Organic Spring Jasmine

Had this again today on the go in a travel mug. Still wonderful, but with the mug top on I missed out on the wonderful aroma. Starting to realize now that tea really can be such a full sensory experience!

I probably should not have purchased this tonight. I don’t need it, but I rationalized it well enough to throw it in the grocery cart. It isn’t really for me, said I to myself, it is for my friend! And I have to taste it first to see if it is any good.

A friend came over for tea and ended up leaving me a list of teas to order for her, including almost a hundred bucks worth from Harney and Sons. After her tea got here, she realized that she is about to go on a trip and had ordered all loose leaf. She was distressed at the thought of having to drink restaurant tea, so I decided to put together a little gift for her of some tiny decorated envelopes with tea sachets in. The problem is I have very few, as almost all of mine is loose leaf, too!

She had fallen in love with Teavivre’s Jasmine Dragon Pearls, so I bought this as hopefully a decent substitute. But phooey….it really isn’t nearly as good. And it certainly isn’t cheap! Comparing the two, you get a lot more bang for your buck with Teavivre.

The good things – it is organic, the bag is nice cloth that really lets the leaves breathe and is biodegradable, it resteeps well, it isn’t cloying, it isn’t soapy, it isn’t horrible. I can drink this, and probably would like it better if I hadn’t already had the other one.

The cons – it is very expensive compared to buying a superior(Teavivre’s) loose product, the green base got a little bitter even though I thought I kept the water temp low enough and the time carefully down to three minutes. The resteep is better than the first having less bitterness.

Now to decide if it makes the cut into my friend’s gift…

I thought Jasmine teas weren’t for me until I tried this tea. The jasmine isn’t cloying as it can become in many blends. It is light and sweet instead of heavy and perfume ladden. The green tea base is just the smooth soft tea base the jasmine needs to shine. This is getting added to my shopping list.

To be honest I have no idea as to temperature (it was v. hot) or steeping time because I got this at the local frozen yogurt joint after going out to dinner with the fam and another fam tonight. The really really really young guy at the counter insisted I should steep this for “another 3-5 minutes” after he handed it to me. Bah, say I. I pretty much yanked the bag out right then and there. I hadn’t seen a Mightly Leaf bag before and it was one of those pretty gauzy stitched up things like the Kusmi ones but since I only saw this one wet, it might not have been as elegant. Chances are it wasn’t, Kusmi being French and all.

Anyway, really not used to drinking green tea in water so hot it sears the epidermal layer right off my tongue, but that’s what I found myself with. I took the top off the cup to let the steam escape all the faster, but I was still nursing the thing when it was time to leave. It was preternaturally hot water, and it took a helluva long time to cool to drinkable temperature by which time everyone was done with their yogurt and ready to leave.

I will say, for a drink in too hot water in a paper cup, it did have quite a bit of flavor. A strong but somehow also gentle jasmine, less in your face than the Numi bagged jasmine, but very flavorful. The tea was fresh tasting and mild.

For rating, I’m going with slightly better than the Numi, but not quite as good as the Golden Moon.

A surprise from rabbysmom! I love jasmine tea and I love green tea, although this is my 1st jasmine green. Whoa… I instantly get hit in the face w/ jasmine. I actually move my head back a bit.

After 3 min of steeping (1 bag/6oz water), I’m shocked at how dark orange this is. Ah, crap. I forgot to weigh this. If someone has this and wouldn’t mind weighing it, that’d be great:) Even though I don’t know the weight, the liquor leads me to believe that 3 min may lead to over steepiage.

The aroma is lighter than I expect. It’s still strong, but doesn’t cause a physical reaction. Unfortunately it’s all jasmine and no green tea though.

As expected, the jasmine aspect is very strong. I can; however, detect a hint of green tea that reminds me that this isn’t pure jasmine leaves. It’s not nearly enough though. It’s also slightly bitter. Yep over steeped. This definitely has the potential to be a good tea, but 3 min at 180 just let’s too much of everything thru. I think I’ll tweak the temperature before the steeping time. Mom was right, too much of something isn’t a good thing.

Definitely…interesting.

Unfortunately I’m drinking the bagged version, not loose leaf. And I’m thinking that is playing a big factor in the experience. I get a distinct, artificial aroma and flavor from this one. I’m thinking it’s coming from the plastic the tea bag was individually wrapped in, but I can’t be sure.

I’m not really getting any of the jasmine, just a hint of sweetness followed by the classic green vegetal flavor. I’m getting a ting of bitterness, but I think that’s just my feeling towards greens and the fact that my water might have been a little on the hot side. Even with the whole “artificial” aspect of the tea, it’s still somewhat pleasing. I think in some weird way it reminds me of my grandparents or something (try to take that in the least weird way possible). It just kinda makes me think of their house, which, is not necessarily a flavor I want everyday but a nice reminder every now and then.

This is one of the samples I received with the last order I placed with Mighty Leaf Tea.

This is a very nice Jasmine. After 3 minutes of steeping, I get a beautiful, light green-yellow liquor that smells of heavenly jasmine. The flavor of the jasmine is pleasant – the jasmine is not as strong as I’ve experienced in others, but, not so soft that I can’t taste it. It is a very smooth, sweet jasmine, perhaps the smoothest tasting jasmine I’ve encountered (at least in recent memory). Very nice.

The green tea has a little bit of vegetation in the taste, although this plays well with the floral notes from the jasmine… it’s a very “garden-y” or “meadow-y” kind of experience in my tea cup. I’m enjoying it very much.

I got this one from my Secret Santa Ross Duff. Thanks, Santa!

I was in the mood for more tea this afternoon and decided on this one. Perhaps it was not a good idea to choose another jasminey one because I love Rosy Earl Grey so much. This is pretty meh in comparison. I am not crazy about green tea, and this jasmine is not assertive enough to cover the vegetal, astringent taste of the green tea. Yet, the jasmine itself has a bit of an off taste to me too. Almost like a slight taste of nail polish remover?

It’s not so distasteful that I won’t finish my cup, and I may even try another steep, but I am glad that I only have this one silken sachet.

Generally, I’m not a huge fan of jasmine greens – Chinese greens have a tendency to come across as salty or briny to me, making my tongue tingle unpleasantly. But this one really isn’t bad. It’s fairly standard but, while hot, it is nicely smooth with no bitterness or salty tingle. The jasmine blends fairly effortlessly with the tea, giving it a very nice balance instead of being too heavy on the jasmine as some others seem to be. After it cooled a bit, I started getting that salty tingle but it was almost at the end of my cup so that didn’t make me too grumpy. All in all, a nice jasmine green but not one that I need to rush out and get.

Good afternoon~
I just had two mugs of this. It turns out that the second steep needs to be 175*F at three minutes just like the first steep.
But I’m considering bringing my steeping time for this tea down to 2:30 minutes on my next bag.

There’s less astringency with a lower temperature, but the tea does cool sort of fast because of it. I think I should have warmed my mug up a bit more.