Camellia Sinensis

The dry leaf aroma of this unique herbal blend made from all Portugese ingredients is really complex and, to me at least, mouthwatering. Strong citrusy bergamot and lime notes but also this fantastic chocolate-y undertone that really pops off the lime in particular.

I didn’t expect the steeped tea to taste nearly as potent as the aroma, but I did think it would be a little closer in tasting notes than what it really was. It’s pretty gentle though aromatic with a delicate, fresh citrus profile that leans more towards the kafir lime than the bergamot. I thought it lost almost all the cocoa, and shockingly, there was something about the liquor that tasted very much like cannabis to me. It wasn’t unpleasant, but there was a mildly skunky funk to the citrus and herbaceous flavours that just made me feel like I was walking through a college campus on April 20th (if you catch my drift). It’ll be interesting to revisit this one – I can’t decide if it needs more leaf/steep time or less.

This tea definitely has very vegetal notes, especially present when brewed hot. It almost overpowers the usual sencha flavour I am accustomed to. Honestly it really does remind me of lettuce, but it has a nice sweet finish. I recommend recycling the brewed tea leaves for a nice cold brew that’s smooth, light and sweet.

Gongfu!

The dry leaf aroma of this tea is just intoxicatingly rich and earthy. I could smell it for hours and hours; there’s something so nostalgic and peaceful about the notes of petrichor and wet garden soil. Steeped, it loses a little bit of the edge but is still such a fantastically smooth and full-bodied earthy profile. Petrichor, yes, but also freshly pulled garden carrots and beets with the soil still caked to their sides. That kind of earthiness that is rich yet sweet and clean. The undertones make me think of old, antique books bound with thick leather coverings. Overall, the profile is very round and coating with all of these tasting notes that evoke such fond childhood memories of helping my grandma in her vegetable garden in the summer mornings, and ravenously reading books until the late hours of the evening. Such a beautiful tea.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9ASlQPu_LD/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zRI_2S7na0

Every summer since moving to Montreal, I think, “This will be the summer I get used to the humidty,” and every summer it is decidedly NOT. I suppose it doesn’t help that this past week we were basically going through a heatwave. It’s countless cold brews and iced teas like this one that get me through it, though. Light, crisp, and nutty with just a bit of a buttery undertone. I typically do prefer roasted kukicha over its greener counterpart, but this was very nice!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8mgZp3uSjN/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULdc6ZV-kMk

2024 sipdown no. 45

The description of this matches perfectly! Rich flavour with honey sweetness and malty notes. There are hints of fruit adding to the sweetness as well. Really lovely cuppa and I would happily order this one again.

I’m not a huge Darjeeling drinker but I definitely appreciate a really good first or second flush every now and then, and I’m fortunate enough to live near Camellia Sinensis which means I get to reap the benefits of Kevin’s sourcing – so when this year’s Spring harvest was stocked I was excited to go and smell some teas in person and see if anything sparked interest…

Well, wow. This is a very “me” feeling Darjeeling. More medium bodied but with some briskness to it still, and that pleasant top not astringency that breaks into more of a crisp and fruity profile. Really muscatel but in a fleeting way before embracing a more mineral and woody body profile with snow pea and bean sprout undertones and a spicy yet cooling finish of cardamom. Some complex, but just also so… fresh. Just a little sugarcane sweetness to tease, without being an overly sweet tea at all. In fact, it’s rather vegetal but just in that really snappy and refreshing sort of way.

Deeply, deeply enjoyable. One of the best Darjeeling I’ve had in a while!

Cold Brew!

I met up with an IG tea friend yesterday who was in Montreal on vacation and we stopped at Camellia Sinensis to do some shopping and tea tasting. I noticed that this was a new flavour to their iced tea line up, and I’ve been really feeling pink grapefruit teas this summer so I decided to pick up a bag!

Honestly, this is very good but weirdly familiar!? I’m about half way through my cold brew of it right now and I’ve spent a lot of the time drinking this just trying to place what it’s reminding me of. The rosemary is SUPER strong so I wouldn’t recommend this for someone who doesn’t like a more savory or herbaceous ta blend, but honestly to me it just kind of enhances that more elevated cocktail kind of vibe. The pink grapefruit is bright, zesty and sweet with just a smidge of pith to balance it out. It’s also just a bit earthy from the beet in a subtle and complimentary way. I thought maybe it was reminding me of AQ2T’s Rosemary Grapefruit Mimosa blend, and I guess technically it is since there’s so much flavour overlap – the rosemary in this is stronger though and the grapefruit juicier.

