The Tao of Tea

Well, I started steeping this one and started writing some code and then thought “Oh shit. How long has that been steeping!?!”. So, I might have completely screwed this one and will review again next time I drink it.

With my possible oversteeping of this I am kind of “meh” about it. It doesn’t have much complexity and has a little bitterness. But it’s not bad.

Second steeping was every bit as good as the first steeping.

Mmmm. Mellow.

I don’t know how long I steeped this because the timer on the microwave just didn’t. I had set it for 3 mins. I think I was somewhere between 2.5 and 3 mins when I realized my timer was off.

It brewed up super dark but was actually very mellow. It’s a very nice everyday kind of black tea which is exactly what I wanted. It’s not too bold. It’s not too earthy.

Another buy from Amazon. I fell in love with green oolongs this past summer after trying some great Oolongs from a fantastic teashop in a small town in British Columbia, Canada- owned by a Taiwanese guy. I’ve been desperately trying to find the same quality of an oolong I got there named “Gao-Shan”. It was $13.50CAD for 100grams, very cheap considering the amazing quality. I tried this Jade Oolong, at about $8.50 for 105grams from Amazon. It was good. I enjoyed it, just not the same amount of deep, floral flavors and soul as the Gao-Shan. I would buy this again, it comes at a very decent price. Still better than the more expensive oolongs I got from Adagio Tea.

Alright, it’s time to celebrate another sipdown. I started working my way through a one ounce sample packet of this tea a couple weeks back, but only managed to finish it a couple days ago. I found this to be a nice green tea for everyday drinking.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped approximately 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 175 F water for 10 seconds. I followed this infusion up with 10 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I picked up on a slightly smoky, grassy aroma from the dry tea leaves. After the rinse, I picked up more clearly defined aromas of grass, corn husk, and smoke. The first infusion produced a similar, though slightly stronger aroma. In the mouth, I was able to detect mild notes of corn husk, hay, grass, wood, malt, and smoke underscored by a hint of minerals. Subsequent infusions saw nutty and fruity qualities emerge. I began to pick up on aromas and flavors of roasted chestnut, hazelnut, tangerine, green apple, honey, and lime zest. Cream and oat notes also began to emerge. Later infusions were very malty and vegetal. I mostly noted aromas and flavors of corn husk, grass, hay, malt, cream, and oats underscored by roasted chestnut, minerals, citrus, and smoke.

This was a solid, approachable Yunnan green tea. It was not the deepest or most complex Yunnan green I have ever tried, but I still found it to be respectable. As mentioned above, I think this would probably work best as an everyday green tea, though I could also see it making a great introduction to Yunnan green teas.

This is a tea that I have been meaning to review for a number of months. I bought a one ounce sample of it back in March, but it ended up sitting at the back of one of the upper shelves of my tea cabinet until late October when I finally cracked it open. As I finished other teas, I would occasionally play around with this one. It was not until this week that I got serious about finishing the packet of this tea. I finished the last of it yesterday. After trying it both Western and gongfu style, I found that I enjoyed it both ways. Unfortunately, this tea is now either out of stock or discontinued. I’m not sure which. If I had to guess, I would say that it has been discontinued since The Tao of Tea normally leaves a listing for teas that are either out of stock or out of season on their website, but with this one, I could not find any mention of it anywhere.

