Jenn-cha select Send Message

I was going to try the other green tea sample I’d gotten from this company but my son insisted that I try this one. He didn’t want any, he just wanted me to have it. Listening to him try to say “Orange Glow” around his missing front tooth and speech difficulty was so cute.

So, I opened up the sample baggie and scooped out a heaping teaspoon for my 17oz tetsubin. The green base looked like a low quality sencha, flat leaves and lots of twig pieces. The liquor steeped to a pale celery green with a taste like an orange flavored cookie. I wasn’t getting the cheesecake, I was getting cookie…or perhaps cheesecake crust. But there was definitely orange though at times I could have sworn there was bergamot as well. And there was a bit of a peppery taste also.

It wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I think I could like this once I get over the “What the heck IS this?” reaction. Might be good for a cool summer evening.

I tried finding this on the Stash website and they don’t seem to be carrying it anymore which is really sad because it’s a very nice green tea. The liquor is a very pale yellow-green and the flavor is light, sweet, slightly vegetal with a buttery smoothness to it. It’s like tasting a cool summer morning in the middle of a grove of birches.

The dry leaf smells like tart strawberries, but the honey colored liquor smells mostly of cheesecake. The taste is a bit thinner than the smell but I think that could be fixed with another minute of steeping or a bit more leaf. Though the taste did get stronger as it cooled.

This is a very pleasant tea that bring to mind Victorian parlors, fine china, and afternoon tea parties in English rose gardens.

My first pot of this yesterday I steeped for 5 minutes. I think I should have steeped a bit longer though. The golden-amber liquor was malty and sweet but a bit light-bodied compared to my last experience with this tea.

The second pot though was definitely steeped long enough. I doubt anyone would say that 45 minutes was NOT long enough. Entertaining a 3 year old and a six month old does that to your sense of time unfortunately. Thankfully this is a very forgiving tea, although I wasn’t expecting it to taste even better than the first pot. My eyes went as big as quarters at the first sip and I’m afraid the 17oz of tea did not last very long! It was sweet, malty, and mellow with a bit of a honey taste and a buttery mouth feel with only a hint of astringency in the aftertaste.

I think I might love this tea.

Every time I make this I discover something new about it. It’s almost as if I were drinking a different tea every time. I will definitely be exploring the world of dark oolongs more because of this tea, in fact I have now dedicated my first yixing to dark oolongs and have a second dark oolong on it’s way.

But anyway, on to this tea.

I must admit that I have absolutely no idea what the water temperature was. It was warm enough to be steaming but certainly not boiling or even simmering. To be quite honest I had intended the water to be warmer but…um…ran out of propane to run the stove. Heh. Oops.

Knowing I’d only manage one steeping, since there was no propane left to heat the water again, I did a 15-20 second rinse to open the leaves a bit and warm the pot. Oh yes, did I mention I was using the yixing for this? Anyway, after a 10 minute steep I poured the liquor out into my cup, this one was a bit deeper than the cup I had been using before, and what do you know…the color was a deep red-brown. I could definitely see how someone could call that purple. The flavor was lighter than my previous experience with this tea, likely because of the lower water temp. It was sweet, mellow, a bit malty, earthy, and a tiny bit nutty.

I have saved the leaves so once get some way to heat water again I’ll update this with subsequent infusions.

I’m bumping my rating on this up a bit. I over-steeped my first pot, a 5 minute infusion results in a MUCH better flavor. I doubt I’ll drink this very often but it IS a very nice tea, probably something I wouldn’t mind keeping a sample packet of around for “just in case” :)

I kept slightly better track of how long I steeped this time. I also used more leaf and there was a lump in there that I’m pretty sure was a dried grape though it was a little difficult to tell with all the tea leaves embedded in it.

I definitely used too little leaf last time, it was much better this time around. Sweet and black tea and wine. I couldn’t say what sort of wine (since I’ve been either pregnant or breastfeeding for the past year or so and haven’t had much alcohol) other than some variety of white, which just feels odd since the tea is a dark red.

Still need to try this one iced.

Another of the teas that Lori sent. I was really looking forward to this one.

1st infusion: 6 minutes, boiling water
The liquor was a deep, dark red with a slightly gold tone to it. It smelled malty and citrus and tasted just as it smelled but with a bit of pepper, earth, and astringency.

2nd infusion: 6 minutes, boiling water
The liquor was more of a dark amber this time around. It smelled of citrus and damp loam, but the taste…Sweet, malty, smooth. A hint of citrus. It was almost like drinking a different tea.

I was feeling adventurous this afternoon and decided to give this a try. I’ve seen so many different directions on how to steep pu’erh, I was quite confused on where to start so I figured start short and work my way to longer steepings if necessary.

1st infusion: 30 seconds, temp just under boiling
The liquor is a smokey gold, rather appropriate considering it smells, and tastes, like wet campfire. Like the smell you get when you pour water over the fire to douse it. It is like nothing I’ve ever had before. And for some reason I can’t stop sipping at it. I’m not sure if I actually like it or if I’m drinking it in the hopes that the flavor will change. It’s like…going camping but without the dirt/bugs/weather/lack of amenities/ever-present dampness/too-noisy kids from neighboring campsites that constantly race past on their bikes.

2nd infusion: 30 seconds, boiling water
The wet leaves now smell like wet, canned spinach dumped over hot coals. The liquor is slightly darker and tastes a bit more bitter.

3rd infusion: 30 seconds, boiling water
The same as the last except the campfire taste is slightly, VERY slightly abated…or perhaps I’m just getting used to it. There is also a slightly sweet vegetal flavor just hovering at the back of my mouth.

I could probably get a few more infusions out of this but I’m really not sure if I want to. Is this how pu’erh is supposed to taste or am I doing something wrong? It it just from being a young pu’erh? Would I get better flavor with a longer steep time? So many questions left unanswered!