, with definite coconut and pineapple, and an undertone of the mint.

The instructions called for 80 deg. Celsius water – again, odd for a Black Tea and Rooibos both – usually you use boiling water for each one of these, but I am always for first trying it the suggested route, so that is what I did. They suggested a 3-4 min steep, so I went for a 4 min, as it seemed a good compromise between my 6 min usual Rooibos, and 3 min usual Black Tea.

The colour of the liquor is a reddish, muddy brown, mid-clear. It is not the dark Black, nor the red Rooibos, again speaking to the compromise that I am seeing in this tea already. Straight out of the steep the coconut scent dominated, but as it cooled, the sweet nutty Rooibos scent, and more mint started to peek through.

The flavour of this tea is amazing. Mojito it is not, I did not get any sense of that, but the name aside, I am really enjoying this tea. There is not a hint of tannin bitterness, in fact, the Black tea really seems to be only a supporting cast member. The dominant base is Rooibos, and each of the flavours seem to come through at different points – first sip I got coconut and a bit of rum’ish flavour, then the fruity pineapple flavouring peeks up – the final appearance from the mint leaves a refreshed taste in my mouth, and encourages another sip to start the cycle all over again.

I am still not sure why the Mojito name, since a Mojito is traditionally a rum/lime flavour, but frankly I don’t care what it is called! I have enjoyed cup after cup of this tea, and keep going back for more. Thumbs up recommendation for a Canadian company making it’s debut with us with a bang!

You can purchase the Mojito Mint Magic directly from the Davids Tea website.

This tea is confusing, and complex. When I first opened the packet I did a double take – bubble gum! But I was opening tea, not gum…? On a second sniff I could identify the vanilla and in the background found a subtle hidden jasmine note. But overall – bubble gum.

My first sip tasted odd… the flavors were complex and hard to pin down. My tongue was confused. I got some creaminess from the vanilla, but couldn’t really taste the jasmine. But I did get a cooling aftertaste in my mouth after the liquid had passed which I think may have been the jasmine. There was a fleeting overtone of “artificiality” in the brew. When I added a little sweetener, I tasted some of the “cream soda” flavor other tasters have reported. But it wasn’t a strong resemblance.

I then tried it cooled, and enjoyed it much more. The melded vanilla and jasmine each stand out as separate yet complimentary flavors.

As an iced tea, this was wonderful. I can very much see myself sitting outside on a warm night, drinking this tea, and being very content. As a warm tea, it wasn’t my favorite, however I know of many others who appreciate it very much. This is one of those teas you’ll have to try for yourself. But, if you do – make sure to try it iced.

You can purchase the Vanilla Jasmine directly from the Golden Moon Tea website.

Tea Forte supplies whole loose leaf tea in these clever pyramid shaped infusers, which give room for the tea to expand as it steeps. It is a great brand for novice tea drinkers to try higher quality teas than typically offered at the supermarket and for tea snobs to drink at work without having to use a messy tea infuser at the office. Personally, Tea Forte was my first experience with loose leaf teas when I was visiting a Houston spa. When, after a wonderful massage, it was quite a treat to enjoy the bliss of my massage in a snuggly spa robe and sample the spa’s Tea Forte offerings.

According to Tea Forte’s website, blackberries and black currants flavor this tea. But this is not a tart and tangy tea as I would expect. Instead it has warm, cozy and sweet flavors without a hint of spiciness. As the tea cools slightly, mild berry flavor with subtle currant taste, becomes more noticeable. This is a smooth and not astringent tea. Although a teaspoon of sugar may be necessary to bring out the flavors, I found that milk is unnecessary to round out any harsh flavors that are usually present in a berry blend. Compared to other loose leaf berry teas I have sampled, this is one of the better options. I highly recommend this tea and for tea snobs, do not hesitate to try this one because it comes “bagged”.

You can purchase the Black Currant directly from the Tea Forte website.

Having settled into a mood for tea tasting on an overcast summer day in my garden, I examined the dry leaf of the Mark T. Wendell Dragonwell Green Tea. Do others see the emerald green and blue colours in the flat dry Dragonwell leaf? After plucking and withering, these tea leaves are pressed and pan-fired (tossed in a hot wok) to stop the enzyme process. Often the smell and taste of the roasting will get into the leaves, leaving a slight smokiness. Not in this case. In fact, the roasting has been handled with the care the tea deserves. Dragonwell is a style of tea, found from the Zhejiang province of China. Dragonwell is typically made from a bud and one or two leaves. The whole leaves are distinctively emerald green and flat and as mentioned above, are pan-fired. Dragonwell tea liquor has a pale greeny-yellow liquor with the scent of fresh-cut grass and toasted chestnuts. It leans towards the savory, with a unique sweet and slightly bitter quality that invites one to drink more of this mellow brew.