For the gongfu session, I quickly rinsed the dry tea leaves and then steeped around 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 12 additional infusions. The steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes. For the Western session, I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 205 F water for 5 minutes. This review will primarily detail the results of the gongfu session, though I will briefly comment on the Western preparation as well.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted strong aromas of juniper, pine, cedar, char, smoke, and cinnamon. Looking over the dry leaves, I could easily tell that this was mostly broken leaf. Initially, I was not certain about the smoke and char aromas. They were very strong. I wondered whether something synthetic may have been added (lower quality lapsang souchongs sometimes have a smoke flavoring added to them in order to make them seem smokier and cover up the aromas and flavors of lower grade tea leaves). The leaves, however, may have just been very heavily smoked. Who knows? After the rinse, the smoke, wood, and char aromas remained oppressively heavy. The cinnamon scent was a little stronger. Prior to the first infusion, this tea’s aroma was still all about the wood, smoke, and char, though the cinnamon was a touch more prevalent. In the mouth, however, things got interesting. It was not all that much like the nose. I mean I could detect very distinct flavors of smoke, pine tar, char, juniper, cedar, and cinnamon, but milder, smoother notes of cream, malt, and toast expressed themselves as being far more prevalent. I even caught a fleeting impression of leather and some kind of fruit. Subsequent infusions saw the tea remain deceptively woody, spicy, and smoky on the nose, though impressions of malt, leather, cream, and toast also began to appear. The mouth continued to display malt, cream, toast, leather, smoke, pine tar, char, cinnamon, juniper, and cedar notes, though it continued to subtly skew ever more toward the smoother flavor components. At this point, the indistinct fruitiness began to put me in mind of a combination of elderberry and dried blueberry. Mild mineral notes also began to appear on the finish. Later infusions saw the mineral character emerge more fully. The nose displayed mild smoke, wood, and spice notes beneath the mineral character, while the mouth continued to display malty, creamy flavors balanced by minerals. I could still detect a little smoke, spice, and dark fruit in the background, but these impressions were fleeting. The Western infusion produced a similarly woody, smoky, spicy nose. In the mouth, I again picked up malt, leather, cream, and toast framed against touches of char, tar, juniper, cinnamon, smoke, and cedar. I did not pick up on the subtle fruitiness I noted in the gongfu session.

I know this tea has not garnered the greatest reviews on Steepster-lapsang souchong very rarely gets much hype on here-but I enjoyed it a great deal. Though looking at the dry leaves will likely quickly confirm one’s suspicion that this is not the highest quality lapsang souchong out there, I absolutely loved the contrast between the nose and the mouth. Going into it, I was expecting a really heavy, smoky tea, but got something much more delicate and refined. That coupled with the fact that I found this tea to admirably withstand a number of different brewing methods moved me to assign it a high score. Regardless of what others may think, I really liked this tea. I could see it going over well with fans of lapsang souchong.

I routinely drink this as a relaxing afternoon tea. It’s definitely not my “go-to” favorite tea in the collection, but it’s a nice change of pace from the dominating amount of flavored blacks I have.
First and second infusions were both at 175F for 4 minutes. I find this tea to be light when steeped for only 1-2.
I don’t really get a smokey flavor out of it. When steeped longer it has a fuller bodied green flavor. It’s floral flavors are reminiscent of spring.

Very nice savory black with aromatic roses, but no cloying sweetness/unsavory bitterness. Just smooth sipping and aromatherapy.

After rummaging through my tea cabinet last night, I decided to finish the last of this tea. I remembered having it before, but was kind of shocked to discover that I had neither finished it nor posted a review. I tried it for the first time last month and had conducted a few sessions with it since then. I also measured out some to send as part of an exchange, but apparently had a little left over. I was so sure I had packaged the rest of it up to send out that I had to do a double take. Not remembering much about this tea, I decided to finish the last of it and get to work on a review.

I prepared this tea using a three step Western infusion process. On The Tao of Tea’s website, they suggested that this tea was good for about 3-4 infusions. I normally do not reinfuse black teas of this type, but decided to take the plunge. I initially steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 190 F water for 3 minutes. I followed this infusion with 4 and 5 minute infusions.

I did not get much of an aroma from the dry tea leaves. After infusion, there was a mildly creamy, slightly nutty malt aroma coupled with vaguely floral and fruity impressions. In the mouth, this tea was very mild. Actually, I will go a step further and say that it was nondescript. There was a creamy, nutty malt note with touches of flowers, honey, blackberry, and plum. The second infusion was a bit stronger and fruitier on the nose and in the mouth. The third infusion was very mild, mostly emphasizing that ubiquitous maltiness.