That’s not it, though. Yes, there’s similarities but I think specifically the grapefruit flavour is REALLY making me think of another tea and I just can’t put my finger on which one…

Another go to Sencha for me. The leaves are just a bit larger due to the cultivar, and it’s lovely. At 167f for 2 minutes on the first infusion, the lime green liquor gives me a unique floral and fruity array, together with a meadow grassiness. This is a very unique and lovable characteristic of sencha for me.

Second infusion, I bump it up to 185f and brew it for 3 minutes to get more caffeine out of it. It doesn’t disappoint, as a lot of it’s brighter notes covers up the bitter nature of caffeine.

The Koshun Cultivar in general is lovely in comparison to Yabukita. They both have their ups, and in the case of Koshun, it’s a bit more forgiving with brewing, and not as finicky. An indulgent introduction to someone who may be new to Japanese Tea!

Having had 2022 and 2023s batch, I have to say this is one of my favorite Sencha’s. I brew it western style, and usually start around 167f. (If I want to draw it out, i’ll start at 155f for that Theanine hit). The liquor is a deep, glowing yellow and has an immaculate steamed brocolli/spinach aromatics. These same aromatics turn up in the taste

I keep my steepings short and use about 200ml and 4 to 5g of leaf when brewing. I usually start at about a minute or two. Sencha’s require you to get to know them to really enjoy their best attributes, and that is especially true with this tea. You want to avoid over brewing it.

I’ll easily get 3 to 5 infusions out of this with the brewing parameters I use, and I up the temperature a bit each time after the second infusion. The first infusions have a Thick Texture of a soup broth with intensely satisfying vegetable notes. A tiny bit of grassyness, but just the right amount.

As is habit with me, I will end the sencha with an optional infusion at 195f for 4 minutes to extract all of the caffeine. Even then, the tasting notes still linger.

The Body sensation is a calming, and yet lively and alert. I recommend this highly, so long as you don’t overbrew.

This tea is very giving. I got 3 infusions from throwing it in my tea basket and steeping it at 203 for 5 to 7 minutes at a time. I got some Meadow notes contrasted by a sugar cube, baked goods sweetness, with a rustic quality. The liquor comes out a bit on the brown side, and that makes sense. This tea approaches Moonlight White territory, which deepens its nuance.

It is a very versatile White Tea, and evolves with each infusion. Even when I boiled it out for the last infusion for 7 minutes, it was lovely. It also had that medicinal quality I look for in white teas, as I find them very good for the gums personally.

The Body Sensation is all in itself unique, as I get the calming quality, but a little boost of clear headed energy.

I recommend it highly! This is my first taste of Vietnam, and I am glad to say that I was not disappointed.

This is like a black tea mixed with salad greens. There is a lovely underlying sweetness as well. A very unique cup.

The description notes seaweed notes and maritime briney-ness, but I don’t get that. I recently had Coastal Oolong from MS, so perhaps that has swayed me since that was very ocean-esque. Though, this is my second cup of this one and the taste profile has been the same both times.

Sipdown (2587)!

I like the inclusion of spearmint in this blend because it adds more dimension and natural sweetness to what is otherwise a very basic and straightforward peppermint. However, I think leaving this tea sachet to steep in the mug while I drank may have been a mistake because near the end of the mug it ended up getting very potent and savory with a herbaceous element that almost felt like tulsi or even dill??

A sipdown! (M: 4, Y: 24) Note #1800
A big thank you for this tea Leafhopper! It is an amazing tea and I happy I had two sessions of this tea (while I have no memory of the first one).

I preheated the gaiwan and added dry leaf — I got strong whiff of cacao, sweet notes of caramel and dark malts.
I let it absorb a bit of humidity — quick rinse with little water; and sweet notes are even more pronounced. Caramel was probably the strongest, but maybe I would rather say toffee as it is a bit creamy as well. Or it has been a chocolate syrup? I would love to native speaker to tell me.

1st steep, 15 seconds
Chocolate notes with oolong sweetness, brown sugar, baked goodies. Not so long mouthfeel, but it was short steep nevertheless.

