68
drank Shanti by The Simple Leaf
59 tasting notes

I recently placed an order with The Simple Leaf, and they sent me a 1oz sample of this for free! Much thanks to them. I was considering ordering it, but my order was already approaching 70 bucks after the 20% “simple20” discount – a decent sum for a part-time teacher!

I opened the packet and the first thing to hit me was the Chinese-ness of the tea. I know it’s an Indian tea, but I would not be surprised if this particular breed of camellia sinensis was brought over from China somewhat recently. At risk of overgeneralizing, what I mean by “Chinese” is the slightly gritty, astringent, strong sort of green, in opposition to the lighter, more vegetal or hay-ish Japanese style, and so on. It is a bit less harsh than that though, and I do plan on trying a shorter steep next time (1:30?) to see how that affects things.

In any case, on that canvas are subtle strokes of clay, smoke, and soil after a rain. It’s sort of a nice memory for me, because this combination is the smell of mornings at my paternal grandparents’ house – my grandma is a sculptor, and she let us play with big old chunks of grey clay in the backyard on the driveway. My grandparents smoked, so there was always a hint of smoke even though they stopped smoking while we were around. The yard had a lot of tree cover, so the rain or dew would linger just a bit longer on the ground, stirring up smells that I loved.

I’m pretty sensitive to astringency in tea, and generally prefer the lighter greens, so Shanti still isn’t quite going to go down as one of my favorites. I would recommend trying it if you enjoy greens that lean toward the punchier side, or want to experience a green tea that has this somewhat peculiar blend of flavors.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Ricky

Yeah, I hate it when I set a budget for myself before I start browsing a tea companies website and before I know it, I’ve surpassed that budget twice. When I do decide to order from Simple Leaf it’s going to cost me close to $90 =/

Harfatum

I think my tea expenditures have doubled since I got on Steepster. But, I’ve never had so nice a tea collection, and I’ve learned a lot, so I’m cool with that :D

Ricky

Yeah, I didn’t nearly spend as much before I found Steepster. Then again I didn’t have as much tea either and now I’ve gotten many of my friends into the whole tea scene =]

Steve

Liked for sentimentality :)

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Comments

Ricky

Yeah, I hate it when I set a budget for myself before I start browsing a tea companies website and before I know it, I’ve surpassed that budget twice. When I do decide to order from Simple Leaf it’s going to cost me close to $90 =/

Harfatum

I think my tea expenditures have doubled since I got on Steepster. But, I’ve never had so nice a tea collection, and I’ve learned a lot, so I’m cool with that :D

Ricky

Yeah, I didn’t nearly spend as much before I found Steepster. Then again I didn’t have as much tea either and now I’ve gotten many of my friends into the whole tea scene =]

Steve

Liked for sentimentality :)

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Bio

I work as a web coder guy. I eat primal/paleo; I love math, science, gaming, and of course tea. I’ve been drinking tea since I was 3! I started with looseleaf in 2004 and have had lots of fun trying all sorts of new things since then.

I mostly drink black tea, and that usually with milk and sugar. I also enjoy, in more or less descending order:

cooked puers
rooibos, lighter greens, oolongs
whites, raw puers
some other herbals
darker greens

Location

Somerville, MA

Website

http://www.facebook.com/akrusz

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