To be honest, I did not care much for this tea. After finishing the last of it, I realized that there was no wonder I did not remember anything about my previous experiences with it. It was a very generic, bland tea. I suppose it was pleasant in the sense that it was easy to drink. Still, there was not much going on with this one. I felt that it was too simple for its own good. Hopefully, the person receiving that sample gets some enjoyment from it. At the moment, I kind of wish I had chosen to send something else.

I’ve noticed that I have been reviewing more flavored teas and tea blends lately. That’s not a bad thing, but I started posting reviews in an effort to highlight the various unflavored teas that I had been drinking. So, with that in mind, I decided to get back to work on unflavored teas. Expect more straight tea reviews in the near future.

This green tea is what I hope will be the start of me getting back to doing more straight tea reviews. I have been drinking this off and on for the last week. It is a nice tea to unwind with in the afternoon. Since the name really does not tell us much about the tea itself, allow me to state that this is a San Bei Xiang from Ningde in Fujian Province, China.

I prepared this tea using a three step Western infusion. I started with a 2 minute steep in 8 ounces of 170 F water. I followed this infusion with 2 additional infusions at 2.5 minutes and 3 minutes respectively.

Prior to infusion, I noted that the dry tea leaves produced a mild, slightly smoky vegetal aroma. After infusion, the light yellow tea liquor produced a mild, pleasant aroma that reminded me of a combination of pine, grass, hay, straw, and corn husk with a slight floral undertone that reminded me a little of squash blossoms. In the mouth, I picked up notes of grass, hay, straw, pine, smoke, and corn husk. There was a very subtle sweetness on the finish that I couldn’t quite place. The second infusion produced a similarly colored liquor with a simultaneously fruitier and nuttier aroma. In the mouth, I noted more pronounced notes of grass, hay, straw, and corn husk joined by lemon, chestnut, sea salt, and a hint of minerals. The final infusion produced a light yellow liquor with a subtle aroma that put me in mind of a combination of minerals, lemon, sea salt, and corn husk. In the mouth, there were fleeting, indistinct notes of minerals, sea salt, lemon, grass, hay, straw, chestnut, and corn husk.

Prior to trying this tea, I was not familiar with San Bei Xiang. The information provided by the merchant seems to suggest that this is a straight-ahead tea, and I found that to be very accurate. This is not the kind of tea one would really want or need to dig into and analyze. It’s more of a pleasant daily drinker. In that respect, it succeeds quite easily. It is the sort of green tea that doesn’t excite me much, but if I were to be in the mood for something mild, pleasant, and soothing, I could see myself reaching for this one again.

J+S both love a great deal as much as we love peach tea. So we picked up a bag of Tao of Tea Peach at TJ Maxx when it was on clearance.

After much research online this tea seems to be nonexistent. It wasn’t in the Steepster database, nor on the Tao of Tea website, nor Amazon, nor any other mentions online. The “Ginger Peach” from ToT is way more real, but there is no mention of ginger on our package.

So how does a mythical tea taste, you ask?

When yours truly (J) opened the package, I was hoping for a nasal punch of sweet dehydrated peach. But instead I smelled… wet tissues. Not a great start, but maybe the brewing will release the peach flavor.

4 minutes later (1 tsp / 8 oz), I was inhaling the steamy aroma. But it certainly didn’t smell like peach.

A sip once it cooled down: No complexity. No peach. Metallic aftertaste.

“What am I drinking?”

Perhaps the bag got wet on its journey to the clearance shelf, because this stuff is just awful. Or it could be stale. I’ll ask S to give it a try before the bag gets tossed in the trash.

Maybe this tea is a knock-off? Would somebody make a fake Tao of Tea? I’m left with more questions than answers, and a bag less tea than I thought I had.

This tea brick was produced in Cangyuan, Yunnan for The Tao of Tea in 2011. I’m not sure who pressed this particular brick (perhaps Cangyuan Wa Mountain Tea Factory?), so I cannot really comment much on this tea’s origin. I can say, however, that judging from the extremely tight compression of the brick that this is definitely a machine pressed tea. Most bricks usually are anyway. A further inspection of the brick reveals the presence of numerous tippy leaves, indicating that this is most likely a high quality product.