2nd steep, 30 seconds
Stronger chocolate notes with brown sugar and baked goodies flavour. Long mouthfeel with hints of florals and barley.

3rd steep, 30 seconds
More of the brown sugar and baked goodies, in aftertaste distinctive floral notes and barley body. Long mouthfeel.

4th steep, 45 seconds
Chocolate syrup for sure in this steep with brown sugar aftertaste, sadly the baked goodies disappeared; some barley in the body and aftertaste too. Medium mouthfeel.

5th steep, 1 minute
Smooth and creamy chocolate, with brown sugar aftertaste, barley body and aftertaste. Mouthfeel again a bit shorter.

6th steep, 90 seconds
Now it’s weak in chocolate and brown sugar, rather a bit malty and woody; weak body and aftertaste — short mouthfeel as well.

Definitely it’s a wonderful tea and somehow good when you’re craving sweets. In those times it’s perfect to pick up tea, which havve requested flavour-profile, but you don’t get any calories form it! Moreover, it hydrates you. Is there something more to wish for?!

Gongfu!

Enjoyed this tea paired with some fresh shishito peppers! It only felt right to pair these Japanese peppers with one of my current favourite Japanese teas, and honestly the duo worked pretty well!! The tea is so smooth with rich, whispy smoke notes blanketing a foundation of oak, tobacco, bourbon vanilla, and peat moss. Very aromatic with such an incredibly well-balanced flavour of scotch. Interestingly, the peppers seemed to bring out a little more of the natural sweetness of the tea while also highlighting some of their own more crisp, brightly green and vegetal notes. It was a fun little session and a neat way to explore this tea, so I do think I ultimately prefer drinking it on its own. It just has the kind of presence that almonds demands undivided attention.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-TD6FixRl5/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2iNnjPY8ao

Gongfu!

Happy (Belated) Lunar New Year!!

Today, I’m steeping up some of the smoked and barrel aged Shimada Whisky Japanese black tea. I wanted to brew something in my dragon shaped yixing teapot today in honor of the Year of The Dragon, so even though Japan doesn’t traditionally celebrate the Lunar New Year I pulled out this unique tea I picked up from CS at the Toronto Tea Festival since this particular yixing pot is dedicated to smoked teas. I think it still hits the mark pretty well in terms of honoring the spirit of celebration for Lunar New Year!

The tea stands its ground, too! I think it would be easy to assume thar one of these two strong flavours (smoke and whisky) would be overtaken by the other since they’re so dominant and commanding, but actually the balance is quite spot on and deeply complimentary. For a very full-bodied and intense tasting tea, there’s actually a lot of nuance. Initial steeps are much more smoky and aromatic with woodier, molasses-y body notes. The whisky is always there as an undertone, but it isn’t until the initial wave of smoke has passed that it gets to be the star. So incredibly smooth with notes of vanilla, red fruit, peat and camphor. A lot of peat, actually. The whole thing is like drinking a tip shelf scotch. Certainly very luxurious, and something that I WILL be buying more of…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3LqAGduhQR/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffFl_E0XXc0

Deleted this from my cupboard as I finished it, but then realized I have no tasting notes for it! I bought this as a comparison to Song Tea’s Eighteen. This one’s heavy on the honey (I love that), and I got maybe, six steeps or so out of it, which is great, IMO. Super enjoyable, but it doesn’t have quite the depth that Song’s does. Still, an excellent tea. I didn’t put it through all its paces, since I ordered a 25g bag, so I only gaiwan’d it.

TeaTiff TTB #29

This is my favorite oolong…and one of my favorite teas!…that I tried from this TTB. I’m not educated enough on oolong to know what Guei Fei means or what it’s “supposed” to taste like, but this one reminded me of a Yunnan black tea in the best way! It had that distinctive buttery-smooth mouthfeel of an oolong, but the flavor was much more robust than I’m used to, with a bit of maltiness and a hint of sweetness. I’d say the flavor reminded me of a slice of toast with honey. My second steep was as delicious as the first and I think these leaves still have more to give! I’d definitely consider purchasing this one at some point in the future!

Finished the sample all at once gong fu with 30 sec intervals. Heavy on the walnut and floral notes, second was super sweet and savory bordering on nutty caramel in profile. Really nice to have. I’d probably rate it 83-85. It lost lustre by steep 5. Mostly woody by then. Some plum in steep 3. Busy day. Thank you Leafhopper!