As you see in the photo, I examine both the dry leaves (on the right) and the wet (on the left). Whether it is from rough-handling of the packaging, the leaves were most often broken and not very distinctive by the usually elegantly flat leaves. I looked into the centre of the package to see if the leaves were more protected there but found that the leaves were also broken. While the leaves were small attesting to their spirited youthfulness, I concluded that this tea is not the highest of qualities as it contains many single broken leaves and very little sets of a bud and a leaf or two. I was a bit disappointed that my sample was not going to be a connoisseur’s delight and had to lower my expectation to the sample which is typical of a commercially available tea. With that in mind, I prepared myself because if the tea makes it to a typically Dragonwellian taste characteristic, it is still economically viable for a mass consumer market, even if it doesn’t look pretty.

I started with 2.5 grams (0.08818 oz. or about 1 heaping dessert spoonful) of tea in about 150 ml ( 5 ounces) of water in a traditional Gaiwan, the yellow vessel that you see in the accompanying photo. The vessel was warmed first. The water temperature was 80 degrees Celsius (185 Fahrenheit). I timed at 45 seconds with a gentle stir a few seconds before steeping had finished. As evident by the leaves floating on the surface, the water had not been absorbed by the leaves. I decided to extend the timing to 1 minute, thinking that this tea may need a higher temperature at 85 degrees C. (190 F.) or more patience on my part, probably the latter. Leaves that don’t absorb the water right away tend to float on the surface. Usually this means the temperature isn’t quite right to activate the leaf. Sometimes adding a few drops of hot water to the leaves will help them wake up and will expand slightly taking on the heaviness of the water before the initial flow of water over the leaves. It’s sometimes a trade-off between more steep time or a higher temperature. Some Dragonwells can become very bitter in a longer steep. As this is a tea for the general consumer, the astringency would be low and the leaf must be able to tolerate mistakes of the server, such as very hot water and a long steep time. You still have to provide a good cup of tea at the end of the day.

The slow release of the leaf reveals that the second steeping will need to be a steep of about 30-40 seconds and a third steeping a bit longer, maybe up to 1 minute to extract the final liquor without astringency surfacing. When I checked back to the Wendell web site looking for instructions about the Dragonwell, I didn’t find any so I was left on my own to make decisions about its preparation.

I like to smell the vapours before pouring off the tea, lifting the lid of the Gaiwan near the end of the steep to smell the scented steam as it rises. The inside of the lid offers a special opportunity to get up close and personal with an initial impression. I could smell the toasted chestnuts and some vegetative high notes. I poured off some into my cup to cool down and the remainder into a small 6 oz. glass pitcher for a later refill. Before drinking, I raised the steamy wet leaves to my nose to take a good sniff, thinking how all those olfactory receptors were picking up information that would translate into tasting notes if I just let my brain function naturally. When I raised the cup of liquor to my nose, there were soft grassy notes. The colour of the liquor was typical of Dragonwell, pale lemon-yellow and an attractive green-emerald tinge.

Taking a first sip, I found the tea to be bright and warm over the tongue. There was a distinctive feeling of the tea bringing its fullness in the mouth. The tea stimulated some secretions of saliva, making me think that this tea would be good to accompany a meal as it would provide some ease to digestion. There was a slight citrus finish but the taste washed out quickly. This would be a good afternoon sipper because of its low astringency and low complexity so it would not compete with food so could be served with fish, seafood, or cucumber or egg tea sandwiches . There was no doubt I had a physical response to the tea. I breathed in and out like I was letting go of some busy-ness of the day. My shoulders started to relax and I nestled into my garden chair. I seemed to melt into the air and let the tea provide its healing. Any tea that does that has achieved its purpose, in my books.

This tea is not as robust or complex as I’d like to see for a Dragonwell. The tea retained its colour well through 3 steepings. The 4th washed out the taste and the colour weakened. The Wendell Dragonwell is pretty typical of a commercial tea and no doubt is a mid-range, standard loose tea that can be handled successfully by many different preferences and through different preparations. Now if it only looked better as a whole tea, I’d be happier.

You can purchase the Dragonwell Green directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.

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.