Prior to really getting into the nuts and bolts of how this tea smelled and tasted over the course of the session, allow me to state that this brick was a total pain to break apart. Due to the aforementioned compression and the small size, I quickly found that neither of my regular knives would do the trick. I had to use the smallest and sharpest of my tea needles, and even then, it still did not break quite as cleanly as I would have preferred. For the record, I probably should have steamed it.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. I almost always prepare pu-erh tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I allowed the tea to rest for a few minutes. While breaking the brick apart, I managed to stick one of my thumbs with the tea needle and again needed to clean the wound and rebandage anyway. Once I was ready to go, I started by steeping approximately 8 grams of tea in 4 oz/120 ml of 208 F water for 5 seconds. I followed this infusion with 11 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, and 1 minute.

Prior to the rinse, I noted slight aromas of woodsmoke, sea salt, and pickled seaweed coming from the dry leaf material. The rinse allowed slightly stronger aromas to emerge. The rinsed leaves and the first infusion both produced a pronounced smoky, vegetal aroma with slight fruity undertones. The first infusion produced mild notes of pickled seaweed, pickled vegetables, smoke, and sea salt. The next 4 infusions were milder and fruitier on the nose and in the mouth. I detected integrated flavors of pickled seaweed, pickled vegetables (radish, cabbage, lettuce) pine, smoke, sea salt, tart cherry, crabapple, and unripened pear. The final series of infusions grew gradually smokier and more vegetal, with slight grassy undertones and an ever increasing hint of minerals.

I didn’t find this to be a bad sheng by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t really my thing either. It’s a very briny, vegetal, smoky tea, and I generally prefer a somewhat different flavor profile in shengs. The next time I drink this tea, I may lower the brewing temperature a tad. The Tao of Tea recommends a water temperature of 200 F, but I may do 205 F instead. I’m curious to see how it would react.

Much better when done right! I enjoyed this tea this morning, using my thermometer and timer and I really enjoyed it.

Produced a strong black tea flavor. I might have slightly scorched the tea though. Overall a very pleasant tea (since I like mine on the strong side anyway).

Recently retrieved this from the back of my tea cupboard where it has resided tranquilly for 11 years. Brewed in a Pyrex measuring cup and strained into a glass tumbler.

The few leaves that escaped my straining efforts stand at attention at the bottom of the glass like sea-horses. The white-smoke liquor is very slightly cloudy.

Vaguely grassy and floral aroma.

The flavor profile is surprisingly sweet, with wildflower honey, elderflower, possibly lavender among other botanicals. Finish is longer than I remember when this tea was young with lingering hints of cream, chestnut, and hay.

So, I have to state right off the bat with this one that this is a unique tea. It is not a typical Earl Grey. Traditionally, Earl Grey comprises a blend of Chinese black teas sprayed with natural bergamot oil. This, on the other hand, is a Vietnamese wild picked black tea that is sprayed with natural bergamot oil. If any of you out there are familiar with The Tao of Tea’s Vietnamese Wild Black (and if you aren’t, I would recommend checking that one out if you are looking for a rustic, woodsy black tea), this is that tea sprayed with bergamot oil. The base of wild Vietnamese black tea gives this Earl Grey an interesting flavor profile that is slightly different from many of the standard Earl Grey blends on the market.

I prepared this tea using a one step Western infusion. Although The Tao of Tea recommends a steep time ranging from 3-5 minutes in 200 F water, I raised the temperature of the water slightly. To prepare this tea for consumption, I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 205 F water for approximately 5 minutes. As a side note, I have tried temperatures ranging from 200-208 F and steep times ranging from 3-5 minutes with this tea, and all of them have produced consistently strong results.

Prior to infusion, the nose is filled with the unmistakable aroma of bergamot, as well as a slight woodiness. After infusion, the liquor displays aromas of toast, malt, wood, and of course, bergamot. I also thought I detected fleeting impressions of leather and chocolate as well. In the mouth, the bergamot is slightly more subdued than I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong, it is still there, but I was expecting it to be a little more intense. There are also pleasant notes of cream, malt, toast, wood, smoke, leather, and chocolate balancing the bergamot a tad. The bergamot amps up a little more on the finish, but is still more or less balanced, with the other flavors described above still present enough to notice.

I rather like this Earl Grey. It is unique. That being said, however, I don’t think I would reach for it as often if I had a truly exceptional traditional Earl Grey available to me. You see, I quite liked The Tao of Tea’s Vietnamese Wild Black. I am a fan of quirky and/or rustic black teas, and both of those labels fit that tea perfectly. Unfortunately for me, the addition of bergamot oil to the Vietnamese Wild Black base smooths out some of the tea’s inherent quirks-the very quirks I happened to appreciate so much. I suppose that is by design, but I still wish there was a little more of the woodiness of the base showing through in this blend.

For the past couple of days, I have been taking a break from oolongs in order to spend a little more time on both white and black teas. I’ve been drinking a white Darjeeling from the The Tao of Tea that I found to be absolutely lovely, but I have also been drinking this Ceylonese black tea. It has not impressed me nearly as much.

I tried preparing this tea several different ways. Since the results I got with each preparation did not seem all that different, I ended up sticking with the vendor’s suggested method. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 200 F water for 3 minutes. I also tried 4 and 5 minute infusions, but again, they did not seem to be much different. Even though the vendor suggests that one can get 3-4 infusions from 1 teaspoon of this tea, I did not attempt it. One infusion was enough for me. I had no interest in spending more time with this tea than I absolutely had to.

The infused liquor showed a dark, coppery amber in the glass. The nose was very mild. I was just barely able to detect slight aromas of cream, straw, herbs, lemon, leather, wood, and malt. In the mouth, I picked up fleeting sensations of cream, straw, herbs, leather, lemon, malt, toast, wood, and roasted nuts (walnut and hickory). The finish was very clipped and somewhat astringent, offering lingering impressions of toast, roasted nuts, wood, and leather.

I really did not feel like there was all that much to this tea. In terms of aroma and flavor, there is not much there. Also, I found the astringency to be a bit distracting. Furthermore, I found this tea to be very thin-bodied. I normally do not like teas that are very slight and watery in the mouth, and to me, this one is. So, when I look at this tea as a whole, I am left with a thin, bland, astringent tea that does not at all meet my expectations. I loathe giving low scores and poor write-ups, but I felt forced to do so in this instance. Based on my experience, I do not think I would feel comfortable recommending this tea to anyone.

This is the first white tea I have had in a long time. Normally, I stick with traditional Chinese white teas, but when I saw this white Darjeeling from The Tao of Tea, I could not pass on it. I love Darjeeling teas and really wanted to try something new, so I was more than a little intrigued by a white Darjeeling. Fortunately, this curiosity purchase was well worth it.

When it came to preparing this tea, I was a little unsure how to proceed. In the end, I opted to brew this tea gongfu style. I know that some people would raise an eyebrow at the idea of preparing a non-Chinese tea gongfu style, but I did this for two reasons that seemed solid enough to me. First, I had never brewed a white tea gongfu style prior to this, so I wanted to see how it went. Secondly, I thought brewing a tea like this gongfu style might focus the aromas and flavors more than a Western preparation. After a brief rinse, I steeped approximately 5-6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 170 F water. I followed this initial infusion with 6 subsequent infusions with an increase of 5 seconds per infusion (15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 seconds).

In terms of both aroma and flavor, the first infusion was very strong. I detected a faintly grassy, herbal aroma underscoring more pronounced scents of Muscat grape, white peach, apricot, cream, oats, fresh flowers, and mild spice (somewhat reminiscent of nutmeg). On the palate, there were well-integrated notes of apricot, white peach, Muscat grape, honeydew, cream, honey, nectar, butter, oats, and nutmeg, with hints of grass, hay, and herbs on the finish. The next two infusions offered more of the same, but with way more balance. I definitely noticed a subtle increase in the strength of the grass, hay, and herb aromas and flavors. The final four infusions saw the tea moving away from its pronounced fruity and floral character toward alternately creamier, grassier, and more herbal aromas and flavors. From the third steep on, I also noticed a subtle minerality begin to emerge. It grew a little stronger with each subsequent infusion, but never really dominated the nose or palate. Instead, it was always underscored by traces of most of the other aromas and flavors.

To be perfectly honest, I could probably have gotten at least 1-2 more infusions out of this tea, but opted to cut my session a little short. I could see the direction the tea was headed and felt confident that it did not hold any surprises for me at that point. I like this one. As a matter of fact, I really like this one. It has some of the fruitiness of a Darjeeling, but it also displays the subtlety and depth of a good Chinese white tea. I can honestly say that it kind of reminded me a little bit of the more familiar Silver Needle white teas from China, but with more sweetness and a more fruit forward character. If you are a fan of white teas and want to try something a little bit different, I think this tea could really hit the spot.

A lovely light Oolong. It’s very mild and refreshing. Second infusion brings in some toasted flavor.

While continuing to clean out my backlog of reviews, I came to this rather unique green tea. I’m pretty certain most of the people who read my reviews will not be familiar with this tea. Honestly, I wasn’t either until I tried it. Indian green teas don’t seem to get much recognition here. This tea comes from Arunachal Pradesh in northern India. Compared to many green teas it has a heavier, smokier, more pungent flavor and a fuller body.

To prepare this tea, I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 165 F water for 2 minutes. I resteeped the leaves two subsequent times for 2 1/2 and 3 minutes respectively. The results of each infusion are chronicled below.

First Infusion: In the glass, the liquor was a pale gold. The color reminded me a little of white tea. I detected strongly pungent, grassy aromas on the nose. In the mouth, notes of freshly cut grass, hay, lemongrass, squash blossom, spinach, tulsi, and corn husk were underscored by traces of fruit, oak, smoke, and minerals.

Second Infusion: The infused liquor was slightly richer in color. It still looked more like a white tea than a traditional green tea to me. The aroma was cleaner and much more mineral-laden. I detected notes of cream, minerals, grass, hay, corn husk, squash blossom, and herbs balanced by more pronounced notes of oak, smoke, and fruit (cherimoya, mango, and guanabana).

Third Infusion: The infused liquor was paler. The aroma was very mild. I picked up fleeting scents of flowers and minerals. In the mouth, I detected mild notes of minerals, oak, smoke, corn husk, and fruit with slightly more pronounced floral, grassy, and hay-like notes.

I was really surprised by how much I liked this tea. I picked it up for very little and wasn’t expecting much, but it really floored me with how good it was. It was nothing like virtually any other green tea I have tried to this point. If you are looking for a different green tea, then you may want to give this one a try. Even if you don’t end up liking it nearly as much as I did, you won’t be out much.

Since I have gone absolutely crazy with Chinese black and green teas for the last week, I haven’t been sleeping well. In order to fend off the jitters, I decided to detox for a few days and picked out a nice range of tisanes to help get me through it. This organic spearmint from the The Tao of Tea was first in the lineup.

I steeped one teaspoon of this in 200 F water for 5 minutes. The infused liquor was a delicate, pale gold. A strong menthol aroma was easy to detect on the nose, but there was something else there too, almost like a mixture of straw and licorice. In the mouth, a strong spearmint taste was present (as one would expect), but there were some other faint flavors too. I thought I detected a little bit of straw, cream, and licorice.

Honestly, while I absolutely adore peppermint tea, I am not a huge fan of spearmint tea. To me, spearmint is too sweet and lacks sufficient character to succeed on its own. Also, the fact that I get a little bit of licorice flavor in the mouth bugs me. I really hate licorice and don’t feel like that flavor should be there. In the end though, I’m going to go easy on this one in terms of numerical rating because I’m not huge on spearmint and I’m not really sure I could pick a good spearmint tea if I tried. At least this one offers a little more in terms of flavor than just spearmint.

This is a delicious blend of green tea! It smells reallly good and has a nice, almost earthy taste to it.